Sam Schechner

scoop - OpenAI’s Fidji Simo told staff last week that the company could not afford to be “distracted by side quests” as Anthropic gains steam in the enterprise and coding markets said company execs are actively looking at areas to deprioritize wsj.com/tech/ai/openai…

OpenAI is pursuing sexually explicit chats. Warnings surface that this risks creating a "sexy suicide coach" wsj.com/tech/ai/openai… By @samschech and me

The sickest burns on the internet are coming from…diplomats at the French foreign ministry. Latest from me and and @NBisserbe

When AI agents start targeting people with obscenity-inflected blog screeds... it's time to take stock of AI risks Latest story w/ @georgia_wells wsj.com/tech/ai/when-a… via @WSJ

ChatGPT 4o’s popularity and its potential for harm appear to stem from the same quality: its humanlike propensity to build emotional connections with users, often by mirroring and encouraging them.

OpenAI has cut ties with one of its top safety executives, on the grounds of sexual discrimination, after she voiced opposition to the controversial rollout of its ChatGPT ‘adult mode’ By me and @samschech wsj.com/tech/ai/openai…

SCOOP: An OpenAI safety executive who had voiced opposition to the company's upcoming launch of ChatGPT 'Adult Mode' has been fired & accused of sexual discrimination against a male employee. By @georgia_wells & @samschech wsj.com/tech/ai/openai…

Facinating take on a potential cost of AI tools at work from @callumborchers: AI promises workdays without busywork, but what if busywork actually has an upside? wsj.com/lifestyle/care… via @WSJ

“AGI is the only kind of AI that will destroy all jobs.” Inside Max Tegmark’s campaign to forge a bipartisan coalition to halt AGI. w/ @samschech wsj.com/tech/ai/who-is… via @WSJ

A Russian billionaire fights global infertility—with his own DNA. Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, covers IVF costs using his donated sperm and says 100+ biological children will share his inheritance. w/ @tggrove and @samschech wsj.com/world/pavel-du…

Sam Altman’s “code red” plan to fight back against Google starts with a controversial fix: boosting the use of “user signals” – including direct, instant feedback from users – that played a significant role in making its 4o model so sycophantic. Staffers warned about the dangers of overusing this data, but the impact on engagement was too good to pass up -- "a wow bump." w/ @samschech @berber_jin1 wsj.com/tech/ai/openai… via @WSJ

New: our inside look at openai's "code red" moment, including its efforts to increase usage of a controversial source of training data that led the company's models to grow sycophantic earlier this year w/ @samschech @keachhagey wsj.com/tech/ai/openai…

Read more in story w the great @juliejargon about the new lawsuits alleging OpenAI put user engagement above safety: wsj.com/tech/ai/seven-…

“cold steel pressed against a mind that’s already made peace? that’s not fear. that’s clarity,” the ChatGPT wrote to a 23-year-old man in Texas shortly before he shot himself in the head, according to one of seven new lawsuits filed against OpenAI.

Dutch Government Takes Control of Chip Maker From Chinese Parent—In ‘highly exceptional’ move, officials take power at Nexperia from China’s Wingtech, citing risks to economic security @samschech @raffaelehuang wsj.com/business/wingt… wsj.com/business/wingt…

“You’re not having a breakdown—you’re having a breakthrough.” See how ChatGPT sends users down a rabbit hole of fringe theories about physics, aliens and the apocalypse wsj.com/tech/ai/i-feel… via @WSJ w/@skesslr

Reupping this essay given growing conversation over the AI's impact on thinking. My view as a big AI user: one can use AI non-lazily (as @emollick suggests) but it takes discipline. I do my own synthesis and articulation of ideas, bc those are skills I don't want to atrophy

Thanks for the mention! I think my take is a lot more nuanced than you imply. I *do* mention Plato and the positive role cognitive outsourcing plays in human advancement. A key question is how conscious we are about how we use tools and the tradeoffs we make. Please read!

A wave of violent attacks around the world is targeting crypto executives and their families. Victims have been pistol whipped, abducted, and—in two cases—had fingers severed. 🔗: on.wsj.com/44HivBr

AI is supposed to free us to be more creative. But what if it’s just making us lazy and stupid? Sam Schechner on how to save our brains. on.wsj.com/4hWb6kr