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"In a recent test of Amazon's facial recognition software, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California revealed that it mistook 26 California lawmakers as people arrested for crimes. "

"california has banned bots that pretend to be human. under a newly signed bill, these bots will need to disclose their nature, making it clear to the user that they're conversing with a machine rather than a human.    according to a bill signed on friday by democratic gov. jerry brown, automated accounts, more commonly called 'bots', will need to disclose to customers that they're not real humans, according to reporting from PC magazine. the bill is part of a move that will help users avoid falling victim to automated messages selling goods or services in a commercial transaction or to influence a vote in an election."

"The family of a California design student killed in November's terror attacks in Paris have sued Twitter Inc, Google and Facebook Inc, claiming the social media companies provide "material support" to the militant group Islamic State."

"On Wednesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that directly affects "mega-retailers" like Amazon, and how these companies use algorithms to manage warehouse workers. Mega-retailers are those that employ more than 1,000 warehouse workers, and they include one of Amazon's main competitors, Walmart."

"Researchers at the University of California-Santa Barbara recently discovered a Waze vulnerability that allowed them to create thousands of "ghost drivers" that can monitor the drivers around them-an exploit that could be used to track Waze users in real-time. They proved it to me by tracking my own movements around San Francisco and Las Vegas over a three-day period."

"A robot that can decide whether or not to inflict pain has been built by roboticist and artist Alexander Reben from the University of Berkeley, California. The basic machine is capable of pricking a finger but is programmed not to do so every time it can."

"Three Google employees have been injured in a crash involving one of the company's self-driving cars. Google revealed the accident happened on 1 July when its car was rear-ended while stationary on a public road in Mountain View, California. It is the first accident involving one of Google's fleet of self-driving vehicles to have resulted in injury."

"One of Google's self-driving cars crashed into a bus in California last month. There were no injuries. It is not the first time one of Google's famed self-driving cars has been involved in a crash, but it may be the first time it has caused one. "

"The platform's automated tools may have mistaken the visuals of the burning building for 9/11 footage, according to Vagelis Papalexakis, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California, Riverside who studies machine learning used in similar systems."

""The idea that we can have counter-speech when [Facebook] groups become brigade mobs is ludicrous," said Renee DiResta, an expert in online misinformation and co-founder of Vaccinate California. "It makes just participating as an everyday citizen a high-stakes ordeal.""

""China has a politically weaponized system of censorship; it is refined, organized, coordinated and supported by the state's resources," said Xiao Qiang, a research scientist at the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley, and the founder of China Digital Times. "It's not just for deleting something. They also have a powerful apparatus to construct a narrative and aim it at any target with huge scale." "This is a huge thing," he added. "No other country has that." "

"Recent advances in AI are likely to spell the end of the traditional school classroom, one of the world's leading experts on AI has predicted. Prof Stuart Russell, a British computer scientist based at the University of California, Berkeley, said that personalised ChatGPT-style tutors have the potential to hugely enrich education and widen global access by delivering personalised tuition to every household with a smartphone. The technology could feasibly deliver "most material through to the end of high school", he said."

" AI has better 'bedside manner' than some doctors, study finds ChatGPT rated higher in quality and empathy of written advice, raising possibility of medical assistance role Hannah Devlin Science correspondent @hannahdev Fri 28 Apr 2023 16.01 BST ChatGPT appears to have a better 'bedside manner' than some doctors - at least when their written advice is rated for quality and empathy, a study has shown. The findings highlight the potential for AI assistants to play a role in medicine, according to the authors of the work, who suggest such agents could help draft doctors' communications with patients. "The opportunities for improving healthcare with AI are massive," said Dr John Ayers, of the University of California San Diego."

"Journal editors, researchers and publishers are now debating the place of such AI tools in the published literature, and whether it's appropriate to cite the bot as an author. Publishers are racing to create policies for the chatbot, which was released as a free-to-use tool in November by tech company OpenAI in San Francisco, California."

Many Californians support a new law to allow underage customers to purchase mature content, including movies and games.

"As the lava lamps bubble and swirl, a video camera on the ceiling monitors their unpredictable changes and connects the footage to a computer, which converts the randomness into a virtually unhackable code.  Why use lava lamps for encryption instead of computer-generated code? Since computer codes are created by machines with relatively predictable patterns, it is entirely possible for hackers to guess their algorithms, posing a security risk. Lava lamps, on the other hand, add to the equation the sheer randomness of the physical world, making it nearly impossible for hackers to break through."

"Waymo and Cruise are now allowed to launch paid 24/7, fully autonomous driverless car services in San Francisco, state regulators decided Thursday. Why it matters: This is the final approval in both companies' quests to launch their full-fledged services throughout San Francisco."

"The U-turn came after the majority of members on the 11-person board had voted last week to allow robots to be armed with explosives and use them to kill people "when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD". The board had also added an amendment saying that only high-ranking officers would be allowed to authorize deadly force."

"Tesla denied liability, saying Lee consumed alcohol before getting behind the wheel. The electric-vehicle maker also claims it was unclear whether the autopilot feature was engaged at the time of the crash. Tesla has been testing and rolling out its autopilot and more advanced full self-driving (FSD) system, which its chief executive, Elon Musk, has touted as crucial to his company's future but has drawn regulatory and legal scrutiny. Tesla won an earlier trial in Los Angeles in April with a strategy of saying that it tells drivers that its technology requires human monitoring, despite the "autopilot" and "full self-driving" names."