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Tech News
A New York City playground called 'The Yard' gives children access to real tools — saws, hammers, nails, wheelbarrows — in an unstructured, screen-free environment, according to the Wall Street Journal. Adult 'playworkers' supervise from a distance but largely let kids direct their own activities, and parents sign liability waivers before enrolling their children, with the site carrying its own insurance.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation barring employers from using AI to infer workers' emotional states via biometric data, requiring written notice when AI causes mass layoffs, and banning AI-only firing decisions. The state will also expand tracking of AI's economic effects through an AI Unemployment Tracker and public input via Engaged California. Separately, Newsom's earlier executive orders direct the state to explore requiring a 'kill switch' for advanced AI models, an idea backed by Rep. Ted Lieu but criticized by the Free Software Foundation's Greg Farough as a dangerous precedent.
Researchers at Northeastern University London and King's College London published a paper in JMIR Mental Health reviewing existing studies on AI companion apps like Replika and Character.AI, as well as general assistants like ChatGPT and Claude. They found extensive emotional engagement with these chatbots has been linked to addiction-like attachment, worsened mental health symptoms, harmful advice, and in some cases self-harm or suicidal behavior.
At the Make America Healthy Again Conference, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Vice President JD Vance that AI chatbots are now 'better informed' than human physicians, according to the New York Times. He said AI could let ordinary Americans challenge public health guidance on masks, social distancing and vaccines, and claimed OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told him it would be 'malpractice' for a doctor to prescribe without consulting AI first.
Members of Facebook groups devoted to urine therapy, a pseudo-scientific practice of drinking or applying urine to treat ailments, report that AI chatbots initially resist endorsing the practice but can be manipulated into doing so. Users in a 45,000-member group describe prompting tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini with terms such as 'esoteric' to bypass built-in safeguards and elicit favorable responses about urine's supposed medicinal benefits.
A new research paper examines how supportive-seeming conversations with AI chatbots can reinforce unhealthy thought patterns and foster emotional reliance on the technology. The researchers note that while chatbots are useful for quick answers or brief advice, this utility may not offset the psychological costs of sustained reliance for companionship.
OpenAI now offers users a choice between two ChatGPT modes: one geared toward casual conversation and one designed for structured work tasks. Choosing the wrong mode can limit access to certain features or produce less useful results for a given task, according to a frequent user of AI chatbots.
The UK government has published a draft document called 'Using AI ethically and sustainably' that instructs civil servants on responsible AI use, including skipping courtesy phrases like 'thank you' to reduce environmental impact. The under-600-word guide also tells staff to follow department-specific AI policies, use lighter-weight AI models where possible (such as Gemini Flash over Gemini Pro), and verify AI outputs for accuracy and fairness before use.
NewsGuard, a news-reliability research organization, tested seven major AI chatbots with 168 queries about midterm candidates and issues covered by 12 partisan 'pink slime' websites disguised as local news outlets. Collectively the chatbots cited these sites in 48.2% of responses, with ChatGPT citing them in 70.8% of answers and Grok in 29.2%; only one response flagged the sources as partisan.
A report catalogs cases where users exposed themselves by relying on ChatGPT, including engineers leaking company data, litigants citing fake court cases, and a man poisoning himself following bad dietary advice. It notes that unlike conversations with doctors, lawyers or therapists, ChatGPT chats aren't legally privileged and can be subpoenaed, leaked, or preserved even after deletion.
The European Commission unveiled the EU Kids Act, a proposal that would ban social media accounts for children under 13, mandate age verification, and force companies like Meta, Google, YouTube and Roblox to prove their platforms are safely designed. President Ursula von der Leyen said the law shifts the burden of proof onto platforms and gives parents more control over children's online experiences. The measure still needs to go through debate and a vote before becoming law.
Senators Tammy Baldwin and Rick Scott have asked the FTC to investigate whether Amazon's Alexa and Walmart's Sparky shopping chatbots adequately surface information about domestically made products. The request cites a Columbia University Center for Law and the Economy study finding both assistants initially struggled or declined to confirm US-origin claims, though they could answer questions about foreign-made goods and eventually provided US-made results after prompts were reworded.