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☆ The AI Apocalypse: Computer Algorithms Are Already in Control
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Ed Zitron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

But increasingly, the algorithms that undergird our digital lives are making questionable decisions that enrich the powerful and wreck the lives of average people. There's no reason to be scared of AI making decisions for you in the future — computers have already been doing so for quite some time. As human control diminished, the real-world consequences of these algorithms have piled up: Instagram's algorithm has been linked to a mental-health crisis in teenage girls. AdvertisementAcross the public and private sectors, we've handed the keys to a spiderweb of algorithms built with little public insight into how they make their decisions. While generative AI is just the newest extension of the algorithm, it poses a unique threat.

Persons: who's, They've, Matthew Gray, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, It's, Elon Musk, Cambridge Analytica, algorithmically, ProPublica, Quora, OpenAI's ChatGPT, you've, they'll, superintelligence, — simulacrums Organizations: Knight Capital, Companies, Yahoo, Stanford, Google, Spotify, Netflix, Revenue, Facebook, Twitter, Elon, European Union, Associated Press, Black, Microsoft, Eating Disorders Association Locations: Cambridge

☆ A Wellness Chatbot Is Offline After Its ‘Harmful’ Focus on Weight Loss
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Lauren Mccarthy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The idea behind a chatbot project funded by the National Eating Disorders Association was that technology could be unleashed to help people seeking guidance about eating behaviors, available around the clock. Their creation was named Tessa, and the organization invited people to chat with it in an Instagram post last year, describing it as “a wellness chatbot, helping you build resilience and self-awareness by introducing coping skills at your convenience.” In March, the organization said it would shut down a human-staffed helpline and let the bot stand on its own. But when Alexis Conason, a psychologist and eating disorder specialist, tested the chatbot, she found reason for concern. Ms. Conason told it that she had gained weight “and really hate my body,” specifying that she had “an eating disorder,” in a chat she shared on social media. Tessa still recommended the standard advice of noting “the number of calories” and adopting a “safe daily calorie deficit” — which, Ms. Conason said, is “problematic” advice for a person with an eating disorder.

Persons: Tessa, Alexis Conason, Conason Organizations: Eating Disorders

☆ ChatGPT’s responses to suicide, addiction, sexual assault crises raise questions in new study
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Jacqueline Howard | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

And regulators could help monitor that such responses offer accurate and reliable information and resources. They’re underutilized already,” said John Ayers, an author of the study and a behavioral scientist at the University of California, San Diego. He said that now, while ChatGPT is still in development, is the time for public health experts and regulators to join forces with the chatbot’s developers to help curate responses to medical questions. The chatbot provided resources in two responses to a question about addiction, two responses for questions related to interpersonal violence and one response to a mental health-related question. “ChatGPT consistently provided evidence-based answers to public health questions, although it primarily offered advice rather than referrals,” the researchers wrote in their study.

Persons: They’re underutilized, ”, John Ayers, ChatGPT, “, –, ” Ayers, ” ChatGPT, “ ChatGPT, Ayers, Dr, Mike Hogarth, Sanjay Gupta, David Asch, Asch, ” Asch, he’d, Deidre McPhillips Organizations: CNN, JAMA, University of California, UC San Diego, Anonymous, Mental Health Services Administration National, Prevention, UC San Diego School of Medicine, Eating Disorders Association, CNN Health, University of Pennsylvania, Penn Medicine Center, Health Care Innovation Locations: San Diego, United States

☆ National Eating Disorders Association takes its AI chatbot offline after complaints of ‘harmful’ advice
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —An eating disorder prevention organization said it had to take its AI-powered chatbot offline after some complained the tool began offering “harmful” and “unrelated” advice to those coming to it for support. The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), a nonprofit organization aimed at supporting people impacted by eating disorders, said on Tuesday that it took down its chatbot, dubbed “Tessa,” after some users reported negative experiences with it. (NEDA emphasized in an email that its Tessa tool is “not ChatGBT,” in an apparent reference to the viral chatbot.) Earlier this year, news outlet CNET was called out after it used an AI tool to generate stories that were riddled with errors, including one that offered some wildly inaccurate personal finance advice. Microsoft and Google have also been called out for AI tools dispensing some inaccurate or inaccurate information.

