OpenAI researchers have developed a way to get a large language model to produce what they call a confession, in which the model explains how it carried out a task and, most of the time, owns up to any bad behavior. The company presents confessions as a tool to expose the complicated processes inside models and to address why large language models sometimes appear to lie, cheat, and deceive. OpenAI frames the work as one step toward making multitrillion-dollar technology more trustworthy as it is deployed more widely.
In energy news, a startup named Zanskar says it has used Artificial Intelligence and other advanced computational methods to uncover a blind geothermal system in the western Nevada desert. The company claims this is the first blind system that’s been identified and confirmed to be a commercial prospect in over 30 years. The report highlights how obvious geothermal hot spots with geysers and hot springs contrast with concealed systems that sit thousands of feet underground, and how computational tools can change exploration prospects.
The newsletter also examines the role of nuclear reactors in the electricity grid, noting that in the US reactors follow predictable seasonal trends. Summer and winter tend to see the highest electricity demand, so plant operators schedule maintenance and refueling for other parts of the year. The piece emphasizes the operational reliability and predictability of working reactors while noting growing commercial interest in bringing new technologies to the nuclear sector.
Aside from the main stories, the must-reads roundup assembles ten headlines spanning policy, business, and culture, including items on fuel efficiency rules, vaccine policy, delivery logistics, and licensing discussions around Artificial Intelligence and Wikipedia. A featured quote reads, “I think there are some players who are YOLO-ing.” -Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. A longer item profiles microbiologist Sabra Klein’s research into how biological sex influences immune responses, and a closing section collects lighter cultural links and curiosities to brighten the day.
