Daily News: July 8, 2025

Today's News

Here are the top 5 recent news items on artificial intelligence:

1./ AI Impersonator Targets Secretary of State Rubio in Sophisticated Deepfake Campaign

The State Department warned diplomats about attempts to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio using AI technology after an impostor contacted at least three foreign ministers, a U.S. senator, and a governor through text, Signal, and voicemail messages. The July 3 cable followed earlier incidents involving President Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles, whose contacts received AI-generated voice calls that sounded like her. While officials called the Rubio hoaxes "not very sophisticated" and unsuccessful, the department deemed it prudent to alert all employees as foreign actors increasingly target government information security. This represents the latest in a growing trend of AI-powered deception targeting high-level officials, with the FBI warning about malicious campaigns using AI-generated voice messages to dupe government officials.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2025/07/09/nx-s1-5462195/impostor-ai-impersonate-rubio-foreign-officials

2./ AI is coming for entry-level jobs. Everybody needs to get ready

An analysis of 153 companies found tech firms are "strategically overpaying" recruits with AI experience, offering premiums up to $200,000 for data scientists with machine learning skills. Data scientists and analysts with AI skills command higher premiums than software engineers, though bonuses are rising across all levels. About half the companies paying these premiums had no revenue in the past year, with 71% showing no profit, as smaller firms compete against Big Tech giants. The findings align with Meta's recent attempts to poach OpenAI employees with $100 million signing bonuses, though OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed none of his "best people" took the offers while Meta's CTO noted Altman is countering with his own competing packages.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/07/08/ai-entry-level-jobs-talent/

3./ AI-Generated Band Confirms Its Artificial Nature After Gaining Million Monthly Listeners

The Velvet Sundown, which released two albums in 30 days and rapidly gained over a million monthly Spotify listeners, has confirmed it's an AI-generated music project after a week of speculation. The band's updated Spotify bio describes it as "a synthetic music project guided by human creative direction, and composed, voiced, and visualized with the support of artificial intelligence," calling it an "artistic provocation designed to challenge the boundaries of authorship, identity, and the music of music itself." The confirmation came after someone named Andrew Frelon falsely claimed ownership of the band in a Rolling Stone interview, later admitting he lied and had no affiliation with the project. The controversy doubled the band's monthly listeners in just one week, while the real creators remain anonymous and haven't revealed which AI tools they're using for music composition and visualization.

Source: https://www.pcmag.com/news/this-band-with-a-million-monthly-spotify-listeners-now-confirms-its-using

4./ Universities Must Pivot as AI Drives Down Knowledge Costs, Professor Warns

University of Auckland professor Patrick Dodd warns that AI has made knowledge abundant and cheap, forcing higher education to rethink its value proposition as entry-level job requirements shift. UK job listings have fallen by a third since ChatGPT launched, while US states remove degree requirements—Maryland saw state jobs requiring degrees drop from 68% to 53% between 2022-2024. Dodd argues AI substitutes for "codifiable knowledge" but complements human skills like leadership, creating new scarcities around judgment and collaboration. He proposes universities focus on critical thinking, emotional intelligence, ethics, and creativity through real-world simulations rather than content delivery, warning that institutions failing to adapt will see students and employers "move on without them."

Source: https://theconversation.com/ai-is-driving-down-the-price-of-knowledge-universities-have-to-rethink-what-they-offer-260493

5./ MyPillow CEO's Lawyers Fined for Filing AI-Generated Court Documents with Fake Citations

A federal judge fined attorneys for MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell after they submitted court filings containing nearly 30 defective citations generated by artificial intelligence, including references to nonexistent cases and misquoted legal precedents. Christopher Kachouroff and Jennifer DeMaster violated court rules in their February motion defending Lindell against defamation claims by former Dominion Voting Systems director Eric Coomer. When questioned by Judge Nina Wang, Kachouroff admitted running their draft through AI without double-checking citations, saying "I personally did not check it. I am responsible for it not being checked." The attorneys claimed the error-riddled document was accidentally filed, but the judge found even their intended "final" version contained substantial errors, ruling the filing wasn't accidental and warranted sanctions. The case stems from Coomer's lawsuit over Lindell's election conspiracy theories, which resulted in a $2 million judgment against the MyPillow founder.

Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/mypillow-ceo-mike-lindells-lawyers-181248422.html

Today's Takeaway

Today's headlines showcase AI's dual assault on reality and employment, as machines master deception while humans scramble for relevance in a world where knowledge itself becomes worthless. The State Department's warning about AI impersonators targeting Secretary Rubio reveals how deepfakes have weaponized trust itself. The $200,000 premiums for AI talent expose capitalism's death spiral: profitless companies desperately overpaying for skills to automate away the very jobs that generate revenue, a snake devouring its economic tail while entry-level workers face obsolescence. The Velvet Sundown's million Spotify listeners proves AI has crossed the uncanny valley in creative fields, with synthetic bands outperforming human artists while hiding behind "artistic provocation" rhetoric. Professor Dodd's warning that universities must pivot because AI made knowledge "cheap" captures our civilizational crisis: institutions built on information scarcity watching their product become worthless overnight, desperately rebranding critical thinking as the new scarcity while students abandon degrees for YouTube tutorials. MyPillow's lawyers getting sanctioned for AI-generated fake legal citations provides the perfect metaphor for our moment: even those defending election conspiracy theories can't distinguish reality from hallucination, submitting fictional precedents to real judges in a system where truth itself has become negotiable.

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