Morning! We’re The Neutral, your one stop shop for news without an agenda. Today we’re covering dangerous AI tech, Congress’ Iraq War repeal, and much more. First time reader? Sign up here!

Technology

*The Machines are rising up against us. Well, maybe not yet. But a bunch of scientists, experts, and all around geniuses including Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak believe we need to pump the brakes on the artificial intelligence race.

Why the concern? A letter endorsed by the big brain supergroup suggests that “human-competitive technology can pose profound risks to humanity and society.” These risks range from the spread of disinformation — check out the pope rockin a Balenciaga puffer jacket in this AI generated photo — and automating away human jobs to apocalyptic future threats straight from a science fiction novel.

Is AI really dangerous? Yes, and no. Currently the available AI tools are text generators that predict responses to questions based on what its learned by consuming massive amounts of written works. The danger isn’t that the tech will become self aware and enslave us, but rather the ease in which bad actors can spread disinformation. In the wrong hands, the tools can quickly sow seeds of terror, fear, and distrust among impressionable audiences. So….basically everyone.

Looking forward: The industry is expected to grow to a $1 trillion market value by 2030 and tech companies have been rolling out products as fast as possible to get into the game. AI is here to stay, for better or worse.

Politics

*The Iraq war gets repealed. On Wednesday, the Senate voted to repeal the war authorization that justified the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 Iraq War.

Why it matters: Although it’s largely symbolic — the war ended over ten years ago — the bipartisan vote moves to give power back to Congress over the use of military force abroad.

A little background: In 2002, Congress passed the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), which handed President Bush the power to use the U.S. Military "as he determined to be necessary and appropriate". In other words, the AUMF gave Bush and future Presidents carte blanche to go full Rambo on anyone they deemed a threat to national security.

Looking forward: The repeal in the Senate is only the first step. Even though the measure has bipartisan support, it will need to make it through the House Foreign Affairs Committee before it goes to the House floor for a final vote.

Sports

*Baseball plays by different rules. Major League Baseball games can get long. Real long. But things are changing as the regular season kicks off today and fans are saying — about time! Basically, this years rule changes aim to speed up the pace of play. You can read about them in depth here. The new rules changes should shave off about twenty-five minutes from the three hour and three minute game average. The only downside to shorter games is that you’ll have less time to stuff your face with nachos and hot dogs at games this year.

World

*Pope calls in sick. Pope Francis will spend a few days in the hospital to treat a respiratory infection. He has been struggling to breath for the past few days, but did not test positive for COVID-19. The beginning of April is “big time” around the Vatican and this hospitalization brings his ability to perform his usual role in the services leading up to Easter Sunday into question.

**More oil drilling in the Gulf. The U.S. has put the oil rights for an Italy-sized chunk of land in the Gulf of Mexico up for auction. The site has the potential to extract 1 billion barrels of oil and 4.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas over the next 50 years.

Extras

*California still can’t catch a break. More storms pummel the state this week.

**Watch a mesmerizing time lapse of fog flowing over the Vancouver skyline.

***Give China a break. Lately China has been the butt of a lot of jokes, but you can’t deny that the country is stunningly beautiful.