Our digital age is full of distractions. Media reports the facts with bias. We collect the news you need about Big Tech, cybersecurity, transhumanism, social media and media ecology.
The U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, has issued a fresh warning on the dangers of social media to teenagers, saying that social media use is the “main contributor to teenage depression and anxiety.” With the vast majority of teens between the ages of 13 and 17 saying they use a social media platform, this is a widespread… Read More I am linked, therefore I am*
Target may well be having a Bud Light moment, as angry parents and child advocates let the company know what they thought of its range of “pride” clothing. Parents took to social media to point out that women’s swimsuits with “extra crotch room” (let the reader understand) were prominently on display. Target (and all the factcheckers) responded that these… Read More Collision course
Joseph Pulitzer once said that an “able, disinterested, public-spirited press” was pivotal to maintaining a free Republic. Conversely, he warned, “a cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself.” A century later, it would be interesting to see what Pulitzer thinks of today’s fractured media landscape. At the New York Post, writer Jesse Adams says Pulitzer… Read More All that glisters..
Tucker Carlson has left Fox. Arguably the network’s biggest star, the ouster has yet to be explained. But the situation is a little like a murder mystery – there are plenty of suspects and lots of reasons. Speculation that Carlson was too big for his boots. Perhaps Rupert Murdoch needed to assure shareholders that they were… Read More Tucker on the Orient Express
YouTube announced last week that it will be updating its policies to deal with content about eating disorders. They promised to take a nuanced approach, acknowledging that “a video about a creator’s eating disorder recovery journey can help” others. But content that “features imitable behavior, or behavior that we worked with experts to determine can lead at-risk… Read More Double danger
Some weeks, Elon Musk almost needs his own sidebar. His “loose cannon” approach to things has seen him fill headlines for the last couple of weeks. Late last week, a BBC journalist had his hat handed to him after Musk asked him to verify his claims about Twitter. During an interview with Tucker Carlson, he dropped a number of truth bombs, including… Read More Blue checks for me, but not for thee
News last week came that Italy has banned Open A.I.’s ChatGPT. Italian regulators said concerns about data collection and protection have not been addressed. They also took issue with lax age-verification processes, saying the app “exposes minors to absolutely unsuitable answers compared to their degree of development and awareness”. It’s clear that if language bots are here… Read More A little too chatty
The dreadful shooting deaths of three young children and three adults in Nashville has captured the attention of the America once again. As with so many other tragedies, reporting and reactions fell roughly along partisan lines. Everyone retreated to their priors with Democrats and their associated media blaming Republican’s stance on guns while GOP Reps once again pitched… Read More Equivocating evil
Elon Musk and other tech luminaries have called for a pause on “giant A.I.” experiments for at least six months. In an open petition, signatories asked A.I. labs to pump the brakes a little on the revolution. Proposals including setting up regulatory bodies to oversee future developments, guidelines for what to do about harm caused by A.I. and… Read More Bot moratorium
Artificial intelligence is all the rage, with machine and language models presenting all sorts of new tools for creators. Rev Fisk wrote last week about his adventures with ChatGPT and you can read about it here. But innovations in the use of A.I. are being released on a daily basis, it seems. Adobe will integrate generative AI models into its new Firefly suite, with users… Read More Almost like the real thing
