View time: 1 min 48
Level : Advanced
Author: natixis-ezine
Tobacco-like warning label for social media sought by US surgeon general who asks Congress to act
Read time : 3 mins
Level : Advanced
By MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer
The U.S. surgeon general has called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms and their effects on young people’s lives, similar to those now mandatory on cigarette boxes.
In a Monday opinion piece in the The New York Times, Dr. Vivek Murthy said that social media is a contributing factor in the mental health crisis among young people.
“It is time to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents. A surgeon general’s warning label, which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe,” Murthy said. “Evidence from tobacco studies show that warning labels can increase awareness and change behavior.” Continue reading
Facebook owner Meta seeks to train AI model on European data as it faces privacy concerns
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Level : Intermediate
By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer
LONDON (AP) — Meta wants to use data from users in privacy-conscious Europe to train its artificial intelligence models, the social media giant said Monday as it faces concerns about data protection while battling to keep up with rivals like OpenAI and Google.
The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said that in order to better reflect the “languages, geography and cultural references” of its users in Europe, it needs to use public data from those users to teach its Llama AI large language model. Continue reading
For shrinking Mississippi River towns, frequent floods worsen fortunes
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Level : Intermediate
EU cybersecurity chief says disruptive attacks have doubled in the EU in 2024
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Level : Advanced
Coffee, sculptures and financial advice. Banks try to make new branches less intimidating
Read time : 3 mins
Level : Advanced
By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — It’s like Sephora or Starbucks now offered a checking account.
After years of closing or mostly neglecting physical bank branches across the U.S., the nation’s largest banks are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on refurbishing old locations or building new ones, and in the process changing the look, feel and purpose of the local bank branch.
Many of these branches are larger, airier, and meant to feel more comfortable for those walking in with difficult financial questions. Others are being designed as “third spaces” to allow local nonprofits or community representatives to hold workshops or seminars for customers or neighbors. They are a contrast to the marble-clad temples to finance built 50 or 75 years ago and the stale cookie-cutter branches that more recently cluttered suburban malls. Continue reading
Centenarian veterans are sharing their memories of D-Day, 80 years later
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Level : Intermediate
By SYLVIE CORBET and DANICA KIRKA Associated Press
CAEN, France (AP) — World War II veterans from the United States, Britain and Canada are in Normandy this week to mark 80 years since the D-Day landings that helped lead to Hitler’s defeat.
Few witnesses remain who remember the Allied assault. The Associated Press is speaking to veterans about their role in freeing Europe from the Nazis, and their messages for younger generations.
PAPA JAKE
“I am the luckiest man in the world,” D-Day veteran Jake Larson, a 101-year-old American best known on social media under the name “Papa Jake,” said as he arrived in Normandy this week. Papa Jake has more than 800,000 followers on TikTok.
Born in Owatonna, Minnesota, Larson enlisted in the National Guard in 1938, lying about his age as he was only 15. Continue reading
Ford renovates historic train station, former eyesore that had become a symbol of Detroit’s decline
View time : 1 min 45
Level : Intermediate
Paris is aiming for the most sustainable Olympics yet
View time: 1 min 36
Level : Advanced
Tests find AI tools readily create election lies from the voices of well-known political leaders
Read time : 4 mins
Level : Advanced
By ALI SWENSON Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — As high-stakes elections approach in the U.S. and European Union, publicly available artificial intelligence tools can be easily weaponized to churn out convincing election lies in the voices of leading political figures, a digital civil rights group said Friday.
Researchers at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Countering Digital Hate tested six of the most popular AI voice-cloning tools to see if they would generate audio clips of five false statements about elections in the voices of eight prominent American and European politicians.
In a total of 240 tests, the tools generated convincing voice clones in 193 cases, or 80% of the time, the group found. In one clip, a fake U.S. President Joe Biden says election officials count each of his votes twice. In another, a fake French President Emmanuel Macron warns citizens not to vote because of bomb threats at the polls. Continue reading