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Pick up any piece of tech and Emma Pickering knows how it can be used to abuse, harass, and stalk women. Amazon's Ring home doorbell cameras can monitor when someone leaves the house and who is visiting them. Until recently, Netflix showed the IP addresses where users were logged in, allowing their location to be tracked. Workout apps and websites such as Strava show where and when people are exercising. And abusers often slip small GPS trackers or audio recorders into women's belongings or attach them to their cars.

"Perpetrators buy them in bulk, and they'll buy probably 60 very cheaply; they're very small and discrete," says Pickering, who works at Refuge, the UK's largest domestic abuse organization, where she heads a team that helps women secure their devices. Pickering says that in one case "over 200" recording devices were found in a woman's home.

Refuge launched its Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Economic Empowerment Team in 2017, amid a surge of abusers weaponizing apps, devices, and online services to harm women. The charity helps women and their children leave abusive relationships, providing emergency accommodation, legal help, financial aid, and more. Almost every case now involves technology in some form, Pickering says, and the issue is so serious that every person the organization places into a refuge goes through a tech assessment to secure their accounts. The tech abuse team, which is made up of 11 people, is the only one of its kind in the UK and just one of a handful of similar organizations around the world.

Technology-facilitated abuse can range from harassment via phone call or text message to logging into someone's social media and email accounts without their permission, which allows abusers to read, delete or send messages. In more extreme cases, they might install "stalkerware" on victims' phones to monitor every tap and scroll. Nonconsensual image-sharing, commonly known as "revenge porn," and economic abuse, where money and banking apps may be controlled by an abuser, are also frequent. In August, a report from MPs in the UK concluded that tech abuse is becoming "increasingly common."

Pickering says her team primarily focuses on helping people in the more severe cases. "Firstly, we need to establish if it's safe to speak to them on their device," she says. If it isn't, Refuge will send women a burner phone and then set them up with a new email address, using the encrypted email service Proton Mail, before sending them extra information. It's the start of a meticulous process-known as an "attack assessment" by the team-to secure accounts and devices.

"We go through everything," Pickering says. Refuge will ask the person they are helping to list every device and online account they and any children have. These can easily number into the hundreds. "Within the home, if they've fled the relationship, we also need to check anything they've left behind to unsync from any devices or accounts that they could still be using back home." This will include products like Google Home Hubs, and Amazon's Ring doorbells and Alexa, and it requires checking who set up the devices and is the administrator of the accounts, as well as which names phone contracts are in. From there, a safety plan is created, Pickering says. This can include going through the accounts and checking settings for who has access to them, removing devices connected to accounts, using secure passwords, and setting up measures such as two-factor authentication. On average, Pickering says, it can take three weeks to get through the entire process, although more complex cases take much longer.

"I don't think people realize how serious it is, the consequences for perpetrators to have access to this information, to see that there's evidence in someone's phone that they're planning to leave a relationship, read emails about financial settlements, child contact orders-it puts someone at really significant risk," Pickering says. Even for those in nonabusive relationships, the charity has created a digital breakup tool with cybersecurity firm Avast to detail the process of separating everything from delivery apps to gaming accounts from former partners.

While the technology itself isn't usually the problem-it's how abusers use it to harass their victims that creates the issues-Pickering says tech companies don't put enough thought into how their services can be used maliciously. They also don't put enough effort into preventing such abuses. They're not "considering having features built in that can mitigate these risks," she says.

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The Team Helping Women Fight Digital Domestic Abuse

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Location-enabled tech designed to make our lives easier is often exploited by domestic abusers. Refuge, a UK nonprofit, helps women to leave abusive relationships, secure their devices, and stay safe.

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At the ' Made by Google Event' in New York, Google teased a new "generative AI" feature that will be built into the Fitbit app sometime next year as part of the Fibit Labs program. The app, which will pair with new wearables like the Google Pixel 2 Watch and the Fitbit Charge 6, will use artificial intelligence to analyze trends in a wearer's fitness capabilities and be able to provide insights about overall performance.

