Sampson

I think Starmer’s speech now is definitely a tone shift. Never heard him so openly anti-US and pro-Europe in his time as PM. That last line here from the bbc is the strongest I’ve heard from him. Europe is a sleeping giant when it comes to defence - Starmerpublished at 10:44 10:44 The Nato alliance is a phenomenon in human history, he says hailing the alliance, but notes that we need to create a more European version. "Europe is a sleeping giant," Starmer says, highlight how their economies "dwarf Russia's more than ten times over". But, he notes, those have huge defence capabilities also suffer from fragmentation and duplication, which has made them "wildly inefficient", harming their collective security. The US security umbrella has allowed us to develop these bad habits, he says, "but we must break them".

Or the Ukrainian border around the Crimea and the Donbass which Europe are trying to defend but the US wants to give up so they don’t have to spend money any more for that matter…

Like the Danish borders around Greenland?

Congrats! You’ll probably do it more often now you’ve got roughly what type of things are there!

Failed. Got 2 and 1 away on the last at the end. Connections Puzzle #979 🟨🟪🟦🟦 🟩🟨🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟪🟦🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟦🟦🟦

No idea what I was doing here Wordle 1 701 5/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟨 ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟨 ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I mean, no one thinks AI will kill us tomorrow. People are scared of the path it will lead us over a lifetime. The internet within the space of about 25 years certainly has led us down a way scarier path where a major world war that seemed unthinkable a generation ago certainly feels far from unthinkable anymore and the head of MI6 is actively telling British people that they have to start coming to terms with their children might have to prepare to go to war. AI is certainly going to accelerate this path. In fact a lot of this political upheaval is caused by social media algorithms from the past 10 years which are sort of proto-AI anyway

I mean… the internet has caused division, war, democratic backsliding, untold economic inequality, political upheaval, driven age of authoritarian populism, created and mass spread worldwide political movements, destroyed the international world order, ruined people’s attention spans, changed our relationships, how and where we live, our language and our culture, ruined many people’s mental health, addicted just about every person on the planet, meant humans have less friends and less sex, affected culture, demographics and brain chemistry and affected every single job on the planet within the space of a single generation. So that one definitely did take over the world.

He’s completely right about the Americanisation of European politics and his take on JD Vance’s comments and MAGA shouldn’t be our fight as Europeans. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4wpv0wx43o World's rules-based order 'no longer exists', Germany's Merz warns 1 hour ago Jaroslav Lukiv The rules-based world order "no longer exists", the German Chancellor has warned at a major security summit. Opening the annual Munich Security Conference, Friedrich Merz told other world leaders that "our freedom is not guaranteed" in an era of big power politics, and that Europeans must be ready to make "sacrifice". He also admitted that "a deep divide has opened between Europe and the United States". The conference is taking place on the backdrop of US President Donald Trump threatening Denmark's sovereignty over Greenland by pledging to annex the Arctic territory and his tariffs on imports from European nations. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was listening to Merz and will deliver his own speech on Saturday, earlier spoke of a "new era in geopolitics". Some 50 world leaders are expected to attend this year's conference, where European defence and the future of the transatlantic relationship will be discussed. It comes at a time when US commitments to the Nato military alliance have been called into question. Trump's ambition to acquire Greenland has also been viewed by many European leaders as a watershed moment that has eroded trust with its biggest ally. The Russia-Ukraine war, tensions between the West and China, as well as a potential Iran-US nuclear deal are also on the agenda at the annual gathering. Referring to multiple warnings that the rules-based order was collapsing, Merz told the conference: "I fear we must put it even more bluntly: this order, however imperfect it was even at its best, no longer exists in that form." He also said that "a rift, a deep divide has opened between Europe and the United States. Vice-President JD Vance said this very openly here in Munich a year ago". Merz continued: "He was right. The culture war of the Maga [Make America Great Again] movement is not ours. Freedom of speech ends here with us when that speech goes against human dignity and the constitution. We do not believe in tariffs and protectionism, but in free trade." Last year, Vance attacked Europe, including the UK, for policies on free speech and immigration. His speech triggered a year of unprecedented transatlantic tension. But Merz did not write off the decades-long partnership, instead appealing directly to the US by saying "let's repair and revive transatlantic trust". The German leader also revealed that "confidential talks" were ongoing with French President Emmanuel Macron on creating a joint European nuclear deterrent. He gave no further details. France and the UK are the only two nuclear powers in Europe - but Germany and many other European nations have traditionally relied on the US nuclear umbrella within the Nato alliance for deterrence. Ahead of the Munich conference, Rubio warned that "the world is changing very fast right in front of us" after being asked whether his message to Europeans would be more conciliatory than Vance's a year ago. "We live in a new era in geopolitics, and it's going to require all of us to sort of re-examine what that looks like and what our role is going to be," he said. Tensions have been heightened in recent months as Trump has repeatedly said that Greenland is vital to US national security, stating without evidence that it was "covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place". Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Friday that she planned to meet Rubio to discuss the US threats to seize Greenland from its Nato ally.

