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☆ Why America's Electric Car Push Isn't Working
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-03 | by ( Paris Marx | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Electric vehicles were supposed to be inevitable. Auto execs who were once trumpeting the potential of electric cars are even publicly acknowledging that EVs aren't working . In September, 87% of new-vehicle sales were fully electric vehicles. Plus, heavier electric vehicles are harder on roads, produce more air pollution, and pose a greater safety risk for pedestrians. Time for a rethinkThe shift from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles is an opportunity to rethink how Americans get from place to place.

Persons: Joe Biden, Tesla, EVs —, EVs, Edward Niedermeyer, Niedermeyer, Ipsos, CarGurus, bode, Ketan Joshi, Joshi, Benjamin Sovacool, it's, Paris Marx Organizations: EV, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Auto execs, Industry, Tesla Motors, EVs, Cox Automotive, Strategic, Cox, Statistics Norway, Transportation Locations: Mexico, America, California, United States, Norway, Oslo, Norwegian, Paris

☆ Ex-Google maps designer doesn't like the app's new look, says it's 'colder' and 'less human'
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-23 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A former Google Maps designer said the app's new color palette feels "colder" and "less human." 15 years ago, I helped design Google Maps. Other Google Maps users echoed Laraki's critiques around the app's new colors. — Sasha Luccioni, PhD 💻🌎🦋✨🤗 (@SashaMTL) November 23, 2023"Why has Google maps all of a sudden changed the colors?" In other words, Google Maps users may've switched to Apple Maps for a good reason.

Persons: —, …, HMcpKiOEdr, Elizabeth Laraki, Laraki, I'm, Sasha Luccioni, 🦋✨, ove, Lar Organizations: Google, Service, Twitter, pla

☆ Microsoft took down a string of embarrassing travel articles created with 'algorithmic techniques.' But it says AI isn't the problem.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Nathan Mcalone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Microsoft took down a string of embarrassing and offensive travel articles last week. The company said the articles were not published by "unsupervised AI" and blamed "human error." Last week, Microsoft took down a string of articles published by "Microsoft Travel" that included a bizarre recommendation for visitors to Ottawa to visit the Ottawa Food Bank and to "consider going into it on an empty stomach." "This article has been removed and we have identified that the issue was due to human error," a Microsoft spokesperson said. Based on the examples I found, whatever human controls Microsoft had in place were so minimal as to be functionally useless.

Persons: Paris Marx, isn't, Lucia Moses, Kai Xiang Teo Organizations: Microsoft, Morning, Ottawa Food Bank, MSN, CNET Locations: Ottawa, Montreal, Canada, Anchorage, Tokyo

☆ Microsoft has pulled an AI-written travel guide, which told tourists to visit the Ottawa Food Bank if they are hungry
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Kai Xiang Teo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft has pulled an AI-written travel article that recommended the Ottawa Food Bank as a tourist attraction for the city. "Consider going into it on an empty stomach," wrote the article on the food bank. that recommended the city's food bank as a top tourist attraction. The now-deleted article — which was previously published on Microsoft Start — suggested attractions like "The Winterlude Festival, National War Memorial, and Ottawa Food Bank, and many more." The Ottawa Food Bank was the third attraction on the list and included a caption that said, "Life is already difficult enough.

Persons: Jeff Jones, Microsoft's, Paris Marx Organizations: Microsoft, Ottawa Food Bank, Morning, MSN, Tech, CNET, Gizmodo Locations: Ottawa

☆ It Is Impossible to Break Your Phone Addiction Now
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Paris Marx | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

In many ways, we've so thoroughly integrated the devices into our lives, it's become impossible to break free. It's not just people's personal lives that are affected, but their work lives, too. To enter the store, customers need to download a separate app, connect it to their Amazon account, load a credit card, and swipe into the location. Instead, it lets customers register to scan their own items while they shop and pay from their phone. When internet connections aren't reliable, phone batteries run low, or you don't have a smartphone, these changes actually make everything much harder.

Persons: Steve Jobs, —, it's, Lola Shub, would've, we're, Shub, we've, rehire, they've, Paris Marx Organizations: Luddite, Club, The New York Times, Amazon, Tesco, Washington Examiner, National Zoo, team, Washington Nationals, Apple, Google, Australia, Transportation Locations: Brooklyn, New York City, London, United Kingdom, United States, Washington , DC, Canada, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Paris

☆ Why Zuckerberg's Threads App Will Never Be the New Twitter
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-23 | by ( Paris Marx | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Threads, the newest social-media app from Meta, rocketed past 100 million users less than a week after it went live. The app has since been hailed as the Twitter replacement people have been clamoring for since Elon Musk's takeover — and bungling — of the platform. That's because Meta isn't trying to fill the shoes of its competitor. In other words, Threads isn't targeting the entire Twitter user base, just a segment of it. In its bid for a cash-cow app, Threads is foregoing everything that made Twitter special — no political debate, no train updates, no crowdsourcing breaking news.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg's, Adam Mosseri, Meta isn't, Donald Trump, —, Mosseri, Meta, Musk, it's, Jennifer S, that's, Paris Marx Organizations: Meta, Elon, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Transportation Locations: Australia, Canada, California, Paris

