Meta Gave Away Its A.I. Crown Jewels

The tech industry’s race to develop artificial intelligence has been upended by a decision to give away a powerful system for free. In February Meta released LLaMA, an A.I. technology similar to the one powering ChatGPT, as open-source software that anyone can use to build their own chatbot.

“Meta now has zero control,” our colleague Cade Metz told us. “It is out in the wild.”

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, believes that sharing its underlying A.I. engines will spread the company’s influence and undercut its rivals. Meanwhile, companies like Google and OpenAI have grown only more secretive about their A.I. tools, fearing they will be used to spread disinformation, hate speech and other toxic content.

“Open source tends to win,” Cade said. “The difference now: The tech is potentially dangerous.”

Separately: In Hiroshima, Japan, leaders of the G7 countries added A.I. regulation to their agenda. And OpenAI unveiled a new version of ChatGPT for the iPhone that responds to voice prompts.

Dianne Feinstein is frailer than ever

When Senator Dianne Feinstein, the 89-year-old Democrat of California, returned to the Capitol last week after a two-month absence, she appeared shockingly diminished. Using a wheelchair, with the left side of her face frozen, she seemed disoriented as an aide steered her through the Senate corridors.

Her frail appearance was a result of several complications, including an undisclosed diagnosis of encephalitis, a rare but potentially debilitating complication of shingles.

The recent illness comes after numerous accounts of Feinstein’s substantial memory issues, laying bare a bleak reality: She was far from ready to return to work when she did, and she is now struggling to function in her job. And while she remains unwilling to entertain discussions about leaving the Senate, at least one major Democratic donor said it’s time for her to resign.

Outrage but no solutions greet migrants in New York

Ever since the flow of migrants to the city started to surge last year, Mayor Eric Adams has been searching for ways to house them. He has tried hotels, tents, parking lots and a cruise ship terminal — all of which caused an uproar. In recent weeks, the flow has doubled, prompting officials to turn to school gyms to shelter migrants. But human rights groups and parents quickly denounced that plan, like the others.

Exasperated, the mayor threw up his hands. “Whomever is telling us not to go somewhere, I have one question for you: You tell me where we should go,” he said.

More top news

• Business: Amid a feud with Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, Disney pulled the plug on a nearly $1 billion development planned for Orlando.

• Politics: DeSantis, who is expected to officially enter the presidential race next week, took his most direct shots yet at Donald Trump.

• International: President Bashar al-Assad, who was shunned over atrocities committed in Syria’s civil war, will join the annual summit of Arab leaders for the first time in 13 years.

• War: The Pentagon said that an accounting mistake freed up $3 billion worth of weapons that could be given to Ukraine.

• Extremism: A study found that half the people who played online multiplayer games in the past year have encountered misogyny, racism and other extreme ideologies on sites like Discord.

• Manhunt: Jeriod Price had served more than half of a 35-year prison sentence for murdering a man at a nightclub. He’s now a fugitive after a judge ordered his release, South Carolina’s Supreme Court overruled it, and Price failed to surrender.

• Lives lived: Sam Zell, the real estate tycoon who acquired the Tribune Company in a widely criticized buyout in 2007, died at 81.

Scorsese’s new movie is the hottest ticket at Cannes

Much of the buzz at the film festival on the French Riviera surrounds the world premiere this week of Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” It’s a three-and-a-half-hour epic based on a nonfiction book by David Grann about the killings of members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma in the 1920s.

The highly anticipated movie stars Scorsese’s top headliners — Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio — together for the first time in one of his films. A first trailer was released today.

The king of the French Open steps aside

Rafael Nadal, the Spanish tennis star whose dominance on the clay courts has earned him an astonishing 112-3 record and 14 men’s singles titles at the French Open, said today that he will not compete in this year’s tournament.

His withdrawal, because of an injury, was not a surprise. But the announcement nonetheless jolted the tennis world as a sign that Nadal’s two decades of excellence — which cemented his stature as one of the best players in history — were soon coming to a close. Nadal said at a news conference that next season “probably is going to be my last year in the professional tour.”

Dinner table topics

• Out of position: Mookie Betts, an M.V.P.-caliber outfielder, is suddenly playing shortstop. Why? Because he can.

• Living with pain: New cases of chronic pain, which already affects around one-fifth of U.S. adults, outnumber those of diabetes or depression, according to a new study.

• Centuries-old mystery: Is a fearsome Viking fortress mentioned in ancient texts a literary fantasy or a historical reality? New archaeological discoveries may provide a clue.

This bird vanished decades ago. Or did it?

The ivory-billed woodpecker has become a kind of Holy Grail for the birding world: For decades, purported sightings of the majestic bird — which many presume to be extinct — have sparked joy, only to be doubted or disproved outright.

The latest twist in the story came today, when a group of researchers published a study suggesting that the woodpecker is still living in the Louisiana swamps. After examining sighting reports, audio recordings, trail camera images and drone video, one of the study’s authors said he was left “very confident” that the bird was still around.

But with all the footage too grainy to be definitive, skeptics remain entirely unconvinced.

Have a hopeful evening.

Thanks for reading. We’ll be back tomorrow. — Matthew and Justin

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A correction: Yesterday’s newsletter misstated when the G7 summit would begin. It starts on Friday, not Thursday.