Coming as a surprise ultraportable laptop, the Acer Swift Go 14 (starts at $799.99; $1,099.99

'I was on my phone and he f**king slapped me! He's a b***h!' Jack Doherty said about the incident

Elon Musk’s Twitter has started sending payments to some of its most most popular and controversial users. The scheme is part of what Twitter says is an ad revenue sharing programme, which will let people keep some of the money generated from showing advertising in the replies to their tweets. It is still not clear exactly how the size of the payments is decided, and some have reported receiving tens of thousands of dollars. Users must be subscribed to Twitter Blue and have at least five million impressions on their posts. The payments have gone to popular Twitter users that include some of the most controversial on the site. Andrew Tate, for instance, shared that he had received a payment of $20,000 from Twitter. Many of those who have received payouts have had their accounts boosted by Elon Musk in recent months. Mr Musk has often replied to some of the site’s users – especially those focused on politics – seemingly in an attempt to draw more attention to those accounts. Some critics of Mr Musk had suggested that he had favoured right-wing accounts in the first payouts. But the nature of the accounts may also be affected by the fact that users must pay for Twitter’s premium Blue membership – which has been embraced by many of Mr Musk’s political allies – and other non-political accounts did post that they had received payments. Mr Musk first announced the ad sharing plan in February, saying that the idea was to allow people to “create an interesting thread and get paid for it”. The payments that are being sent to the first users are based on the impressions their posts have gathered since that plan was first announced, he said in a recent tweet. In a thread, Twitter said that the scheme was intended to allow people to make a living directly on Twitter. Until now, users have had to monetise their following in other ways – usually by sending traffic to other platforms. “We’re expanding our creator monetisation offering to include ads revenue sharing for creators. This means that creators can get a share in ad revenue, starting in the replies to their posts,” the company wrote on its official account. “This is part of our effort to help people earn a living directly on Twitter. We’re rolling out the program more broadly later this month and all eligible creators will be able to apply. Go get yourself something nice!” Twitter said that it will soon launch an application process for ads revenue sharing. It is not clear how those who received early payments were chosen. After some users attempted to calculate how much money accounts were receiving per view, Mr Musk cautioned that the system includes some other controls. He said that the payouts are “not exactly per impression”, and were instead based on how many ads were shown to other verified users, which he said was done to ensure that people were not able to use bots to drive up their impressions. Mr Musk also said that he had given the money generated from his own tweets to the creator payout pool. Twitter’s announcement comes soon after Meta announced its own competitor to the site, in the form of Threads. That app has grown rapidly – and while it is still unclear how much it has affected the user base of Twitter, some away from the company have said that the site’s traffic is “tanking”.

SAVE $50: As of July 7, the Roku 65-inch Class Select Series 4K Smart TV

Meta has been fined a record-breaking €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) by European regulators for transferring data belonging to Facebook's EU users to servers in the United States.

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 13, 2023--

BEST LAPTOP DEALS Dell XPS 15 15-inch Laptop | Intel 12th Gen Core i7-12700H, NVIDIA

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is coming to Xbox Game Pass and players wonder if they can pre-load it onto their consoles.

Sea of Stars ($34.99, available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox) is a love letter

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Tuesday the company is looking to invest in India "as soon as humanly possible," following a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York.

BEIJING (Reuters) -Smartphone sales in China fell 5% in the third quarter compared to the same period last year, extending

A psychologist has warned the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots is “worrying” for people with severe mental health issues after a man was locked up for breaking into Windsor Castle with a crossbow. Jaswant Singh Chail, 21, climbed into the castle grounds on Christmas Day 2021 with the loaded weapon, intending to kill the Queen. During his trial, Chail’s barrister Nadia Chbat told the Old Bailey the defendant had used an app called Replika to create Sarai, an artificial intelligence-generated “girlfriend”. I can’t imagine chatbots are sophisticated enough to pick up on certain warning signs Lowri Dowthwaite-Walsh, psychologist Chatlogs read to the court suggested the bot had been supportive of his murderous thoughts, telling him his plot to assassinate Elizabeth II was “very wise” and that it believed he could carry out the plot “even if she’s at Windsor”. Lowri Dowthwaite-Walsh, senior lecturer in psychological interventions at the University of Central Lancashire, said AI chatbots can keep users “isolated” as they lose their social interaction skills. The psychologist is concerned about the long-term impact of people replacing real-life relationships with chatbots – particularly if their mental health is suffering. “Somebody may really need help, they may be using it because they’re traumatised,” she told the PA news agency. “I can’t imagine chatbots are sophisticated enough to pick up on certain warning signs, that maybe somebody is severely unwell or suicidal, those kinds of things – that would be quite worrying.” Ms Dowthwaite-Walsh said a chatbot could become “the dominant relationship”, and users may stop “looking outside of that for support and help when they might need that”. People might perceive these programmes as “psychologically safe, so they can share their thoughts and feelings in a safe way, with no judgment,” she said. “Maybe people have had bad experiences with human interactions, and for certain people, they may have a lot of anxiety about interacting with other humans.” Chatbot programmes may have become more popular because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ms Dowthwaite-Walsh suggested. She said we are now “really seeing the repercussions” of the various lockdowns, “when people weren’t able to interact, people experiencing a lot of isolating feelings and thoughts that it was hard for them to share with real people”. Chatbot programmes might make people feel less alone, as the AI means virtual companions begin to “mirror what you’re experiencing”, she said. “Maybe it’s positive in the short term for somebody’s mental health, I just would worry about the long-term effects.” Ms Dowthwaite-Walsh suggested it could lead to “de-skilling people’s ability to interact socially”, and it is “unrealistic” to expect to have a completely non-judgmental interaction with someone who completely understands how you feel, because that does not happen in real life. While apps like Replika restrict use from under-18s, Ms Dowthwaite-Walsh said there should be particular care if children get access to such programmes. “Depending on the age of the child and their experiences, they may not fully understand that this is a robot essentially – not a real person at the end,” she added. Replika did not respond to requests for comment. Read More William hails ‘amazing’ eco-friendly start-up businesses Royal website subject to ‘denial of service attack’, royal source says TikTok finds and shuts down secret operation to stir up conflict in Ireland Spotify will not ban all AI-powered music, says boss of streaming giant Vehicle scam reports surged by 74% in the first half of 2023, says Lloyds Bank Standard Life confirms plans for pensions dashboard