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It’s Time to End the Five-Day Isolation Guidance for COVID + More
It’s Time to End the Five-Day Isolation Guidance for COVID
The United States is set to end its public health emergency in May, and the World Health Organization has indicated it will also declare an end to the pandemic soon.
But there is one lingering residual: the five-day isolation period following a COVID diagnosis. We believe it’s time for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to retire that policy and move to an alternative guidance: Stay home when sick; return to work and school when you are better.
This is especially important for kids. Extensive evidence shows that time away from school due to COVID has worsened learning loss, screen addiction, the teen mental health crisis and obesity rates. Schools are playing catch-up not only for academics but also social and emotional learning. While many schools have been open for in-person instruction for more than two years, the mandatory five-day isolation period means educational disruptions continue.
It is incumbent upon health officials to keep the number of days that children have to be out of school to an absolute minimum. We also must recognize that it’s not only children who are harmed by the five-day isolation requirements but also the caregivers of children who are too young to stay alone at home. During this time of staffing shortages across many industries, especially in healthcare, we must consider this negative impact on society.
Google Drops Vaccine Mandate for Its Buildings Worldwide
Google is dropping the COVID-19 vaccine requirement it has had in place since the life-saving shots became available as the coronavirus pandemic raged.
“Most people today have some level of immunity against COVID-19, case rates and hospitalizations have stabilized for many months now, and governments all around the world — including the U.S. — are ending emergency declarations, lifting restrictions and ending vaccination mandates,” the company’s vice president of global security Chris Rackow wrote in a memo obtained by CNBC. “Vaccines will no longer be required as a condition of entry to any of our buildings.”
During the height of the pandemic, Google was adamant about keeping unvaccinated people outside its doors, even threatening them with pay cuts or job loss. Twice it attempted office comebacks that were delayed by the onset of new strains.
San Diego Paying Out $110K to Settle Lawsuits Challenging Vaccine Mandate for City Workers
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported:
San Diego is paying out $110,000 to settle two lawsuits challenging the city’s controversial COVID-19 vaccine mandate for its workers, which the City Council repealed this winter.
The city is paying out $70,000 to a group called Protection for the Educational Rights of Kids, which sued over the mandate in state court, and $40,000 to ReOpen San Diego, which filed a federal lawsuit.
The controversial vaccine mandate led to the firing of 14 employees and to resignations by more than 130 police officers. The labor union representing city police officers suggested in January that the litigation helped prompt the repeal.
The union has called the mandate a “shortsighted” policy and blamed it for higher crime rates and slower response times to emergencies.
Alex Berenson Sues Biden, Pfizer Board Member Over Twitter Ban
Former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson on April 12 sued President Joe Biden and a Pfizer board member over the pressure placed on Twitter to ban him.
Berenson, now an independent journalist, was suspended from Twitter in 2021 after top Biden administration officials and Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), urged the social media company to take action against him.
Twitter initially resisted the pressure but ultimately banned Berenson from the platform. Berenson later settled a suit with Twitter, which acknowledged it should not have banned him.
Now he’s targeting the officials who pressured Twitter, including Gottlieb and Dr. Andrew Slavitt, a one-time White House COVID-19 official.
GOP House Judiciary Chairman Subpoenas FTC Over Twitter Probe
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan on Wednesday subpoenaed Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan as part of his panel’s investigation into the agency’s probe of Elon Musk‘s purchase of Twitter.
The House subcommittee investigating the so-called weaponization of the federal government has made Twitter — and the federal government’s relationship with the social media platform — a central focus of its investigative efforts, particularly as it relates to free speech and the First Amendment.
The subpoena demands the FTC turn over a series of documents and internal communications relating to the agency’s investigation of Musk’s acquisition of Twitter by April 26.
Jordan asserts in a letter accompanying the subpoena that the FTC has “abused its statutory and enforcement authorities” and cites a report released by the subcommittee last month alleging the agency “made inappropriate and burdensome demands coinciding with Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company.”
