Good morning, features editor Matt Heimer here, subbing for Alexei. <\/p>\n
I\u2019m guessing that a hefty percentage of readers of this newsletter frequently joke about being \u201caddicted\u201d to their smartphones, or to email, or Slack, or whatever their social feed of choice might be. But some people develop truly debilitating tech habits\u2014the kind that render them unable to hold down a job or even get out of their bedrooms. And the question of what responsibility, if any, tech companies might bear for that problem could become Big Tech\u2019s next big legal headache.<\/p>\n
Two landmark civil trials on this issue are nearing a resolution: A jury is deliberating in one case, in California<\/a> (Meta<\/a> and Google\u2019s YouTube<\/a> are the defendants), while closing arguments have begun<\/a> in another, in New Mexico (only Meta is a defendant there). It\u2019s probably safe to say that neither verdict will be the last word\u2014not with free speech issues, tech business models, and potentially billions of dollars in liability in play. <\/p>\n But however the lawsuits play out, the issue of tech\u2019s impact on our behavior and our psyches is top of mind for a growing number of physicians, parents, and employers\u2014and will only get more urgent as AI plays a bigger role in our lives. In a new feature today, Fortune\u2018s Kristin Stoller shows us what tech addiction looks like<\/a>, talking with clients and caregivers from a residential detox center outside Seattle that, she writes, \u201ctreats tech addiction as a danger on the scale of alcohol or drug addiction.\u201d<\/p>\n Kristin also pulls back to look at the big questions of whether \u201ctech addiction\u201d qualifies as a legitimate medical diagnosis, and what companies like Meta and Google should do to mitigate it if so. Wherever you stand on the issue, it\u2019s a story that might make you rethink your own tech diet.<\/p>\n Matt Heimer Want to send thoughts or suggestions to\u00a0Fortune Tech?\u00a0Drop a line\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Subscribe here!<\/a><\/p>\n What Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s AI sidekick could teach CEOs<\/p>\n Mark Zuckerberg is nothing if not a true believer. Again and again, the Meta<\/a> CEO and Facebook founder has thrown himself headfirst into his company\u2019s top initiatives. A few years ago, he made himself the face of the company\u2019s since-sidelined metaverse push,<\/a> even running internal and media meetings inside Meta\u2019s own VR offices<\/a> and insisted that participants log in as avatars rather than on Zoom<\/a>. He also regularly wears Meta\u2019s bulky AI smart glasses in public, aesthetics be damned.\u00a0<\/p>\n The chief executive is now walking the walk on another Meta imperative: AI adoption. According to the Wall Street Journal,<\/a> Zuckerberg is building an AI agent to help him as CEO. Details are scarce on the still-in-development tool, but the WSJ reports that it\u2019s getting Zuckerberg information faster, expediting processes that normally require him to query multiple people. \u00a0<\/p>\n As Meta spends tens of billions of dollars building AI models and massive data centers to power them, it\u2019s become borderline obsessed with staff-wide AI adoption. It is also reportedly among the tech giants that have established leaderboards<\/a> that rank employees based on their consumption of tokens\u2014a measure of AI use. But of all the methods of inducing AI adoption, Zuckerberg\u2019s leading by example might be the most effective. Learn more from Fortune here<\/a>. \u2014 Claire Zillman<\/p>\n OpenAI hires a former Meta ad veteran<\/p>\n OpenAI has brought on Dave Dugan, a former Meta exec, to lead its budding advertising business. Dugan, who spent more than a decade at Meta\u2014most recently as the company\u2019s vice president of global clients and agencies\u2014has been named OpenAI\u2019s vice president of global ad solutions. He\u2019ll report to the company\u2019s COO, Brad Lightcap, according to the Wall Street Journal. <\/a><\/p>\n The move comes as OpenAI begins testing ads on ChatGPT’s free and lower-cost subscription tiers, with the high-profile hire signaling how aggressively the company is chasing new revenue streams to fund its sprawling AI infrastructure and research costs.<\/p>\n The decision to put ads in ChatGPT is a notable shift from CEO Sam Altman, who two years ago called advertising a “last resort” business model, citing concerns that it could erode user trust by making people suspect advertisers were influencing the chatbot’s responses. OpenAI has said ads will not affect ChatGPT’s answers and that user conversations won’t be shared with advertisers\u2014though rival Anthropic has already seized on the move, launching a series of ads targeting<\/a> OpenAI’s embrace of advertising.\u2014Beatrice Nolan<\/p>\n Supermicro’s chip-smuggling allegations have a precedent\u2014involving Iran<\/p>\n Supermicro, the hardware manufacturer that has spent the past three years riding the AI wave in Silicon Valley, hit a wall last week when prosecutors accused its co-founder of smuggling Nvidia<\/a> chips. But as Fortune reported Monday, it’s not the first time Supermicro has run afoul of export-control regulations; two decades ago, it violated laws restricting trade with Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n The hardware manufacturer\u2019s co-founder, Yih-Shyan \u201cWally\u201d Liaw, was charged<\/a> on Thursday with conspiring to smuggle about $2.5 billion worth of highly coveted Nvidia GPUs in servers to China. Prosecutors claim that Liaw and others routed servers with banned Nvidia H200 and B200 GPUs through an unnamed Southeast Asian company to Chinese buyers who wanted the chips. Supermicro has said<\/a> it is cooperating with law enforcement and it was not named in the indictment.<\/p>\n But court records<\/a> and the company\u2019s own disclosures show that the latest allegations of smuggling<\/a> to a restricted market show striking similarities to a 20-year-old enforcement action also involving Supermicro. In 2006, in a case little noticed at the time, Supermicro pleaded guilty<\/a> in federal court to illegally exporting computer equipment to Iran, and paid a $150,000 fine to the Department of Justice. Separately, Supermicro settled parallel related actions with the Commerce and Treasury departments.\u00a0<\/p>\n The two cases\u2014separated by two decades and vast differences in scope\u2014allegedly share a similar pattern: Find a neighboring country where it is legal to sell to, hide the real buyer, and ship the restricted tech to the illegal market. For more, read\u00a0Fortune’s report<\/a>.\u2014Amanda Gerut<\/p>\n More tech<\/p>\n \u2014OpenAI is betting big on fusion energy from startup Helion,<\/a> Axios reports. Helion’s best-known investor is OpenAI’s Sam Altman.<\/p>\n \u2014Nvidia, Emerald AI partner with big power companies<\/a>. The goal: faster connections between data centers and energy grids.<\/p>\n \u2014Bitcoin bounces back<\/a> as Trump gestures toward an Iran off-ramp.<\/p>\n \u2014OnlyFans owner dies at 43<\/a>. Leo Radvinsky passed “after a long battle with cancer.”<\/p>\n
@MatthewHeimer
<\/a>matt.heimer@fortune.com<\/p>\n