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☆ School Employee Arrested After Racist Deepfake Recording of Principal Spreads
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Natasha Singer | More About Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

While the district investigated, Mr. Eiswert, who denied making the comments, was inundated with threats to his safety, the police said. He was also placed on administrative leave, the school district said. Now Mr. Darien is facing charges including disrupting school operations and stalking the principal. Mr. Eiswert referred a request for comment to a trade group for principals, the Council of Administrative and Supervisory Employees, which did not return a call from a reporter. Mr. Darien, who posted bond on Thursday, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Persons: Eric Eiswert, Eiswert Organizations: Pikesville High, Baltimore County Police Department, Public Schools, Administrative, Supervisory Employees Locations: Baltimore, Dazhon Darien, Darien

☆ Spurred by Teen Girls, States Move to Ban Deepfake Nudes
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Caroline Mullet, a ninth grader at Issaquah High School near Seattle, went to her first homecoming dance last fall, a James Bond-themed bash with blackjack tables attended by hundreds of girls dressed up in party frocks. A few weeks later, she and other female students learned that a male classmate was circulating fake nude images of girls who had attended the dance, sexually explicit pictures that he had fabricated using an artificial intelligence app designed to automatically “strip” clothed photos of real girls and women. Ms. Mullet, 15, alerted her father, Mark, a Democratic Washington State senator. Although she was not among the girls in the pictures, she asked if something could be done to help her friends, who felt “extremely uncomfortable” that male classmates had seen simulated nude images of them. Soon, Senator Mullet and a colleague in the State House proposed legislation to prohibit the sharing of A.I.-generated sexuality explicit depictions of real minors.

Persons: Caroline Mullet, James Bond, Mullet, ” Ms Organizations: Issaquah High School, Democratic Washington State, State House Locations: Seattle

☆ How TikTok Changed Us
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Sapna Maheshwari | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

In the coming days, Congress may advance a bill to ban TikTok or force its sale to an American company. A few schools have removed bathroom mirrors because so many students were leaving class to film TikTok videos there. For 14 percent of American adults, TikTok is a regular news source, up from 3 percent in 2020. People who don’t have traditional backgrounds in journalism, akin to bloggers for the TikTok era, aggregate and share information in snappy videos. Organizations including The New York Times are also making short-form videos in which reporters talk to the camera about their stories, the TikTok way.

Persons: who’ve, It’s, ”, Brooks Barnes, Natasha Singer, Becky Hughes, TikTok, Taylor, mocktails, you’ve Organizations: Sony, Hollywood, The New York Times Locations: American, United States, Hollywood

Within days, millions of TikTok videos using music from Universal artists went mute, and since then guessing which side would blink first has become a media-business parlor game. Backing this up, one study found that TikTok users reported experiencing higher levels of flow than Instagram users. Corey Basch, who analyzed 100 popular TikTok videos with the hashtag mentalhealth for a 2022 study, emerged concerned about the looping effect of the algorithm. Cerave Sales increased by more than 60 percent in 2020 after skin care became a lockdown pastime and TikTok users discovered the drugstore mainstay. Cat Crack Catnip It briefly sold out in 2021 after TikTok users posted videos of their cats going crazy for it.

Persons: randos, TikTok, you’ve, Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell, ”, “ Wonka, Barbie, “ Oppenheimer, —, goofing, cavorting, Sue Fleishman, Z’s Walter Cronkite, Spehar, Donald J, Trump, he’s, Caitlin Clark’s, Joe Biden, Justin Bieber, Abbie Richards, Richards, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Nas X, Fleetwood Mac, Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Drake, Swift, ByteDance, can’t, Mark Warner, hasn’t, Al, ear on, Li Organizations: Fleetwood Mac, Facebook, Sony, Universal, Warner Bros, White, Pew Research Center, YouTube, The New York Times, Kansas City Chiefs, Media, Colgate, Universal Music Group, ByteDance, Intelligence Committee, e Locations: United States, Beijing, Biden’s, TikTok, Singapore, View, Calif, China, American

is an investigative reporter at The Times, writing about public corruption. He has been covering the various criminal investigations into former President Trump and his allies.

Persons: Trump Organizations: The Times

☆ Teen Girls Confront an Epidemic of Deepfake Nudes in Schools
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-08 | by ( Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Westfield Public Schools held a regular board meeting in late March at the local high school, a red brick complex in Westfield, N.J., with a scoreboard outside proudly welcoming visitors to the “Home of the Blue Devils” sports teams. But it was not business as usual for Dorota Mani. In October, some 10th-grade girls at Westfield High School — including Ms. Mani’s 14-year-old daughter, Francesca — alerted administrators that boys in their class had used artificial intelligence software to fabricate sexually explicit images of them and were circulating the faked pictures. Five months later, the Manis and other families say, the district has done little to publicly address the doctored images or update school policies to hinder exploitative A.I. “It seems as though the Westfield High School administration and the district are engaging in a master class of making this incident vanish into thin air,” Ms. Mani, the founder of a local preschool, admonished board members during the meeting.