People say the same about Europe and Trump atm, but I’m just not confident we are actually rearming and building up behind the scenes and are instead just burying our head in the sand and convincing ourselves “the US will come back to the flock, it’s just a teenage phase they’re going through”

One of the worst things about the internet and social media is it doesn’t allow people to make mistakes anymore. This will be 100 times worse in the near future when there’s AI algorithms data scraping the internet and AI cctv cameras which directly send fines to your post, no humans needed

To follow on from the above. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62dlvdq3e3o AI safety leader says 'world is in peril' and quits to study poetry 2 hours ago Liv McMahon,Technology reporterand Ottilie Mitchell An AI safety researcher has quit US firm Anthropic with a cryptic warning that the "world is in peril". In his resignation letter shared on X, Mrinank Sharma told the firm he was leaving amid concerns about AI, bioweapons and the state of the wider world. He said he would instead look to pursue writing and studying poetry, and move back to the UK to "become invisible". It comes in the same week that an OpenAI researcher said she had resigned, sharing concerns about the ChatGPT maker's decision to deploy adverts in its chatbot. Anthropic, best known for its Claude chatbot, had released a series of commercials aimed at OpenAI, criticising the company's move to include adverts for some users. The company, which was formed in 2021 by a breakaway team of early OpenAI employees, has positioned itself as having a more safety-orientated approach to AI research compared with its rivals. Sharma led a team there which researched AI safeguards. He said in his resignation letter his contributions included investigating why generative AI systems suck up to users, combatting AI-assisted bioterrorism risks and researching "how AI assistants could make us less human". But he said despite enjoying his time at the company, it was clear "the time has come to move on". "The world is in peril. And not just from AI, or bioweapons, but from a whole series of interconnected crises unfolding in this very moment," Sharma wrote. He said he had "repeatedly seen how hard it is to truly let our values govern our actions" - including at Anthropic which he said "constantly face pressures to set aside what matters most". Sharma said he would instead look to pursue a poetry degree and writing. He added in a reply: "I'll be moving back to the UK and letting myself become invisible for a period of time." Those departing AI firms which have loomed large in the latest generative AI boom - and sought to retain talent with huge salaries or compensation offers - often do so with plenty of shares and benefits intact. Eroding principles Anthropic calls itself a "public benefit corporation dedicated to securing [AI's] benefits and mitigating its risks". In particular, it has focused on preventing those it believes are posed by more advanced frontier systems, such as them becoming misaligned with human values, misused in areas such as conflict or too powerful. It has released reports on the safety of its own products, including when it said its technology had been "weaponised" by hackers to carry out sophisticated cyber attacks. But it has also come under scrutiny over its practices. In 2025, it agreed to pay $1.5bn (£1.1bn) to settle a class action lawsuit filed by authors who said the company stole their work to train its AI models. Like OpenAI, the firm also seeks to seize on the technology's benefits, including through its own AI products such as its ChatGPT rival Claude. It recently released a commercial that criticised OpenAI's move to start running ads in ChatGPT. OpenAI boss Sam Altman had previously said he hated ads and would use them as a "last resort". Last week, he hit back at the advert's description of this as a "betrayal" - but was mocked for his lengthy post criticising Anthropic. 1:38 Watch: Zoe Hitzig on why she quit A former OpenAI researcher who resigned this week, in part due to fears of the use of advertising on ChatGPT, has told BBC Newsnight she feels "really nervous about working in the industry". Zoe Hitzig said her concerns stemmed from the possible psychosocial impacts of a "new type of social interaction" that were not yet understood. She noted "early warning signs" that dependence on AI tools were "worrisome" and could "reinforce certain kinds of delusions" as well as negatively impacting users' mental health in other ways. "Creating an economic engine that profits from encouraging these kinds of new relationships before we understand them is really dangerous," she continued. "We saw what happened with social media" she said, noting "there's still time to set up the social institutions, the forms of regulation that can actually govern this". It was, she said, a "critical moment". Responding to BBC News, a spokesperson for OpenAI pointed to the firm's principles which state: "Our mission is to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity; our pursuit of advertising is always in support of that mission and making AI more accessible." They add: "We keep your conversations with ChatGPT private from advertisers, and we never sell your data to advertisers."

