James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
All you need is AI: Artificial intelligence is about to help the Beatles release a new record
No modern journalist ever thought that he’d be writing a story about the new Beatles track, but according to former Beatle Paul McCartney today, that’s about to happen thanks to new developments in artificial intelligence. The singer-songwriter, who’s one of two Beatles still alive along with Ringo Starr, told the BBC that new technology has ...
Reddit users come together in protest after highly unpopular API changes
Thousands of Reddit Inc. forums today switched into private mode in protest over the company’s controversial changes to its application programming interface, API. At least 7,000 pages engaged in voluntary blackouts, which restrict the public from seeing those pages. This included the r/todayilearned, r/funny, and r/gaming subreddits which, between them, have about 30 million subscribers. ...
Meta to take action after investigation finds Instagram algorithm promoted child sex abuse material
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 investigation found that accounts owned and operated by minors were creating self-generated child ...
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 leaders and scientists discuss the possibility of AI creating problems for society that ...
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 users, asking them if he should stay or go, and 57.5% said he ...
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 city could start enforcing the rules next month. If that goes through, it ...
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 children who had spoken with its virtual assistant Alexa. It was alleged that ...
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 briefly. Some news websites reported about the incident and later apologized when it ...
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, he has now walked up stairs and down the street for distances of ...
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 Murthy said it’s too early to understand fully just how harmful social media ...