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Prosecutors across 47 states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories have announced a groundbreaking legal settlement with technology giant Meta over accusations that the social media company deliberately designed addictive products they knew to be harmful to children. Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, is set to pay at least $12 billion and up to $17.1 billion in financial penalties, in addition to implementing design changes for underage users. "This is the least they can do to prevent harms that have metastasized and have already caused suicides … [but] we cannot be relying on fines, or certainly even on litigation, after harms have already transpired. What we need are rules of the road. And we need rules that go to the root cause of the business model," says Amba Kak, the co-executive director of AI Now Institute, who joins us for a wide-ranging discussion on tech policy and regulation. Kak, who advises various governments on AI regulatory guidelines, adds, "The era of looking to tech CEOs or tech luminaries to give us answers for what are fundamentally social and political questions, I think, is gone."
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Critics say the Trump administration's focus is disproportionate, as analysts raise alarms about the growing strength of far-right movements.
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The order came amid a spate of legal challenges, including one by Democratic state attorneys general, that could still result in the rules being blocked.
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Multiple candidates seeking Senate seats are running ads critical of their own party, supportive of Republican policies, or both.
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