If you believe artificial intelligence poses grave risks to humanity, then a professor at Carnegie Mellon University has one of the most important roles in the tech industry right now.

Zico Kolter leads a 4-person panel at OpenAI that has the authority to halt the ChatGPT maker’s release of new AI systems if it finds them unsafe. That could be technology so powerful that an evildoer could use it to make weapons of mass destruction. It could also be a new chatbot so poorly designed that it will hurt people’s mental health.

“Very much we’re not just talking about existential concerns here,” Kolter said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We’re talking about the entire swath of safety and security issues and critical topics that come up when we start talking about these very widely used AI systems.”

OpenAI tapped the computer scientist to be chair of its Safety and Security Committee more than a year ago, but the position took on heightened significance last week when California and Delaware regulators made Kolter’s oversight a key part of their agreements to allow OpenAI to form a new business structure to more easily raise capital and make a profit.

Safety has been central to OpenAI’s mission since it was founded as a nonprofit research laboratory a decade ago with a goal of building better-than-human AI that benefits humanity. But after its release of ChatGPT sparked a global AI commercial boom, the company has been accused of rushing products to market before they were fully safe in order to stay at the front of the race. Internal divisions that led to the temporary ouster of CEO Sam Altman in 2023 brought those concerns that it had strayed from its mission to a wider audience.

The San Francisco-based organization faced pushback—including a lawsuit from co-founder Elon Musk—when it began steps to convert itself into a more traditional for-profit company to continue advancing its technology.

Agreements announced last week by OpenAI along with California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings aimed to assuage some of those concerns.

At the heart of the formal commitments is a promise that decisions about safety and security must come before financial considerations as OpenAI forms a new public benefit corporation that is technically under the control of its nonprofit OpenAI Foundation.

Kolter will be a member of the nonprofit’s board but not on the for-profit board. But he will have “full observation rights” to attend all for-profit board meetings and have access to information it gets about AI safety decisions, according to Bonta’s memorandum of understanding with OpenAI. Kolter is the only person, besides Bonta, named in the lengthy document.

Kolter said the agreements largely confirm that his safety committee, formed last year, will retain the authorities it already had. The other three members also sit on the OpenAI board—one of them is former U.S. Army General Paul Nakasone, who was commander of the U.S. Cyber Command. Altman stepped down from the safety panel last year in a move seen as giving it more independence.

“We have the ability to do things like request delays of model releases until certain mitigations are met,” Kolter said. He declined to say if the safety panel has ever had to halt or mitigate a release, citing the confidentiality of its proceedings.

Kolter said there will be a variety of concerns about AI agents to consider in the coming months and years, from cybersecurity—”Could an agent that encounters some malicious text on the internet accidentally exfiltrate data?”—to security concerns surrounding AI model weights, which are numerical values that influence how an AI system performs.

“But there’s also topics that are either emerging or really specific to this new class of AI model that have no real analogues in traditional security,” he said. “Do models enable malicious users to have much higher capabilities when it comes to things like designing bioweapons or performing malicious cyberattacks?”

“And then finally, there’s just the impact of AI models on people,” he said. “The impact to people’s mental health, the effects of people interacting with these models and what that can cause. All of these things, I think, need to be addressed from a safety standpoint.”

OpenAI has already faced criticism this year about the behavior of its flagship chatbot, including a wrongful-death lawsuit from California parents whose teenage son killed himself in April after lengthy interactions with ChatGPT.

Kolter, director of Carnegie Mellon’s machine learning department, began studying AI as a Georgetown University freshman in the early 2000s, long before it was fashionable.

“When I started working in machine learning, this was an esoteric, niche area,” he said. “We called it machine learning because no one wanted to use the term AI because AI was this old-time field that had overpromised and underdelivered.”

Kolter, 42, has been following OpenAI for years and was close enough to its founders that he attended its launch party at an AI conference in 2015. Still, he didn’t expect how rapidly AI would advance.

“I think very few people, even people working in machine learning deeply, really anticipated the current state we are in, the explosion of capabilities, the explosion of risks that are emerging right now,” he said.