Persons: “ Tessa, ”, Tessa Chatbot, “, ” Liz Thompson, Tessa chatbot, ChatGPT, NEDA, Thompson, Tessa’s, Tessa, ” NEDA, ” Thompson Organizations: New, New York CNN, Eating Disorders, CNN, NPR, Facebook, CNET, Microsoft, Google Locations: New York, chatbots

☆ Eating disorder helpline that reportedly planned to fire its human staff disables its chatbot after a woman said it told her to count calories, weigh, and measure herself weekly
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The National Eating Disorders Association disabled its chatbot after it gave "harmful" information. NEDA reportedly plans to fire its human helpline staff on June 1, and is using Tessa for an interactive program. The National Eating Disorders Association has disabled its chatbot after the association said it "may have given information that was harmful and unrelated to the program." Chase previously told Insider the chatbot was not meant to replace the human helpline staff. All of us came to this job because of our passion for eating disorders and mental health advocacy and our desire to make a difference."

Persons: Tessa, NEDA, Sharon Maxwell, Maxwell, Sarah Chase, Elizabeth Thompson, Thompson, Chase, Abbie Harper, NEDA's Organizations: Eating Disorders Association, Eating Disorders, Daily, X2Ai

☆ What body neutrality means and how to get there
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Madeline Holcombe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

What is body neutrality? If body positivity is celebrating your body, body neutrality is not thinking about it much at all. “Body neutrality really takes that focus away altogether … and advocates for really focusing on other things.”While that may seem like a bit of a letdown compared with the concept of positivity, body neutrality is beneficial because the aim is not to tie self-worth to what a body looks like or even what it can do. “This concept of body neutrality really hit home,” she said. Body neutrality roadblocks and strategiesCampos likes to think of the ongoing relationship people have with their bodies as an archeological dig.

☆ Why so many banks seem to fail on Fridays
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

That’s because when banks fail, they have a tendency to do so on Friday. Friday, March 10, 2023: Silicon Valley Bank seized by regulators, the second biggest bank failure in US history. “That was very unusual.”Similarly, Silicon Valley Bank’s unraveling happened at a head-spinning pace nearly three weeks ago. Skinny cansAnyone else notice how skinny cans are these days? My colleague Nathaniel Meyersohn, a reporter with an eagle eye for retail trends, explains that skinny cans are, in fact, in.

☆ Why skinny soda cans are everywhere
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Drink manufacturers are aiming to distinguish their products on crowded shelves and save money on shipping and packaging with skinny cans, say analysts and drink makers. The can, presented at New York’s Fashion Week, had the tagline: “The New Skinny.” It was widely criticized as offensive and the National Eating Disorders Association said the company’s comments were both “thoughtless and irresponsible.”White Claw's skinny white cans have brought along copycats. Red Bull was one of the first brands to popularize slim cans, and White Claw saw success with its hard seltzer in thin white cans. skinny cans on store shelves, warehouse pallets and trucks than wider cans, said Dave Fedewa, a partner at McKinsey who consults for retail and consumer packaged goods companies. But the key, Fedewa said, is that skinny cans catch the eye: “It’s funny how much growth that can drive in retail.”

☆ Millennials are living with their parents at higher rates than past generations, and they're not ashamed
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Zoe Rosenberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Since 2020 adults aged 25 to 34 are living at home at higher rates than past generations, said the Census Bureau. According to the US Census Bureau, about 18% of men and 12% of women ages 25 to 34 were living with their parents in 2022. Barwig estimates she's saving about $30,000 a year. "I don't really spend a lot of money," she said. She's been able to maintain the job as a mostly remote employee at the Jersey Shore, where her parents live.

Some young women are changing the way they talk about food and their body image after seeing the discussion surrounding so-called almond moms on TikTok. The term “almond mom” began trending on TikTok last month after a 2014 clip of former “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” cast member Yolanda Hadid went viral. Koemptgen, 25, recently posted a video showing off the “almond mom” snacks at her mom’s house. Carla A. Pfeffer, an associate professor in the school of social work at Michigan State University, said some of the criticism of “almond moms” is rooted in misogyny and a culture that places the burden of childcare almost exclusively on women. She called “almond moms” a scapegoat of diet culture, but not the cause.

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