UK ban on social media for under-16s? Naughty Dog cancels Last of Us game
Rishi Sunak is considering limiting social media access for teenagers under the age of 16 to try to protect them from online harm, with reports suggesting a potential ban is on the cards. The government is considering further action despite bringing in the Online Safety Act, which requires social media platforms to shield children from harmful content or face fines of up to 10% of a company’s global revenue. A consultation would be launched in the new year, Bloomberg first reported, to explore the risks that children were exposed to while using social media. The Guardian
TikTok is being investigated by the UK communications watchdog over providing it with inaccurate information. It is now investigating whether the platform failed to comply with a legal information request. The information fed into a report Ofcom published on Thursday into what video-sharing platforms are doing to stop children viewing harmful content. TikTok has blamed a technical problem, and says it spotted the issue and informed Ofcom, triggering the probe. It also said it was the accuracy of the information that was being scrutinized, and not its parental controls. BBC
Zeekr, the premium electric vehicle brand of Chinese automaker Geely unveiled on Thursday lithium iron phosphate batteries it developed that support fast charging. At a battery plant owned by Zeekr’s parent Geely Holding Group in the province of Zhejiang, the company said its upcoming 007 sedan would be the first model to be equipped with the batteries, which charge sufficiently within 15 minutes to reach a driving range of 500 km (300 miles), together with an 800-voltage electric system. Reuters
On the day after Thanksgiving this year, one ChatGPT user received an unusually lazy, human response from the AI chatbot: ‘You can fill in the rest of the data.’ Since then, ChatGPT’s makers at OpenAI have fielded a wave of complaints about their large language model (LLM) AI behaving sluggishly over the past month — leading to jokes and some sincere data analysis on the bot’s ‘seasonal depression.’ ‘We’ve heard all your feedback about GPT4 getting lazier!’ OpenAI’s ChatGPT team posted to X. Daily Mail
Instagram hasa its generative AI-powered background editing tool to U.S.-based users. Meta’s lead for generative AI, Ahmad Al-Dahle, posted on Threads saying that the tool will let users change the background to their images through prompts for Stories. When users tap on the background editor icon on an image they will get ready prompts like “On a red carpet,” “Being chased by dinosaurs” and “Surrounded by puppies.” Users can write their own prompts to change the background as well. Tech Crunch
The next game in the popular The Last Of Us series has been cancelled. Developer Naughty Dog said it had made the “incredibly difficult decision” after realising the project’s scope would negatively impact other future titles. In a blog post, the studio added it knows “this news will be tough” for fans and that it was “equally crushed”. Unlike prior releases from the PlayStation studio, which is known for single-player, story-driven blockbusters, the cancelled game was an online multiplayer experience. Sky News
Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, has scrapped plans for a Government-backed ticketing app that promised rail passengers an easier way to receive refunds. The proposal for a new “Great British Railways” website and smartphone app has been shelved just two years after it was introduced by Mr Harper’s predecessor Grant Shapps. At the time of its rollout, Mr Shapps vowed to provide a taxpayer-backed ticketing sales service that could compete with private companies such as Trainline. Telegraph
