A new report from Stanford and Common Sense Media finds that more than half of U.S. teens use AI chatbots for companionship. But, according to Dr. Darja Djordjevic, an adolescent and adult psychiatrist who co-authored the research, the bots aren't equipped to provide the kind of emotional support young people need when dealing with a mental health issue.
Dr. Djordjevic and her team simulated conversations involving various mental health concerns with four of the most popular consumer chatbots and identified several risks; chiefly, their tendency to be sycophantic. A note, this conversation mentions suicide and self-harm.
A year after ousting its despot, things are not as bad as many had feared. But old sectarian divides threaten the peace. Forced labour, sex tourism and human-trafficking: ever more sophisticated drug gangs are behind a wave of exploitation across Latin America. And the rocketing price of gold drives a new generation of prospectors to California.
Today, we are kicking off a new series, entitled Developer Chats - hearing from the large scale system builders themselves, sponsored by our friends at Beyond Tech. Beyond Tech is a top tier consulting company, specializing in creating portfolios for tech and science professionals seeking the UK Global Talent Visa.
In this episode, we are talking with Svyatoslav Babinets, Engineering Manager at Meta. Svyatoslav helps to illuminate teh approaches he takes when building larger scale systems, connecting millions of users, and motivating users and developers alike.
Questions
You’ve worked on everything from large-scale multiplayer worlds to social technologies that power digital presence — how did that journey shape the way you think about engineering today?
You’ve worked on systems that connect millions of users across different platforms and products. How do you design architecture that supports high development velocity in large teams while still delivering experiences that delight users?
In your experience, what helps large companies move faster without sacrificing quality? Can you share how approaches like Virtual mission squad enable cross-functional collaboration across different disciplines and tech stacks?
As systems and teams grow, platform solutions often become the glue that holds everything together. How do you approach designing and implementing platform architecture that supports autonomy while keeping the whole ecosystem consistent?
From your experience, where do culture and infrastructure intersect? What kinds of engineering decisions are really decisions about trust, not technology?
You’ve worked both in games and in metaverse projects. What do these worlds teach us about building systems that feel alive — where motion, identity, and emotion all need to synchronize?
Large-scale systems evolve constantly. How do you design for long-term adaptability — ensuring that architecture remains flexible and scalable as product and user demands grow?
Looking ahead, how do you see the future of human–digital interaction? What should the next generation of engineers focus on — performance, presence, or empathy?
Plus: IBM is in advanced talks to acquire data-infrastructure company Confluent. And investors anticipate another rate cut as the Federal Reserve prepares to meet. Luke Vargas hosts.
Netflix agrees to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in an unprecedented Hollywood merger that will reshape the entertainment landscape. The CDC reverses its long-standing recommendation for the hepatitis B birth vaccine, drawing immediate backlash from medical experts. The Supreme Court allows Texas to use a disputed congressional map expected to add GOP seats. A Pentagon watchdog finds Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth violated communication rules during Yemen strike discussions in a group chat on the "Signal" app. California expands oversight to protect underage farmworkers. LeBron James’ historic scoring streak comes to an end. Architecture pioneer Frank Gehry dies at 96. In business, a Waymo autonomous taxi hits a dog in San Francisco reigniting a fierce debate about safety and Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund moves toward controlling EA in a record-setting buyout.
Three prize-winning authors in today's discussion programme hosted by Tom Sutcliffe:
The German Peasants’ War of 1524–1525 was the greatest popular uprising in Western Europe before the French Revolution. Tens of thousands of peasants rose up to demand a new, more egalitarian order—only to be crushed in a brutal counterattack that left up to 100,000 dead. The historian Lyndal Roper argues that this rebellion was far from chaotic: it was a coherent mass movement inspired by the radical ideals of the Protestant Reformation. Her book Summer of Fire and Blood is the winner of the 2025 Cundill History Prize.
The neurologist Masud Husain explores the human mind through the stories of seven patients. In asking what it is that makes us who we are, he explores how our identity can shift when we lose just a single cognitive ability. He examines the stories a man who ran out of words, a woman who stopped caring what others thought, and another who, losing her memory, believed she was having an affair with her own husband. His account of the science of identity, Our Brains, Our Selves, won the Royal Society's 2025 Trivedi Science Book Prize.
The historian Hannah Durkin explores the stories of the survivors of the Clotilda, the last ship of the Atlantic slave trade. Based on her original research she uses first hand accounts to tell the stories of the enslaved in their own words. Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade is the winner of the 2025 Wolfson History Prize.
OA1214 - As the end of 2025 approaches, we are finding real cause for hope in how federal courts have been handling the Trump administration’s unprecedented assault on the rule of law. In the first of what will be at least two parts, Matt and Thomas speedrun through just a few of the many wins--both big and small--that we have seen in a wide range of categories.
Injunction in Rhode Island v. Trump blocking EO which would have dismantled the Institute for Museums and Libraries and several other federal agencies (11/21/25)
Check out the OALinktreefor all the places to go and things to do!
In March, the U.S. government sent more than 200 Venezuelan men to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Over four months, the men said they endured physical, mental and sexual abuse.
Julie Turkewitz, the Andes bureau chief at The New York Times, interviewed 40 of these prisoners. She explains what she found out about this part of President Trump’s program of mass deportation.
Guest: Julie Turkewitz, the Andes bureau chief for The New York Times, based in Bogotá, Colombia.
After watching video footage of a controversial boat strike, Democrats press the Pentagon to make it public. A judge makes new charges against James Comey even more unlikely. And Indiana Republicans debate whether to push forward with a new congressional district map.
