Spotify's Evolution, the Dark Side of ChatGPT, + Revisiting Peppa Pig
The Know... Now You're in it.
ICYMI… On August 14th, Reuters released a report on Meta AI’s “sensual” conversations with minors. The article cited internal guidelines which were confirmed by Meta to be authentic. Read last week’s Let’s Not Forget Peppa Pig.
🎙️ The size and scope of Meta’s reach and revenue factors into the toleration of repeated mistakes. We recommend avoiding Meta AI products.
On Tuesday Spotify announced a messaging feature to allow users to “react with emojis, send texts, and seamlessly share Spotify content back and forth.” While messages are encrypted, Spotify scans them “for certain unlawful and harmful content, and our moderators will review reported content.”
🎙️ Spotify continues to evolve from music streaming to tech giant and now what we would consider a social media platform. The company is the perfect big tech case study. Read Selling Shovels in a Gold Rush to learn why.
The Tea app, branded as a platform that gives “women the tools they need to date safely in a world that often overlooks their protection,” announced a data breach that happened in July. Hackers accessed 72,000 archived images including “13,000 selfies and photo identification submitted by users during account verification.”
🎙️ You can’t make this stuff up. The app helping women date safely didn’t handle their data safely. It highlights potential issues with app level age verification that requires government ID (something Tea hasn’t required since 2023). It also serves as a reminder to limit sharing personal information and avoid gossiping online.
Matthew and Maria Raine filed a lawsuit against OpenAI alleging ChatGPT “coached” their teenage son on ending his life. OpenAI released a blog post the same day committing to updates that, among other things, “expand interventions to more people in crisis.”
🎙️ This tragic story illustrates how emerging technologies like AI and social media before it are testing products on the masses with little regard for its youngest users. Parents should remain vigilant with online oversight.
ChatGPT is the fifth most visited website in the world and it fittingly released the long-awaited GPT-5. OpenAI likened the model to “chatting with a helpful friend with PhD‑level intelligence.”
🎙️ Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, suggested investors are “overexcited about AI”, and that the industry is likely in an economic bubble. Possibly signaling both dystopian and utopian hype is outpacing AI development.