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      260 McNuggets? McDonald’s Ends A.I. Drive-Through Tests Amid Errors

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      Ordering mistakes frustrated customers during nearly three years of tests. But competitors like White Castle and Wendy’s say their A.I. ordering systems have been highly accurate.In the nearly three years since McDonald’s announced that it was partnering with IBM to develop a drive-through order taker powered by artificial intelligence, videos popped up on social media showing confused and frustrated customers trying to correct comically inaccurate meals.“Stop! Stop! Stop!” two friends screamed with humorous anguish on a TikTok video as an A.I. drive-through misunderstands their order, tallying up 240, 250 and then 260 Chicken McNuggets.In other videos, the A.I. rings up a customer for nine iced teas instead of one, fails to explain why a customer could not order Mountain Dew and thought another wanted to add bacon to his ice cream.So when McDonald’s announced in a June 13 internal email, obtained by the trade publication Restaurant Business, that it was ending its partnership with IBM and shutting down its A.I. tests at more than 100 U.S. drive-throughs, customers who had interacted with the service were probably not shocked.The decision to abandon the IBM deal comes as many other businesses, including its competitors, are investing in A.I. But it exemplifies some of the challenges companies are facing as they jockey to unlock the revolutionary technology’s potential.Other fast-food companies have had success with A.I. ordering. Last year, Wendy’s formed a partnership with Google Cloud to build out its A.I. drive-through system. Carl’s Jr. and Taco John’s have hired Presto, a voice A.I. firm for restaurants. Panda Express has approximately 30 automated order takers at its windows through a partnership with the voice A.I. firm SoundHound AI.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      New York signs parental control of ‘addictive’ social media feeds into law

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      New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, signed two bills into law on Thursday meant to mitigate negative impacts of social media on children, the latest action to address what critics say is a growing youth mental health crisis.The first bill will require that parents be able to stop their children from seeing posts suggested by a social network’s algorithm, a move to limit feeds Hochul argues are addictive. The second will put additional limitations on the collection, use, sharing and selling of personal data of anyone under the age of 18.“We can protect our kids. We can tell the companies that you are not allowed to do this, you don’t have a right to do this, that parents should have say over their children’s lives and their health, not you,” Hochul said at a bill-signing ceremony in Manhattan.Under the first bill, the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (Safe) for Kids Act, apps like TikTok and Instagram would be limited for people under the age of 18 to posts from accounts they follow, rather than content recommended by the app. It would also block platforms from sending minors notifications on suggested posts between midnight and 6am.Both provisions could be turned off if a minor gets what the bill defines as “verifiable parental consent”.Thursday’s signing is just the first step in what is expected to be a lengthy process of rule-making, as the laws do not take effect immediately and social media companies are expected to challenge the new legislation.The New York state attorney general, Letitia James, is now tasked with crafting rules to determine mechanisms for verifying a user’s age and parental consent. After the rules are finalized, social media companies will have 180 days to implement changes to comply with the regulation.“Addictive feeds are getting our kids hooked on social media and hurting their mental health, and families are counting on us to help address this crisis,” James said at the ceremony. “The legislation signed by Governor Hochul today will make New York the national leader in addressing the youth mental health crisis and an example for other states to follow.”Social media companies and free speech advocates have pushed back against such legislation, with NetChoice – a tech industry trade group that includes Twitter/X and Meta – criticizing the New York laws as unconstitutional.“This is an assault on free speech and the open internet by the state of New York,” Carl Szabo, vice-president and general counsel of NetChoice, said in a statement. “New York has created a way for the government to track what sites people visit and their online activity by forcing websites to censor all content unless visitors provide an ID to verify their age.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionNew York’s new laws come after California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, announced plans to work with his state’s legislature on a bill to restrict smartphone usage for students during the school day, though he didn’t provide exact details on what the proposal would include. Newsom in 2019 signed a bill allowing school districts to limit or ban smartphones on campuses.A similar measure proposed in South Carolina this month would ban students from using cellphones during the school day across all public schools in the state. Most schools in the United Kingdom prohibit the use of smartphones during school hours.Although there hasn’t been broad legislation on the subject at the federal level, pressure from Washington is mounting. This week the US surgeon general called on Congress to put warning labels on social media platforms similar to those on cigarette packaging, citing mental health dangers for children using the sites. More

