The Markup - All Articles

Two individuals sit at a table in a classroom, writing on paper with pens. One person with dark, wavy hair and a black shirt focuses on their work, while the other, wearing a gray hoodie, holds a notebook with a bright orange sheet. A can of energy drink and a blue bottle sit on the table. A whiteboard with faint writing is visible in the background.

Artificial Intelligence

AI is helping students be more independent, but the isolation could be career poison

Chatbots may give students quick answers when they have questions, but they won’t help students form relationships that matter for college and life success.

July 16, 2025 13:00 ET

A close-up of a yellow Cal Fire uniform with a detailed embroidered patch on the shoulder. The patch features the shape of California, a stylized flame, and text reading “CAL FIRE” and “Since 1885.” The words “California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection” are visible along the top of the patch. The fabric is lit with strong contrast, emphasizing its texture and stitching.

Artificial Intelligence

California's fire protection agency made an AI chatbot. It can’t answer one crucial question

The bot fails at some basic questions about fires. Cal Fire says it is working on fixes.

July 9, 2025 08:30 ET

A stylized, glitch-effect image of a person with curly hair standing in a dark room, wearing a spaghetti strap top and high-waisted jeans. The person appears multiple times in overlapping positions, creating a blurred, distorted visual echo. The image is heavily tinted in purples and pinks, with digital noise and scan lines suggesting a corrupted or manipulated video frame.

Artificial Intelligence

Kids are making deepfakes of each other, and laws aren’t keeping up

Schools and lawmakers are grappling with how to address a new form of peer-on-peer image-based sexual abuse that disproportionately targets girls.

July 2, 2025 06:00 ET

A view of the dome-structure of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. taken and next to its blurry reflection on a glass wall in the foreground.

Artificial Intelligence

State AI regulations safe after Senate strips moratorium from ‘big, beautiful bill’

In the end, both Republicans and Democrats helped doom a 10-year moratorium on state AI regulation after it cleared the House

July 1, 2025 13:15 ET

An illustration in pink and dark purple tones that shows the silhouette of a student holding a piece of paper as they stand in the middle of a cyberspace grid. A white paper with highlighted text can be seen in the background behind the student as pink boxes with exclamation points float around.

Artificial Intelligence

California colleges spend millions to catch plagiarism and AI. Is the faulty tech worth it?

Colleges and universities renew Turnitin subscriptions year after year even though its flawed detectors are expensive and require students to let the company keep their papers forever.

June 26, 2025 08:30 ET

An instructor wearing a mask stands at the front of a classroom, gesturing while speaking to students seated at round tables. A projected slide behind the instructor displays a chart titled “Creating Your Synthesis Chart,” outlining how to organize sources and main ideas. The image is framed by two blurred vertical objects in the foreground, giving the perspective of someone observing through a narrow space.

Artificial Intelligence

Turnitin charged colleges vastly different amounts to detect plagarism

Purchasing records show some colleges are paying three times more than others.

June 26, 2025 08:30 ET

A person, with short white hair and wearing a blue suit, sits in front of a dais alongside other lawmakers during a hearing. A portion of an American flag can be seen in the background.

Pixel Hunt

House lawmakers demand answers from California health exchange on sending data to LinkedIn

The lawmakers cite a Markup and CalMatters investigation that first revealed Covered California’s data practices in April.

June 23, 2025 14:30 ET

A view from behind of two rows of cars sitting idle during a traffic jam on a road.

Privacy

California police are illegally sharing license plate data with ICE and Border Patrol

LAPD and the counties of San Diego, Orange, and Riverside have repeatedly shared automated license plate reader data to federal agencies

June 18, 2025 08:00 ET

Illustration of a woman on her laptop, set against a background of a browser window; the image is heavily manipulated to be pixelated in a bitmap style

The BreakdownPixel Hunt

This is how you stop data trackers from sucking up your health data

The Markup and CalMatters found multiple ways consumers can block the trackers quietly sending your data to tech companies, including those used on state-run health exchange websites.

June 17, 2025 08:00 ET

Pixel Hunt

We caught 4 more states sharing personal health data with Big Tech

Healthcare exchanges in Nevada, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island shared users’ sensitive health data with companies like Google and LinkedIn

June 17, 2025 08:00 ET