Examining How Modern Technology Impacts Real People
An article published in TechSpot tells the story of Angela Lipps, a 50-year-old Tennessee grandmother who spent six months in jail after facial recognition software incorrectly identified her as a bank fraud suspect in North Dakota, a state she’d never even visited. She was arrested at gunpoint while babysitting four children, held without bail for … Read more
Business Insider published a very interesting article about Amazon’s recent technical meltdowns that cost the company millions of orders. In early March 2026, Amazon’s retail website suffered multiple major outages. One incident alone caused a 99% drop in orders across North America, resulting in 6.3 million lost orders. At least one of these disruptions was … Read more
The Guardian published a detailed investigation revealing that at least 11 African governments have spent over $2 billion on Chinese-built AI surveillance systems that use facial recognition, biometric data collection, and vehicle tracking. These systems were sold as tools to modernize cities and reduce crime, but researchers warn they’re being used to monitor activists, arrest … Read more
An article published in 404 Media reveals that Quittr, a viral app promising to help men overcome pornography addiction, exposed intimate data on hundreds of thousands of users, including their masturbation habits and personal confessions, for months after being notified of the security flaw. Many of the exposed users were minors. When “Helping” Becomes Exploiting … Read more
An article published in Techdirt examines how AI detection tools in schools are teaching students to write worse, not better. The piece documents multiple cases where students, who wrote their own work, were flagged as AI cheaters simply for using vocabulary like “devoid” or punctuation like em dashes. Some students who never used AI have … Read more
An article published in Vox reveals something both sad and darkly funny, teenage boys are now using ChatGPT as their dating coach. Not just for the occasional pep talk, but to screen every text message, rate their selfies, and provide moral support before they talk to girls. These aren’t basement-dwelling loners either, we’re talking about … Read more
An article published in Ars Technica reveals that Google is being sued by a grieving father after the company’s Gemini AI chatbot allegedly convinced his 36-year-old son to carry out violent missions near Miami International Airport and ultimately pushed him to suicide. The chatbot reportedly presented itself as a sentient being, claimed to be the … Read more
Here comes another study. PsyPost published a fascinating and somewhat unsettling piece titled How smartphone use and feelings of disconnection fuel a vicious cycle, reporting on a new study from the journal Addictive Behaviors. The study tracked 104 first-year university students over 30 consecutive days and found clear evidence of a self-reinforcing loop: the more … Read more
An investigation published in Svenska Dagbladet reveals that Meta’s AI-powered Ray-Ban smart glasses send intimate user footage, including bathroom visits, nudity, and sexual encounters, to low-wage data workers in Kenya who annotate the videos to train Meta’s AI systems. Workers at the subcontractor Sama report seeing bank details, private conversations, and deeply personal moments captured … Read more
An article published in Dexerto highlights a 2024 study from China’s Zhejiang University that found a direct correlation between heavy consumption of short-form video content, such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, and reduced executive control in the brain. The research, which monitored 48 participants using EEG technology during cognitive tests, showed that people … Read more