After an Investigation Exposes Its Dangers, Pinterest Announces New Safety Tools and Parental Controls
Following last month’s NBC News investigation into Pinterest that exposed how pedophiles had been using the service to curate image boards of young girls, the company on Tuesday announced further safety measures for its platform, including a new set of parental controls and updated age verification policies, among other things. However, the company also said that it would soon re-open some of its previously locked-down features for teens to allow them to once again message and share content with others.
Immediately after the report, two U.S. Senators reached out to Pinterest for answers about what was being done and to push for more safety measures. The company said it increased the number of human content moderators on its team and added new features that allow users to report content and accounts for “Nudity, pornography or sexualized content,” including those involving “intentional misuse involving minors.” Before, it had only allowed users to report spam or inappropriate cover images.
Now, the company is announcing even more safety controls are in the works. For starters, it says it will expand its age verification process. By the end of this month, if someone who entered their age as under 18 tries to edit their date of birth on the Pinterest app, the company will require them to send additional information to its third-party age verification partner. This process includes sending a government ID or birth certificate and may also require the users to take a selfie for an ID photo.
In addition, Pinterest announced it will soon offer more parental controls. Parents and guardians of children under the age of 18 will have the ability to require a passcode before their teen is allowed to change certain account settings. This would prevent a younger child from trying to change their account to an adult’s age — which matters because minors’ accounts have further protections.
Google Antitrust Cases at a Crossroads as Giant Seeks Early Knockout
A federal court this week will hear arguments over Google’s motion to dismiss a pair of blockbuster antitrust lawsuits targeting its sprawling search engine business, marking a critical juncture for U.S. authorities’ efforts to bring the tech giants to heel.
Google is pushing for summary judgment in the two cases, brought by the Justice Department and a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general respectively. If granted, it would head off a high-stakes trial and deal a massive blow to antitrust enforcers.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is leading the state lawsuit against Google, called it the “most significant such case” since the landmark U.S. v. Microsoft Corp. antitrust case over two decades ago. And he said that if Google’s move succeeds, it would deprive the government of a chance to rein in anti-competitive harms they allege there’s already abundant proof of.
FBI Says Public Phone Chargers May Put Your Data at Risk: What to Know + More
FBI Says Public Phone Chargers May Put Your Data at Risk: What to Know
Many of us know the dread of a phone battery on 1% and the panic of watching its screen flicker out. But rushing to plug your phone into a public charging station in a hotel, airport or cafe could be risky, according to a recent warning from the FBI.
“Bad actors have figured out ways to use public USB ports to introduce malware and monitoring software onto devices,” FBI Denver wrote in a tweet. “Avoid using free charging stations in airports, hotels or shopping centers.” Its advice: Carry your own charger and USB cord and use an electrical outlet to power up your device instead.
The alert from the FBI is only the latest instance of government concern over what’s known as “juice jacking,” a cybercrime in which a hacker uses public USB ports to steal data, such as credit card numbers, or install malware on a user’s device.
Ritesh Chugh, an associate professor and technology and society expert at Central Queensland University, wrote in an email that public charging docks are a “significant privacy hazard.” Research has shown that in less than 10 seconds, a malicious charging station can identify the web pages loaded on your phone’s browser, he wrote, while “as little as one minute of charging time may be adequate for compromising a user’s phone.”
Should California Push Sexually Transmitted Disease Vaccine for Teens? Bill Could Mandate It
A California lawmaker wanted to push more middle schoolers to get vaccinated against a sexually-transmitted disease that causes cancer. But now she’s shifting her efforts to college students.
Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters, authored a bill that would have added the human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine to a list of shots required for eighth-grade enrollment. But amendments to her bill have since stripped the enforcement provision from the middle school requirement, stating that students entering eighth grade are “expected to be fully immunized.”
The newer version of the bill would still require the HPV vaccine in the University of California and California State University systems. Students enrolling at public colleges would need to get HPV shots to attend classes.
Biden Administration Considers Rules for AI Systems Like ChatGPT
The Biden administration on Tuesday took a step toward regulating artificial intelligence, as the overnight explosion of A.I. tools like ChatGPT spurs scrutiny from regulators around the globe.
