Parents in America know the difficulties of pulling their children away from electronic devices, especially after months of virtual learning due to school lockdowns during the pandemic. About half of America’s middle schoolers spend five hours or more daily on weekends watching videos on an electronic device, and 30 percent spend seven hours or more…

Commentary These days the word “tech” typically brings to mind the internet, apps, and social media. It is only reasonable. These aspects of technology have come to dominate daily life for many. But technology is a whole lot broader than social media or even the internet, and it is poised to revolutionize how the entire…

Ride-hailing firm Lyft Inc. said on Tuesday it was testing an earnings algorithm that will allow drivers in 18 U.S. cities to see destination and pay details before accepting a request. The test follows a similar move by bigger rival Uber Technologies Inc. and underlines how the companies are going the extra mile to fix…

Commentary TikTok, the wildly popular and youthful social media app, is controlled by China and tripled its ad revenue in 2022 to $12 billion. Companies want access to this latest conduit to mold youthful preferences, and every year they are willing to pay a lot for the privilege. Sixty percent of TikTok users are in…

A bipartisan collective of House lawmakers introduced a bill on Tuesday that would require Big Tech providers like Facebook and Google to allow users to opt-out of content selected by algorithms, providing additional transparency regarding content. The bill, dubbed the Filter Bubble Transparency Act in the House (pdf), would make platforms with more than one…

A bipartisan collective of House lawmakers introduced legislation on Nov. 9 that would require Big Tech providers such as Facebook and Google to allow users to opt-out of content selected by algorithms, providing additional transparency regarding content. The measure, dubbed the Filter Bubble Transparency Act in the House (pdf), would make platforms with more than…

Chinese food delivery giant Meituan released its algorithm rules for the first time as it faces increased scrutiny from regulators. The move is aimed at protecting labor rights for millions of riders by extending the estimated delivery time. The algorithms help to estimate the time span for riders to complete their deliveries, Meituan stated on…

Chinese food delivery giant Meituan released its algorithm rules for the first time as it faces increased scrutiny from regulators. The move is aimed at protecting labor rights for millions of riders by extending the estimated delivery time. The algorithms help to estimate the time span for riders to complete their deliveries, Meituan stated on…

CHICAGO—A Democratic senator said the U.S. Justice Department needs to look into whether the algorithm-powered police technologies it funds contribute to racial bias in law enforcement and lead to wrongful arrests. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, was responding to an investigation by The Associated Press published Thursday about the possibility of bias in courtroom…

A new study by software nonprofit Mozilla Foundation found that 71 percent of videos study participants deemed objectionable were suggested to them by YouTube’s own recommendation algorithm. “Research volunteers encountered a range of regrettable videos, reporting everything from COVID fear-mongering to political misinformation to wildly inappropriate “children’s” cartoons,” Mozilla Foundation wrote in a post. The…