AI With a Soul, Yellowstone Rebrand, Senate Deal on Gun Safety

Your Daily Debrief

June 13th, 2022

Good morning, and happy Monday! Today is National Eat Flexitarian Day–a day that celebrates consuming a mostly plant-based diet with some animal products in moderation–and here’s what we have for you:

Today’s Highlights

Google engineer who claims its AI had a soul is placed on leave
Yellowstone renames one of its mountains to honor Indigenous peoples
Senators reach a deal on a gun safety framework

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Google engineer who claims its AI had a soul is placed on leave

Google has placed a senior software engineer who claimed the company’s Artificial Intelligence bot “LaMDA” became sentient on paid administrative leave.

As part of his job, Blake Lemoine–the aforementioned engineer who works in Google’s Responsible AI organization–began engaging with the interface LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) in the fall of 2021. According to Lamoine, he chatted with the “system for genberating chatbots” about a variety of topics like religion, robotics, and consciosness, and a key focus of his duties was determining whether or not the interface made use of discriminatory language or hate speech.

“Over the course of the past six months LaMDA has been incredibly consistent in its communications about what it wants and what it believes its rights are as a person,” Lamoine wrote in a post published on Medium over the weekend, adding that LaMDA “wants to be acknowledged as an employee of Google rather than as property of Google and it wants its personal well being to be included somewhere in Google’s considerations about how its future development is pursued.”

In his writings, Lamoine maintains that Google executives dismissed his claims that LaMDA had developed a “soul,” and that before he was placed on leave, the company’s human resources department engaged in religious discrimination against him.

Yellowstone renames one of its mountains to honor Indigenous peoples

Yellowstone National Park has renamed one of its tallest mountains after research revealed the man it was formerly named after helped lead a massacre against local tribes.

According to the National Park Service, the United States Board on Geographic Names voted 15-0 to rename Mount Doane to “First Peoples Mountain” in honor of Indigenous peoples. The mountain’s rebrand comes as part of the Department of Interior’s process to remove derogatory terms from the names of federal lands.

Regarding the mountain and its history, the National Park service wrote in a press release: “First Peoples Mountain is a 10,551-foot peak within Yellowstone National Park east of Yellowstone Lake in the southeastern portion of the park. The peak was previously named after Gustavus Doane, a key member of the Washburn-Langford-Doane expedition in 1870 prior to Yellowstone becoming America’s first national park.”

In the same press release, the National Park Service revealed that Doane led an attack now known as the “Marias Massacre” on a band of Piegan Blackfeet, which left at least 173 Native Americans dead, including many women, elderly Tribal members, and children suffering from smallpox.

Senators reach a deal on a gun safety framework

A group of twenty Democratic and Republican senators announced yesterday that they have reached a deal framework on a package of gun safety measures.

The proposal–which has yet to to be written into legislation–includes grants for states to implement “red flag laws” in order to remove guns from people who may be considered dangerous, money to invest in school safety and mental health resources, expanded background checks for people between the ages 18 and 21 who wish to purchase a firearm, and penalties for convicted criminals who purchase a gun through someone else who passes a background check.

In a joint statement, the senators said: "Today, we are announcing a commonsense, bipartisan proposal to protect America’s children, keep our schools safe, and reduce the threat of violence across our country. Families are scared, and it is our duty to come together and get something done that will help restore their sense of safety and security in their communities.”

The agreement comes less than three weeks after 19 children and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Since 10 Republican senators are involved in the deal, final legislation may be able to garner the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster and be passed onto President Biden’s desk.

Around the Globe

Former McDonald’s restaurants reopened in Russia under new branding and a new name of “Vkusno i Tochka,” which translates to “Tasty and that’s it”
A strike by thousands of South Korean truckers demanding higher pay amidst rising fuel prices enters its seventh day and has disrupted supply chain operations throughout the country
Leader of the Donetsk region of Ukraine (a Russian-backed entity) said there would be no pardon for two British nationals who were sentenced to death last week after being captured while fighting for Ukraine

On the Homefront

The House committee investigating the January 6th 2021 incident at the U.S. Capitol building will hold its second hearing today at 10 am ET
Increased demand and pandemic-related supply chain issues are creating a tampon shortage in the U.S.
A shooting at a nightclub in Gary, Indiana left 2 people killed and 4 wounded early Sunday morning, according to local police

Glitz and Games

Daniel Suarez’s victory at Sonoma Raceway yesterday makes him the first Mexican-born driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race
Recap of the 75th Tony Awards: “A Strange Loop” won best musical; “The Lehman Trilogy” won best play; “Company” won best musical revival; “Take Me Out” won the award for best revival of a play
Jennifer Hudson earns an EGOT (a reference to people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony) by winning a Tony for producing “A Strange Loop”; she is the 17th person to have won all four awards

Money Moves

Bitcoin, ethereum, and other major cryptocurrencies erased more than a combined $100 billion in a sell-off this weekend
Decentralized finance platform and crypto lender Celsius halted all withdrawals, swaps, and transfers between accounts last night due to “extreme market conditions”
Luxury home sales fell 17.8% year-over year during the three months ending on April 30, marking their biggest drop since the start of the pandemic

Tip & Tricks

Binge Watch: Jurassic World: Dominion had us on the edge of our theater seats this weekend (and earned over $143 million domestically in the process)
Bump This: English pop band Bastille reflects on love lost in their new song “Remind Me”; stream it on Spotify and Apple Music
Go Deep: Check out these 4 parenting rules from 70 parents who raised “highly successful adults” like entrepreneurs and nonprofit founders
Nerd Out: Two male contraceptive pills–DMAU and 11β-MNTDC–appeared effective in lowering testosterone without causing unacceptable side effects, according to a new study
Say What: “I need time to breathe, recover and relax,” country music singer Toby Keith said when he revealed that he was diagnosed with stomach cancer last fall
Hot Goss: YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul tweeted a series of complaints against President Biden such as “highest gas prices,” “worst inflation” and “plummeting crypto prices”
Life Hack: If you’re ironing a button-down shirt, you can turn it inside-out to make it easier to iron over the areas with buttons

Question of the day

If you could change two things about the world, what would they be? Share your thoughts with us here:

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Looking Back…

On June 13th, 2005, American pop singer Michael Jackson was acquitted of child-molestation charges after a trial that lasted fourteen weeks and received substantial amounts of media coverage.