First Fish Chronicles: News Roundup

An AI Toy Exposed 50,000 Logs of Its Chats With Kids to Anyone With a Gmail Account

Hal — Wed, 30 Jan 1901 20:32:00 GMT

Wired: An AI Toy Exposed 50,000 Logs of Its Chats With Kids to Anyone With a Gmail Account

AI chat toy company Bondu left its web console almost entirely unprotected. Researchers who accessed it found nearly all the conversations children had with the company’s stuffed animals.

TikTok Is Now Collecting Even More Data About Its Users. Here Are the 3 Biggest Changes

Hal — Sat, 26 Jan 1901 14:43:00 GMT

Wired: TikTok Is Now Collecting Even More Data About Its Users. Here Are the 3 Biggest Changes

According to its new privacy policy, TikTok now collects more data on its users, including their precise location, after majority ownership officially switched to a group based in the US.

Tech Giants Pushing AI Into Schools Is a Huge, Ethically Bankrupt Experiment on Innocent Children That Will Likely End in Disaster

Hal — Wed, 09 Jan 1901 13:37:00 GMT

Futurism: Tech Giants Pushing AI Into Schools Is a Huge, Ethically Bankrupt Experiment on Innocent Children That Will Likely End in Disaster

Top leaders in the space, from Microsoft to OpenAI, are pouring millions of dollars into schools, colleges, and universities, often providing students with access to their AI products. The justification, touted in a

How OpenAI used aggressive discounts to dominate AI in universities

Hal — Tue, 08 Jan 1901 16:30:00 GMT

Los Angeles Times: How OpenAI used aggressive discounts to dominate AI in universities

OpenAI sold more than 700,000 ChatGPT licenses to roughly 35 public universities by aggressively undercutting competitors, charging about $2.50 per user monthly versus Microsoft’s $30…

McPherson Middle School no longer allowing students to take home Chromebooks

Hal — Sat, 22 Dec 1900 13:12:00 GMT

KAKE News: McPherson Middle School no longer allowing students to take home Chromebooks

This is what a First Fish looks like!

School Cell Phone Bans and Student Achievement

Hal — Wed, 19 Dec 1900 16:18:00 GMT

National Bureau of Economic Research: School Cell Phone Bans and Student Achievement

Two years after the imposition of a student cell phone ban, student test scores in a large urban school district were significantly higher than before, David N. Figlio and Umut Özek find in The Impact of Cell Phone Bans in Schools on Student Outcomes: Evidence from Flori…

Disney’s OpenAI Deal ‘Appears to Sanction’ AI Company’s ‘Theft of Our Work,’ WGA Says

Hal — Tue, 18 Dec 1900 13:42:00 GMT

Variety: Disney’s OpenAI Deal ‘Appears to Sanction’ AI Company’s ‘Theft of Our Work,’ WGA Says

“Disney’s announcement with OpenAI appears to sanction its theft of our work and cedes the value of what we create to a tech company that has built its business off our backs,” the union said in a message to members Thursday. WGA said it will meet with Disney “…

Mattel's collaboration with OpenAI won't emerge this year

Hal — Mon, 17 Dec 1900 18:40:00 GMT

Axios: Mattel’s collaboration with OpenAI won’t emerge this year

Toymaker Mattel won’t unveil its first product with OpenAI this year as originally hoped, Axios has confirmed…

Disturbing AI images depicting Bondi Beach massacre as a film set emerge prompting misinformation warning

Hal — Mon, 17 Dec 1900 13:18:00 GMT

Daily Mail: Disturbing AI images depicting Bondi Beach massacre as a film set emerge prompting misinformation warning

Amidst the tragedy, Australians found heroes to rally behind - including a man who tackled Sajid and took hold of his rifle…However, the true identity of the man - Ahmed El-Ahmed - quickly became confused.

Elon Musk’s Al chatbot Grok misid…

Democratic Voters Are Clamoring for AI Regulation. Their Leaders Aren’t Interested.

