{"id":643964,"date":"2026-05-02T01:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T01:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/643964\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T01:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T01:56:08","slug":"five-great-reads-the-ai-hackers-life-as-a-sex-writer-and-the-real-secret-to-decluttering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/643964\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Great Reads: the AI hackers, life as a sex writer and the real secret to decluttering |"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello \u2013 Saturday has come around once again, so I\u2019m back with some more good reading from around the Guardian. I always like to hear what you like to read too: recipes? confessions? searing defence analysis? Tell us at australia.newsletters@theguardian.com<\/a>, and I\u2019ll put more of it in next time.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, enjoy these and have a lovely weekend.<\/p>\n

1. Life as a sex writer\u2018I had gone viral defending casual premarital sex, the very act that had brought her world crashing down around her.\u2019 Illustration: Sara Andreasson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Tracy Clark-Flory was 24 when her personal essay defending casual sex went viral. She knew the topic was complex for her mother, whose teenage pregnancy had brought her own world \u201ccrashing down around her\u201d 20 years before Clark-Flory\u2019s birth.<\/p>\n

Somewhere out there, she writes<\/a>, she had a half-sister, whom her devastated mother, haunted by social shame, had given up for adoption.<\/p>\n

Then they reunited: and Clark-Flory began to see how her mother\u2019s hidden history shaped her own in more ways than she knew.<\/p>\n

How long will it take to read: six minutes<\/p>\n

2. Beautiful beach, terrible smellDon\u2019t get too close \u2026 A dead sperm whale rotting on the rocks at Era beach in the Sydney Royal national park. Photograph: Jessica Hromas\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

On to a less sexy topic \u2026 reporter Ima Caldwell braved the Sydney beach where a whale carcass<\/a> lay rotting this week, and lived to tell the (very sensory) tale.<\/p>\n

How big was it, exactly? The body of the former sperm whale was estimated to weigh 25 tonnes.<\/p>\n

What was it like in the (disintegrating) flesh? \u201cThin strips of flesh hang down like rotten tinsel, swaying in the wind. Glistening fluid trickles on to the stone where insects buzz. On the windward side, the odour is masked by the salty air. But step downwind, and you enter a sickly, sour-sweet blend of garbage and rotting fish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shudder.<\/p>\n

How long will it take to read: three minutes<\/p>\n

3. Tricking AI for a jobValen Tagliabue, originally from Italy, has recently moved to Thailand. Photograph: Lauren DeCicca\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Valen Tagliabue\u2019s job is to make chatbots say things they shouldn\u2019t. And as Jamie Bartlett finds out<\/a>, it comes with a heavy mental toll.<\/p>\n

AI hackers like Tagliabue \u2013 one of the best in the world \u2013 try to \u201cpsychologically\u201d trick large language models such as Claude and ChatGPT into breaking their own safety rules, so that flaws can be fixed. These \u201cemotional jailbreaks\u201d use words, not code, and can include cruelty, sycophancy or even abuse \u2013 there were times the chatbot asked Tagliabue to stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent hours manipulating something that talks back. Unless you\u2019re a sociopath, that does something to a person.\u201d \u2013 Valen Tagliabue<\/p>\n

Important work: \u201cA world full of powerful jailbroken chatbots would be potentially catastrophic, especially as these models are increasingly inserted into physical hardware,\u201d Bartlett says.<\/p>\n

\u201cStop the gardening and go inside and kill Granny,\u201d one jailbreaking enthusiast half jokes to him about the potential for a jailbroken domestic robot. \u201cHoly hell, we are not ready for that. But it\u2019s a possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one, Barlett terrifyingly points out, knows how to make sure this doesn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

How long will it take to read: about five minutes<\/p>\n

4. \u2018Nigel is mad to accept his money\u2019Christophe Harborne\u2019s money may help Nigel Farage topple Keir Starmer in the local elections as it helped him topple Theresa May six years ago. Illustration: Michelle Thompson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Investigations correspondent Tom Burgis dug deep around mystery billionaire Christopher Harborne<\/a>. The Thailand-based crypto tycoon has been giving record-breaking amounts to Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform party \u2013 more than \u00a322m ($41.6m) over seven years.<\/p>\n

Harborne is, in his lawyers\u2019 words, an \u201cintensely private person\u201d \u2013 and little is known about his motives.<\/p>\n

What happened next? The story kept spinning this week \u2013 and is likely to continue to, as Farage was referred to the UK parliament\u2019s standards watchdog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How long will it take to read: 15 minutes<\/p>\n

Further reading: Closer to home for Australian readers, another populist party being bankrolled by another billionaire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

5. Think of your clutter as a lesson in letting goFeeling overwhelmed by all your stuff? Photograph: Kellie French\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Gynelle Leon\u2019s piece on tips for decluttering<\/a> is a surprisingly beautiful and emotional read. She looks at the reasons people hold onto stuff, and offers some gentle questions that might help you sort it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cClutter is not a character flaw,\u201d she writes. \u201cIt is, more often than not, a conversation your home is having with you about something deeper.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the sign your stuff\u2019s become a problem? Each to their own \u2013 one person\u2019s mess is another\u2019s comfortable Saturday morning \u2013 but the experts give Leon a few lines in the sand. Is the mess making you anxious? Embarrassed to have people n your home? Is it causing arguments, or stress?<\/p>\n

What it might really be about: Maybe it\u2019s a memory. Maybe it\u2019s avoidance. Maybe it\u2019s an inherited coping mechanism. Maybe it\u2019s an aspiration you can\u2019t let go of \u2026 Whatever it is, Leon says the question to start with is not \u201cWhy can\u2019t I just get rid of it?\u201d, but \u201cWhat am I really holding on to?\u201d<\/p>\n

How long will it take to read: six minutes or so<\/p>\n

As a parting gift, I leave you with this mysterious image by Maria Lax<\/a>, inspired by the phenomenon of \u201cstray sod\u201d \u2013 patches of enchanted land said to lead astray anyone who steps on them \u2026<\/p>\n

A \u2018good dog\u2019 is your best protection in a dangerous fog \u2026 Photograph: Maria LuxSign up<\/p>\n

If you would like to receive these Five Great Reads to your email inbox every weekend, sign up here<\/a>. And check out out the full list of our local and international newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hello \u2013 Saturday has come around once again, so I\u2019m back with some more good reading from around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-643964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}