James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
In surprise interview with BBC, Elon Musk says owning Twitter at times has been ‘painful’
Twitter Inc. owner Elon Musk sat with the BBC on Tuesday night at the company’s offices in San Francisco in what turned out to be a fairly candid interview. In the 90 minutes that the BBC spoke to Musk, just about all of the hot topics were covered. He talked about the massive layoffs at ...
Substack releases a platform that looks a whole lot like Twitter
Substack Inc. today launched Notes, a platform where Substack creators can interact with subscribers and where the entire experience looks very much like Twitter. The differences are only in the language. Users don’t post tweets; they post notes. There’s no such thing as a retweet, but there is a restack. Everything else looks like a ...
Google CEO Sundar Pichai says chat AI is coming to search… at some point
Conversational artificial intelligence is coming to the world’s largest search engine, according to the Google LLC boss, but when that happens, he’s not prepared to say. In an interview published by the Wall Street Journal today, Pichai allayed fears that large language model AI, known as LLMs, such as the very popular ChatGPT, will put much ...
NPR hits back as Twitter hands it a ‘state-affiliated media’ label
The National Public Radio media service hit back at Twitter Inc. today after the social media platform made the surprise move of labeling it as state-affiliated media. NPR, which is headquartered in Washington D.C., has more than 1,000 public radio stations in the U.S. It was established as an act of Congress and does get ...
TikTok fined in UK for misusing data of minors
Britain’s data protection authority today hit the beleaguered Chinese social media company TikTok with a $15.9 million (£12.7m) fine, accusing the app of breaching data protection rules. The Information Commissioner’s Office, or ICO, said TikTok had allowed about 1.4 million children under the age of 13 to use the app. The firm was said to ...
In GQ interview, Apple’s Tim Cook talks about a mixed reality future while warning of tech addiction
In a lengthy profile interview with GQ, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook talks about everything from his day-to-day work life at Apple Park to his company’s big plans for augmented reality to why he thinks parents should keep a keen eye on how their children use digital technology. In what is a sometimes personal, ...
BuzzFeed’s new AI-generated travel articles are a dystopian bad dream
BuzzFeed Inc. this week started publishing travel guides that were written with the help of artificial intelligence, and the results weren’t exactly mind-blowing. It comes as no surprise that the internet media company is pushing AI-generated content. In January, BuzzFeed announced that this would be the case. After stating it would explore the possibility of ...
Goldman Sachs report says AI could put 300 million jobs at risk
Goldman Sachs economists released a report today that suggests generative artificial intelligence will significantly disrupt the global labor market, automating about 300 million jobs over the next decade. In the midst of what is now a generative AI boom – something that should be put on pause according to some leaders and thinkers today – ...
Despite backlash, US police are still using Clearview AI face recognition software
The majority of Americans have always been somewhat uncomfortable about their police forces tracking their faces, but today the BBC reported that one of the most well-known firms in this regard is going stronger than ever. In what seems like a surprising admission given the controversy surrounding face recognition technology, Clearview AI Inc. Chief Executive ...
Utah governor signs bill to make it difficult for teenagers to get on social media
Utah Governor Spencer Cox today signed two pieces of social media regulation that will annoy the hell out of many young folks. In the midst of a mental health crisis for the young, with social media having a starring role in this crisis, the regulation will make it so people under the age of 18 ...