☆ Why Threads will never be the new Twitter
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-23 | by ( Paris Marx | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

While Twitter became popular as a place to stay informed and get access to critical information, Meta wants Threads to be a hangout space for lifestyle brands and influencers. Enter: ThreadsIn a Threads post, Mosseri said that the company's goal "isn't to replace Twitter" but "to create a public square for communities on Instagram that never really embraced Twitter and for communities on Twitter (and other platforms) that are interested in a less angry place for conversations." In other words, Threads isn't targeting the entire Twitter user base, just a segment of it. On some level, Threads' aversion to Twitter's free-flowing conversation makes sense — discourse on Twitter can get pretty toxic. In its bid for a cash-cow app, Threads is foregoing everything that made Twitter special — no political debate, no train updates, no crowdsourcing breaking news.

☆ There are 4 reasons why jobs are disappearing — but AI isn't one of them
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Kai Xiang Teo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

AI isn't the foe we're making it out to be, at least according to HSBC's new Future of Work report. Over 50% of firms surveyed believe that new technologies like AI will be job creators. Interestingly, over 50% of firms surveyed believe that new technologies — including AI — will actually be job creators, not destroyers. Slightly under half of the companies surveyed believe AI technologies will lead to new jobs. And while the AI debate rages on, perhaps we're missing one crucial point: Rather than obsessing over AI costing jobs, we should be more concerned about the quality and nature of the jobs that AI will create, as Paris Marx wrote for Insider.

Persons: we're, Paris Marx Organizations: Companies, Morning, Economic, Microsoft Locations: Paris

☆ Jobs of the Future: ChatGPT, AI Will Create Careers That Need Humans
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Paris Marx | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Automation technology has ushered in a fleet of secret workers behind screens, machines, and smiling robot faces. On the AI side, tools like ChatGPT have been used to write real articles and take college exams. Truck drivers are still in high demand, and self-driving technology is nowhere near replacing human jobs. The human behind the curtainAmid the fear-mongering about a robot takeover, people often miss the degree to which machines still require human workers in order to function. Maja Hitij/Getty ImagesThese technologies are often deployed to de-skill work — jobs are broken down into more specific tasks and can be done with less training.

☆ Netflix has lost its golden touch. Here's why the streamer is so boring now.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Finance has long ranked employees, but it's been out of fashion in tech for nearly a decade. Netflix once made an explicit choice to invest in underrepresented communities, Paris Marx writes. Shows like "Orange is the New Black" and "GLOW" gave spotlights to women, queer people, people of color, and non-Americans. But, according to Marx, the company stopped prioritizing stories from underrepresented communities, and new players were throwing their hats into the streaming wars. Now, Marx writes that Netflix is filled with bland shows, half-assed reality TV, and hopelessly derivative movies.

☆ The golden age of streaming TV is over
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Paris Marx | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

That August, the streaming analyst Eric Schiffer told The Verge that the "golden age" was over as competition increased, and Netflix was putting creators on a shorter leash. But just as Netflix was pulling back from its most creative content, the streaming wars were heating up. Netflix is now churning out cheap and broadly appealing reality TV shows like "Is It Cake?" Despite positioning itself for years as the ad-free way to watch TV, Netflix in October launched a lower-cost, ad-supported tier in many of its major markets. As the cheap money disappears, we're starting to get a better picture of the actual price of streaming media.

☆ Why Have Netflix, Hulu, and the Rest of Streaming TV Gotten so Boring?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Paris Marx | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

As a result, Netflix and other streamers are retreating from any sort of creative risk in favor of humdrum, lowest-common-denominator shows. But just as Netflix was pulling back from its most creative content, the streaming wars were heating up. Netflix is now churning out cheap and broadly appealing reality TV shows like "Is It Cake?" Despite positioning itself for years as the ad-free way to watch TV, Netflix in October launched a lower-cost, ad-supported tier in many of its major markets. As the cheap money disappears, we're starting to get a better picture of the actual price of streaming media.

Originally reported Sunday by The Verge, a plan to charge verified users to get or keep their blue checks was expected to cost $20 a month. By Tuesday afternoon, Musk had posted a thread on the platform outlining his plan to charge $8 a month instead — part of an overhaul of Twitter’s existing Blue service. Along with the coveted blue check, Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to post longer video and audio clips. Right now, Twitter’s verification system has no cost and is designed to ensure users can identify legitimate accounts and know they’re trustworthy. The blue check makes it harder for verified users to be impersonated and provides them with some additional tools to manage their notifications since many have a lot of followers.

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