AI safety advocates will be closely watching OpenAI’s restructuring and Kolter’s work. One of the company’s sharpest critics says he’s “cautiously optimistic,” particularly if Kolter’s group “is actually able to hire staff and play a robust role.”

“I think he has the sort of background that makes sense for this role. He seems like a good choice to be running this,” said Nathan Calvin, general counsel at the small AI policy nonprofit Encode. Calvin, who OpenAI targeted with a subpoena at his home as part of its fact-finding to defend against the Musk lawsuit, said he wants OpenAI to stay true to its original mission.

“Some of these commitments could be a really big deal if the board members take them seriously,” Calvin said. “They also could just be the words on paper and pretty divorced from anything that actually happens. I think we don’t know which one of those we’re in yet.”

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I won’t mince words: Sling TV is confusing. It has, by far, the most confusing lineup of plans and add-ons out of any of the live TV streaming services I tested. There are a handful of core plans, none of which encompass the scale of Hulu Live TV, YouTube TV, or DirecTV, as well as about half a dozen add-ons to bring the channel roster up to par. This modular approach is annoying while shopping, though it also means you can save quite a bit of money by only picking up what you need.

The core of Sling is Blue and Orange. The Blue plan focuses on news and entertainment, while the Orange plan cuts news like MSNBC and CNN in favor of an array of ESPN channels. It’s clear Sling wants folks to pick up the Orange & Blue plan that combines these channel lineups. It’s about 30 percent cheaper getting them together than it is purchasing them separately (and about $30 cheaper than most other providers).

The Orange & Blue plan, which I recommend for most people, covers the major bases, but it loses out on some of the secondary channels available elsewhere. For instance, you get ESPN channels and Fox Sports 1, but not Fox Sports 2 or the Big Ten Network. You’ll need an add-on for those.

Most of Sling’s add-ons are $6 extra per month, minus the sports add-on, which is $15. The add-ons fill in the gaps depending on what you’re most interested in. The entertainment add-on includes Cartoon Network and MTV, for instance, while the movies add-on comes with Grit, TCM, and FXX. You can pick up all of the extras for $27 per month with Blue & Orange or $21 per month with other plans. Even with the full package, however, Sling comes in a few dollars below YouTube TV and Hulu Live TV, and there are opportunities to get your monthly price even lower by cutting some packages.

For apps, Sling has just about everything you could want. Roku, Samsung, LG, Apple, and Google TV are all supported, as are boxes from Cox, Xfinity, and even TiVo Stream. Mobile apps are available, and there’s an app for the Xbox (though not the PlayStation 5).

Although not as responsive as YouTube TV, the app felt smooth on my TCL QM8K. You can create profiles, see upcoming games, and favorite channels in the guide so they’re easy to find.

There’s no denying that an Austin tech scene, which has been simmering for decades, has reached a boiling point in the past few years. As of 2023, tech jobs accounted for 16 percent of all jobs in Austin—almost double the national average, according to the Austin Chamber of Commerce. Tech giants like Apple, Google, and Oracle all have a presence in the Texas capital, and startups like Mio, Closinglock, and MadeIn are garnering hype and VC funding. The Wall Street Journal may be hedging its bets on the hype it previously bestowed upon the city in the wake of the pandemic, but Austin persists as a kind of Babylon for burned-out techies who are tired of the Silicon Valley rat race.

The scrappy “Keep Austin Weird” era is on the wane, but there’s still plenty that feels authentic and lovable in this once-sleepy college town that was content with doing its own thing in the shadows of nearby metropolises like Dallas and Houston. If your heart isn’t dead-set on reliving the hazy glory days of the city portrayed in Richard Linklater’s classic 1993 film Dazed and Confused, you’re all but guaranteed to have a blast while bar-hopping, basking in the sun, and stuffing your face with some of the best barbecue in the world. And of course there’s live music. So, so much live music.

Where to Stay

Austin’s tech scene initially caught a spark in the sprawling hills west of the city—hence the “Silicon Hills” tag—but the influx of Gen X and millennial workers has created an explosion of incubators, coworking spaces, and urban lifestyle hubs that are more centrally located than the environs preferred by the suburbanized old guard that came before them. Whether you prefer a quick drive to the office park or a quick walk to your new “coffice” for the day, our picks have you covered.

