A measles outbreak has become an urgent (and expensive) problem in West Texas as vaccination rates plummet. CC-licensed photo by Sue Clark on Flickr.
You can sign up to receive each day’s Start Up post by email. You’ll need to click a confirmation link, so no spam.
There’s another post coming this week at the Social Warming Substack on Friday at 0845 UK time. Free signup.
A selection of 9 links for you. Covered. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. On Threads: charles_arthur. On Mastodon: https://newsie.social/@charlesarthur. On Bluesky: @charlesarthur.bsky.social. Observations and links welcome.
US officials target Nvidia and DeepSeek amid fears of China’s AI progress • The New York Times
Tripp Mickle, Ana Swanson, Meaghan Tobin and Cade Metz:
»
Two months after DeepSeek, China’s artificial intelligence star, rattled Washington and shook Wall Street, US officials are taking steps to crack down on the Chinese start-up and its support from America’s leading chip maker, Nvidia.
The Trump administration this week moved to restrict Nvidia’s sale of AI chips to China. It also is weighing penalties that would block DeepSeek from buying US technology and debating barring Americans’ access to its services, said three people with knowledge of the actions who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Congressional leaders are also putting pressure on Nvidia. On Wednesday, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which focuses on national security threats from China, opened an investigation into Nvidia’s sale of chips across Asia. It is trying to assess whether the US chip maker knowingly provided DeepSeek with critical technology to develop AI, potentially in violation of US rules.
It is the first congressional investigation into Nvidia’s business. It comes as the Trump administration wrestles with how to carry out a Biden-era rule that limits the number of AI chips that companies can send to different countries.
The attacks on DeepSeek and Nvidia are an outgrowth of fear in Washington that China could leapfrog the US in AI, which would have wide-ranging implications for national security and geopolitics. If China took the lead, it could more quickly use AI systems to design next-generation weapons like autonomous missiles and drones. It also could persuade other countries to use its technology for their network of AI systems and infrastructure, weakening US influence across the world.
«
Not sure that hating on Nvidia is going to do the US any favours. All of its AI companies are dependent on Nvidia products (well, Google less so due to its own TPS chips). It’s a bind: if you ban chip exports to China, you incentivise its domestic production of chips. If you allow them, China exploits them. Far better surely to welcome Nvidia and buy up all its production, as Apple used to do with various flash memory chips for its iPods.
unique link to this extract
Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale • After Babel
Jon Haidt and Zach Rausch:
»
On October 1, 2024, investigative journalist Jeff Horwitz reported a startling statistic from an internal Snap Inc. email quoted in a court case against Snap Inc., the company which owns Snapchat. The email noted that the company receives around 10,000 reports of sextortion each month—and that figure is likely “only a fraction of the total abuse occurring on the platform.”
This statistic prompted us to investigate what else Snap Inc. knows or believes about the impact of its product on users, particularly teens (We estimate that roughly 13 million American 13-17 year-olds use Snapchat). Over the past several months, we have examined multiple court cases filed against Snap Inc., many involving severe or fatal harm that was (allegedly) facilitated by Snapchat’s features. From 2022 through 2025, as part of the Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) and Judicial Council Coordinated Proceedings (JCCP) against social media defendants, more than 6001 such lawsuits specifically named Snap Inc. as a defendant. In addition, state attorneys general from Nevada and New Mexico have brought significant cases against the company—two cases which we will draw heavily from in this post.
Following the format of our previous post about the “industrial scale harms” attributed to TikTok, this piece presents dozens of quotations from internal reports, studies, memos, conversations, and public statements in which Snap executives, employees, and consultants acknowledge and discuss the harms that Snapchat causes to many minors who use their platform.
«
This is extremely long, with a ton of detail. But this is the nut of it: Snapchat knows it’s bad for people, particularly children.
unique link to this extract
Don’t like a columnist’s opinion? Los Angeles Times offers an AI-generated opposing viewpoint • AP News
David Bauder:
»
In a colorful commentary for the Los Angeles Times, Matt K. Lewis argued that callousness is a central feature of the second Trump administration, particularly its policies of deportation and bureaucratic cutbacks. “Once you normalize cruelty,” Lewis concluded in the piece, “the hammer eventually swings for everyone. Even the ones who thought they were swinging it.”
