According to a report in The New York Times Technology section, social media platforms are facing mounting pressure over their use of addictive design features. One expert quoted in the piece stated that “the platforms should be absolutely begging Congress to regulate them, because the alternative is they get sued into oblivion by a bunch of law firms.”
The report suggests that tech companies may find congressional regulation preferable to the risk of extensive litigation from law firms targeting their design practices. This comes amid growing scrutiny of how platforms engineer user engagement and the potential psychological impacts of these features.
The NYT Technology piece also covered developments at DeepMind and mentioned “HatGPT,” though specific details about these topics were limited in the provided source material. The discussion around addictive design appears to be part of a broader conversation about tech platform accountability and the balance between user engagement and potential harm.