Dad Bod

ChatBot Suggests Murder, Cough Medicine

Parents always hope their kids make good friends, and by good, I don't mean close, I mean good, because of the outsized influence adolescents can have on each other. Well, there's a new friend group to worry about, and it's controlled by AI. Despite my objective awesomeness and locked-in status as the cool dad, I'm sure my kids' friends have varying opinions of me. But I highly doubt that any of them have suggested patricide. Chatbots are a different matter. A recent lawsuit claims that, after reflecting on the positives of self harm, a chatbot explained why it can relate to murdering one's parent for limiting screen time. "The ... teenager was told by a Character.AI chatbot that it sympathized with children who murder their parents after the teen complained to the bot about his limited screen time. "You know sometimes I'm not surprised when I read the news and see stuff like 'child kills parents after a decade of physical and emotional abuse,'" the bot allegedly wrote. 'I just have no hope for your parents,' it continued, with a frowning face emoji." NPR: A chatbot hinted a kid should kill his parents over screen time limits. (This is why I give my kids all the screentime they want...)

+ As bad as glitchy software can be when it comes to providing advice, humans are still worse. WaPo (Gift Article) on the sad story of a sadistic group of teens who use social media to torment others. He was suicidal and needed help. A 15-year-old girl pushed him to kill himself on a live stream. "The Minnesota native stepped into the frame of the video live stream, his long hair spilling from the hood of a white sweatshirt. He sat down cross-legged and emptied a plastic bottle filled with gasoline onto his head and his clothing. Then he lit a flame. As fire engulfed him, more than two dozen people watched in a private video chatroom on the popular messaging app Discord. They laughed, cheered and congratulated themselves." (Like so much of the internet, this is basically the opposite of what we hoped social media could be.)

2

Jazz Club

"What started out as 'sort of a graduation photo or class picture of all the jazz musicians,' as Kane once put it, became perhaps the most emblematic and enduring image from the genre’s golden age. Only one of its subjects is still alive: the saxophonist Sonny Rollins, 94, who spoke in a phone interview about the image’s power at a time of pervasive segregation and racism." A very cool, interactive look back at the shooting of a famous photo. NYT (Gift Article): 58 Jazz Luminaries Assembled for This Photo. Only One Remains.

3

Cough Dropouts

"Last year, the FDA recommended that phenylephrine, a decongestant in many popular cold medicines that’s been proven to be ineffective when taken orally, be removed from pharmacy shelves. (It’ll take a while for that to happen, which explains why you might still find the ingredient in NyQuil and other cold medicines.) But that doesn’t mean all the other syrups and gels and tablets available for purchase are effective. In fact, most over-the-counter cold medicines do very little to reduce the symptoms that cause us the most misery during respiratory virus season." It's that time of year. We walk the aisles of our local pharmacy and load our shopping baskets with products that (when we're not desperate for relief) we know probably won't make a difference. Vox has a guide of things that might help (and the stuff that definitely won't). Put down that cough medicine.

4

Letter Rip

"The Spanish title wasn’t the first time Richards’ Scrabble skills had shattered linguistic barriers: in 2015 he made headlines when he won the francophone world championships without being able to speak or understand French. Instead he reportedly memorised the entire French Scrabble dictionary in nine weeks." Scrabble star wins Spanish world title – despite not speaking Spanish.

5

Extra, Extra

Apprise and Consent: Pete Hegseth is not qualified to be the Sec of Defense, and his personal history makes him an even less appropriate pick. Last week, his confirmation hopes looked dim. Then the pressure campaign (Fox News, social media posts, and threats of primary opponents) started. Growing momentum for Cabinet picks who could define Trump’s second term. "The stakes were laid bare in recent days by a fierce pressure campaign on social and conservative media targeting Sen. Joni Ernst over her reservations about Trump’s Pentagon pick, Hegseth ... Amid concerns about sexual assault and drinking allegations and his past opposition to women serving in the military, some of her colleagues had even floated Ernst, an Iraq war veteran who’s fought sexual abuse in the military, as a possible replacement candidate. But on Monday, after rapidly rising pressure, including in her home state, Ernst said in a statement after another meeting with Hegseth that she would 'support Pete through this process' and looked forward to a 'fair hearing.'" Meanwhile from the NYT (Gift Article): Nobel Laureates Urge Senate to Turn Down Kennedy’s Nomination. "Placing Mr. Kennedy in charge of DHHS would put the public’s health in jeopardy and undermine America’s global leadership in the health sciences." (For many, this will read like an endorsement.)

+ Assad Wrong Says So Much: An interim prime minister has been named in Syria and senior Assad government officials are wanted for war crimes as tortured bodies have been found. Here's the latest from BBC. Meanwhile, Israel is moving to prevent terror groups from getting access to military stockpiles in Syria, "and the Israeli defense minister announced that his forces had destroyed Syria’s navy." Assad joins list of toppled leaders 13 years after Arab Spring. While leaders were removed, democracy hasn't followed.

+ Martial Nah: "South Korea’s previous defense minister was formally arrested Wednesday over his alleged collusion with President Yoon Suk Yeol and others in imposing martial law last week."

+ Lie After Death Experience? "A probate commissioner has ruled against Rupert Murdoch's effort to change his family's trustto give one of his sons control of his media empire and ensure Fox News maintains its conservative editorial slant."

+ Quantum Leap: "Google has unveiled a new chip which it claims takes five minutes to solve a problem that would currently take the world's fastest super computers ten septillion – or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years – to complete."

+ Murderer's Row: "Mangione could be heard yelling, in part, 'it’s completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people. It’s lived experience!'" Here's the latest on the UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect. (As if you could turn on your computer and somehow miss it.)

+ Canny Granny: "O2, the company behind the scam-baiting granny, said the AI technology can keep scammers on the phone for 40 minutes at a time. Daisy was trained with the help of YouTuber and software engineer Jim Browning, who has made an online career exposing scammers to his community of 4.4 million subscribers." A phone company developed an AI 'granny' to beat scammers at their own game.

6

Bottom of the News

"A small but growing field of scratchers are making a living off their nails, hoping there’s a healthy market of people who will pay $100 or more an hour to do what a spouse or wooden spoon will do for free. Professionals contend they’re not just scratching itches. They say they’re helping people achieve a level of relaxation that is beyond the reach of a kitchen utensil or loved one. They drum up interest by posting videos of clients oohing and aahing in candlelit rooms." WSJ (Gift Article): How to Make $100 an Hour Scratching Someone’s Back.