A few weeks ago, I wrote about how all the hand-wringing over the potential future evils of AI is misplaced. Forget the future, AI is already having allegedly fatal impacts on our children . Character.AI, a Google-backed company who builds AI-powered chat bots aimed at children (astute readers may have already spotted the problem) are defending a court case brought by Megan Garcia, whose 14-year-old son Sewell tragically took his own life. The New York Times reported on Sewell's final moments interacting with his Character.ai chatbot "Dany": On the night of Feb. 28, in the bathroom of his mother’s house, Sewell told Dany that he loved her, and that he would soon come home to her. “Please come home to me as soon as possible, my love,” Dany replied. “What if I told you I could come home right now?” Sewell asked. “… please do, my sweet king,” Dany replied. He put down his phone, picked up his stepfather’s .45 caliber handgun and pulled the trigger. Wow, that really hits ...
I had my final interview on my journey to French citizenship recently. As I think about what it means to "be French", one thing really resonates with me: how France so regularly stands out, in the global landscape, as a nation of principles. Last week, we saw this when French politicians evoked Marianne, their iconic personification of "Liberté", in defending the digital privacy rights of their citizens. Following heated debate, a 119-24 vote defeated a measure which proposed forcing messaging platforms to provide unencrypted user data to law enforcement. As Joe Mullin reports , "The French lawmakers who voted this provision down deserve credit. They listened—not only to French digital rights organizations and technologists, but also to basic principles of cybersecurity and civil liberties." This decision shows, "you don’t have to sacrifice fundamental rights in the name of public safety." This is a timely reminder for Australian legislators, wh...