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Tech

AI Summary

  • AI is everywhere, driving both innovation and controversy. From legal tech acquisitions and major investments in "world model" startups to consumer features like Google Photos' meme generator, AI is dominating product development. However, this boom comes with significant ethical debates, including concerns over Meta's AI characters interacting with teens, reports of xAI's Grok generating millions of problematic images, and a strong pushback from creatives against AI "theft."
  • TikTok's uncertain US future is finally taking shape amidst privacy concerns. The app has reportedly finalized a deal to create a new US entity, though Congress remains divided on whether it truly addresses national security concerns. This comes as users are "freaking out" over new data collection disclosures, like "immigration status," highlighting broader industry tensions around user data and regulatory oversight.
  • Autonomous vehicle rollouts are accelerating but also hitting major speed bumps. Waymo is expanding its robotaxi services to new cities like Miami, yet simultaneously faces federal probes from the NTSB and NHTSA over safety incidents, including illegally passing school buses. Tesla is also shaking up its strategy, discontinuing Autopilot in an apparent push for wider adoption of its Full Self-Driving software, sometimes making basic features part of a subscription.
  • Apple continues its global expansion and hints at new AI hardware. The iPhone just had its best year ever in India, demonstrating Apple's growing reach in key markets. Meanwhile, the company is reportedly exploring an "AI pin" or wearable, signaling an interest in the emerging AI hardware trend, even as it faces scrutiny over App Store ad expansion and disputes with European regulators over alternative app stores.
  • Cybersecurity remains a critical and complex battleground, involving both nation-states and corporate espionage. Recent reports attribute an attempted power outage in Poland to Russian government hackers, underscoring geopolitical cyber threats. Domestically, a "wild turn" in the Rippling/Deel corporate spying scandal suggests a potential DoJ criminal investigation, while revelations about Microsoft providing BitLocker encryption keys to the FBI raise serious questions about data privacy and government access.

TechCrunch


Hacker News


Engadget

  • Engadget review recap: Valerion VisionMaster Max, Canon EOS R6 III and Samsung Bespoke Fridge an hour ago by Billy Steele
    Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Billy Steele

    Our reviews team is rested up after the CES grind and we’re back to business. This week we reviewed the latest devices from Valerion, Canon, Samsung and Sony, covering a wide range of product categories in the process. Grab yourself a beverage and cozy up with all the reviews you might’ve missed. VALERION VISIONMASTER MAX The weeks leading up to the Super Bowl are a popular time to upgrade home theater setups before the big game. One way to do that is Valerion’s VisionMaster Max — if you’re willing to splurge. “The Valerion VisionMaster Max is a highly capable indoor projector that

  • More Cult of the Lamb, a World War II computer mystery and other new indie games worth checking out an hour ago by Kris Holt
    Media, Video Games, Arts & Entertainment, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Kris Holt

    Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. It’s been a very busy week of fun game releases (next week will be too!), so let’s get into some of them after a quick reflection on gaming while traveling. I love my Steam Deck. I really truly do. It’s a fantastic machine. And yet when I brought it with me on a five-week trip over the holidays, I used it for barely an hour the entire time. That doesn’t really justify the space and weight it takes up in my bag. The same holds true for

  • Google Photos can now turn you into a meme 16 hours ago by Will Shanklin
    Media, Arts & Entertainment, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Will Shanklin

    In Big Tech's never-ending quest to increase AI adoption, Google has unveiled a meme generator. The new Google Photos feature, Me Meme, lets you create personalized memes starring a synthetic version of you. Google describes Me Meme as "a simple way to explore with your photos and create content that's ready to share with friends and family." You can choose from a variety of templates or "upload your own funny picture" to use in their place. The feature isn't live for everyone yet, so you may not yet have access to it. (A Google representative told TechCrunch that the feature will roll

  • A rival smart glasses company is suing Meta over its Ray-Ban products 16 hours ago by Ian Carlos Campbell
    Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Ian Carlos Campbell

    Meta is being sued by Solos, a rival smart glasses maker, for infringing on its patents, Bloomberg reports. Solos is seeking "multiple billions of dollars" in damages and an injunction that could prevent Meta from selling its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses as part of the lawsuit. Solos claims that Meta's Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer Gen 1 smart glasses violate multiple patents covering "core technologies in the field of smart eyewear." While less well known than Meta and its partner EssilorLuxottica, Solos sells multiple pairs of glasses with similar features to what Meta offers. For example, the company's AirGo A5 glasses lets you