The Commerce Department asked the public to weigh in on how it could create regulations that would ensure A.I. systems work as advertised and minimize harm.
Tools like ChatGPT have dazzled the public with their ability to engage in humanlike conversations and write essays. But the technology’s swift evolution has prompted new fears that it may perpetuate bias and amplify misinformation.
In recent weeks, the government’s interest in A.I. has accelerated, as consumer advocates and technologists alike descend on Washington, aiming to influence the debate. As companies compete to bring new A.I. tools to market, policymakers are struggling to both foster innovation in the tech sector while limiting public harm.
Biden Ends COVID National Emergency After Congress Acts
The U.S. national emergency to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic ended Monday as President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan congressional resolution to bring it to a close after three years — weeks before it was set to expire alongside a separate public health emergency.
The national emergency allowed the government to take sweeping steps to respond to the virus and support the country’s economic, health and welfare systems. Some of the emergency measures have already been successfully wound down, while others are still being phased out. The public health emergency — it underpins tough immigration restrictions at the U.S.-Mexico border — is set to expire on May 11.
SUNY Announces End of COVID Vaccine Mandate for Students
SUNY announced that it is no longer mandatory for students to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in order to attend classes.
According to SUNY Chancellor John B. King, Jr., the updated guidance applies to all 64 campuses across the state. However, students, staff, and faculty will be strongly encouraged to stay up to date on the vaccines. King says that the safety of students is SUNY’s top priority.
This announcement comes after President Biden announced the end of the COVID-19 national emergency, with some emergency measures in the midst of being phased out.
Research With Exotic Viruses Risks a Deadly Outbreak, Scientists Warn
When the U.S. government was looking for help to scour Southeast Asia’s rainforests for exotic viruses, scientists from Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University accepted the assignment and the funding that came with it, giving little thought to the risks.
The goal was to identify unknown viruses that might someday threaten humans. But doubts about the safety of the research began to simmer after the virus hunters were repeatedly bitten by bats and, in 2016, when another worker stuck herself with a needle while trying to extract blood from an animal.
As if to underscore the risks, in 2018 another lab on the same Bangkok campus — a workspace built specifically to handle dangerous pathogens — was shut down for months because of mechanical failures, including a breakdown in a ventilation system that guards against leaks of airborne microbes. Then, in a catastrophe that began in Wuhan, a Chinese city 1,500 miles away, the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe, becoming a terrifying case study in how a single virus of uncertain origin can spread exponentially.
In spring 2021, the Thai team’s leader pulled the plug, deciding that the millions of dollars of U.S. research money for virus hunting did not justify the risk.
Governments and private researchers continue building high-containment laboratories to work with the most menacing pathogens, despite a lack of safety standards or regulatory authorities in some countries, science and policy experts said. Meanwhile, U.S. agencies continue to funnel millions of dollars annually into overseas research, such as virus hunting, that some scientists say exposes local populations to risks while offering few tangible benefits.
Nurse Fired Over COVID Concerns Sues Alberta Health Services for $3.7 Million
A nurse is suing Alberta Health Services (AHS) for firing her after she publicly criticized AHS’ handling of patient care during the pandemic and its treatment of unvaccinated patients and staff.
Debra Carritt says she first went through official channels with her concerns, from her direct manager up through to the province’s health minister. When that failed, she went to the media. Among the concerns she voiced about AHS, as outlined in her statement of claim filed March 17, was, “open discrimination, judgment, and hostility towards un-vaccinated patients and staff.”
Carritt says the AHS staff COVID-vaccination policy, which went into effect September 2021, caused staff shortages, something she had warned AHS about. She said AHS disregarded valid vaccine accommodation requests, such as requests by pregnant and breastfeeding staff worried about the novel nature of the vaccine.
The statement of claim says Carritt’s warnings proved valid when a staff shortage led AHS to modify its vaccination policy in December 2021 to allow for targeted virus testing as an alternative to vaccination.
Alibaba Now Has a ChatGPT Rival for Its Cloud Customers to Use
In an effort to keep pace with its Western rivals, the huge Chinese-based multinational Alibaba now has its own Large Language Model (LLM) to rival ChatGPT.
