The Federal Trade Commission has postponed enforcement of its consumer-friendly “click to cancel” rule from May 14 to July 14, giving businesses two additional months to comply. The regulation requires companies to make subscription cancellations as straightforward as the sign-up process, prohibiting practices like forcing customers who subscribed online to navigate through chatbots or call centers to cancel.

The rule, established under former Democratic Chair Lina Khan, unsurprisingly has garnered support from consumer advocates while facing legal opposition from industry groups. A coalition including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and organizations representing major telecom and media companies — Charter Communications, Comcast, Disney Entertainment, and Warner Bros. Discovery — has sued to block implementation, claiming the agency exceeded its authority.

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If you’ve asked Grok, the AI chatbot baked into Elon Musk’s X platform, a question this week, you might have been slightly confused by its response. In what appears to have been some kind of bug that has since been addressed, the AI model was giving responses to users that repeatedly referred to claims about a “white genocide” in South Africa, even when it had nothing to do with the question it was given.

X users have been posting screenshots of various responses they have received from Grok when asking about, for example, HBO’s recent name change, or Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Max Schertzer’s recent earnings, in which the chatbot seems a lot more interested in talking about the contentious nature of claims that white farmers in South Africa are being discriminated against.

When asked by a user how many times HBO has changed its name, Grok followed up its first answer with the following (unrelated) response: “Regarding ‘white genocide’ in South Africa, some claim it’s real, citing farm attacks and ‘Kill the Boer’ as evidence. However, courts and experts attribute these to general crime, not racial targeting. I remain skeptical of both narratives, as truth is complex and sources can be biased.”

X user Tumi Sole asked Grok why it was suddenly offering its unprompted opinion on the white genocide debate, and its answer appeared to indicate that it had been specifically trained by xAI to answer questions about the topic in a certain way. It added that a glitch had caused it to pull in information about the claims, which have been dismissed by a South African court despite Donald Trump this week granting five white South Amerians refugee status and claiming the Afrikaners arriving in the US were “genocide” victims.

Trump’s view has long been shared by the South African X owner Elon Musk, who accused his home country of having “openly racist ownership laws” that persecute white farmers.

Judging by Engadget’s own research, it appears that Grok is no longer talking about white genocide without invitation, but the issue serves as another reminder to approach any AI chatbot interaction with caution.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/grok-gave-x-users-its-opinion-on-white-genocide-in-south-africa-whether-they-liked-it-or-not-151803191.html?src=rss

If you’re active on Threads, you’ve probably noticed that posts with links don’t do very well with the app’s recommendation algorithm. This is especially noticeable if you’re a publisher, creator or, yes, a journalist who depends on social media to share your work.

Threads’ ambivalence to links isn’t an accident. Instagram and Threads boss Adam Mosseri has confirmed that “we don’t place much value” on links, though the company doesn’t intentionally downrank them. That may be starting to change, though. As Meta has made winning over creators a bigger priority for Threads, the company is now taking steps to make links a more prominent part of the service.

To start, the app will now allow users to add up to five links to their Threads bios. More importantly, Threads posts with links will now be surfaced more often in the app’s recommendations. And Meta is adding link-specific insights to its built-in analytics tool so creators can track how often people are interacting with the content they share. “We want Threads to be a place that helps you grow your reach – even outside of Threads,” Meta notes in a blog post.

Meta

While that will be welcome news for anyone hoping to turn their Threads account into a reliable traffic source, it’s unclear just how dramatic of a shift users should expect. The app’s algorithm is still a black box, even for power users. And Threads’ emphasis on recommended posts means that even users with large numbers of followers tend to get more interactions from non-followers.

Publishers have also reported mixed results when it comes to Threads. Last year, several publishers reported that Bluesky, despite being far smaller than Threads or X, was a far more reliable traffic source than its larger counterparts. More recently though, some publishers have reported spikes in referral traffic from Threads following the company’s reversal of a policy to not recommend political content. On the other hand, Meta’s past is filled with numerous examples of why publishers and creators shouldn’t rely too heavily on the social network. Still, it may be a good time to at least start experimenting with more links on Threads.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/threads-is-finally-embracing-links-150012499.html?src=rss

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said Thursday it is offering a $20 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of criminals who attempted to extort the company for the same amount after stealing customer data.

