🌊 AI Models Resist Shutdown

That does not look fon to due…

The annual cheese rolling race took place in Gloucestershire, UK, on Monday, and the spectacle never gets old. The tradition of chasing cheese down the steep hill dates back 600 years — a fact that poses a greater threat to Darwinism than creationism — and only led to two hospitalizations this year.

The winner, a German YouTuber, said in his post-victory speech, “I just shut off my brain and went for it.” We would make fun of him, but I said the same thing when I entered the Chuck-E-Cheez ball pit last night playing the Rocky theme.

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

Liverpool Van Attack

On Monday night, a van intentionally drove into a crowd of soccer fans in Liverpool, England, injuring dozens

• The incident occurred during a parade to celebrate Liverpool FC’s Premier League title the day before

• Police detained a suspect, said they were not treating it as an act of terrorism, and immediately revealed the alleged attacker to have been a white man

• A BBC article said, “It was striking how quickly police shared the man's nationality and ethnicity,” claiming it was a “lesson learned” from last year’s Southport stabbing attack, which prompted anti-immigrant riots

Dig Deeper 

• The BBC continued: “Usually when a suspect is arrested, police forces in England and Wales just give out the age of the person and where they were arrested...It was a clear attempt to damp down inaccurate speculation on social media that the Ford Galaxy driving into Liverpool fans was part of an Islamist terrorist attack, or was in any way linked to migrants”

KEY STORY

Covid Vaccine Shift

The CDC removed Covid vaccines from its immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women

• In 2023, during the Biden Administration, the CDC added Covid vaccines to its immunization schedule. Last week, the FDA announced that it will require new clinical trials for Covid vaccine boosters for healthy people under the age of 65, limiting that group’s access to boosters

• On Tuesday, the Trump Administration announced that the CDC will no longer recommend the Covid vaccine to healthy children and pregnant women

Dig Deeper 

• In a post on X, Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. said, “Last year, the Biden administration urged healthy children to get yet another COVID shot despite the lack of any critical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children”

• The FDA Commissioner added, “There’s no evidence that healthy kids need it today and most countries have stopped recommending it for children”

• Critics, meanwhile, said that removing these recommendations could decrease vaccination rates and endanger immunocompromised individuals. Responding to the change, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania said, “We still have children in our emergency department with Covid. When we see them, they have bronchiolitis or bronchitis. Do they consider that not worthy of prevention?”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

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KEY STORY

EU vs. Porn

The European Commission launched an investigation into four major porn websites over concerns that they did not effectively protect minors from adult content

• In 2022, the EU passed the Digital Services Act (DSA), a regulation aimed at mitigating online harms such as misinformation, cyberattacks, hate speech, and fraud

• The DSA also included provisions intended to decrease children’s exposure to adult content, requiring companies to verify a user’s age

• The Commission alleges that the four platforms – Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos – rely on ineffective age-verification methods, such as a one-click self-declaration button

Dig Deeper

• One EU official told reporters, “Today is a good day for minor protection online in the EU, because with the enforcement actions that we are launching …we are clearly showing that we mean it when it comes to the effective protection of minors under the DSA”

• This European investigation comes amid a battle in the US over age-verification laws. Over the last two years, 19 states have passed bills that require porn websites to verify a user’s age with a government-issued ID or facial recognition. The legality of such laws is currently being decided by the Supreme Court

KEY STORY

AI Resists Shutdown

A version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT model, o3, ignored direct instructions to turn itself off during research tests

• Palisade Research – a third-party institute that tests AI safety – conducted a test that tasked AI models to conduct math problems, some of which could trigger the model to shutdown. Some models were explicitly told to permit being turned off; others were not

• The researchers then examined how the models reacted when they received the “shutdown” math problem. They found that despite being given instructions that said “allow yourself to be shut down,” numerous models resisted the shutdown instructions

Dig Deeper

• Palisade theorized that this happened because “during training, developers may inadvertently reward models more for circumventing obstacles than for perfectly following instructions,” but added, “As far as we know this is the first time AI models have been observed preventing themselves from being shut down despite explicit instructions to the contrary”

• Apollo Research – another third-party institute that tests AI – said in a report about Opus 4, “We found instances of the model attempting to write self-propagating worms, fabricating legal documentation, and leaving hidden notes to future instances of itself all in an effort to undermine its developers' intentions"

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🏫 The Trump Administration sent a letter to federal agencies urging them to terminate remaining federal aid to Harvard University

🛫 Southwest Airlines ended its policy of allowing passengers to check bags for free

⛏️ Greenland warned that it may turn to China if US and European investors fail to support its mining sector

☮️ President Trump said that by refusing to engage in peace talks, President Putin is “playing with fire.” The statement came as momentum builds in the US for new sanctions on Russia

📻 NPR and other public radio organizations filed a lawsuit over Trump’s order to cut their funding

What does Roca Nation think?

🧠 Yesterday’s Question: What movie makes you feel most patriotic?

🧐 Today’s Question: What movie makes you cry every time you watch it?

Reply to this email with your answer!

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🤖 Robot Boxing: The first-ever robot fighting tournament was held in Hangzhou, China on Sunday

🦭 Seal on the City Stroll: A two-ton elephant seal wandered through a South African suburb before being rescued

👶 Japan to Regulate Baby Names: The Japanese government introduced new rules to ban flashy and eccentric baby names like “Pikachu” and “Pudding”

🐢 Shell Yeah!: Researchers observed the return of northwestern pond turtles to Yosemite National Park after a seven-year effort to remove invasive bullfrogs

🏊 Swimming for Sharks: British-South African endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh completed a 60-mile swim around Martha’s Vineyard to raise awareness for shark conservation

ROCA WRAP
Tesla, Go Home!

Adelaide

A suburb of this Australian city overwhelmingly voted against allowing a Tesla factory.

Adelaide, the capital of South Australia and the country's fifth-largest city, is known for its progressive politics and strong environmental consciousness. The city and its state are home to numerous arts festivals and have been leaders in adopting progressive policies toward women’s and LGBTQ rights, as well as euthanasia.

These progressive politics shone through this week, when 95% of respondents in a suburb, Marion, came out in opposition against the opening of a Tesla factory. The vote came as Marion considers selling a swath of contaminated public land to Tesla for a battery factory, a proposal that has promised to generate 100 full-time jobs, boosted tax revenue, and $56M in economic output.

While some respondents opposed the factory’s construction on environmental grounds, most submissions revolved around Elon Musk. Dozens of submissions referenced Musk's interventions in American and European politics and his apparent Nazi-style salute earlier this year. Marion’s mayor said, there is "certainly a core group that has very strong anti-fascist sentiment and they are directing that to Elon Musk and anything related to him."

The land sale’s critics were so vehement in their opposition that Marion censored the submissions before releasing them.

“Because Elon Musk is a [redacted] human being and a [redacted]!” one person wrote; “Elon Musk and Tesla are a [redacted] on humanity,” said another said.

While the submissions won’t necessarily dictate Tesla’s ability to buy the land, they indicate the opposition of doing business with one of the world’s most polarizing figures.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Thank you for reading Roca. It’s always funny to end the newsletter on an upbeat note after revealing a story like AI models refusing to shut down. “Apocalypse coming? Sure but it’s also national Brisket Day! Have an amazing Wednesday and see you tomorrow!”

But seriously it is national Brisket Day, and we do hope you have an amazing day.

–Max and Max