DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ ChatGPT used by mental health tech app in AI experiment with users
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +11 min

But for a few thousand people, the mental health support they received wasn’t entirely human. About 4,000 people got responses from Koko at least partly written by AI, Koko co-founder Robert Morris said. Academics, journalists and fellow technologists accused him of acting unethically and tricking people into becoming test subjects without their knowledge or consent when they were in the vulnerable spot of needing mental health support. “There are millions of people online who are struggling for help.”There’s a nationwide shortage of professionals trained to provide mental health support, even as symptoms of anxiety and depression have surged during the coronavirus pandemic. In June, the World Health Organization included informed consent in one of its six “guiding principles” for AI design and use.

☆ NHL roundup: John Klingberg lifts Ducks over Sharks in OT
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Anaheim's Troy Terry, who was named an All-Star this week, carried the puck to the front of the San Jose goal in overtime and sent a pass back to Klingberg, who beat Sharks goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen. Trevor Zegras and Ryan Strome added goals for the Ducks, while Anthony Stolarz had 37 saves in his first game since he faced the Sharks on Dec. 9. Timo Meier had two goals for the Sharks, while Erik Karlsson added a first-period assist to extend his franchise-record point streak to 14 games. Matt Nieto and Steven Lorentz added goals for the Sharks, Kevin Lebanc logged two assists and Kahkonen made 24 saves. Yakov Trenin added a goal and an assist and Thomas Novak also scored for Nashville.

Twitter accounts that offer to trade or sell child sexual abuse material under thinly veiled terms and hashtags have remained online for months, even after CEO Elon Musk said he would combat child exploitation on the platform. The tweets reviewed by NBC News offer to sell or trade content that is commonly known as child pornography or child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The tweets do not show CSAM, and NBC News did not view any CSAM in the course of reporting this article. The problem has been pervasive enough to catch the attention of some Twitter users. In 25 tweets, users tagged Musk using at least one of the major hashtags to alert him to the content.

☆ Trump Facebook ban could be reversed in the coming weeks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

For one thing, social media looks different than it did two years ago. Trump now has his own social media company, Truth Social, and his account has been restored on Twitter (where he has yet to tweet). And though there’s no legal right for Trump or anyone else to be on social media, Republicans in Florida and Texas are trying to create laws that would prevent social media companies from removing certain posts. NBC News asked a handful of experts in social media moderation what they thought about the upcoming decision. The answers offered a sense of the shifts in social media and moderation since both Twitter and Facebook banned Trump.

☆ Biden signs TikTok ban for government devices amid security concerns
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

President Joe Biden approved a limited TikTok ban Thursday when he signed the 4,126-page spending bill into law. The ban prohibits the use of TikTok by the federal government’s nearly 4 million employees on devices owned by its agencies, with limited exceptions for law enforcement, national security and security research purposes. Since 2020, a bubbling movement led largely by conservatives has maintained a minor interest in a TikTok ban. “We’re disappointed that Congress has moved to ban TikTok on government devices — a political gesture that will do nothing to advance national security interests — rather than encouraging the Administration to conclude its national security review,” the company said in a statement. It added that the proposed security agreement with the Biden administration would address the security concerns of lawmakers and regulators.

☆ NHL roundup: Connor McDavid extends point streak to 16 in Oilers' win
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

December 28 - Connor McDavid scored the winning goal in the third period to run his point-scoring streak to 16 games and lead the visiting Edmonton Oilers to an entertaining 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday. Ilya Sorokin made 20 saves as the Islanders won their second straight -- their first winning streak since a four-game run Nov. 21-26. Los Angeles goalie Pheonix Copley made 23 saves to extend his personal win streak to five games. New York lost for the second time in three games following a seven-game winning streak. Evan Rodrigues and Mikko Rantanen also scored while Alexandar Georgiev made 27 saves for the Avalanche, whose four-game winning streak ended.

☆ NBA roundup: Nets sink Cavs for 9th straight win
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

While Garland made 14 of 20 shots and finished with his fourth 40-point game of his career, Donovan Mitchell was held to 15 points. Kevin Durant scored 32 points but fouled out for the sixth time in his career when he bumped Garland with 1:54 remaining. Isaiah Stewart had 21 points, Killian Hayes tossed in 18 with 10 assists and Jalen Duren added 15 points and 12 rebounds. Bennedict Mathurin put up 15 points and Myles Turner scored 14 to lead the Pacers, who finished a 2-1 road trip. Lauri Markkanen led the Jazz with 32 points and 12 rebounds.

☆ Silicon Valley is coming for your gut biome
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

SAN FRANCISCO — Cryptocurrency hasn’t worked out so well for tech investors. As a consumer product, supplements are associated more with the Kardashians or Joe Rogan than with Silicon Valley. Roelof Botha, the managing partner of Sequoia Capital, one of the largest venture capital firms in the world, is among those buying in. He said there’s a “societal reawakening” about the complex biome of the human gut where hundreds of species of bacteria live. She co-wrote a review of the science this year, and said future probiotic supplements have promise compared to supplements that have been available for decades.