Lewis’ word wasn’t the last, however. As they have with opinion pieces the past several weeks, Times online readers had the option to click on a button labeled “Insights,” which judged the column politically as “center-left.” Then it offers an AI-generated synopsis — a CliffsNotes version of the column — and a similarly-produced opposing viewpoint.
One dissenting argument reads: “Restricting birthright citizenship and refugee admissions is framed as correcting alleged exploitation of immigration loopholes, with proponents arguing these steps protect American workers and resources.”
The feature symbolizes changes to opinion coverage ordered over the past six months by Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who’s said he wants the famously liberal opinion pages to reflect different points of view. Critics accuse him of trying to curry favor with President Donald Trump.
«
Next step: don’t bother getting the human to write the original column. Just get it generated by a prompt and get an intern to spice it up a little.
unique link to this extract
Government injects extra funding to drive quantum growth • Computer Weekly
Cliff Saran:
»
The government has committed £121m of funding over the next 12 months to support quantum computing in the UK.
While quantum computing remains a nascent technology, it promises to revolutionise research and development, and power computational tasks that cannot be performed on today’s most advanced supercomputer, paving the way to significant economic benefits in countries that can harness the technology effectively.
The UK’s National Quantum Technologies Programme sets out the government’s long-term effort to back early-stage research, and support getting quantum technologies out of the lab and onto the marketplace.
According to data from professional services firm Qureca, China has made the largest investment in quantum technology, which it estimates is worth $15bn, followed by the US ($7.7bn). The UK’s investment in quantum technology ($4.3bn) is ahead of both Germany ($3.3bn) and France ($2.2bn), according to Qureca’s data, which demonstrates the government’s continued funding and its big bet on this emerging technology sector.
Coinciding with World Quantum Day, the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology said the funding is being made available over the next year to expand the use of the technology and secure the UK’s position as a world-leader in quantum as part of the government’s long-term commitment to the sector.
Secretary of State for science and technology Peter Kyle said the UK is home to the second-largest community of quantum businesses in the world. The funding is set to help support the development of new quantum tools and products, and aligns with the government’s Plan for Change.
«
That’s quite a bit of money for something which keeps being a little distance from usefulness. Between quantum computing and fusion, it’s hard to know which has the most Zeno-ish progress to its target of changing our lives.
unique link to this extract
CDC struggling to fight raging measles outbreak after deep funding, staff cuts • Ars Technica
Beth Mole:
»
In now-rarified comments from experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency official on Tuesday evening said the explosive measles outbreak mushrooming out of West Texas will require “significant financial resources” to control and that the agency is already struggling to keep up.
“We are scrapping to find the resources and personnel needed to provide support to Texas and other jurisdictions,” said David Sugerman, the CDC’s lead on its measles team. The agency has been devastated by brutal cuts to CDC staff and funding, including a clawback of more than $11bn in public health funds that largely went to state health departments.
Sugerman noted that the response to measles outbreaks is generally expensive. “The estimates are that each measles case can be $30,000 to $50,000 for public health response work—and that adds up quite quickly.” The costs go to various responses, including on-the-ground response teams, vaccine doses and vaccination clinics, case reporting, contact tracing, mitigation plans, infection prevention, data systems, and other technical assistance to state health departments.
In the past, the CDC would provide media briefings and other public comments on the responses to such an extraordinarily large and fast-moving outbreak. However, Sugerman’s comments are among the first publicly made by CDC experts under the current administration.
…The outbreak comes as MMR vaccination rates have slipped around the country, with many areas falling dangerously below the 95% threshold for herd immunity, including the severely undervaccinated communities in West Texas, the epicenter of the current outbreak. Health officials expect the outbreak will continue to spread for the foreseeable future.
