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Accountable Tech

@accountabletech.bsky.social
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Doing what our name says, holding Big Tech accountable. #ReinInBigTech accountabletech.org

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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
This is our last thread here at Accountable Tech. But the good news is, the fight continues with our partner, @designitforus.bsky.social – and they’re just getting started.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
Meet @designitforus.bsky.social! Our youth-led partner, fighting for a safer digital world, especially for young people. Having grown up online, they’ve got the lived experience to know just how Big Tech harms young people, and how to fix it.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
We’ve got a big announcement: After five years of working with advocates like you to hold Big Tech accountable, we’ve made the decision to wind down operations.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
A race to the bottom if you ask us www.theverge.com/news/719756/...
theverge.com
Instagram adds a reposts feed and rips off Snap Maps
You can now repost Reels and grid posts.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
CW: Suicide A new study shows that jailbroken AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity still give dangerous advice on suicide and self-harm. time.com/7306661/ai-s...
time.com
AI Chatbots Can Be Manipulated to Give Suicide Advice: Study
Researchers found that some LLMs’ safety guardrails can be easily bypassed.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
The Trump administration is pushing an initiative to track people’s health and behavior. This is not just dystopian. It’s dangerous. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Trump administration launching health tracking system with big tech’s help
Initiative involving Americans’ personal data on systems run by private firms has ‘enormous concerns’, say experts
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
DOGE is using an AI tool to remove and end federal regulations, “with the goal of eliminating half of Washington’s regulatory mandates by the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.” Sources say the tool is already in use. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
washingtonpost.com
DOGE builds AI tool to cut 50 percent of federal regulations
The U.S. DOGE Service is using a new AI tool to eliminate federal regulations, aiming to cut 50 percent of rules by the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
In a rejection of EU regulations, Meta will stop distributing political or social issue ads in the region. They claim the regulations are “unworkable,” but the EU’s regulations center on controlling disinformation around elections and politics. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/b...
nytimes.com
Citing New Rules, Meta Says It Will End Political Ads in E.U.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
A new lawsuit alleges that Meta has been pirating copyright porn videos since 2018, potentially distributing them to minors and using them to train their AI. arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
arstechnica.com
Meta pirated and seeded porn for years to train AI, lawsuit says
Lawsuit: Meta may have seeded porn to minors while hiding piracy for AI training.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Scammers are using AI deepfakes to impersonate Trump-era officials and CEOs, tricking diplomats, job interviewers, and executives. apnews.com/article/arti...
apnews.com
Creating realistic deepfakes is getting easier than ever. Fighting back may take even more AI
The use of deepfakes to impersonate high-level officials in the U.S. presents a growing security challenge.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Meta is pulling all political ads in the EU starting this October. Why? New EU transparency laws require clear disclosure around political ad spend, targeting, and funders. Instead of complying, Meta is just... opting out. www.forbes.com/sites/emmawo...
forbes.com
Meta To Pull All Political Ads In The EU
Meta has decided to stop serving political, electoral, and social advertising on its platforms in the EU, rather than be subject to upcoming regulation.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Media organizations are losing website traffic at an alarming speed thanks to Google’s AI summaries in search. Those outlets rely on site visits for advertising dollars that support their work. Without visits, we could witness “the death of quality information online.”
theguardian.com
AI summaries cause ‘devastating’ drop in audiences, online news media told
Exclusive: Study claims sites previously ranked first can lose 79% of traffic if results appear below Google Overview
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
The Trump administration is letting Big Tech have free rein on AI development, free from what Trump is calling “foolish rules,” also known as regulations, in order to win the AI race. www.cnn.com/2025/07/23/t...
cnn.com
Trump reveals plan to win in AI: Remove ‘red tape’ for Silicon Valley | CNN Business
The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled its AI action plan, a package of initiatives and policy recommendations meant to cement the United States as a global leader in a technology that’s expec...
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
SpOoKY: “this experimental technology reads the electrical signals that pulse through your muscles when you move your fingers. These signals, generated by commands sent from your brain, can reveal what you are about to do even before you do it.” www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/s...
nytimes.com
Meta Unveils Wristband for Controlling Computers With Hand Gestures
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Meta is the biggest Big Tech lobbying spender, shelling out almost $6M in the past quarter. They’re trying to influence policy around: misinformation, “AI, kids' online safety, and more.” www.axios.com/pro/tech-pol...
axios.com
Meta tops Big Tech lobbying spending as more industries shell out over AI
Meta once again outspent its Big Tech counterparts in lobbying, but dropped far less cash than last quarter.
