Streams on TikTok Live were used to exploit children, according to a newly unredacted lawsuit filed by Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes. The lawsuit says that TikTok was not only aware that TikTok Lives were exposing minors to concerning messages from adults, but the company also directly profited off of some of the exchanges through TikTok Live's virtual gifting system.Following an investigation by Forbesinto TikTok Live, TikTok conducted its own review called "Project Meramec," according to the suit. The company found that "hundreds of thousands of children" were getting around TikTok's age restrictions, hosting livestreams and interacting with adults.Because TikTok pockets a portion of the sale of digital gifts in livestreams, the company was technically making money on "transactional gifting" over "nudity and sexual activity" that happened during streams. And since TikTok's algorithm favors livestreams where virtual gifts are being exchanged, the lawsuit says, some of these sexually exploitative streams were also distributed more widely than they would have been otherwise.The lawsuit details another TikTok investigation, "Project Jupiter," that looked in to whether TikTok Live's gifting feature was being used to launder money. As it turns out, it was. According to the lawsuit, the company found that "criminals were selling drugs and running fraud operations" during livestreams.When reached for a comment on the lawsuit, TikTok shared the following statement:This lawsuit ignores the number of proactive measures that TikTok has voluntarily implemented to support community safety and well-being. Instead, the complaint cherry-picks misleading quotes and outdated documents and presents them out of context, which distorts our commitment to the safety of our community.We stand by our efforts, which include: robust safety protections and screen time limits for teen accounts enabled by default, Family Pairing tools for parents to supervise their teens, strict livestreaming requirements, and aggressive enforcement of our Community Guidelines on an ongoing basis.Utah's AG filed the redacted version of this lawsuit in June 2024, following a different suit from 2023 concerning the addictive design of the TikTok app. The Utah lawsuit isn't the first time the company has come under scrutiny for its handling of child safety. The FTC has investigated TikTok's handling of child privacy, and the ban of the app now headed to the Supreme Court on appeal was partially pushed over concerns with how social video app could be used to influence children.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/utah-lawsuit-alleges-tiktok-knew-minors-were-being-exploited-on-livestreams-220851340.html?src=rss

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Apple, which has built its brand on data privacy, settled a class action suit this week in which the plaintiffs claimed their iPhones Siri voice assistant listened in on their conversations for the purpose of targeting them with ads.The iPhone-maker has (preliminarily) agreed to pay $95 million to settle the case after five years of legal jousting. The case alleged that users communications were obtained by Apple and/or were shared with third parties without their consent as a result of an unintended Siri activation. The class action suit involves three lead plaintiffs, one of whom is a minor. Plaintiffs lawyers say the class could include tens of millions of Apple customers who have bought Siri devices since 2014. Two of the lead plaintiffs claim that after talking extemporaneously about Air Jordan sneakers and Olive Garden restaurants they soon saw ads targeted to them for those products, Reuters reports. Another person said they saw ads for a surgical treatment after having a private discussion with their doctor.Apple settled without admitting any wrongdoing. But settling leaves open the possibility that the company isnt altogether innocent, and falls short of Apples usual staunch defense of its customers data privacy rights. It also lends credence to a widespread consumer hunch that our phones indeed do listen in on our conversations in search of utterances that might indicate an interest in some product.That belief is so common that Mark Zuckerberg was repeatedly asked whether Facebook listened to users through their phones during a 2018 Congressional hearing. He denied it. No major tech company has crossed that line, which would be a colossal privacy violation. (Not that the idea hasnt been floated: The marketing geniuses at Cox Media Group just last year claimed to advertisers that it could listen to customers through the embedded microphones in their smartphones, smart TVs, and other devices to gather data about those customers and serve them targeted ads, 404 Media reports.)Contributing to the eavesdropping iPhone narrative is a misunderstanding of just how far the ad-tech industry has come in its ad targeting practices. A consumer may believe an oral comment triggered an ad on their phone when they actually exhibited possible product interest in some other way on some other device (say, by watching a related YouTube video on a laptop). Ad-tech firms are able to track a single user across devices and communications networks, and can infer a product interest based on our physical location (near a car dealership, for example). In fact, they can even infer product interest from our proximity to another user, by assuming we share the same product interests with people close to us. In short, things have gotten creepy.Reuters cheekily points out that the $95 million settlement equates to Apples profits during about nine hours of operations, adding that Apple earned $93.74 billion in its latest fiscal year. (Google is defending a similar suit in federal court in San Jose, with the same law firms representing plaintiffs as in the Apple case.)For Apple, which has spent years advancing its privacy is a human right story, settling the class action out of court will undoubtedly suggest to many that theres at least a kernel of truth to the eavesdropping iPhone belief, and will feed consumer angst over the erosion of privacy in modern life. And it comes at a time when conspiracy theories are bigger than ever, and mistrust and resentment of big corporations is growing.