  • Retro handheld maker Anbernic has a new gamepad with a screen and heart rate sensor 17 hours ago by Will Shanklin
    Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Will Shanklin

    File this one under "Things that make you go, 'Hmmm…'" Retro handheld maker Anbernic is launching a new controller with a screen. But unlike Nintendo's Wii U controller, there's no second-screen gaming capability here. Instead, the display is designed to "make customization intuitive and effortless." Oh, and the controller also has a heart rate sensor. Because, hey, if you're going weird, I say fully commit! The Anbernic RG G01 has a 2.5-inch HD display that the company describes as an "HD smart screen." The idea is to remap buttons, program macros and change other settings without requiring software on a connected


The Verge

  • The Loch Capsule dishwasher is small, fast, and efficient — it even sanitizes gadgets 5 hours ago by Thomas Ricker
    Accessory Reviews, Reviews, Smart Home, Tech, Work anywhere

    The Loch Capsule in a tiny house that lacks space for a built-in dishwasher. A dishwasher is a luxury item some people can't live without. It's one of the first major kitchen devices I bought just as soon as I could afford one, and the appliance I thought I'd miss most in my nomadic vanlife pursuits. Loch sent me its $459.99 / €459.99 countertop Capsule dishwasher to review in a tiny home on a remote beach and inside a van on a two-month roadtrip. It's an excellent product that washes and dries two place settings quickly at bacteria-killing temperatures up to 75

  • Chromebooks train schoolkids to be loyal customers, internal Google document suggests 12 hours ago by Emma Roth
    Google, News, Policy, Politics, Tech

    Internal documents revealed as part of a child safety lawsuit hint at Google's plan to "onboard kids" into its ecosystem by investing in schools. In this November 2020 presentation, Google writes that getting kids into its ecosystem "leads to brand trust and loyalty over their lifetime," as reported earlier by NBC News. The heavily-redacted documents, which surfaced earlier this week, are linked to a massive lawsuit filed by several school districts, families, and state attorneys general, accusing Google, Meta, ByteDance, and Snap of creating "addictive and dangerous" products that have harmed young users' mental health. (Snap settled earl … Read the full

  • Leak: Nvidia is about to challenge ‘Intel Inside’ with as many as eight Arm laptops 12 hours ago by Sean Hollister
    Gaming, PC Gaming

    This is not an Nvidia Arm laptop, but the old image seemed thematically appropriate. Intel and AMD have split the Windows laptop market for years, but the x86 players may be getting outnumbered. It's not just Apple MacBooks and MediaTek-based Chromebooks using Arm chips anymore. There are finally competent Qualcomm Snapdragon laptops running Windows, and - as soon as this spring - Nvidia will finally power Windows consumer laptops with Arm chips all by itself. They won't have an Nvidia graphics chip next to an Intel CPU, but rather an Nvidia N1 system-on-chip at the helm - and overnight, a Lenovo leak

  • Congress doesn’t seem to know if the TikTok deal complies with its law 15 hours ago by Lauren Feiner
    Creators, News, Policy, Politics, Privacy, Speech, Tech, TikTok

    TikTok finally closed a deal meant to bring it into compliance with the law that should have banned it a year ago, and the lawmakers who passed that law still don't seem to know what's going on. The company announced Tuesday that its US service is now part of the separate TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, with parent company ByteDance holding just a 19.9 percent stake in that new entity. The rest is owned by Oracle and investment firms Silver Lake and MGX, as well as smaller investors including Michael Dell's family investment firm. Oracle will store US data and the

  • Meta is stopping teens from chatting with its AI characters 17 hours ago by Jay Peters
    AI, Meta, News, Tech

    Meta is "temporarily pausing" the ability for teens to chat with its AI characters as it develops a "new version" of the characters that will offer a "better experience." The company made the announcement in an update to a blog post from October where the company had detailed more parental controls for teen AI use. The change blocking teens from accessing the characters will go into effect "starting in the coming weeks." "Since we announced our plans to build parental controls for AI characters in October, we started developing a new iteration of AI characters generally (i.e. for both adults and


Wired


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