The most unusual video game released on Xbox this week is an attempt by veteran developer Dave Evans to make an interactive adventure that blind and sighted players can enjoy equally.
Why it matters: While there are hundreds of audio-only games on PC, one of them making it to consoles is nearly unheard of. (It's also on PC.)
The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday took a second shot at alleging Facebook is an illegal monopoly in a new complaint that accuses the social media company of buying up potential competitors or thwarting their access to the platform.
Why it matters: The FTC, now led by Big Tech critic Lina Khan, is trying to save its case against Facebook after a judge dismissed its first attempt.
The independent Oversight Board on Thursday upheld Facebook's decision to leave up a post from a medical council in Brazil that claimed lockdowns are ineffective.
The big picture: The board's decision provides insight into how Facebook's removal threshold for content that creates a risk of imminent harm will be applied to posts about COVID-19.
The city of Minneapolis' latest effort to urge residents to get their COVID-19 shots is going viral.
Driving the likes: Pro-vaccination posts to the city's TikTok account have racked up hundreds of thousands of views and tens of thousands of likes on the social media platform in recent days.
Why it matters: TikTok can help governments and public health authorities reach younger people who might tune out other, more traditional PSAs.
State data shows vaccination rates among teens — and even those under age 49 — lag older populations.
While TikTok doesn'tgive a breakdown of audience by age, Jordan Gilgenbach, Minneapolis' social media officer and star of the @cityminneapolis account, said most of the comments come from the under-35 set.
Of note: The city of Minneapolis was one of the first government agencies to join TikTok back in 2019.
What they're saying: "I've got a very targeted audience that is at big risk and has the tools to be at less risk, and isn’t taking advantage of it," Gilgenbach told Torey.
The bottom line: While individual doctors (and anti-vaxxers) have attracted large followings, many municipalities and public health authorities remain wary of the platform's more casual vibe. Gilgenbach thinks that's a mistake.
"There's so much potential here for brands to be relatable in a way that feels organic to the platform, that's not boring," he said.
Facebook is pitching a new option for distant coworkers who want to gather and regain some of the spontaneous creative space lost in a world of Zoom meetings: Strap on a VR headset.
Why it matters: Facebook is debuting Horizon Workrooms, a free app that is part of the company's effort to create a broad "metaverse" in which physical distance is removed as a barrier for those who want to interact with one another.
A company using a bio-based approach to making more environmentally friendly indigo dye is the first small startup to sign up with Ginkgo Biowork's automated synthetic biology platform.
Why it matters: Boston-based Ginkgo, which recently made plans to go public via a SPAC deal, aims to become the Amazon Web Services for the growing synthetic biology world, offering its microbe engineering foundry as a platform to build out biological apps.
If you can pass a driver's test, you can get an operator's license. But there is no corresponding test for autonomous vehicles.
Why it matters: Unless Congress acts, it'll be up to tech companies and carmakers — not the government — to determine when self-driving cars are safe for public roads. "Just trust us" isn't a viable answer to earn public acceptance.
What's happening: One self-driving tech company, Aurora, argues that publicly sharing its work — through a series of layered safety claims along with detailed evidence to back up each one — is the best way to determine when the technology is safe.
This "safety case framework" is a structured argument that gives engineers a roadmap for developing the tech while also offering much-needed transparency to the public.
"It's like saying you're going to climb a mountain, but you don’t know how high the mountain is or how many steps it will take to get there," explains Nat Beuse, Aurora's vice president of safety. "The safety case tells us how high it is and how many steps it will take to make the ascent."
Between the lines: The approach is also more meaningful, Beuse says, than other proxies for AV safety, such as counting how many times a backup safety driver had to take control during testing (California's so-called "disengagement reports") or how many millions of road miles an AV developer logs (the basis for Waymo's leadership claim).
Of note: Beuse, a former official at the U.S. Department of Transportation, was instrumental in establishing a new approach toward safety at Uber's autonomous vehicle unit after one of its self-driving cars killed a pedestrian in 2018.
Aurora acquired the Uber unit in January.
Other industries, including aviation, nuclear and medical, also use a safety case-based approach to assess their performance.
Go deeper: Explore Aurora's interactive framework here and an explanation of how it works here.
A new academic group is sounding a warning about powerful, if poorly understood, AI systems that are increasingly driving the field.
Why it matters: New models like OpenAI's text-generating GPT-3 have proven so impressive that they're serving as the foundation of further AI research, but that risks propagating the biases that may be built into these systems.
Riot Games is slamming California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, calling the agency’s most recent court filing “a waste of judicial resources and legal expenses filed by a rogue, press-hungry agency.”
A new mode in “Fortnite” is once again testing the distinction between taking inspiration from another game versus ripping it off.
Why it matters: Epic has fashioned “Fortnite” as a playground for a wide range of licensed pop culture characters, but it’s also building a rep for simply pulling in other games’ modes of play without credit.
Facebook said Wednesday it's seeing signs that resistance to the COVID-19 vaccine is weakening both in the United States and abroad, though it acknowledged it still doesn't have hard numbers on how frequently misinformation is being shared on its platforms.
Why it matters: Facebook touts a survey showing improved attitudes toward the vaccines, but that survey finding raises questions, as other polling has shown significant and entrenched hesitancy, especially in the U.S. It also doesn't show that Facebook or other social media can be credited for any shift.
Why it matters: How social media companies choose to handle the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan will impact how effectively the group is able to communicate to the people it will now govern.
Personal data, including Social Security numbers, of more than 40 million former and prospective customers who applied for T-Mobile credit were exposed in a data breach, the company said Tuesday.
The big picture: About 7.8 million current T-Mobile postpaid customers were also affected. Some of the data accessed included names, dates of birth, SSN and driver's license/ID information.
If you haven't bought a new car in a few years, you might be surprised at how many driving tasks are now automated — speed control, braking, lane-keeping and even changing lanes.
Why it matters: Carmakers keep adding more automated features in the name of safety. But now authorities want to find out if assisted-driving technology itself is dangerous by making it too easy for people to misuse.
One America News on Tuesday lost its appeal over its lawsuit against MSNBC and anchor Rachel Maddow, and will now have to pay the defendants $250,000 in legal fees.
Catch up fast: The conservative network sued Maddow for $10 million in 2019 alleging defamation after she said on air the network "really literally is paid Russian propaganda."
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