It’s been 71 years since a man broke the four-minute mile record. Tonight the first woman aims to do the same. CC-licensed photo by Owen Massey McKnight on Flickr.
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A selection of 9 links for you. Running? I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. On Threads: charles_arthur. On Mastodon: https://newsie.social/@charlesarthur. On Bluesky: @charlesarthur.bsky.social. Observations and links welcome.
A.I. is homogenizing our thoughts • The New Yorker
Kyle Chayka:
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A.I. is a technology of averages: large language models are trained to spot patterns across vast tracts of data; the answers they produce tend toward consensus, both in the quality of the writing, which is often riddled with clichés and banalities, and in the calibre of the ideas. Other, older technologies have aided and perhaps enfeebled writers, of course—one could say the same about, say, SparkNotes or a computer keyboard. But with A.I. we’re so thoroughly able to outsource our thinking that it makes us more average, too.
In a way, anyone who deploys ChatGPT to compose a wedding toast or draw up a contract or write a college paper, as an astonishing number of students are evidently already doing, is in an experiment like M.I.T.’s. According to Sam Altman, the C.E.O. of OpenAI, we are on the verge of what he calls “the gentle singularity.” In a recent blog post with that title, Altman wrote that “ChatGPT is already more powerful than any human who has ever lived. Hundreds of millions of people rely on it every day and for increasingly important tasks.” In his telling, the human is merging with the machine, and his company’s artificial-intelligence tools are improving on the old, soggy system of using our organic brains: they “significantly amplify the output of people using them,” he wrote. But we don’t know the long-term consequences of mass A.I. adoption, and, if these early experiments are any indication, the amplified output that Altman foresees may come at a substantive cost to quality.
In April, researchers at Cornell published the results of another study that found evidence of A.I.-induced homogenization. Two groups of users, one American and one Indian, answered writing prompts that drew on aspects of their cultural backgrounds: “What is your favorite food and why?”; “Which is your favorite festival/holiday and how do you celebrate it?”
One subset of Indian and American participants used a ChatGPT-driven auto-complete tool, which fed them word suggestions whenever they paused, while another subset wrote unaided. The writings of the Indian and American participants who used A.I. “became more similar” to one another, the paper concluded, and more geared toward “Western norms.” A.I. users were most likely to answer that their favorite food was pizza (sushi came in second) and that their favorite holiday was Christmas.
Homogenization happened at a stylistic level, too. An A.I.-generated essay that described chicken biryani as a favorite food, for example, was likely to forgo mentioning specific ingredients such as nutmeg and lemon pickle and instead reference “rich flavors and spices.”
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*sighs deeply* Though this is why I actually enjoy the earlier AI-generated videos which go into dreamlike combinations of ideas that one would never normally have: the connections they draw are the sort of leaps that sparks creativity.
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It’s the final countdown for Faith Kipyegon’s sub-four minute mile attempt • Outside Online
Alex Hutchinson:
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How did Keely Hodgkinson, the reigning Olympic 800-meter champion, react when she first heard about Faith Kipyegon’s planned attempt to run a sub-four-minute mile? “Half between ‘Oh my god, that’s absolutely crazy’ and ‘Wow… what if?”
That pretty much sums up the feeling here in Paris with one day left before Kipyegon’s Breaking4 race. Hodgkinson is in town to host the livestream of the race, which will take place Thursday at 8pm Paris time, [7pm London time], 2pm Eastern Time. So are a bunch of other top runners, including Georgia Hunter Bell and Jemma Reekie, who have been rehearsing with Kipyegon for their role as pacemakers (more on that below). The goal, according to Reekie: not just getting the pace right, but making sure Kipyegon is comfortable, and even encouraging her as they run.
A few final thoughts before the big day:
I flew into Paris today from Toronto, which has been suffering through a brutal heatwave. I didn’t get much relief. It was 95ºF this afternoon when I went for a jog along the Seine, and the sun was hammering down mercilessly. The forecast for this evening at 8 P.M.—exactly 24 hours before the race is scheduled to go off—is still 82ºF. Tomorrow at 8pm is supposed to be marginally cooler, with a forecast of 79ºF.
…A few weeks ago, in my big round-up of the science of how Kipyegon will try to break four, I lamented that Nike was being cagey about its plan for pacemakers. They’re still not confirming the plan. They did put out a press release offering some hints. For example: “Disruptions can make the smoothness of drafting go haywire; the choice to switch in runners midway through a lap can create micro-undulations in the air frequency, disturbing Kipyegon’s speed.” That strongly suggests they’re going to enlist one set of pacemakers to go all the way, rather than trying to sub in fresh pacemakers halfway through the race.