1901 San Antonio St., (512) 473-8900

Situated near the Texas State Capitol on the Southwest corner of the University of Texas at Austin, the Otis is a comfortable middle ground between a boutique hotel and an international chain operation. It’s far enough from the commotion of both downtown and campus to feel calm, yet just a stone’s throw from both. The rooftop pool is clutch for winding down with a Lone Star after a long day of meetings, which can be conveniently hosted onsite at one of the six event spaces, and Acre 41 is the kind of multiuse restaurant that’s great for checking emails over coffee in the morning and brokering big deals over a Texas ribeye at night.

700 San Jacinto St., (512) 476-3700

Austin is growing upward at an unprecedented clip, but until it starts putting up New York–style pencil skyscrapers, the Omni Hotel stands out as one of the most iconic pieces of its skyline. This glistening 20-story marvel is just a few blocks from the core of Austin’s entertainment district on West 6th Street, though you wouldn’t be faulted for hardly leaving the property if a bar crawl on “Dirty 6th” isn’t your thing. The rooftop pool offers stunning views of the city and beyond, and the three onsite restaurants provide an array of dining options suitable for all occasions.

1108 E 6th St., (737) 205-8888

Many maverick tech workers are in the sole proprietor/bootstraps phase of their career, which means cutting costs while still feeling luxe (or at least presenting as such) is important. East Austin Hotel offers traditional rooms for a slight upgrade, or you can save some serious cash by booking a “cabin” room with a suite of shared private bathrooms in the middle of the floor. You’ll still have access to the pool in the middle of the property, and the hotel’s proximity to the laid-back, neighborhood-y vibe of East 6th Street makes it a great pick for aspiring professionals who would prefer to commingle with locals rather than pound the pavement with office drones.

605 Davis St., (512) 542-5300

Rainey Street ain’t what it used to be, but this charming enclave of bungalows turned bars still packs more character into a tiny city block than most midsize cities can muster in their entire downtown footprint. It’s a solid all-purpose pick for moderate luxury in the middle of one of Austin’s most charming and memorable downtown-adjacent neighborhoods.

10901 Domain St., (855) 596-3398

Most out-of-towners would be quite bummed to find out their work trip in Austin is centered around a lifestyle mall that’s a 45-minute drive from downtown, but The Domain is actually a pretty great place to spend a few days if duty calls. It’s a simulacrum of a walkable city right near blue-chip operations like Apple and Chase, so you might as well lean into the whole thing and shack up at a cool hotel that doesn’t feel like a suburban motor inn off the freeway. Lone Star Court is fashioned in the likeness of a hill country lodge, with a pair of conjoined courtyards that center around a teal oval-shaped pool with its own bar and lounge.

7415 Southwest Pkwy., Building 8, Suite 100, (512) 551-4009

Nestled atop a main thoroughfare in the “Silicon Hills” of West Austin is a shiny new AC Hotel that checks all the boxes a techy business traveler might have. It’s a short drive to heavyweights like AMD and Dell, and a handful of VCs like LiveOak and Cavvy dot the rolling hills that are on stunning display from the pool and the rooftop bar. The adjacent strip mall offers handy essentials like a local market that serves coffee and sandwiches all day, an upscale Mexican spot with great happy hour specials, and a movie theater with a bar that’s a great place to kill a few hours between meetings.

Where to Work

Photograph: Pete Cottell

Whether you’re looking for a quiet desk for the day or a parachute into a bustling tech-y social scene, the variety of coworking options available in Austin is staggering and has something for everyone. Before you walk in off the street, we strongly suggest checking their website for availability and pricing, and while you’re surfing the web, you might as well check out Austin Coworking and Deskpass, as they’re excellent resources for updates on events, newcomers to the scene, and deals on participating offices.

310 Comal St., Floor 2, (512) 399-6320

Bond Collective is a solid choice for the post-hipster techies who prefer the laid-back vibe of East Austin over the corporate thrum of downtown or the West Austin hills. Day passes start at $35 for quick drop-ins, and monthly memberships offer access to almost all Bond Collective locations in the US—with many locations in New York, Philly, and the DC area—along with 24/7 access and ad hoc conference rooms if needed.

