Oprah's book club pick ‘Culpability' taps into our AI anxiety
Bruce Holsinger's novel 'Culpability,' about a deadly crash involving a self-driving vehicle, was originally slated for October, but Oprah just named it her July book club pick, so you can already find it parked in your local bookstore. Whatever the reason, that was a fortuitous rescheduling. When it comes to writing about artificial intelligence, three months is the distance between rubbing sticks together and splitting an atom.
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TechCrunch
13 minutes ago
- TechCrunch
California lawmaker behind SB 1047 reignites push for mandated AI safety reports
California State Senator Scott Wiener on Wednesday introduced new amendments to his latest bill, SB 53, that would require the world's largest AI companies to publish safety and security protocols and issue reports when safety incidents occur. If signed into law, California would be the first state to impose meaningful transparency requirements onto leading AI developers, likely including OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI. Senator Wiener's previous AI bill, SB 1047, included similar requirements for AI model developers to publish safety reports. However, Silicon Valley fought ferociously against that bill, and it was ultimately vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom. California's Governor then called for a group of AI leaders — including the leading Stanford researcher and co-founder of World Labs, Fei Fei Li — to form a policy group and set goals for the state's AI safety efforts. California's AI policy group recently published their final recommendations, citing a need for 'requirements on industry to publish information about their systems' in order to establish a 'robust and transparent evidence environment.' Senator Wiener's office said in a press release that SB 53's amendments were heavily influenced by this report. 'The bill continues to be a work in progress, and I look forward to working with all stakeholders in the coming weeks to refine this proposal into the most scientific and fair law it can be,' Senator Wiener said in the release. SB 53 aims to strike a balance that Governor Newsom claimed SB 1047 failed to achieve — ideally, creating meaningful transparency requirements for the largest AI developers without thwarting the rapid growth of California's AI industry. 'These are concerns that my organization and others have been talking about for a while,' said Nathan Calvin, VP of State Affairs for the nonprofit AI safety group, Encode, in an interview with TechCrunch. 'Having companies explain to the public and government what measures they're taking to address these risks feels like a bare minimum, reasonable step to take.' Techcrunch event Save up to $475 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $450 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW The bill also creates whistleblower protections for employees of AI labs who believe their company's technology poses a 'critical risk' to society — defined in the bill as contributing to the death or injury of more than 100 people, or more than $1 billion in damage. Additionally, the bill aims to create CalCompute, a public cloud computing cluster to support startups and researchers developing large-scale AI. With the new amendments, SB 53 is now headed to California State Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection for approval. Should it pass there, the bill will also need to pass through several other legislative bodies before reaching Governor Newsom's desk. On the other side of the U.S., New York Governor Kathy Hochul is now considering a similar AI safety bill, the RAISE Act, which would also require large AI developers to publish safety and security reports. The fate of state AI laws like the RAISE Act and SB 53 were briefly in jeopardy as federal lawmakers considered a 10-year AI moratorium on state AI regulation — an attempt to limit a 'patchwork' of AI laws that companies would have to navigate. However, that proposal failed in a 99-1 Senate vote earlier in July. 'Ensuring AI is developed safely should not be controversial — it should be foundational,' said Geoff Ralston, the former president of Y Combinator, in a statement to TechCrunch. 'Congress should be leading, demanding transparency and accountability from the companies building frontier models. But with no serious federal action in sight, states must step up. California's SB 53 is a thoughtful, well-structured example of state leadership.' Up to this point, lawmakers have failed to get AI companies on board with state-mandated transparency requirements. Anthropic has broadly endorsed the need for increased transparency into AI companies, and even expressed modest optimism about the recommendations from California's AI policy group. But companies such as OpenAI, Google, and Meta have been more resistant to these efforts. Leading AI model developers typically publish safety reports for their AI models, but they've been less consistent in recent months. Google, for example, decided not to publish a safety report for its most advanced AI model ever released, Gemini 2.5 Pro, until months after it was made available. OpenAI also decided not to publish a safety report for its GPT-4.1 model. Later, a third-party study came out that suggested it may be less aligned than previous AI models. SB 53 represents a toned-down version of previous AI safety bills, but it still could force AI companies to publish more information than they do today. For now, they'll be watching closely as Senator Wiener once again tests those boundaries.
