My main newsletter, Complex Machinery, includes a section called "In Other News..." It's where I list one-liners about interesting articles that didn't fit into any segments. You can think of this list as a version of In Other News, but with a wider remit than Complex Machinery's "risk, AI, and related topics."

Above the fold

1. Europe's so-called "smart" border-control system isn't living up to the name. Doesn't bode well for the summer travel season. (FT)
2. We've finally found a decent use case for genAI: crafting the perfect burger. (Der Spiegel 🇩🇪, Stanford News)
3. Content moderation is hard. And as Discord is learning – having mistakenly banned a number of users – automated content moderation is even harder. (TechCrunch)
4. The state of Illinois unveils the AI Safety Measures Act, which will set expectations for major AI companies. (Gizmodo)
5. Companies have learned the hard way that AI is not a magic drop-in replacement for human workers. Related, the major genAI companies are starting to admit that their job-pocalypse prophesies were a little out of order. And even Mark Zuckerberg is starting to admit that his AI rollout isn't going as planned. (CNBC, WSJ, and Futurism,respectively)
6. This guy doesn't just sell coins online; his live shows create an element of gamification along with a side of community. (WSJ)
7. Britain's NHS wants to use genAI as a way to point patients to providers. (BBC)
8. Venture capitalist Peter Thiel accuses the pope of working on behalf of China. Because apparently that's the only reason Pope Leo might not like AI. (CNN)
9. High-profile readers express displeasure at French magazine "La Gazette des Communes" giving genAI a greater role in the publication. (Le Monde 🇫🇷)
10. Want access to someone's private GitHub repo? Just ask their agent. (The Register)

The rest of the best

Special section: The Atlantic

While up-to-the-minute news breaks can be useful at times, The Atlantic is great for a more in-depth read. Here's a sampler:

• Since the arrival of Midjourney and ChatGPT, I've said that genAI could become an important tool for artists once we move past the text-box-and-prompt as a UI. Some of them are already there, writing code and working with ML professionals to power new works of art. (The Atlantic)
• The race for genAI hardware is pushing up prices for the rest of us. A top-tier MacBook Pro can now run ten grand. (The Atlantic)
• This article's title mentions Lizzo by name, but it's really about every major artist that's caught in the gears of the newest flavor of the attention economy. (The Atlantic)

Datacenters

• Major datacenter companies, Google and Amazon included, are polluting more than expected. (Les Echos 🇫🇷)
• Related, datacenters' water usage is also higher than initially reported. (WSJ)
• Ontario is trying to understand how extra datacenters will impact the local power grid. (CP24)
• Blackstone-owned QTS abandons planned world’s largest data center campus after years of lawsuits — 2,100-acre Virginia Digital Gateway project dies over a newspaper-notice technicality | Tom's Hardware
• A would-be Virginia datacenter project goes belly-up, allegedly due to a paperwork misstep. (Tom's Hardware)

Did I miss anything?

Have something I should read? Send the link my way.