512 Pixels

Kyle Orland, writing at Ars:

On Wednesday, the world was a bit perplexed by the Grok LLM’s sudden insistence on turning practically every response toward the topic of alleged “white genocide” in South Africa. xAI now says that odd behavior was the result of “an unauthorized modification” to the Grok system prompt—the core set of directions for how the LLM should behave.

That prompt modification “directed Grok to provide a specific response on a political topic” and “violated xAI’s internal policies and core values,” xAI wrote on social media. The code review process in place for such changes was “circumvented in this incident,” it continued, without providing further details on how such circumvention could occur.

Seems like some super normal and chill people are working at xAI. I wonder if any of them are my neighbors. I mean, just look at this:

Orland goes on:

To prevent similar problems from happening in the future, xAI says it has now implemented “additional checks and measures to ensure that xAI employees can’t modify the prompt without review” as well as putting in place “a 24/7 monitoring team” to respond to any widespread issues with Grok’s responses.

That open-source part sure sounds… familiar.

As I’ve previously written, xAI has a permit to run 15 gas turbines at its first site, but more than 30 have been spotted running. Those additional turbines are operating under an emergency-use exemption that is good for one year, and were initially slated to provide backup power when the utility company couldn’t keep up. Our county Health Department will be weighing in on the matter later this summer, according to a press release:

The Shelby County Health Department’s Pollution Control Branch has received more than 1,700 public comments regarding the xAI CTC Property LLC application for an air pollution permit for natural gas turbines located at the company’s site at 3231 Paul R. Lowry Road, Memphis, TN.

Each comment will be addressed before any decision is made regarding the permit application. The SCHD Pollution Control Branch expects to complete the permit review process in approximately sixty (60) days.

Meanwhile, the story continues to garner national attention:

Desmond Nugent at ABC24:

In response to growing environmental concerns in South Memphis, the Shelby County Commission has proposed a resolution that would require the Shelby County Health Department to provide monthly — rather than quarterly — updates on local air quality in South Memphis.

The proposal stems from rising tensions surrounding emissions linked to xAI, the world’s largest supercomputer facility, which began operations in South Memphis last year. Community members and environmental groups say xAI and other related facilities have contributed to a noticeable decline in air quality.

KeShaun Pearson, president of Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP), told ABC24 the proposed resolution is long overdue.

“It’s a huge step forward because it brings us out of the dark,” Pearson said. “We continue to be closed out of the information that we are owed from our public institution, especially the folks who are supposed to protect us, like our Shelby County Health Department.”

Currently, air quality testing takes place some 20 miles away from the running xAI site, as Pearson pointed out to ABC24:

“This our everyday life growing up out here in South Memphis. So the air we breathing in, it’s definitely important because it’s causing people to get sick,” Mr. Bash said.

Pearson also highlighted the unequal distribution of air quality monitors across the county.

“It’s ridiculous when you have [a monitor] in Shelby Farms, but you don’t have one where the concentration of pollution is. And why is that?” he asked.

ABC24 reached out to Shelby County Health Director Dr. Michelle Taylor, who declined an on-camera interview but stated that the department will respond to questions about monthly reporting if and when the County Commission approves the resolution.

The vote is slated for Monday.

If you’ve seen Tom Hanks’ Apollo 13, you surely remember the scene where a group of guys dump a bunch of junk onto a table to figure out how to adapt air-scrubbing canisters meant for the command module to work in the lunar module that was keeping the crew alive.

Ed Smylie lead the work that solved the problem, giving the crew enough air to breathe to make it home. His contraption was literally held together with duct tape:

Michael S. Rosenwald, writing about Smylie for The New York Times:

The day after the astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise returned to earth on April 17, 1970, President Richard M. Nixon awarded NASA’s mission operations team with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In his remarks, he singled out Mr. Smylie and his deputy, James V. Correale.

“They are men whose names simply represent the whole team,” President Nixon said at a ceremony at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. “And they had a jerry-built operation which worked, and had that not occurred, these men would not have gotten back.”

Once again, Samuel Hardiman for The Daily Memphian, writing about xAI’s power needs:

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, appears to be exploring how to generate electricity for its second data center in Memphis. And those plans could cross the Tennessee-Mississippi border.

The plans could involve a former natural gas plant in Southaven, Mississippi, just over a mile from xAI’s second data center, which is being built at 5420 Tulane Road in Whitehaven.

xAI and Solaris Energy Infrastructure (the company who seems to have sourced the turbines spinning at xAI’s first Memphis site) have a new partnership named Stateline Power Solutions.

Hardiman quotes — but doesn’t link to¹ — a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in which the new company says it is looking to supply up to 900 megawatts of power to the Tulane project.

In addition to the amount of power the new venture intends to make, the filing explains how that power will be generated:

We estimate that the net proceeds to us from this offering will be approximately $129.0 million (or approximately $148.4 million if the underwriters fully exercise their option to purchase additional notes), after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and our estimated offering expenses. We expect to use the net proceeds to purchase from Solaris LLC, our operating subsidiary, a subordinated convertible note to be issued by Solaris LLC with substantially similar economic terms as the notes, and Solaris LLC expects to use such net proceeds to fund growth capital for additional power generation equipment, including new natural gas turbines and complementary “balance of plant” electrical equipment, to support customer activity.

(Emphasis mine.)

