Data centers, crucial in supporting the generative AI boom, are increasingly straining resources, consuming significant amounts of water and electricity. To address these issues, two entrepreneurs, Sam Mendel and Eric Kim, have proposed an innovative solution: submerging data centers underwater. Launched via Y Combinator, their company, NetworkOcean, announced its intention to deploy a small capsule…
Nevada will soon become the first state in the U.S. to employ artificial intelligence (AI) in the decision-making process for unemployment benefit appeals. This effort is being managed by the Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation (DETR) and is facilitated through a $1,383,838 contract with Google, as disclosed in a 2024 budget document. Utilizing Google’s…
The US government recently announced multiple charges against the alleged leaders of the ‘Terrorgram Collective,’ which promotes terrorism on the Telegram messaging platform. In this case, the terrorism was centered around white racial terror, complete with a ‘hit list’ of US officials and activists, a homemade ‘White Terror’ video glorifying ‘saints’ who had killed others,…
Apple has faced a notable setback after the European Union’s top court ruled that the tech giant must pay €13 billion in back taxes. This decision reverses an earlier ruling that had favored Apple in a long-standing dispute over its tax arrangements in Ireland. The case stems from a 2016 finding by the EU’s competition…
On Monday, the US Department of Justice commenced its latest antitrust trial against Google in Virginia, targeting the tech giant’s dominance in the ad tech sector. This follows previous rulings that found Google held monopolies in general search and the Android app store. Opening statements were delivered by DOJ lawyer Julia Tarver Wood, who stated,…
Most plastic products found in kitchens today, such as the film lids on Dole Sunshine fruit bowls and the straws attached to Juicy Juice boxes, are difficult to recycle. Despite this, a trade group representing these and other major brands is lobbying for a redefinition of the term ‘recyclable’, a move that experts say could…
Boeing is striving to prevent a strike by reaching an agreement with the Machinists union, representing 33,000 West Coast employees. If the workers vote in favor of the deal on Thursday, it would result in a 25% pay increase over the next four years, as well as improved healthcare benefits and retirement contributions, according to…
Law enforcement agencies are increasingly using artificial intelligence to generate images of fictional minors as part of operations to catch child predators online. This practice was recently highlighted in a lawsuit filed by the state of New Mexico against Snapchat. According to the complaint, the New Mexico Department of Justice (DOJ) discovered that Snapchat’s algorithm…
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, in his first public comments since being arrested by French authorities, emphasized that his platform is not an “anarchic paradise” and assured that Telegram is ramping up its moderation of harmful content. Addressing the claims, Durov stated, “the claims in some media that Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are…
Verizon has announced an agreement to acquire Frontier Communications, an Internet service provider with approximately 3 million customers across 25 states. The all-cash transaction is valued at $20 billion. Under the agreement, Verizon will pay $9.6 billion and assume over $10 billion in debt held by Frontier, with the deal subject to regulatory approval and…
A coalition of 17 advocacy groups is urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to require manufacturers to disclose the duration of support for smart devices. In a letter sent to FTC officials, organizations including Consumer Reports, the US PIRG, and iFixit highlighted the impact of \u201csoftware tethering\u201d—an increasingly common practice where devices rely on software…
The Internet Archive has lost its appeal after book publishers successfully sued to block the Open Libraries Project from lending digital scans of books for free online. Judges for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected the Internet Archive (IA) argument that its controlled digital lending—which allows only one person to borrow each…
The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly intensifying its antitrust investigation into Nvidia, moving from preliminary inquiries with competitors to issuing subpoenas for evidence, Bloomberg reports. The focus of the investigation appears to be on whether Nvidia abuses its dominant position in the AI computing market. When the investigation was first disclosed in June, Fast…
Starlink has announced its compliance with a Brazilian court’s order to block access to Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, ceding from its earlier stance that it wouldn’t adhere until Brazilian officials unfroze its assets. Starlink stated in an update that while it has initiated legal proceedings in the Brazilian Supreme Court challenging the asset…
Disney-owned channels have been blacked out on DirecTV for the past two days due to a contract dispute, leaving subscribers without access to popular networks like ABC and ESPN. Both companies have shown little willingness to compromise. DirecTV CFO Ray Carpenter emphasized the fundamental nature of the dispute, noting it isn’t just about minor rate…
A controversial facial recognition tech company behind a widely-used face image search engine has been fined approximately $33 million in the Netherlands for serious data privacy violations. According to the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA), Clearview AI built an illegal database with billions of photos of faces by crawling the web without gaining consent, including…
Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband service has announced it will not comply with an order to block the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, in Brazil until the government’s freeze on its assets is lifted. This follows a ruling by the Brazilian Supreme Court requiring Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block the social media site. Starlink,…
Major technology companies, including Google, Apple, and Discord, have been enabling people to quickly sign up to harmful \u201Cundress\u201D websites. These sites use artificial intelligence to remove clothes from real photos to make victims appear \u201Cnude\u201D without their consent. More than a dozen of these deepfake websites have been using login buttons from tech giants…
A judge in Franklin County, Ohio, has issued a temporary restraining order against security researcher David Leroy Ross for revealing the severity of a recent ransomware attack on the city of Columbus. Ross presented evidence that contradicted city officials’ claims, showing that the stolen data was both usable and contained highly sensitive information. The ransomware…
A federal judge in Texas has allowed Elon Musk’s X Corp. to move forward with its lawsuit against Media Matters for America in the state. The ruling by US District Judge Reed O’Connor denies Media Matters’ motion to dismiss, despite arguments that Texas was an improper forum for the case given that X is organized…
The rise in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is an alarming trend online, but few perpetrators demonstrate advanced technical sophistication. This was not the case for a recent incident in Alaska. Seth Herrera, a heavy vehicle driver for the U.S. military, was indicted this week for possessing over 10,000 images and videos of CSAM, despite…
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) recently announced a significant win against online piracy, claiming it dismantled the largest pirate streaming operation in the world, Fmovies. The industry group collaborated with Vietnamese authorities to take down the Hanoi-based outfit, which included associated pirate sites such as bflixz, flixtorz, movies7, myflixer, and aniwave. According to the MPA,…
A controversial bill aimed at enforcing safety standards for large artificial intelligence models has now passed the California State Assembly by a 45-11 vote. Following a 32-1 state Senate vote in May, SB-1047 now faces just one more procedural state senate vote before heading to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. SB-1047 asks AI model creators to…
If you were suspected of a crime, would you trust a chatbot to accurately convey the details of the incident? Some police departments believe the technology is ready for such tasks. In June, the Frederick Police Department in Colorado claimed to be the first law enforcement agency to fully implement Axon Draft One, an AI…
Brussels is investigating whether Telegram breached EU digital regulations by not providing accurate user numbers, as officials push to bring the messaging app under stricter oversight. According to the Financial Times, EU legal and data experts believe Telegram has understated its presence in the EU to stay below the 45 million user threshold, which triggers…