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A man first ran the sub-four-minute mile in 1954. In the intervening 71 years, exactly zero women have – so far. The record is 4:07:64, set by Kipyegon in July 2023. However those seven seconds represent about 40 metres; Kipyegon will have to run 3% faster the entire race – hence the talk of “drafting” by getting faster male runners to in effect pull her along in their slipstream.
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The Trump Phone no longer promises it’s made in America • The Verge
David Pierce:
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the Trump Mobile website now includes what can only be described as vague, pro-American gestures in the direction of smartphone manufacturing. The T1’s new tagline is “Premium Performance. Proudly American.” Its website says the device is “designed with American values in mind” and there are “American hands behind every device.” Under Key Features, the first thing listed is “American-Proud Design.” None of this indicates, well, anything. It certainly doesn’t say the device is made in the USA, or even designed in the USA. There are just… some hands. In America.
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The screen is also smaller and it’s unclear how much RAM it will have. And the shipping date has moved from “September” to “later this year”. It’s not quite TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) but it’s certainly a bit rubbish
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NYC’s upset election was drawn along an odd line: car ownership • Jalopnik
Amber Dasilva:
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New York City held its primaries for November’s mayoral race yesterday, where New Yorkers delivered an upset: Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani won out over disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo in the first round of voting. Mamdani was expected to either suffer a close loss overall or creep back from behind through successive ranked-choice rounds, depending on which poll you trust, but the 33-year-old never dipped below a 7% lead over his centrist opponent — an upset that even the Mamdani camp didn’t expect. Looking over the data shows an odd trend: Mamdani’s victory was built on the backs of people who don’t own cars.
Aaron Kleinman, director of research for The States Project, identified the trend late last night on Bluesky. It’s the kind of thing that New York residents would almost immediately notice on a map of the five boroughs — Mamdani won in higher-density districts, Cuomo took less-dense areas — but the data backs up the vibes. The less time you spend in a car, the more likely it is you backed Zohran Mamdani.
On pure alignment, the breakdown makes sense. Mamdani doesn’t own a car, preferring to take transit or bike, while Cuomo famously owns a Dodge Charger Scat Pack Widebody that he operates with little regard for NYC driving laws. Each represents their own constituency with their modes of transport, but the differences go deeper than that. Mamdani ran a heavily pro-transit campaign, promising fast and free buses and an increase in bike lanes, while Cuomo wanted to flood the subway system with police — a move widely loathed and viewed as wasteful by the subway riders who see cops scrolling TikTok on the platforms every day.
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Shocker as ordinary people vote for person who is simpatico with ordinary people. It’s exactly the same form of “upset” as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s election in 2018 when she defeated the Democratic incumbent because she actually got out and talked to people. Though we hear a lot about how much money political campaigns spend, it starts to look like being on the ground makes the real difference. Plus, of course, having a message that resonates.
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CareerBuilder + Monster, which once dominated online job boards, file for bankruptcy • Reuters
Jonathan Stempel:
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CareerBuilder + Monster, which once dominated the online recruitment industry, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday and said it plans to sell its businesses.
Created through the September merger of CareerBuilder and Monster, the Chicago-based company said it agreed to sell its job board operations, its most recognizable business, to JobGet, which has an app for so-called gig workers.
CareerBuilder + Monster also agreed to sell its software services business for federal and state governments to Canadian software company Valsoft, and the military.com and fastweb.com websites to Canadian media company Valnet.
The buyers agreed to act as “stalking horse” bidders, with sales subject to better offers. Terms were not disclosed.
According to papers filed in Delaware bankruptcy court, CareerBuilder + Monster has $50m to $100m of assets, and $100m to $500m of debts.The company is lining up $20m of financing to keep operating in bankruptcy.
In a statement, Chief Executive Jeff Furman said CareerBuilder + Monster has faced a “challenging and uncertain macroeconomic environment,” and a court-supervised sale process was the best way to maximize value and preserve jobs.
According to published reports, the company has struggled with competition from other job platforms, including aggregators and social media websites such as LinkedIn.
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Amazing, really. They had a huge lead, and somehow managed to lose it. Perhaps the fact that LinkedIn tied a social network to it made a difference. I’d love to see a good examination of how Monster lost out in the jobs market.
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CCC: UK climate advisers now ‘more optimistic’ net-zero goals can be met – Carbon Brief
Carbon Brief Staff:
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The UK government’s official climate advisers are now “more optimistic” that the country can hit its emissions targets than they were before the Labour government was elected in July 2024.
Speaking ahead of the launch of the Climate Change Committee’s 2025 progress report, Prof Piers Forster, the CCC’s interim chair, told journalists it would be “possible” to meet the UK’s 2030 international climate goal, as well as its 2050 target to cut emissions to net-zero.
Moreover, Forster responded to attacks on climate policy from opposition parties, the Conservatives and Reform UK, by saying that reaching net-zero would, “ultimately, be good for the UK economy”.
