Ars Live: Our first encounter with manipulative AI

On Nov. 19, join Benj Edwards and Simon Willison’s live YouTube chat about the “Great Bing Chat Fiasco of 2023.”

In the short-term, the most dangerous thing about AI language models may be their ability to emotionally manipulate humans if not carefully conditioned. The world saw its first taste of that danger in February 2023 with the launch of Bing Chat, now called Microsoft Copilot.

During its early testing period, the temperamental chatbot gave the world a preview of an "unhinged" version of OpenAI's GPT-4 prior to its official release. Sydney's sometimes uncensored and "emotional" nature (including use of emojis) arguably gave the world its first large-scale encounter with a truly manipulative AI system. The launch set off alarm bells in the AI alignment community and served as fuel for prominent warning letters about AI dangers.

On November 19 at 4 pm Eastern (1 pm Pacific), Ars Technica Senior AI Reporter Benj Edwards will host a livestream conversation on YouTube with independent AI researcher Simon Willison that will explore the impact and fallout of the 2023 fiasco. We're calling it "Bing Chat: Our First Encounter with Manipulative AI."

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Mazda gives the 2025 CX-50 a big efficiency boost to 38 mpg with hybrid power

A great interior and decent economy, but a harsh ride and numb steering.

Mazda won itself a lot of fans over the years with the sharp styling and attention to detail of its engaging-to-drive vehicles. But in recent years its cars have been left behind by rivals when it comes to fuel efficiency. As a small automaker facing daunting development costs, it decided to partner with Toyota on advanced technologies, including a battery electric vehicle due by 2027. A more immediate benefit has been access to Toyota's hybrid powertrains, one of which can now be found inside the $33,970 2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid, which we've driven ahead of it going on sale this month.

Engineering stuff

Open the hood, and instead of one of Mazda's Skyactiv engines, you find one of Toyota's 2.5 L naturally aspirated Atkinson cycle engines, which drives the front wheels together with two electric motors (one is really the integrated starter motor) via a continuously variable transmission. At the rear, a third electric motor powers the rear wheels when necessary. The front traction motor provides 118 hp (88 kW), the rear motor can add an extra 54 hp (40 kW), and total output is rated at 219 hp (163 kW) and 163 ft-lb (220 Nm).

A Madza CX-50 from the rear
It's a handsomely styled vehicle. Credit: Jonathan Gitlin
A Madza CX-50 head-on
Starting at under $34,000, the base CX-50 is very well-equipped. Credit: Jonathan Gitlin

It wasn't exactly a case of shoehorning the new powertrain into the CX-50, but Mazda has had to modify the front frame rails to fit the new engine, transmission, and hybrid motors, and there's a new rear subframe with the rear eAxle, as well as the 0.9 kWh hybrid traction battery, which lives under the rear seat. (This improves the front-rear weight distribution to 55:45, Mazda says.)

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Smaller than an Escalade IQ, bigger than a Lyriq: The 2026 Cadillac Vistiq

After small, midsize, and XL electric SUVs, Cadillac fills in the gap.

Cadillac has another new electric vehicle on the way. It's the 2026 Vistiq, a three-row SUV that fills the gap in the American automaker's lineup. It will be the fifth Cadillac to use what until now has been called the Ultium battery platform.

Although parent company General Motors has caught a case of EV regret this year, it has also ironed out the problem it encountered when assembling battery cells into packs and expects to sell at least 200,000 EVs this year. Cadillac's Ultium journey began with the midsize Lyriq, which has since been joined by the compact Optiq, the hand-built, highly exclusive Celestiq, and imminently, the Escalade IQ, which rivals the Hummer EV in weight as a result of its whopping 450 mile range.

A 2026 Cadillac Vistiq seen head-on
The Vistiq conforms to the design language started by the Lyriq. Credit: Cadillac
A 2026 Cadillac Vistiq seen from the rear 3/4s
If you're picturing an electric XT6 you've got the right idea. Credit: Cadillac

The $77,395 Vistiq drops in between the Lyriq and Escalade IQ, filling the same niche—but electric—as the XT6 does in the gas-powered lineup. The Vistiq actually has a virtually identical wheelbase to the gas Escalade at 121.8 inches (3,094 mm), but it's a few inches shorter at 205 inches (5,207 mm) long. Yes, this is a large SUV, but it's a three-row Cadillac—what else do you expect?

