President Donald Trump made an unconventional pick for his nomination to the Federal Trade Commission: WeatherTech founder and CEO David MacNeil. MacNeil founded the company, which makes weather-resistant car floor mats, in 1989, according to its website, and he owns 100 percent of the company. WeatherTech has made it a mission to keep its manufacturing […]
The Senate passed a bill that could give people who’ve found their likeness deepfaked into sexually-explicit images without their consent a new way to fight back. The Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act (DEFIANCE Act), would let victims sue the individuals who created the images for civil damages. The bill passed with unanimous […]
Mike Krieger, the Instagram co-founder who joined Anthropic two years ago as its chief product officer, is moving to a new focus at the AI startup: co-leading its internal incubator, dubbed the “Labs” team. The Anthropic Labs team started in mid-2024 with just two members; now, the company has decided to expand it, with a […]
Meta is laying off about 10 percent of its Reality Labs metaverse division, and the cuts include closing down some of its VR gaming studios. Twisted Pixel Games, the developer of Marvel’s Deadpool VR, Sanzaru Games, the developer of the Asgard’s Wrath franchise, and Armature Studio, which worked on the Resident Evil 4 VR port, […]
Verizon can keep phones locked to its network for longer after the Federal Communications Commission agreed to waive the carrier’s 60-day unlocking requirement, as reported by Ars Technica. Following this decision, Verizon must follow a looser set of guidelines set by the CTIA wireless trade group, which says carriers should only unlock a customer’s postpaid […]
Mercedes-Benz is pausing the roll-out of Drive Pilot, an “eyes off” conditionally automated driving feature that was available in Europe and the US. As first reported by German publication Handelsblatt, the revised S-Class will not have the Level 3 system when it arrives at the end of this month. Mercedes was one of the first […]
Google is making its Veo 3.1 AI video model pay closer attention to the reference images you want generated clips to be based on. The company is releasing new visual improvements for the “Ingredients to Video” tool that was introduced last year, alongside expanding native vertical video support and resolution upscaling features. The Ingredients to […]
Around 10 percent of Meta’s Reality Labs division, which develops its XR products and services, will be laid off beginning on Tuesday, as reported by Bloomberg. Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton confirmed the layoffs in a statement to The Verge: “We said last month that we were shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward Wearables. […]
Apple has announced Apple Creator Studio, a new software suite for Apple products that bundles popular creative apps into an all-in-one subscription service. Apple Creator Studio will be available on the App Store on January 28th and includes access to Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, Motion, Compressor, and MainStage – providing a rival […]
Former NYC Mayor Eric Adams has come under fire after his new cryptocurrency token crashed just hours following its launch on Monday. As reported by CoinDesk, Adams’ “NYC Token” hit a $580 million market capitalization at its peak before plummeting to around $130 million at this time of writing. Data from the blockchain analysis platform, […]