‘Risk of extinction.’ A 23-word statement on the dangers of artificial intelligence signed by hundreds of AI scientists, researchers and other thought leaders feels, in the words of CNN’s Oliver Darcy, “eerily reminiscent of the early days of the pandemic.”
■ Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina: “AI will accelerate the speed, reach, complexity and innovation of disinformation.”
■ PolitiFact checked to see if ChatGPT can fact-check, and … meh.
■ A product reviewer: “I asked AI chatbots to help me shop. They all failed.”
■ Wired: AI chatbots’ language bias is cutting non-English languages out of the revolution.
■ The Onion: “Experts Warn AI Could One Day Be Smart Enough To Eat Soup.”
■ Does your Amazon Alexa device speak with a celebrity’s voice? Not much longer.
Vote scramble. Updating coverage: A hard-fought budget and debt ceiling package was headed toward a crucial vote in the House.
■ The Sun-Times’ David Roeder surveys ways the debate’s outcome may affect you.
‘Intolerable.’ That’s Mayor Johnson’s word for Chicago’s wave of Memorial Day weekend gun violence.
■ A man who lives on the same West Side block where the mayor resides has been charged with murdering a woman and hiding her body in the alley.
■ The suspect’s lawyer says he’s worked for a child daycare center for the past five years.
■ A Chicago City Council member says he’s “horrified” at a string of weekend shootings in the Lakeview neighborhood.
■ Add Chicago Ridge to the list of suburbs canceling summer fests over safety concerns.
■ An ex-Chicago Police Department superintendent reportedly scared off would-be robbers menacing his daughter on Memorial Day.
■ A Tribune editorial: Why are Chicago cops with histories of lying still on the force?
Migrant aid. The City Council was set to vote today on a plan to spend $51 million to help migrants who’ve streamed into Chicago since August.
■ Block Club Chicago: An alderperson blames migrants for tuberculosis outbreaks at police stations, but it’s not true.
■ Also before the council today: A proposal to let restaurants, bars and cafes serve customers outdoors permanently.
■ See the meeting here.
‘One state is fighting back.’ And, hey, guess which state Popular Information’s Judd Legum praises for aggressive legislation to ban book bans.
‘Poisoned by something that was banned 45 years ago.’ WTTW News talks to the mother of a child suffering the effects of exposure to lead paint—banned in 1978, but still present in nearly half a million suburban Cook County homes.
■ Chicago avoids making Insider’s list of most expensive cities for childcare.
‘The first movie designed to earn a thumbs up from Andy Warhol and Stephen Hawking.’ Variety’s Owen Gleiberman really, really likes Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
■ Opening Saturday at the Elmhurst Art Museum: Marvelocity, an exhibition of work by acclaimed Chicago-area comics illustrator Alex Ross. (Illustration: Ross.)
‘I appreciate everyone’s support …after that near miss being in the wrong place at the wrong time.’ WXRT’s Terri Hemmert updates her time since a shooting disrupted her birthday party in New Orleans.
■ Police say the suspect in that murder shot and killed a 15-year-old days later in Houston.
■ Filing a remembrance of a coworker’s mother, columnist Neil Steinberg concludes, “Be the person you need. Maybe others will take the hint. Maybe they won’t. But a kind and generous person will still be there, every time you look in the mirror.”
‘The last good website.’ The Week senior editor Danny Funt praises Defector’s “pursuit of a journalists’ utopia.”
■ Veteran Chicago and network TV reporter Jim Avila prescribes a news diet that he says “will consume under two hours of your day and allow you to sound smart at dinner parties, pick a president, know the sports scores and go about your day.”
■ Women’s Wear Daily: “Never mind the digital media bloodbath—journalists are ditching legacy brands in favor of subscriber newsletters.”
‘Chicago Public Square caps? When did that happen and how can I get one?’ Gosh, we would’ve thought everyone knew about Square chapeaux—and yet a longtime reader wrote in astonishment yesterday.
■ So, yes, they exist and you can just plain-old buy one for $20 + tax and shipping …
■ …but you get a code to save $5 on that purchase by supporting Square with any amount—a thing done by generous folks including Carolyn Hosticka, Jeffrey Langer, Lucy Smith, Richard Milne, Len Jaster, Dave Aron, Joseph Lynn, Stephen Nidetz, Jill Brickman, Lisa Colpoys and Catherine Schneider, Terry Locke, Ken Trainor, Melanie Minnix, Annemarie Kiill, Sandy Kaczmarski, Kathy Wyman and Doug Waco, Sherry Kent, Timothy Baffoe, Steve Winner, John Iltis, Michelle Damico, Mary M. Jeans, Keri Lynch, Julie Martin, Mark Mueller, Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin, Angela Mullins, Jack Hafferkamp, Karl Schuster, Paul Wedeen, Elaine Soloway, Clifton Wilson, Joseph Sjostrom, Gary Strokosch, Alice Cottingham, Gordon Walek, Pat Albu, David Boulanger, Nancy W. Cook, Ann Johnson Arellano, Paul Buchbinder, Richard M. Bendix Jr., Jerry Role, Michael Johnson, Sarah Russe, Carol Marin, Louise Donahue, Jayson Hansen, Russ Williams, Charles Pratt, Don Price, John Metz, Don Moseley, Jennifer Fardy, Mark Miller, Jen Purrenhage, Ted Cox, Joe Germuska, Patty Martin, Carol Morency, Mark Nystuen, Gail Frost, Eric Hochstein, Sarah Hoban, Joan Pederson, Edward White, Carol Hendrick, Stephanie Zimmermann, Sandy Ridolfi, Charles C. Allen II and Phil Vettel …
■ … and if you do so now, you can—if you grant permission—find your name here tomorrow.
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