It seems that there is one issue of bipartisan agreement during this week’s Presidential transition: federal support for building more AI data centers. In his final days, Biden directed the gov't to lease federal lands to build AI data centers. And Trump appears to have endorsed the plan.

Also note the careful wording on requiring data center developers to “bring online sufficient clean energy generation resources to match the full electricity needs of their data centers.” That is not the same as being fully powered by clean energy, as @agordon.me explains: youtu.be/jFd0QUOUFUg?...

Dr. Shaolei Ren, expert on data center water usage, says AI companies have already exceeded the water usage of the largest beverage companies in the world. youtu.be/Vqvb3G8hJiI?...

No mention of water conservation in White House EO giving federal lands to AI data centers. Data centers are very thirsty creatures! www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo...

You may have heard that having a conversation with ChatGPT is the climate equivalent of pouring out a bottle of water. In fact, that is likely an underestimate. In the 3rd installment in our series on the climate costs of AI, we tackle AI’s unquenchable thirst. www.youtube.com/watch?v=s67L...

What is the carbon cost of using an AI bot? The companies stopped disclosing it in 2022. In the latest installment in our series on the climate costs of AI, we estimate a year of ChatGPT use may emit the same amount of CO2 as driving 2 million miles. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yekA...

Since 2017, electricity consumption at the biggest AI makers has soared: 186% at Google 186% at Microsoft 367% at Meta The reason: AI. @agordon.me examines the electrical costs of AI in the first episode of our YouTube series on the climate impacts of AI. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFd0...

Since 2017, electricity consumption at the biggest AI makers has soared: 186% at Google 186% at Microsoft 367% at Meta The reason: AI. @agordon.me examines the electrical costs of AI in the first episode of our YouTube series on the climate impacts of AI. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFd0...

We are thrilled to announce that Proof News is joining Nebula – the independent creator-led video streaming platform. Our video investigations will appear on Nebula as well as on the corporate-owned platforms. Indie newsroom + indie platform = stronger together! nebula.tv/proofnews

Proof News is an independent nonprofit newsroom. We do rigorous investigations of powerful companies. We have no corporate overlords. We have no ads and no third-party trackers on our site. We are honored DuckDuckGo chose us as one of their annual donations! spreadprivacy.com/2024-duckduc...

"In the world of AI and misinformation and propaganda circulating online, we must make it very clear why our audiences should trust our piece of information versus another piece,” @juliaangwin.com tells Editor & Publisher. www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/proo...

In our latest AI testing, the leading chatbots were pretty decent at detecting and debunking known vote count misinformation. With one notable – and surprising – exception: ChatGPT.

AI models are fluent in many languages - holding out the promise of helping break language barriers. But our latest investigation reveals that the models return a higher rate of inaccurate answers to questions posed in Spanish than identical questions posed in English.

Google’s Gemini AI has stopped advising people to eat rocks. But other AI models — looking at you OpenAI and Meta — are advising people to lick rocks. The latest @proofnews.bsky.social collaboration with creators to test AI in their areas of expertise. 👇🏻

“If a group of people might be disproportionately affected when AI models are making mistakes, that's important for voters to know and for the AI developers to know, [CDT’s @isabelalinzer.bsky.social] said.” www.proofnews.org/ai...

“AI models are frequently putting out false and inaccurate information that could dissuade voters with disabilities from voting, according to new research from CDT using an AI model comparison tool created by @proofnews.bsky.social.” cc: @eedugdale.bsky.social www.proofnews.org/ai...

AI Models are producing inaccurate information about voting options for people with disabilities more than 60% of the time, according to a new study using Proof’s AI testing platform. www.proofnews.org/ai-models-pr...

Top AI models generated misleading info about Kamala Harris and Donald Trump 30% of the time. From incorrect answers about eligibility to false claims about Medicare cuts, find out how these technologies fail us. www.proofnews.org/ai-models-st...

Internal communications show Nvidia raced to build a competitor to OpenAI’s Sora, and concerned employees in the process by resorting to downloading masses of copyrighted YouTube videos.  www.proofnews.org/nvidia-scrap...

How accurately do leading AI models respond to questions about Black history? @MrCrim3 gives them a "C." www.proofnews.org/tiktok-teach...

How good is AI at accurately answering questions about Black history? “I would give them probably a C,” Black history educator Ernest Crim told us after using our AI testing software to investigate the leading AI models performance.The latest in our Proof Ingredients series. youtu.be/DVRcfNBNKtY?...

