In Meta’s AI future, your friends are bots
By AXIOS Published on May 02, 2025 Mark Zuckerberg and Meta are pitching a vision of AI chatbots as an extension of your friend network and a potential solution to the “loneliness epidemic.” Why it matters: Meta’s approach to AI raises the broader question of just whose interest chatbots are serving — especially when the […]
Investing in a new world of friction, fragmentation & female entrepreneurship: The FT’s PWM Tea Break
Di Rifai, founder of Creating Future Us, an adviser to investors on the ethics of digital transformation, speaks to the PWM crew over green tea, with an exotic twist, in a wide-ranging discussion taking in AI, robotics, the fast-changing geopolitical backdrop and the rising cohort of female investors. Banks and wealth managers must prepare for […]
Brain Implant Companies Apparently Have an Extremely Dirty Secret
By Futurism Published on April 29, 2025 In the 21st century, it’s safe to say no secret is safe. Our personal data is constantly bottled and sold — by the companies whose apps we use every day, to the advertisers cluttering our phones with increasingly personalized ads. So far, that “data mining” has been confined […]
Meta faces Ghana lawsuits over impact of extreme content on moderators
By The Guardian Published on April 27, 2025 Meta is facing a second set of lawsuits in Africa over the psychological distress experienced by content moderators employed to take down disturbing social media content including depictions of murders, extreme violence and child sexual abuse. Lawyers are gearing up for court action against a company contracted […]
National Science Foundation cancels research grants related to misinformation and disinformation
By NeimanLab Published on April 21, 2025 Late on Friday afternoon, hundreds of researchers funded by the National Science Foundation got emails with bad news: their grants or fellowships had been cancelled. Elon Musk’s DOGE — the questionably constitutional initiative that shares a name with a meme coin — celebrated that the […]
Everything you say to Alexa now becomes training material for AI, and no, you cannot opt out
By AdGuard Published on April 20, 2025 Isn’t it convenient to live with a voice assistant? You can go about your day and to perform tasks hands-free — ask to set a timer or remind you of something, add items to your shopping list, or get quick information. And they’re getting smarter and smarter. Alexa […]
UK creating ‘murder prediction’ tool to identify people most likely to kill
By The Guardian Published on April 08, 2025 The UK government is developing a “murder prediction” programme which it hopes can use personal data of those known to the authorities to identify the people most likely to become killers. Researchers are alleged to be using algorithms to analyse the information of thousands […]
Humanoid workers and surveillance buggies: ‘embodied AI’ is reshaping daily life in China
By The Guardian Published on April 03, 2025 On a misty Saturday afternoon in Shenzhen’s Central Park, a gaggle of teenage girls are sheltering from the drizzle under a concrete canopy. With their bags of crisps piled high in front of them, they crowd around a couple of smartphones to sing along to […]
Ethically sourced “spare” human bodies could revolutionize medicine
By MIT Technology Review Published on March 25, 2025 Why do we hear about medical breakthroughs in mice, but rarely see them translate into cures for human disease? Why do so few drugs that enter clinical trials receive regulatory approval? And why is the waiting list for organ transplantation so long? These challenges stem in […]