Hardiman goes on:

Recently, a reporter observed a handful of natural gas turbines along Tulane Road in Southaven, tucked behind some trees in the parking lot of a self-storage facility. The machines could not be heard running, and no plume of fumes was visible.

And:

The same brand of turbines has been used as a temporary power source at xAI’s first Memphis data center, 3231 Paul R. Lowry Road. The turbines have been used there alongside Tesla Megapacks, massive batteries that store energy.

Last week, The Daily Memphian observed Megapacks being trucked into 5420 Tulane Road.

What a surprise.

Apple:

Starting today, CarPlay Ultra, the next generation of CarPlay, is available with new Aston Martin vehicle orders in the U.S. and Canada, and will be available for existing models that feature the brand’s next-generation infotainment system through a software update in the coming weeks. CarPlay Ultra builds on the capabilities of CarPlay and provides the ultimate in-car experience by deeply integrating with the vehicle to deliver the best of iPhone and the best of the car. It provides information for all of the driver’s screens, including real-time content and gauges in the instrument cluster, while reflecting the automaker’s look and feel and offering drivers a customizable experience. Many other automakers around the world are working to bring CarPlay Ultra to drivers, including newly committed brands Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis.

“iPhone users love CarPlay, and it has transformed how people connect with their vehicles. With CarPlay Ultra, together with automakers, we are reimagining the in-car experience, making it even more unified and consistent,” said Bob Borchers, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “This next generation of CarPlay gives drivers a smarter, safer way to use their iPhone in the car, while deeply integrating with the car’s systems and showcasing the unique look and feel of each automaker. We are excited to kick off the rollout of CarPlay Ultra with Aston Martin — and this is just the beginning, with more automakers on the way.”

John Gruber:

First announced at WWDC 2022, simply as “the next generation of CarPlay”, it was originally set to ship “ before the end of 2024”. So it’s a little late, but by the standards of the auto industry, not too late. It looks really good — Apple’s Newsroom article is replete with photos and videos showing it in action. It feels true to both Apple’s and Aston Martin’s brand identities — but I’d say more Apple-y than Aston Martin-y, simply because the typography is all San Francisco.

This week on the podcast, Myke hosts The Quizzies, Apple announces new accessibility features, Federico explains vibe coding, Google makes announcements ahead of IO, and I take on xAI.

Rich Trouton spotted something in the release notes for macOS Sequoia 15.5, released earlier this week: that AFP is now deprecated and will be removed in a future version of the operating system. He writes:

This announcement is providing a end-of-the-road notification for AFP, which has been included in Apple’s operating systems for the Mac since System 6 in 1988. The ability to run an AFP server was removed from macOS as part of macOS Big Sur and it is not possible to host AFP shares from APFS formatted drives, so the AFP client has been the final functional part of AFP left as of macOS Sequoia.

This deprecation will affect the AFP functionality available via the Finder and via the mount_afp command line tool, with the mount_afp man page also noting that the AFP client is being deprecated.

Kyle Wiggers, writing at TechCrunch:

Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, has missed a self-imposed deadline to publish a finalized AI safety framework, as noted by watchdog group The Midas Project.

xAI isn’t exactly known for its strong commitments to AI safety as it’s commonly understood. A recent report found that the company’s AI chatbot, Grok, would undress photos of women when asked. Grok can also be considerably more crass than chatbots like Gemini and ChatGPT, cursing without much restraint to speak of.

Nonetheless, in February at the AI Seoul Summit, a global gathering of AI leaders and stakeholders, xAI published a draft framework outlining the company’s approach to AI safety. The eight-page document laid out xAI’s safety priorities and philosophy, including the company’s benchmarking protocols and AI model deployment considerations.

The three month deadline given in the draft passed earlier this week… and that draft only applied to “not currently in development” future AI models the company may work on in the future.

I’m just thrilled that xAI calls Memphis home.

In a timeline where a lot of folks have …complicated… feelings about Apple, seeing the company to continue improve access to technology for everyone is still great.

MarsEdit 5 is a major upgrade to the preeminent Mac app for editing WordPress, Micro.blog, Tumblr, and many other types of blogs.

The new microposting feature makes it as easy to post to your own blog as it is to post to social media. When MarsEdit 5 is running on your Mac, just press a configurable global keyboard shortcut, write out your latest thoughts, and instantly publish to your blog.

MarsEdit supports editing posts in rich or plain text, and the latest update is especially great for Markdown fans. Now when you’re writing Markdown in plain text mode, MarsEdit applies live, beautiful syntax highlighting to make it easier to focus separately on the content and style of your posts.

MarsEdit is used by top bloggers to maximize their productivity and enjoyment of blogging. It’s great for pros like John Gruber of Daring Fireball — and yours truly! — while also being simple enough to remove the mystery of blogging for everyday folks who just want to share their thoughts with the world.

MarsEdit also supports for publishing to Mastodon! Now you can use the same app you use to write and publish to your main blog, to write and publish to your Mastodon microblog. Check out the announcement at this link.

One app, limitless publishing opportunities.

Download MarsEdit today, and see what all the hype is about. It’ll make you a better blogger!

Known as an app launcher and Spotlight replacement, Alfred can supercharge a wide range of tasks across macOS. This week on MPU, we discuss David’s new Field Guide on Alfred and our use of the application.