James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Meta Platforms Inc.-owned Instagram today said it will take action after an investigation by The Wall Street Journal and researchers at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst revealed the company’s algorithm was promoting child sexual abuse material to pedophiles. The …
Actually, AI will save the world, not destroy it, says venture capitalist Marc Andreessen
Marc Andreessen, co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, published an almost 7,000-word blog post today that presents the rise of artificial intelligence in almost utopian terms and scathingly contradicts the grim outlook painted by various AI skeptics. As academics, business …
New Twitter boss Linda Yaccarino starts her job today at a difficult time
Linda Yaccarino began her job as Twitter Inc. chief executive today, reportedly much earlier than expected. Prior to taking the post, Yaccarino had worked for four years as head of NBCUniversal Media LLC’s advertising and partnership team. Back in December, Musk polled Twitter …
Airbnb sues New York City in effort to block short-term rental ordinance
Airbnb sued New York City today in an attempt to prevent the city’s officials from enforcing an ordinance that the app says will effectively end its business in the city. The ordinance, Local Law 18, was drawn up last year, and the …
Amazon will pay more than $30M for Alexa and Ring privacy violation allegations
Amazon.com Inc. will pay more than $30 million to settle two separate lawsuits brought by the Federal Trade Commission, it was reported today. One of the lawsuits, brought by both the FTC and Justice Department, accused the company of collecting data on …
Twitter to expand crowdsourced fact-checking tool after Pentagon explosion deepfake video
After a fake image of the Pentagon on fire went viral recently, Twitter Inc. has decided that the platform needs to arm itself better against such deepfake skullduggery. The artificial intelligence-generated image was seen by enough people to upset the stock market …
Paralyzed man walks for first time in over a decade with electronic brain implants
A 40-year-old Dutch man who was paralyzed in a cycling accident in China in 2011 has walked again thanks to a brain-machine interface. Gert-Jan Oskam was told he’d never walk again after his accident, but with the help of researchers in Switzerland, …
US Surgeon General warns social media is driving a mental health crisis in the young
Echoing countless studies on the subject, the U.S. Surgeon General said in a report released today that social media could be playing a significant role in a mental health crisis affecting the youth of America today. In a 19-page report, Dr. Vivek …
Stock market wobbles after AI-generated image of Pentagon explosion appears on verified Twitter accounts
A fake image of the Pentagon on fire posted on Twitter today caused a brief dip in the U.S. stock market, which rebounded after officials had to explain that no such explosion had taken place. The image of smoke billowing from the …
DOJ charges former Apple engineer with stealing self-driving car technology for China
The Department of Justice today charged a former Apple Inc. engineer with stealing autonomous technology and giving it to a Chinese self-driving car company. The indictment, filed at federal court in the Northern District of California, alleges that Weibao Wang, who started …