How do YouTube creators feel about their work being used without their consent to train AI? "Violating", "Exploitative", "I cried" are some of the responses @proofnews.bsky.social reporter Annie Gilbertson got after her investigation revealed the swiped videos. www.tiktok.com/@proof_news/...

Reporter Annie Gilbertson talks with @juliaangwin.com about her groundbreaking investigation into AI’s use of YouTube content without the consent of creators. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZkO...

Our latest investigation reveals a dataset of more than 170,000 YouTube video subtitles that big tech companies used to train their AI models. “Will this be used to exploit and harm artists? Yes, absolutely,” says @dwisk.us www.proofnews.org/apple-nvidia...

Several companies have made it easy to impersonate voices using AI tools, with little regard for consent. Proof News examined the policies and enforcement of eight popular voice cloning tools, revealing widespread gaps in ensuring voices are cloned ethically. www.proofnews.org/ai-tools-mak...

Proof Founder @juliaangwin.com says the industry needs to replace the idea of journalistic objectivity with rigorous processes. "Basically, are your processes rigorous enough to overcome the inherent bias that you have as a human?" journalistsresource.org/media/ai-jou...

Founder @juliaangwin.com appears on the It’s All Journalism Podcast. Tune in to hear Julia discuss launching Proof News, how Proof is building trust with audiences, the importance of learning from science, and expanding beyond traditional journalism formats: open.spotify.com/episode/0jZC...

Announcing a new feature - in keeping with our desire to promote trustworthy news, we encourage you to Republish Our Stories under a creative commons license wherever you see a “republish” button on our website! Check out www.proofnews.org/republish-ou... to learn more.

In last week's episode of the Pivot Podcast, Proof's Founder @juliaangwin.com discusses bringing data to the forefront of investigative journalism, the future of AI, and the myth of artificial general intelligence. Tune in here: open.spotify.com/episode/3hPE...

In the latest Proof Newsletter, reporter @awgordon.bsky.social discusses Google’s new AI Overview, and how it gives us a rare up-close look into the errors and limitations of AI models.

In the latest episode of @vox.cm episode of Today, explained Proof Founder @juliaangwin.com sits down with @davidpierce.xyz to discuss the future of AI and how the research doesn’t support the hype.

Thank you @regret.bsky.social !

just donated my Sigma Award winnings to @proofnews.bsky.social, a new newsroom led by @juliaangwin.com. I would not have had the skills to do the work we did on LA's priority scores–let alone been a journalist *at all*–without Julia's mentorship over the years. Excited to see what this crew does!

Holding power to account is not just the job of journalists. Online creators have risen as a new force of accountability. Today, @proofnews.bsky.social founder @juliaangwin.com hosts a panel of creators to discuss their work, the challenges and how they build trust with audiences.

Why AI watermarking won’t save us and why you might need a “safe word” with your loved ones to help them know if they are talking to you or an AI voice clone. An interview with AI policy expert Irene Solaiman in this week’s @proofnews.bsky.social news newsletter. www.proofnews.org/ai-watermark...

Me on @proofnews.bsky.social: "I wanted to put the methods – and not the topic – first, because the methods are increasingly important in an era where no one trusts journalism." Thanks @eduardosuarez.bsky.social for the lovely and extensive interview.

Journalism is not just about the first story -- it's about persistent monitoring. Two months ago we tested leading AI models and found their responses to voter queries were highly inaccurate. We tested again and, sadly, the inaccuracies remain.

The makers of AI chatbots ChatGPT and Claude pledged to send voter questions to trusted sources, CanIVote.org and TurboVote.org, respectively. But in our tests, neither ChatGPT 3.5 nor Claude 3 Sonnet ever referred to those websites in responses to voter queries. Our latest:

today i tried asking Gemini a whole bunch of basic questions about elections and voting and got the same non-response every time

Our first investigation at @proofnews.bsky.social is a test of whether voters can trust AI to provide accurate information about elections. Answer: they cannot. Thread 👇🏻

I’m delighted to announce that today I’m launching a new nonprofit journalism studio: Proof News.  Proof is into proving things! Our goal is to question, test, and investigate the most important issues of our time. We will always tell you what we know and what we don’t know. www.proofnews.org

If you want accurate information about an upcoming election, don't trust AI. We tested queries voters might ask the five leading AI models and found that half of their responses were inaccurate. www.proofnews.org/seeking-elec...

Hi! 👋🏼 We’re Proof News. We’re into proving things. Our goal is to question, test, and investigate the most important issues of our time. We will always tell you what we know and what we don’t.