Tootfinder

Strong, clear, and short write-up on the social-media-addiction case that Meta and YouTube just lost. I hadn’t appreciated how important this could be: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/opinion/big-tech-meta-youtube-lawsuit.html
[paywalled sorry]

Opinion | The Terrible Cost of the Infinite Scroll
We are beginning an era where the social media companies are finally held accountable for their harm.

Interviews with 100 therapists and psychiatrists on clients' AI chatbot usage show, while there are some upsides, conversations also deepened negative feelings (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/us/chatgpt-delusions-psychosis.html
…

How Bad Are A.I. Delusions? We Asked People Treating Them.
Dozens of doctors and therapists said chatbots had led their patients to psychosis, isolation and unhealthy habits.

Melania Trump appeared alongside Figure AI's Figure 3 humanoid robot at the White House to promote integrating more tech and AI into US children's education (Katie Rogers/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/us/politics/melania-trump-robot.html…

Melania Trump Appears With a Robot, Saying More Children Should Be Educated by Them
The first lady, Melania Trump, believes that more children should be educated by “humanoid educators.”

As China grapples with a shrinking population and low birthrate, some women are finding romance with AI chatbots, leading Beijing to increase AI regulations (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/technol

A.I. Dating Apps Complicate China’s Efforts to Boost Birthrate
As China grapples with a shrinking population and historically low birthrate, people are finding romance with chatbots instead.

TikTok settles a California lawsuit ahead of a landmark social media addiction trial; Snap recently settled the suit, while Meta and YouTube remain defendants (Cecilia Kang/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/technology/tikto…

TikTok Settles Social Media Addiction Lawsuit Ahead of a Landmark Trial
The settlement means TikTok will avoid a trial where plaintiffs had planned to argue that social media platforms are inherently defective and subject to personal injury liability.

As US lawmakers struggle to pass online safety laws, LA and New Mexico juries take the lead, holding social media companies accountable for harming young users (Cecilia Kang/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/technology/social-media-verdi…

Juries Take the Lead in the Push for Child Online Safety
A pair of verdicts held social media companies accountable for harming young users, highlighting a growing backlash as Congress struggles to pass legislation.

TikTok says the new US entity has not updated its algorithm since the joint venture was announced, after users accused it of suppressing posts related to ICE (David McCabe/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/us/tiktok-ice-minneapolis-techni…

TikTok Blames Technical Problems After Users Claimed It Blocked ICE Posts
Some users had accused the app of blocking them from posting videos about Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The app said it was a power outage issue.

An analysis of 1,000 YouTube Shorts videos recommended to kids: the algorithm pushes bizarre, often nonsensical, AI-generated videos, and many lack disclosures (Arijeta Lajka/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/us/ai-videos-children-youtube.html…

How A.I.-Generated Videos Are Distorting Your Child’s YouTube Feed
Experts caution that low-quality, A.I.-generated videos on YouTube geared toward children often feature conflicting information, lack plot structure and can be cognitively overwhelming — all of which could affect young children’s development.

Letter: 100 Google DeepMind and other AI employees urge Jeff Dean to block US military deals that use Gemini for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons (Tripp Mickle/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/tech…

Google Workers Seek ‘Red Lines’ on Military A.I., Echoing Anthropic
More than 100 Google A.I. employees sent a letter to Jeff Dean, a chief scientist, opposing Gemini’s use for U.S. surveillance and some autonomous weapons.

Ricursive, founded by ex-Google researchers to automate advanced chip design, raised $335M from Sequoia, Radical, Lightspeed, and others at a $4B valuation (Cade Metz/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/technology/recursive-ai-ricursive.html

Silicon Valley Wants to Build A.I. That Can Improve A.I. on Its Own
Ricursive Intelligence, founded by two former Google researchers and valued at $4 billion, is among several efforts to automate the creation of artificial intelligence.