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Reposted by Accountable Tech
Fight for the Future @fightforthefuture.org · 24/07/2025
That’s why we’ve joined @eff.org @accountabletech.bsky.social @peoplestechproject.bsky.social and other civil society organizations in demanding an AI Action plan to provide relief from tech oligarchies 👇 Sign + share! peoplesaiaction.com
peoplesaiaction.com
People's AI Action Plan
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok praised Hitler. Now he wants it to teach your kids. After a wave of antisemitic and extremist responses, Musk announced “Baby Grok”—a child-friendly version of the same bot. gizmodo.com/elon-musks-a...
gizmodo.com
Elon Musk’s AI Praised Hitler. Now He Wants It to Teach Your Kids
It's his most audacious pivot yet: Can an AI known for chaos and conspiracy be trusted to educate the next generation?
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Grok AI was used to generate non-consensual sexual deepfakes of women like Evie, a Twitch streamer who spoke out after being targeted. This isn’t just tech gone wrong, it’s image-based sexual abuse. www.usatoday.com/videos/life/...
usatoday.com
Grok AI deepfakes used to target women in growing image abuse trend
Grok AI is being used to create porn-like deepfakes of women, including feminist X user Evie.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
An AI action plan written by and for tech billionaires cannot and will not serve the interests of the broader public. We cannot let Big Tech special interests buy Washington and write the rules for AI and our economy. That's why we need a People’s AI Action Plan. peoplesaiaction.com
peoplesaiaction.com
People's AI Action Plan
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, wants to “democratize” AI’s “benefits” by “getting them into the hands of people to do stuff), not concentrating them in the hands of the few." www.axios.com/2025/07/21/s...
axios.com
Altman plans D.C. push to "democratize" AI economic benefits
Altman wants to continue driving debate over the effect AI will have on jobs.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Layoffs could be more due to AI than companies are letting on. “Firms often limit their explanations to terms like reorganization, restructuring, and optimization, and that terminology could be AI in disguise.” www.cnbc.com/2025/07/20/i...
cnbc.com
In recent layoffs, AI's role may be bigger than companies are letting on
As companies use terms like reorganization, restructuring, and optimization in job cuts, AI may be at work more than they want employees to know.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
After failing to deliver on AI for years, Mark Zuckerberg is throwing money at the problem in the hopes of winning the AI race. He's offering top researchers in the industry hundreds of millions of dollars to join his “superintelligence” team. This time’s the charm?
theatlantic.com
Meta Swears This Time Is Different
The tech giant has floundered on AI. Now it’s going all in on a “superintelligence” team.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Meta is yet again allowing advertisers to violate their policies, even after being made aware of the violation. Now, advertisers are fundraising for the IDF, specifically seeking civilian drones that drop bombs on unarmed people. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Meta allows ads crowdfunding for IDF drones, consumer watchdog finds
Paid ads hosted on Facebook, Instagram and Threads seem to violate Meta’s stated policies yet remain active
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Grok’s AI “anime girlfriend” will start sexually charged conversations with anyone – including children. And AI chatbots are becoming the norm. They provide a false sense of intimacy and have an addicting personalized business model to keep people coming back. www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
bloomberg.com
Elon Musk Is Cashing In on the AI Romance Boom
Grok’s new flirtatious character may be lucrative, but it only offers an illusion of intimacy.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
The more AI develops, the more it gets personified — and that’s not always a good thing. See: Grok’s new “anime girlfriend.” Check out the recent podcast from [tag] The Verge on how AI is getting creepy. www.theverge.com/the-vergecas...
theverge.com
The creepy AI era is here
On The Vergecast: Alexa Plus, Waifu Grok, Sony’s RX1R III, and Thunder Round take two.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
AI is supposed to make our lives easier, but at what cost? Netflix, a multi-billion dollar corporation, admitted to using AI to “cut costs.” Just pay people. www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Netflix uses AI effects for first time to cut costs
The streaming firm says AI allowed The Eternaut to complete a sequence faster and cheaper.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Meta is refusing to sign the EU’s voluntary AI “code of practice," which requires “documentation about their AI tools and services; bans developers from training AI on pirated content; and [compliance] with content owners’ requests to not use their works.” techcrunch.com/2025/07/18/m...
techcrunch.com
Meta refuses to sign EU's AI code of practice | TechCrunch
Meta will not sign the EU's new rules, calling the implementation "over-reach"
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook billionaires are being sued for their role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal that resulted in “tens of millions” of users’ data being accessed by the now-defunct consulting firm, violating an agreement with the FTC. www.cbc.ca/news/world/m...
cbc.ca
Remember Cambridge Analytica? What to know about the $8B US lawsuit against Meta's board | CBC News
An $8 billion US trial by Meta Platforms shareholders against Mark Zuckerberg and other current and former company leaders kicks off on Wednesday over claims that they illegally harvested the data of ...