Persons: Dorota Mani, Mani’s, Francesca —, Ms, Mani Organizations: Westfield Public Schools, Devils, Westfield High School Locations: Westfield, N.J

☆ Maryland Passes 2 Major Privacy Bills, Despite Tech Industry Pushback
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-07 | by ( Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Maryland legislature this weekend passed two sweeping privacy bills that aim to restrict how powerful tech platforms can harvest and use the personal data of consumers and young people — despite strong objections from industry trade groups representing giants like Amazon, Google and Meta. One bill, the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act, would impose wide-ranging restrictions on how companies may collect and use the personal data of consumers in the state. The other, the Maryland Kids Code, would prohibit certain social media, video game and other online platforms from tracking people under 18 and from using manipulative techniques — like auto-playing videos or bombarding children with notifications — to keep young people glued online. “We are making a statement to the tech industry, and to Marylanders, that we need to rein in some of this data gathering,” said Delegate Sara Love, a Democratic member of the Maryland House of Delegates. Wes Moore, a Democrat, who has not taken a public stance on the measures.

Persons: ”, Sara Love, Love, Wes Moore Organizations: Google, Democratic, Maryland, Gov, Democrat Locations: Maryland

☆ Opinion | Screens Are Everywhere in Schools. Do They Actually Help Kids Learn?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Jessica Grose | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

A few weeks ago, a parent who lives in Texas asked me how much my kids were using screens to do schoolwork in their classrooms. (Smartwatches and smartphones are banned in my children’s schools during the school day, which I’m very happy about; I find any argument for allowing these devices in the classroom to be risible.) No, this parent was talking about screens that are school sanctioned, like iPads and Chromebooks issued to children individually for educational activities. I’m embarrassed to say that I couldn’t answer her question because I had never asked or even thought about asking. I rarely heard details about what these screens are adding to our children’s literacy, math, science or history skills.

Persons: Chromebooks, I’m, Natasha Singer, “ Organizations: ”, Progress Locations: Texas, New York State

☆ DeSantis Signs Social Media Bill Barring Accounts for Children Under 14
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Natasha Singer | More About Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Florida on Monday became the first state to effectively bar residents under the age of 14 from holding accounts on services like TikTok and Instagram, enacting a strict social media bill that is likely to upend the lives of many young people. Ron DeSantis, is one of the more restrictive measures that a state has enacted so far in an escalating nationwide push to insulate young people from potential mental health and safety risks on social media platforms. The statute both prohibits certain social networks from giving accounts to children under 14 and requires the services to terminate accounts that a platform knew or believed belonged to underage users. It also requires the platforms to obtain a parent’s permission before giving accounts to 14- and 15-year-olds. In a press conference on Monday, Mr. DeSantis hailed the measure, saying it will help parents navigate “difficult terrain” online.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, DeSantis Organizations: Gov Locations: Florida

☆ DeSantis Vetoes Blanket Social Media Ban for Youths Under 16
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ron DeSantis on Friday vetoed a sweeping social media bill that would have effectively barred Florida residents under the age of 16 from opening accounts on services like TikTok and Instagram, even if their parents permitted them to do so. In a post on X, Mr. DeSantis said he had vetoed the teen social media ban bill because the state’s Legislature was “about to produce a different, superior bill” that recognized parents’ rights. Last week, the governor had suggested the measure went too far by superseding the authority of parents. Soon after the news of the veto, Paul Renner, a Republican who is the speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, said in a post on X that the new bill would be “an even stronger product to protect our children against online harms.”While several states have recently passed laws requiring parental consent for children’s social media accounts, the Florida measure that Mr. DeSantis vetoed was designed as a more blanket ban. It would have required certain social networks to verify users’ ages, prevent people under 16 from signing up for accounts and terminate accounts that a platform knew or believed belonged to underage users.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, DeSantis, Paul Renner Organizations: Republican Locations: Florida

☆ Florida Passes Sweeping Bill to Keep Young People Off Social Media
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Florida’s Legislature has passed a sweeping social media bill that would make the state the first to effectively bar young people under 16 from holding accounts on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Ron DeSantis said he would “be wrestling with” over the weekend and has not yet signed — could potentially upend the lives of millions of young people in Florida. Federal courts have blocked less-restrictive youth social media laws enacted last year by Arkansas and Ohio. Judges in those cases said the new statutes most likely impinged on social media companies’ free speech rights to distribute information as well as young people’s rights to have access to it. It would apply to apps and sites with certain features, most likely including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, “ Organizations: Facebook, YouTube Locations: Florida’s, Florida, Arkansas, Ohio