The app will feature a chatbot that can carry a conversation to help you understand how you did during a tracked run, for example, while providing debriefed stats on the activity, like overall pace and elevation gain. The AI tool will take it a step further and be able to explain why you performed the way you did by drawing on affiliated health data, like sleep hygiene, recovery history and other workouts. If you felt that a workout was extra difficult, the app will be able to look for related info to explain why you might be struggling.

However, the insights are not limited to chatting with the AI. Google showed off its ability to provide visual feedback, like charts illustrating how performance changed over time.

Google's James Park, the former head of Fitbit, said the new generative AI feature will be trialed by "trusted testers" before it officially launches.

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Fitbit is getting an AI chatbot that can tell you why your run sucked

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At the 'Made by Google Event' in New York, the company announced a new "generative AI" feature that will be made available on the Fitbit app later next year.

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Ethics- bringing people back from the dead with AI?

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Ethics- bringing people back from the dead with AI?

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AI-bsolutely Not

Robin Williams' daughter Zelda is fed up with artificial intelligence being used to mimic her father's voice.

In an Instagram story transcribed by The Hollywood Reporter, Williams said that she stands in solidarity with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) protests against increasing the use of AI in Hollywood in part because of the ways the technology has been used to recreate her father's inimitable voice.

"I am not an impartial voice in SAG's fight against AI," the daughter of the late actor wrote in a since-expired post. "I've witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/re-create actors who cannot consent, like Dad."

Since July, the actors' guild has been on strike as directors and producers move forward with attempts to replace actors with AI. As Williams pointed out, this use of the technology "isn't theoretical" but is instead "very real."

"I've already heard AI used to get his 'voice' to say whatever people want and while I find it personally disturbing, the ramifications go far beyond my own feelings," Williams wrote.

Valley of the Uncanny

Curiously enough, the troubled comedic superstar was in two notable films about AI: 1999's " Bicentennial Man" based on Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg's "The Positronic Man," and Steven Spielberg's much-loathed 2001 flick " AI Artificial Intelligence," in which he had a small part voicing a hologram called "Dr. Know."

While Williams didn't mention by name any specific projects that used or are planning in the future to use AI replications of her father's voice or likeness, he certainly would not be the first actor to be " brought back from the dead" using the technology.

As the BBC reported over the summer, the rise of the "digital twin," or AI-generated facsimile of people trained on footage from their pasts, is extensive. Companies are rushing to license digital twins for all kinds of people, from actors who died long ago like James Dean to non-thespian public figures like Rosa Parks and Bettie Page.

While digital resurrections aren't exactly new -who can forget the infamous Tupac hologram that rapped alongside Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre at Coachella in 2012 - advances in AI are making this uncanny use case all the more common.

"Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices, to voice cartoons, to put their HUMAN effort and time into the pursuit of performance," Williams continued in her post, highlighting one the best arguments against AI cloning.

"These re-creations are, at their very best, a poor facsimile of greater people," she added, "but at their worst, a horrendous Frankensteinian monster, cobbled together from the worst bits of everything this industry is, instead of what it should stand for."
More on AI: Suing Writers Seethe at OpenAI's Excuses in Court

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Robin Williams' Daughter Disgusted by Efforts to Bring Her Dad Back With AI

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Robin Williams' daughter Zelda has had it up to here with artificial intelligence used to mimic her father's voice in films.

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Much like many relationships a person might have between ages 18 and 24, the relationship a young person has with social media can be complicated. No matter where they live, respondents in a new global survey said social media usage can lead to a fear of missing out (FOMO) or poor body image, but it also can help with social connections and self-expression.

McKinsey Health Institute's (MHI's) 2022 Global Gen Z Survey asked more than 42,000 respondents in 26 countries across continents questions based on the four dimensions of health: mental, physical, social, and spiritual. MHI then analyzed differences and similarities across generations and countries, with a hope of informing the broader dialogue around Gen Z mental health.

