Posts by Riah Marton
Parents who blame Snapchat for their children’s deaths protest outside company’s headquarters
Standing in front of Snap’s Santa Monica offices, parents clutched photos of their children who died from taking fentanyl-laced pills facilitated through the disappearing messages of the Snapchat app. They rolled white paint onto the ground, spelling out the names of 108 children who died from alleged social media harms. “Snapchat: Protect kids not predators,”…
Read MoreInstagram boss defends app from witness stand in trial over alleged harms to kids
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge threatened to throw grieving mothers out of court Wednesday if they couldn’t stop crying during testimony from Instagram boss Adam Mosseri, who took the stand to defend his company’s app against allegations the product is harmful to children. The social media addiction case is considered a bellwether that…
Read MoreSuper Bowl spots spark fight over whether we’re ready for ads from our chatbots
The chatbot wars entered the Super Bowl this year. At Super Bowl LX, a ChatGPT competitor paid millions of dollars for commercials mocking the leading artificial intelligence chatbot’s plans to put advertisements in its chats. One of the ads, titled “Betrayal,” showed a man seeking help to communicate better with his mother. His therapist, representing…
Read MoreMeta, TikTok and others agree to teen safety ratings
Meta, TikTok and Snap will be rated on their teen safety efforts amid rising concern about whether the world’s largest social media platforms are doing enough to protect the mental health of young people. The Mental Health Coalition, a collective of organizations focused on destigmatizing mental health issues, said Tuesday that it is launching standards…
Read MorePerson Detained for Questioning in Search for Savannah Guthrie’s Mom Nancy Guthrie
Nancy Guthrie’s Health Condition Revealed, Medication Needs for Survival As the search for Nancy continues, authorities emphasized that she needs to take daily medication for her survival, which she is likely without. “This is an 84-year-old lady who suffers from some physical ailments, has some physical challenges, is in need of medication,” Nanos shared at the Feb. 2 press conference, “medication that if…
Read MoreWhat playing a 7-hour video game with strangers in L.A. taught me about the resistance
The donkeys are pissed off. Put upon, out of work and victims of decades-long systemic abuse, it’s time, they have decided, to protest. The donkeys, metaphorically, are us. At least that’s the premise of “asses.masses,” a video game played by and for a live audience. It’s theater for the post-Twitch age, performance art for those…
Read MoreTrial starts in L.A. lawsuit alleging Instagram and YouTube knew apps harmed kids
A landmark civil trial that will ask jurors to decide whether social media companies can be held liable for pushing a product that they allegedly knew was harmful to children began Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, with attorneys sparring for more than four hours in combative opening arguments. The closely watched test case…
Read MoreAI’s latest 20-something billionaire got his start at L.A. garage sales
The man set to become one of the world’s youngest artificial intelligence billionaires started his entrepreneurial journey as a bored preteen living in Los Angeles. When Ali Ansari was 12, living with his family in a single room at his aunt’s house in Woodland Hills, his immigrant mother told him to stop wasting time staring…
Read MoreTesla is no longer No. 1: This is how a Chinese competitor surged past the EV pioneer
Tesla, the 23-year-old company that brought green cars into the mainstream, has been pushed off its perch as the world’s top electric vehicle seller. Chinese EV manufacturer BYD sold hundreds of thousands more cars last year, and it’s not just in China. In most of the countries where the Chinese titan went head-to-head with Tesla…
Read MoreKaiser workers launch war against AI, protesting potential job losses and patient harm
Workers of one of the most powerful unions in California are forming an early front in the battle against artificial intelligence, warning it could take jobs and harm people’s health. As part of their ongoing negotiations with their employer, Kaiser Permanente workers have been pushing back against the giant healthcare provider’s use of AI. They…
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