I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 A CDC panel voted to recommend delaying the hepatitis B vaccine for babies
Overturning a 30-year policy that has contributed to a huge decline in the virus. (STAT)
+ Why childhood vaccines are a public health success story. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Critical climate risks are growing across the Arab region
Drought is the most immediate problem countries are having to grapple with. (Ars Technica)
+ Why Tehran is running out of water. (Wired $)
3 Netflix is buying Warner Bros for $83 billion
If approved, it’ll be one of the most significant mergers in Hollywood history. (NBC)
+ Trump says the deal “could be a problem” due to Netflix’s already huge market share. (BBC)
4 The EU is fining X $140 million
For failing to comply with its new Digital Services Act. (NPR)
+ Elon Musk is now calling for the entire EU to be abolished. (CNBC)
+ X also hit back by deleting the European Commission’s account. (Engadget)
5 AI slop is ruining Reddit
Moderators are getting tired of fighting the rising tide of nonsense. (Wired $)
+ How AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Scientists have deeply mixed feelings about AI tools
They can boost researchers’ productivity, but some worry about the consequences of relying on them. (Nature $)
+ ‘AI slop’ is undermining trust in papers presented at computer science gatherings. (The Guardian)
+ Meet the researcher hosting a scientific conference by and for AI. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Australia is about to ban under 16s from social media
It’s due to come into effect in two days—but teens are already trying to maneuver around it. (New Scientist $)
8 AI is enshittifying the way we write 🖊️🤖
And most people haven’t even noticed. (NYT $)
+ AI can make you more creative—but it has limits. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Tech founders are taking etiquette lessons
The goal is to make them better at pretending to be normal. (WP $)
10 Are we getting stupider?
It might feel that way sometimes, but there’s little solid evidence to support it. (New Yorker $)
Quote of the day
“It’s hard to be Jensen day to day. It’s almost nightmarish. He’s constantly paranoid about competition. He’s constantly paranoid about people taking Nvidia down.”
—Stephen Witt, author of ‘The Thinking Machine’, a book about Nvidia’s rise, tells the Financial Times what it’s like to be its founder and chief executive, Jensen Huang.