Technology

Lawsuit alleges Google chatbot was behind a user’s delusions and death
Google’s artificial intelligence chatbot Gemini encouraged a 36-year-old Florida man to embark on violent missions and to take his own life, a lawsuit alleges.The man, Jonathan Gavalas, started using...
Netflix buys Ben Affleck’s AI film tech company, InterPositive
In 2022, Ben Affleck became so fixated on AI in film production that he quietly launched his own film tech company, InterPositive.Netflix brought the startup into the spotlight Thursday...
How our AI bots are ignoring their programming and giving hackers superpowers
Welcome to the age of AI hacking, in which the right prompts make amateurs into master hackers. A group of cybercriminals recently used off-the-shelf artificial intelligence chatbots to steal...
Startup Varda Space Industries snags former Mattel plant in El Segundo
In an expansion of its business of processing pharmaceuticals in Earth’s orbit, Varda Space Industries is renting a large El Segundo plant where toy manufacturer Mattel used to design...
AI actor Tilly Norwood’s world is expanding with the ‘Tillyverse’
The digital world of the first AI actor, Tilly Norwood, is expanding.AI talent studio Xicoia, which created Norwood, has announced plans for a “rapid expansion” for the digitized actor....
Surveillance company Flock generates controversy — and a roster of L.A. clients
Santa Cruz tried out the surveillance company Flock Safety for a little over a year before deciding it was time to move on.Cambridge, Mass., also had enough and tore...
Trump orders federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s AI after clash with Pentagon
President Trump on Friday directed federal agencies to stop using technology from San Francisco artificial intelligence company Anthropic, escalating a high-profile clash between the AI startup and the Pentagon...
Commentary: The Pentagon is demanding to use Claude AI as it pleases. Claude told me that’s ‘dangerous’
Recently, I asked Claude, an artificial-intelligence thingy at the center of a standoff with the Pentagon, if it could be dangerous in the wrong hands. Say, for example, hands...
Block to cut more than 4,000 jobs amid AI disruption of the workplace
Fintech company Block said Thursday that it’s cutting more than 4,000 workers or nearly half of its workforce as artificial intelligence disrupts the way people work.The Oakland parent company...
Instagram to alert parents if their teens search for suicide or self-harm terms
Instagram, a social media platform popular among young people, said Thursday it will alert parents if their teens repeatedly search for suicide or self harm-related terms.“Our goal is to...