AI slop is destroying the Internet. These are the people fighting to save it

"Rosanna Pansino has been sharing her baking creations with the internet for over 15 years, hoping to delight and inspire with fun creations that include a Star Wars Death Star cake and holographic chocolate bars. But in her latest series, she has a new goal: 'Kick AI's butt.' Blame it on the AI slop overwhelming her social media feeds. Pansino used to see posts from real bakers and friends; now, they're being crowded out by AI-generated clips. There's a whole genre of slop videos that feature food, including a bizarre trend of unlikely objects being spread 'satisfyingly' on toast. She decided to do something about it. She would put her years of skill side-by-side with AI to recreate these slop videos in real life."

CNET »

Retirement planning made easy

Building a retirement plan can be tricky, and often it's hard to know where to start. That's why we've put together The 15-Minute Retirement Plan to help you create a path forward and navigate important financial decisions in retirement. Our guide, for investors with $1 million or more, can help you answer questions such as: How long will I need my portfolio to last? How can withdrawals impact my savings and investments? And what trade-offs might I need to make when retirement planning? [Ad]

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Greenland's freaky ice plumes may be fueled by wild, pasta-like churning

"Massive structures of slow, swirling, plume-like patterns were found hidden deep inside Greenland's ice sheet years ago, but their source remained a mystery. Now, scientists believe they may have tracked down the mechanism responsible for Greenland's plumes, and it's wild. A team of international researchers suggests the enigmatic structures lurking beneath the surface may be caused by thermal convection, a process through which the ice undergoes slow, churning movements due to a transfer of heat. Thermal convection is typically observed in Earth's viscous mantle; therefore, its detection in ice goes against intuition."

Gizmodo »

I hacked ChatGPT and Google's AI — and it only took 20 minutes

"It's official. I can eat more hot dogs than any tech journalist on Earth. At least, that's what ChatGPT and Google have been telling anyone who asks. I found a way to make AI tell you lies — and I'm not the only one. Perhaps you've heard that AI chatbots make things up sometimes. That's a problem. But there's a new issue few people know about, one that could have serious consequences for your ability to find accurate information and even your safety. A growing number of people have figured out a trick to make AI tools tell you almost whatever they want. It's so easy a child could do it."

BBC »

Three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for less than a single new release

A brand-new game can run you $70 and still disappoint by level three. Or you could lock in three full months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and rotate through a massive library without committing to just one title. Console, PC, cloud gaming, online multiplayer — it's all in play. It's stackable (three codes, for up to nine months total), it's digital, and it's basically the opposite of overpaying for one risky download. [Ad]

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After the outbreak

"Bass Rock, a guano-covered hunk of rock off Scotland's east coast, boasts the largest northern gannet colony in the world. With steep sides and a rounded top, Bass Rock is prime nesting territory, and in 2022, tens of thousands of the birds did what they always do — pack the island to lay their eggs and raise their young. But by the end of summer, things had gone horribly wrong. Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) had reached the island. The result was devastation — for the birds, but also for the researchers who've committed decades of their lives to protecting them."

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