Reflecting on TikTok’s Role in Society as New Ban Deadline Approaches

On Jan. 18, I was one of millions of Americans scrolling through TikTok when service for the all-you-can-binge video buffet suddenly halted just before a federal government ban went into effect. It was a breathtaking moment that had me in mourning. Where will I go now, I wondered, for my daily dose of Hollywood gossip, […]

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After the Signal Leak, How Well Do You Know Your Own Group Chats?

Hey, are you sure you want to send that to your group chat? Like, one thousand percent sure? Just checking. Because it’s been a strange week in the history of the group chat, those seemingly intimate text conversations that ping back and forth among friends and family members and, apparently, national security personnel. On Monday, […]

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What Is Signal, the App Involved in a War Plans Security Breach?

Signal, a popular messaging app, came into the spotlight this week following reports that several senior Trump administration officials had used the tool to conduct war planning — inadvertently including a journalist in the message group. The app, which was started in 2014 and has hundreds of millions of users, is popular among journalists, activists, […]

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Inside A.I.’s Super Bowl: Nvidia Dreams of A Robot Future

The robots were everywhere. Some pedaled around like “Star Wars” droids. Others manipulated hospital surgery equipment. They all provided a glimpse of what a future powered by artificial intelligence could look like. Nvidia, the world’s largest maker of artificial intelligence chips, brought the robots together as part of its annual developer conference in San Jose, […]

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TikTok Ads Portray App as Force for Good as US Ban Looms

In an emotional advertisement running on Facebook and Instagram over the past month, a young woman, Katie, talks about being diagnosed with an illness that resulted in kidney failure at age 19. But she was able to find a transplant match “because a stranger was scrolling on TikTok.” Thanks to that stranger’s kidney, she continued, […]

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Layoffs and Unemployment Grow Among College Graduates

When Starbucks announced last month that it was laying off more than 1,000 corporate employees, it highlighted a disturbing trend for white-collar workers: Over the past few years, they have seen a steeper rise in unemployment than other groups, and slower wage growth. It also added fuel to a debate that has preoccupied economists for […]

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Trump Leads a ‘Machinery’ of Misinformation in Second Term

In her first briefing as White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt said she was “committed to telling the truth from this podium every single day.” Moments later she announced that the new administration had blocked a $50 million contract for condoms in Gaza. “That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money,” she said. It was […]

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Emboldened by Trump, A.I. Companies Lobby for Fewer Rules

For just over two years, technology leaders at the forefront of developing artificial intelligence had made an unusual request of lawmakers. They wanted Washington to regulate them. The tech executives warned lawmakers that generative A.I., which can produce text and images that mimic human creations, had the potential to disrupt national security and elections, and […]

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Netflix’s Reed Hastings Gives $50 Million to Bowdoin for A.I. Program

The Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings wants more researchers and students to ask deep questions about artificial intelligence and its potential to upend human norms. To that end, Mr. Hastings has donated $50 million to Bowdoin College, his alma mater, to create a research initiative on “A.I. and Humanity” — the largest gift to the liberal […]

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After Lunar Disappointments, NASA Hits the Jackpot With Blue Ghost Moon Lander

NASA made a bet a few years ago that commercial companies could take scientific experiments to the moon on a lower budget than the agency could. Last year, that was a bad bet. The first NASA-financed spacecraft missed the moon entirely. The second landed but fell over. But this month, a robotic lander named Blue […]

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