A rural New York school district has teamed up with a crypto/sex doll company to deploy a "lifelike" robot and avatar teaching assistant in the classroom this fall. https://nysfocus.com/2026/07/14/new-york-humanoid-robot-teacher-salamanca-school-district
"PEN America isn't alone in conflating government censorship with boycotts, and muddying the specific political project of BDS; media coverage of the report and Mengestu's resignation has credulously accepted the organization's framing." https://defector.com/pen-americas-silent-moratorium-prompts-very-loud-criticism
“Social media is ‘one of the least influential factors’ in teen depression and anxiety; girls who are already depressed go on to use social media more, not the other way around.”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jul/16/psychologist-candice-odgers-kids-tech-mental-health-social-media-bans
"If A.I. is the new interface for creating code, and code is a form of communication and expression, then it’s incumbent to ensure only the most critical restrictions are applied to these models." https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/opinion/ai-code-free-speech.html
"Ask yourself: Are you willing to compromise your free speech rights in order to keep people from finding bugs in your word processor? That’s what’s increasingly being asked of us when the government restricts the use of these models by certain groups" https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/opinion/ai-code-free-speech.html
Meta used AI to target people with disabilities or who took medical leave for mass layoffs. https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2026-07-14/meta-used-ai-to-target-workers-with-medical-conditions-for-layoffs-former-employees-lawsuit-claims
SpongeBob is being censored in Russia amid ‘LGBT propaganda’ fears.
They had to replace images of rainbows in the show with yellow arcs, since rainbows are symbols of the LGBTQ community
https://tvpworld.com/94121510/russian-censors-scrub-spongebob-rainbow-as-lgbt-propaganda
I wrote about the "hot surveillance summer" trend, why so many West Village fashion girlies are posting AI glasses selfies, and how, for thousands of people (not me!!! lol), cameras on your face have officially gone from creepy to chic. https://www.usermag.co/p/hot-surveillance-summer-aka-why-smart-glasses-feel-different-this-time-meta-ai
Meta has patented an AI device that tracks your emotions and watches you take your meds. https://www.404media.co/meta-patents-ai-device-that-tracks-your-emotions-watches-you-take-your-meds/
Teenage boys show major declines in suicide across the globe as their social media use grew
83% of countries with reliable reporting show plunging suicide rates by teenage boys as social media proliferated.
https://mikemales.substack.com/p/teenage-boys-show-major-declines
RE: https://mastodon.social/@chatcontrol/116888017864337670
Fight to kill Chat Control NOW!!
A Brown University professor suspected his class used AI to cheat after a take-home midterm averaged 96%, prompting an in-person final, which averaged 48.6% (Emma Whitford/Inside Higher Ed)
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty/learning-assessment/2026/07/08/brown-professor-suspects-most-his-class-used-ai-cheat
http://www.techmeme.com/260709/p3#a260709p3
YouTube has more Emmy nominations than Fox, Bravo and AMC
Smart glasses with cameras and microphones built-in and facial recognition to come are the latest fad in surveillance tech.
For my blog & newsletter ~ this week in security ~ I wrote about why the backlash against smart glasses — aka "pervert glasses" — is justified from a security and privacy perspective. Please read and share!
More: https://this.weekinsecurity.com/reframing-smart-glasses-as-pervert-glasses/
Sign up/RSS for my weekly newsletter: https://this.weekinsecurity.com
A surveillance system sold to fight fentanyl could just as easily track abortion, pregnancy, and gender-affirming care. https://www.celinegounder.com/p/trump-drug-war-medical-data-surveillance
If you’re wondering what the hell the KIDS Act is and why it’s so awful I made a video on it last week. Call your senators and kill this bill! We are running out of time https://youtu.be/TIqzmatFMUQ?is=Iq-ohNjvQLJvmXC4
If you watch one thing today make it this. Absolutely phenomenal debunking of the idea that social media and cell phones are causing a youth mental health crisis, and who that false narrative ultimately serves https://www.ted.com/talks/candice_odgers_what_we_re_getting_wrong_about_teens_and_tech
None of this is about protecting children https://theintercept.com/2026/06/28/age-verification-privacy-surveillance-journalists-whistleblowers/
If you watch one thing today make it this. Absolutely phenomenal debunking of the idea that social media and cell phones are causing a youth mental health crisis, and who that false narrative ultimately serves https://www.ted.com/talks/candice_odgers_what_we_re_getting_wrong_about_teens_and_tech
Marsha Blackburn is trying to make a deal with Trump rn to effectively censor all LGBTQ content off social media in echange for a state AI law moratorium. Please watch and share!!https://youtu.be/Z5t52s3CjI4?is=Wl4bnzQ0BCXyj16uw