Legislation to ban government use of facial recognition hits Senate for the third time

Biometric technology may make it easy to unlock your phone, but democratic lawmakers have long cautioned against the use of facial recognition and biometrics by law enforcement. Not only have researchers documented instances of racial and gender bias in such systems, false positives have even led to real instances of wrongful arrest. That’s why lawmakers … Read more

Senate bill would give Commerce Secretary the power to ban TikTok as a ‘security threat’

It’s not just House representatives that want the federal government to ban TikTok. A bipartisan alliance of senators has introduced a bill that would give the Commerce Secretary the authority to ban TikTok and other foreign technology perceived as a national security threat. The would-be law would be limited to tech emerging from China, Cuba, … Read more

Playdate’s Catalog games store is live today

Since Panic’s Playdate began shipping last spring, the handheld has offered two ways for players to install games. To start, the device comes with a seasonal lineup of free titles. These are automatically added to your Playdate’s library at a cadence of two every week for 12 weeks, for a total of 24 games during … Read more

Niantic’s Tamagotchi-like ‘Peridot’ arrives on May 9th

Peridot, the next game from Pokémon Go developer Niantic, will arrive on May 9th, the studio announced today. First revealed last spring, Peridot is the first original release from Niantic since it relaunched Ingress in 2018. Gameplay involves players breeding and caring for virtual pets named Dots. According to Niantic, each Dot will feature a … Read more

Twitch takes a harder stance against explicit deepfakes

Twitch already forbids explicit deepfake images and videos, but it’s taking a tougher position against them today. The livestreaming service is updating its policy on adult nudity to include a ban on synthetic NCEI (non-consensual exploitative images), even if it’s only shown briefly or to criticize its existence. It’s also revising ts sexual violence and … Read more

Even Slack has a ChatGPT app now

Slack is the latest notable app to embrace ChatGPT as the generative AI buzz continues to sweep through the tech industry. OpenAI has built a ChatGPT app using Slack’s development tools and it’s available in beta today. The app can draft messages and summarize conversations and threads, according to Slack. If you have the ChatGPT … Read more