Latest news with #HiawathaBray
Boston Globe
17-04-2025
- Boston Globe
The state of Florida is coming after your kid's favorite game. Here's what to know about Roblox.
Like many other such games, Roblox can be played for free. But many players purchase 'Robux,' a digital currency they can use to purchase extra in-game features, like customized tools, weapons or costumes. Last year, Roblox posted a $940 million loss on revenues of $3.6 billion. Advertisement But Roblox has long been targeted by child safety advocates, who say that the service makes it too easy for child molesters to get access to young gamers and groom them for sexual exploitation. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'There are concerning reports that this gaming platform, which is popular among children, is exposing them to harmful content and bad actors, said Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier. On Wednesday, he issued a subpoena to the San Mateo, Calif. company demanding that it provide detailed information on its child safety practices. Roblox hasn't officially responded to the subpoena. But the company's website describes a variety of methods it uses to prevent adults from interacting with children age 13 or younger. For instance, it's beginning to implement a requirement that users older than 13 must present a government-issued ID, such as a driver's license, to get access to certain features, such as the ability to speak directly to other players. Advertisement Still, there's reason to believe that child predators keep finding ways to bypass Roblox security. Roblox says that it monitors all text messages sent to and from children, to filter out inappropriate speech. But according to the lawsuit, whisper messages are not monitored. The suit says that a predator used whisper messages to contact a 13-year-old boy in New Jersey. The predator persuaded the boy to send him sexually explicit pictures in exchange for digital currency that the boy could use to buy special features inside the game. The alleged predator, now in custody, is believed to have exploited more than two dozen other children. There have been many other reports of inappropriate activity on Roblox, including the creation of games that feature rape and mass murders. But the company has insisted that it moves quickly to remove all such material. It also urges parents to make use of features that can set limits on a child's online activities, such as limiting the kinds of games children can play, and limiting the amount of information a child can share with other players. Still, the Florida subpoena is a warning that Roblox needs to rethink its child protection strategy, or else. Hiawatha Bray can be reached at
Boston Globe
28-01-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Chinese AI app DeepSeek could be bad for stocks but good for local startups
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Enter Email Sign Up As Globe tech columnist Hiawatha Bray noted, DeepSeek published a white paper revealing how it developed the model inexpensively, Advertisement 'DeepSeek is the next piece in the AI arms race,' said computer science professor Elke Rundensteiner at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Even while spending billions less than its US rivals, and being forced to use slower chips due to US export limits, 'it rivals current AI giants in performance.' So far, California has dominated Boston and other regions in raising venture capital backing for AI startups, Out west, most of the money has gone to companies developing underlying tech like ChatGPT developer OpenAI. Boston's ecosystem has focused on building applications that use AI, or in the case of MIT spinoff Liquid AI, creating its own version of much cheaper AI models. VC Jeff Bussgang at Flybridge Capital Partners sees the plummeting cost of AI as a boon for local startups. 'We saw it with cloud computing and we are seeing it now with AI,' Bussgang said. 'As a result, we will see an explosion of demand and AI-based apps will benefit tremendously.' Cheaper AI could also benefit public companies in the area that have been adding AI features. Shares of HubSpot and Klaviyo have gained about 11 percent each so far this week, as the companies have been incorporating AI services into their marketing and customer service software. Advertisement But DeepSeek's low-cost AI tech may not be quite so beneficial for the stock market at large, where seven tech giants each valued at over $1 trillion dominate market indexes, the fallout could be more severe, and some have drawn From the start of 1995 to March, 2000, the Nasdaq Composite Index increased almost 600 percent. Then over the weekend of March 18, 2000, Barrons magazine published a cover story headlined ' Within a year, the index had fallen more than 60 percent and didn't reach 5,000 again for 14 years. The leaders of the current tech big seven, including Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang and Apple chief executive Tim Cook, all will address Wall Street analysts in coming weeks as they report fourth quarter results. Their responses to the DeepSeek shockwave could make or break the Internet bubble analogy. 'This is likely to act as an overhang on the technology and energy sectors until a broad array of company management teams provide their own insight/perspectives during the Q4'24 earnings season,' a team of analysts at Goldman Sachs wrote on Monday. Aaron Pressman can be reached at
