Chaos & Amazement #2502 Meta Ditches Fact-Checking, Cute Fluffy Robots, and Websites from Hell
From Mark Zuckerberg kissing the king’s ring to robot dogs stealing hearts at CES 2025, this week's tech rollercoaster proves that truth is optional but cuteness is mandatory 🤖🔍✨
Tech News
Earlier this week Mark Zuckerberg announced in a video that Meta is ending its fact-checking program on Facebook, Instagram,Threads in the U.S.. Not experts but users will flag potentially false info. https://www.instagram.com/zuck/reel/DEhf2uTJUs0/
This important culture shift, announced one day after Zuckerberg had a meeting with Trump, signals a focus on "free expression" for Meta, even if it means more misinformation spreading. https://www.politico.eu/article/mark-zuckerberg-full-elon-musk-dump-facebook-fact-checker/
Here are some of the horrible things that you can now say on Instagram and Facebook, including calling LGBTQ+ people "mentally ill" and referring to women as "household objects." https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/7/24338471/meta-hate-speech-hateful-conduct-policy-moderation
UK plans to make creating & sharing sexually explicit deepfakes a crime. This is a good thing! Existing revenge porn laws don't cover these AI-generated fakes, which can be deeply harmful & damaging. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britain-make-sexually-explicit-deepfakes-crime-2025-01-07/
With Twitter/X and Facebook/Instagram becoming more and more toxic, what are the alternatives for creators and users on Facebook and Instagram?
Josh Rose: “YouTube looks like a platform we should all embrace, but are you ready to get into the monetization game and give up what truly drives your ideas and passions to make money connecting products to consumers?”
https://link.medium.com/a0mmOH07YPb Interesting question!
When life gives you lemons... make Lemon8! TikTok's sister app sees surge in promotion as ban looms, but the legislation affects all ByteDance apps, not just TikTok https://www.axios.com/2025/01/07/tiktok-lemon8-ban-sponsored-posts
People are not purchasing what they need but a prediction of what they’ll want, and a guess at what they’ll get.” — @nickfthilton
https://link.medium.com/RBwdCSf7YPb Interesting piece about the subscription era.
Fresh AI Robots from CES
Meet Jennie, the robotic dog designed to comfort people with dementia. She responds to voice commands, senses touch, and rests on laps for hours—no walking to avoid tripping hazards. Tombot's Marissa Steingold says she offers 24/7 companionship.
Roborock debuts the "world's first" vacuum with a robotic arm using AI to pick up socks, towels & more. PR manager Ruben Rodriguez says machine learning helps it recognize, avoid, & place items. So... when can it start folding laundry too?
Meet Mirumi! This shy, fluffy robot from Japan stole the show at CES 2025. It clings to you like a purse charm and is designed to bring joy with its adorable expressions. Available for pre-orders for $100
The OMNIA AI Mirror: The Health Conceptual Product designed for CES 202. Mirror, mirror on the wall, do you think my bum looks fat in this skirt?
From my blog
Trey Ratcliff’s Noir Dance with Aliens https://bnox.be/2025/01/trey-ratcliffs-noir-dance-with-aliens.html
Weird and Wonderful
Websites from hell - more than 1,000 of them! websitesfromhell.net
Spotleio: guess the artist in 10 tries. https://spotle.io/
Neal.fun is a creative website developed by Neal Agarwal. Here’s his latest challenge: https://neal.fun/stimulation-clicker/ How far did you get?
When the red hand of the s32 unix clock points straight down (hex 80), it'll be 03:14:07 UTC on Jan 19, 2038 – the moment some computers stop keeping time correctly due to the Y2038 bug. https://retr0.id/stuff/2038/
DOOM: THE GALLERY EXPERIENCE - Presented in glorious 320x200 resolution.