701 Brazos St., (512) 548-9675

This startup social hall functions more so as an IRL hub for meetups and events for the entrepreneur set, but it also offers quite a few open coworking events throughout the week if you prefer a more lively and interactive environment while you tap away at your laptop. You might meet your next full-stack developer here, or (more realistically) you might swill some beers and play pop-a-shot with some dudes who ditched California for the booming startup scene the Texas capital has been riding high on for several years now.

1700 S Lamar Blvd., #338, (512) 596-2683

Tucked in the back of a new build in the cozy Zilker/South Lamar neighborhood is Fibercove, a bright and buzzy coworking space that boasts off-street parking, a Google Fiber-powered network, a cafe, and a podcast studio where you and your best buds can chat about food and politics with the hopes of going viral. Local favorites like Odd Duck, Tiki Tatsu-Ya, and an Alamo Drafthouse outpost are within a short walk, and the space shares walls with a location of the boozy brunch chain Snooze if mimosas and chilaquiles are in order.

Where to Get Your Coffee

Courtesy of Radio Coffee and Beer

1115 E 11th St.

Austin is home to a staggering number of excellent coffee shops that focus solely on brewing great coffee. It’s also chock-full of multiuse all-day drinking spots where the hours melt away and your taste for a cortado in the morning and a cafe de cachapa in the afternoon is joyously accommodated. Radio Rosewood falls in the latter camp. Coffee (and coffee cocktails, no judgment) start flowing at 7 am daily, and the Shortwave Diner truck parked outside slings a variety of diner staples like smash burgers, hot dogs, and breakfast sandwiches throughout most of Radio Rosewood’s generous hours of operation.

Multiple locations

Figure 8 is one of the most popular purveyors for cafés that don’t roast their own beans, which makes it easy to find just about anywhere, but the opportunity to try its outstanding espresso and drip coffee right at the source is one you must enjoy if possible. This low-slung rectangle of a building sits on the edge of a quiet residential area, but the inside is always buzzing gently with activity and caffeination. Order a shot made from African or Central American beans if possible, and keep an eye out for a bin of fresh breakfast tacos near the register if you need a snack.

Multiple locations

With a decade-plus of explosive growth in their rear view, it’s fair to say Houndstooth is akin to third-wave roasters like Stumptown, Blue Bottle, and Intelligentsia, all of which are synonymous with their respective cities. Their downtown location lives in the lobby of an office tower right smack in the middle of Austin’s business district, which makes it a great place to sip a cortado between meetings or escape the grind of the workday with a cold brew and a croissant.

1505 Town Creek Dr.

Nature is healing, and one of Austin’s most beloved all-night hangs has finally resumed its 24/7 schedule. As its name denotes, The Buzz Mill is a lumber mill–themed coffee bar that’s great for late-night study sessions, marathon coding sprints, work drinks with the crew, or a mellow place to sip on a drink or two while you wait for whatever it is you were doing all day to flush out of your system.

Where to Eat

Photograph: Pete Cottell

1201 S Lamar Blvd.

This South Lamar bistro casts a wide net in terms of influence, with contemporary riffs on Texan comfort classics serving as the backbone of the dozen-or-so items that populate its menu. Look no further than the climax of their current dinner offerings—a wagyu strip steak that’s plated with tater tots and masa queso—for a cheeky tell of what to expect from their delightfully low-brow iterations on high-minded chefiness.

1900 S 1st St.

Austin is located in Texas, and people in Texas love animal products. On the other hand, Austin is also a hot spot for well-heeled progressives, which means the vegetarian and vegan food is on point if you know where to look. Bouldin Creek Cafe is a funky and colorful mainstay for eco-friendly fare that’s elegant enough for a dinner date yet also crunchy enough to please a table of hungover hippies who went a bit too hard at the day rave that dragged on until 4 in the morning.

2330 W N Loop Blvd.

For 50 years this North Austin cochina has gifted Texans with upscale Mexican cuisine that joyfully transcends what your average taqueria-goer imagines when food from south of the border comes to mind. Here you’ll find stunning platters of wagyu tacos, tangy ceviches, and decadent mole that converge in a way that suggests what might happen when Mexico City answers the question of what a brasserie might look like in a hyper-modern American metropolis.

