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Benj Edwards / Ars Technica : In a test, researchers find that 90%+ of 1,008 jokes generated by GPT-3.5 were not new but rather the same 25 jokes likely learned during the model's training   —  When tested, “Over 90% of 1,008 generated jokes were the same 25 jokes.”  —  On Wednesday, two German researchers …

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Saturday picked up the endorsement of fellow Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt for the GOP’s 2024 presidential primary — marking a key endorsement for DeSantis as he seeks to replace former President Donald Trump as the frontrunner. "Governor DeSantis is a strong conservative and principled leader, and I am proud to endorse him for president," Stitt, the governor of Oklahoma, said in a statement. Stitt praised DeSantis’ handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that the Florida governor "did not surrender states’ rights and individual liberties over to groupthink." DESANTIS SAYS TRUMP A VICTIM OF LAW ENFORCEMENT ‘WEAPONIZATION’ UNDER BIDEN  "In this election cycle, Oklahomans will remember that DeSantis was one of the few who never backed down in the face of adversity, because DeSantis operated with dogged conviction and shared our values for a limited government and free country," he said. Stitt went on to praise DeSantis as ...

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday tore into the federal indictment accusing him of mishandling classified documents, accusing Democrats of a "political hit job" against him as he alleged a double standard in the administration of justice. "They took one charge, and they made it 36 different times. And we have a thug who is in charge. This is a political hit job, Republicans are treated far differently at the Justice Department than Democrats," he said in the speech at the Georgia Republican state convention. The 2024 front-runner was indicted Friday on 37 federal counts, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements. TRUMP TO MAKE FIRST SPEECH SINCE FEDERAL INDICTMENT OVER CLASSIFIED DOCS The remarks mark his first public remarks since the indictment. He will make another speech later Saturday to the North Carolina GOP state convention. The indictment accuses Trump of failing to comply...

Bloomberg : As major US banks abandon crypto companies during an expanding crackdown, a look at the emergence of smaller regional US lenders and Swiss, Asian, and UK firms   —  Two months after the collapse of Silvergate Capital Corp. and Signature Bank, a new banking landscape for crypto companies …

EXCLUSIVE: The president of the Navajo Nation told Fox News Digital that he has ordered the tribe's attorney general to weigh legal action following the Biden administration's oil-leasing ban impacting Navajo citizens. Buu Nygren, the president of the Navajo Nation, a federally recognized tribe in the U.S. southwest, said that the Navajo Justice Department was considering pursuing litigation after Interior Secretary Deb Haaland's recent order, and he plans to protest her upcoming visit to the reservation on Sunday. Last week, Haaland banned oil, gas and mineral leasing within 10 miles of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico for 20 years, an action strongly opposed by nearby Navajo communities. "To totally disregard those local communities — it's unfair," Nygren told Fox News Digital in an interview Saturday. "There's no need to celebrate putting people into poverty, to celebrate undermining the Navajo Nation's...

Washington Post : Analysis of NHTSA data: Tesla's FSD and Autopilot were involved in 736 US crashes since 2019, far more than systems from all other car makers combined   —  Tesla's driver-assistance system, known as Autopilot, has been involved in far more crashes than previously reported

James Watt, the Reagan administration’s sharp-tongued, pro-development interior secretary who was admired by conservatives but ran afoul of environmentalists, Beach Boys fans and eventually the president, has died. He was 85. Watt died in Arizona on May 27, son Eric Watt said in a statement Thursday. In an administration divided between so-called pragmatists and hardliners, few stood as far to the right at the time as Watt, who once labeled the environmental movement as "preservation vs. people" and the general public as a clash between "liberals and Americans." FORMER PENNSYLVANIA CONGRESSMAN, 'KING OF ASPHALT' BUD SHUSTER DEAD AT 91 In that sense, Watt foreshadowed combative Interior secretaries like Ryan Zinke and David Bernhardt, who, like Watt, aggressively pushed to grant oil, gas and coal leases on public land, increase offshore drilling and limit expansion of national parks and monuments. "While no one’s death should be celebrated, he was ...