Police in South Pasadena said in a statement Tuesday that, contrary to Musk's assertions about the incident, they believe a member of Musk's security team hit a man with his car and accused him of following him. The police called the security team member a "suspect." While parked, the man said another vehicle pulled directly in front of him, blocking his path, according to police. The driver of the second vehicle then accused the Connecticut man of following him, police said. Police said that as Musk's security team member was leaving the parking lot in the second vehicle, he struck the Connecticut man with his vehicle.

On Thursday, Twitter accounts for at least nine journalists and one left-leaning political pundit were suspended. That is the real problem here.”According to Musk, Thursday’s suspensions were related to new rules around sharing real-time location information, which he tied to an alleged stalking incident. Musk said, “Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. On Wednesday, Musk tweeted that legal action would be taken against Sweeney. Andrew Torba, founder of the far-right social platform Gab, also criticized Musk and touted his company as an alternative to Twitter.

☆ Democratic senator questions Twitter’s handling of child safety under Elon Musk
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., sent a letter to tech billionaire Elon Musk on Friday expressing concern that Twitter’s approach to child safety had “rapidly deteriorated” since Musk bought the social media site in October. He continued: “While Twitter certainly had room for improving online child safety before you acquired it, reports indicate that Twitter’s approach to child safety has rapidly deteriorated on your watch." Durbin cited Musk’s decision to dissolve Twitter’s expert board, known as its Trust and Safety Council, as well as a 50% reduction in staff at Twitter’s child safety team. By one metric — reports to an outside group that tracks child sexual abuse material — Musk has made little difference, for better or worse. Durbin wrote to Musk that Twitter has both “global legal obligations” and moral obligations to address online child abuse.

☆ GOP lawmakers want answers from Uber about drivers allegedly transporting drugs
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

House Republicans sent a letter Thursday to Uber asking the tech company to explain what steps it is taking in response to drivers' complaints that they’re being asked to deliver packages they suspect to be drugs. Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter. Those companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Democratic side did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “Just as we have asked social media companies to do their part to curb the sale of drugs on their platforms, Uber must act to ensure Uber Connect is not used to transport untracked shipments of illicit drugs to Americans,” the lawmakers wrote.

Meanwhile, Twitter’s resources to fight child sexual exploitation content online (and what is sometimes called child pornography or child sexual abuse materials) are thin, following layoffs, mass-firings and resignations from the company. Child sexual exploitation content has remained a problem for Twitter, though most major social media platforms continue to deal with it in some form or another. Moderation of this content usually relies on a combination of automated detection systems and specialized internal teams and external contractors to identify child abuse content and remove it. “So, I mean, that is disheartening.”It’s unclear how many Twitter employees remain to work on child safety issues. A search on LinkedIn for current Twitter employees who say they work on child safety turned up only a few accounts.

Less than a month after taking control of Twitter , Elon Musk said addressing child sexual exploitation content on the social media platform was "Priority #1." "It is a crime that they refused to take action on child exploitation for years!" Meanwhile, Twitter's resources to fight child sexual exploitation content online (and what is sometimes called child pornography or child sexual abuse materials) are thin, following layoffs, mass-firings and resignations from the company. Twitter's imperfect efforts fighting child sexual exploitation content were well documented. Stroppa said he felt Twitter's previous efforts were lacking and that it now moves quickly to find and suspend accounts that post child sexual exploitation content.

☆ Tech jobs: Recent grads send in hundreds of apps in unfamiliar, shrinking market
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Now, though, they’re applying for tech jobs at possibly the worst time in years, as nearly every part of the sector from streaming services to robotics has laid off people or frozen hiring. He graduated with a computer science degree in December 2021, a time he now sees as “the beginning of the end” for the most recent tech boom. “My biggest chances of getting a job in the U.S. kind of tanked,” he said, because of the recent layoffs. At colleges and universities, interest in computer science soared during the most recent tech boom. Lam, who’s scheduled to graduate in December 2023, said he originally thought the layoffs in tech would hurt junior-level people the most.

☆ France's CMA CGM to buy New York, New Jersey terminals from Canada's GCT
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 6 (Reuters) - CMA CGM, one of the world's largest container shipping lines, said on Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire two container terminals at the port of New York and New Jersey from Global Container Terminals (GCT), which will extend its presence in a crucial hub for trade. According to Bloomberg, which first reported the news, the deal could fetch around $3 billion. In a statement, CMA CGM said acquired ports in Staten Island, New York, and Bayonne, New Jersey, have a combined capacity of 2 million twenty-foot-equivalent units per year, and has a potential for further expansion, up to almost double capacity. Like its shipping rivals, CMA CGM has extended its presence along the logistics chain in port infrastructure and non-maritime transport services. Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh and Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Jones and Infowars had already been banned from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Apple, YouTube, Spotify, Google Play, Vimeo, Pinterest, Mailchimp and LinkedIn. But Ye’s interview had more than 3.1 million views as of publication. On other platforms, clips of the interview got millions more. Twitter suspended Ye later that night after Ye tweeted an image that contained a swastika. He showed clips of Ye praising Hitler, and Foreman speculated that his channel might get a “strike” from YouTube as a result.

