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Received today — 14 July 2025

A United Nations research institute created an AI refugee avatar

12 July 2025 at 21:03
A research institute connected to the United Nations has created two AI-powered avatars designed to teach people about refugee issues. 404 Media wrote about an experiment conducted by a class at the United Nations University Center for Policy Research that resulted in the creation of two AI agents or avatars — Amina, a fictional woman […]

Marc Andreessen reportedly told group chat that universities will ‘pay the price’ for DEI

12 July 2025 at 20:07
Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen sharply criticized universities including Stanford and MIT, along with the National Science Foundation, in a group chat with AI scientists and Trump administration officials, according to screenshots viewed by the Washington Post.

xAI and Grok apologize for ‘horrific behavior’

12 July 2025 at 17:13
In a series of posts on X, the AI chatbot Grok apologized for what it admitted was “horrific behavior.” The posts appear to be an official statement from xAI, the Elon Musk-led company behind Grok, as opposed to an AI-generated explanation for Grok’s posts. (xAI recently acquired X, where Grok is prominently featured.)
Received before yesterday

Google faces EU antitrust complaint over AI Overviews

5 July 2025 at 17:36
A group known as the Independent Publishers Alliance has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission over Google’s AI Overviews, according to Reuters. The complaint accuses Google of “misusing web content for Google’s AI Overviews in Google Search, which have caused, and continue to cause, significant harm to publishers, including news publishers in the […]

Authors call on publishers to limit their use of AI

28 June 2025 at 20:51
An open letter from authors including Lauren Groff, Lev Grossman, R.F. Kuang, Dennis Lehane, and Geoffrey Maguire calls on book publishers to pledge to limit their use of AI tools, for example by committing to only hire human audiobook narrators.

Anne Wojcicki’s nonprofit reaches deal to acquire 23andMe

14 June 2025 at 13:55
Beleaguered genetic testing company 23andMe announced Friday that it has reached an agreement to sell itself to TTAM Research Institute, a nonprofit led by the company's co-founder and former CEO Anne Wojcicki.
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