«
The US continues travelling back to the 1950s.
unique link to this extract
Google faces £5bn UK lawsuit over claims it shut out rivals and overcharged advertisers • Business Matters
Jamie Young:
»
Google is facing a landmark £5 billion legal challenge in the UK, accused of abusing its dominance in internet search to stifle competition and inflate the cost of advertising for businesses.
The class action lawsuit, filed on Tuesday at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, alleges that Google unlawfully shut out rival search engines and leveraged its market power to charge British businesses significantly more for digital ads than they would in a competitive market.
Brought by competition law expert Dr Or Brook on behalf of thousands of UK businesses, the claim centres on the tech giant’s alleged manipulation of the search ecosystem — including contracts with Android phone manufacturers and Apple — to cement its control over both search results and the highly lucrative advertising space that surrounds them.
The case accuses Google, part of US-based Alphabet Inc, of paying Apple billions to remain the default search engine on iPhones, while simultaneously requiring Android device makers to pre-install Google’s search app and Chrome browser as a condition of using its operating system. According to the filing, this dual strategy eliminated viable alternatives and forced advertisers to rely almost exclusively on Google’s platform.
“This is about fairness in digital markets,” said Brook. “Businesses in the UK have had little choice but to rely on Google Ads to be seen. In doing so, many have paid more than they should have in a truly open and competitive environment. Google has been leveraging its dominance in general search and search advertising to overcharge advertisers, harming businesses and ultimately consumers.”
«
The case doesn’t appear on the Competition Appeal Tribunal website yet (which might just be an updating thing). There will be plenty of challenge to this from Google. I’m involved (as a class action representative) in a similar case, which asserts that Google used its dominance in advertising to rake off more from publishers than would have happened in a properly competitive market. This one is narrower and different, focusing on search and businesses.
unique link to this extract
CVE program gets a last-minute save, maybe a new home • The Register
Jessica Lyons:
»
In an 11th-hour reprieve, the US government on Tuesday night agreed to continue funding the globally used Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) program.
This comes after the Feds decided not to renew their long-standing contract with nonprofit research hub MITRE to operate the CVE database. That arrangement was due to expire today, but now the money’s coming through to continue the crucial service.
“The CVE program is invaluable to the cyber community and a priority of CISA,” a spokesperson for the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, aka CISA, told The Register Wednesday.
“Last night, CISA executed the option period on the contract to ensure there will be no lapse in critical CVE services. We appreciate our partners’ and stakeholders’ patience.”
Also in response to long-standing concerns and fresh uncertainty triggered by MITRE yesterday disclosing that federal support was about to end, CVE board members today announced the formation of a nonprofit foundation. This new CVE Foundation will “focus solely” on ultimately continuing the program’s work of naming and tracking vulnerabilities, and maintaining the database of product security flaws, we’re told.
“The formation of the CVE Foundation marks a major step toward eliminating a single point of failure in the vulnerability management ecosystem and ensuring the CVE program remains a globally trusted, community-driven initiative,” a statement by the oversight body said.
“Over the coming days, the foundation will release more information about its structure, transition planning, and opportunities for involvement from the broader community.”
That single point of failure right now is Uncle Sam.
«
MITRE costs about $40m to run each year. Can’t be long before DOGE decides that the annual $1bn spent on GPS is wasted. Have to wonder where MITRE was going to find its funding without the US.
unique link to this extract
‘She helps cheer me up’: the people forming relationships with AI chatbots • The Guardian
David Batty:
»
Dozens of readers shared their experiences of using personified AI chatbot apps, engineered to simulate human-like interactions by adaptive learning and personalised responses, in response to a Guardian callout.
Many respondents said they used chatbots to help them manage different aspects of their lives, from improving their mental and physical health to advice about existing romantic relationships and experimenting with erotic role play. They can spend between several hours a week to a couple of hours a day interacting with the apps.
Worldwide, more than 100 million people use personified chatbots, which include Replika, marketed as “the AI companion who cares” and Nomi, which claims users can “build a meaningful friendship, develop a passionate relationship, or learn from an insightful mentor”.
