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Edward Snowden’s Ominous Warning to the World
Whistleblower Edward Snowden issued an ominous yet vague warning on Thursday about how the failure of institutions will usher in a “revolution” with unknown consequences.
Although he has been a Moscow citizen for years, Snowden has not hesitated to share his views on domestic matters in the U.S. — such as urging House Speaker Mike Johnson to push back against warrantless surveillance or reprimanding Gary Gensler, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, after a bitcoin-related post appeared following the hacking of the SEC’s X (formerly Twitter) account.
In the U.S., trust in public institutions — which began rapidly declining during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — is at historic lows, according to aggregated polling data.
After recording significant declines in public confidence in 11 of 16 institutions in 2022, the most recent Gallup data found that numbers decreased even more last year. Public resentment grew due to a perceived lack of faith in Congress, the criminal justice system and various forms of news media. In addition, the presidency and the Supreme Court drew citizens’ resentment in 2022. Public faith has also decreased in financial institutions and organized religion.
On X, Snowden also mentioned a coming revolution in artificial intelligence, saying that “if you thought human judgment was bad, just wait until you see what replaces it.”
House GOP Twists Screws on State Dept in Censorship Probe
A House panel is pressing the State Department to be more forthcoming in a probe into alleged government censorship that is also the subject of a lawsuit brought by The Daily Wire.
GOP lawmakers, who are looking into whether the government-funded private entities to discredit small businesses and their owners over their political speech and views, sent a letter on Monday to James Rubin, coordinator of the agency’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), contending the organization’s previous delivery of information to Congress “appears to be incomplete” with dozens of awards doled out in recent years seemingly omitted from the tranche.
On its website, the GEC touts how it is focused on “proactively” leading interagency efforts to counter disinformation and propaganda from foreign adversaries. But Republicans suspect the center is surreptitiously propping up activities that suppress free speech at home, particularly on social media as has been illustrated by the “Twitter Files,” and they have talked about pulling taxpayer dollars from the GEC.
The Daily Wire reached out to the State Department seeking comment on the letter. A deadline of January 22 was given for the additional documents and information requested by the lawmakers.
The Rising Threat to Democracy of AI-Powered Disinformation
Online disinformation has been a factor in elections for many years. But recent, rapid advances in AI technology mean that it is cheaper and easier than ever to manipulate media, thanks to a brisk new market of powerful tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, AI art start-up Midjourney or other text, audio and video generators. At the same time, manipulated or synthetic media is becoming increasingly hard to spot.
Already, realistic deepfakes have become a new front in the disinformation landscape around the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine conflicts. Now, they are poised to muddy the waters in electoral processes already tarnished by dwindling public trust in governments, institutions and democracy, together with sweeping illiberalism and political polarisation.
Social media platforms including Meta, Google’s YouTube, TikTok and X now face pressure to introduce guardrails around deepfakes, curb nefarious actors and ensure they make the correct moderation calls when it comes to highly ambiguous media, while simultaneously remaining non-partisan.
Snapchat to Let Parents Decide Whether Their Teens Can Use the App’s AI Chatbot
Snapchat will now give parents the option to block their teens from interacting with the app’s “My AI” chatbot following some questions about the tool’s safety for young people.
The change will mean that if parents opt to turn off the tool, teens can message My AI but the chatbot will respond only with a note that it has been disabled. Thursday’s announcement is part of a broader set of additions to Snapchat’s parental oversight tool Family Center.
Snapchat will also now offer parents visibility into their teens’ safety and privacy settings in the Family Center. A parent can see who their child shares their Stories posts with, who is able to contact their child on the app and whether their child is sharing their location with friends on the app’s live “Snap Map” feature.
A federal judge in November ruled that Snapchat parent company Snap, along with Google, Meta and TikTok, must face a lawsuit alleging that their services addicted teen users and caused other mental health harms. The companies had moved to dismiss the lawsuit on First Amendment grounds and cited the legal shield known as Section 230.
Microsoft Briefly Overtakes Apple as World’s Most Valuable Company
Microsoft (MSFT.O) on Thursday briefly overtook Apple (AAPL.O) as the world’s most valuable company for the first time since 2021 after the iPhone maker’s shares made a weak start to the year on growing concerns over demand.
Microsoft’s shares have risen sharply since last year thanks to the early lead the company has taken in generative artificial intelligence through an investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. They were up 0.7% on Thursday, giving Microsoft a market value of $2.865 trillion.
The stock rose as much as 2% earlier in the session and Microsoft was briefly worth $2.903 trillion.
Shares of Apple were 0.9% lower, giving the company a market capitalization of $2.871 trillion. Microsoft and Apple have jostled for top spot over the years.
Big Tech Not Done With Layoffs as Google, Amazon Announce Cuts in 2024
The wave of layoffs that has broken over Silicon Valley in the past two years isn’t over.
On Wednesday, Google confirmed it had cut hundreds of engineering and hardware workers as it sought to cut costs and refocus on artificial intelligence. The same day, Amazon said it would cut some positions at its Prime Video and MGM Studios entertainment divisions. Twitch, a video game streaming company owned by Amazon, also said it was laying off 500 staff.
The cuts at two of the industry’s biggest and most profitable firms show that the tech world is not done with the waves of layoffs that began in 2022. After a massive hiring spree during the first years of the pandemic, start-ups and Big Tech firms alike have been firing tens of thousands of workers as higher interest rates make it more expensive to invest in new projects and the companies seek to increase their profitability, rather than focusing on growth.
U.K. to Make Big Tech Give Rivals Access to Data Under New Plans
Britain’s competition regulator plans to make big tech companies give their rivals greater access to data and limit them from promoting their own products under new powers it is due to receive from the government, it said on Thursday. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has bolstered its oversight of Big Tech firms like Facebook owner Meta (META.O), Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) and Apple (AAPL.O).
Its willingness to take them on was made clear last year when it intervened in Microsoft‘s purchase of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard, and again more recently when it said it was reviewing the U.S. giant’s deal with ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
The CMA set up a dedicated Digital Markets Unit more than two years ago, armed with the expertise to examine rapidly evolving markets like social media. Big tech companies with designated status will have to comply with the new rules.
The CMA could also make them allow rivals’ products and services to work with their own or ensure they provide their users with an effective choice, and require them to increase transparency with respect to aspects of their algorithms.
‘Ridiculous’: Nurses Sacked for Refusing COVID Jab Despite Queensland Lifting Vaccine Mandate
Experienced nurses in Queensland who were stood down after refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic are now being sacked from their jobs.
This is despite the state government lifting the vaccine mandate in September last year.
“What a ridiculous situation,” Sky News host Caleb Bond said.
“When you have a shortage of nurses and frontline health workers — to sack them for something that is no longer an issue.” Bond sat with Queensland nurse Ella Leach to discuss the state’s controversial decision to fire these experienced health workers.
