US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says social media has to come with warning labelswrites The New York Times that social media is a “significant contributor” to the adolescent mental health crisis. Last year, he issued an advisory making similar arguments, saying social media posed a “profound risk” to teenagers’ mental health. In his recent article, Murthy cited a study showing that more social media use is linked to an increased risk of anxiety and depression, as well as a survey in which almost half of teenagers reported that “social media makes them feel worse about their bodies.”
He also noted that warning labels alone won’t make social media safer — meaning people still smoke — but they will help keep everyone better informed. “For parents, there’s no seat belt to click, no helmet to snap into place… there’s just parents and their kids trying to figure it out on their own, fighting against the best product engineers and the best resourced companies. the world.”
However, he will need the support of Congress to make this happen. Cooperation in US politics has not been common this decade. However, there has recently been bipartisan support for limiting the power of tech companies – see the TikTok saga.
– Matt Smith
Get it delivered straight to your inbox on a daily basis. Subscribe here!
The biggest stories you missed
The next Nintendo Direct will take place today
McDonald’s is ending AI-powered voice ordering
The US is suing Adobe over its terrible subscription rules
It makes them even creepier.
Oh, speak of the devil. TikTok has announced new AI-powered digital avatars for both creators and brands on the app.
According to TikTok, AI characters should make it easier for creators and companies to create branded content with a “human feel” — even if that human feel is a concerned stranger staring at you from a bus stop across the road. There are two types of avatars: stock avatars based on paid actors and custom avatars based on existing creators and brand spokespeople. As Karissa Bell says, they give M3GAN vibes. At a minimum, the company’s own rules require such content to have prominent disclosures.
The $130 MX Ink will arrive in September.
Logitech introduced a mixed reality stylus for the Meta Quest headset, but not the Quest Pro. MX Ink helps users create more accurate designs and illustrations – although I’m not sure how many professional artists use consumer-grade VR headsets… But hey, maybe it Sony has some competition.
Expect a high frame rate.
Nikon’s $2,500 Z6 III features the world’s first “partially assembled” 24.5-megapixel (MP) sensor. This allows for high-speed shooting in features such as RAW video and faster autofocus and both photo and video modes. In short, better than a few years old Z6 II. So what is a partially assembled sensor? They’re rare (and expensive), having so far only appeared on Sony’s A1 and Nikon’s own Z8 and Z9. The circuitry covers the entire sensor, so it can read pixel data faster than conventional CMOS sensors. On the Z6 II, the schematics cover only the top and bottom parts of the sensor. So it’s faster than conventional CMOS sensors, but cheaper than stacked ones.
