Technologies

Over Half of Teens Regularly Use AI Companions. Here’s Why That’s Not Ideal

The study by Common Sense Media also found that nearly a third of teens are as satisfied, if not more, by conversing with AI rather than humans.

Is your teen using a chatbot for companionship? If you don’t know, you might want to ask. Common Sense Media released a study on Wednesday, in which it found that more than half of pre-adult teenagers regularly use AI companions. Nearly one third of the teens reported that conversations with AI were as satisfying, if not more, than conversations with actual humans.

Researchers also found that 33% of teens use AI companions such as Character.AI, Nomi and Replika «for social interaction and relationships, including conversation practice, emotional support, role-playing, friendship, or romantic interactions.» The study distinguished between anthropomorphic AI bots and more assistance-oriented AI tools such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot or Google’s Gemini.

Considering the growing widespread use of AI companions in teens, the Common Sense Media researchers concluded that their findings supported limiting the use of AI among young people. «Our earlier recommendation stands: Given the current state of AI platforms, no one younger than 18 should use AI companions,» they said, after surveying 1,060 teens aged 13-17 from across the US over the past year.

For the past few years, generative AI has evolved at lightning speed, with new tools regularly available across the world, disrupting business models, social practices and cultural norms. This, combined with an epidemic of social isolation exacerbated by the COVID pandemic, puts teens at risk with technology that their young brains might not be able to handle adequately.

The American Psychological Association warned earlier this year that «we have already seen instances where adolescents developed unhealthy and even dangerous ‘relationships’ with chatbots.» The APA issued several recommendations, including teaching AI literacy to kids and AI developers creating systems that regularly remind teen users that AI companions are not actual humans.

Amid the growing use of chatbots by people to discuss personal problems and get advice, it’s important to remember that while they might seem confident and reassuring, they’re not mental health professionals.

Technologies

Microsoft Is Testing Letting Copilot AI Interact With Your Whole Desktop

The new feature for Microsoft’s Copilot AI will give it greater access to the contents of your screen.

Microsoft has confirmed an upcoming expansion to its Copilot AI chatbot’s screen-sharing abilities: Soon it will be able to process your entire desktop, not just certain parts of it.

The company said Tuesday that this expansion of Copilot’s Vision capabilities has begun public testing. This update, now rolling out to the company’s Windows Insider program testers, will allow the AI chatbot to view, process and react to all aspects of a user’s desktop, where beforehand it was limited to specific apps or windows.

With this update in place, Copilot should be to process and react to multiple windows and apps at the same time. Microsoft touted the ability for it to assist with all aspects of a project you might be working on.

The Vision feature can be activated by selecting the «glasses» icon and selecting which desktop you’d like to share, and can be closed out by hitting «Stop» or «X» in the composer.

«When you share your desktop (or any specific browser or app window), Copilot can see what you see and talk to you about it in real time,» Microsoft’s blog post said. «It can help analyze content, provide insights, and answer your questions, coaching you through it aloud. Get tips on making improvements to your creative project, help with improving your resume, or guidance while navigating a new game.»

Technologies

Smart Cameras Power a Robot Umpire at MLB All-Stars for the First Time. Here’s How the Challenges Went

The auto-umpire system has debuted and is on track for regular season use, but accuracy could be an issue.

If umpires draw your ire for bad calls, you may soon have a new target: Major League Baseball used its ABS, or Automated Ball-Strike System, to call pitches at the July 15 All-Star Game for the first time. If trials this season go well, it will probably be adopted for the 2026 regular season. But challenges against the camera had an unusually high rate of success.

The ABS uses Hawk-Eye cameras, a technology increasingly common in games with high-speed objects. The cameras judge how a ball travels — in this case, over the strike zone — and are equipped to make a preliminary call.

A human umpire, along with batters and pitchers, have a couple of seconds to review the footage and challenge a call if they think the automated system was wrong. It’s a system the MLB has experimented with since 2019 and is finally ready to bring to the national stage.

This approach has caused some controversy, particularly because the Hawk-Eye cameras are programmed to see the strike zone very differently from human umpires. Instead of the standard cube shape that’s underpinned strike zone knowledge for decades, the ABS uses a two-dimensional rectangle standard that’s automatically adjusted to extend between 53.5% and 27% of the batter’s height. Batters are measured before each game.

Those worried about discrepancies now have new fuel for their worries. In the July 15 game, which the National League won in a home run derby after nine innings ended with a tie, four out of five challenges to the ABS and umpire Dan Iassogna’s combined work were successful. That’s much higher than the ABS spring training test, where teams won only around 50% of their challenges.

The MLB hasn’t revealed definitive plans on whether the ABS could replace umpires altogether, but at this time the human-based, real-time reviews from the umpire appear to be an integral part of the system.

The league did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for July 17, #297

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for July 17, No. 297.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

My blue group hint for today’s Connections: Sports Edition is geared toward Saturday Night Live fans, but if you know your basketball, you should be fine. I think the green group is even easier than the yellow group, but that might depend on how much time you’ve spent on the water. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: WKRP.

Green group hint: Ahoy!

Blue group hint: The only prescription is more cowbell.

Purple group hint: Fancy fores.