While many are calling for regulation of Facebook and other social media platforms, getting there might be unrealistic, said David Kirkpatrick, author of "The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting the World.”
“The problem is, this is a company that operates in over 190 countries, in probably 90 to 100 languages. And governments themselves are abusing it in many of those countries, so who do you allow to regulate it?” Kirkpatrick explained in an interview with Cheddar Friday.
“The other thing is...exactly how you’d interface with these moment-to-moment decisions, many of them being made by algorithms. That’s just something that hasn’t been invented yet.”
Last week, news broke that data company Cambridge Analytica harvested information on 50 million Americans off Facebook and sold it to President Trump’s campaign team during the 2016 election.
Ever since, Facebook has been in the hot seat for allowing this kind of breach on its platform and not being transparent about this problem, which it reportedly learned about years ago.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally broke his silence on Wednesday after days of silence, saying -- among other things -- that the company would be open to government oversight.
While Zuckerberg’s statement and public appearance may have been a step in the right direction, it did not do enough to quell user concern, said Kirkpatrick.
For a CEO, “you don’t wait five days to come out when you have a crisis.”
“They really don’t get it even now,” said Kirkpatrick. “I honestly think that Facebook is embarrassing the entire tech sector.”
Kirkpatrick said that much of the company’s overall tone deaf approach to the crisis is derived from an arrogance that runs through the company.
“They just think they’re better than everybody else,” he said. “They’re more successful than anybody else, they think that they are doing better for the world than anybody else, and they’re definitely richer than anybody else.
“And what that leads them to conclude is that the rest of us just don’t get it...That is the way they think inside Facebook, and it’s really causing them to make a series of very wrong strategic decisions about how to handle this crisis.”
Facebook shares were down nearly 14 percent this week, their biggest drop since July 2012.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/future-of-facebook).
Wealthfront’s CFO Alan Iberman talks the $2.05B IPO and the major moment for robo banking as the company bets on AI, automation, and “self-driving money."
A rare magnum of Dom Pérignon Vintage 1961 champagne that was specially produced for the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana has failed to sell during an auction. Danish auction house Bruun Rasmussen handled the bidding Thursday. The auction's house website lists the bottle as not sold. It was expected to fetch up to around $93,000. It is one of 12 bottles made to celebrate the royal wedding. Little was revealed about the seller. The auction house says the bids did not receive the desired minimum price.
The New York Times and President Donald Trump are fighting again. The news outlet said Wednesday it won't be deterred by Trump's “false and inflammatory language” from writing about the 79-year-old president's health. The Times has done a handful of stories on that topic recently, including an opinion column that said Trump is “starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.” In a Truth Social post, Trump said it might be treasonous for outlets like the Times to do “FAKE” reports about his health and "we should do something about it.” The Republican president already has a pending lawsuit against the newspaper for its past reports on his finances.
OpenAI has appointed Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its first chief of revenue. Dresser will oversee global revenue strategy and help businesses integrate AI into daily operations. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently emphasized improving ChatGPT, which now has over 800 million weekly users. Despite its success, OpenAI faces competition from companies like Google and concerns about profitability. The company earns money from premium ChatGPT subscriptions but hasn't ventured into advertising. Altman had recently announced delays in developing new products like AI agents and a personal assistant.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
