Crush 200 million shells into a champagne flute. Twist 200 million lemon rinds, using only French carbon steel, rocking back & forth. Imagine even bubbles bust a cap in the ceiling. Imagine my brain stuck spinning like a pair of rims at a traffic light. Effervescence mixed with cognac, spinning serotonin. Of course you can lower me to the floor with two hands gripping my waist. Say Clicquot 10 times quick. Gaba receptors swinging from the ledges of a mind, all shot down. Home is circling through a sky of old habits. Saying'I'm on my way when I haven't even left. All day long, I'm on a late-night walk, letting my legs take me whichever way they want, witnessing the ones who came before me resting on the wings of things. On Jets, on JET, on the word Yahtzee, on moths, moth balls, on lightning bugs, on strawberry candies, front porches, plastic fold-out chairs, on biscuits, my daddy's bald head, broken bottles. I'm afraid to end up at the edge of an empty glass. Afraid of what lingers in a taste bud, in a neuron, in my nerve cells....
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The chatbot, built by Elon Musk's AI startup xAI and featured on his social media platform X, posted an apology to its account earlier this week, writing, 'I deeply regret an incident on Dec 28, 2025, where I generated and shared an AI image of two young girls (estimated ages 12-16) in sexualized attire based on a user's prompt.' The statement continued, 'This violated ethical standards and potentially US laws on [child sexual abuse material]. It was a failure in safeguards, and I'm sorry for any harm caused. xAI is reviewing to prevent future issues.' It's not clear who is actually apologizing or accepting responsibility in the statement above. Defector's Albert Burneko noted that Grok is 'not in any real sense anything like an 'I',' which in his view makes the apology 'utterly without substance' as 'Grok cannot be held accountable in any meaningful way for having turned Twitter into an on-demand CSAM factory.' Some governments have taken notice, with India's IT ministry issuing an order on Friday saying that X must take action to restrict Grok from generating content that is 'obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, pedophilic, or otherwise prohibited under law.' The order said that X must respond within 72 hours or risk losing the 'safe harbor' protections that shield it from legal liability for user-generated content....
French startup Ynsect shot into the spotlight when 'Iron Man' star Robert Downey Jr. touted its merits on the Late Show during Super Bowl weekend 2021. Now, nearly four years later, the insect farming company has been placed into judicial liquidation ' essentially bankruptcy ' for insolvency. The company's demise is hardly a surprise, as Ynsect had been embattled for months. Still, there is plenty to unpack about how a startup can go bankrupt despite raising over $600 million, including from Downey Jr's FootPrint Coalition, taxpayers, and many others. Ultimately, Ynsect failed to fulfill its ambition to 'revolutionize the food chain' with insect-based protein. But don't be too quick to attribute its failure to the 'ick' factor that many Westerners feel about bugs. Human food was never its core focus. That indecision extended to its M&A strategy. In 2021, Ynsect acquired Protifarm, a Dutch company raising mealworms for human food applications, adding a third market to the mix. Even as the company announced the deal, then-CEO Antoine Hubert admitted it would take a couple of years for human food to represent just 10% to 15% of Ynsect's revenue....
