According to the paper, OpenAI believes the gains from A.I. could otherwise become concentrated among a small number of companies, including firms like OpenAI itself. The document warns that without intervention, A.I. could widen inequality by rewarding those already positioned to benefit while leaving other workers and communities behind. 

The company’s proposal goes beyond broad rhetoric. In the document, OpenAI says a public fund could be seeded through cooperation between policymakers and A.I. companies, then invested in long-term assets tied both to A.I. firms and to the wider economy adopting the technology. Returns from that fund, it says, could be distributed directly to citizens, giving more Americans a share of A.I. wealth regardless of whether they already own stocks or other financial assets. 

OpenAI also argues that the tax system may need to change as A.I. shifts economic activity away from wages and toward corporate profits, capital gains and automated labor. The paper says policymakers could respond by increasing reliance on capital-based taxes, considering targeted levies on sustained A.I.-driven returns and exploring taxes related to automation, while preserving funding for programs such as Social Security, Medicaid and housing assistance. 

The proposal is notable not only because of its ambition, but because it comes from one of the companies racing to build the technology likely to cause the disruption. OpenAI describes the paper as an early, exploratory set of ideas rather than a final blueprint, but its message is clear: if A.I. creates enormous wealth, the public should not be left watching from the sidelines.

Step offers banking tools designed for teens and young adults, including debit cards, budgeting features, and financial education. The acquisition signals Beast Industries’ ambition to build long-term consumer platforms beyond content and merchandise, tapping into MrBeast’s massive Gen Z audience.

The deal also highlights a growing trend of creator-led companies entering fintech and other regulated sectors, leveraging brand trust and reach to onboard younger users. For Step, the acquisition could accelerate growth and user adoption through tighter integration with MrBeast’s digital ecosystem.

Material by Veronika Atanasova

Images: Youtube channel MrBeast, Step.com 

The change is part of Discord’s broader push to improve platform’s safety and comply with increasing regulatory scrutiny around youth protection online. Users who verify their age will retain access to the platform’s full features, while unverified users will face content restrictions designed for younger audiences.

Nowhere is our safety work more important than when it comes to teen users, which is why we are announcing these updates in time for Safer Internet Day. Rolling out teen-by-default settings globally builds on Discord’s existing safety architecture, giving teens strong protections while allowing verified adults flexibility. We design our products with teen safety principles at the core and will continue working with safety experts, policymakers, and Discord users to support meaningful, long term wellbeing for teens on the platform.

Savannah Badalich, Head of Product Policy at Discord explained.

As governments worldwide move toward stricter digital safety laws, platforms like Discord are under pressure to demonstrate stronger safeguards for minors. The update reflects a growing industry shift toward age-gated experiences and identity checks, particularly for social and communication platforms with large teen user bases.

Material by Yana Petrova

Image: Discord

The move comes after OpenAI faced backlash late last year when it tested app-style recommendations that some users perceived as intrusive ads. While the company scaled back those experiments, the latest rollout reflects mounting pressure to monetize ChatGPT, which serves hundreds of millions of users worldwide and requires significant spending on compute infrastructure, research talent, and model training.

OpenAI has said it aims to introduce ads in a way that does not compromise trust or overwhelm users, positioning them as contextual and relevant rather than disruptive. The shift underscores a broader trend across generative AI platforms, as companies balance user experience with the financial realities of operating large-scale AI systems.

Material by Iva Abadjievа

Images: Open AI

Digg launched in 2004 with its innovative crowdsourced voting system. Users could “digg” (upvote) or “bury” (downvote) content, shaping what trended online. At its peak, Digg was widely regarded as the “homepage of the internet,” attracting 40 million monthly unique visitors.

The new Digg hopes to rebuild a public internet without the opaque algorithms and incentives that ruined the old one. Most social platforms offer limited visibility into moderation decisions, and their algorithms optimize for engagement at any cost.

In contrast, Digg prioritizes transparency with a simple public ranking system, and allows communities to set their own rules, while requiring that those rules, and enforcement of them, be transparent, with public-facing moderation decisions.

Today’s public beta launch underscores Digg’s aim to build a platform, where users shape the product as it evolves and are instrumental in decision making along the way.

Digg only works when its community is at the center,

said Kevin Rose, Digg’s original founder and Board Chair.

Launching our public beta is about opening the doors early and inviting users to help define what Digg becomes next. This public release pushes our values of algorithm transparency and community ownership, and it creates the foundation for even more ambitious features in the coming months

Social platforms don’t get better without users in the loop,

said Alexis Ohanian, Founder & General Partner at Seven Seven Six and Co-Founder of Reddit.

Launching Digg’s public beta is our commitment to building alongside the community. By combining human judgment with smarter tools, we’re helping people build the internet they actually want to be part of.

Digg is solving three key issues that exist in today’s internet landscape: transparency, user control, and community ownership,

said Justin Mezzell, CEO of Digg.

