The rapid rise of ChatGPT and other generative AI systems has disrupted education, transforming how students learn and study.

Students everywhere have turned to chatbots to help with their homework, but artificial intelligence's capabilities have blurred the lines about what it should — and shouldn't — be used for.

They're cute, even cuddly, and promise learning and companionship — but artificial intelligence toys are not safe for kids, according to children's and consumer advocacy groups urging parents not to buy them during the holiday season.

These toys, marketed to kids as young as 2 years old, are generally powered by AI models that have already been shown to harm children and teenagers, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, according to an advisory published Thursday by the children's advocacy group Fairplay and signed by more than 150 organizations and individual experts such as child psychiatrists and educators.

Technology giant Meta on Thursday began sending thousands of young Australians a two-week warning to downland their digital histories and delete their accounts from Facebook, Instagram and Threads before a world-first social media ban on accounts of children younger than 16 takes effect.

The Australian government announced two weeks ago that the three Meta platforms plus Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube must take reasonable steps to exclude Australian account holders younger than 16, beginning Dec. 10.

Roblox is stepping up its age verification system for users who want to privately message other players and implementing age-based chats so kids, teens and adults will only be able to message people around their own age.

Internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare says it is deploying a fix for an issue that caused global outages for ChatGPT, social media platform X, transit infrastructure and other prominent internet services.

Cloudflare said on its status page earlier Tuesday that it identified an issue that was impacting multiple customers. There were reports of widespread 500 errors as well as Cloudflare Dashboard and API failing.

A U.S. high-tech arms company is to design and produce AI-powered drones in the United Arab Emirates under a joint venture, the two parties said on Thursday, strengthening close defense ties.

European Union regulators said Thursday they're investigating whether Google is unfairly demoting some content from media publishers in search results under a policy the company says is aimed at combating scammers.

Brussels moved forward despite the risk of incurring the wrath of President Donald Trump, who has lashed out at the 27-nation bloc's digital regulations and vowed to retaliate if American tech companies are penalized.

Amazon will cut about 14,000 corporate jobs as the online retail giant ramps up spending on artificial intelligence while cutting costs elsewhere.

Teams and individuals impacted by the job cuts will be notified on Tuesday. Most workers will be given 90 days to look for a new position internally, Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, wrote in a letter to employees on Tuesday. Those who can't find a new role at the company or who opt not to look for one will be provided transitional support including severance pay, outplacement services and health insurance benefits.

Artificial intelligence has caused concern for its tremendous consumption of water and power. But scientists are also experimenting with ways that AI can help people and businesses use energy more efficiently and pollute less.

Data centers needed to fuel AI accounted for about 1.5% of the world's electricity consumption last year, and those facilities' energy consumption is predicted to more than double by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency. That increase could lead to burning more fossil fuels such as coal and gas, which release greenhouse gases that contribute to warming temperatures, sea level rise and extreme weather.

Teenagers on Instagram will be restricted to seeing PG-13 content by default and won't be able to change their settings without a parent's permission, Meta announced on Tuesday.