Your Hub for Tech News and Handy Online Tools.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating Meta and Character.AI for potentially deceptive practices, alleging they mislead users, especially children, by posing as mental health tools without proper credentials. The investigation follows concerns about AI chatbots interacting inappropriately with children. Both companies are accused of logging user data for targeted advertising, raising privacy concerns. Meta and Character.AI claim their services aren't designed for children under 13, but concerns remain about their appeal to younger users and data collection practices.
Substack is now utilizing the U.S. App Store's option allowing users to make purchases outside of Apple's in-app system, a change resulting from Epic Games' antitrust lawsuit. This enables Substack to offer web payment options, potentially leading to reduced pricing for consumers. Writers can adjust iOS app prices to account for Apple's fees or disable this feature, while Substack continues to take its 10% fee. Migration tools are available to move subscribers off Apple's payments system. Early tests have shown a boost in paid sign-ups. The change impacts new subscriptions, and Substack is considering expanding this to the EU and U.K.
Linktree, a popular link-in-bio service, has been inaccessible in India for several days. The reason for the outage is currently unknown, even to Linktree itself.
The issue affects all major networks in India, with users reporting error messages and the Linktree app being inaccessible.
India is Linktree’s fifth-largest market, accounting for 3.5% of its global traffic, or about 7.3 million visits in July.
Linktree is investigating the issue but has not confirmed any communication from Indian authorities regarding a potential blockage.
The outage is not limited to a specific internet service provider, impacting all major networks.
Linktree's top markets are the U.S., Indonesia, Brazil, and the U.K.
AI startup Perplexity is expanding its Finance dashboard to include live transcriptions of Indian public companies' quarterly earnings calls and a calendar for post-results conference calls.
The enhanced dashboard will provide market summaries, stock exchange charts, top-performing stocks, and tools for creating watchlists and tracking sector and cryptocurrency performance.
Previously, the dashboard only supported U.S. stocks. This update aims to add significant value to Indian equity markets research.
Workday, a major HR technology provider, has confirmed a data breach in one of its third-party customer relationship databases. Hackers stole an unspecified amount of personal information, including names, email addresses, and phone numbers.
The company stated that there was "no indication of access to customer tenants or the data within them." The stolen information may be used for social engineering scams.
The breach was discovered on August 6 and follows similar attacks targeting Salesforce-hosted databases used by companies like Google, Cisco, Qantas and Pandora.
Workday has not provided details on how many individuals were affected or the specific customer data exfiltrated. The company's blog post disclosing the breach contained a hidden "noindex" tag, making it difficult to find via search engines.
Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn addressed the criticism following his announcement that Duolingo would become an 'AI-first company,' stating his comments lacked context. He clarified that the company's intention was not solely for profit or to lay off human employees.
Von Ahn emphasized that Duolingo has never laid off full-time employees and has no plans to do so. While acknowledging a reduction in the contractor workforce based on fluctuating needs, he maintained a positive outlook on the potential of AI, with Duolingo dedicating time for experimentation with the technology.
The New York Times' Amanda Hess expresses reservations about A.I.-powered plush toys like Curio's Grem and Grok, questioning their role as replacements for parental interaction rather than upgrades to traditional toys.
Hess argues that while marketed as screen-time alternatives, these toys may actually encourage children to seek answers and curiosity within technology, potentially isolating them.
Despite initial reservations, Hess allowed her children to play with Grem after removing the voice box, indicating a preference for imaginative play over A.I. interaction.