David Lidsky's Blog, page 293

How child labor and illegal mines are fueling Nigeria’s lithium boom

The growing demand for lithium has created a new frontier for mining in mineral-rich Nigeria.

Dressed in a faded pink dress, 6-year-old Juliet Samaniya squats under scorching skies to chip at a jagged white rock with a stone tool. Dust coats her tiny hands and her hair as she works hour after hour for less than a dollar a day. The landscape around her is dotted with active and abandoned mineshafts, farmland that may soon be cleared in search of more rich ore, and other mine workers — many of them children.

What to know about Tron, a Trump-backed crypto venture linked to Hamas, Hezbollah

Quicker and cheaper than Bitcoin, the Tron network has overtaken its rival as a vehicle for crypto transfers associated with groups designated as terror organizations.

A crypto venture recently unveiled by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and his new Middle East envoy, billionaire Steve Witkoff, has partnered with a crypto platform that authorities and financial experts say has been used by criminals and Iran-backed militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Trump’s pick of David Sacks as AI and crypto czar shows how cozy his White House will be with Silicon Valley

Another tech-focused appointee has raised questions about the future direction of the Trump administration.

President-elect Donald Trump’s approach to crypto is becoming clearer with the appointment of entrepreneur David Sacks as Trump’s “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar”—signaling a shift in how the U.S. government perceives cryptocurrency that could indicate a more prominent place for it within the financial system.

Why OpenAI’s Sora has so much trouble depicting gymnasts

It’s not easy teaching a transformer model how objects move quickly through space.

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here.

Google’s new AI projects aren’t ready for the masses yet. Good!

Google DeepMind is showing off an AI assistant that sees and a Chrome extension that can browse the web on its own. They’re for testing purposes only—and that makes sense.

Few tech-industry traditions are as time-honored as vaporware: stuff that gets publicly demoed well before it’s ready to ship. In some cases, the companies in question are just slower to finish their work than they’d expected. Other times, they’re strategically drumming up enthusiasm for something new and shiny to distract customers from competitive offerings. Either way, any gratification involved is delayed, assuming the product ever ships at all—which is not a given.

80 colleges could close by 2029, even as elite Ivy League schools thrive

Many colleges are struggling financially as enrollment falls. Blame skyrocketing tuition and growing doubts about the value of a degree.

American higher education is in crisis.

Influencers are tagging the UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect Luigi Mangione for clout

The account’s tagged photos, originally made up of snaps posted by family and friends, were quickly clogged by people trying to push their photo dump or reel in front of thousands of curious eyes.

Is there a more creative way to clout-chase than to tag an alleged assassin in your Instagram photo dump? For some aspiring influencers, every view counts, it seems. 

UnitedHealth Group shares keep falling, other health insurance stocks follow, as criticism of the industry heats up

Major health insurers have seen their stocks sink along with consumer sentiment since the shooting of Brian Thomson. Now Congress might shake things up even more.

Major insurance stocks including UnitedHealth Group, Cigna Group, and Elevance have fallen in the past five days. The decline has been pronounced since their closing prices last Tuesday, which was one day prior to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. 

Character.AI is being sued for encouraging kids to self-harm

The lawsuit alleges that Character.AI ‘poses a clear and present danger to American youth.’

Two families in Texas have filed a new federal product liability lawsuit against Google-backed company Character.AI, accusing it of harming their children. The lawsuit alleges that Character.AI “poses a clear and present danger to American youth, causing serious harms to thousands of kids, including suicide, self-mutilation, sexual solicitation, isolation, depression, anxiety, and harm toward others,” according to a complaint filed Monday. 

How social media unspooled Luigi Mangione’s life after UnitedHealthcare CEO’s murder

The internet gold rush to comb through the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter’s social media usage reveals as much about ourselves and the times as it does about the alleged killer.

The murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last Wednesday sparked a five-day manhunt for the mysterious killer, who left behind irresistible clues like a hidden message on bullet casings and a backpack filled with Monopoly money.