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Urteil in Den Haag: Shell muss Kohlendioxidemissionen nicht verringern

Ein Gericht in Den Haag hat ein Urteil gegen Shell aufgehoben, das dem Energiekonzern konkrete Vorgaben zu Reduktion seiner Kohlendioxidemissionen auferlegte. (Klima & Umwelt, Politik)

Ein Gericht in Den Haag hat ein Urteil gegen Shell aufgehoben, das dem Energiekonzern konkrete Vorgaben zu Reduktion seiner Kohlendioxidemissionen auferlegte. (Klima & Umwelt, Politik)

Piracy Kingpin Behind ‘Noonoo TV’ and ‘TVWiki’ Arrested in Korea

Korean authorities have shut down the popular video piracy service TVWIKI, which had millions of users. A special unit of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism arrested the alleged operator, who is also believed to be connected to other streaming platforms. These include OKTOON, which was also pulled offline, and piracy giant NoonooTV, which voluntarily threw in the towel last year.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

TVwikiLike most other countries, South Korea has a persistent piracy problem. Online streaming platforms in particular, have flourished in recent years.

Up until a year ago, ‘Noonoo TV’ was one of the leading players. Despite welcoming millions of monthly visitors, the site shut itself down citing bandwidth costs and other ‘pressure’.

Noonoo & TVWIKI

The self-imposed shutdown was unexpected but it didn’t take long before other streaming platforms filled the gap. One of these replacements was TVWIKI portal, which showed remarkable similarities with Noonoo.

For example, the Android apps of Noonoo and TVWIKI shared code and had the same application signing key. In addition, the two portals shared the same category structure and some videos streamed on TVWIKI had a Noonoo watermark.

TVWIKI’s rapid rise in popularity quickly made it a prime anti-piracy target, with Hollywood’s Motion Picture Association (MPA) labeling the operation a notorious piracy market.

In a report sent to the U.S. Government, MPA wrote that TVWIKI has millions of monthly visitors, who accounted for nearly 40 million visits in August. At the time, it used the tv51.wiki domain but it regularly switched to new homes to evade Korea’s stringent blocking measures.

“This series of domains utilizes ‘sequential domain aliasing’ to evade detection by enforcement vendors, traffic measurement bots, and evade site-blocking efforts,” MPA wrote at the time, adding that the operators are believed to be based in Korea.

Korea Shuts Down TVWIKI, Arrests ‘Noonoo’ Operator

TVWIKI’s reign ended abruptly this weekend, when its domain was forwarded to a shutdown notice hosted by GitHub. A message informed visitors that Korean authorities seized the domain. The site’s alleged operator, meanwhile, was arrested by a special unit of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The enforcement action appears to confirm the ties between Noonoo and TVWIKI. The takedown notice, hosted on the url ‘copyright241109.github.io/noonoowarrant‘, mentions that the alleged operator of TVWIKI is the same person who ran Noonoo and OKTOON, another pirate streaming portal.

“The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Copyright Crime Scientific Investigation Unit arrested the operator of the illegal streaming website Noonoo TV on November 9, 2024, and seized the illegal streaming website TVWIKI and the illegal webtoon posting site OKTOON operated by the same operator,” the translated message reads.

The Shutdown Notice (translated)

noonoo

South Korean news outlet MBN refers to the alleged operator as “Mr. A” but no further details have been released at this point.

The authorities link Noonoo and TVWIKI’s operator to OKTOON, a pirate site that specialized in Korean comics. OKTOON was targeted in a DMCA subpoena obtained by the Naver-owned company Webtoon in June this year, alongside 170 other domain names. Whether this action contributed to the eventual takedown of the site is unknown.

Rumors and Replacements

Given the evasive nature of the pirate streaming portal, some people suggested that the seizure was just a predetermined PR stunt to increase its popularity. This was partly triggered by the GitHub-hosted seizure banner.

However, with every passing hour, reality started to sink in. The Korean authorities likely use GitHub to offload traffic to an external service. The same tactic was used after the webtoon pirate site Agitoon was shut down in August of this year.

In a response to an inquiry from the local news outlet MK, an official from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism confirmed that the authorities are responsible.

“It is correct that the operator was arrested on the 9th, and the notice on the site was also posted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism,” the spokesperson responded.

With the domain seizures and arrest, one of the largest Korean piracy operations has been rolled up. However, as is often the case, others will be eager to take over the brand, as also happened with Noonoo last year.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.