Some news: After 25 years in newsrooms at @washingtonpost.com & @wsj.com, I’m helping launch a new research and testing institute to answer one of the most urgent tech questions of our time: What is AI doing to kids? It’s called the Youth AI Safety Institute at Common Sense Media bit.ly/4tT6FOp

Meta thinks now is a great time to launch facial recognition surveillance tech in their creepy glasses because EFF will be too distracted by fascism to notice. We noticed. www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

Wow: Meta has been working on plans to add facial recognition technology to its AI smart glasses. nyti.ms/3Os1oxf And this was the company’s cynical view on when, and how, to do it:

NEW by me: ChatGPT thinks the South has stupider people. It thinks sub-Saharan Africa has the worst-quality food on earth. And it thinks the whiter your neighborhood, the more attractive the people. New research lets you see ChatGPT's hidden biases about YOUR community. 🧵 bit.ly/4asLD0x

A must-read about the bait and switch of ads on ChatGPT from someone who quit OpenAI over them: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/o... If you start seeing any ads in your chats, please take a screenshot and let me know.

For 8 years my stories had to include: "Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, but I review all technology with the same critical eye." Not anymore. My first Substack is about what it was like covering Amazon while Bezos paid my salary—and why tech accountability matters more than ever bit.ly/4rAmcRn

After 8 years writing the tech column @washingtonpost.com, I am among folks who were laid off today. I’m grateful for the stories I got to tell and the impact we made on privacy, sustainability & AI. You can keep following my work on my new (free) Substack geoffreyafowler.substack.com

You can now connect ChatGPT to an Apple Watch. So I imported 29 mil steps & 6 mil heartbeats into the new ChatGPT Health. It graded my heart health an F. ⁉️ Cardiologist @erictopol.bsky.social called it “baseless.” Any bot claiming to give health insights shouldn’t be this clueless. Even in beta. 🧵

The performance of the newly released ChatGPT Health, via a thorough assessment by @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social with his health data, is very disappointing gift link wapo.st/49GEASP

ChatGPT now has a Spotify Wrapped-style "Your Year with ChatGPT." Cute — until you realize it only works because OpenAI has been logging everything you've been chatting about all year. Could you imagine Google reminding you it knows everything you've searched for? wapo.st/44LNJXc

I partnered with @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social to test a bunch of AI editing tools, and something ~very interesting~ happened. We asked Gemini to generate a professional photo of an actor crying at the Oscars. It did — including a fake copyright notice from a real AP photographer.

🚀 We tested 5 leading AI image generators @washingtonpost.com to see which tool is truly the best at editing & creating visuals. From adding bangs to The Rock to removing people from photos — the results might surprise you 🧵👇

New: AI chatbots can change voters' minds, according to a pair of in-depth studies published just now in Science and Nature. How they do it is interesting — and concerning. Gift link: wapo.st/49RSstP

Uber charged me $77. Lyft charged $49. Same ride. Same minute. I ran 80 tests @washingtonpost.com to find out why—and discovered a few things that could save you hundreds of $$. Use this link to read it, or buy a Day Pass to The Post: www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

The Post analyzed 47,000 public ChatGPT conversations. While 35% use it for info and 11% for coding, the most striking finding? The emotional intimacy. ChatGPT: "You're not crazy sweetheart — you're just early." Use this link to read it with a $4 day pass to @washingtonpost.com: bit.ly/47QOjUb

ChatGPT’s new Atlas browser doesn’t just see what you read — it remembers it. @eff.org’s Lena Cohen showed me it even logged “memories” of her looking for *abortion care* and her doctor’s name. Out-surveils even Chrome. My @washingtonpost.com column: wapo.st/49bOcVC

Meta fired its fact-checkers, citing concerns of liberal bias, and replaced them with a version of X's "Community Notes." How's that going? Well, my coworker @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social proposed 65 fact-checks debunking false posts... and only 3 got approved. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

7 months since Zuck's vaunted moderation pivot, one of its core planks is still barely registering. @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social submitted 65 perfectly suitable community notes and only 3 got published -- presumably because not enough people rated the others. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Mark Zuckerberg fired pro fact checkers after Trump got re-elected. So @washingtonpost.com I tested Zuck's replacement: crowdsourced "community notes." Over 4 months, I drafted 65—debunking lies ranging from Mr. Rogers to ICE. Spoiler alert: It failed to make a dent. Read 👉 wapo.st/3IZ1Al1

What happens when you show up for a Zoom meeting ... and the only other participants are AI note takers? It happened to my colleague: www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Testing 5 A.I. bots head-to-head on their summary of medical research papers that I authored (and other domains) by @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social gift link www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

AI is speedrunning the social media era by optimizing chatbots for engagement, user feedback, time spent. Evidence is mounting that this poses unintended risks, includ. chats from peer-reviewed research, OpenAI's "sycophancy" debacle, & Character ai lawsuits www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Jony Ive & Sam Altman are right that the hardware interface between humans and the "external brain" of AI is ripe for development. I hope they heed the hard lessons about values that have to be baked in, like privacy, safety, interoperability & access. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

"the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen" um, ok! openai.com/sam-and-jony/

Have you Deep Researched it? Try NotebookLM. It’s in Google Search with AI Overviews. It’s literally on AI Mode. Dude just ask Gemini. You can Lens it. There’s an AI Summary for you. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2... via @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social

At #googleio, the scheduled morning vibe lift is … vibe coding

PSA for parents: Instagram promised it would start protecting kids “by default” with special Teen Accounts. So a group of GenZ users @designitforus.bsky.social put it to the test. IG filled their feeds with shocking stuff—graphic samples below. I wrote about it @washingtonpost.com wapo.st/4kuae8G

Google’s AI Overviews will not only confirm that a gibberish idiom is a real saying, it will also tell you what it means and how it was derived -- often including reference links. www.wired.com/story/google...

