Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.Ephesians 3:20-21
An impostor who posed as the secretary of state in text and voice communications with diplomats and politicians demonstrates the increased sophistication of and national security threat posed by the AI technology.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino said Wednesday she is stepping down from her post after two years spearheading a complicated overhaul at Elon Musk’s social media site. “After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of X,” Yaccarino wrote in an X post. Linda Yaccarino announced her exit as X CEO on Wednesday....
Linda Yaccarino is stepping down as CEO of X, apparently effective immediately. She posted the news, naturally, on X, saying "I’m immensely grateful to [Elon Musk] for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App." She went on to say that "the historic business turn around we have accomplished together has been nothing short of remarkable." Reasonable minds can differ on if any of those things have happened.
Among the many changes that have come to X since Yaccarino took over are decreased moderation, a greater reliance on "community notes" that aren't properly doing what they're intended to do and, most recently, an AI bot that spouts antisemitic hatespeech.
After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of 𝕏.
When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me…
She's also been really mad about a report from watchdog group Media Matters that caused a major advertiser pullback on X a few years ago. She claimed somehow that companies deciding not to run ads on a toxic platform amounted to a "free speech" issue. Later in the saga, X sued advertisers including Mars, Unilever and CVS Health for an "illegal boycott," another example of her staunch commitment to free speech.
More recently, Media Matters sued the FTC, saying that the organization was unfairly targeting it for its criticism of X; this comes after the FTC launched an investigation into Media Matters to determine if the group illegally colluded with advertisers. Naturally, this all happened while X owner Elon Musk was working closely with the federal government.
AI is a big part of X's quest to become whatever the hell an "everything app" is, but another big part of it is X Money, which is supposedly launching in partnership with Visa later this year. But Grok (and AI more broadly) is probably the biggest current initiative at the company, one that has been mired in controversy almost from the start. In addition to this week's antisemitic rants, Grok has also talked up a supposed "white genocide" in South Africa and also misled potential voters in the lead-up to the 2024 US presidential election.
Whoever takes the position from Yaccarino clearly will have a tough act to follow, but there's no word on any potential successor yet. Musk has yet to comment on Yaccarino's departure, either.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-ceo-linda-yaccarino-is-stepping-down-after-two-years-145907096.html?src=rss
At the start of April, Anthropic released Learning mode, a feature that changed how Claude would interact with users. With the tool enabled, the chatbot would attempt to guide students to a solution rather than providing them with an answer outright. The release of Learning mode and Claude for Education was the start of a major push by Anthropic to work with universities and colleges globally.
Today, the company is upgrading Claude for Education with the addition of integrations to three popular learning apps — Canvas, Panopto and Wiley. With the update, students and teachers can connect those platforms to Claude, making it possible for the chatbot to access the materials like lecture transcripts, peer-reviewed journals and more.
For two of the apps, the connective tissue is provided by MCP servers made by Panopto and Wiley. For the uninitiated, MCP is a protocol Anthropic released last fall to make it easier to connect its AI models to third-party systems. This past spring, OpenAI began supporting the tech as well.
With Wednesday's update, Anthropic is also adding support for Canvas' Learning Tools Interoperability feature. As a result, students will be able use Claude directly within their Canvas courses without the need to switch between platforms. As before, Anthropic says all student conversations with Claude are private and won't be used for training future models.
Separately, Anthropic is partnering with campuses worldwide to launch Claude Builder Clubs, an initiative designed to help students run hackathons, workshops and demo nights dedicated to Claude and AI more broadly. "Together, they’ll build AI-powered projects — anything from an app to help their colleagues study and learn, to the next billion-dollar startup," the company says. Students can apply today to kickstart their own Builder Club this fall.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/claude-can-now-connect-to-learning-apps-like-canvas-panopto-and-wiley-150038075.html?src=rss
X CEO Linda Yaccarino said Wednesday she is stepping down from her role.
Why it matters: Yaccarino was the first permanent CEO Elon Musk hired after buying the platform in 2022.
Under her leadership, X has managed to maintain its dominance as the top social discourse app in the U.S., but its ads business still faces challenges.
Zoom in: Yaccarino announced the decision in a post on X.
"When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company," she said.
Yaccarino continued that she was "grateful" to Musk "for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App."
"I'm incredibly proud of the X team - the historic business turnaround we have accomplished together has been nothing short of remarkable," she said.
Catch up quick: Yaccarino was hired in 2023 after running NBCUniversal's ad business for more than a decade. Her hiring alleviated pressure on Musk from Tesla investors who were concerned he wasn't dedicating enough time to running his electric vehicle company.
Musk's disparaging rhetoric toward the advertising community presented Yaccarino with unique challenges. He told advertisers engaging in boycotts against his platform to "go f*** yourself" in late 2023.
In May, eMarketer predicted that X's ad revenue will grow this year — the first time in four years — but will still only be about half of what it was in 2021, the year before Musk's takeover.
The big picture: Under Yaccarino, X introduced a slew of new product changes meant to transform the app from a social discourse platform to an "everything app" that serves multiple functions at once.
The company introduced a new connected TV app last year. It's teaming with Visa to launch a payments platform this year.
But X is still mostly known as a social discourse platform. Despite competition — increasingly from Meta's Threads — it's still the dominant platform for real-time conversations in the U.S., per Similarweb.
Earlier this year, Musk announced that xAI had acquired X in an all-stock deal.
xAI also developed the Grok chatbot, whose technology has been integrated into some features on X.
Grok has drawn criticism for promoting antisemitic tropes and offensive language. The company said Tuesday it is working to "quickly identify and update the model where training could be improved."
State of play: Once the ultimate cheerleader for Madison Avenue, Yaccarino's relationship with the advertising community shifted when she became CEO of X, then Twitter.
Under Yaccarino, X waged a high-profile lawsuit against a major advertising industry coalition and its members, alleging the group abused its influence over marketers and ad agencies to discriminate unfairly against X, prompting an ad boycott.
The lawsuit proved effective, in that it forced the industry's widely accepted brand safety coalition to shutter. Later, the Federal Trade Commission reportedly launched investigations into roughly a dozen ad groups similarly alleging coordinated boycotts.
Earlier this year, a Wall Street Journal report alleged X had threatened to sue advertisers that didn't buy ads on the platform. Yaccarino slammed the report.
Yes, but: Yaccarino has proven highly resilient in the face of pressure from the marketing community. She continued to lead X for more than 18 months after a slew of high-profile marketing figures publicly urged her to step down.
Last month, she appeared on numerous stages at the annual Cannes Lions Festival for Creativity in France, mostly to tout improvements to X's ad platform and products.
She spoke with Serena Williams to announce a new podcast, available exclusively on X, with her sister Venus Williams.
The podcast highlights X's push to improve its relationship with creators and sports leagues under Yaccarino. X also extended partnerships with the NFL and NBA. Creators and athletes like Khloé Kardashian and Midge Purce launched exclusive shows on the platform.
Zoom out: X's legal threats are part of a greater push by Yaccarino to force an ad industry reset, in the wake of a broader societal shift away from heavily moderated speech.
In the wake of those changes, X has spearheaded a less moderated approach to free speech, one that other social platforms have since followed.
Meta, for example, eliminated fact-checking and rolled out its version of X's Community Notes feature earlier this year
What to watch: X has yet to name Yaccarino's replacement.
In a study published in Antiquity, researchers from Uppsala University revealed that the community of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, wasn’t nearly as remote as once thought.
