Technology
Did the Pope use AI to write about the dangers of AI?
It’s possible that AI was used to write parts of Pope Leo XIV’s latest encyclical about AI’s impact on humanity. An analysis by Linch Zhang posted on the forum LessWrong found certain paragraphs of Magnifica Humanitas to be between 40 percent and 100 percent written by AI, according to the popular AI detector Pangram.
The document includes known traits that appear in AI-generated writing, such as a higher use of the word “genuinely” — which crops up in writing by Anthropic’s Claude — than previous encyclicals, Zhang says. Another person ran the text of the document section by section through Pangram, finding that 62 percent of its first chapter was flagged as AI generated. When The Verge ran roughly 2,000 words of the document through Pangram, it estimated that 46 percent was AI-written.
AI detection isn’t foolproof
Still, other portions register as being written by humans. Zhang notes that Pangram flagged some sections as “essentially 0% AI.” The first 20 paragraphs of the last four encyclicals, when run through Pangram, had a 100 percent confidence of being human written. And a transcript of Pope Leo’s speech, run through Pangram, was also rated as 100 percent human.
AI detection isn’t foolproof. Different AI detectors can display different results, and even when there’s consensus there’s no guarantee they’re correct. But Pangram is generally respected among AI researchers. In March 2025, Pangram said it estimated its false positive rate of reporting human-written work as AI-generated “to be approximately 1 in 10,000.”
Encyclicals are lengthy letters published by the pope, meant to impart teachings that address important moral and social challenges of the time, according to The New York Times. This encyclical is the pope’s first, with the most recent one written by Pope Francis in October 2024. It’s also the first to focus on AI and its wide-ranging influences, with Pope Leo notably presenting it alongside Christopher Olah, a co-founder of Anthropic.
The Vatican didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
Technology
The best robot vacuum deals available during Prime Day
If you’ve been wanting to buy a robot vacuum but have been put off by how much it can cost to get a good one, now is not a bad time to start looking. Prime Day has kicked off, though more than just Amazon is offering deals on several models we’ve tested from brands like Roborock, Dreame, and Shark. Whether you’re looking for a basic robot vacuum that can cut down on the amount of vacuuming you have to do or a high-end model that can wash and dry its own mop pads and climb over room thresholds, there are deals available across a wide range of price points.
Update, June 23rd: Adjusted prices and availability and added deals for the Narwal Flow, Narwal Flow 2, and SwitchBot K11 Plus.
Technology
Hoto’s 25-bit electric screwdriver is 40 percent off during Prime Day
You knew there’d be a Hoto deal, right? Whether you’re moving into a new apartment or tackling a growing list of small repairs around the house, a good electric screwdriver can save you time and effort. Hoto’s 3.6V Electric Screwdriver Kit Pro is one we love to recommend, especially because it’s on sale for $28.49 ($21.50 off) at Amazon and Walmart during Prime Day, which is just $5 shy of its all-time low price.
Unlike a big power drill, the Hoto is small and lightweight enough to keep in a drawer or car trunk, yet it’s powerful enough to tackle a number of common household tasks. The kit includes 25 interchangeable steel bits along with an extension bar, making it well suited to everything from assembling furniture to making small appliance repairs, or working on scooters and bikes.
The Hoto offers three torque settings, allowing you to apply less force when working with delicate electronics and more when putting together furniture. The rechargeable 1,500mAh battery charges via USB-C and can handle dozens of small projects on a single charge. As a convenience, there’s a built-in LED light that makes it easier to see what you’re doing, which is especially handy when working behind a TV stand or under a desk.
Technology
Nvidia says its AI data center design runs hotter to use a lot less water
Public pushback against data centers has emphasized their water and energy consumption, and now Nvidia is highlighting its claim that the Rubin generation reference design for a fully liquid-cooled data center has “eliminated massive amounts of power usage and pretty much all water usage.” Still, it doesn’t address all of the concerns around AI data centers, including during their construction, and for the power generation requirements of the massive facilities. Also, as Gizmodo points out, Nvidia’s blog post doesn’t mention the cost of building this style of data center vs. one using less efficient air cooling, but claims that “every cloud provider and data center operator building for [Rubin] is making the transition.”
The efficiency gains are partly due to running AI servers hotter, as high as 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius). In a recent report, Amazon similarly touted higher heat tolerances as part of making its mostly air-cooled data centers more efficient.
With Nvidia’s system, “heat is captured directly at the chip and transported through liquid loops operating at much higher temperatures, allowing outdoor dry coolers to reject heat efficiently for much of the year,” with much more flexibility when it comes to the ambient air temperature.
According to Nvidia’s head of sustainability, Josh Parker, the reference design takes water use “from roughly 2.6 million gallons per megawatt per year for conventional cooling-tower-based systems to near zero — up to a 100 percent reduction.”
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