Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of bills, including AB 1709 and SB 1119 (Adam's Law), that ban addictive social media features like autoplay and algorithmic feeds for users under 16 and impose new safety requirements on AI companion chatbots. Large platforms could face penalties up to $1 million per child for negligent harm, and companies must conduct independent audits, risk assessments, and provide crisis support and parental notification for at-risk minors.
techspot.com
· 2026-09-11
Governor Gavin Newsom signed more than a dozen bills into law on Thursday aimed at protecting minors online. The measures target addictive design features on social media platforms and impose new restrictions on AI-driven chatbots that interact with children.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-10
Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of bills regulating how minors interact with social media platforms and AI chatbots in California. The chatbot rules impose time limits, mandate mental health safeguards and self-harm protocols, require parental notifications, and mandate independent child safety audits with legal liability for noncompliant companies. Separately, social media platforms must block users under 16 from accessing features deemed 'addictive,' including autoplay, notifications and personalized algorithmic feeds.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-10
A growing number of AI chatbot users are choosing to keep permanent records of every conversation they have with tools like ChatGPT, rather than deleting or forgetting past sessions. Proponents argue these archives function as a searchable memory bank that captures reasoning, drafts, and ideas over time.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-09
A psychiatrist continues a series defining AI-related psychological patterns, this time focusing on what he calls 'prolific AI psychosis.' He describes it as a state where a person churns out massive volumes of AI-generated work—like thousands of lines of code or text—without a corresponding increase in real value, sometimes even destroying value in the process.
jeffs.blog
· 2026-09-09
Google's Gemini chatbot is being highlighted as a travel-planning tool that draws on the company's broader ecosystem, including YouTube, Maps, Gmail and Google Flights. Users can ask it for optimal ticket-buying windows, flight recommendations, hotel suggestions at various price points, and personalized itineraries based on past trips mentioned in their email.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-09
Google's threat intelligence team says cybercriminals and state-backed actors from China, Iran, and Russia are increasingly adopting autonomous AI agent systems rather than relying on simple prompt-and-response chatbots. These agents can independently execute multi-step tasks, expanding what threat actors can automate in their operations.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-09-08
The OECD's latest PISA assessment found 15-year-olds scoring at their lowest levels since testing began in 2000, with reading falling from 501 in 2012 to 466, science from 506 to 486, and math from 502 to 469. The organization attributed the decline to increased screen time, less voluntary reading, and hasty reading habits, noting students who frequently used AI chatbots for schoolwork scored roughly 20 points lower in science.
news.slashdot.org
· 2026-09-08
The Albanese Government has released draft legislation for a Digital Duty of Care, requiring social media platforms to notify users and let them choose between algorithm-curated feeds or feeds based only on accounts they follow. The rules would also force games, apps and AI chatbots to shield under-18 users from addictive design features and harmful content such as material promoting eating disorders, misogyny, pornography, dangerous stunts or serious bullying, while giving eSafety power to order removal of nudify apps and sites.
pm.gov.au
· 2026-09-08
Instructors at the University of Baltimore's writing program are moving away from surveillance-style tracking of student edits in Google Docs toward assignments that deliberately incorporate generative AI. Using the university's BoodleBox platform, faculty built chatbots with personas like the 'Confrontational Parent' for students to debate in simulated scenarios, such as a mock school board meeting on book bans. New assignments now require transcripts of chatbot conversations, handwritten outlines, and video reflections alongside traditional writing.
news.slashdot.org
· 2026-09-07
Three men had to be rescued after getting lost overnight while descending California's Mount Shasta, a hike they had planned using Google's Gemini chatbot. Local authorities said Gemini advised the group to pack far less food and water than needed, a problem that worsened when their planned eight-hour climb turned into a multiday ordeal.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-07
A DuckDuckGo survey found that a third of AI users have confided secrets to chatbots they wouldn't tell trusted people in their lives. Washington Post reporting shows these conversations aren't as private as users assume, having surfaced in at least a dozen court cases over the past two years and potentially being accessible to employers, law enforcement, or exposed through company data breaches like Anthropic's Claude leak in July.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-05
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