OpenAI's CEO of AGI deployment, Fidji Simo, is stepping down from her full-time role and becoming a part-time adviser after taking extended medical leave for a chronic neuroimmune condition. "Three months ago, I had to go on medical leave after a severe exacerbation of a chronic illness I've lived with for seven years," Simo wrote in a post Thursday on X. "During that time, it became clear that the road to recovery would be much longer and more complex than I had anticipated -- and that I needed to focus on it fully." Wired reports: Simo joined OpenAI's board of directors in March 2024. The following year, CEO Sam Altman hired her to take on the product and business organizations so he could focus on research and the company's data center buildout. Previously, Simo was the CEO of Instacart and head of the Facebook app at Meta.

Shortly before starting at OpenAI, Simo experienced a significant health relapse. She was diagnosed with postural tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, in 2019. "For my entire time here, I've postponed medical tests and new therapies to stay completely focused on the job and not miss a single day of work," she told OpenAI staff in a memo back in April, announcing her temporary departure. "It's now clear that I've pushed a little too far and I really need to try new interventions to stabilize my health."

News of Simo's medical leave came amid a larger executive shakeup that saw Brad Lightcap, OpenAI's former COO, transition to a role overseeing special projects. OpenAI president and cofounder Greg Brockman took over OpenAI's product strategy. In the months since Simo stepped back from OpenAI, the company further reorganized its product teams, positioning Thibault Sottiaux as head of the company's core products, including ChatGPT.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The lively flora and fauna of a tiny Filipino island commingle with harrowing memories of California prisons in the surreal works of Gil Batle. Entirely self-taught, Batle honed his skills while incarcerated over the course of 25 years, drawing and eventually tattooing in a clandestine practice. Today, he’s immigrated to his parents’ native country, where he continues to reflect on the decades he spent in confinement.

Batle’s Double Life is a new body of work that explores these dual experiences. On white porcelain plates, the artist renders strange, unsettling compositions in which violence and a desire for freedom pervade every inch. Bird cages—common symbols for incarceration— are aplenty, while chains, barbs, and shivs haunt the scenes.

Utilizing such a commonplace, fragile, and even prized material, Batle sets a poignant backdrop for considering his blue acrylic paintings. The delicate porcelain both nods to the precarity and breakable nature of life, while also symbolizing traditional ideas of civility and propriety. Juxtaposing these domestic objects with scenes rife with struggle and brutality offers uncanny insight into one of humanity’s continually barbarous acts.

Double Life is on view through August 21 at New York’s Ricco/Maresca, a contemporary gallery representing outsider, self-taught, and folk artists.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article The Longtail of Incarceration Unfolds in Gil Batle’s Surreal Narratives appeared first on Colossal.

De harde coronamaatregelen als lockdowns en het bezoekverbod in verpleeghuizen waren „onvermijdelijk”.

Zeker elf mensen zijn omgekomen bij natuurbranden in Zuid-Spanje. Meer dan duizend mensen hebben uiteindelijk hun huis verlaten.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

date stamped on slide December 1983

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Schakelen we nu over naar Eindhoven, waar drie volwassen kerels het afgelopen Koningsdag presteerden om drie van de allersneuste dingen in grofweg drie minuten te proppen: vrouwen uitjouwen, mensen op hun kleurtje beoordelen, vrouwen mishandelen. Als volgt: twee vijftigers paraderen met hun dochter/nichtje (23) door het Brabantse, wandelen naar hun fiets, en worden volgens de politie vanuit het niets uitgescholden door de heerschappen hierboven. "De vrouwen laten het daarbij, draaien om en willen weer naar hun fiets lopen. Plots voelt de moeder dat ze een klap tegen haar achterhoofd krijgt, gevolgd door nog een harde klap tegen haar oor.  Geschrokken rennen de vrouwen naar de fiets van de moeder. Maar de mannen zijn nog niet klaar en komen achter hen aan. De dochter krijgt een flinke trap van een van de mannen en valt daardoor op de grond. De moeder krijgt de inhoud van een blikje drinken over haar hoofd leeggegooid. Een van de mannen trekt haar ketting van haar nek en de oorbellen uit haar oor. Ook bij haar zus worden de sieraden van haar afgetrokken."

Update - Dat ging rap zeg: de politie meldt dat de zaak 'niet meer actueel' is, de drie stumperds hebben zich namelijk gemeld bij de politie.