Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
Itch.io is the latest marketplace to crack down on adult games
Indie video game marketplace Itch.io announced this week that it has “deindexed” adult and not-safe-for-work games, removing them from its browse and search pages. The move, the company said, was in response to a campaign by Collective Shout (an advocacy group that has previously criticized video games, rap music, and lingerie commercials) targeting both Itch.io…
DOGE has built an AI tool to slash federal regulations
The Department of Government Efficiency hopes to use a new AI tool to eliminate half of the federal government’s regulatory mandates, according to The Washington Post. Citing a PowerPoint presentation dated July 1, The Post reports that the DOGE AI Deregulation Decision Tool is supposed to analyze around 200,000 federal regulations and identify the ones…
Astronomer winks at viral notoriety with ‘temporary spokesperson’ Gwyneth Paltrow
After spending the past week-plus in the headlines due to a seemingly inescapable social media scandal, data operations startup Astronomer is trying to shift the narrative with a tongue-in-cheek video starring actress and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow. Paltrow was, of course, previously married to Coldplay singer Chris Martin. And it was at a Coldplay concert in…
U.K. starts enforcing online age check rules
A U.K. law requiring that pornography websites verify the age of their users took effect Friday. The BBC reports that around 6,000 porn sites have said they will start verifying users’ ages to comply with the Online Safety Act, although at least one major site was not requiring age checks as of Friday morning. The…
Tesla vet says that ‘reviewing real products’ — not mockups — is the key to staying innovative
GM’s EVs have been on a roll lately. After selling just the Chevy Bolt for years, a wave of new models — now up to 17 fully electrified vehicles — has pushed the automaker into second place in the U.S. behind Tesla. How did it get there? With a little help from a Tesla veteran.…
Dating safety app Tea breached, exposing 72,000 user images
Tea, an app that allows women to post anonymous comments about men they’ve supposedly dated, announced Friday that it has suffered a data breach, with hackers gaining access to 72,000 images. That number includes 13,000 selfies and photo IDs submitted for account verification, as well as 59,000 images from posts, comments, and direct messages, the…
India bans streaming apps you’ve never heard of — but millions watch
India has ordered the blocking of 25 streaming services — many with millions of viewers and even paying subscribers — for allegedly promoting “obscene” content, in one of the South Asian nation’s biggest digital crackdowns yet. The order affects lesser-known, but wildly popular services like Ullu and ALTT that cater to the country’s mass-market appetite for…
Tesla wants to bring robotaxis to San Francisco. Here’s what’s standing in the way.
Tesla is launching an even-more-limited version of its early robotaxi service in San Francisco this weekend, according to Business Insider, after an initial rollout began last month in Austin, Texas. The company plans to send invites to Tesla owners to test the service, according to the report. Depending on how and if Tesla proceeds, its…
A timeline of the US semiconductor market in 2025
It’s been a tumultuous year for the U.S. semiconductor industry. The semiconductor industry plays a sizable role in the “AI race” that the U.S. seems determined to win, which is why this context is worth paying attention to: from Intel’s appointment of Lip-Bu Tan to CEO — who wasted no time getting to work trying…
Sam Altman warns there’s no legal confidentiality when using ChatGPT as a therapist
ChatGPT users may want to think twice before turning to their AI app for therapy or other kinds of emotional support. According to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the AI industry hasn’t yet figured out how to protect user privacy when it comes to these more sensitive conversations, because there’s no doctor-patient confidentiality when your doc…
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