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Artificial intelligence chatbot makers OpenAI and Meta say they are adjusting how their chatbots respond to teenagers asking questions about suicide or showing signs of mental and emotional distress. OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, said Tuesday it is preparing to roll out new controls enabling parents to link their accounts to their teens’ accounts. Parents can choose which features to disable and receive notifications when the system detects their teen is in a moment of acute distress, according to a company blog post that says the changes will go into effect this fall. Regardless of a user’s age, the company says its chatbots will attempt to redirect the most distressing conversations to more capable AI models that can provide a better response. EDITORS NOTE This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. The announcement comes a week after the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine sued OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, alleging that ChatGPT coached the California boy in planning and taking his own life earlier this year. Jay Edelson, the family’s attorney, on Tuesday described the OpenAI announcement as vague promises to do better and nothing more than OpenAIs crisis management team trying to change the subject. Altman “should either unequivocally say that he believes ChatGPT is safe or immediately pull it from the market, Edelson said. Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, also said it is now blocking its chatbots from talking with teens about self-harm, suicide, disordered eating, and inappropriate romantic conversations, and instead will direct them to expert resources. Meta already offers parental controls on teen accounts. A study published last week in the medical journal Psychiatric Services found inconsistencies in how three popular artificial intelligence chatbots responded to queries about suicide. The study by researchers at the Rand Corporation found a need for further refinement in ChatGPT, Googles Gemini, and Anthropics Claude. The researchers did not study Meta’s chatbots. The study’s lead author, Ryan McBain, said Tuesday that “its encouraging to see OpenAI and Meta introducing features like parental controls and routing sensitive conversations to more capable modelsbut these are incremental steps. Without independent safety benchmarks, clinical testing, and enforceable standards, were still relying on companies to self-regulate in a space where the risks for teenagers are uniquely high, said McBain, a senior policy researcher at Rand and assistant professor at Harvard Universitys medical school. By Matt O’ Brien, AP technology writer
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Another weekend, another extraordinarily cringe CEO moment gone completely viral. In case you missed it, Piotr Szczerek, the CEO of Polish paving company Drogbruk, was caught on video doing something arguably worse than cheating at a Coldplay concert. The footage, now viewed by millions, was captured at the U.S. Open in New York City before hitting social media. It shows tennis pro Kamil Majchrzak signing a hat, then handing it to a child. But what would’ve been an exciting moment for any kid was ruined, as Szczerek quickly snatched the hat away. The child, of course, looked stunned and upset. He can be heard asking the grown-man-child, “What are you doing?” and begging for him to give it back. Still, while the kid was visibly upset, and rightfully so, the internet was, unsurprisingly, even more outraged. The almost-unbelievable video quickly made the rounds. It even caught the attention of Kamil Majchrzak, who hadn’t noticed that the hat had been snatched from the boy in real time. With the help of the internet, he found the boy and reached out to him and his family. He posted photos to his Instagram stories, which were captured by Today.com, of him with the child over the weekend. “Together with Brock,” he wrote. “We wish you a great day.”Brock has no doubt recovered from one CEO’s bad behavior, especially given he got some one-on-one time with the tennis pro in the end. However, it may be a while before the hat thief does because, well, the internet doesn’t like entitled CEOs doing sneaky, inappropriate or obscenely entitled things. Case in point: last month’s Coldplay cheating scandal resulted in Astronomer CEO Andy Byron resigning from his position after being ousted online.Already, it seems like Szczerek may have a similar fate. The CEO was quickly exposed, which resulted in a public apology. I would like to unequivocally apologize to the young boy, his family, all the fans, and the player himself, Szczerek said in a post on social media on Monday. I take full responsibility for my extremely poor judgment and hurtful actions. Regardless, his company ratings on the site GoWork have tanked to 1.4 stars out of 5. At present, the CEO’s personal social media accounts have been deleted. What’s with all the shady CEO behavior?The second recent incident involving a CEO doing something mega-cringe begs the question: what is up with CEOs acting up in public? While we know that the wealthy are getting wealthier, and with that, perhaps some higher-ups have a greater sense of entitlement. After all, some studies show that certain personality types tend to become CEOs more often. A 2021 Italian study found that even a slight increase in the presence of a certain personality trait led to a 29% increased chance of becoming a CEO. The personality trait? Narcissism. But it’s hard to say whether CEOs are behaving badly more frequently, or cringe incidents are just being captured more often, as most of the population walks around with recording devices in their hands. Social media expert and founder of OutThinkMedia Cindy Marie Jenkins tells Fast Company that it’s likely a combination. “Part of what we’re seeing are all the invisible perks that a higher-up experiences, including an assumed level of privacy based on their stature that is all but extinct,” Jenkins explains. “What were the chances that there wasnt a camera near the guy at the U.S. Open? Much lower than the chances there were.” When it comes to using bad judgment, Jenkins says that CEOswho may have the expectation of privacymay want to take a page out of Gen Z’s book. The generation who has essentially grown up watching social media influencers film people (who may or may not be aware they’re being filmed), reaction videos, and more, know that everything is documented. Some studies have shown that this phenomenon has led to lower rates of teenage drinking, given teens don’t want to be the viral drunk kid. Jenkins says that kids today carry the weight that “every text message today that could be an embarrassing shared screenshot around school tomorrow.” They also know that when it comes to school, their online activity couldn’t just embarrass them. It could impact their academic careers, too. “It’s known that some universities monitor social media of students, especially highly competitive areas like athletics.” Mainly, the kids of today seem to understand something that these millionaire CEOs don’t. And, if the internet is judging (and, let’s be real, it is), it really doesn’t matter how much money you have. If you ruin a kid’s day at the U.S. Open, you’re gonna pay the price.
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Here’s some good news coming off a long holiday weekend as we head into the fall: If you missed the northern lights (or aurora borealis) last night, you may get another chance to catch a glimpse tonight, Tuesday, September 2, and early Wednesday morning, September 3, in some 10 U.S. states. That’s on account of a powerful “cannibal” solar storm that hit Earth’s magnetic field on Monday from 1 million miles away, lighting up skies across North America and Europe overnight. The aurora borealis is the result of a geomagnetic storm that occurs when a coronal mass ejection (CME), an eruption of solar material, reaches Earth and causes swaths of purple, blue, and green in the night sky. This years increased solar activity (and thus, more frequent northern lights activity) is likely the result of an 11-year sun cycle peaking now through next month. Where will the northern lights be visible? The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasts the best viewing tonight in Alaska and northern Canada, with a high chance of some visibility in northern and midwestern parts of the U.S. The agency is predicting G1 geomagnetic storms (on a scale of G1 to G5), which are considered minor. According to this map from NOAAs Space Weather Prediction Center, a total of 10 states are in the line of view for the auroras. They are Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Maine. When is the best time to see the aurora borealis? For the best viewing, the NOAA recommends facing north, in a spot away from light pollution, between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time. You can track the aurora on NOAAs page, where the agency is providing updates.
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