It was covid times, and I was thinking about death already when I first encountered “grief tech” — generative artificial intelligence programs that put you in contact with an avatar of the deceased or help you prepare an avatar that will allow other people to talk to “you” when you’re gone.

The social-media industry is having a moment of reckoning. By agreeing to pay up to $17.1 billion to 47 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories and consenting to make changes to how young people use Facebook and Instagram, Meta has implicitly admitted some responsibility in creating a product that harms children

Neil Postman was the greatest media analyst of the late 20th century, showing us how new technologies—from the printing press through television and the early internet—brought about changes to so many life domains, and to consciousness itself.

Technologists say chatbots are a remedy for the loneliness epidemic, but looking to an algorithm for companionship can be dangerous.

In August 2021, my employer, MIT, announced that all instruction, without exception, would be in person, with vaccination and regular...