Internal memo: Amazon’s head of workplace health and safety Heather MacDougall is leaving the company on October 7; MacDougall joined Amazon in 2019 (Annie Palmer/CNBC)

Maxwell Strachan / VICE:
As gambling becomes legitimized across the US, a look at the rise of gambling on smartphones, leading some to financial catastrophe and addiction  —  Financial catastrophe is now only a few clicks away, a problem that is showing quiet signs of becoming a crisis.  “I can’t just get rid of my phone,” one problem gambler says.

Chloe Xiang / VICE:
Text-to-image generation systems like DALL-E and Midjourney use datasets built by scrapping images without explicit permission and it’s not easy to opt out  —  In one stark example of how sensitive images can end up powering these AI tools, a user found a medical image in the LAION dataset …

Edward Ongweso Jr / VICE:
Report: customers are using doorbell cameras like Amazon’s Ring to monitor, control, and punish delivery drivers, such as sharing footage online to shame them  —  A Data & Society report interviewed doorbell camera users and delivery drivers to understand how surveillance is affecting both, for the worse.

Jules Roscoe / VICE:
The NLRB files a complaint against Amazon CEO Andy Jassy for allegedly violating labor law with comments he made to CNBC and Bloomberg earlier in 2022  —  Andy Jassy told CNBC that Amazon thinks employees would be “better off” without a union.  A new NLRB complaint alleges that violated labor law.

Maxwell Strachan / VICE:
Some guests and hosts say Airbnb permanently banned them after background checks by third-party company Inflection revealed minor offenses or old misdemeanors  —  Airbnb customers say they are being permanently banned after background checks reveal minor offenses like broken tail lights and old misdemeanors.

Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon increases its average starting pay for front-line US staff to $19+/hour, up from $18/hour; warehouse and delivery workers will earn $16/hour to $26/hour  —  – Amazon is bumping its average starting pay for warehouse and delivery workers to more than $19 an hour, up from $18 an hour, the company said Wednesday.