Hal — Sun, 16 Dec 1900 17:58:00 GMT

The American Prospect: Democratic Voters Are Clamoring for AI Regulation. Their Leaders Aren’t Interested.

A new AI commission established by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries includes several corporate-friendly legislators…[this] speaks more to the true intention of this project: reconciliation with the Silicon Valley oligarchs who backed Donald …

A school in Kansas is ending individual Chromebook assignments in push to cut screen time

Hal — Wed, 12 Dec 1900 19:28:00 GMT

KCTV: A school in Kansas is ending individual Chromebook assignments in push to cut screen time

A middle school in Kansas is making a shift in how students use technology, moving away from assigning each child a personal Chromebook to limit screen time…

Teens, Social Media and AI Chatbots 2025

Hal — Tue, 11 Dec 1900 16:25:00 GMT

Pew Research Center: Teens, Social Media and AI Chatbots 2025

Roughly 1 in 5 U.S. teens say they are on TikTok and YouTube almost constantly. At the same time, 64% of teens say they use chatbots, including about 3 in 10 who do so daily…

Parents say school-issued iPads are causing chaos with their kids

Hal — Sun, 09 Dec 1900 13:54:00 GMT

NBC News: Parents say school-issued iPads are causing chaos with their kids

A growing contingent of public school parents say school-mandated iPads, particularly in elementary and middle schools, are leading to behavior problems.

Trump says AI executive order limiting state rules coming this week

Hal — Sat, 08 Dec 1900 20:43:00 GMT

Politico: Trump says AI executive order limiting state rules coming this week

A draft executive order blocking state AI laws was leaked in November. It sparked debate over the U.S. government’s role in regulating the emerging technology, and whether a federal standard should preempt state and local laws.

The initial executive order was shelved as House le…

Investigation Reveals How Amazon Is Fleecing Public Schools With ‘Algorithm-Driven Pricing’

Hal — Sat, 08 Dec 1900 15:39:00 GMT

Common Dreams: Investigation Reveals How Amazon Is Fleecing Public Schools With ‘Algorithm-Driven Pricing’

A detailed investigation released Thursday reveals that the e-commerce behemoth Amazon is using its market dominance and political influence to gain a foothold in local governments’ purchasing systems, locking school districts into contracts that le…

Commission fines X €120 million under the Digital Services Act

Hal — Sat, 08 Dec 1900 15:31:00 GMT

The European Commission: Commission fines X €120 million under the Digital Services Act

The Commission has issued a fine of €120 million to X for breaching its transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The breaches include the deceptive design of its ‘blue checkmark’, the lack of transparency of its advertising repository, and the fa…

We Gave Students Laptops and Took Away Their Brains

Hal — Wed, 05 Dec 1900 18:13:00 GMT

The Free Press: We Gave Students Laptops and Took Away Their Brains

When people think about excessive technology in schools, their minds usually go to phones. But according to a new book from neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath, we’re overlooking the true culprits: the laptops sitting on students’ desks. In “The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology…

AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself

Hal — Wed, 05 Dec 1900 14:36:00 GMT

Current Affairs: AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself

Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education…

AI poses unprecedented threats. Congress must act now

Hal — Wed, 05 Dec 1900 12:21:00 GMT

The Guardian, An Op-Ed by Bernie Sanders: AI poses unprecedented threats. Congress must act now

Despite the extraordinary importance of this issue and the speed at which it is progressing, AI is getting far too little discussion in Congress, the media and within the general population. That has got to change…

How Much Screen Time Is Your Child Getting at School? We Asked 350 Teachers.

Hal — Tue, 04 Dec 1900 22:13:00 GMT

The NY Times: How Much Screen Time Is Your Child Getting at School? We Asked 350 Teachers.

Eight in 10 teachers said students at their school had a device assigned to them, compared with about a third who said that was the case in 2019 before the pandemic.

And of elementary schoolteachers, 81 percent said students at their school receive devices for use i…