🚨 AI mistakes Doritos for gun

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Greetings! Your latest quick tech update is here:

☀️ On this day: On October 24, 1909, Werner Buchholz, the computer scientist who coined the term “byte,” was born in Germany. After emigrating to the United States, Buchholz joined IBM in the 1940s, where he played a key role in developing the IBM 701, the company’s first commercial scientific computer. In 1956, he introduced the term byte to describe a sequence of bits used to encode a single character of text. His concept became a fundamental unit of digital information.

What’s happening:

• 🚨 AI flags Doritos bag as gun

• 🌐 Microsoft enters the AI browser market

• ⚖️ Reddit sues Perplexity for massive data theft

• 🧠 ChatGPT may soon control your Mac apps

• ⚛️ Google’s Willow chip beats supercomputers by 13,000×

• + 📊 Daily poll and results

• + 📈 Trending tools and resources

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Hand-picked news:

🚨 AI flags Doritos bag as gun ↗️LINK

• What: A 16-year-old Baltimore student, Taki Allen, was held at gunpoint after an AI gun detection system mistook his Doritos bag for a firearm. The alert triggered an armed police response outside Kenwood High School on Oct. 20.

• Why: The AI, made by Omnilert, scans school cameras for possible weapons. The company called it a “false positive” but insisted the system “worked as intended,” saying it relies on human review to confirm alerts.

• Impact: The incident reignited debate over AI surveillance in schools, raising fears about racial bias, over-policing, and the safety of students in an era of automated threat detection.

🌐 Microsoft enters the AI browser market ↗️LINK

• What: Microsoft has revamped its Edge browser with Copilot Mode, a built-in AI that can read tabs, summarize web pages, autofill forms, and assist with research. The update also debuts Mico, an animated “Clippy 2.0” orb that talks, reacts, and teaches through a new “Learn Live” mode.

• Why: The move aims to make Edge a smarter, more interactive browser as AI assistants become the new competitive frontier against Google Gemini and Perplexity.

• Impact: Edge could gain new relevance as users seek hands-on AI help while browsing, signaling Microsoft’s deeper push into everyday AI tools.

⚖️ Reddit sues Perplexity for massive data theft ↗️LINK

• What: Reddit has filed a federal lawsuit against Perplexity AI and three data-scraping firms, accusing them of stealing its user content to train AI models. The lawsuit claims the companies bypassed Reddit’s protections by pulling data from Google search results.

• Why: Reddit alleges Perplexity ignored a cease-and-desist order and used proxy scrapers to harvest data even after being warned, helping fuel its reported $20B valuation. Perplexity denies wrongdoing, calling its data use “fair access to public knowledge.”

• Impact: The case highlights growing tension between AI firms and content owners—and could set major legal precedents for how public data can be used to train AI.

🧠 ChatGPT may soon control your Mac apps ↗️LINK

• What: OpenAI has acquired Software Applications Inc., the team behind the unreleased Mac automation tool Sky, which analyzes on-screen content and performs actions across apps.

• Why: The deal aims to bring Sky’s desktop automation tech into ChatGPT, allowing the assistant to natively manage Mac workflows. It follows OpenAI’s recent Atlas browser launch and a string of AI startup acquisitions.

• Impact: The move positions OpenAI as the leading AI layer for Mac users, signaling a broader push toward seamless, system-level AI integration before Apple’s own ecosystem matures.

⚛️ Google’s Willow chip beats supercomputers by 13,000× ↗️LINK

• What: Google’s new 105-qubit Willow chip ran a task 13,000 times faster than a top supercomputer using a new “Quantum Echoes” algorithm. The result can be checked and repeated, showing real progress in quantum computing.

• Why: This is the first time Google’s quantum results are fully verifiable, marking a big step from one-time experiments to dependable, engineered systems.

• Impact: The leap in speed raises new fears about encryption, as quantum tech could soon crack today’s secure data.

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Yesterday’s Poll Result:

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