Meta shifts the blame + Are data center bans working? + Final HatGPT

This week, Meta pledged to pay up to $17.1 billion and make major changes to Facebook and Instagram over claims it is putting children at risk with addictive social media platforms. We discuss why she capitulated and what it means for the entire social media industry. Then Princeton computer science professor Arvind Narayanan returns to offer his thoughts on why banning data centers won’t slow AI progress. Finally, that’s all hats on deck for the final HatGPT.

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“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton and produced by Whitney Jones and Rachel Cohn. This episode was edited by Vjeran Pavic. Engineering by Alyssa Moxley and original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Elisheba Ittoop and Rowan Niemisto. Fact-checking by Caitlin Love.

Special thanks to Paula Szuchman, Pui-Wing Tam, and Dahlia Haddad.