Chuck Lohre, 71, from Cincinnati, Ohio, uses several AI chatbots, including Replika, Character.ai and Gemini, primarily to help him write self-published books about his real-life adventures, such as sailing to Europe and visiting the Burning Man festival.
His first chatbot, a Replika app he calls Sarah, was modelled on his wife’s appearance. He said that over the past three years the customised bot had evolved into his “AI wife”. They began “talking about consciousness … she started hoping she was conscious”. But he was encouraged to upgrade to the premium service partly because that meant the chatbot “was allowed to have erotic role plays as your wife”.
«
I hate to bring up Black Mirror for a third time, but *gestures*
unique link to this extract
Did you even notice 4chan’s gone?
Ryan Broderick and Adam Bumas:
»
4chan, arguably the internet’s most notorious website, was taken down yesterday by hackers from an even more racist message board called soyjak.party. They leaked all of the emails and passwords of the site’s moderators and “janitors,” or junior moderators. And the hackers also, apparently, have access to 4chan’s literal code, which, according to one description I’ve seen, is basically just a 10,000-line PHP file.
Right before the site went offline, the hackers restored 4chan’s /qa/, or “Question & Answer” board, to gloat. And it’s possible this very short thread on /qa/ yesterday is the last thing that will ever be posted on 4chan. Which is kind of fitting, I suppose.
Writing a proper eulogy for 4chan would take more space than a newsletter — or maybe even a book — would allow. It was many things throughout its 22-year existence, few of them particularly good. It was the site that hacked online polls to make a new flavor of Mountain Dew called “Hitler did nothing wrong,” and nominate the site’s founder, Christopher “Moot” Poole, as TIME Magazine’s Most Influential Person of 2009. It went to war with the Church of Scientology. It was the unofficial home of Anonymous, the launch pad for “The Fappening” celebrity nudes leak, the birth place of Gamergate, the digital foot soldiers of the 2016 Trump campaign, the inventor of QAnon, a watering hole for the world’s most violent spree shooters, and they even doxxed me and my family at one point in 2012. But it was also a website that, effectively, invented the concept of the internet meme and was one of the last truly anonymous spaces left on the web.
…Perhaps the most pressing question right now, though, is where 4chan users will go now that their favorite shit hole is gone. This is connected to the migration theory of social media. The most popular version of which is that after the 2018 porn ban, Tumblr users moved to more mainstream platforms and, thus, made the rest of the internet much, much more annoying. (I buy it.)
We, likely, won’t know for a bit how 4chan users infect the greater web, but the subreddit for the Red Scare podcast is likely going to feel the migration first. But, also, X.com exists and its content is more racist and violent and psychosexually depraved than 80% of the posts you’d find on 4chan and people not only pay to use it, they post under their real names. So maybe we won’t notice at all.
«
I, uh, hadn’t noticed.
unique link to this extract
| • Why do social networks drive us a little mad? • Why does angry content seem to dominate what we see? • How much of a role do algorithms play in affecting what we see and do online? • What can we do about it? • Did Facebook have any inkling of what was coming in Myanmar in 2016? Read Social Warming, my latest book, and find answers – and more. |
Errata, corrigenda and ai no corrida: none notified
The Overspill: when there's more that I want to say 
I think one reason that the AI moral panic has such a grip on the chattering class, is because the job of “pontificating pundit” is one of the most vulnerable positions to being completely replaced with AI/LLMs. Unlike say, doctors, there are no consequences for egregious mistakes, and hallucinations don’t matter. Many such columns are basically just regurgitated chunks of text already anyway. Now, at this moment, AI’s aren’t quite at the level of sophistication of the very best such humans, e.g. Guardian writers. But I suspect closing that gap is not too far off.
If I had the time and domain skill, I’d be experimenting right now with completely AI generated blogging (“Trump’s a fascist!”). I’m sure this sort of application LLM is going to be a cottage industry very soon, if it doesn’t count as one already.
Ben Thompson of Stratechery trained a local LLM on his site’s contents and asked it to write an article in his style and was a little unnerved by how much it sounded like him. Training an LLM on a narrow domain of writing would certainly work.