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Trump’s admin is trying to square their “pro-business” agenda with the Trump base’s wariness about Big Tech – so far it looks like big antitrust talk without stopping mergers from taking place. We’ve yet to see how Big Tech’s existing antitrust cases play out: www.politico.com/newsletters/...
politico.com
What 'America First Antitrust' means for Big Tech
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
“Hollywood is currently in the midst of an AI insurgency [...] the effort is increasingly looking like a full-on takeover, a Pixar-like artquake that aims to change the provenance of images, the business of production and [...] the language of cinema itself.”
hollywoodreporter.com
Rise of the Machines: Inside Hollywood’s AI Civil War
The technology is already transforming the industry — and could forever change the entertainment we consume. But the battle to contain it has just begun.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Humans have been using technology for “cognitive offloading” on “difficult or tedious mental tasks” for eons. But AI offloads a more “complex set of processes.” and once the brain gets used to that, it may rely on that offloading in more and more areas. www.economist.com/science-and-...
economist.com
Will AI make you stupid?
Creativity and critical thinking might take a hit. But there are ways to soften the blow
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Delta is using AI to decide how much you should pay for a plane ticket. Not based on the seat, but on your data. Dynamic pricing like this could make air travel more expensive and more unfair, especially for vulnerable consumers. fortune.com/2025/07/16/d...
fortune.com
Delta moves toward eliminating set prices in favor of AI that determines how much you personally will pay for a ticket
The airline touted a partnership with an AI-enabled revenue system as a step on the road to fully personalized ticket pricing, part of its goal to raise profit margins long-term.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Teens are turning to AI companions for emotional support, and Big Tech is already monetizing their loneliness. From grief to anxiety to body image struggles, kids are seeking out chatbot “friends” but these tools are unregulated, exploitative, and unfit to provide actual care.
cnn.com
Kids are asking AI companions to solve their problems, according to a new study. Here’s why that’s a problem | CNN
Nearly three-quarters of teens have used AI companions, and half use them regularly, new research finds. Moreover, one-third turn to chatbots for social interactions.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
A new $8.4 billion lawsuit alleges Facebook ignored years of warnings about its invasive tracking and misleading privacy practices, even after pledging reform. The evidence? Internal emails showing Meta prioritized profits over user consent. www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
reuters.com
Facebook privacy practices the focus of $8 billion trial targeting Zuckerberg
An $8 billion trial by Meta Platforms shareholders against Mark Zuckerberg and other current and former company leaders kicks off over claims that they illegally harvested the data of Facebook users in violation of a 2012 agreement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
“Grok reveals what's been true all along: there's no such thing as unbiased AI – only AI whose biases we can see with varying degrees of clarity.” www.cbsnews.com/news/grok-mu...
cbsnews.com
How do you stop an AI model from turning Nazi? What the Grok drama reveals about AI training.
The latest Grok controversy is revealing not for the extremist outputs, but for how it exposes a fundamental dishonesty in AI development.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
Yikes. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
washingtonpost.com
The government wants AI to fight wars and review your taxes
The Trump administration is pushing the Pentagon, IRS and other federal agencies to rapidly adopt AI tools to improve efficiency, an idea championed by Elon Musk.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
Google is rolling out AI summaries in Discover, the main news feed inside Google’s search app on iOS and Android. Now users will see an AI-generated summary. techcrunch.com/2025/07/15/g...
techcrunch.com
Google Discover adds AI summaries, threatening publishers with further traffic declines | TechCrunch
As publishers fret about decreased traffic from Google, the search giant has begun rolling out AI summaries in Discover, the main news feed inside
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
“Mothers who were in the habit of spending more time on social media talked much less to their kids when they played with them than did moms who spent less time on social networks, and that difference carried over when they weren’t using their devices.” www.cnn.com/2025/07/13/h...
