Harris Takes on the Algorithm During a recent podcast appearance, former Vice President Kamala Harris tried to explain artificial intelligence and social media algorithms. Harris, the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nominee, said it was time to “psyche it out a bit.” She argued that algorithms were trying to “dumb people down” by assuming people had no interest beyond what they had already seen. The host agreed that the algorithm was the issue. The basic complaint was that recommendation systems can limit curiosity by showing people more of what they already viewed. That is a serious issue to raise, but Harris’s explanation soon moved from policy language to a flower shop. Even the algorithm might have wondered where this was going. The Yellow Flower Metaphor Harris said an algorithm might see a person looking at a yellow flower and decide that person is interested only in yellow flowers. That would overlook the possibility of interest in a pink flower, she said, as if the brain could not handle both. The metaphor appears intended to show how a platform can treat one click as a permanent preference. It was not immediately clear what else Harris wanted the audience to take from it,…

A Short Ride, A Long Paper Trail Cade Kirchner, an 11-year-old sixth grader in Oviedo, Florida, was heading toward a nearby pond with a fishing pole on Labor Day, Sept. 7. His father, Chris Kirchner, said Cade was traveling on the road’s shoulder and was about 300 feet from home. The family says the electric dirt bike was limited to 20 miles per hour. What looked like a short ride to go fishing ended with police stopping Cade, fingerprinting him, towing the bike with a city wrecker, and ordering him to appear in court. It is a tidy example of how quickly an ordinary errand can become a formal case when a vehicle definition enters the picture. Florida’s Definition Does the Heavy Lifting Police and city officials said the machine is not an e-bike under state law. The bike has a 4,500-watt motor and pegs instead of pedals, so police classified it as a motorcycle. That classification means it needs registration, insurance, a motorcycle endorsement, and a licensed adult rider. The citation was issued under Florida Statute 320.02 for an unregistered vehicle, which requires a court appearance. Police said the bike was towed because it “is not legally allowed on…