Just like the popular ChatGPT, Tongyi Qianwen, to give it its full name, can be given short instructions or prompts in natural language to automatically generate new content and perform other complex tasks in an instant. Eventually, Alibaba hopes to incorporate the chatbot into its numerous services.
COVID Makes an Antiwoke Fortress of a New Age Florida School + More
COVID Makes an Antiwoke Fortress of a New Age Florida School
The Wall Street Journal reported:
“This is Miss Gabriela,” Leila Centner says. “She’s our mindfulness coach.” I’m visiting Centner Academy, the private K-12 school Mrs. Centner and her husband, David, founded in 2019 after his retirement as a “serial tech entrepreneur.”
In the “mindfulness room,” I watch Gabriela Jimenez lead a circle of fifth-graders in an exercise that involves passing a candle around and formulating “an awesome wish that you have for yourself.”
“Do we have to say it out loud?” a girl asks.
“Well, you don’t have to,” Ms. Jimenez answers. But it would be helpful: “When we express what we want, we move the energy from the bottom, from the first chakra all the way to the throat. So we manifest things when we speak about them.”
You might call Centner a countercultural campus; it calls itself “America’s Happiest School.” “Mindfulness is interwoven into the fabric of the school,” says my tour guide, Josh Hills, whose title — no joke — is director of brain optimization.
He shows me another room, which he says is “dedicated to failure.” Here, students undertake projects in “Lego robotics, 3D printing, architecture” and other technical pursuits. It’s a sort of safe space: “We remove the stigma behind failure,” Mr. Hills says. “If we have kids who are not scared to fall or fail, then we have kids who are not scared to reach.”
Your Every Move Tracked: How to Remove Apple and Google’s Location Data
It’s no secret anymore. Nearly everything you do online is tracked or recorded and used to learn more about you.
Many of your data points end up on creepy people’s search sites. You’ll be shocked to find your full name, address, relatives, phone number and more. Here’s a list of sites where you can opt out of this invasion of privacy.
On your phone, apps are likely watching — and reporting — more than you realize. Take back control with just a few minutes in your settings.
Navigation apps use your phone’s GPS location to determine exactly where you are. Every time you navigate somewhere, that location is stored in your profile. Prepared to be shocked at what Apple and Google know about your wanderings.
Tesla’s Cameras Are Reportedly Spying on Customers, but It’s Not Just a Tesla Problem
Is Tesla spying on its customers? At least some of its employees were, according to a recent Reuters report.
Several ex-Tesla employees said that, from about 2019 to 2022, they saw footage from the array of cameras that are built into Tesla’s cars.
The employees said they passed sensitive videos — everything from a car crashing into a child to a naked man approaching a vehicle to the insides of people’s garages — around in an internal messaging system.
The images were anonymized, but some had enough information in them to re-identify whose car they came from or had location data associated with them.
While this news may seem shocking on its face, it actually points to a difficult but ever-present reality. Newer cars are covered in cameras, and the cars of the future will surely have even more of them. It’s not always clear if and how this footage is secured. And while the Reuters report is specifically about Tesla, it doesn’t mean that only Tesla owners risk these kinds of privacy invasions.
Google ChatGPT Rival AI Faces in-House Resistance: Report
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a major talking point with the rise to prominence of AI chatbot ChatGPT from OpenAI and generative AI image makers like Midjourney and DALL-E 2.
However, not everyone sees eye to eye with this emerging technology.
A new report from The New York Times revealed that in March, two Google employees tried to stop the company from launching its own AI chatbot rivaling OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
According to the New York Times report, the employees’ jobs are specifically to review Google’s AI products. The employees allegedly believed the technology generated “inaccurate and dangerous statements.”
Microsoft employees and ethicists raised similar concerns months prior, as it, too, planned the release of an AI chatbot to be integrated into its Bing browser. Concerns were voiced at Microsoft about the degradation of critical thinking, disinformation and eroding the “factual foundation of modern society.”
