Tech - Page 13

Amazon has agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle FTC allegations that the company “tricked and trapped” consumers into signing up for Prime memberships and hindered their attempts to cancel the subscription. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said, “The Trump-Vance FTC is committed to fighting back when companies try to cheat ordinary Americans out of their hard-earned pay.”

OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, has released research exposing the potential for AI models to engaged in “AI scheming” by intentionally lying to humans, raising concerns about how people chatbots in every from the workplace to education.

Intel has reportedly approached Apple about securing an investment in the ailing chipmaker as part of efforts to strengthen a business that is now partially owned by the U.S. government.

Actress Jessica Chastain has rebuked Apple TV+ for postponing the release of her show The “Savant” in response to the recent assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. 

NASA has announced that its Artemis 2 mission, which will send a crew of four astronauts around the Moon, is on track to launch as early as February 5, 2026, with additional launch windows in March and April.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has announced the launch of a new super PAC aimed at electing state candidates from both parties who support the company’s stance on AI development and regulation. According to the company, the American Technology Excellence Project super PAC is launching “amid a growing patchwork of inconsistent regulations that threaten homegrown innovation and investments in AI.”

Apple TV+ announced on Tuesday that it will be postponing the upcoming premiere of The Savant, a drama thriller starring Jessica Chastain, in the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination. 

A Starbucks barista at a Kroger grocery store in Middletown, Ohio, was reportedly fired after writing, “racists fav drink” on an order that referenced assassinated Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

Nvidia has announced a massive $100 billion investment in OpenAI, sending ripples through the tech industry and boosting shares of semiconductor companies globally.

The Secret Service has uncovered a vast network of over 100,000 SIM cards and 300 servers in the New York area, believed to be used by foreign “nation-state threat actors” and criminals for swatting calls targeting prominent conservatives and potentially disabling cell phone towers. The amount of hardware seized in the bust could be used to hamper cell service in New York City.

The FTC and Amazon are headed to trial over the government’s accusations that the tech giant deceives consumers into signing up for its Prime subscription service and makes it difficult for them to cancel their memberships.

Google on Tuesday promised to restore YouTube accounts that have been banned for political speech, and said that the Biden administration pressured Google to censor Americans that did not violate the video, in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH). 

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Monday accused Democrats of “projection and distortion,” noting that Democrats in the Biden administration, in Congress, and elsewhere have demanded that the agency censor disfavored television networks and “everyday Americans.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took to his podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz, to attack Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr, accusing him of “dangerous as hell” mafia-like tactics that pushed for the removal of Jimmy Kimmel’s show.

Workers are largely following mandates to embrace AI in the office, but few are seeing it create real value. According to the Harvard Business Review, the culprit is “workslop,” AI-generated documents that look sharp but are filled with low quality information.

The heavy metal rock group Gwar shocked their audience with a graphic depiction of the assassinations of President Donald Trump and Tesla chief Elon Musk at their Chicago show over the weekend.

A discussion regarding the Wikipedia article on allegations Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip was closed over the weekend in favor of stating the allegations as fact. The proposal received significant support from pro-Palestinian and socialist editors, but other editors noted a recent discussion had already ruled against claiming genocide as fact. 

Oracle will recreate and secure TikTok’s recommendation algorithm for the U.S. market as part of the popular Chinese-owned app’s sale to a group of American investors, according to a Bloomberg report. 

Turning Point USA successfully pulled off the “largest memorial in known history,” Turning Point Chief Operating Officer Tyler Bowyer said following Sunday’s massive memorial service for Charlie Kirk.

The DOJ is seeking to break up Google’s advertising technology monopoly in the remedy phase of the government’s ad tech antitrust trial set to begin Monday in Virginia federal court. Google survived the previous Search antitrust trial with a slap on the wrist — a far cry from the forced sale of Chrome and other remedies the government sought.

Andrew Kolvet, executive producer for The Charlie Kirk Show, said the memorial honoring the slain conservative activist saw “100 million overall streams.”

President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk sat together for a time and shared a handshake at Charlie Kirk’s tribute service.

Texas A&M University President Mark Welsh has resigned amid fallout over a viral classroom video that resulted in a professor kicking a student out of class after an argument about gender identity.

Following a failed effort to delete the page about the killing of Ukrainian war refugee Iryna Zarutska last week, admins on Wikipedia blocked all non-admin editing to prevent mentioning suspect Decarlos Brown Jr.’s name before finally the lock was downgraded to allow experienced editors. This came after the deletion attempt was heavily criticized on social media, including by House Representative Andy Biggs, who serves on the Oversight Committee currently investigating the online encyclopedia’s political bias.

OpenAI has announced plans to develop an automated age-prediction system to determine whether ChatGPT users are over or under 18, following a lawsuit related to a teen’s suicide. The teen’s parents claim that Sam Altman’s AI chatbot served as the boy’s “suicide coach.”

Library patrons are requesting non-existent books and media hallucinated by AI systems, leading librarians around the country on a wild good chase. The unlikely source for the non-existent books are reading lists published by major newspapers that mixed in AI-generated titles with the real thing.

BRUSSELS (AP) – A cyberattack targeting check-in and boarding systems disrupted air traffic and caused delays at several of Europe’s major airports on Saturday, officials said, though the initial impact appeared to be limited. The disruptions to electronic systems initially

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute finds Chinese and Russian defense universities are cooperating in a way that evades sanctions.

Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D-GA) campaign said that the Trump administration threatened ABC’s broadcast license, claiming that Jimmy Kimmel’s statement that the Charlie Kirk assassination may have been part of the “MAGA gang” was “political satire.”

Toyota is voluntarily recalling 591,377 vehicles due to a defect in an all-important instrument panel displayed on a 12-inch screen behind the steering wheel.

Leftist echo chamber Reddit is seeking to renegotiate its data-sharing agreement with Google, aiming for more users and revenue in exchange for the user content it provides to train AI models.

The alleged assassin who murdered 31-year-old Charlie Kirk was reportedly involved with a disturbing furry subculture, playing pornographic video games and watching content from a user known for “furry porn,” who has also depicted pedophilia.

Elon Musk’s Tesla is rethinking the design of its iconic flush door handles following reports of children getting trapped inside vehicles and mounting regulatory pressure.

Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater said during a speech on Thursday that America First Antitrust can be used to ensure free information flows in American democracy and that artificial intelligence (AI) remains free of viewpoint bias.

The FTC has filed a bombshell lawsuit against Ticketmaster, accusing the online ticket broker of raking in profits through excessive fees and turning a blind eye to bots illegally reselling millions of tickets to customers.

A British police officer has been recorded confronting a Donald Trump supporter over a Facebook post that “upset someone.”