As you write your New Years Resolutions, ask yourself: Will you really meditate daily? How much will you use the gym after January 31? Forget about your aspirational personal goals, this year Im sharing some resolutions that will move your career and business forward. Ive gathered experts from various areas of expertise: branding, marketing, business development, and mindset to get you ready.When it comes to building your Personal Brand or as I like to call it your Professional Perspective, the new year is the perfect time to start or re-start. Instead of a daily 3-mile run that youll abandon the first rainy morning, take that time to start posting on social media about your professional POV.First, escape from what I call Supermodel Mode where you think everyone is looking at you. Step into Teacher Mode, where you focus more on the message youre sharing and the value youre bringing. Envision yourself actually teaching about your area of expertise.Resolution 1: Find and share your unique POVNext, identify 3 areas you are passionate about and consistently post about that. Dont repost random articles without commentary lets see your unique opinion. Share something you learned from a client or colleague this week or react to industry news. Also, dont be afraid to share some more personal content, especially around your families or hobbies. Social media growth comes from what I call the 2 Cs: Connection and Credibility so peeling back the curtain on your personal life will create that connection point. More personal posts often perform better, even on LinkedIn.Resolution 2: Cut, delegate, or automateTake the time to learn about AI even if youre not a technologist, AI is a game changer in all realms of business. For content and branding specifically, its saved me hours as I use it to recycle content, write the first draft of emails or brainstorm.Speaking of efficiency and AI, Kate Kordsmeier, Life and Business Coach and founder of Success with Soul, says Forget shiny new productivity apps2025 is the year of brutal time honesty. Spend a week tracking where every minute goes. Then ruthlessly cut, delegate, or automate the things that dont align with your goals. Time audits arent sexy, but they are game-changing.To implement this, do a one-week time audit. Kordsmeier recommends you track every minute of your time in a Google doc, and notice how you felt about each task. Upload the doc to ChatGPT and have it analyze how you spend your time. Then ask it to make observations with questions like: What are 5 things you notice about me? Where does most of my working time go? What are you surprised to see that I dont do that a lot of people in my position would be doing? Give me 5 suggestions for how I could improve my time management.Resolution 3: Create an idea sharing systemIf youre leading a team or running your own business, Executive and Team Coach Caroline Stokes recommends creating a post vacation idea sharing system for people to return to work inspired to share their ideas as soon as they return from vacation, to foster a more productive environment that can innovate faster and solve wicked problems. Stokes says that because of disengagement of employees and organizations needing to adapt, sharing their ideas quickly is important. This idea can also be used weekly on Monday mornings or after a holiday weekend. To implement, you can use a stand-up for 10 mins to see what ideas can be moved forward, or an in-person or virtual whiteboarding session with post-it notes so people can see where the opportunities for advancement are.Resolution 4: Do one good deed a dayAnd in a world of automation and hyper-productivity, Launch Strategist and Copywriter Brenna McGowan recommends doing one good deed a day for a fellow colleague. She recommends shouting out a podcast you just listened to on your Instagram stories, or sending someone a direct message to say you loved a piece of their content. The idea of spreading kindness and tapping into our humanity resonated with me. Im hyper aware that as we focus so much on productivity and efficiency, we often forget to focus on our more human and personal side (guilty as charged) and thats where real connections happen.With saturated markets and work from home, which can sometimes feel isolating, McGowan says the simple acts of kindness help you stand out from competitors and are free! McGowan says these deeds have brought her a sponsor for an event and an invitation to be on a dream podcast. And as we know, in the age of social media and AI people crave that true connection more than ever.

