Platforms

One of the most important lessons I learned in medical school was that in an emergency, you don’t have the luxury to wait for perfect information. You assess the available facts, you use your best judgment, and you act quickly.

Washington is fumbling through a slate of potential artificial intelligence regulations—some focused on global competition, some on AI-generated deepfakes and some arguing that the government should get its arms around how it’s using AI before it tells anyone else how to do it. All the while, the tech continues to rapidly evolve with little oversight.

Business leaders have high expectations for the year ahead, thanks to the increasing ubiquity and potential of artificial intelligence (AI). The International Data Corporation (IDC) canvassed over 650 global technology leaders, and 81% of them expect to see moderate to high growth for their businesses in the next 12 months. The study (which was commissioned by Expereo) found 69% of businesses are preparing to take on AI or already using it at scale.

The same generative artificial intelligence tools that are supercharging the work of both skilled and novice coders can also produce flawed, poten

Social media platforms are an important part of the American news diet: Half of U.S. adults say they get news at least sometimes from social media in general. But specific platforms differ widely in structure, content and culture. A new Pew Research Center survey finds that the ways in which Americans encounter news on four major platforms—TikTok, X, Facebook and Instagram – vary widely. Key findings from this study include:

Sens Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Jerry Moran (R-KS)  introduced the bipartisan Small Business Artificial Intelligence Training and Toolkit Act of 2024 that would authorize the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) to work with the Small Business Administration (SBA) to create and distribute artificial intelligence (AI) training resources and tools to help small businesses leverage AI in their operations. The Small Business Artificial Intelligence Training and Toolkit Act of 2024:

A draft of key research, sponsored by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, “The Implications of Section 230 for Black Communities,” was posted on the Social Science Research Network. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act enables technology platforms to host and remove user-generated content without fear of liability for either the content or the moderation decisions.

How should we balance freedom of speech with the flood of slanderous statements, extremist manifestoes and conspiracy theories that proliferate on the internet? The United States decided decades ago to let private companies solve that quandary themselves. The Supreme Court made this position official in three major rulings in the 1990s and early 2000s. But lawmakers aren’t sure about this arrangement, now that giant online platforms are the new town square. A series of federal court cases will address these questions. Courts have faced six broad questions about online speech:

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether Microsoft structured one of its latest deals with an artificial-intelligence startup to avoid a government antitrust review of the transaction. Microsoft in March hired Inflection AI’s co-founder and almost all of its employees and agreed to pay the startup around $650 million as part of a licensing fee to resell its technology.