Wisconsin's Republican-controlled finance committee voted Thursday to give the state's embattled professional licensing agency a fraction of the new positions that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers requested to improve application turnaround times. Evers had included 80 new positions for the Department of Safety and Professional Services in his budget proposal. Republicans on the finance committee voted Thursday evening to give the agency 17.75 new positions. Thirteen of them would be temporary. The Republicans also voted to spend an additional $6.2 million for technology and equipment improvements within the agency. The Department of Safety and Professional Services oversees licensing for hundreds of occupations, including doctors, nurses, construction and trades workers, accountants and realtors. Republicans have blamed Evers’ administration for lengthy agency delays in processing license applications and answering calls. REPUBLICAN WISCONSIN BILLS RESTRICTING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEF...

Vitalik Buterin : Ethereum must undergo three transitions as it evolves from a young experimental technology into a mature tech stack: L2 scaling, wallet security, and privacy   —  Special thanks to Dan Finlay, Karl Floersch, David Hoffman, and the Scroll and SoulWallet teams for feedback and review and suggestions.

New York's 2024 presidential primary would be moved up to April 2 under a bill approved by the state Legislature. New York's 2020 Democratic presidential primary was held on June 23. There was no Republican presidential primary. NEW YORK'S LEGAL BID TO REDRAW HOUSE MAP COULD DECIDE CONTROL OF CHAMBER The bill was sponsored by the Democratic leaders in state Senate and Assembly and approved in both houses late Thursday. Under the Democratic Party rules, New York could send additional delegates to the national convention if two neighboring states have their primaries on the same day. NEW YORK LAWMAKERS APPROVE BILL CREATING STATE REPARATIONS COMMISSION There are proposals in neighboring Pennsylvania and Connecticut to set April 2 as the presidential primary date. However, the state Senate in Connecticut adjourned this week without voting on that state's proposal. The New York measure will be sent to Gov. Kathy Hochul for her consideration.

Former President Trump was indicted on 37 federal counts, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and false statements, according to an unsealed copy of the indictment obtained by Fox News. Special Counsel Jack Smith unsealed the indictment against the former president Friday.  Trump valet and aide Waltine Nauta was indicted on six federal counts, detailed in the indictment.  Trump first announced he had been indicted on Thursday night. Trump told Fox News Digital he will plead not guilty.  The indictment states that Trump, as president, "had lawful access to the most sensitive classified documents and national defense information gathered and owned by the United States government, including information from the agencies that comprise the United States Intelligence Community and the United States Department of Defense.  EXCLUSIVE: TRUMP SAYS INDICTMENT IS 'ELECTION INTERFERENCE AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL' "Over t...

The White House on Thursday announced a new effort to combat "book bans" as part of several actions designed to protect LGBTQI+ Americans unveiled during Pride month. The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights will appoint a new coordinator to "address the growing threat that book bans pose for the civil rights of students," the White House said Thursday. The coordinator will train school districts on how attempts to remove certain books or materials from school libraries "may violate federal civil rights laws if they create a hostile work environment, hostile environment for students," said White House domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden.  This move by the Biden administration is a counter to parents and activists who have complained about sexually explicit and graphic LGBTQI+ content in school and public libraries and sought to remove those materials.  NEARLY 1,500 BOOKS WERE BANNED IN FIRST HALF OF SCHOOL YEAR: REPORT A report fro...

Ina Fried / Axios : Sources: at an all-hands, Mark Zuckerberg shared Meta's plan to add generative AI text, image, and video tools to its apps, starting with Messenger and WhatsApp   —  Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a plan to employees on Thursday that will see it put generative AI text …

EXCLUSIVE — Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., warned the Biden administration Thursday that reports of China securing an agreement to pay Cuba billions of dollars to build a spy base on the island nation less than 100 miles off the U.S. mainland poses an "imminent threat" to Americans and urged the White House to take action to bolster national security. In a letter exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital, Gimenez – who sits on the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party – wrote to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken "to express my profound concern regarding several reports confirming that the Communist Party of China and the murderous Castro regime in Cuba have agreed to establish an espionage base just 90 miles away from America’s shores." "This action poses an imminent threat to the United States of America," Gimenez, the only member of Congress born in Cuba, w...

Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch : California DMV issues the first permit to publicly sell or lease vehicles with an automated driving system, to Mercedes-Benz for its Level 3 Drive Pilot system   —  Mercedes-Benz received a permit from California regulators that will allow the German automaker to sell or lease vehicles …

Former Vice President Mike Pence went after former President Donald Trump during his presidential campaign launch Wednesday, marking his strongest criticisms of his former boss to date. Pence accused Trump of turning his back on the Constitution and conservative values and policy, as he formally declared his candidacy in Ankeny, Iowa — the state that leads off the Republican presidential nominating calendar. "I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be President of the United States and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the constitution should never be President of the United States again," Pence said of his former two-time running mate. Trump had urged Pence to reject the 2020 presidential election results as he presided over the certification of Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, 2021. Pence charged that "when Donald Trump ran for president in 2016 he promised to govern as a conservative. And together we did just that...

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch : Meta plans to update its account center to give users more control over its cross-site tracking and profiling, following a German antitrust intervention   —  Meta has been dragged kicking and screaming into another notable privacy concession in Europe: The German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) …

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch : Contextual AI, which is building enterprise-focused LLMs, emerges from stealth with a $20M seed led by Bain Capital Ventures   —  Large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI's GPT-4 are powerful, paradigm-shifting tools that promise to upend industries.  But they suffer from limitations …

Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal : Email: Reddit lays off ~90 staffers, or ~5% of its workforce, and slows hiring, as it restructures key parts of its business, aiming to break even in 2024   —  Moves aim to help social-media company break even next year  —  Social-media company Reddit is laying off roughly 90 employees …

Republican state leaders are demanding the American flag be reinstated at a veterans cemetery , where some Mississippi residents noticed on Memorial Day it had been replaced with a rainbow LGBTQ flag for June pride month. American flags flying over the Biloxi National Cemetery and VA Medical Center were replaced with rainbow LGBTQ flags after Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough authorized the flying of such flags above VA facilities. The decision was dubbed a "political stunt" by Republicans in the state Senate who are calling for its removal out of respect for "service members, veterans and their families." "We believe this decisions shows deep disrespect to our service members, veterans and their families, and demand that you take immediate action to restore the United States flag to its rightful place at Veterans Affairs facilities across the state of Mississippi," five Mississippi Republicans wrote in a letter to McDonough Monday. ‘FAMIL...

Jordan Novet / CNBC : GitLab reports Q1 revenue up 45% YoY to $126.9M vs. $117.8M est., 2024 revenue guidance above estimates, and unveils generative AI plans; GTLB jumps 30%+   —  - GitLab beat on the top and bottom lines and increased its full-year guidance.  — The company plans to sell a generative artificial intelligence add-on.

Sabrina Ortiz / ZDNet : Instagram appears to be testing an AI chatbot option with 30 AI personalities that answer questions and give advice   —  Meta rapidly adopted generative AI technology and incorporated it into various features across its platforms, including ads.  Now, the company is testing a new feature on Instagram.

Progressive scholar and philosopher Cornel West is throwing his hat in the ring for the 2024 presidential race, announcing a third-party bid on Monday to stand against both Democrats and the GOP. While he is a long-shot candidate, the left-wing media personality’s third-lane campaign appears to be a clear knock on President Biden and the Democratic Party.  "In these bleak times, I have decided to run for truth and justice, which takes the form of running for President of the United States as a candidate for the People’s Party," West announced in a video posted to social media. "The presidency is just one vehicle to pursue the truth and justice I’ve been trying to do all my life." WHY PENCE, HALEY, AND DESANTIS ARE TAKING AIM AT TRUMP   "I come from a tradition where I care about you. I care about the quality of your life. I care about whether you have access to a job with a living wage, decent housing, women having control over their bodies, health care fo...

EXCLUSIVE – Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., is leading the charge in calling for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ impeachment. Speaking to Fox News Digital by phone on Monday, Esposito, who serves on the House Homeland Security Committee, said Mayorkas has shown "a real dereliction of duty" and demanded he resign or face full impeachment.  A retired NYPD detective, D'Esposito cited the "breakdown of law and order along the border," as well as the impact of the ongoing migrant crisis on New York communities, namely as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved New York City's plan to house migrants in a hangar at John F. Kennedy International Airport over the weekend.  "I'm not going to be the last to have to ask for his impeachment. I think it's clear from the outrage, you know, among lawmakers that Mayorkas is not doing the job that he swore to do," D'Esposito told Fox News Digital. "I believe that one...

