PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 16, 2023--

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 16, 2023--

When 16-year-old Shreya Nallamothu from Normal, Illinois, scrolled through social media platforms to pass time during the pandemic, she became increasingly frustrated with the number of children she saw featured in family vlogs.

(Reuters) -Coinbase Global said on Wednesday it had secured approval to offer cryptocurrency futures to U.S. retail customers, scoring a

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 16, 2023--

JD.com Inc.’s revenue accelerated in the second quarter after its signature 6.18 festival scored with shoppers, helping the

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 16, 2023--

Snapchat users say they were left terrified after the app’s artificial intelligence system posted a “scary” image of its own. The “My AI” tool is built into Snapchat and works as a chatbot: users can talk to it like they would a real person. It will not only recommend Snapchat features but also converse with people. Overnight, however, Snapchat users found that their AI friend had posted an image to its story. That came as a surprise since it was not clear the system was even able to do so. Users then found themselves concerned by the picture itself. It showed two interlocking colours – in such a way that led many to speculate that it was a picture of a wall and a ceiling. On Twitter, some users even said they became panicked because of fears that the picture depicted their own wall. But the picture appears to have been the same for all Snapchat users, and it is unclear what it actually shows. Very soon after the picture was posted, it was removed again. And Snapchat’s My AI then went offline, with users who tried to talk to it receiving an error messaging indicating that it was experiencing a “technical issue”. Some time after, My AI came back online, though the post remained deleted. Users were then able to ask the system what had happened – and in response to one, it said that the post was a “fun way to mix things up” and then apologised if it had “caused any concern”. In another conversation, My AI said that the post was a “spooky ghost prank” that was “hilarious and gave us quite a scare”. It then appeared to suggest that it needed help. But both the explanation and the other suspect messages that came from My AI are likely a result of the artificial intelligence system inventing stories in response to questions, rather than giving factual information about what had actually happened. Large language models such as those used in My AI are very good at giving convincing answers in response to questions – but often that information is not actually factually accurate. Snapchat confirmed in a statement that it had experienced technical issues. “My AI experienced a temporary outage that’s now resolved,” a spokesperson told The Independent. But it did not address the unusual picture that had been posted just before that temporary outage began. Read More iPhone owners to receive payouts from Apple Something unexpected is happening to people’s iPhone 14s, owners claim Twitter turning Tweetdeck into paid service after slowing down access to rivals iPhone owners to receive payouts from Apple Something unexpected is happening to people’s iPhone 14s, owners claim Twitter turning Tweetdeck into paid service after slowing down access to rivals

Twitter, rebranded as X, is now officially turning Tweetdeck into a paid service and placing it behind a paywall, after slowing down access to rival social media platforms including Meta’s Threads and Facebook. Tweetdeck, which was also rebranded recently to “X Pro”, now requires a Blue subscription to access it. The latest change follows Twitter’s announcement in July that users must be “verified” to access TweetDeck. Non-subscribing users visiting Tweetdeck’s website are now being redirected to a page promoting signup to Twitter’s premium service. Tweetdeck, which allows users to access different accounts and multiple custom feeds, was one of the most popular Twitter third-party apps, and was acquired by the social media company in 2011. Twitter has tried to make its premium subscription more enticing to users with added features like ad revenue sharing, formatting, and higher rankings in conversations. Now it appears the social media company, rebranded as X, is hoping the addition of XPro to this list of added features would attract more premium subscribers. On Tuesday, X also appeared to slow down the loading times of some of the platform’s competitors such as Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and Threads as well as Substack and news media sites posted to X. Links posted to X from some websites were taking about five seconds longer than usual to load on Tuesday, but the platform began reversing some of the changes restricting quick view of news sites. Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg reacted to a post on the issue with a “thinking face emoji”. “Substack was created in direct response to this kind of behaviour by social media companies,” the company’s founders, Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie and Jairaj Sethi, said in a statement. This is not the first time X, formerly Twitter, has taken decisions to restrict access to rival websites. In December, X-owner Elon Musk announced he would ban “free promotion” of other social media services, and also suspend accounts encouraging users to move to other platforms. This announcement came as the platform’s rival Mastodon was growing in popularity, partly due to users’ discontent with changes made by the Tesla titan to Twitter since his takeover of the company. “We will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter,” Mr Musk said before the company decided to reverse its decision. Read More Mark Zuckerberg hits out at Elon Musk for wasting time over cage fight: ‘It’s time to move on’ Move fast and beat Musk: The inside story of how Meta built Threads Elon Musk says he may need surgery before proposed 'cage match' with Mark Zuckerberg Mark Zuckerberg hits out at Elon Musk for wasting time over cage fight Elon Musk reveals more dramatic details of fight against Mark Zuckerberg Mark Zuckerberg reveals his 4,000 calorie diet and large McDonald’s order

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 16, 2023--

The company behind a disastrous change to a Kentucky city’s school bus routes that resulted in more than a week of canceled classes had similar problems in two cities in neighboring Ohio last year

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 15, 2023--