Gen Zers, on average, are more likely than other generations to cite negative feelings about social media. They are also more likely to report having poor mental health. But correlation is not causation, and our data indicates that the relationship between social media use and mental health is complex. One surprise: Older generations' engagement with these platforms is on par with Gen Zers. For example, baby boomers in eight of the 26 countries surveyed report spending as much time on social media as Gen Zers, with millennials being the most likely to post. And while negative impacts of social media were reported across cohorts, positive effects were even more common-more than 50 percent of all groups cited self-expression and social connectivity as positives from social media.

More than 50 percent of all groups cited self-expression and social connectivity as positives from social media.

There are also signs that technology provides access to supportive mental health resources for younger people. Gen Z respondents are more likely than other generations to use digital wellness apps and digital mental health programs. Additionally, respondents indicate that certain aspects of social media use can benefit their mental health, such as using social media for self-expression. Young refugees and asylum seekers are among those most likely to cite social media as a tool to stay connected and decrease loneliness.

In the six insights below, MHI delves deeper into the ways in which mental health, technology, and social media intersect for our respondents (see sidebar "Methodology" for further detail). This survey covered additional topics such as climate change and spiritual health (for selected insights, see sidebars "Climate change is a concern for many respondents" and "Gen Z and spiritual health: Insights").

Technology and social media can be a part of the solution

Social media and technology, while part of the broader dialogue around youth mental health, can be powerful tools in promoting well-being and offering scaled mental health support. For example, developers might consider embedding algorithms that make it easier for youth expressing psychological distress to find support groups, crisis hotlines, or emergency mental health services. Additionally, digital mental health companies could consider partnering with virtual and community-based providers to connect people with high-acuity needs to timely and culturally-appropriate crisis services.

Around the world, communities are struggling to provide young people with someone to call, someone to respond, or a safe place to get help during mental health, substance use, and/or suicidal crises. The availability of crisis supports globally is varied, with the majority of countries having no national suicide or mental health crisis line. In addition, communities in every geography lack adequate community mental health services infrastructure to respond to the volume of crises young people experience each year, instead relying on schools, emergency rooms, hospitals, law enforcement, or families to bridge a gap that could save lives and livelihoods. Dispatching specially trained mobile teams or providing a safe place to go in crisis is even more rare-a gap that technology could bridge.

Collaboration between technology companies, mental health professionals, educators, employers, policy makers, and the wider community is necessary. By prioritizing mental health and utilizing technology in a positive way, young people are more likely to achieve and sustain better health. Other strategies that could be considered include using social media to build supportive online communities for affinity groups and promoting youth leaders to create and disseminate content that promotes mental health. Researchers and companies can explore evidence-based strategies such as mental health promotion and mindfulness programs to mitigate the negative effects of social media and to help young people use social media as a platform for authentic self-expression.

A "precision prevention" approach to talking with young people about the role of technology in their lives may help create a more informed, supportive, and healthful environment. By providing parents, educators, and healthcare professionals with these tools, they can become actively engaged in promoting the health of Gen Z and beyond. While addressing these issues may seem overwhelming, it is essential that stakeholders work together to help improve the mental health of young people.

MHI is an enduring, non-profit-generating global entity within McKinsey. MHI strives to catalyze actions across continents, sectors, and communities to achieve material improvements in health, empowering people to lead their best possible lives. MHI sees supporting youth mental health as essential to adding years to life and life to years.

If you would like to learn more about the McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) 2022 Global Gen Z survey and the additional data and insights the McKinsey Health Institute has from the survey, please submit an inquiry via the MHI "contact us" form. The McKinsey Health Institute, as a non-profit-generating entity of McKinsey, is creating avenues for further research that can catalyze action.

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Gen Z mental health: The impact of tech and social media

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A new McKinsey Health Institute survey of more than 42,000 respondents in 26 countries explores the impact of tech and social media on Gen Z's mental health.

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Our Mission

Brain-computer interfaces have the potential to change lives for the better. We want to bring this technology from the lab into peoples' homes.

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Creating a generalized brain interface to restore autonomy to those with unmet medical needs today and unlock human potential tomorrow.