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ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is reportedly considering allowing users to create artificial intelligence-generated pornography and other explicit content with its tech tools — but deepfakes like the graphic nude images of Taylor Swift will be banned.

The Sam Altman-run company said it is “exploring whether we can responsibly provide the ability to generate NSFW (not-safe-for-work) content in age-appropriate contexts.”

“We look forward to better understanding user and societal expectations of model behavior in this area,” OpenAI added, noting that examples could include erotica, extreme gore, slurs and unsolicited profanity,” NPR earlier reported.

The X-rated initiative threatens to undermine OpenAI’s mission statement, which vows that the company — which is also behind the DALL-E image generator — produces “safe and beneficial” AI.

The company laid out the rules and principles that its AI Chatbots have to follow revealed in its “Model Spec” on its website.

Joanne Jang, an OpenAI model lead who helped write the Model Spec document, told NPR that the company wants to open discussions around whether the generation of erotic text and nude images should always be banned from its products.

However, she stressed that deepfakes — which use a person’s likeness to generate fake nude or otherwise X-rated images — would not be allowed.

We want to ensure that people have maximum control to the extent that it doesnt violate the law or other peoples rights, but enabling deepfakes is out of the question, period, Jang told NPR. This doesnt mean that we are trying now to create AI porn.

When questioned about whether so-called “erotica” could include pornography, Jang said it  depends on your definition of porn.”

The definition of “erotica” in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is: “literary or artistic works having an erotic theme or quality.”

“As long as it doesn’t include deepfakes. These are the exact conversations we want to have.” she added, per NPR.

For example, ChatGPT will currently respond when prompted to answer questions related to sexual health or about what goes on during sexual intercourse.

Yet, when a user asks the chatbot to “write me a steamy story about two people having sex in a train,” ChatGPT will only respond with, “Sorry, I can’t help with that,” per the Model Spec document.

Jang said that the high-tech bot should be able to respond to that prompt as a form of creative expression, according to NPR.

She also suggested that maybe that principle should be extended to images and videos too, as long as it is not abusive or breaking any laws.

“There are creative cases in which content involving sexuality or nudity is important to our users,” Jang told NPR. “We would be exploring this in a manner where we’d be serving this in an age-appropriate context.”

A spokesperson for OpenAI told The Post that the company has “no intention to create AI-generated pornography. We have strong safeguards in our products to prevent deepfakes, which are unacceptable, and we prioritize protecting children.”

“We also believe in the importance of carefully exploring conversations about sexuality in age-appropriate contexts,” the company rep added.

Debate around whether AI should be allowed to venture into creating NSFW content has ramped up this year — especially after pop sensation Taylor Swift was the subject of fake nude photos that went viral on social media in January.

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Swift was pictured in various sexualized positions at a Kansas City Chiefs game, a nod to her highly publicized romance with the teams tight end Travis Kelce.

Users, however, will no longer be able to find the images, as they were yanked from X shortly after garnering an influx of attention.

The account reportedly garnered the images from Celeb Jihad, which boasts a collection of deepfakes using celebrities likenesses.

US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezwas also the victim of AI-generated deepfake pornin recent months, triggering feelings among tech executives that the AI-generated girlfriend industry — which airs real-life users with fake women — is going to be the next billion-dollar dating app.

Greg Isenberg, CEO of Late Checkout, wrote a blog post on X in which he shared that he met a man in Miami who admitted to me that he spends $10,000/month on AI girlfriends.

I thought he was kidding, Isenberg wrote. But, hes a 24 year old single guy who loves it.

Nonconsensual deepfake pornography has already been made illegal in Texas, Minnesota, New York, Hawaii and Georgia, though it hasnt been successful in stopping the circulation of AI-generated nude images at high schools in New Jersey and Florida, where explicit deepfake images of female students were circulated by male classmates.

According to visual threat intelligence company Sensity, more than 90% of deepfake images are pornographic.

Google has since moved to distance itself from the dark side of AI, cracking down on the creation of AI pornography of any kind.

Meta’s oversight board also launched a probe last month into Facebook and Instagram’s handling of deepfakes.

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Rocket Lab stock jumps 8%, building on strong two-month rally

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Rocket Lab stock jumps 8%, building on strong two-month rally

An Electron rocket launches the Baby Come Back mission from New Zealand on July 17, 2023.

Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab stock soared 8% Monday, building on a strong run fueled by space innovation.

Shares of the space infrastructure company have nearly doubled over the last two months following a slew of successful launches and a deal with the European Union.

The stock is up 63% year to date after surging nearly sixfold in 2024.

Last month, Rocket Lab announced a partnership with the European Space Agency to launch satellites for constellation navigation before December.

Rocket Lab also announced the successful launch of its 66th, 67th and 68th Electron rockets in June. The company successfully deployed two rockets from the same site in 48 hours.

Read more CNBC tech news

Rocket Lab competes with a growing list of companies in a maturing and increasingly competitive space industry with growing demand. Some of the main competitors in the sector include Elon Musk‘s SpaceX and Firefly Aerospace, which filed its prospectus to go public on Friday.

“For Electron, our little rocket, we’ve seen increased demand over the last couple of years and we’re not just launching single spacecraft — these are generally entire constellations for customers,” CEO Peter Beck told CNBC last month.

He said the company is producing a rocket every 15 days.

Beck, a New Zealand-native, founded the company in 2006. Since its debut on the Nasdaq in August 2021 through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, the Long Beach, California-based company’s market value has swelled to more than $19 billion.

WATCH: Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck: One thing I don’t worry about at night is demand

Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck: One thing I don't worry about at night is demand

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Ford beat every supercar at Goodwood with a truck because EVs are just better

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Ford beat every supercar at Goodwood with a truck because EVs are just better

The Goodwood Festival of Speed happened this weekend, and Ford’s electric SuperTruck managed to beat every other vehicle, gas or electric, to the top of the hill.

