Sources: the EC later in July will suggest scrapping the €150 threshold below which goods are exempt from customs duties, targeting Temu, AliExpress, and Shein — European Commission plans to scrap €150 threshold below which goods are…
The owners of about a third of US nuclear power plants are in talks with tech companies to provide electricity to new data centers needed to meet AI demand — Largest tech companies are looking to buy nuclear power directly from plants,…
SCOTUS' Chevron ruling could weaken federal cybersecurity regulations, as FCC data breach reporting requirements and other rules are likely to be challenged — The ruling could weaken almost all US federal cybersecurity regulations,…
An investigation of US police and court documents finds 30 complaints citing 200+ explicit videos and images of minors on OnlyFans since December 2019 — OnlyFans says it vets every user and all content to keep children off its porn-driven…
How an underground network of Chinese sellers is bypassing US export controls through supply-chain blind spots to smuggle Nvidia's advanced AI chips into China — An informal market circumvents U.S. export controls through supply-chain…
Bruce Bastian, who co-created the popular word processing software WordPerfect and was an LGBTQ activist, died on June 16 at age 76 — While his company was producing the world's dominant word-processing software, he came out as gay to his…
Brazil's data regulator suspends the validity of Meta's new privacy policy for the use of personal data to train its generative AI systems in the country — Brazil's National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) has decided to suspend with…
Blockchain platform Polkadot faces criticism from users after spending $36M+ on marketing and outreach in H1 2024, nearly half of its total spend of $87M — The blockchain spent $87 million in the first six months this year, with marketing…
A look at a US State Department program to train diplomats in cybersecurity, privacy, and other tech issues, allowing them to spot threats and advance US policy — The US State Department is training diplomats in cybersecurity, privacy,…
Sources: Magic, a US startup developing AI models for coding tasks, is in talks to raise $200M+ at a $1.5B valuation — Magic, a U.S. startup developing artificial-intelligence models to write software, is in talks to raise over $200…
Snapchat adds new features, including letting Snapchat+ subscribers design a personalized house on Snap Map and send Snaps that last less than .5 seconds — Snapchat is introducing new ways for users to personalize their accounts, the…
Meta shares its research on Meta 3D Gen, a system that creates high-quality 3D assets from text descriptions in less than a minute — Meta, the tech giant formerly known as Facebook, introduced Meta 3D Gen today, a new AI system that…
Sources: Apple will get an observer role on OpenAI's board, with Phil Schiller chosen for the position, as part of their partnership announced last month — - Apple's observer position would match that of Microsoft — Phil Schiller, Apple's…
Responding to criticism, Figma's CTO says the Make Design feature is “powered by off-the-shelf models and a bespoke design system that we commissioned” — Figma says it didn't train the generative AI models it used and blames a ‘bespoke…
A US judge temporarily blocked a new Mississippi law that would require age verification for all and parental consent for teens to join some social networks — A federal judge blocked a Mississippi law from taking effect that would have…
Meta says it will lift its ban on the word “shaheed”, or “martyr” in English, after its oversight board's year-long review found the approach to be “overbroad” — Meta Platforms (META.O) said on Tuesday it would lift its blanket ban on the…
Source: generative AI video startup Runway is in talks to raise $450M at about a $4B valuation, with General Atlantic in talks to lead the round — Runway, already the best funded among a cluster of startups developing artificial…
How Ukraine is using AI, code found online, and hobbyist computers to weaponize consumer tech and build low-cost weapons like autonomous drones and machine guns — A Ukrainian battalion testing a machine gun that can use A.I.-powered…
Google says its greenhouse gas emissions have surged 48% in the past five years due to the expansion of the data centers that underpin its AI efforts — Tech giant's ambition of reaching ‘net zero’ by 2030 under threat from power demands of…
For ~10 years, millions of macOS and iOS apps using CocoaPods were vulnerable to a serious flaw in the dependency manager, which was patched in October 2023 — Apps that used code libraries hosted on CocoaPods were vulnerable for about 10…
Some YouTube employees detail internal deliberations about content relating to the Israel-Hamas war and accuse the company of inconsistent moderation — Insiders have shared YouTube's playbook for handling the Gaza crisis. They argue that…
A look at why Japan, due to its culture and employment laws, is not undergoing mass layoffs in the gaming industry, as Microsoft-owned Tango Gameworks closes — After Microsoft shut down Tango Gameworks, we look at the reasons why Japan has…
A look at the national security fears around Microsoft's deal with Abu Dhabi's G42, including the US DOD's skepticism that G42 will entirely uncouple from China — US officials see the Microsoft-G42 partnership as way to help Washington…
VFX company DNEG raised $200M from Abu Dhabi's UASG at a $2B+ valuation to expand its Brahma division, which is developing an AI-powered, photo-real CGI creator — London-based The DNEG Group has secured a $200M capital injection from Abu…
The Biden administration awards $504M in funding for 12 regional tech hubs, including in New York and Florida, to expand research in AI, chip making, and more — - Effort aims to draw private investment around more of the US — Awards cover…
Tubi launches in the UK with over 20K movies and TV episodes, featuring content from distributors including Disney, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal, and Sony Pictures — The ad-supported streamer now has more than 80 million monthly active users. —…
Revolut's 2023 revenue almost doubled to £1.8B after interest income grew from £83M in 2022 to £500M; auditor BDO gave Revolut's accounts a clean bill of health — - UK fintech's interest income jumps sixfold to £500 million — Auditor BDO…
China plans to form a technical committee for brain-computer interface standards, including for brain information encoding and decoding, and data communication — - Group will include specialists tasked with drafting standards — Elon Musk's…
Australia's eSafety Commissioner issued notices to internet firms asking for an enforceable code to protect kids from pornography and other content by October 3 — Australia is giving the internet industry six months to come up with an…
An overview of “looksmaxxing” apps that rate teen boys' faces and are criticized for worsening the youth mental health crisis; paid app UMAX has 7M+ downloads — After Dillon Latham's girlfriend dumped him during their junior year of high…