The Brief – Tuesday 14 April: Zuckerbot, Australia U16 ban study, Economist Play and more

🤖 Meta is building an AI avatar of Mark Zuckerberg so that employees can feel “more connected” with the CEO. Zuckerberg is involved in training his animated AI, which will replicate his mannerisms and tone. (FT)

📱 A study of Australia’s under-16 social media ban by the Molly Rose Foundation has found that there are “significant questions” about its effectiveness. Three-fifths (61%) of 12-15 year-olds who previously used TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram remain able to use accounts on these platforms. (Molly Rose Foundation)

🤔 The Advertising Association has partnered with Media Smart, the industry’s education programme, to launch an updated version of its What’s the deal with political advertising? guide, which aims to help young people understand political content they may encounter as they prepare to vote. 58% of 16-24-year-olds say they do not trust the political advertising they see. (AA)

🤖 OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s house was attacked twice over the weekend, first via a thrown molotov cocktail on Friday and then via a single gunshot fired nearby on Sunday. Altman responded in a blog post in which he called fear and anxiety about AI “justified”, likened controlling AI to controlling the Ring of Power from Lord of the Rings, and asked that critics “de-escalate” anti-AI rhetoric. (The San Francisco Standard)

📰 The Economist is finally putting names and faces to its writers. This summer, it will begin rolling out Economist Play, a new component of the magazine’s mobile app featuring shows, interviews and policy debates hosted by Economist correspondents. (New York Times)

🎬 More than 1,000 writers, actors and directors, including Joaquin Phoenix, Bryan Cranston, Lily Gladstone and Yorgos Lanthimos, have signed an open letter warning Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros Discovery would harm Hollywood’s already-distressed entertainment industry by reducing job opportunities, increasing production costs, and resulting in fewer choices for consumers. (New York Times)

🕹️ Roblox is requiring users to complete an age verification process when registering accounts as it looks to tackle child safety concerns. If the age verification is not completed, or the user is identified as being aged between five and nine, they will be assigned a Roblox Kids account, giving users access only to games with a content maturity level of “minimal” or “mild”. Users identified as aged nine to 15 will be given a Roblox Select account with access to games labelled up to “moderate”. (The Verge)

⚖️ A US judge has dismissed President Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the publisher of The Wall Street Journal over an article about Trump’s birthday letter to disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The judge ruled that Trump had failed to show the reporters had acted with ill-will and so had no valid legal claim. (Wall Street Journal)