mat honan ☀️

Editor in chief @techreview. Formerly BuzzFeed News, formerly WIRED. Pro-California. Hella Frisco. Not super active on this site. Signal me: @mat.911

[mat honan ☀️ @mat]

Taking a Twitter break

[Jorge Ribas @jribas]

The newspaper laid off my entire video department of award-winning journalists so @PostOpinions could make the smarmiest, shittiest engagement slop imaginable.

[Grace Huckins @grace_huckins]

The Android XR sunglasses are pretty cute. I'm surprised they went with such a feminine design, especially given how much more skeptical of AI women seem to be in general.

[Grace Huckins @grace_huckins]

So this is actually a pretty positive development re: online trust and misinformation.

[Grace Huckins @grace_huckins]

One development I really did find interesting: OpenAI, Eleven Labs, and others are taking up Google's SynthID—its watermark technology for AI-generated content. SynthID will only be effective if it's widely adopted; otherwise, people will just switch to other tools to avoid it.

[Grace Huckins @grace_huckins]

I'm @ Google I/O in sunny Mountain View today, and I'll be sharing my thoughts here throughout the day. We're just over halfway through the keynote now, and one thing is already pretty obvious—Google isn't coming for Anthropic and OpenAI's shared agentic coding crown anytime soon

[Michelle Kim @michelletomkim]

@techreview "What was the technology like at that point?" Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers asks Sutskever, in a rare interjection, showing genuine curiosity.

Comparing AI in 2018 to now, "it was like the difference between an ant and a cat," says Sutskever. "It's a big difference."

[Michelle Kim @michelletomkim]

Ilya Sutskever and the rest of the OpenAI board briefly fired Sam Altman as CEO in 2023. “This kind of environment, where the executives [don’t] exactly have the correct information, makes the environment not conducive to attaining any difficult, grand goal,” such as “safe AGI," says Sutskever, reflecting on the event. He thought about firing Altman for a year before doing so.

[Michelle Kim @michelletomkim]

Day 9 of Musk v. Altman trial in federal court in Oakland, California. Ilya Sutskever, former OpenAI chief scientist, and Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, will testify.

I'm a reporter (and lawyer) at @techreview

[Michelle Kim @michelletomkim]

When asked if Sam Altman was not candid with her by fall of 2023, Mira Murati takes a long pause, sighs, and says, "Not always."

“I had an incredibly hard job to do in an organization that was very complex, and I was asking Sam to lead and lead with clarity," she says.

[mat honan ☀️ @mat]

I also wrote this piece, a while ago now, on data centers. And it is also a thing that I hope readddddddds like something a human being wrote. And moreover it's just gotten to be more true and more true and more true.

https://t.co/NQkew69b5d

[mat honan ☀️ @mat]

Look, look, look, I'm sorry. Look. I don't do the best job of promoting my own work. So, here I am. Posting.

[mat honan ☀️ @mat]

I wrote this piece on AI Malaise. And I think it's good! Or maybe not. Maybe you will hate it, like licorice. But it's distinctly un-AI. (I hope.)

https://t.co/FysHDtMA4E

[Michelle Kim @michelletomkim]

Shivon Zilis describes her complicated relationship with Elon Musk. Before 2020, "there had been kind of a one-off at the offsite," she says, describing it as romantic. “Then we were friends and eventually colleagues,” she says.

Later, when she wanted to be a mom, "Elon had made the offer around that time [to be a sperm donor] … and I accepted," she says.

[Michelle Kim @michelletomkim]

@techreview Stuart Russell testifies during cross-examination that he's getting paid $235,000 by Elon Musk to testify about AI safety in this trial. He says that will make up 20% of his annual income.

[Michelle Kim @michelletomkim]

Day 5 of Musk v. Altman trial in federal court in Oakland, California. Stuart Russell, a computer scientist at UC Berkeley, will testify about AI safety. OpenAI president Greg Brockman will also testify.

I'm a journalist (and lawyer) reporting on the trial for @techreview.

[Michelle Kim @michelletomkim]

"That's not a leading question, that's a leading answer," says Musk to OpenAI's lawyer during cross-examination.

"You're not a lawyer," says Judge Gonzalez.

[Michelle Kim @michelletomkim]

Day 4 of Musk v. Altman trial in Oakland federal courthouse!

Elon Musk continues to get cross-examined by OpenAI’s lawyer William Savitt, who once represented Tesla (and Twitter in its battle against Elon Musk). Elon will then be cross-examined by Microsoft’s lawyer and then direct-examined by his own lawyer Steven Molo.

I'm a reporter (and lawyer) covering the trial for @techreview.

[rat king 🐀 @MikeIsaac]

to my fellow bay area residents visiting cities other than san francisco:

if you could try not to tweet like the smoke aliens from Arrival first encountering humanity after you go to exotic places like "new york," i would really appreciate it

this reflects on me as well

[Michelle Kim @michelletomkim]

In opening statement yesterday, OpenAI's lawyer argued that Elon was suing OpenAI to give his own AI company xAI, which makes the chatbot Grok, an edge. Elon says "xAI has a very small market share" and that al though it is "technically a competitor," it is "much much smaller than OpenAI."

[Michelle Kim @michelletomkim]

Day 3 of the Musk v. Altman trial in Oakland federal courthouse. Elon Musk continues to testify, represented by his lawyer Steven Molo. US District Judge Yyvonne Gonzalez Rogers is presiding over the case.

I'm a reporter (and lawyer) covering the trial for @techreview.