Impact of various media on health

The latest AI models powering ChatGPT just learned to be friendlier, improving the experience for people who use chatbots responsibly.

Young people today are navigating mental health challenges in a time of constant digital connection. Social media and digital technology are woven into nearly every aspect of their daily lives. For rural young people, experiences with mental health, social media, and help-seeking are shaped by a mix of isolation and opportunity.

Although computers, smartphones, and internet service are essential 21st-century tools, digital equity stakeholders often focus on in-home internet service in their advocacy. Yet, few scholars have compared the associated benefits of different fundamental digital resources. In response, a cross-sectional analysis of two waves of U.S.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly pervasive and is assuming a new role for teenagers in the U.S.––that of a social companion. AI companions, digital friends or characters that you can text or talk with whenever you want, are being used more and more by young people nationwide. Unlike regular AI assistants that mainly answer questions or do tasks, AI companions are designed to have conversations that feel personal and meaningful. Common Sense Media examines how U.S. teens aged 13 to 17 currently use AI companions.

Years of Republican and Democratic administrations have tried to fix the nation’s broadband woes, through flawed attempts.

The digital age takes embodied things and offers virtual substitutes, moving entire realms of human interaction and engagement from the physical marketplace to the computer screen. Some of these substitutes have meaningful upsides. But in many cases, the virtual substitutes are clearly inferior to what they’re replacing. But this substitution nonetheless succeeds and deepens because of the power of distraction.

Artificial Intelligence systems designed to predict the likelihood of a hospitalized patient dying largely aren't detecting worsening health conditions, according to a new study. Some machine learning models trained exclusively on existing patient data didn't recognize about 66 percent of injuries that could lead to patient death in the hospital, according to the research published in Nature's Communications Medicine journal. Researchers 

Patients across the rural South, Appalachia, and remote West are most often unable to make a video call to their doctor or log into their patient portals. Both are essential ways to participate in the U.S. medical system. In 2025, more than $42 billion allocated in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is expected to begin flowing to states as part of a national “Internet for All” initiative launched by the Biden administration.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX), Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Katie Britt (R-AL) introduced bipartisan legislation to keep kids off social media and help protect them from its harmful impacts. The Kids Off Social Media Act (S.278) would set a minimum age of 13 to use social media platforms and prevent social media companies from feeding algorithmically-targeted content to users under the age of 17.

The mortality rate from COVID-19 was about 50% lower in U.S. counties with higher internet access in the summer and early fall of 2020. A new University of Michigan study found that broadband connection was a key factor in reducing mortality and incidence during the early months of the pandemic. The average county with high internet access had 48%-53% fewer new COVID-19 deaths and 19%-34% fewer new COVID deaths per 100,000 residents than the average county with low internet access.