Meta saves the algorithm that makes minors get hooked on its networks

Meta saves the algorithm that makes minors get hooked on its networks

The out-of-court settlement that Meta reached on Wednesday with a coalition of prosecutors from dozens of U.S. states, under which it agrees to pay an amount of up to about $18 billion over about 10 years, may seem like a blow to Mark Zuckerberg’s company, but it is barely a scratch. In the same Wall Street trading session, the market already returned a market value increase of 1% – which represents between 122% and 86% of what it may end up paying the states based on the agreements reached. The algorithm that supports the business model will not be affected despite the time and age restrictions that the company has committed to assume. In any case, the agreement only binds the tech company in U.S. territory and not in the rest of the world.

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How the changes Meta has agreed to in order to prevent addiction in minors affect Meta

How the changes Meta has agreed to in order to prevent addiction in minors affect Meta

Meta’s plaintiffs, with whom it has reached an agreement that still needs to be validated by the judge in charge of the case, were 47 of the 50 U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia and some territories of the country. The agreement will oblige Mark Zuckerberg’s company not only to pay 17.100 million dollars in fines, but also to introduce changes in its social networks to try to correct the risks of addiction it causes in minors, in addition to strengthening the age verification system and parental controls.

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AI-designed viruses alert researchers about biosecurity

AI-designed viruses alert researchers about biosecurity

Two weeks ago, the journal Science published a paper by researchers from Stanford University (Samuel H. King et al.) who used two genomic language AI models, Evo 1 and Evo 2, to create the complete genomes of 16 new viruses capable of successfully attacking the bacterium Escherichia coli C. Beyond what this scientific achievement entails, the fact that an artificial intelligence is capable of generating viruses that do not exist in nature raises new alarms. The authors created bacteriophage viruses – which do not attack animal cells – and applied strict safety measures, ensuring that their creation did not leave the laboratory. But the inevitability of Murphy’s law points out that if something can happen, it will eventually happen. Biosafety needs to prepare for this new technoscientific capability.

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