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Tech

AI Summary

  • AI is rapidly integrating across nearly every sector, from personal apps and creative tools to enterprise solutions, but this expansion is encountering significant ethical and safety concerns, especially regarding content generation for minors, intellectual property rights, and reliability in critical applications.
  • Social media giants are facing intense government scrutiny and public pressure, with TikTok navigating complex deals to secure its U.S. operations while Meta proactively pauses AI character access for teens amidst safety concerns and ongoing debates about age verification and user data.
  • The automotive industry is undergoing substantial shifts, as Tesla reconfigures its autonomous driving offerings and confronts regulatory challenges, and traditional manufacturers like GM adjust their electric vehicle production strategies, all pointing to a dynamic and often politically influenced transportation sector.
  • The tech financial landscape remains active but volatile, marked by strategic mergers and acquisitions like Capital One's purchase of Brex, alongside notable workforce reductions, as seen with widespread layoffs at Vimeo, indicating a period of significant consolidation and economic recalibration.
  • There's an increasing focus on digital security and personal privacy, highlighted by instances like Microsoft providing encryption keys to law enforcement, reports of large-scale data breaches, and the development of new tools to combat sophisticated AI-driven phishing attacks.

TechCrunch


Hacker News


Engadget

  • Vimeo lays off most of its staff just months after being bought by private equity firm 17 minutes ago by Lawrence Bonk
    Investment & Company Information, Finance, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Lawrence Bonk

    Vimeo just got hit by a brutal round of layoffs, according to a report by Business Insider. Staffers are posting on various social media sites that the layoffs have impacted most of the company, including the entire video team. Vimeo is a video-hosting platform, so that sounds bad. “Yesterday, following Vimeo’s recent acquisition by a private equity firm, I learned that I, along with a large portion of the company, was impacted by layoffs,” wrote the company’s former vice president of Global Brand & Creative, Dave Brown. He is referring to a firm called Bending Spoons that bought Vimeo for $1.38

  • Tesla paywalls lane centering on new Model 3 and Model Y purchases 23 minutes ago by Will Shanklin
    Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Will Shanklin

    Tesla just objectively decreased the value of the Model 3 and Model Y. On Thursday, the company said it’s paywalling its lane-centering feature, Autosteer, for new purchases of the two EVs in the US and Canada. This was previously a standard feature. Lane centering is now part of the Full Self-Driving Supervised (FSD) package, which costs $99 per month. Speculating on why Tesla would do this doesn't require much imagination. Remember the pay package Tesla shareholders approved for Musk in November? One of his requirements for receiving up to $1 trillion is reaching 10 million active FSD subscriptions. One of Musk's stipulations

  • Meta is temporarily pulling teens' access from its AI chatbot characters an hour ago by Karissa Bell
    Internet & Networking Technology, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Karissa Bell

    Meta will no longer allow teens to chat with its AI chatbot characters in their present form. The company announced Friday that it will be "temporarily pausing teens’ access to existing AI characters globally." The pause comes months after Meta added chatbot-focused parental controls following reports that some of Meta's character chatbots had engaged in sexual conversations and other alarming interactions with teens. Reuters reported on an internal Meta policy document that said the chatbots were permitted to have "sensual" conversations with underage users, language Meta later said was "erroneous and inconsistent with our policies." The company announced in August that

  • You can now create AI-generated coloring books in Microsoft Paint 2 hours ago by Matt Tate
    Software, Books & Publishing, Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Matt Tate

    Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently went on record saying that AI still needs to prove its worth if society is to adopt it long-term, but he presumably thinks his company has cracked it with its latest innovation: AI coloring books. A new Microsoft Paint feature currently rolling out to Windows Insiders allows you to generate coloring book pages based on the text prompt you enter. The example Microsoft uses is "a cute fluffy cat on a donut," to which the AI tool will spit out a set of slightly different options based on your prompt. You can then choose which image you

