TeeJay Tech Bro

  In the scandal heard ’round the Ivy League, Brown University economics professor Roberto Serrano accused his students of using AI to cheat on a take-home exam, and said the school was “meek” when presented with evidence. And that evidence includes an abnormally large number of students with a masterful understanding of welfare economics and social choice theory: Serrano’s class swelled from the usual 30 pupils to 86 after announcing his course would have take-home exams. The average score on the take-home midterm was 96%, when it typically fell between 65%–80%. Serrano alerted students to his AI suspicions and decided to make the final in-person and worth 80% of the final grade. The average score on the final was a “historic low” of 48.6%. A university spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed that Serrano still “has not provided the necessary details” for the school to take action. Serrano decided to administer the take-home tests in response to students expressing anxiety over bein...

  OpenAI may have an AI agent that promises to produce “share-ready work,” but the company’s CEO went public with an arguably unshare-ready take on what to do with it. On Friday, Altman posted on X that “a cool use case” for the company’s ChatGPT Work agent is to “connect your family calendars and explain your kids’ interests” and then “have it make a podcast that talks about one kid’s soccer game that afternoon, one kid’s upcoming birthday, some news, etc.” every day on the drive to school. He didn’t exactly get ratioed… but several snarky replies got way more likes than the original post . One of the more modulated criticisms said: “using AI in place of real human connection is the worst possible use case for it.” But AI execs want busy parents’ bucks And some use cases for AI for family management are gaining more traction than others. In a recent feature, the New Yorker overviewed the myriad ways AI is trying to monetize relief from “the cognitive load of domestic admin”: AI-e...

  Some small businesses like bodegas and delis are using AI photos of their menu offerings as a way to save money, but it’s coming at a price: Potential customers are being repulsed by the nightmare versions of food pics. It’s probably not surprising that the tech that gives people extra fingers is creating unsettling pictures of shrimp , burritos , sandwiches , and more . While it’s unnecessary for your annoying coworker to Slack you AI slop, some businesses may actually need it: Restaurants operate on tight margins, and the temptation of letting ChatGPT produce a disturbing grilled salmon image is hard to resist. Most AI photos are either free to make or cheaper to create than hiring a professional photographer. An intrepid Food & Wine reporter found a digital services company that offers restaurants coaching for AI image generation for $19 per month, which seems like a bargain until you realize that snapping a pic of a cheeseburger with your phone is free. The pushback: I...

  Waymo and its self-driving cars are used to making waves, but this isn’t what they had in mind. After several incidents of its robotaxis driving into floodwaters, the company announced on Thursday that it’s temporarily halting its service in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, and Houston due to inclement weather. So, what happened? During a bout of heavy rain in Atlanta on Wednesday, an empty Waymo car Leeroy Jenkins’d into a flooded street and got stuck. Elsewhere in the city, a different Waymo vehicle with a journalist inside also repeatedly tried its hand at self-boating. There were precipitating events: Waymo had already halted service in San Antonio last month over a similar incident. And last week, the company issued a recall on thousands of its vehicles to perform a software update aimed at solving the problem. According to Waymo: The update—meant to be a temporary fix—instructed vehicles not to drive when there’s an elevated risk of flooding. But that didn’t work in Atlanta, b...

  Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised nearly a decade ago that his everyday electric vehicles were on the verge of driverless capabilities. So far, no dice, but yesterday in Austin, Texas, his company introduced the vehicle that might mark another step in that direction. Hello, Cybercab: Tesla’s purpose-built robotaxi is a matte gold, steering-wheel-free, pedal-less two-seater with butterfly doors—a design that was initially unveiled two years ago. Musk said at the event that Cybercab’s cost “is probably going to be around 20 cents a mile. And the price, including taxes and everything else, probably ends up being 30 or 40 cents a mile. And you will be able to buy one.” The vehicle isn’t available for purchase yet. Yesterday’s launch event signified the Cybercab’s official addition to Tesla’s robotaxi fleet, which otherwise consists of Model Ys. Growing that bunch of unsupervised (aka fully autonomous) vehicles is “key for the stock to outperform through year-end,” Morgan Stanley analysts ...

  Pabst Blue Ribbon is using a recent beer heist to tap into the zeitgeist. This week, the lager-maker spun a theft of its cargo into a marketing campaign, offering up to $20,000 as a reward for information that helps track down a frat house’s worth of beer that got snatched last month. ICYMI: In two back-to-back swipes, brewski thieves stole more than 1,500 cases of Pabst Blue Ribbon and non-alcoholic Old Milwaukee beer—snagging a total of approximately 34,000 cans, worth ~$70,000—from a Southern California warehouse. One shipment of beer vanished en route to Arizona, while another was picked up by a group that forged documents to pose as a subcontracting company, according to local police. “Kudos to them, perhaps. I’m sure they look cool with a garage full of PBR,” Pabst CEO Greig DeBow said in a TikTok post announcing the bounty and asking the thieves to return the beer. Pabst has posted several times since getting its cans pilfered to lightheartedly ask the public to keep ...

  It’s not clear who’s more excited about the USS Abraham Lincoln’s docking in Pattaya, Thailand, yesterday—the 5,000-person crew that was deployed for an unusually long 286 days, or the resort town that could use a financial jolt. Right now, many of the sailors and Marines who were on board (in reportedly horrible living conditions ) are enjoying their first bit of time off since deploying to support the US bombing of Iran and blockade of Iranian naval ports. The effects of those military operations are one reason the troops’ arrival in Pattaya is so welcome: Due to travel disruptions and high gas prices from the Iran war, local business owners told the Wall Street Journal that tourism is down significantly from what’s typical for this time of year. “We are glad to welcome [the sailors] because we are confident they have high purchasing power,” the mayor of Pattaya told the New York Times. Local officials estimated that crew members will spend $100–$150 each per day. Looking a...

  It turns out that “we’re not breaking up!” banner was a good investment. Despite US District Judge Leonie Brinkema agreeing with the Department of Justice last year that Google’s ad business acted as an illegal monopoly, she ruled yesterday that Google won’t be forced to sell it off. This marks the second time Google has come through monopoly accusations from the government without having to lop off any of its business arms, as courts seem wary of breaking up tech giants. In an abbreviated opinion, Brinkema officially rejected the DOJ’s request to splinter the company. However, the judge accepted other proposals to curb Google’s control over how publishers use its ad tech. Her full ruling won’t be available for two weeks once confidential information is redacted. ICYMI: The DOJ and 17 states sued Google three years ago, alleging that the company’s control of its ad server (what publishers use to run ads) being tied directly to its ad exchange (the marketplace used to buy and sel...