2305 E 7th St.

Founded by Joe Avila in 1962, this humble East Austin diner infuses hearty brunch fare with stately Mexican tradition. The proper move here is a breakfast plate that typically includes eggs, beans, potatoes, tortillas, and your choice of protein. Their signature dish—the Joey Rocha Plate—is centered around a rich pork guisada and sausage or bacon and is easily one of the most crave-worthy and iconic breakfast dishes in all of Austin. Smaller appetites are accommodated by a full lineup of tacos, including a handful of breakfast tacos alongside more traditional two-biters like barbacoa, chicharrone, and migas.

4710 E 5th St.

Justine’s is an Austin-ified update of the French brasserie model of casual indulgence. Its kitchen serves up decadence until midnight on weekends, offering the pre- or post-party set decadent burgers, frites, seafood dishes, and a few stunning salad options that pair wonderfully with an expansive list of cocktails, aperitifs, and wines from all over the price spectrum.

Best Barbecue

Photograph: Pete Cottell

Anointing one barbecue spot out of the hundreds in the area as “the best” is a fool’s errand, so a quick-and-dirty list of knockouts that suit a variety of needs is more appropriate. Know that most have a line well before they open, brisket sells out quickly, and very few are open more than three or four days a week. Terry Black’s is an exception to all of these rules, with generous hours, a massive seating area, and an industrious pit that makes it easy to score award-winning brisket for the entire crew at 7 pm on a Monday. La Barbecue is a consensus favorite among chefs and influencers, earning high marks for its outstanding sausage and brisket, along with its approachability—online ordering is clutch when you don’t have the time or patience for the line. KG BBQ has the most unique story on this list, with a charismatic Egyptian pitmaster who adds a Middle Eastern spin to familiar Texas staples in the form of sumac rice bowls topped with brisket, barbecue lamb pitas, and cardamom and pistachio rice pudding for dessert.

Best Breakfast Tacos

Similar to barbecue, there is no best breakfast taco spot in Austin. Most locals choose based on proximity and reliability, while natural selection weeds out the bad ones in short order. That said, the handful of locations in the Veracruz All Natural empire offer something for everyone all over town, and most of them are situated in a truck park that usually has coffee, pastries, and other local goodies on offer courtesy of the other vendors. Vaquero Taquero is a solid pick for folks situated near UT or downtown, and the Bouldin Creek location of El Tacorrido slings breakfast tacos (and other styles) out of a walk-up/drive-thru window every day from 7am to midnight.

Bars and Breweries

Photograph: Pete Cottell

1133 E 11th St.

This cheeky East Austin post-dive ingests the memories of every Midwestern transplant’s favorite windowless dump and polishes them up real nice like, in a convivial nod to the great American institution that is the neighborhood watering hole. Ice cold lager and top-tier boozy slushies wash down satisfying pub grub courtesy of the Delray Cafe truck outside, which slings smash burgers, Detroit-style coneys, and all manner of fried fare until the wee hours of the evening.

406 Walsh St.

Better Half is a great place to start the morning with a breakfast sandwich and a coffee, put your head down, and grind away on your laptop for hours, then celebrate a job well done with a draft cocktail and another sandwich. Its light and airy aesthetic, plus its massive outdoor footprint, make this Old West Austin bar/café hybrid an inviting hub for productivity, lounging our outright shenanigans if the mood strikes.

3901 Promontory Point Dr.

While Austin has seen no shortage of IPA factories come to fruition in the past decade, it’s fitting that its most significant opening rolled into town by way of the OP beer scene in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 2019 by a pair of Breakside veterans, the expansive, quasi-suburban footprint of Meanwhile brewing manages to be peak Austin in its amenities, with an massive outdoor space that boasts a stage, picnic tables galore, a kids play area, and a fleet of food trucks that puts many stand-alone truck parks to shame. The beer is also excellent, with a strong focus on crushable lagers, hazies, and the particular brand of West Coast IPAs that Breakside has brewed for award-winning results since the early 2010’s.