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      Chiropractor Videos Take Off on TikTok and YouTube

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      Neck cracks and spine adjustments have become a potent social media trend, but some chiropractors fear the videos send the wrong message about the profession.Videos of chiropractic adjustments have become a popular genre on TikTok.Snap. Crack. Pop. These sounds, once used to sell a popular breakfast cereal, are now enticing people to visit the doctor thanks to a wave of chiropractic videos sweeping social media.The most popular videos follow a familiar template: A patient enters with a debilitating condition. A chiropractor maneuvers the patient’s limbs and joints in horrifying ways, producing a series of snaps and crunches. And the patient is relieved of years of pain — all within a matter of minutes.For viewers, the clips can be both cringeworthy and satisfying A.S.M.R. (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) content. For the chiropractors, they are valuable marketing, helping to build business.But not everyone in the chiropractic industry is thrilled about the videos. Some doctors say they are misleading, potentially leading patients to think miracle cures are available with one pop of the spine — or even to try the procedures themselves.Easy and free advertising for chiropractorsAlex Tubio has become a sensation in the world of medical content creation. He owns chiropractic clinics in Houston and Orange County, Calif., and sees about 100 patients a week.Mr. Tubio says he owes all of his business to social media, which he started using in 2019 to promote his work. He has more than one million followers on TikTok, over one million subscribers on YouTube, and his appointment calendar is booked until August.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in US Politics

      The Guardian view on the US and vaccine disinformation: a stupid, shocking and deadly game | Editorial

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      In July 2021, Joe Biden rightly inveighed against social media companies failing to tackle vaccine disinformation: “They’re killing people,” the US president said. Despite their pledges to take action, lies and sensationalised accounts were still spreading on platforms. Most of those dying in the US were unvaccinated. An additional source of frustration for the US was the fact that Russia and China were encouraging mistrust of western vaccines, questioning their efficacy, exaggerating side-effects and sensationalising the deaths of people who had been inoculated.How, then, would the US describe the effects of its own disinformation at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic? A shocking new report has revealed that its military ran a secret campaign to discredit China’s Sinovac vaccine with Filipinos – when nothing else was available to the Philippines. The Reuters investigation found that this spread to audiences in central Asia and the Middle East, with fake social media accounts not only questioning Sinovac’s efficacy and safety but also claiming it used pork gelatine, to discourage Muslims from receiving it. In the case of the Philippines, the poor take-up of vaccines contributed to one of the highest death rates in the region. Undermining confidence in a specific vaccine can also contribute to broader vaccine hesitancy.The campaign, conducted via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (now X) and other platforms, was launched under the Trump administration despite the objections of multiple state department officials. The Biden administration ended it after the national security council was alerted to the issue in spring 2021. The drive seems to have been retaliation for Chinese claims – without any evidence – that Covid had been brought to Wuhan by a US soldier. It was also driven by military concerns that the Philippines was growing closer to Beijing.It is all the more disturbing because the US has seen what happens when it plays strategic games with vaccination. In 2011, in preparation for the assassination of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the CIA tried to confirm that it had located him by gathering the DNA of relatives through a staged hepatitis B vaccination campaign. The backlash was entirely predictable, especially in an area that had already seen claims that the west was using polio vaccines to sterilise Pakistani Muslim girls. NGOs were vilified and polio vaccinators were murdered. Polio resurged in Pakistan; Islamist militants in Nigeria killed vaccinators subsequently.The report said that the Pentagon has now rescinded parts of the 2019 order that allowed the military to sidestep the state department when running psychological operations. But while the prospect of a second Trump administration resuming such tactics is alarming, the attitude that bred them goes deeper. Reuters pointed to a strategy document from last year in which generals noted that the US could weaponise information, adding: “Disinformation spread across social media, false narratives disguised as news, and similar subversive activities weaken societal trust by undermining the foundations of government.”The US is right to challenge the Kremlin’s troll farms, Beijing’s propaganda and the irresponsibility of social media companies. But it’s hard to take the moral high ground when you’ve been pumping out lies. The repercussions in this case were particularly predictable, clear and horrifying. It was indefensible to pursue a project with such obvious potential to cause unnecessary deaths. It must not be repeated. More

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      Have We Reached Peak Baby Name?