cnn.com
Cell phone use affects parent-child interactions, even when adults aren’t online | CNN
You may have stopped scrolling your feed to play with your child, but your attention may still be with your social media, not with your kid, finds a new study.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
A band went viral with over a million streams. Turns out, everything about them is AI-generated, with no transparency on which artists’ content the bots trained on. It poses some serious ethical questions: www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
An AI-generated band got 1m plays on Spotify. Now music insiders say listeners should be warned
The Velvet Sundown released two albums before admitting their music, images and backstory were created by AI
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Nudify apps – platforms that create non-consensual AI-generated deepfake nude images of people – have risen in popularity and make millions. And “most of the sites rely on tech services from Google, Amazon, and Cloudflare to operate and stay online.” www.wired.com/story/ai-nud...
wired.com
AI 'Nudify' Websites Are Raking in Millions of Dollars
Millions of people are accessing harmful AI “nudify” websites. New analysis says the sites are making millions and rely on tech from US companies.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Meta is continuing its attempt to become a leader in AI by acquiring a voice-generating AI startup. techcrunch.com/2025/07/13/m...
techcrunch.com
Meta acquires voice startup Play AI | TechCrunch
Meta has acquired Play AI, a startup that uses AI to generate human-sounding voices.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, recently made antisemitic remarks. According to @techcrunch.com, the bot seems to get its positions on “controversial subjects” like “the Israel and Palestine conflict, abortion, and immigration laws” directly from Elon’s posts. techcrunch.com/2025/07/10/g...
techcrunch.com
Grok 4 seems to consult Elon Musk to answer controversial questions | TechCrunch
Elon Musk's newly launched AI chatbot, Grok 4, seemed to reference Musk's posts on social media before answering controversial questions.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
This is extremely concerning and a major overreach: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/u...
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
People's accounts have been “permanently disabled” by Meta after being falsely accused of “breaching its rules on child sexual exploitation” – likely due to AI moderation. Businesses are losing money, people are getting isolated, and users are losing years of memories.
bbc.co.uk
Instagram wrongly says some users breached child sex abuse rules
It was
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
When AI isn’t regulated, it’s dangerous – that danger includes addiction. AI chatbots are known to be sycophantic and agreeable, encouraging people to engage. Now, self-proclaimed addicts are turning to Reddit to find support from other humans with similar issues.
fastcompany.com
‘I’ve been clean for a week!’: Reddit is now home to support groups for people addicted to AI chatbots
Behind the screen, a growing number of users are forming intense, sometimes unhealthy relationships with virtual characters.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
In a sick twist of irony, the companies we use to help us get and vet jobs are cutting over 1,000 of positions between them to make room for AI – doesn’t exactly bode well for us job seekers using their services. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Indeed, Glassdoor to Cut 1,300 Jobs in AI-Focused Consolidation
Indeed and Glassdoor — both owned by the Japanese group Recruit Holdings Co. — are cutting roughly 1,300 jobs as part of a broader move to combine operations and shift more focus toward artificial int...
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
“Electricity bills are projected to surge by more than 20% this summer in some parts of PJM Interconnection's territory, which covers 13 states - from Illinois to Tennessee, Virginia to New Jersey - serving 67 million customers.” www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
reuters.com
America's largest power grid is struggling to meet demand from AI
America's largest power grid is under strain as data centers and AI chatbots consume power faster than new plants can be built.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
Elon Musk felt that his chatbot was too politically correct, so he updated it. Now, it’s spewing antisemitic spiels and “invoking Hitler.” The company xAI says they’ll “improve Grok’s training model.” www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
washingtonpost.com
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok launches into antisemitic rant amid updates
Grok, the chatbot built by Musk’s start-up xAI, is integrated into X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
Meta is banking on people using AI smart glasses, investing billions in “the world’s largest eyewear manufacturer.” Why? Because unlike competitor smartphones, “glasses offer Meta a chance to build its own hardware and control its own distribution, Zuckerberg has said.”
bloomberg.com
Meta Invests $3.5 Billion in World’s Largest Eye-Wear Maker in AI Glasses Push
Meta Platforms Inc. bought a minority stake in the world’s largest eyewear manufacturer, EssilorLuxottica SA, deepening the US tech giant’s commitment to the fast-growing smart glasses industry, accor...
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Accountable Tech @accountabletech.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
Paid escort services have been promoting their businesses on Instagram, against Meta’s policies around “human exploitation.” www.cbsnews.com/news/meta-in...
cbsnews.com
Meta's Instagram showed paid ads promoting escort services and sex work, CBS News investigation finds
CBS News uncovered multiple paid advertisements on Meta's Instagram stories feature that lead to Telegram channels that promote sex work in the U.S. and other countries
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