So far, most drones weve seen follow the same design principles as traditional aircraft like planes and helicopters. They have wings with landing gears or rotors with sledges. Some get launched from catapults. The lightest ones from the palm of your hand. A team of engineers from the cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne (EPFL) has discarded these design principles to solve one of the biggest challenges for aerial vehicles: how to take off and land safely without needing runways or additional equipment. Their answer is to equip drones with robotic limbs that mimic bird legs. The result, as detailed in a study published inNature, is both comically cute and remarkably efficientpotentially revolutionizing drone design in the future.RAVENshort for Robotic Avian-inspired Vehicle for multiple ENvironmentsis a drone outfitted with bird-inspired robotic legs. These legs allow the drone to perform takeoffs up to 10 times more efficiently than methods like catapults or runway acceleration. Like bird legs, they enable operation on uneven or obstacle-filled terrain.With these legs, the drone can walk, jump, and overcome obstacles on the ground while also executing safer and more efficient takeoffs and landings. Won Dong Shin, a PhD student at EPFLs Laboratory of Intelligent Systems and the drones creator, explains that his inspiration came while walking through the university campus. He observed crows using their legs to walk, jump over obstacles, and take off. He noticed that they always jumped to initiate flight, even in situations where they could have relied solely on their wings.[Image: courtesy EPFL]This observation led him to hypothesize a biomechanical reason for the behavior. Natural evolution prioritizes energy efficiency, so this behavior likely translates to greater effectiveness in takeoff mechanics.Using this principle, Shins team replicated the same architecture in their robotic crow. The drone features bipedal legs equipped with hip, ankle, and elastic foot joints that store and release energy similarly to bird tendons. These legs provide stability for walking and can traverse gaps of 5 inches and climb over obstacles up to 10 inches tall.Unlike other drones that rely on catapults or runways for takeoff, RAVEN uses its legs for quick and efficient transitions from ground to air, achieving an initial speed of 7.2 ft/s in just 0.17 seconds. For comparison, a typical commercial airplane reaches approximately 180 mph (264 ft/s) in 30 seconds, with an average acceleration of about 8.8 ft/s. In contrast, RAVEN achieves an acceleration of around 42.5 ft/s. When compared to conventional drones, RAVENs unique takeoff mechanism makes it faster and more energy-efficient because it only requires a short burst to accelerate to flying speed. Won admits that making direct comparisons is challenging because this will depend on the design of the drones, but he says that rotary-wing drones rely solely on propellers for both take-off and flight, which tends to be less energy-efficient. The need to continuously generate lift might lead to higher energy consumption and shorter operable times, he points out. In contrast,RAVENcan operate on the ground using its legs, which could be more energy-efficient than maintaining lift with multiple motors and propellers.Additionally, rotary-wing drones might be more vulnerable to damagea single bump could potentially render them inoperable. In comparison,RAVENmight offer better resilience in such situations, he says. [Raven is just a prototype, so it hasnt been tested for carrying cargo.]While jumping takeoff requires slightly more energy input, it is the most efficient and rapid method to convert energy into kinetic and potential movement, Shin notes in his study. Tests demonstrated that jumping takeoff is not only more efficient but also more stable than other methods.How it worksEach leg is equipped with electromagnetic joints, torsional springs, and coil springs located in the ankles and toes. These lightweight, flexible components act as shock absorbers and motion enhancers, storing energy while it walkslike loading a springand releasing it when it needs to move. [Photo: Alain Herzog/CC BY SA/courtesy EPFL]Additionally, their flexible toes allow the drone to adapt to various terrains, ensuring stability while grounded. Shin emphasizes the importance of incorporating a passive elastic joint in the toes. Its crucial to enable multiple motion patterns and ensure the drone can jump at the correct angle for takeoff, he says.Despite its mechanical complexity, the drone weighs just 1.37 pounds, with 8 ounces dedicated to the legs and their mechanisms. This lightweight design is critical for enabling both terrestrial and aerial mobility.[Image: courtesy EPFL]A radical shift in drone design?Looking ahead, the research team plans to add more capabilities to the legs, such as impact absorption for increased landing precision. The final stage of this biomimetic design will involve integrating AI-driven perception systems for autonomous landings.The study also highlights that these robotic legs are not limited to small machines. The engineers suggest they can be scaled for larger drones capable of carrying payloads. Shin believes this is feasible but notes that some components will need to be redesigned to maintain efficiency with heavier drones. I for one welcome a world in which our flying robotic overlords look like impossibly cute fantastic creatures from a Hayao Miyazaki movie.

