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"If we can find them then so can Meta: they simply choose not to look," says UK’s Gambling Commission.
The post UK Watchdog Flags Meta for Hosting Ads Linked to Illegal Gambling appeared first on TechRepublic.
Big tech treats our attention like a resource to be mercilessly extracted. The fightback begins here
In the last 15 years, a linked series of unprecedented technologies have changed the experience of personhood across most of the world. It is estimated that nearly 70% of the human population of the Earth currently possesses a smartphone, and these devices constitute about 95% of internet access-points on the planet. Globally, on average, people seem to spend close to half their waking hours looking at screens, and among young people in the rich world the number is a good deal higher than that.
History teaches that new technologies always make possible new forms of exploitation, and this basic fact has been spectacularly exemplified by the rise of society-scale digital platforms. It has been driven by a remarkable new way of extracting money from human beings: call it “human fracking”. Just as petroleum frackers pump high-pressure, high-volume detergents into the ground to force a little monetisable black gold to the surface, human frackers pump high-pressure, high-volume detergent into our faces (in the form of endless streams of addictive slop and maximally disruptive user-generated content), to force a slurry of human attention to the surface, where they can collect it, and take it to market.
The sociology professor is suitably comfortable with AI helpers that he creates his own – it’s their inventors’ motives and unregulated environment he argues we should be concerned about
If much of the discussion of AI risk conjures doomsday scenarios of hyper-intelligent bots brandishing nuclear codes, perhaps we should be thinking closer to home. In his urgent, humane book, sociologist James Muldoon urges us to pay more attention to our deepening emotional entanglements with AI, and how profit-hungry tech companies might exploit them. A research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute who has previously written about the exploited workers whose labour makes AI possible, Muldoon now takes us into the uncanny terrain of human-AI relationships, meeting the people for whom chatbots aren’t merely assistants, but friends, romantic partners, therapists, even avatars of the dead.
To some, the idea of falling in love with an AI chatbot, or confiding your deepest secrets to one, might seem mystifying and more than a little creepy. But Muldoon refuses to belittle those seeking intimacy in “synthetic personas”.
A sociologist talks to the people putting their faith – and their hearts – in the hands of robots
If much of the discussion of AI risk conjures doomsday scenarios of hyper-intelligent bots brandishing nuclear codes, perhaps we should be thinking closer to home. In his urgent, humane book, sociologist James Muldoon urges us to pay more attention to our deepening emotional entanglements with AI, and how profit-hungry tech companies might exploit them. A research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute who has previously written about the exploited workers whose labour makes AI possible, Muldoon now takes us into the uncanny terrain of human-AI relationships, meeting the people for whom chatbots aren’t merely assistants, but friends, romantic partners, therapists, even avatars of the dead.
To some, the idea of falling in love with an AI chatbot, or confiding your deepest secrets to one, might seem mystifying and more than a little creepy. But Muldoon refuses to belittle those seeking intimacy in “synthetic personas”.
California’s proposed Billionaire Tax Act would levy a one-time 5% tax on net worth above $1 billion, fueling backlash, fairness debates, and exit threats.
The post Wealth Gap Sparks Controversy Over Proposed California Billionaire Tax appeared first on TechRepublic.
The European Space Agency confirmed a cyber incident after a hacker claimed to access and steal data from external collaboration servers.
The post Hacker Claims 200GB Data Theft From European Space Agency — Here’s What We Know appeared first on TechRepublic.
Nvidia has licensed Groq’s AI inference-chip technology in a reported $20B deal, signaling a strategic shift as AI moves from training to deployment.
The post Nvidia Licenses Groq AI Inference Technology in $20B Deal appeared first on TechRepublic.
From companionship to psychotherapy, technology could meet unmet needs – but it needs to be handled responsibly
There is much anxiety these days about the dangers of human-AI relationships. Reports of suicide and self-harm attributable to interactions with chatbots have understandably made headlines. The phrase “AI psychosis” has been used to describe the plight of people experiencing delusions, paranoia or dissociation after talking to large language models (LLMs). Our collective anxiety has been compounded by studies showing that young people are increasingly embracing the idea of AI relationships; half of teens chat with an AI companion at least a few times a month, with one in three finding conversations with AI “to be as satisfying or more satisfying than those with real‑life friends”.
But we need to pump the brakes on the panic. The dangers are real, but so too are the potential benefits. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that – depending on what future scientific research reveals – AI relationships could actually be a boon for humanity.
The State Department said it could expand the list if other foreign actors “do not reverse course.”
The post US Imposes Visa Bans on Five Europeans Over Alleged Pressure on Tech Platforms appeared first on TechRepublic.
Trump Media announces a $6 billion merger with fusion startup TAE Technologies, signaling a pivot from social media to clean energy and AI infrastructure.
The post Trump Media Announces $6 Billion Merger With Fusion Power Developer TAE appeared first on TechRepublic.