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States Target School Cell Phone Use At least four states have banned or severely restricted the use of smart phones in schools in the current legislative biennium. Florida became the first state to do...
Compounded Weight-Loss Drugs Creating Headaches for State Regulators With popular weight-loss drugs like Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy in short supply, many doctors, pharmacies and other providers have...
In their seminal book on the American health care system, legendary investigative reporters Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele offered a disturbing metaphor for the illogical nature of medical pricing...
PA Lawmakers Pass Bill Regulating PBMs The Pennsylvania legislature passed a bill ( HB 1993 ) aimed at increasing oversight of pharmacy benefit managers. If signed by Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), the measure...
In a sign of the times, states have begun pursuing bills that require disclosure of the use of artificial intelligence. In March, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed SB 149 , making the state the first...
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez (D) filed a lawsuit alleging Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta gives sexual predators free access to minors. Torrez said other lawsuits filed against the company have focused mainly on the negative mental health affects of social media on minors, but his state’s suit is the first to also focus on the potential harms of sexual abuse and sex trafficking. (SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN)
Meta and IBM launched a new group they’re calling the AI Alliance to advocate for an open-source approach to the development of artificial intelligence. Companies like Google, Microsoft and ChatGPT developer OpenAI, instead, favor a proprietary approach to AI development. Meta’s chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, has claimed Google and OpenAI aim to consolidate their power over development of the technology, while OpenAI’s chief scientist and co-founder, Ilya Sutskever, has contended that it would be dangerous to release details about such a powerful technology to the public. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Google is releasing its most powerful artificial intelligence model, Gemini, this week. Company executives said the model performed better than OpenAI’s GPT 3.5. The company plans to license the technology for customers to use in their own applications through Google Cloud. (CNBC)
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland warning that foreign governments are using push notification records from Apple and Google to spy on users of the companies’ smartphones. Wyden said his office had investigated a tip claiming foreign government agencies had been “demanding” these records, which include news alerts, emails and social media alerts and can reveal insights about users. (CNBC)
The Federal Trade Commission is looking into whether Microsoft Corp.’s investment in OpenAI violates antitrust laws. The agency hasn’t launched a formal investigation, however. (BLOOMBERG)
—Compiled by SNCJ Managing Editor KOREY CLARK
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