Lisbons charm doesnt come with fanfareits tucked away in its winding alleys, its sunlit rooftops, and the clatter of its old trams scaling steep streets. The city rises and falls like a wave, offering glimpses of the Tagus River through breaks in the skyline. Standing at the Miradouro das Portas do Sol, youre treated to a view thats pure poetry: orange-tiled roofs spilling down hillsides, punctuated by the white of church towers and the occasional green of a courtyard. Its the kind of scene that stays with you long after youve left.Capturing that feeling in LEGO is an idea that sneaks up on you. At first, its hard to imagine plastic bricks recreating something so alive. But Lisbon, Framed does exactly that, turning a fleeting moment into something tangible. Using a 4864-brick frame, the build offers a cropped, painterly slice of the city as seen from Portas do Sol. Shades of yellow, orange, and red stack and overlap, mimicking sunlight glancing off rooftops, while clever brick techniques add just enough texture to feel authentic.Designer: liayaaaaThe LEGO MOC (My Own Creation) designed by LEGO user liayaaaa creates a sense of perspective only using flat 2D bricks, which is honestly remarkable. Most LEGO builds aim to recreate something in three dimensionsa towering castle, a bustling street, a spaceship ready for liftoff. But this one flattens the world, framing it like a photograph. Its a bold choice, and it works. By narrowing the focus, the build becomes a window into Lisbons essence rather than a recreation of its details. Its not about bricks; its about what those bricks make you feel.You can almost hear the clinking of glasses from a nearby caf and the hum of a tram in the distance. Thats the magic of this piece. It captures not just the visual beauty of Lisbon but the mood, the atmosphere. Its a build that tells a story without needing minifigures or moving parts.For LEGO enthusiasts, this creation is a reminder that the medium isnt limited to playsets or models. Its an art form, capable of inspiring nostalgia, curiosity, and joy. For anyone whos stood at Portas do Solor dreamed of itthis piece taps into something deeply personal. And maybe thats the most exciting part. Lisbon, Framed isnt following trends or chasing after the biggest, most complex designs. Its quieter, subtler, and in its way, far more impactful. If youre the type to linger on details, to find beauty in simplicity, this is the kind of build that will speak to you.With over 1,600 supporters on the LEGO Ideas forum, the Lisbon, Framed set is slowly but surely inching towards the 10,000 vote mark. If and when it does, LEGOs internal team will review/refine it before turning it into a box set. If youre a LEGO or art enthusiast whod love to build out this set, head over to the LEGO Ideas website and vote for this entry!The post Move Over Eiffel Tower: LEGOs Framed Lisbon is the Gorgeous Brick Decor Your Space Needs first appeared on Yanko Design.

The briefs, filed a week before oral arguments, offered sharply differing accounts of Chinas influence over the site and the role of the First Amendment.

A new study reveals that early architectural development in the Near East was more sophisticated than traditionally assumed, challenging the conventional narrative of a simple progression from round to rectangular structures during the Neolithic period.Researchers Hadas Goldgeier, Antoine Muller, and Leore Grosman from the Hebrew University of Jerusalemstudied the varieties of architectural forms found in pre-historic archeological sites across the Levant region, concluding that the long-accepted "round-to-rectangular" development arch of human-built forms to be a bit oversimplified.They explain: "These analyses have implications for understanding how architecture can be used to identify enduring or changing patterns of household and community organization. [...] The study identified distinct temporal variability in dwelling traditions, and linked these changes to changes in social structure, growing territoriality, and regional difference."The discovery comes nearly two years after researchers from Jordans Al-Hussein Bin Talal University uncovered what they claimed could be theworld's first architectural plans.