Jay Peters / The Verge : Apple announces visionOS, which powers the Vision Pro and displays icons and windows floating over real-world spaces; demos include Safari, a cinema, and gaming   —  Apple says it's designed from the ground up for spatial computing.  —  The company revealed the operating system as part …

President Trump’s legal team met with federal law enforcement officials Monday at the Justice Department to discuss its claims of prosecutorial misconduct in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into classified records. Trump attorneys James Trusty, Lindsey Halligan and John Rowley met with officials at the Justice Department Monday after writing a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland last month and requesting a meeting to "discuss the ongoing injustice that is being perpetrated by your Special Counsel and his prosecutors." SPECIAL COUNSEL JACK SMITH WORKING TO WRAP UP MAR-A-LAGO CLASSIFIED RECORDS INVESTIGATION: SOURCE Garland tapped DOJ official Jack Smith to serve as special counsel to investigate Trump’s alleged improper retention of classified records from his presidency at his private residence at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. Smith was tapped after the FBI seized classified records from Mar-a-Lago during an unprecedented raid on his home in August. Cl...

Jon Porter / The Verge : Apple announces macOS Sonoma, adding support for desktop widgets, a new Game mode that reduces latency, Safari updates, pinning web apps in the Dock, and more   —  Apple has just unveiled macOS Sonoma, the latest version of its desktop operating system, onstage at WWDC 2023.

Video footage showing a South Carolina-based children’s choir being stopped by a Capitol Police officer from singing the national anthem in the U.S. Capitol has gone viral with millions of views. Capitol Police said singers with the Rushingbrook Children’s Choir from Greenville were stopped because of a "miscommunication," which occurred May 26. Capitol Police initially issued a statement that said they were under the impression the group didn’t have permission to perform in the building but clarified later that they "were not aware that the Speaker’s Office had approved this performance." Choir director David Rasbach and another choir leader said the visit was approved by the office of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy , R-Calif., which the speaker's office confirmed. "I was shocked, I was dismayed, I was stunned," Rasbach, who said he secured permission from three congressional offices to perform at the U.S. Capitol, told the Daily Signal. "I c...

Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review : A look at The Frost, a 12-minute movie created by Waymark using DALL-E 2, as startups like Waymark and Runway make AI tools for fast and cheap video production   —  Exclusive: Watch the world premiere of the AI-generated short film The Frost.  —  The Frost nails its uncanny, disconcerting vibe in its first few shots.

The New York Times is facing ridicule on Twitter after an article Sunday painted President Biden’s old age in a positive light, describing the 80-year-old president as "sharp," "fit" and having "striking stamina." The Times article by White House reporters Peter Baker, Michael Shear, Katie Rogers and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, titled, "Inside the Complicated Reality of Being America’s Oldest President," claimed Biden’s aides have been purposely limiting his exposure to the media to avoid any potential gaffes. "The two Joe Bidens coexist in the same octogenarian president: Sharp and wise at critical moments, the product of decades of seasoning, able to rise to the occasion even in the dead of night to confront a dangerous world," the article said. "Yet a little slower, a little softer, a little harder of hearing, a little more tentative in his walk, a little more prone to occasional lapses of memory in ways that feel familiar to anyone...

An abbey in rural Missouri has become the site of pilgrimage for many Catholics who view the body of a Benedictine nun  as a modern American miracle. Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster died in May 2019, but when her body was exhumed earlier this year she was discovered to be apparently uncorrupted – showing little decomposition – an indication of sanctity to Catholics if confirmed. Thousands of devoted Catholics have flocked to the Gower, Missouri , abbey where they say a "modern-day miracle" has taken place. "It is a modern-day miracle," Dale Bauermeister, a Catholic convert from Nebraska, told Fox News Digital at the abbey last weekend. The incorrupt body of Lancaster is a sign that "Christ is here, he is among us, he is not done working," said Bauermeister. MISSOURI MIRACLE? EXHUMED NUN WHOSE BODY DID NOT DECOMPOSE ATTRACTS TRAVELERS TO SMALL TOWN  Catholic and local media outlets have captured the throngs of hundreds of visitors to the abbey of the Bened...