HN user
From the article:
The stories are selected and summarized by the nonpartisan nonprofit Solutions Journalism Network, an organization that helps train journalists to better cover how people are responding to problems and how those actions can have positive results.
Google is not choosing the stories.
This headline was somewhat misleading for me. I interpreted it as some kind of potentially undesirable filter on an existing feature, but it's just an additional command.
The feature is essentially "Hey Google, tell me something good" and Assistant reads out a positive news story. I asked twice and it told me a story about Parkinson's research and how Utah reduced chronic homelessness. It seems like a feature of questionable usefulness but neat nonetheless.
Does anyone else feel a sense of overwhelming futility with respect to internet privacy? I'm at the point where I feel like I might as well just use all the fancy features and devices, privacy be damned.
It feels like it's a giant waste of time, even if you go out of your way to use "privacy protecting" expensive devices and software. Use an iPhone or LineageOS! Use Firefox! Don't use Google services! Don't use iCloud, back up everything to a local NAS! Pay for your email services!
It all feels mostly pointless. There's always another thing right around the corner. You're always defeated and tracked -- this time with "behavioral biometrics." For the average person, why not just give up? Throw an Amazon Echo in the corner and at least you can control your lights and play Jeopardy.
It's totally exhausting.