☆ Elon Musk promotes release of internal Twitter documents rehashing platform’s block of Hunter Biden story
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

The controversy involving Twitter and Hunter Biden dates to October 2020, weeks before the presidential election between Joe Biden and then-President Donald Trump. Taibbi wrote that he has seen no evidence that there was government involvement in Twitter’s move to block the New York Post story. Shortly after the New York Post published the article, Twitter pointed to concerns about hacked materials as the reason for blocking the story. Zuckerberg cited warnings from the FBI about election-related threats, though none about Hunter Biden in particular. Hunter Biden has said that federal prosecutors in Delaware are investigating his taxes.

☆ Hawaiian Airlines is launching a new route to a destination hard to reach for American tourists
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Taylor Rains | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Hawaiian Airlines is launching a new nonstop route between Honolulu and the Cook Islands. American tourists previously had to stop in only New Zealand or Tahiti to get to the island. Hawaiian's new route will be the only link between the Cook Islands and the US, allowing travelers to more easily reach the isolated nation. In August, the nation's home airline, Air Rarotonga, launched direct flights between Papeete in Tahiti and Rarotonga, reported local publication Enjoy Cook Islands. The service comes after Air Tahiti ended its route between the two nations in 2020 after 13 years.

☆ Twitter has grown under Elon Musk — mainly in the U.S., data shows
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Elon Musk has generated fresh interest in Twitter, and you don’t have to take his word for it. The growth was slower outside the U.S., though, with 14% growth from a month earlier and 4% growth from a year earlier, Apptopia data showed. Musk, who already had a huge following when he bought Twitter, has continued to add followers at a rapid clip. Those apps count their users in the billions, while Twitter has about 259 million daily users, according to Musk. But it may have already ended, with Substack downloads peaking Nov. 6, the firm’s data showed.

☆ How almost $427 million in taxpayer money is locked away in a forgotten government fund — and lawmakers won't spend it or return it
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Dave Levinthal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

The intended beneficiaries of the taxpayer-fueled Presidential Election Campaign Fund — presidential candidates — don't want it, as they're soured by its restrictions on their election fundraising and spending. An accounting of the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, as of October 31, 2022. Several nonprofit leaders told Insider that Congress could use the Presidential Election Campaign Fund money to immediately ease suffering, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the 2019-20 congressional session, two Republican lawmakers sponsored similar bills that attempted to kill the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. Until that or any other repurposing decision comes down, the FEC continues to spend taxpayer resources keeping the Presidential Election Campaign Fund alive.

☆ Cyberthieves stole $186,000 from a Republican member of Congress as fraud epidemic plagues political committees
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Dave Levinthal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Cyberthieves stole more than $186,000 from Rep. Diana Harshbarger's campaign committee, federal records show. But others haven't been so lucky as a theft epidemic strikes political committees. The 2020 presidential campaign of now-President Joe Biden is among various political committees to experience theft during the past several years. More recently, the American Hospital Association's political action committee and Kanye West's 2020 presidential campaign committee have fallen victim to financial fraudsters. Requiring campaign vendors to "meet or exceed the same security standards" as the campaign committee itself.

☆ Another tech bubble bursts: 2022 has been brutal for Silicon Valley workers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +28 min

Gem: 100A maker of recruiting software, the startup cut a third of its workforce Nov. 1, The Information reported. HealthCare.com: 149The health insurance marketplace announced the job cuts Aug. 3, Miami Inno reported, citing state regulatory filings. Fabric: 120The robotics startup said July 13 that it was layoffing off 40% of them, TechCrunch reported, citing company confirmation. It affected about 300 people, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported, citing company confirmation. Policygenius: 170The online insurance company cut about 25% of its staff, Axios reported June 6, citing company confirmation.

☆ Twitter slipped on removing hate speech even before Elon Musk takeover, E.U. says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Twitter removed 45.4% of hate speech posts it was notified about in a sample this year, down from 49.8% in 2021, European Union officials wrote in their report. The data was collected from March to May, months before tech magnate Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion and began loosening the site's enforcement even more around hateful posts. law, the Digital Services Act, threatens tech companies with fines in the billions of dollars if they don't strictly police their platforms. Musk has said he's focused less on removing hateful posts and more on limiting how often people view such posts — keeping them from going viral. officials said that they worked with 33 civil society organizations and three public bodies to notify tech companies of violations and monitor takedowns.

☆ The 8 Best Winter Boots for Women
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

By Lauren IngramDepending on where you live, your ideal winter boot can vary widely. To help you find a stylish boot that also meets the practical demands of your local weather, we asked style pros from a variety of climates which boots are their winter MVPs. “It’s the most durable winter boot,” says Gall, who has worn her pair for nearly a decade of East Coast winters without having to get them resoled or refurbished. The sporty hiker“A true winter boot keeps you warm, withstands rain and snow—and has a proper anti-slip sole,” says Paris-based fashion photographer Sandra Semburg. For Giangola, this minimalist silhouette checks all the boxes of wearability needed for a Los Angeles winter where style trumps snow-readiness.

Search resuls for: "" Ingram"

25 mentions found