The 5 Instagram Features That US States Say Ruin Teens’ Mental Health

In 2019, Instagram’s top executive, Adam Mosseri, went on TV to describe how the Meta-owned social media app was “rethinking the whole experience” to prioritize the “well-being” of users above all else. Today, a bipartisan group of attorneys general representing 42 US states alleged in a series of lawsuits that Mosseri’s remarks were part of … Read more

AI Is Becoming More Powerful—but Also More Secretive

Nathan Strauss, a spokesperson for Amazon said the company is closely reviewing the index. “Titan Text is still in private preview, and it would be premature to gauge the transparency of a foundation model before it’s ready for general availability,” he says. Meta declined to comment on the Stanford report and OpenAI did not respond … Read more

AI Chatbots Can Guess Your Personal Information From What You Type

The way you talk can reveal a lot about you—especially if you’re talking to a chatbot. New research reveals that chatbots like ChatGPT can infer a lot of sensitive information about the people they chat with, even if the conversation is utterly mundane. The phenomenon appears to stem from the way the models’ algorithms are … Read more

Chatbot Hallucinations Are Poisoning Web Search

It may be difficult for search engines to automatically detect AI-generated text. But Microsoft could have implemented some basic safeguards, perhaps barring text drawn from chatbot transcripts from becoming a featured snippet or adding warnings that certain results or citations consist of text dreamt up by an algorithm. Griffin added a disclaimer to his blog … Read more

Generative AI Is Coming for Sales Execs’ Jobs—and They’re Celebrating

Wining and dining, wooing clients with creative offers, and cashing big bonuses provide the glamor to sales work. Drafting answers to hundreds of dull questions posed by a prospective customer’s request for proposals? That’s just drudgery. Mercifully for workers, after months of speculation about ChatGPT-style AI taking over white-collar work, the corporate chore of responding … Read more

Predictive Policing Software Terrible at Predicting Crimes

In her 2019 master’s thesis for the Naval Postgraduate School, Ana Lalley, police chief of Elgin, Illinois, wrote critically about her department’s experience with the software, which left officers unimpressed. “Officers routinely question the prediction method,” she wrote. “Many believe that the awareness of crime trends and patterns they have gained through training and experience … Read more

Netflix Just Shipped Its Last DVD. The Algorithms Won

Collectively, separately, Netflix’s film nerds mourn. On X/Twitter, and in think pieces, and in private moments, they let out a collective sigh knowing that they’ll never see a red-wrapped DVD in their mailboxes again. For some 25 years, the period after Netflix all but obliterated Blockbuster and most mom-and-pop video rental stores, it was the … Read more

SoundThinking, Maker of ShotSpotter, Is Buying Parts of PredPol Creator Geolitica

SoundThinking, the company behind the gunshot-detection system ShotSpotter, is quietly acquiring staff, patents, and customers of the firm that created the notorious predictive policing software PredPol, WIRED has learned. In an August earnings call, SoundThinking CEO Ralph Clark announced to investors that the company was negotiating an agreement to acquire parts of Geolitica—formerly called PredPol—and … Read more

FBI Agents Are Using Face Recognition Without Proper Training

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has done tens of thousands of face recognition searches using software from outside providers in recent years. Yet only 5 percent of the 200 agents with access to the technology have taken the bureau’s three-day training course on how to use it, a report from the Government Accountability … Read more

Academics Are Going All In on Generative AI

Previous analysis reveals that enormous language fashions are able to producing textual content dangerous to some teams of individuals, together with those that determine as Black, ladies, individuals with disabilities, and Muslims. Since 90 p.c of scholars who attend faculties that work with Constitution Faculty Progress Fund determine as individuals of shade, Connell says, “having … Read more