Connections Puzzle #978 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟦🟩🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 Bit of a semi-lucky guess on blue. Felt they were a group but couldn’t say why, when I saw the group reason it wasn’t what I was thinking of

Wordle 1 700 4/6 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩 🟩⬜⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

After the Tories hit rock bottom and started to increase in the polls arson, I think Labour are probably about to do the same, though how much they’ll increase is interesting.

I think it’s also that a lot of people struggled to get work in the country they were living in (both eu citizens in the uk and uk citizens in the eu) in the period between the referendum and Covid because of the uncertainty of it and so just left. Remember an old French colleague who’d lived in the UK for over a decade but I spoke to years later and she said she decided to leave the uk in around 2018 or 2019 because she’d been getting to final interviews but even told a couple of times a lot of companies were hesitant to hire people on EU passports because they didn’t know what would happen and if they’d have to leave or not so she ended up moving back to France. Remember that it kept being pushed back and Johnson was peroging Parliament and threatening no deal Brexits and all sorts and the deal only ended up getting pushed through at the 11th hour once Covid had kicked it out the news so there was very little actual certainty for 3 or 4 years and Boris’ absurd theatrics over the whole thing screwed with a lot of people as well. It wasn’t a very certain smooth period for a lot of people

I’ve met several Brits and Europeans whose families have been broken up or split in two, relationships and marriages that ended that otherwise wouldn’t have or careers have been put back a decade by Brexit by this point; and people still complaining British people aren’t allowed to “say it like it is” on immigration is so depressing.

Connections Puzzle #977 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟦🟪🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 Thankfully blue was my remaining category else I’d have never got it

Wordle 1 699 4/6 ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩 🟩⬜⬜🟨🟩 🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

The problem is I think most people like to feel like they’re being productive to society I reckon. I was unemployed for a few months when I was younger and I remember it feeling terrible and made me feel worthless and was hard to motivate myself to get up in the morning. I’m not sure how many would cope with being on a universal credit system. Not to mention the power it gives to stop the universal credit from the state or mega tech corporations divvying them out

Thanks. Never heard that in my life though

Ok I’ll assume no one comes into the thread until after they’re doing and just spoil it - I’ve googled and still can’t even find a mention to word “moon” meaning lovestruck - I can only assume it’s some obscure 1950s American slang or something.

Yes exactly!

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260210-tiktok-is-tracking-you-even-if-you-dont-use-the-app-heres-how-to-stop-it This stuff scares me I have to admit, especially with AI algorithms getting more and more sophisticated

There’s 1 word I’d never heard of that particular useage and the blue category today I still don’t really understand but don’t know how to use spoilers