180711134
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alternative_right writes:
If the bill is adopted on schedule, all social media users in France will have to undergo age verification before the end of the year.
180711074
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alternative_right writes:
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP), the Finnish public health authority THL and two-thirds of Finns are in favour of banning or restricting the use of social media by under-15s.
180709750
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hwstar writes:
Picture a future where you don’t control the machine — the machine controls you. Renowned digital critic Cory Doctorow warns that instead of amplifying human abilities, today’s artificial intelligence is quietly relegating us to the role of “reverse-centaurs”: humans serving as the error-checkers and legal scapegoats for automated systems we neither understand nor command. Welcome to 2025, where the AI revolution threatens to be less about liberation, and more about subjugation.
The vision of technology as an empowering force — where humans and machines merge to become “centaurs” — has long been a Silicon Valley selling point. But Doctorow, echoing the concerns of digital watchdogs, exposes a darker reality: in the AI gold rush, humans are increasingly relegated to the backseat. The “reverse-centaur” model sees AI taking the lead, with humans reduced to mere appendages — signing off on outputs, correcting mistakes, and absorbing the blame when systems fail.
180706334
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theodp writes:
The self-congratulatory, yea-we-hit-the-kid-but-you-would-have-done-lots-worse tone of Waymo's blog post response to its Waymo robotaxi hitting a child near an elementary School in Santa Monica seemed a bit tone deaf, even more so as commenters pointed out and Google Maps images appeared to confirm that the posted speed limit around Grant Elementary School in Santa Monica is 15 mph (Google Maps link, screenshot) when children are present and Waymo self-reported that the robotaxi's speed was "approximately 17 mph" when it spotted the "young pedestrian" and "braked hard" to reduce the car's speed "to under 6 mph before contact was made." Waymo did not mention what the speed limit was in its self-described ‘transparent’ blog disclosure.
Not that going 17 mph in a 15 mph zone is the stuff of street drag racing, but it's at odds with the attaboy Waymo gave itself for softening the blow to the child as well as an earlier Waymo blog post that boasted "the Waymo Driver is always alert, respects speed limits."
From a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report on the incident: "NHTSA is aware that the incident occurred within two blocks of a Santa Monica, CA elementary school [a Jan. 23rd police call report puts the location as the 2400 block of Pearl St.] during normal school drop off hours; that there were other children, a crossing guard, and several double-parked vehicles in the vicinity; and that the child ran across the street from behind a double parked SUV towards the school and was struck by the Waymo AV. Waymo reported that the child sustained minor injuries. [...] ODI [Office of Defect Investigation] has opened this Preliminary Evaluation to investigate whether the Waymo AV exercised appropriate caution given, among other things, its proximity to the elementary school during drop off hours, and the presence of young pedestrians and other potential vulnerable road users. ODI expects that its investigation will examine the ADS’s intended behavior in school zones and neighboring areas, especially during normal school pick up/drop off times, including but not limited to its adherence to posted speed limits. ODI will also investigate Waymo's post-impact response."