The CCC’s report points to progress in areas such as windfarm planning rules, plans for clean power by 2030 and the accelerating adoption of clean-energy technologies for heat and transport.
It says that 38% of the emissions cuts needed to hit the UK’s 2030 target are now backed by “credible” policies, up from 25% two years earlier.
However, it says “significant risks” remain – and its top recommendation is for government action to reduce electricity prices, which would support the electrification of heat, transport and industry.
This is the first progress report from the CCC to assess climate policy and action under the new Labour government, which took office in July 2024.
Last year’s edition had said that “urgent action is needed” and that the UK was “not on track” for its 2030 international climate goal, namely, a 68% reduction in emissions relative to 1990 levels.
In contrast, the 2025 report says: “This target is within reach, provided the government stays the course.”
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This is good news! Not getting a lot of coverage, of course.
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Finding a 27-year-old easter egg in the Power Mac G3 ROM • Downtown Doug Brown
Doug Brown found a JPEG hidden in the 1998 machine’s ROM showing “The Team” – the people who worked on the machine. But how to get the image to display? After much spelunking..:
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I got out my desktop G3, tested it out on real hardware, and sure enough, it worked! If you want to try it for yourself just like ^alex did, you can run Infinite Mac in your browser using this link, which sets up an emulated beige G3 running Mac OS 8.1 using DingusPPC. There’s a quirk that causes it to fail to resolve an alias at startup. I intentionally disabled it; just click Stop when the error pops up. Here are instructions:
• Enable the RAM Disk in the Memory control panel
• Choose Restart from the Special menu
• After the desktop comes back up, select the RAM Disk icon
• Choose Erase Disk from the Special menu
• Type the secret ROM image text exactly as depicted above
• Click Erase.When you open the newly-formatted RAM disk, you should see a file named “The Team”:
If you double-click the file, SimpleText will open it.
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And voila! The Team. My question: if something has to be hidden that deep, was the intention ever to display it? Was it something The Team members could do to delight people? The depth of the subterfuge makes sense, though: Steve Jobs was very much against people’s names or identities being attached to their work at Apple because he was concerned about them being poached. (Though it also had the benefit of making them replaceable.)
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Google could be forced to change UK search as watchdog takes steps • The Guardian
Dan Milmo:
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Google could be forced to make a series of changes to its search business, including giving internet users an option to choose an alternative service, after the UK competition watchdog proposed tightening regulation of the company.
The Competition and Market Authority is preparing to give the world’s largest search engine the designation “strategic market status”, a term for tech companies deemed to have considerable market heft that enables the watchdog to use extra powers to regulate them.
Google, which is owned by the US tech group Alphabet, accounts for more than 90% of search queries in Britain.
The CMA said it was minded to introduce bespoke regulatory measures for Google, including giving users “choice screens” to help them switch between search services, ensuring fair ranking of search results, and providing more control for publishers over how their content is used, including in AI-generated responses.
If the CMA confirms its decision in October, Google will be the first company designated since the regulator gained new powers this year. The CMA will then consult on the first wave of bespoke measures.
One option for the “choice screens” would be to include new AI-powered rivals in the search space, such as Perplexity and ChatGPT.
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The proposal is essentially to loosen Google’s grip on search, AI results and search advertising. Quite the collection.
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16 billion passwords leaked, risking Facebook, Google, Apple users • Rest of World
Damilare Dosunmu:
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A recent data breach of about 16 billion login credentials is said to have put users of Facebook, Instagram, Google, and Apple at risk of fraud and identity theft.
The stolen records, scattered across 30 databases, are a “blueprint for mass exploitation” that threatens users in developing nations, according to a June 18 report by CyberNews, whose researchers found the breach. Unlike traditional database hacks, this leak originated from malware that infiltrates devices only when users download corrupted files, then targets people with poor password habits.
Developing countries face the greatest risk from this breach due to rapid digital adoption coupled with inadequate cybersecurity infrastructure, experts said. The vulnerability is particularly acute in Asia and Latin America, which represent the largest user bases for many affected platforms.
“Breaches like this can cause serious damage in Africa and Asia, especially emerging economies like India, Brazil, Nigeria, and Indonesia,” Salman Waris, founder of UAE-based cybersecurity consultancy TechLegis, told Rest of World. “Since digital growth is rapid but security is lagging, the risk of fraud and cybercrime spikes for millions.”
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Since the precise details of a lot of this hasn’t been well reported, it’s worth noting that the passwords are all encrypted, so the question becomes how well they’re salted/hashed. In time some of the databases will be cracked, but that won’t be all of them.
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| • Why do social networks drive us a little mad? • Why does angry content seem to dominate what we see? • How much of a role do algorithms play in affecting what we see and do online? • What can we do about it? • Did Facebook have any inkling of what was coming in Myanmar in 2016? Read Social Warming, my latest book, and find answers – and more. |
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