Nonetheless, Microsoft released its Bing-integrated chatbot in February, and one month later, Google released its “Bard” chatbot toward the end of March, both of which succeeded OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT-4 in November 2022.
Twitter Circle Tweets Are Not That Private Anymore
PSA: Do not post your deepest darkest secrets on your Twitter Circle.
Numerous Twitter users are reporting a bug in which Circle tweets — which are supposed to reach a select group, like an Instagram Close Friends story — are surfacing on the algorithmically generated “For You” timeline.
That means that your supposedly private posts might breach containment to reach an unintended audience, which could quickly spark some uncomfortable situations.
I observed this bug when a tweet from someone I follow appeared on my “For You” timeline, but the retweet button was disabled, despite the person’s account being public.
When I clicked on the tweet, it disappeared. I asked the tweeter if that post was intended for their Circle — which I am not in — and they confirmed this was the case.
Switzerland Stops Recommending COVID Vaccination
Swiss authorities have stopped recommending COVID-19 vaccination, including for people who are designated at high risk from COVID-19.
Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health now says that “no COVID-19 vaccination is recommended for spring/summer 2023.”
People designated at high risk also aren’t recommended to get a COVID-19 vaccine, authorities said.
Officials attributed the change to the number of citizens who have received a vaccine, recovered from COVID-19, or have received a vaccine and also enjoy natural immunity from post-recovery protection.
“Nearly everyone in Switzerland has been vaccinated and/or contracted and recovered from COVID-19. Their immune system has therefore been exposed to the coronavirus. In spring/summer 2023, the virus will likely circulate less. The current virus variants also cause rather mild illness,” Swiss health officials said.
CDC Partners With ‘Social and Behavior Change’ Initiative to Silence Vaccine Hesitancy
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, a Stanford-educated ear, nose and throat doctor, isn’t afraid to voice her beliefs. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she repeatedly used her platform on Twitter and TikTok to question the vaccines, promote ivermectin as a treatment, and call out pharmacists for refusing to dispense it.
But her efforts resulted in significant backlash.
On Nov. 7, 2021, Dr. Danielle Jones, an OBGYN who posts under the handle @MamaDoctorJones on YouTube, TikTok and Twitter — and has millions of followers — put out a video accusing Bowden of “grifting,” rejecting science, and profiting from those who questioned the vaccine.
The video received thousands of comments, including from Team Halo members, Dr. Zachary Rubin, a pediatrician, and Christina Kim, an oncology nurse practitioner. Team Halo is a social media influencer campaign formed as part of the United Nations Verified initiative and the Vaccine Confidence Project to increase vaccine uptake.
“That doc is problematic,” Rubin wrote. Kim followed with, “Wow. That ‘doctor’ should have her license revoked.”
Twitter’s Substack Blockade Continues as Site Redirects Searches to ‘Newsletters’
Twitter’s continually escalating feud with Substack appears to be going strong as users found out this weekend that searches for the blogging site are being redirected to “newsletter” instead.
This appears to be another attempt by the Elon Musk-owned social media site to keep users away from Substack, as the former appears to be going to war with the newsletter platform. The recent decision by Twitter to redirect searches for “Substack” to “newsletter” has sparked controversy and raised concerns about free speech.
Mashable’s attempt to request a comment from Twitter was immediately responded to with a poop emoji, an automated response Musk implemented after gutting the communications department. Substack also did not immediately respond to Mashable’s request for comment regarding the situation.
Fauci Wanted Biden Administration to Fight Deposition Subpoena, Emails Show
Dr. Anthony Fauci wanted top Biden administration officials to try to get a deposition subpoena quashed, newly obtained emails show.
Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser until recently, questioned in one of the emails why the administration was fighting against a subpoena for a former White House press secretary but not his.
“If they are going to push back on Jen Psaki’s deposition then why not push back on mine? Please check this out,” Fauci wrote on Nov. 6, 2022.
He was referring to a news story about how lawyers for Psaki and the U.S. Department of Justice were urging a court to block her subpoena.
Fauci was writing to Jill Harper, a National Institutes of Health official.
“Please check this out,” he said.
“Will check with the lawyers,” Harper said.