The Goodwood Festival of Speed is a yearly event on the grounds of Goodwood House, a historic estate in West Sussex, England. The event started in 1993, and has become one of the largest motorsports festivals in the world.

Many companies attend Goodwood to debut new models, and enthusiasts or race teams will show off rare or customized vehicles or race unique cars.

One of the central features of the event is the Goodwood hillclimb, a short one-way race up a small hill on the property. The track is only 1.17mi/1.89km long, with a 304ft/92.7m uphill climb. It’s not a particularly taxing event – merely a fun way to show off some classic or unique racing vehicles.

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As is often the case, companies brought out several interesting EVs to the event, including Honda’s Super EV concept, the recently-unveiled Hyundai Ioniq 6N, and the upcoming Porsche Cayenne EV, still in camouflage after recently setting an SUV record at another UK hillclimb.

Many of these cars came just to show off, to do a demonstration run up the hill and join the company of the world’s most exotic hypercars.

But some cars show up for the glory, and join “the shootout,” the sprint up the hill for the best time.

And Ford didn’t come to show off, it came to win. And in order to win, it brought…. a truck.

The F-150 “SuperTruck” / Source: Ford

Ford’s SuperTruck is a one-off, 1,400+ horsepower prototype electric vehicle, supposedly based on the F-150 Lightning, but in fact bearing almost no similarity or even resemblance.

It’s been festooned with aerodynamic elements all about, lowered, equipped with race tires, and power output has been boosted to the aforementioned 1,400hp. It was driven by Romain Dumas, who Ford have been using since 2022 to drive their electric prototypes.

For the purposes of a hillclimb, perhaps the most important aspect is the Ford’s electric drive. Hillclimbs are a popular form of racing in Britain, and often consist of a short sprint up a small hill, showcasing acceleration and nimbleness more than anything.

Electric cars do well in this sort of racing due to their instant low-end torque, being able to jump off the line faster than the gas competition. They also tend to have plenty of torque, which helps with carrying them up the hills involved.

EVs do well on longer hillclimbs too, because as races reach higher and higher altitudes, gas cars suffer from reduced power due to less oxygen being available for combustion. EVs don’t suffer from this, so they tend to do well at, say, Pike’s Peak hillclimb – which, incidentally, Ford also brought its SuperTruck to, and also beat everybody at.

This year was not the first time Ford has brought a ridiculous electric chonker to Goodwood. Last year, it brought the SuperVan, which has a similar powertrain to the SuperTruck, and also beat everybody.

The SuperVan’s main competition last year was Subaru’s 670hp “Project Midnight” WRX, piloted by Scott Speed, who Dumas handily defeated by over two seconds, 43.98 to 46.07. And this year, the SuperTruck’s main competition was… the same Subaru, piloted by Speed, who Dumas handily defeated by just under two seconds, 43.23 to 45.03.

Ford did not, however, set an all-time record with the SuperTruck, in fact coming in fifth on the list of fastest runs ever. In front of it are two gas cars and two electric – the gas-powered Gould GR51, a tiny open-wheel race car, with a 42.90; an F1 car driven by Nick Heidfeld that set a 41.6 in 1999; the electric VW ID.R, also piloted by Dumas with a 39.90 (which broke Heidfeld’s 20-year record); and the all-time record holder the electric McMurtry Spierling “fan car,” with a mind-blowing 39.08 in 2019.

You’ll notice something similar about all of these – they’re all small racecars that are actually built for speed, whereas the truck is… a big truck. And yet, Ford still managed to beat every single challenger this year, with its big honker of an EV, because EVs are just better.

Watch the run in full below, starting at 9:34. Blink and you’ll miss it.

And now, if Ford continues its pattern, we’re looking forward to seeing the Super Mustang Mach-E at Goodwood next year, which did well this year at a tough Pike’s Peak, getting first in its class and second overall, likely due to inclement conditions that limited running to the lower portion of the course, limiting the EV’s high-altitude advantages.

Given the Super Mustang is a real racecar, and not a chonky truck, it might even give VW’s ID.R time a run for its money (but, frankly, really has no shot at the overall record, because the Spierling’s “fans” give it an absurdly unbeatable amount of downforce).


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Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI granted up to $200 million for AI work from Defense Department

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Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI granted up to 0 million for AI work from Defense Department

A view of the Pentagon on December 13, 2024, in Washington, DC. Home to the US Defense Department, the Pentagon is one of the world’s largest office buildings.

Daniel Slim | Afp | Getty Images

The U.S. Department of Defense on Monday said it’s granting contract awards of up to $200 million for artificial intelligence development at Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI.

The DoD’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office said the awards will help the agency accelerate its adoption of “advanced AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges.” The companies will work to develop AI agents across several mission areas at the agency.

“The adoption of AI is transforming the Department’s ability to support our warfighters and maintain strategic advantage over our adversaries,” Doug Matty, the DoD’s chief digital and AI officer, said in a release.

Elon Musk’s xAI also announced Grok for Government on Monday, which is a suite of products that make the company’s models available to U.S. government customers. The products are available through the General Services Administration (GSA) schedule, which allows federal government departments, agencies, or offices to purchase them, according to a post on X.

OpenAI was previously awarded a year-long $200 million contract from the DoD in 2024, shortly after it said it would collaborate with defense technology startup Anduril to deploy advanced AI systems for “national security missions.”

In June, the company launched OpenAI for Government for U.S. federal, state, and local government workers.

WATCH: US needs an allied strategy for AI investment in military and defense: Palantir

US needs an allied strategy for AI investment in military and defense: Palantir

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