| Hello, it's Priya in San Francisco. Disturbing incident logs at a major elder care startup provide a dark study in the perils of tech platforms. But first… Three things you need to know today: • Amazon will pay $30.8 million to settle Ring privacy claims
• Apple tests new high-end Macs ahead of WWDC
• Elon Musk is the world's richest person again The US Surgeon General has said the country is facing an "epidemic of loneliness and isolation." It's a problem that can be particularly acute for the elderly. Papa, a Miami-based startup, aims to tackle the issue head-on, with an app to provide companionship to seniors. Its network of independent contractors, called "pals," can be called on to run errands and handle light household tasks, or just to chat. The premise is companionship on demand, an idea that's classically techy. Iconic Silicon Valley businesses like Facebook and Instagram promise to bring people closer together. Nextdoor promises more neighborly connection. Companies like TikTok and YouTube offer up a world of endless entertainment generated by millions of users. But as sometimes happens in the tech world — things can turn messy when real humans are involved. And the story of Papa, according to logs of complaints people filed with the app, gets dark. A Bloomberg Businessweek investigation published this week, based on more than 1,000 complaints filed by Papa's members and workers, revealed the consequences of sending contractors to elderly people's houses through a startup without giving them much training. The records describe alleged incidents that could fit on a worst-nightmare list for family members looking to hire help for their elderly relatives: claims of sexual harassment, assault, theft and more. Papa's workers say they have also been subject to their own ordeals — showing up at the homes of people who attempted to kiss or fondle them, according to complaints. In one case, a pal told us she wasn't warned she would encounter an alligator in the backyard. The company disputed characterizations that it is lax on safety, and that fewer than 1% of the complaints it receives relate to safety. At the end of the day, if a company is hiring independent contractors to perform eldercare, "the bar is very low" compared to that of health workers who have received training, said Nirmal Patel, a physician who worked at United Healthcare on efforts to use technology to improve patient care. It's clear that the US needs more ideas and resources devoted to loneliness, home health care and support for the elderly. What's still unclear is how much technology can help. "These are human interactions that take place. That is the product," Patel says. "You've got to understand who that person is. Are they caring? Are they empathetic? Are they really motivated to want to do this sort of work? It's very different from delivering a hamburger with Uber Eats." —Priya Anand Investors riding the rapid ascent of artificial intelligence were unsettled Wednesday as shares of Nvidia and other major players slipped after a powerful rally.  Watch the Bloomberg Technology TV interview with Dan Hendrycks, executive director at the Center for AI Safety. Elon Musk went silent on Twitter after arriving in China. ZipRecruiter is cutting 20% of its workforce in the latest tech-sector layoffs. A few hundred Amazon employees walked off the job Wednesday to protest the company's return-to-work policies, impact on the climate and deepest-ever round of layoffs. | 
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