There’s no sign in the messages of what the administration’s lawyers replied when asked why they didn’t move to block Fauci’s subpoena.
The Department of Justice and Harper did not respond to requests for comment. Fauci could not be reached.
Why PepsiCo Is Sweet on Artificial Intelligence + More
Why PepsiCo Is Sweet on Artificial Intelligence
If your local grocery or corner mart is keeping Diet Pepsi, Gatorade or Fritos in stock, you may be able to thank artificial intelligence.
Driving the news: PepsiCo, the multinational maker of name-brand soda, chips and sports drinks, may not be a technology company, but it has gone all-in on AI in the past few years, spending “hundreds of millions” of dollars to do so, Athina Kanioura, the company’s chief strategy and transformation officer, told Axios.
Why it matters: PepsiCo is one example of a major corporation embracing AI fully in daily processes, as other companies in non-tech industries begin to grapple with advancements like generative AI. The big picture: PepsiCo, one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world, believes AI can help with improved efficiency, lowered costs and better response to customer demand.
Between the lines: Kanioura said she’s been talking to lawmakers on Capitol Hill interested in AI policy who told her they are “extremely impressed by the level of maturity” of AI deployment at PepsiCo “which they haven’t seen from any other company” beyond tech.
Why We’re Scared of AI and Not Scared Enough of Bio Risks
When does America underreact, and when does it overreact? The U.S. is still conducting research into making deadlier and more contagious diseases, even while there’s a legitimate concern that work like that may have even caused COVID. And despite the enormous human and economic toll of the coronavirus, Congress has done little to fund the preparedness work that could blunt the effects of the next pandemic.
I’ve been thinking about all this as AI and the possibility that sufficiently powerful systems will kill us all suddenly emerged onto center stage. An open letter signed by major figures in machine learning research, as well as by leading tech figures like Elon Musk, called for a six-month pause on building models more powerful than OpenAI’s new GPT-4.
In Time magazine, AI safety absolutist Eliezer Yudkowsky argued the letter didn’t go far enough and that we need a lasting, enforced international moratorium that treats AI as more dangerous than nuclear weapons.
I’ve argued for years that sufficiently powerful AI systems might end civilization as we know it. In a sense, it’s gratifying to see that position given the mainstream hearing and open discussion that I think it deserves. But it’s also mystifying. Research that seeks to make pathogens more powerful might also end civilization as we know it! Yet our response to that possibility has largely been a big collective shrug.
Arkansas House Passes Bill Requiring Social Media Platforms to Verify Users’ Ages and Seek Parental Consent for Minors
The Arkansas House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that would require social media companies to verify their users’ ages and confirm that minors have permission from a parent or guardian before opening an account.
The bill dubbed the Social Media Safety Act, was passed by an overwhelming vote of 82-10, according to a tweet from the House account, and adds to the swell of efforts by state and federal lawmakers to regulate social media platforms and protect children online.
The recent legislative push from state and federal lawmakers comes amid growing anxieties from many parents struggling to navigate the potential harms of social platforms, including concerns over how they may be introducing young users to harmful content, aggravating mental health issues and creating new venues for online bullying and harassment.
If the Arkansas bill is signed into law, social media companies would be required to use third-party vendors to verify Arkansas residents’ ages — regardless of whether or not they are minors. For users younger than 18, the platform must obtain the consent of their parent or guardian in order to open an account for them.
Don’t Tell Anything to a Chatbot You Want to Keep Private
As the tech sector races to develop and deploy a crop of powerful new AI chatbots, their widespread adoption has ignited a new set of data privacy concerns among some companies, regulators and industry watchers. Some companies, including JPMorgan Chase (JPM), have clamped down on employees’ use of ChatGPT, the viral AI chatbot that first kicked off Big Tech’s AI arms race, due to compliance concerns related to employees’ use of third-party software.
It only added to mounting privacy worries when OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, disclosed it had to take the tool offline temporarily on March 20 to fix a bug that allowed some users to see the subject lines from other users’ chat history.
