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Djokovic Able to Play at U.S. Open as Vaccine Mandate Set to End

Reuters reported:

World number one Novak Djokovic will be able to compete at the U.S. Open this year after the U.S. government said on Monday it will end its COVID-19 vaccination requirements for international travelers on May 11.

Djokovic, one of the most high-profile athletes unvaccinated against COVID-19, missed the U.S. Open in 2022 due to his vaccine status.

The 35-year-old Serb was unable to enter the country this year after unsuccessfully applying to the U.S. government for special permission to play at Indian Wells and Miami.

Djokovic has won three of his 22 major titles at the U.S. Open. The hardcourt Grand Slam will be held from Aug. 28-Sept. 10 this year.

U.S. to Drop Most COVID Vaccine Mandates Next Week as Emergency Ends

U.S. News & World Report reported:

The Biden Administration announced on Monday that it will lift most federal COVID vaccine mandates next week, as the pandemic public health emergency ends on May 11. Foreign travelers to the United States, Head Start educators, healthcare workers and noncitizens at the U.S. border will see vaccine mandates lifted. Such mandates have already been lifted for Congress and the federal court system.

Mandates will continue for many National Institutes of Health employees, as well as those at the Indian Health Service and Department of Veterans Affairs. Those agencies have their own requirements and will review them, the White House said.

The vaccine mandates divided the country when Biden ordered them to try to prevent new coronavirus cases as highly transmissible variants were spreading. At one point, they covered more than 100 million workers, the AP reported.

Some employers, especially medical facilities, may choose to continue their own mandates, White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha noted. The hospital where he works has had a flu vaccine requirement for employees for 20 years, he said.

Parental Consent Proposal Throws Wrench Into Kids’ Online Safety Talks

The Hill reported:

New proposals that would require parental consent for teens to use social media are throwing a wrench into bipartisan support for kids’ online safety proposals.

Lawmakers are looking at ways to require platforms to offer updated safety tools and limit how they collect data on minors. But children’s online safety advocacy groups warn the recent surge in proposals that add a parental consent requirement could limit teens’ freedom online and put the onus on parents rather than the powerful tech companies.

“This idea … is not just missing the mark on what needs to be done, but it’s also potentially harmful to kids,” said Danny Weiss, chief advocacy officer of Common Sense Media, a children’s media safety nonprofit group.

Weiss said forcing parents to give consent to use social media will not necessarily keep kids safe from harmful content. “If you don’t change the way the sites are operated and change the way data is stored, collected and sold, then once a parent gives consent for a child to go on social media, they’re in the same cesspool of the internet we’re in today,” Weiss said.

Loneliness as Risky as Smoking up to 12 Cigarettes Daily, Surgeon General Says

Associated Press reported:

Widespread loneliness in the U.S. poses health risks as deadly as smoking a dozen cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the U.S. surgeon general said Tuesday in declaring the latest public health epidemic.

​About half of U.S. adults say they’ve experienced loneliness, Dr. Vivek Murthy said in an 81-page report from his office. The declaration is intended to raise awareness around loneliness but won’t unlock federal funding or programming devoted to combatting the issue.

The crisis deeply worsened when COVID-19 spread, prompting schools and workplaces to shut their doors and sending millions of Americans to isolate at home away from relatives or friends.

The loneliness epidemic is hitting young people, ages 15 to 24, especially hard. The age group reported a 70% drop in time spent with friends during the same period.

Elon Musk Backs Up the ‘Godfather of AI’ Who Quit Google to Warn the Tech Could Harm Humanity

Insider reported:

Elon Musk has weighed in on comments about the dangers of advanced AI by Geoffrey Hinton, who is nicknamed the “Godfather of AI.”

“Hinton knows what he’s talking about,” Musk tweeted in response to a Breitbart article on the subject. Hinton, who formerly worked at Google, recently gave an interview to The New York Times where he discussed his concerns that future versions of the technology could harm humanity. He told the publication he worried the technology could lead to the dissemination of fake information, among other problems.

Musk has been sounding the alarm about the potential dangers of AI for years. Recently, he put his name to an open letter that called for a six-month pause on advanced AI development. He has also discussed the potential risks of the technology in several interviews.

Despite this, the billionaire has been pushing ahead with his own generative AI project, which involves a large language model like the one that powers ChatGPT, Insider’s Kali Hays reported.

Apple, Google Working Together to Stop Unauthorized AirTag Tracking

The Hill reported:

Apple and Google announced on Tuesday that they will work together to prevent location-tracking devices — such as the AirTag — from being used to track people without their permission.

The tech companies banded together to draft an “industry specification to help combat the misuse of Bluetooth location-tracking devices for unwanted tracking,” according to a press release.

The specification will allow the location-tracking devices to be compatible with unauthorized tracking detection and alerts, which will allow users to be notified if they are being tracked by an AirTag.

Military Expanding the Use of Fitness Trackers to Detect Disease Outbreaks Such as COVID

Military.com reported:

The Pentagon is expanding the use of wearable fitness trackers to help predict outbreaks of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 as the use of the technology, such as watches and rings, spreads in the military despite early security concerns.

The Defense Innovation Unit, an entity within the Pentagon focused on pairing commercially available technology with military uses, says that it had success during the pandemic in identifying infections by marrying an artificial intelligence algorithm with a commercial device.

The breakthrough allowed the DIU to predict sickness and transmission days in advance. Its announcement comes as the Pentagon looks to apply wearable trackers across the force, not only to better detect diseases but to bolster health through sleep, diet and exercise tracking.

The project used COVID-19 data to teach an artificial intelligence algorithm to predict when a service member may start getting sick — even up to 48 hours before symptoms appear.

Samsung Bans Employees From Using AI Tools Like ChatGPT and Google Bard After an Accidental Data Leak, Report Says

Insider reported:

Samsung has introduced a new policy banning employees from using generative AI tools like Open AI’s ChatGPT and Google Bard in the workplace, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

In an internal memo viewed by Bloomberg, the company expressed concerns about data being shared on AI platforms and ending up in the hands of other users.

The new policy comes after Samsung engineers accidentally leaked internal source code by uploading it into ChatGPT in April, the memo said.