  • NBA League Pass is up to 55 percent off 3 hours ago by Andre Revilla
    National Basketball Association, Basketball, Sports & Recreation, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Andre Revilla

    Basketball fans can save on NBA League Pass right now, which lets you catch a bunch of out-of-market NBA games via streaming. The League Pass Premium subscription is on sale for $75, down from the usual $160, and League Pass Standard is marked down to $50 from $110. Considering we're almost halfway though the season, the discount makes sense and is a good deal for anyone who wants to keep a close eye on the rest of the games to be played this year. The Standard plan includes commercials and support for only one device at a time, while the Premium


The Verge

  • Casio teased a retro gaming-inspired sampler an hour ago by Terrence O’Brien
    Entertainment, Gadgets, Music, News, Tech

    Casio SX-C1 sampler prototype on display at NAMM. Casio showed up to NAMM (CES for music gear nerds) this year with a prototype sampler called the SX-C1 that looks every bit the lovechild of a Game Boy and an SP-404. The top has a directional pad and four buttons just like you'd find on a game controller, flanking a 1.3-inch OLED screen. But at the bottom, there are 16 rubberized pads for triggering samples with crunchy pixelated number labels on them. The device on display on the show floor was not fully finalized, so the specs are subject to change. Casio says

  • The best instant cameras you can buy right now an hour ago by Sheena Vasani
    Buying Guides, Camera Reviews, Cameras, Gadgets, Reviews, Tech, Verge Shopping

    Even with the ability to take excellent photos with our phones and instantly share them across the world, there’s something magical about the old-school instant camera. With just a click of a button, you can capture a moment in a photo that you can see and touch almost immediately. Images captured by an instant camera aren’t as pristine or perfect as those produced by modern digital cameras, but their soft images and imperfections are often a big part of the allure. Yet not all instant cameras are the same, and some of them are better suited for different needs and budgets.

  • Hang on, there’s a Trump Phone Ultra coming too? 2 hours ago by Dominic Preston
    Gadgets, Mobile, News, Phones, Policy, Tech

    Where's the Trump Phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week. We've reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump Phone's whereabouts. As usual, we're still waiting for a response. In the meantime, it turns out we might have two Trump Phones to worry about. The Trump Phone may be no more than a whisper in the wind, but Trump Mobile is already planning a second. One of the company's top executives revealed in an interview that a "T1 Ultra" is also in the works, though we know even less about it than we do about the first

  • Marshall’s new hub connects to multiple Bluetooth speakers without pairing 2 hours ago by Andrew Liszewski
    Audio, Gadgets, Speakers, Tech

    The Heddon hub simplifies streaming audio to multiple speakers. | Image: Marshall Marshall has announced a new music streaming hub called the Heddon that can broadcast to multiple speakers using the Bluetooth Auracast feature that's finally starting to catch on. Similar to Sennheiser's BTA1 TV Transmitter announced earlier this week, the Heddon doesn't require wireless audio devices to go through a pairing process to stream audio, as long as they also support Bluetooth Auracast. But while Sennheiser's transmitter has an HDMI port for broadcasting audio from movies and TV shows, Marshall focuses on music. The Heddon hub includes Wi-Fi which is used

  • Today only, you can buy the AirPods Pro 3 for less than $200 2 hours ago by Sheena Vasani
    Apple, Deals, Gadgets, Tech, Verge Shopping

    The AirPods Pro 3 are Apple’s best noise-canceling earbuds. If you’re considering gifting the AirPods Pro 3 for Valentine’s Day, now’s a great time to pick them up. Today only, Best Buy is selling the noise-canceling earbuds for $199.99 ($50 off), matching their all-time low. AIRPODS PRO 3 WHERE TO BUY: * $249.99 $199.99 at Best Buy * $249 $239.95 at Amazon For iPhone owners, nothing else really compares to the AirPods Pro 3. They deliver the best active noise cancellation and richest sound of any Apple wireless earbuds to date, combined with a more comfortable, angled design that fits securely and naturally in


Wired


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