(BBC News) Key figures in artificial intelligence want training of powerful AI systems to be suspended amid fears of a threat to humanity.
They have signed an open letter warning of potential risks, and say the race to develop AI systems is out of control.
Twitter chief Elon Musk is among those who want training of AIs above a certain capacity to be halted for at least six months.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and some researchers at DeepMind also...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) United States President Joe Biden has told Israel it “cannot continue” pushing ahead with deeply controversial judicial reforms — now on hold — that have prompted months of unrest. And those comments led Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say he does not make decisions based on pressure from abroad.
Biden’s comments on Tuesday came as Netanyahu was being accused by opponents of riding roughshod over Israeli democracy in an attempt to strengthen...
(BBC News) Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of failed crypto firm FTX, has been accused of bribing at least one Chinese official.
In new charges unveiled in the U.S., officials accuse the entrepreneur of authorizing a bribe of "at least $40 million" to try to gain access to trading accounts frozen by Chinese authorities.
The allegations add to the fraud case filed last year after FTX's collapse. Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to those claims earlier this year.
He is under...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) The governments of Iran and Syria have condemned the United States for attacks on Syrian soil that reportedly killed 19 people, which Washington said it carried out following a drone attack on U.S. forces.
Both the Iranian and Syrian foreign ministries late on Saturday slammed the U.S. air attacks that targeted the strategic region of Deir ez-Zor bordering Iraq.
In a statement, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said the “terrorist” attacks by the U.S....
(BBC News) NATO has condemned Russia's "dangerous" and "irresponsible" rhetoric after Vladimir Putin's decision to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
The organization is "closely monitoring" the situation and said the move would not lead it to change its own nuclear strategy.
The U.S. said it did not believe Russia was preparing to use nuclear weapons.
Belarus shares a long border with Ukraine, as well as with NATO members Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.
Ukraine has called for an...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Former United States president Donald Trump has warned of “potential death and destruction” if he is charged in a New York investigation into a hush-money payment that his personal lawyer paid to a porn star in 2016.
Trump made the comment on Friday, nearly a week after he claimed he would be arrested in relation to the case and urged his supporters to protest.
“What kind of person can charge another person, in this...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Paul Rusesabagina, who was portrayed as a hero in the Hollywood film Hotel Rwanda and was serving a 25-year sentence in Rwanda on terrorism charges, has had his sentence commuted by presidential order.
The decision was made after a request from Rusesabagina for clemency, government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo told Al Jazeera on Friday.
But “no one should be under any illusion about what this means as there is consensus that serious crimes...
(BBC News) An asteroid large enough to destroy a city will pass between the orbits of the Earth and the Moon this weekend.
The object, named 2023 DZ2, was discovered a month ago.
On Saturday, it will pass within 515,000 kilometres of the moon, before flying by Earth hours later.
It is rare for such a huge asteroid — estimated to be between 40 and 90 metres in diameter — to come so close to the planet.
According...
(BBC News) Bordeaux town hall has been set on fire as French protests continued over plans to raise the pension age.
More than one million people took to the streets across France on Thursday, with 119,000 in Paris, according to figures from the interior ministry.
Police fired tear gas at protesters in the capital, and 80 people were arrested across the country.
The demonstrations were sparked by legislation raising the retirement age by two years to 64.
Fire...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Do Kwon, the South Korean entrepreneur behind the $40-billion collapse of the cryptocurrencies terraUSD and Luna, has been charged with fraud in the United States following his arrest in Montenegro.
U.S. prosecutors on Thursday announced eight charges against Kwon, including securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud, and conspiracy.
Kwon, 31, was arrested in Montenegro earlier on Thursday along with another South Korean citizen, the European country’s interior ministry said.
“The person is suspected...