Forbes
13 minutes ago
- Forbes
Where To Eat For New York Summer Restaurant Week 2025
Oysters at The Noortwyck in Greenwich Village, offering $60 dinners for New York City Summer ... More Restaurant Week Summer Restaurant Week is back in New York City. The twice annual celebration of restaurants across the borough officially kicks off on Monday, July 21 and runs through Sunday, August 17 (so restaurant month, really). Reservations for Restaurant Week specials open on Tuesday, July 15, so plan ahead to secure the best seats at participating restaurants. This season's specials include prix-fixe meals at three pricing options ($30, $45, or $60), for lunch, brunch, dinner, or all meals. Here's where to dine for Summer Restaurant Week 2025: The Noortwyck The Noortwyck is offering a $60 three-course dinner menu of sophisticated European-inspired cuisine. The Restaurant Week menu starts with a choice of heirloom tomatoes with smoked almond and bonito, kale salad with toasted pine nut and 7-year gouda, or chicken liver parfait with grapes and honey cardamom toast. Main course offerings include agnolotti with corn, chive and aged parmesan, roasted chicken breast with summer beans and minestrone broth, or the signature dry-aged cheeseburger with horseradish aioli. For dessert, guests can choose from a refreshing Sorrento lemon sorbet or mascarpone rice pudding with citrus and strawberry. Akoya The Knickerbocker's newest restaurant is participating in New York City's Summer Restaurant Week with a three-course dinner menu for $60. Set on the intimate St. Cloud Rooftop, the dinner begins with amuse options like Japanese-style roasted duck with scallion relish, salmon crudo, or a crispy rice trio. For the main course, choose from a three-piece temaki set, featuring options such as spicy tuna, grilled oyster, yuzu scallop, and vegetarian selections. Dessert offerings include green tea soy milk bread pudding, a sesame cookie, or a monaka sandwich with a soybean shell, red bean paste, berry compote, and mochi. A selection of dishes at Akoya at The Knickerbocker Calvert's The refined, welcoming restaurant on the second floor of Park Lane New York is offering a two-course lunch ($29) or three-course dinner ($42). Dishes include asparagus salad with toasted pistachios and herb vinaigrette, rotisserie organic chicken with fingerling potatoes and jus, and bucatini cacio e pepe. For dinner, don't miss the signature wagyu Park Lane burger, plus chocolate decadence cake or a seasonal cheesecake. Vegetarian and gluten-free options available. Greywind Inspired by Chef Dan Kluger's love for upstate New York, Greywind transports guests from Hudson Yards to the Hudson Valley. Greywind will offer a special lunch prix fixe menu including signature lunch items and seasonal specials. The restaurant week menu will also include wine tastings and the signature cocktail The Perfect Manhattan featuring Great Jones bourbon ($16.25) as the commemorative 'Founded by New York City' cocktail pairing for Restaurant Week's celebration of NYC's 400th anniversary. Dinner at Greywind in Hudson Yards BLACKBARN Restaurant The farm-to-table American restaurant in NoMad is its 10th Anniversary with lunch ($45), brunch ($45), and dinner ($60) menus for Restaurant Week. On weekends, brunch includes a complimentary mimosa, bellini or freshly squeezed juice, plus dishes like Johnny cakes with lemon-thyme blueberry cream, market gem lettuce Caesar salad or the summer special Waldorf Salad. For an entree diners, may choose between shakshuka or a pastrami Reuben served on house-made rye bread. Momoya SoHo The elevated Japanese restaurant will offer a two-course prix fixe menu for lunch for $30 and a three-course prix-fixe menu for dinner for $60 during this summer's Restaurant Week. Menu highlights include the mini sushi omakase featuring 7 pieces of nigiri and a toro scallion roll available at lunch, the Shokado bento featuring A5 Wagyu, lobster tezuna maki and miso black cod for dinner, and finishing off the meal with the Peach Pavlova for dessert. They will also be featuring $65 wine bottle selections available for both lunch and dinner service. Mini sushi omakase at Momoya SoHo Philippe Chow Philippe Chow, the upscale Chinese restaurant serving haute Beijing-style cuisine in the Meatpacking District will be participating in NYC's Summer 2025 Restaurant Week with a special menu of their cult-favorite dishes. For $60 a person, guests can enjoy a three-course pre-fixe menu including chicken satay, shrimp satay, chicken lettuce wraps, Beijing chicken, spicy pepper mignon, chocolate layer cake, and more, with the option to add a signature lychee martini for $15.
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Nvidia Hits $4 Trillion--And It's Still Just Getting Started
Nvidia (NVDA, Financials) just crossed a milestone no company ever has before; on Wednesday, it became the first public firm in history to hit a $4 trillion market cap. Shares popped 2.5% to an all-time high of $164; the message from Wall Street is clearAI is here, and Nvidia is leading the charge. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with NVDA. This time last year, Nvidia had just hit $1 trillion; now, in just over 12 months, it's quadrupled that figurefaster than either Apple (AAPL, Financials) or Microsoft (MSFT, Financials) ever managed. Once known for gaming GPUs; then for powering crypto mining rigs; Nvidia has reinvented itself againnow as the engine room of global AI infrastructure. The company now carries the biggest weight on the S&P 5007.3%; that's more than Apple; more than Microsoft. The stock is up 22% year-to-date; and after getting knocked down in Aprilthanks to Trump-era tariffs and Chinese AI jittersit's bounced back fast, gaining 74% from those lows. That rebound wasn't just hype; Q1 revenue jumped 69% to $44.1 billion, with earnings of 81 cents per share. And for Q2, Nvidia expects $45 billion in revenue, give or take 2%; it'll report those numbers on August 27. Despite the monster rally, the stock trades at a forward P/E of 32below its three-year average of 37; that suggests investors don't think it's overheated just yet. With that kind of trajectoryand dominancesome would argue this is Nvidia's world now; the rest of us are just living (and computing) in it. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
