Innovation·Fortune Social media could use more moderationBy Jessica MathewsBy Jessica MathewsSenior WriterJessica MathewsSenior WriterJessica Mathews is a senior writer for Fortune covering startups and the venture capital industry.SEE FULL BIO Teens have watched—often involuntarily—various versions of the s of Kirk's killing that have circulated online.Trent Nelson—Getty ImagesGood morning.
Jessica Mathews here, filling in for Andrew Nusca. I’ve been trying to stay off social media these past few days—as much as I can as a journalist.
On Thursday, a popped up on my X , displaying the very moment that political activist Charlie Kirk was shot in the neck as he sat on a stool onstage at a college campus, talking with students and observers.
There was no warning, no mpt before the started playing—only an instant replay of the exact moment of gory violence that would immediately make waves around the country and the world.
The was entirely unexpected, and it momentarily paralyzed me, leaving me unsettled and struggling to focus on the rest of the workday. I wasn’t alone.
During class or in the school hallways, teens watched various versions of the s of Kirk’s killing that circulated online, sometimes in slow motion.
Andrew Apsley, an English teacher in Utah, said a was sent to his 19-year-old child, who has autism and has difficulty cessing emotions. It was “pretty traumatic,” he told the Associated Press.
Over the last few weeks—as we have witnessed the tragic killing of Kirk, in close succession to the horrific s and images of the stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte that also went viral—it has felt I’ve been forced to repeatedly bear witness to graphic and violent content in the exact moments when I am least emotionally prepared to do so.
And it’s sobering to realize that this phenomenon is related, in part, to the decisions of big social-media companies.
In a chilling piece in Wired last Thursday, Lauren Goode pointed out that, as these platforms have scaled back their moderation efforts, reers say they’re “falling short in enforcing their own content moderation rules, at a moment when political tensions and violence are flaring.” Alex Mahadevan, the director of MediaWise at the Poynter Institute, told Goode that “this is all psychologically damaging to our society in ways we don’t understand yet.” I would agree.
These s have been replaying in my head since I first saw them and have made it difficult at times for me to get through the day. For me, the only absolute solution has been to stay completely offline.
Perhaps I am too sensitive in that I can’t handle sudden, unexpected graphic content on my social media s without it shaking me to my core. But I doubt I’m alone in that. Today’s news below.
—Jessica Mathews Want to send thoughts or suggestions to Fortune ?
Drop a line here.China ratchets up trade-talk pressure with Nvidia antitrust rulingAI chipmaker Nvidia has increasingly found itself caught in a tug-of-war between Washington and Beijing.
And on Monday, China gave a mighty pull, ruling that Nvidia had violated the country’s antitrust laws.
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said, in a preliminary finding, that Nvidia had failed to fully comply with visions it had imposed on the chipmaker in 2020 when the agency conditionally apved Nvidia’s acquisition of Mellanox nologies, an Israeli-U.S.
networking equipment maker.The move is largely seen as a way for Chinese officials to signal their displeasure with Washington’s restrictions on the export of cutting-edge nology, including Nvidia’s top-of-the-line AI chips, to China.
The regulator began its antitrust be of Nvidia’s $6.9 billion acquisition of Mellanox in December, just days after the U.S.
unveiled tougher export restrictions on high-bandwidth memory chips, which are important for AI applications, as well as chipmaking equipment.—Jeremy KahnNew studies show how people really use ChatGPT and ClaudeRival AI companies Anthropic and OpenAI have released dueling studies that paint a picture of how people are using their flagship ducts, ChatGPT and Claude.
Both pieces of re analyzed large datasets of user conversations, examining work and non-work-related conversations.
While the two companies used different datasets and methods, OpenAI’s analysis suggests the consumer versions of ChatGPT are used mainly for personal and exploratory purposes, whereas Anthropic’s findings show Claude.ai and Claude API are primarily used for work-related tasks coding, re, and education.
According to the study released by OpenAI, most ChatGPT conversations aren’t work at all.
Non-work-related messages made up more than 70% of all usage, up from 53% in June 2024, while work-related queries made up 27% of all messages, down from 47% of total conversations a year ago.
–Beatrice NolanScott Bessent says Trump and China have the framework of a TikTok dealA framework deal has been reached between China and the U.S. for the ownership of social platform TikTok, U.S.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said after weekend trade talks in Spain.Bessent said in a press conference after the round of trade talks between the world’s top two economies in Madrid that U.S.
President Donald Trump and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping would speak on Friday to possibly finalize the deal. He said the objective of the deal would be to switch to U.S. ownership.
“We are not going to talk the commercial terms of the deal,” Bessent said. “It’s between two private parties.
But the commercial terms have been agreed upon.”—The Associated PressMore —UAE chips, a Trump crypto bonanza, and an increasingly cozy relationship.
A New York Times investigation uncovered details the connections between a lucrative transaction involving the Trump family’s cryptocurrency firm and an agreement giving the Emiratis access to A.I.
chips; White House "AI czar" and venture capitalist David Sacks was reportedly a key player. —Is AI easy? Marc Benioff and some of his customers disagree.
Marc Benioff has told customers they could set up AI agents to handle customer service discussions and other tasks in minutes—but Salesforce has struggled to sell Agentforce, in part because of the extensive prep work customers need to do to make it work, according to The Information.—Squeaky-wheels AI workers get fired in fight over working conditions.
Over 200 contractors who work on imving Google’s AI ducts, including Gemini and AI Overviews, have been laid off, sources told Wired.—Will 'violent task churn' be as bad as it sounds?
Yes, AI will transform and maybe eliminate millions of jobs, but the ensuing ductivity boom will generate better ones, says a JPMorgan report. Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh.
CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of . Apply for an invitation.