For months, Google has maintained that the web is “thriving,” AI isn’t tanking traffic, and its search engine is sending people to a wider variety of websites than ever. But in a court filing from last week, Google admitted that “the open web is already in rapid decline,” as spotted earlier by Jason Kint and […]
A new group of whistleblowers are coming forward to allege that Meta is restricting research into how its virtual reality offerings could negatively impact kids and teens, The Washington Post reports. Four current and former Meta staffers allege that after an earlier whistleblower, Frances Haugen, leaked internal research to Congress, the company called on its […]
General Motors is going to be scaling back production of the Cadillac Lyriq and Vistiq, as well as the Chevy Bolt EV as it expects sales of electric vehicles to slow dramatically. The $7,500 consumer tax credit for purchasing a new EV is set to expire at the end of the month. That credit has […]
If you wanted a sense of the current relationship between the tech right and the populists, you had to be sitting in Breakout Room C on the first day of NatCon 5, the annual gathering of the MAGA right’s powerhouses. At the end of the afternoon panel on the culture wars (“The Need for Heroism”), […]
In what’s potentially the first major payout to creatives whose work was used to train AI systems, Anthropic has reached an agreement to pay “at least” a staggering $1.5 billion, plus interest, to authors to settle its class-action lawsuit. The amount breaks down to smaller payouts expected to be approximately $3,000 per book or work. Lawyers […]
The European Commission has waged a €2.95 billion (~$3.5 billion) fine against Google for “abusing its dominant position” in advertising technology. In its announcement, the Commission claims that Google’s alleged anticompetitive practices have increased costs for advertisers and publishers, potentially raising prices for consumers as a result. The Commission has ordered Google to come up […]
Several of the most powerful business leaders in the country gathered around a table last night to fawn over President Donald Trump for his AI policies. “You and your policies are really helping a lot,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told the president. AMD CEO Lisa Su praised “the amount of acceleration that we’ve seen just […]
Warner Bros. Discovery is suing Midjourney over claims the AI startup “brazenly dispenses its intellectual property as if it were its own,” as reported earlier by The Hollywood Reporter. In the lawsuit, Warner Bros. Discovery alleges that Midjourney generated “countless” infringing images and videos of its copyrighted characters, including Superman, Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, and more. […]
Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are among the companies committing to help prepare Americans for a world dominated by AI technology at a White House event on AI education Thursday. First Lady Melania Trump hosted a meeting of the White House’s AI education task force where several CEOs touted their commitments. President Donald Trump is expected […]
Around six years ago, a new rallying cry rippled through Washington: “Break Up Big Tech.” It was a slogan emblazoned on campaign posters, uttered at congressional hearings, and beginning, it seemed, to echo through the halls of the nation’s antitrust enforcers. Momentum in the legislatures eventually petered out, but the enforcers at the Justice Department […]