The same bug, now fixed, also made it possible “for some users to see another active user’s first and last name, email address, payment address, the last four digits (only) of a credit card number, and credit card expiration date,” OpenAI said in a blog post.
“The privacy considerations with something like ChatGPT cannot be overstated,” Mark McCreary, the co-chair of the privacy and data security practice at law firm Fox Rothschild LLP, told CNN. “It’s like a black box.”
Google CEO Says an AI Chatbot Is Coming to Search … Eventually
Following in the footsteps of competitor Microsoft — which added the same tech behind ChatGPT to Bing earlier this year — Google is on its own path to include a chatbot in its own search engine. When? Well, CEO Sundar Pichai was delightfully vague on the timeline.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal earlier this week, Pichai spilled the beans on Google’s intention to bring a chatbot to Google search but remained tight-lipped on details surrounding when we might expect to see the tech.
Pichai also told the Journal that the company is working on several different AI-based search products — including one that allows users to ask follow-up questions after punching in their query — that could help Google move away from the link-based search that it popularized.
The move comes as Google competitor Microsoft has been pouring billions of dollars into a deal with ChatGPT’s OpenAI.
Microsoft seized the moment before the AI chatbot wave even began to pick up momentum, showing interest in OpenAI as early as 2020. Now Microsoft is shoving the AI into Bing search as fast as it could with mixed results while also scrapping its ethical AI team.
AI Desperately Needs Global Oversight
Every time you post a photo, respond on social media, make a website or possibly even send an email, your data is scraped, stored and used to train generative AI technology that can create text, audio, video and images with just a few words.
This has real consequences: OpenAI researchers studying the labor market impact of their language models estimated that approximately 80% of the U.S. workforce could have at least 10% of their work tasks affected by the introduction of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, while around 19% of workers may see at least half of their tasks impacted.
When a company builds its technology on a public resource — the internet — it’s sensible to say that that technology should be available and open to all. But critics have noted that GPT-4 lacked any clear information or specifications that would enable anyone outside the organization to replicate, test or verify any aspect of the model.
Some of these companies have received vast sums of funding from other major corporations to create commercial products. For some in the AI community, this is a dangerous sign that these companies are going to seek profits above public benefit.
Mass. Coalition Presses to Keep Masks on in Some Healthcare Settings
As the state’s public health emergency inches closer to its expiration next month, a group of public health advocates, healthcare workers and patients is pressing state officials and the healthcare industry to maintain the masking requirement in place for hospitals, clinics, physician and dentist offices, nursing homes, and for home healthcare services.
Gov. Maura Healey announced last month that she will end the state’s public health emergency — which in 2021 effectively took the place of an earlier COVID-19 state of emergency — on May 11, the same day a federal public health emergency ends. That will end six state public health emergency orders, one of which requires Bay Staters to wear masks in some healthcare and congregate care settings.
The Massachusetts Coalition for Health Equity is collecting signatures (more than 740 so far) on an open letter that urges the Department of Public Health, local boards of health, and healthcare institutions to keep masking requirements in place for all healthcare settings and to provide free masks, ideally N95s, to everyone in those settings.
Chinese Officials Flock to Twitter to Defend TikTok
When members of Congress grilled TikTok’s chief executive last month on Capitol Hill, the app’s supporters sprang to its defense online. The lawmakers were “old, tech-illiterate,” one said. “Out of touch, paranoid and self-righteous,” said another. The hourslong hearing “destroyed the illusion that the U.S. leads in cyber era,” read another post.
These particular barbs did not come from TikTok’s users — 150 million and counting in the United States — but from representatives of China’s government.
In an information campaign primarily run on Twitter, Chinese officials and state media organizations widely mocked the United States in the days before and after the hearing, accusing lawmakers of hypocrisy and even xenophobia for targeting the popular app, according to a report released on Thursday by the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a nonpartisan initiative from the German Marshall Fund.
China’s information push, however, showed just how deeply invested Beijing was in the company’s fate. Just hours before Mr. Chew’s testimony last month, China’s Commerce Ministry said it opposed a sale of TikTok in a direct rebuke of the Biden administration, which is pushing a sale.