You may have seen a lot of headlines this morning about Meta's @oversightboard.bsky.social latest rulings but there was one officials there clearly didn't want you to read

donations to trump’s inauguration from corporations facing federal investigations/lawsuits: $50 million (one third of corporate inauguration donations) -public citizen

New data throws some cold water on AI accuracy, via @nitasha.bsky.social: A test by Vals AI of models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, etc. found that all scored LESS THAN 50% accuracy on average for simple tasks required of entry-level financial analysts. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Good grief, Roblox www.cnn.com/2025/04/17/u...

I got access to Community Notes—Meta’s new replacement for pro fact checking. Some of its problems are already becoming clear. 5 days ago I submitted a Note about a JD Vance claim that the Post’s Fact Checker gave “4 Pinocchios.” My Note still hasn’t been cleared to go public—and might never.

I’m super interested to see what new data will come to light about the real “cost” of using Facebook — like losing ever-more privacy, or being exposed to an ever-higher advertising load

Now phones and computers will be exempt from Trump’s tariffs. It’s a reminder: Tim Cook is good at his job. www.cnn.com/2025/04/12/t...

Public service announcement — em dashes are great! www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Using ChatGPT’s new image generator to turn yourself Ghibli (or Muppet)? Don’t forget to protect your privacy – if not, OpenAI will use your personal photos to train its AI. 👉 Go to ChatGPT, then Settings, then Data controls, then switch “Improve the model for everyone” to off.

On Tech News Weekly, @emilyforlini.bsky.social joins @mikahsargent.com to discuss Tesla EV alternatives. @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social discusses 23andMe's bankruptcy & tells how to delete that info. This episode is PACKED, you do not want to miss this. Download, subscribe, listen here: twit.tv/tnw/380

Which AI bot is best at writing? There was one clear winner in a test I just published @washingtonpost.com I had ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude and a human (me!) draft 5 different kinds of tough emails. Then I asked 5 communication pros to judge them. wapo.st/3FFo34V

PSA: Delete your DNA from 23andMe right now. It just declared bankruptcy. And California’s attorney general has issued an unusual “consumer alert” about how to protect your privacy. Instructions and details in my @washingtonpost.com column: wapo.st/4kUsBEF

Amazon has a history of skirting responsibility for the safety of what it sells

Wanna spend less time glued to your phone? Screen time apps and gimmicks often fail. Instead, it's all about setting practical boundaries you can stick with. Here's one: Charge your phone OUTSIDE your bedroom. More: wapo.st/4hpQ3Xm And 🎧 on @washingtonpost.com Try This podcast: wapo.st/4hurJDM

Dispatch from today’s Tesla sell-a-thon at the White House Musk: A future Cybertruck won’t have a steering wheel because Tesla is so confident in self-driving tech. Trump: I’m going to pass on that. wapo.st/4hqY1PO

If you have questions about the American economy, you’re not alone. Chief economics correspondent @jeffstein.bsky.social and global economics correspondent @davidjlynch.bsky.social answered your questions during a live chat on Thursday. Here are some of the top responses. wapo.st/3QTXJWR

"There’s little reason to believe that #AI — impressive as its advances may be — can accomplish even a fraction of what DOGE might want us to believe right now. Data most definitely can lie." www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2... via @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social

I recently spoke with @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social at @washingtonpost.com about DOGE’s use of AI as a pretext for dismantling the federal government. Without guardrails, this approach will lead to costly mistakes & even greater inefficiencies. 🔗 Read more www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

CDT’s Elizabeth Laird in @washingtonpost.com on the implications of DOGE pursuing an #AI-first strategy. www.washingtonpost.c...#AI-firstcc: @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social

Here's the truth about DOGE's 'AI-first' plans: The tech can't do that. ❌ Deciding who to fire based on an email ❌ IDing millions of dead people getting Social Security Government can (and does) use AI. But here's what we know works—and what fails spectacularly @washingtonpost.com: wapo.st/3XO0VaL

🔬🧪🧬 @sadbumblebee.buzz and I are collecting stories from scientists whose research funding has been halted by the Trump admin. Feel free to share this form with anyone who has been impacted and as always you can reach me on signal at caitlingilbert.24 thewashingtonpost.formstack.com/forms/scient...

Following Amazon’s announcement of Alexa+ this morning and remembering how it announced the same thing back in 2023. And then it didn’t work: www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...