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      Tank? Afternoon? Flick? Orca?After the birth this spring of her third child, a baby girl named Whimsy Lou, the lifestyle influencer Nara Smith posted a TikTok listing some of the names she and her husband liked but did not ultimately use. Among them were Tank, Clementine, Flick, Halo and Dew.Francesca Farago, a reality television star, posted a similar video recently, including names like Heart, Ethereal, Prosper and Afternoon. Her husband also liked the name Orca, she said. (Ms. Farago vetoed naming her child after the killer whale.)Baby names have come a long way since Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin made headlines for naming their daughter Apple two decades ago. In 2024, almost anything can be a name. A recent TikTok trend seems to offer a satirical critique of just how out there some parents are willing to go in search of unique names for their progeny.The joke setup goes like this: “Normalize naming your kid after something you love.” Users respond with something hyper-specific that they would probably never actually name a child, like Diet Coke, Velveeta or “cheeky bit of work gossip.”Emily Kim, a full-time baby name consultant, said the trend seems like a direct response to “how extreme” baby naming has become.Ms. Kim, who is 33 and lives in Minneapolis, made a name for herself on TikTok thanks to her uncanny knack for predicting what celebrities and influencers will name their children based on their internet aesthetics. Last year, she correctly guessed what the football player Jason Kelce and his wife, Kylie, would name their third daughter, Bennett. (Ms. Kim said she knew it would be a traditionally male name, given the Kelces’ two other daughters were named similarly.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Musk’s Friends and Fans Applaud Shareholder Vote on His Payday

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      On the social media platform X, which Mr. Musk owns, reactions to a vote that reaffirmed Mr. Musk’s $45 billion package were buoyant.Tesla shareholders reaffirmed a pay award worth more than $45 billion for Elon Musk on Thursday, but before the announcement was made official at the company’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas, Mr. Musk posted the news on X, his social media platform.“Both Tesla shareholder resolutions are currently passing by wide margins!” he wrote in a post late Wednesday night. “Thanks for your support!!”For months, Mr. Musk’s supporters have used the social media site, which he purchased for $44 billion in 2022, to drum up support for his massive payday, and Tesla board members warned he could leave the company if shareholders voted against him.But for some Tesla investors, Mr. Musk’s involvement with X has been the primary cause of concern, stirring complaints that the pay package has drawn his attention away from Tesla and into other ventures. Mr. Musk has also used the platform to promote right-wing conspiracy theories and vulgar content, offending some of his employees and investors.On X, shareholder approval of the pay package was met with praise from Mr. Musk’s legion of supporters — some cheering before the official vote was announced. They included retail investors, friends in the technology industry and media personalities.“Congrats on getting paid what you’re owed E!” wrote Jason Calacanis, a prominent tech investor and podcast host who is close to Mr. Musk.“The most important message of the vote,” wrote Alex Voigt, a blogger and YouTube personality, “is that Elon knows now he has the support of 90% of retail investors and more than 73% of all shares, and that matters for him personally and for the future of Tesla.”“Means a lot,” Mr. Musk replied.“Looks like Tesla shareholders are approving Elon’s CEO package by a wide margin — good for them,” wrote Lulu Cheng Meservey, a tech executive with 80,000 followers on the platform. “People with actual skin in the game can see the business logic that a Delaware judge blinded by her personal agenda could not.”“The vast majority of Tesla shareholders approved Elon’s comp package in 2018 and have re-approved it now. An activist judge voided it for nothing. The trial lawyers who are asking for billions in fees should get nothing,” wrote David Sacks, a Silicon Valley tech investor, who is also close to Mr. Musk.Critics of Mr. Musk also chimed in, albeit in smaller numbers.“It’s official — Tesla shareholders are the stupidest humans to walk the face of the planet,” one poster wrote.But many Tesla shareholders who were critical of the pay package in the weeks leading up to the vote were mostly silent in the hours after the decision. More

