Connor Jones: Would you be comfortable handing the keys to your identity kingdom over to a bot, one that might be exposed to the open internet? […] Jamieson O’Reilly, founder of red-teaming company Dvuln, was among the first to draw attention to the issue, saying that he saw hundreds of Clawdbot instances exposed to the […]

Tim Cook, in a company-wide memo (first published by Mark Gurman):

Team,
I’m heartbroken by the events in Minneapolis, and my prayers and deepest sympathies are with the families, with the communities, and with everyone that’s been affected.

This is a time for deescalation. I believe America is strongest when we live up to our highest ideals, when we treat everyone with dignity and respect no matter who they are or where they’re from, and when we embrace our shared humanity. This is something Apple has always advocated for. I had a good conversation with the president this week where I shared my views, and I appreciate his openness to engaging on issues that matter to us all.

I know this is very emotional and challenging for so many. I am proud of how deeply our teams care about the world beyond our walls. That empathy is one of Apple’s greatest strengths and it is something I believe we all cherish.

Thank you for all that you do.
Tim

“Events” is doing a lot of work there, to describe what has happened and is happening in Minneapolis.

Trump’s “openness” on this particular “issue” has been to replace Greg Bovino — the diminutive Himmler-cosplaying “commander at large” of Border Control, who insisted, adamantly, that the real victims in Alex Pretti’s murder were the Border Patrol agents who shot him — with “border czar” Tom Homan, a man who took a $50,000 cash bribe from undercover FBI agents in exchange for a promise to award them government contracts if Trump were reelected.

Zac Hall, on Twitter/X:

Cook took three days to not name Alex Pretti in his not public statement and 20 days to not name Renée Good in his not public statement. [...]

2020 Tim Cook on Apple’s homepage: “Right now, there is a pain deeply etched in the soul of our nation and in the hearts of millions. To stand together, we must stand up for one another, and recognize the fear, hurt, and outrage rightly provoked by the senseless killing of George Floyd and a much longer history of racism.”

Quite the different message (and medium — this time with nothing on Apple’s website, let alone their homepage) from 2020, for what I consider far more outrageous and alarming killings.

Andy Stone, VP of communications at Meta, responding, in a series of tweets on Twitter/X, to Jeff Horwitz’s report at Reuters yesterday, linked here last night, which claimed that “Zuckerberg blocked curbs on sex-talking chatbots for minors”:

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story, eh, @Reuters, @JeffHorwitz!

The documents you cite in the story itself contradict this headline.

The headline says “Zuckerberg blocked curbs on sex-talking chatbots for minors”

But the story cites a document that says “Zuckerberg believed that AI companions should be blocked from engaging in sexually ‘explicit’ conversations” w young people.

Huh?!

After my post last night, a friend of mine, with a career of experience working in a large company, sent me this:

A word of caution. “Scumbag middle manager says CEO said” is not the same as “CEO said.”

I could believe Zuck shitcanned parental controls, but I am certain there are thousands of snakes inside that company who would lie about it to get what they want.

That’s a good and fair point, and I think it’s what Stone is trying to emphasize above. The New Mexico lawsuit filing doesn’t contain evidence that Zuckerberg nixed parental controls for teens engaging in chats with AI bots; it contains evidence that other (unnamed employees) claimed in internal discussions that Zuckerberg had nixed them. That is different.

But so let’s take Zuckerberg out of it personally. It’s still the case that Meta shipped these chatbots for teens to use. And the buck, presumably, stops at Zuck’s desk. Read Horwitz’s report from back in August, detailing a leaked internal document listing Meta’s content guidelines for generative AI chat.

Sidenote: Why in the world is Meta’s VP of comms doing this on Twitter/X, not Threads, which continues to grow?

Jeff Horwitz, reporting for Reuters:

Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg approved allowing minors to access AI chatbot companions that safety staffers warned were capable of sexual interactions, according to internal Meta documents filed in a New Mexico state court case and made public Monday.

The lawsuit — brought by the state’s attorney general, Raul Torrez, and scheduled for trial next month — alleges that Meta “failed to stem the tide of damaging sexual material and sexual propositions delivered to children” on Facebook and Instagram. [...]

Messages between two employees from March of 2024 state that Zuckerberg had rejected creating parental controls for the chatbots, and that staffers were working on “Romance AI chatbots” that would be allowed for users under the age of 18. We “pushed hard for parental controls to turn GenAI off — but GenAI leadership pushed back stating Mark decision,” one employee wrote in that exchange.

Horwitz was with The Wall Street Journal for a long time; his is a byline worth paying attention to.

Adam Serwer, reporting from the streets of Minneapolis for The Atlantic, “Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong” (gift link):

The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone. In Minnesota, all of the ideological cornerstones of MAGA have been proved false at once. Minnesotans, not the armed thugs of ICE and the Border Patrol, are brave. Minnesotans have shown that their community is socially cohesive — because of its diversity and not in spite of it. Minnesotans have found and loved one another in a world atomized by social media, where empty men have tried to fill their lonely soul with lies about their own inherent superiority. Minnesotans have preserved everything worthwhile about “Western civilization,” while armed brutes try to tear it down by force.