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Delivery company Instacart will pay $60 million in customer refunds under a settlement reached with the Federal Trade Commission over alleged deceptive practices. The FTC said Thursday that Instacart has been falsely advertising free deliveries. The San Francisco-based company isn’t clearly disclosing service fees, which add as much as 15% to an order and must be paid for customers to receive their groceries, the FTC said. Instacart has also failed to clearly disclose that customers who enroll in a free trial for its Instacart+ program will be charged membership fees at the end of the trial. The FTC said hundreds of thousands of customers have been charged but have rece…

New York Attorney General Letitia James is demanding more information about Instacart’s recent, and highly controversial, price tests, and suggesting that the scheme—which saw customers charged notably different prices for the same products, when offered at the same stores—might have violated a new state law. Late last year, Consumer Reports and the Groundwork Collaborative released an investigation that found that a single item posted on Instacart could have as many as five different prices, and that costs for a single item could range from just seven cents to $2.56. The investigation found that while some prices changed, and some differed only marginally, for some …

Instagram has begun testing AI-powered technology designed to proactively identify accounts it suspects belong to teens—even if the user has listed an adult birthdate—and place them under special “Teen Account” settings. This move is part of Meta’s broader effort to strengthen parental controls following criticism over the impact its platforms have on young users. “The digital world continues to evolve and we have to evolve with it,” Instagram said in a press release. “That’s why it’s important that we work together with parents to make sure as many teens as possible have the protective settings that come with Teen Account.” Instagram will also begin sending n…

When it comes to sharing Instagram Reels with friends, the process of three taps to get a Reel from A to B can feel surprisingly tedious. Now, Instagram has addressed that issue with its latest feature: Instagram Blend. Announced on Thursday, Blend lets users create invite-only, personalized Reels feeds with friends. By tapping a new two-emoji-hugging icon (the Blend icon) within a chat, you can start or accept a Blend. Once active, Instagram will begin recommending Reels for both users in a shared feed, powered by an algorithm. The feature works in one-on-one DMs as well as group chats. These recommendations, refreshed daily, are said to be unique to each Blend and b…

For actors, it’s the Golden Globes. Musicians, it’s the Grammys. Now, content creators have their own award to aspire to. Introducing Instagram Rings. As social media’s place in the entertainment ecosystem grows, the new award program from Instagram is meant to honor those creatives “who don’t just participate in culture – but shift it, break through whatever barrier holds them back to realize their ambitions,” according to a blog post about the launch. Judged by a panel of creatives spanning fashion and makeup to sports and entertainment, each nominated their own longlist of favorite creators and voted on which 25 of Instagram’s three billion users will be…

When Meta launched its “AI Studio” feature for over two billion Instagram users in July 2024, the company promised a tool that would give anyone the ability to create their own AI characters “to make you laugh, generate memes, give travel advice, and so much more.” The company claimed the feature, which was built with Meta’s Llama 3.1 large language model, would be subject to policies and protections to “help ensure AIs are used responsibly.” But a Fast Company review of the technology found that these new characters can very easily become hyper-sexual personas that sometimes appear to be minors. Many of the AI characters that appear featured on Instagram’s home…

Despite years of congressional hearings, lawsuits, academic research, whistleblowers and testimony from parents and teenagers about the dangers of Instagram, Meta’s wildly popular app has failed to protect children from harm, with “woefully ineffective” safety measures, according to a new report from former employee and whistleblower Arturo Bejar and four nonprofit groups. Meta’s efforts at addressing teen safety and mental health on its platforms have long been met with criticism that the changes don’t go far enough. Now, the report published Thursday, from Bejar, the Cybersecurity For Democracy at New York University and Northeastern University, the Molly Rose Found…

Despite the now widespread use of AI in workplaces, workers aren’t actually becoming more productive, according to a new survey led by Stanford Social Media Lab and BetterUp Labs. The report finds that while employees are using modern AI tools more than ever, they’re using them to create subpar work. The new report calls the phenomenon “workslop,” which it defines as “AI-generated work content that masquerades as good work, but lacks the substance to meaningfully advance a given task.” In other words, it’s thoughtless, sloppy work that someone will eventually have to clean up. The problem is widespread up and down the corporate ladder. Per the report, 40% of emp…

As gaming platforms Roblox and Fortnite have exploded in popularity with Gen Alpha, it’s no surprise that more than half of children in the U.S. are putting video games high on their holiday wish lists. Entertainment Software Association (ESA) surveyed 700 children between the ages of 5 and 17 and found three in five kids are asking for video games this holiday season. However, the most highly requested gift isn’t a console or even a specific game: It’s in-game currency. The survey didn’t dig into which currency is proving most popular, but the category as a whole tops the list with a 43% request rate, followed by 39% for a console, 37% for accessories, and 37% …

Rumors are circulating of potential strike action next month from CorePower Yoga instructors, who say they are paid less per hour than the cost of a single class drop-in fee. CorePower Yoga has a cult following online, particularly for their Hot Sculpt classes, and currently has more than 200 locations across the US. But in the r/Corepower subreddit, a recent post urges members to pause or quit their membership to show support for instructors, who are fighting for fair wages and cleaner studios. “If you can stomach it to pause or quit your membership, it will benefit you as a consumer as well as the instructors who are paid on average $16/hour to teach and who a…

Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been largely avoided by lawmakers, influencers, and the public. Among them: What is the future of insurance when people’s homes are increasingly located in areas of climate risk—whether wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, or the rising sea levels? Those questions have bedeviled policy makers in California—where insurance giants like State Farm, Farmers, and Allstate announced last year that they were no longer writing new policies in the state due to the surge in wildfires (in 2024 alone, firefighters a…

Remember a couple of years ago when Intel declared that the “age of the AI PC” had arrived? Back at CES 2024, the chip giant was saying that its Core Ultra processors would usher in a new era of personal computing, enabling all kinds of new on-device AI capabilities. As Michelle Johnston Holthaus, then the company’s CEO of products, said in a keynote presentation, AI is “fundamentally transforming, reshaping, and reimagining the PC experience.” Two years later, there’s been a vibe shift. While Intel is still talking about AI, it now believes its PC processors will play more of a supporting role for cloud-based AI tools. At the CES trade show earlier this month…

Yesterday was an eventful day for shareholders and employees of Intel Corp. The American chipmaker reported its Q1 2025 results while its new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, confirmed earlier reports that Intel would be laying off employees. Here’s what you need to know about those layoffs and the latest movement in Intel’s stock price. New Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan confirms job cuts The most devastating news to come out of Intel yesterday was that earlier reports were correct and the company would be laying off employees. On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Intel was preparing to lay off up to 20% of its current workforce. Given that Intel reported having 108,900 employees at t…

Shares of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) rose over 8% in early morning trading on Monday on news that incoming CEO Lip-Bu Tan has big plans to turn around the ailing chipmaker, including restructuring the company’s approach to AI, resurrecting its manufacturing operations, and eyeing cuts to what Tan views as a “slow-moving and bloated middle management layer,” according to a Reuters report. Tan said he’ll need to make “tough decisions” when he takes Intel’s helm on Tuesday, after the company posted $19 billion in annual losses in 2024. Tan’s appointment comes three months after the company ousted former CEO Pat Gelsinger, as it struggled after missing out on the gen…

Struggling chipmaker Intel has hired former board member and semiconductor industry veteran Lip-Bu Tan as the latest in a succession of CEOs to attempt to turn around a once-dominant company that helped define Silicon Valley. Tan, 65, will take over the daunting job next Tuesday, more than three months after Intel’s previous CEO, Pat Gelsinger, abruptly retired amid a deepening downturn that triggered massive layoffs and raised questions about the chipmaker’s ability to survive as an independent company. This won’t be Tan’s first time running a semiconductor company, nor his first association with Intel. He spent more than a decade as CEO of Cadence Design Systems, whic…

Reports Wednesday that Apple has held talks with Intel about a possible strategic investment sent shockwaves through the stock market. Intel shares shot up. Apple, the reports said, had begun the talks—initiated by Intel—even before the The President administration made its controversial announcement that it would buy an $8.9 billion share in the chip maker. The government’s move had the effect of attracting more investment in Intel, however. U.S.-based Nvidia said it would invest $5 billion and Japan’s Softbank said it would invest $2 billion. Intel is a special case. The storied U.S. chip maker has fallen on hard times after missing the chance to supply the chi…

Intel‘s promised $28 billion chip fabrication plants in Ohio are facing further delays, with the first factory in New Albany expected to not be completed until 2030, local media outlet The Columbus Dispatch reported on Friday. The first factory will begin operations sometime shortly thereafter in either 2030 or 2031, the report said, citing the chipmaker. Shares of the company, which originally scheduled to begin chipmaking in Ohio factories in 2025, were up more than 5%. Intel has been cutting capital expenses after its expensive bid to become a contract chip manufacturer for other companies, in a move to restore its lost glory, strained its balance sheet. …

Laura Youngson didn’t expect to focus so much on soccer cleats when she organized a group of women to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and play a high-altitude match. The point of the 2017 game was to highlight inequality in sports for women and girls. On that front, Youngson achieved her goal with the match becoming the subject of a documentary and landing the group in the Guinness Book of World Records. Still, something bothered Youngson as the match unfolded. Glancing at the athletes’ feet, she was struck that all the women were wearing men’s or boy’s soccer cleats instead of gear that was designed specifically for them. The realization led her to launch IDA Sports, which mak…

The Coca-Cola Co. just announced its newest limited-time soda, and it’s a combination of Sprite and tea that was initially floated by a team of interns six years ago. Sprite + Tea just hit shelves earlier across the U.S. and Canada, and is expected to remain on the market through October. The soda is available in both regular and zero-sugar varieties, and, according to a press release, it “blends the crisp, lemon-lime refreshment of Sprite with the classically refreshing flavor of tea.” The new product arrives just a month after Coca-Cola announced better-than-anticipated first-quarter 2025 financial results, logging a 2% year-over-year revenue decline but maintaining…