PROOF
Gen Z rely on social media as their main news source
Over half of Australians (51%) access news more than once a day, which is a 3 percentage point increase from last year. Almost half of…
Teen Dies After Intense Bond with Character.AI Chatbot
A Florida teenager who formed a deep emotional bond with an AI chatbot took his own life after months of intense daily interactions on Character.AI,…
Spyware Group NSO’s Pegasus Targeted Up To ‘Tens of Thousands’
WhatsApp's newly unsealed court documents have exposed the extensive reach of NSO Group's Pegasus spyware operation, which targeted "between hundreds and tens of thousands" of…
Five Firms in Plastic Pollution Alliance ‘Made 1,000 Times More Plastic Than They Cleaned Up’
Oil and chemical companies who created a high-profile alliance to end plastic pollution have produced 1,000 times more new plastic in five years than the…
Polish Radio Station Replaces Journalists With AI ‘Presenters’
OFF Radio Krakow sparked controversy by replacing its journalists with AI-generated presenters in an experiment to attract younger audiences. CNN Business reports: Weeks after letting…
NSO, Not Government Clients, Operates Its Spyware
Legal documents released in ongoing US litigation between NSO Group and WhatsApp have revealed for the first time that the Israeli cyberweapons maker -- and…
Planet-Heating Pollutants in Atmosphere Hit Record Levels in 2023
The concentration of planet-heating pollutants clogging the atmosphere hit record levels in 2023, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has said. From a report: It found…
As Data Centers for AI Strain the Power Grid, Bills Rise for Everyday Customers
While Amazon, Google, and other companies build new data centers — sometimes for their AI projects — parts of America "are facing higher electric bills,"…
PimEyes ‘Made a Public Rolodex of Our Faces’. Should You Opt Out?
The free face-image search engine PimEyes "scans through billions of images from the internet and finds matches of your photo that could have appeared in…
Plastic Pollution is Changing Entire Earth System, Scientists Find
Plastic pollution is changing the processes of the entire Earth system, exacerbating climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, and the use of freshwater and land,…
Generative AI Doesn’t Have a Coherent Understanding of the World, MIT Researchers Find
Despite its impressive output, a recent study from MIT suggests generative AI doesn't have a coherent understanding of the world. While the best-performing large language…
Punctuation Is Dead Because the iPhone Keyboard Killed It
Android Authority's Rita El Khoury argues that the decline in punctuation use and capitalization in social media writing, especially among younger generations, can largely be…
Power Shortages Will Restrict 40% of AI Data Centers By 2027
40% of AI data centers will face operational constraints due to power shortages by 2027 as AI drives unprecedented energy consumption, research firm Gartner said…
NSO Group Exploited WhatsApp Zero-Day Even After Lawsuit
NSO Group Technologies Ltd. continued to develop spyware that used multiple zero-day WhatsApp exploits even after the instant messaging firm sued the Israeli surveillance firm…
Here’s the Pitch Deck for ‘Active Listening’ Ad Targeting
404 Media previously reported Cox Media Group (CMG) was advertising a service that claimed to target ads based on what potential customers said near device…
Are Marketers Using Smartphones to Listen to Your Conversations to Target Ads? Yes, Cox Media Group Says in Materials Deleted From Its Website
It’s been a long-held suspicion by many people: that smartphones and smart speakers are listening in on their private conversations for various reasons. Now one…
Marketing Company Claims That It Actually Is Listening to Your Phone and Smart Speakers to Target Ads
“What would it mean for your business if you could target potential clients who are actively discussing their need for your services in their day-to-day…
Are We Entering an AI Price-Fixing Dystopia?
"Algorithmic price-fixing appears to be spreading to more and more industries," warns the Atlantic. "And existing laws may not be equipped to stop it." They…
US Considers a Rare Antitrust Move: Breaking Up Google
A rare bid to break up Alphabet's Google is one of the options being considered by the Justice Department after a landmark court ruling found…
Unprecedented Number of Heat Records Broken Around World This Year
A record 15 national heat records have been broken since the start of this year, an influential climate historian has told the Guardian, as weather…