Our goal is to build a truly community- driven alternative that leaves room to explore new directions of a healthier internet, instead of repeating old patterns.

Following Digg’s relaunch announcement in March, the team opened an early-access community called “Groundbreakers” where members could take part in product updates, mockups and experiments, and enjoy a front-row seat to Digg’s reboot. Over subsequent months the company has welcomed over 65,000 beta testers.

Material by Iva Abadjievа

Image: Technology Today

Meta announced new steps to expand protections for teen users across its platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. The update, shared via a company blog post, reflects Meta’s ongoing efforts to create safer, more age-appropriate experiences for younger users and to support parental involvement in their digital lives.

Scaling Up the Teen Accounts Experience

Since the initial launch of Instagram Teen Accounts last year, Meta has introduced a range of built-in safeguards. These include limitations on who can contact teen users, restrictions on sensitive content, and tools to help manage screen time. Teen users are automatically placed into these protective settings, and those under the age of 16 require parental or guardian approval to make changes.

As of April 2025, the company reports more than 54 million active Teen Accounts globally, with an impressive 97% of teens aged 13–15 choosing to remain under these default protections. The experience has since been extended to Facebook and Messenger, broadening the reach of these initiatives across Meta’s ecosystem.

Positive Feedback from Families

According to Meta, both teens and parents have responded favorably to these changes. In surveys conducted by the company, over 90% of parents said the Teen Account features were helpful in supporting their children’s online experiences.

Despite these encouraging numbers, Meta acknowledges the ongoing challenges parents face in navigating the digital world with their teens. “The internet can be overwhelming,” the company notes, emphasizing its commitment to continue evolving its tools in collaboration with parents and experts.

A New Call to Action for Parents

Beginning this week, Meta will roll out in-app notifications to parents on Instagram, encouraging discussions around digital safety and the importance of accurately representing age online. These notifications will include expert advice, such as guidance from Dr. Ann-Louise Lockhart, a pediatric psychologist, on how to initiate age-related conversations with teens.

This effort is part of a broader push to ensure that teens are not only protected by default settings, but also understand the importance of truthful age disclosure in online environments.

AI-Driven Age Detection Now in Testing

To further strengthen its teen safety efforts, Meta is testing a new AI system in the United States designed to detect accounts that may belong to teens—even if the listed birthdate suggests otherwise. Once identified, these accounts will be automatically placed in Teen Account settings.

While Meta has previously used artificial intelligence to estimate user age, this marks a more proactive use of the technology. The company states that it is taking care to ensure accuracy in identifying teens and is providing users with the option to update their settings if errors occur.

More details about this AI approach and Meta’s broader age verification initiatives can be found here.

Looking Ahead

Meta acknowledges that determining the age of users online remains a complex, industry-wide challenge. The company emphasizes that while AI and in-app protections play a critical role, parental verification and age confirmation at the app store level remain among the most effective tools for ensuring safe, age-appropriate digital environments.

Meta is taking a step back to its roots by reintroducing more personal, connection-focused features to Facebook. In a move designed to bring back the platform’s original spirit of social networking, the company has launched a revamped Friends tab, rolling out first in the United States and Canada.

The update was announced via a blog post, with Meta outlining a broader plan to reintroduce several classic “OG” Facebook experiences throughout 2024.

A Return to Facebook’s Social Core

Facebook began as a platform built around personal connections. Over the years, it expanded into a multi-faceted social network encompassing features like Groups, Video, Marketplace, and more. While these tools offer utility and scale, many users feel that the platform’s original emphasis on friendships has taken a back seat.

To address this, Facebook is introducing a new Friends tab aimed at making content from real-life connections more visible and accessible.

What’s New in the Friends Tab?

The redesigned Friends tab serves as a centralized feed focused exclusively on your Facebook friends. Unlike the main feed—which mixes posts from groups, pages, ads, and suggested content—the Friends tab filters out the noise, surfacing only:

• Stories and Reels from friends
• Traditional posts (text, photo, video)
• Birthday reminders
• Friend requests

Previously, the Friends tab was primarily used to manage friend requests and view People You May Know suggestions. With this update, it becomes a more dynamic space dedicated to real-time social interaction.

The new Facebook Friends tab that makes it easier to connect with your friends

How to Access and Pin the Friends Tab

Initially, users can find the new Friends tab through the navigation bar on their home feed. It will also be available in the Bookmarks section of the app. For easier access, users can pin the tab by following these steps:

1. Tap your profile picture in the Home feed
2. Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Tab Bar
3. Customize the bar and select Friends to pin it

What’s Next?

Meta says this is just the beginning. As part of its broader effort to make Facebook “feel more social,” the company plans to introduce additional features throughout the year that focus on fun, simplicity, and real connection.

The move reflects a growing trend among social platforms to re-emphasize authentic, friend-based interactions in a landscape increasingly dominated by algorithmic discovery and viral content.