One proposal to Mr. Zuckerberg for 45 new staff members was declined. It was rejected and he returned to Mr. Zuckerberg in November with a scaled-down proposal for 32 new hires. It is unclear what Mr. Zuckerberg decided. At the hearing, Mr. Zuckerberg plans to suggest that Apple bear the responsibility for verifying ages via its App Store, according to his prepared remarks. Mr. Zuckerberg has long positioned Meta — and the internet writ large — as a place for both good and ill.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg, Meta, Richard Blumenthal, Marsha Blackburn, Mr, Blumenthal, “ We’ve, Andy Stone, Sheryl Sandberg, Nick Clegg, Clegg, Zuckerberg’s, ”, “ Organizations: Meta, Facebook, Republican, Apple Locations: Connecticut, Tennessee

☆ Silicon Valley Battles States Over New Online Safety Laws for Children
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-31 | by ( Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Last summer, Ohio enacted a social media statute that would require Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube to get a parent’s consent before permitting children under age 16 to use their platforms. The case is part of a sweeping litigation campaign by NetChoice to block new state laws protecting young people online — an anti-regulation effort likely to come under scrutiny on Wednesday as the Senate Judiciary Committee questions social media executives about child sexual exploitation online. The NetChoice lawsuits have rankled state officials and lawmakers who sought tech company input as they drafted the new measures. “I think it’s cowardly and disingenuous,” Jon Husted, the lieutenant governor of Ohio, said of the industry lawsuit, noting that either he or his staff had met with Google and Meta about the bill last year and had accommodated the companies’ concerns. “We tried to be as cooperative as we possibly could be — and then at the 11th hour, they filed a lawsuit.”

Persons: —, ” Jon Husted, “, ” Organizations: YouTube, Google, Federal, Court Locations: Ohio

☆ At Meta, Millions of Underage Users Were an ‘Open Secret,’ States Say
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-25 | by ( Natasha Singer | More About Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But much of the evidence cited by the states was blacked out by redactions in the initial filing. Now the unsealed complaint, filed on Wednesday evening, provides new details from the states’ lawsuit. Using snippets from internal emails, employee chats and company presentations, the complaint contends that Instagram for years “coveted and pursued” underage users even as the company “failed” to comply with the children’s privacy law. The unsealed filing said that Meta “continually failed” to make effective age-checking systems a priority and instead used approaches that enabled users under 13 to lie about their age to set up Instagram accounts. It also accused Meta executives of publicly stating in congressional testimony that the company’s age-checking process was effective and that the company removed underage accounts when it learned of them — even as the executives knew there were millions of underage users on Instagram.

Persons: Instagram, Meta “, “, ” Adam Mosseri, Mosseri, Meta, ” Organizations: redactions, Meta

Listen and follow The DailyApple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicA historic set of new lawsuits, filed by more than three dozen states, accuses Meta, the country’s largest social media company, of illegally luring children onto its platforms and hooking them on its products. Natasha Singer, who covers technology, business and society for The New York Times, has been reviewing the states’ evidence and trying to understand the long-term strategy behind these lawsuits.

Persons: Meta, Natasha Singer Organizations: Spotify, The New York Times

☆ This Florida School District Banned Cellphones. Here’s What Happened.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Natasha Singer | More About Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One afternoon last month, hundreds of students at Timber Creek High School in Orlando poured into the campus’s sprawling central courtyard to hang out and eat lunch. For members of an extremely online generation, their activities were decidedly analog. In May, Florida passed a law requiring public school districts to impose rules barring student cellphone use during class time. This fall, Orange County Public Schools — which includes Timber Creek High — went even further, barring students from using cellphones during the entire school day. In interviews, a dozen Orange County parents and students all said they supported the no-phone rules during class.

Organizations: High School, Orange County Public, Orange Locations: Timber, Orlando, Florida, Orange County

☆ School Cellphone Bans Are Trending. Do They Work?
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Natasha Singer | More About Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Earlier this year, Florida passed a law requiring public schools statewide to ban student cellphone use during class time. In early October, the British government issued new guidelines recommending that student cellphone use be prohibited in schools nationwide. Such bans typically make exceptions for students with disabilities and for educational uses approved by teachers. Proponents say the bans prevent students from scrolling through social media and sending bullying text messages, reducing classroom distractions. Critics warn that cutting off students from their phones could disproportionately punish those with jobs or family responsibilities — and that enforcing the bans could boost harsh disciplinary measures like school suspensions.