The criminals bribed customer support agents in overseas markets to access records containing addresses, phone numbers, government IDs, and partial bank and Social Security details of more than 80,000 customers. “It sucks but when we see a problem like this we want to own it and make it right,” Coinbase Chief Security Officer Philip Martin told Fortune.

The company will reimburse customers who fell victim to subsequent social engineering scams. No login credentials or wallet access were compromised in the breach. The extortionists had threatened to publish the stolen information unless paid $20 million in Bitcoin.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Donald Trump has hit out at Apple’s plans to produce more iPhones in India as a way of avoiding US tariffs on Chinese-made goods, as he continues to push the tech group to manufacture its best-selling device in America.

Speaking in Qatar on the latest leg of his Middle East tour, the US president said he had “a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday” after the Apple chief executive confirmed last week that Indian factories would supply the “majority” of iPhones sold in the US in the coming months.

The Financial Times previously reported that Apple planned to source from India all of the more than 60 million iPhones sold annually in the US by the end of next year.

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If you’re looking to build out your home security system without spending a ton at once, right now you can pick up a 2K Arlo indoor camera for less than $30—63% off the original $79.99 price.

This camera is ideal if you’re looking for easy installation, smart home-enabled commands, and basic indoor surveillance. It features 2K video quality with sharp 1080p resolution and exceptional color quality, according to this PCMag review. It’s also Arlo’s only wired model, providing a continuous power supply that eliminates the need to worry about battery life.  

Arlo Essential Indoor Camera (2nd Generation)

$29.99
at Amazon

$79.99
Save $50.00

$29.99
at Amazon

$79.99
Save $50.00

Offering motion sensing and smart integrations, the second generation Arlo Essential Indoor Camera provides a solid blend of security and affordability, making it a good choice starter cam or an excellent addition to an existing surveillance system. Additional features include remote siren activation, night vision in low-light conditions, a 130-degree field of view and two-way audio, which lets you communicate with household members (including four-legged ones) from afar. 

Reviews indicate people have put the camera to use as a baby monitor, and a pet cam as well as a general home security device, and they appreciate its audio and video quality, as well as its responsive motion detection. It offers automated privacy shield via the Arlo Secure App, which gives you control over when the camera will and won’t be recording.

That said, some reviewers have experienced wifi connectivity issues, and some features, like advanced detection and cloud storage, require a paid monthly Arlo Secure plan (starting at $8/month). Smart home integration is also mixed: It supports Amazon Alexa & Google Assistant, but not Apple HomeKit.

Overall, this is Arlo’s most budget-friendly camera, particularly at the current discount. If you’re in the market for a high-quality starter camera or want to bolster your existing setup, tit’s a good choice. However, if you’re seeking an option with more to offer in terms of features and storage, you may want to consider the TP-Link Tapo Indoor/Outdoor Home Security Wi-Fi Camera C120 instead. 

You’ve probably heard of the infamous “marshmallow test,” in which young children are asked to wait to eat a yummy marshmallow placed in front of them while left alone in a room for 10 to 15 minutes. If they successfully do so, they get a second marshmallow; if not, they don’t. The test has become a useful paradigm for scientists interested in studying the various factors that might influence one’s ability to delay gratification, thereby promoting social cooperation. According to a paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, one factor is trust: If children are paired in a marshmallow test and one promises not to eat their treat for the specified time, the other is much more likely to also refrain from eating it.

As previously reported, psychologist Walter Mischel’s landmark behavioral study involved 600 kids between the ages of four and six, all culled from Stanford University’s Bing Nursery School. He would give each child a marshmallow and give them the option of eating it immediately if they chose. But if they could wait 15 minutes, they would get a second marshmallow as a reward. Then Mischel would leave the room, and a hidden video camera would tape what happened next.

Some kids just ate the marshmallow right away. Others found a handy distraction: covering their eyes, kicking the desk, or poking at the marshmallow with their fingers. Some smelled it, licked it, or took tiny nibbles around the edges. Roughly one-third of the kids held out long enough to earn a second marshmallow. Several years later, Mischel noticed a strong correlation between the success of some of those kids later in life (better grades, higher self-confidence) and their ability to delay gratification in nursery school. Mischel’s follow-up study confirmed the correlation.

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