- Israel and Iran continue to launch strikes against each other. An Iranian newscaster was forced to run for cover from an incoming missile; casualties have been reported in that strike. Israel's defense minister has not denied targeting the TV station; indeed, before the attack he hinted that it would be a target. Iran also accuses the Israelis of targeting a hospital in the western part of the country. Meanwhile in Israel, a strike on an oil refinery killed three people and all of the city's oil facilities shut down as a precaution. At least 224 Iranians and 20 Israelis have died in the conflict so far.
- In the course of the unrest in Los Angeles over the last few days, several Waymo robotaxis were set on fire. Analysts say that such vehicles are "sitting ducks" for this sort of thing; because they're programmed to try not to run people over, if surrounded they have no defense. While the numerous cameras on the vehicles may be a deterrent to attackers, they are also a provocation as many fear that they may be gathering surveillance footage. Some are suggesting that including human drivers may be a deterrent, however this also defeats the purpose of autonomous vehicles, at least from the point of view of the owners.
- People in the US continue to show some resistance to ICE overreach. In the village of Westbury, on Long Island, residents saw a number of vehicles with masked agents in them, apparently waiting for parents to pickup their children so that they could apprehend any who looked like they could be undocumented immigrants. The agents quickly fled when confronted by a mob of residents. One of the fleeing agents ran a stop sign and got into an accident, injuring the driver of the other vehicle. The occupants of that vehicle quickly got into another ICE vehicle and left the scene.
- Disney and Universal are suing the AI company Midjourney for plagiarism due to the latter company's use of their intellectual property to train its products. I hate having to root for Disney, but somebody's got to bring these cowboys under control, and they're among the few companies with deep enough pockets to have a chance.
- The AI assistants provided by Google and Meta took an article from the Beaverton as fact, telling users that Cape Breton Island will be adopting a new time zone, 12 minutes ahead of Atlantic time and 18 minutes behind Newfoundland time. Given how fallible such systems are, it's kind of disconcerting that people are using them to make hiring decisions, not to mention the dating and mental health advice that we've already discussed here.
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