Persons: — Organizations: UNESCO, United Nations Locations: Florida, Italy, China

The NewsMeta was sued by more than three dozen states on Tuesday for knowingly using features on Instagram and Facebook to hook children to its platforms, even as the company said its social media sites were safe for young people. The District of Columbia and eight other states filed separate lawsuits on Tuesday against Meta with most of the same claims. The states said Meta’s algorithms were designed to push children and teenagers into rabbit holes of toxic and harmful content. Features like “infinite scroll” and persistent alerts were used to hook young users, the states said. “Meta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens,” the states said in their lawsuit.

Persons: “, ” Meta, “ We’re Organizations: Meta, Northern, Northern District of, of Columbia Locations: Colorado , Tennessee, Massachusetts, U.S, Northern District, Northern District of California

☆ To Test the A.I. Learning Hype, I Visited Classrooms
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-10 | by ( Natasha Singer | More About Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. In January, Marisa Shuman, a computer science teacher at the Young Women’s Leadership School of the Bronx, invited me to spend a few days embedded in her classroom. Her school, a public middle and high school for girls, specializes in math, science and technology. As a reporter who has spent years chronicling how tech companies and their tools are reshaping public schools, I jumped at the chance. At the time, ChatGPT was beginning to blow up in schools and on college campuses.

Persons: Marisa Shuman, ChatGPT Organizations: Young Women’s, School, Tech

☆ Dependence on Tech Caused ‘Staggering’ Education Inequality, U.N. Agency Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Natasha Singer | More About Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In early 2020, as the coronavirus spread, schools around the world abruptly halted in-person education. To many governments and parents, moving classes online seemed the obvious stopgap solution. In the United States, school districts scrambled to secure digital devices for students. Almost overnight, videoconferencing software like Zoom became the main platform teachers used to deliver real-time instruction to students at home. Now a report from UNESCO, the United Nations’ educational and cultural organization, says that overreliance on remote learning technology during the pandemic led to “staggering” education inequality around the world.

Persons: “, ” Organizations: UNESCO, United Nations, Education Locations: United States

☆ Applying to College? Here’s How A.I. Tools Might Hurt, or Help.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Natasha Singer | More About Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

I spent the last week talking with university officials, teachers and high school seniors about the dreaded college admissions essay. And I’ve been thinking a lot about how artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, which can manufacture school essays and other texts, might reshape the college application process. I was particularly interested to learn whether admissions officials were rejiggering their essay questions — or even reconsidering personal essays altogether. Amid a deluge of high school transcripts and teacher recommendations, admissions officers often use students’ writing samples to identify applicants with unique voices, experiences, ideas and potential. How might that change now that many students are using A.I.

Persons: chatbots Organizations: The Times

☆ We Used A.I. to Write Essays for Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Here’s How It Went.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Natasha Singer | More About Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

to Write Essays for Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Whether their use on college applications is ethical is the subject of fierce debate. As high school seniors begin working on their college applications, many are turning to A.I. While the chatbots are not yet great at simulating long-form personal essays with authentic student voices, I wondered how the A.I. So I used several free tools to generate short essays for some Ivy League applications.

Persons: Bard, chatbots ’, ChatGPT, Courtney Barnett Organizations: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Ivy League

☆ Ban or Embrace? Colleges Wrestle With A.I.-Generated Admissions Essays.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Natasha Singer | More About Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Rick Clark, the executive director of undergraduate admission at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and his staff spent weeks this summer pretending to be high school students using A.I. The admissions officers each took on a different high school persona: swim team captain, Eagle Scout, musical theater performer. chatbot to produce the kind of extracurricular activity lists and personal essays commonly required on college applications. “Students on some level are going to have access to and use A.I.,” Mr. Clark said. “The big question is: How do we want to direct them, knowing that it’s out there and available to them?”

Persons: Rick Clark, Clark, ” Mr Organizations: Georgia Institute of Technology, Eagle Scout, —, Georgia Tech, “

☆ How teachers and students feel about A.I.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Natasha Singer | More About Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

We recently asked educators, professors, and high school and college students to tell us about their experiences using A.I. — Katy Pearce, associate professor, University of WashingtonBefore they even use ChatGPT, I help students discern what is worth knowing, figuring out how to look it up, and what information or research is worth “outsourcing” to A.I. chatbots are making it a lot easier for students to understand difficult concepts in a simple way. It can provide students with endless examples of how to outline essays, business plans and emails. will have on students in the long run but I just don’t want it to make students lazy, as the joy of learning is that “AHA!” moment that comes from figuring something out yourself.

Persons: I’ve, — Katy Pearce, — Nicole Haddad, — Amedeo Bettauer, Sam Avery, chatbots, — Emma Nazario Organizations: A.I, University of Washington, Southern Methodist University, Brookline High School, University of Iowa, AHA, Wheaton

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