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A research company published a damning report about Roblox on Tuesday, accusing the company of inflating its active user counts and enabling predatory behavior on the platform. Although Hindenburg Research has a somewhat notorious reputation, the report at least raises questions about the platforms safety and viability. First, Hindenburg Research is known for taking deep dives into public companies practices, finding sketchy behavior and publishing it. However, as noted by Simon Carless, a gaming industry veteran and author of the GameDiscoverCo newsletter, Hindenburg also tends to short-sell the companies downfalls, literally betting that its research will lead to their failures. Reuters notes that Hindenburg has previously sunk the share prices of Super Micro Computer and stocks owned by investor Carl Icahn, Indias Gautam Adani. So, despite making some eyebrow-raising points in the report, you may want to take Hindenburg with more than a few grains of salt. On the other hand, some of its investigations have led to SEC investigations. As for the specific claims, the researchers say Robloxs stock price is partly based on misleading data. Hindenburg states that Roblox is inflating stats like user numbers and engagement, conflating daily active users with visitors. Our research indicates that Roblox is lying to investors, regulators, and advertisers about the number of people on its platform, inflating the key metric by 25-42%+, Hindenburg Research wrote. We also show how engagement hours, another key metric, is inflated by an estimated 100%+. Hindenburg quotes former Roblox employees in its report. One claims the company can track users with alt accounts, but its public user tracking doesnt adjust for those. If I have 10 alts [alternate accounts], because Im farming Pet Simulator on 10 accounts and all of those are running a script on different virtual machines in my computer theyre all still coming out of the same IP address, Hindenburg quotes the former employee as saying. I made all 10 of those accounts. Their names are similar. Their account creation times are similarIm still one player, not 10. De-alting Robloxs numbers, which means adjusting for alt accounts to get a more accurate picture of player count, would allegedly lead to much lower numbers. One of the former Roblox employees reportedly told Hindenburg, Lets say if that number [DAUs] is not de-alted, I think the actual one would be like anywhere between 30 to 20% lower A Roblox spokesperson provided Engadget with a published statement denying Hindenburgs claims. The company noted that it regularly includes a note to investors explaining how its operating metrics are calculated and has done so since its initial public filing. The financial claims made by Hindenburg are misleading, Roblox wrote. The authors are short sellers and have an agenda irrespective of the substance of Robloxs business model and results. Carless also advises taking the researchers claims with grains of salt. Our view on this is that theres no systemic bad behavior by Roblox here, the former game developer and GDC co-runner wrote. The game is giant and chaotic, so of course there are going to be bots and weird behavior all over the place. Speaking with Reuters, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter went even further, accusing Hindenburg of getting gaming metrics all wrong. There are many interesting points in that report, but they seem to misunderstand a lot about how games work, Pachter reportedly said. He said the research firm measured engagement based on a session. However, gamers typically log on multiple times daily, playing various games. The Hindenburg test looks like it measured session length for a single game for each user, Pachter said. Hindenburgs report also accuses Roblox of compromising child safety in order to report growth to investors. It even goes as far as accusing the platform of allowing pedophiles to flourish on the platform. For the second quarter of 2024, in a push toward profitability, Roblox reported a 2% year-over-year decline in its trust and safety expenses, Hindenburg wrote, highlighting the companys shift to AI moderation. Core to the problem is that Robloxs social media features allow pedophiles to efficiently target hundreds of children, with no up-front screening to prevent them from joining the platform. Robloxs child safety problems have been reported before. Hindenburg said it tried to set up an account under Jeffrey Epstein, only to find the username was taken, along with 900+ variations. One account, JeffEpsteinSupporter, reportedly had multiple badges for spending time in childrens games. Others had disturbing usernames alluding to grooming or raping minors. Even if those accounts were made by attention-starved teens or young adults using edgelord attempts at humor, those allegations, if true, represent a colossal moderation failure. Roblox wrote that it takes user trust and child safety seriously. Every day, tens of millions of users of all ages have safe and positive experiences on Roblox, abiding by the companys Community Standards, the company wrote in a statement. Roblox takes any content or behavior on the platform that doesnt abide by its standards extremely seriously, and Roblox has a robust set of proactive and preventative safety measures designed to catch and prevent malicious or harmful activity on the platform.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/short-sellers-accuse-roblox-of-inflating-user-stats-and-enabling-child-exploitation-205635537.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Artificial intelligence is expected to have an impact on the upcoming US election in November. States have been trying to protect against misinformation by passing laws that require political advertisements to disclose when they have used generative AI. Twenty states now have rules on the books, and according to new research, voters have a negative reaction to seeing those disclaimers. That seems like a pretty fair response: If a politician uses generative AI to mislead voters, then voters don't appreciate that. The study was conducted by New York Universitys Center on Technology Policy and first reported by The Washington Post. The investigation had a thousand participants watch political ads from fictional candidates. Some of the ads were accompanied by a disclaimer that AI was used in the creation of the spot, while others had no disclaimer. The presence of a disclaimer was linked to viewers rating the promoted candidate as less trustworthy and less appealing. Respondents also said they would be more likely to flag or report the ads on social media when they contained disclaimers. In attack ads, participants were more likely to express negative opinions about the candidate who sponsored the spot rather than the candidate being attacked. The researchers also found that the presence of an AI disclaimer led to worse or unchanged opinions regardless of the fictional candidate's political party. The researchers tested two different disclaimers inspired by two different state requirements for AI disclosure in political ads. The text tied to Michigan's law reads: "This video has been manipulated by technical means and depicts speech or conduct that did not occur." The other disclaimer is based on Florida's law, and says: "This video was created in whole or in part with the use of generative artificial intelligence." Although the approach of Michigan's requirements is more common among state laws, study participants said they preferred seeing the broader disclaimer for any type of AI use. While these disclaimers can play a part in transparency about the presence of AI in an ad, they aren't a perfect failsafe. As many as 37 percent of the respondents said they didn't recall seeing any language about AI after viewing the ads.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/viewers-dont-trust-candidates-who-use-generative-ai-in-political-ads-study-finds-194532117.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Uber has come up with a relatively low-cost way of getting to and from a New York City airport: a shuttle bus. Starting today, the company is offering rides between LaGuardia Airport and transit hubs in Manhattan for $18 a pop. For the first month of the service, Uber is offering half-price rides for $9, The Wall Street Journal reports. This would be far cheaper than a cab for a solo traveler. It's also more expensive, but perhaps less of a hassle, than taking public transit theres a free shuttle between the airport and the subway. One route will take passengers between Penn Station and the airport, and the other will run between Port Authority, Grand Central Terminal and LaGuardia. If you're Manhattan-bound, youll still need to make your way to your home, hotel or Airbnb after you get to the drop-off point. The vans can transport 14 passengers at a time. The service will run between 5AM and 10:45PM ET every day with trips leaving every half hour or so. You can book a spot in a shuttle up to seven days in advance and bring a personal item and a 50-pound bag on board. Before you get on the van, you'll need to show the driver a QR code and PIN that Uber sends you. An Uber shuttle-fleet partner called EPS is operating the rides, but the shuttles have Uber branding. Uber shuttles have been available in various locations since 2019, but this is the first time the company is offering such trips to and from an airport. Earlier this year, Uber started running shuttles to and from concerts and sports games. It plans to offer shuttles to more airports in the coming months and years. The company announced the service as part of its Go-Get Zero event, at which it highlighted some new sustainability efforts. Among those is a new EV-only option that will debut in 40 cities in which Uber has enough electric vehicle drivers available.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/uber-starts-offering-18-shuttle-rides-between-manhattan-and-laguardia-airport-193520618.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
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