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      Questions Dog a Case Involving a Suspended License and a Viral Video

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      Video of a man appearing behind the wheel via Zoom for a court hearing over a suspended license drew widespread attention. But there’s more to the story.The irony was too much for the video not to go viral: A Michigan man charged with driving without a license shows up for a court hearing via video … while driving a vehicle.But the story behind Corey Harris’s day in court — and the many memes, jokes, fan art and commentary it has spawned since the May 15 video made the rounds last week — is more complicated than it seems.Two years ago, a judge in another Michigan county had rescinded the suspension of Mr. Harris’s driver’s license, which he had lost because of a child support case.That revelation, first reported by WXYZ Detroit, provided some context to the comical exchange between Corey Harris and Judge J. Cedric Simpson of Washtenaw County and drew attention to the varying and potentially confusing bureaucratic processes for reinstating a driver’s license in Michigan.Mr. Harris’s license was suspended in 2010 in connection with a child support case in Saginaw County, Mich, according to WXYZ. In January 2022, Judge James T. Borchard of Saginaw County ordered that the license suspension be rescinded, court records show.But the suspension was never lifted — the reason is a source of debate — and Mr. Harris, 44, was cited in October for driving with a suspended license in Pittsfield Township.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      GameStop Stock Surges Again on Social Media Buzz

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      A post on a long-dormant Reddit account suggested the trader known as Roaring Kitty had amassed a large stake in the video game retailer.GameStop’s shares soared on Monday after the long-dormant Reddit account associated with Keith Gill, the trader known as Roaring Kitty who helped spur 2021’s meme-stock mania, appeared to show a big stake in the video game retailer.It was GameStop’s second major rally in as many months, seemingly prompted by social media buzz. The stock more than doubled at one point in premarket trading, before posting a gain of about 50 percent shortly after the open of regular trading, a move adding billions of dollars to the company’s market value.Monday’s surge was driven by a screenshot uploaded to Reddit on Sunday by the account associated with Mr. Gill, after more than three years of inactivity. The post showed a holding of five million shares in GameStop worth just under $116 million, nearly $30 million in cash and a large number of options that give the holder the right to buy more stock at $20 per share. The market data provider Unusual Whales posted that there had been a spike in trading for those options.Adding fuel to the rally was a post to the X account associated with Mr. Gill that featured an image of a reverse card from Uno, the card game. Followers largely interpreted the picture — in line with the cryptic memes that punctuated Mr. Gill’s social media posts in 2021 — as a rallying cry to bolster GameStop’s stock price, which had fallen after a Roaring Kitty-inspired spike last month.GameStop benefited from that rally by selling new shares, raising $933 million. The move “prudently” gives GameStop “a greater level of reserves while it struggles to refocus its business and reverse continuing operating losses,” according to a recent research note by analysts at Wedbush.The new posts continue a flurry of activity from Mr. Gill’s accounts, which had been quiet since 2021. The X account TheRoaringKitty resumed posting on May 13, with another cryptic meme largely interpreted as a pro-GameStop call, followed by dozens of rousing clips from television shows, movies and music videos.Online sleuths have been debating the revival of the accounts since last month, with some speculating that Mr. Gill had sold his X account to a conceptual artist with a history of trolling. While Mr. Gill’s X and Reddit accounts have shown signs of life, his YouTube channel — where he regularly posted videos of himself talking up his stock recommendations — remains inactive.Mr. Gill gained a cult following during the coronavirus pandemic with lively videos and posts arguing that GameStop was undervalued. In 2021, that stock and others, like AMC Entertainment, soared in value as armies of small investors piled in and cheered each other on with irreverent memes. The chaos inspired the 2023 film “Dumb Money.” More