Meta’s Muse is apparently an effective AI assistant, but one that’s a little creepy. Part of that is because of its new Mac app, which can access Messages, Calendar, and Notes. But for all its smarts, Muse doesn’t actually know how to describe itself. Jason Aten, a contributing editor at Inc Magazine, posted on Threads […]
In early September, two teenagers got into a Waymo, but then ended up in the back of a police car. The robotaxi company said it detected “a violation of our terms of service involving a firearm,” pulled the car over, and alerted emergency services, according to the Los Angeles Times. Police arrested the passengers after […]
From Florida to Washington state, local governments across the country are canceling their contracts with Flock, the company behind the controversial AI-enabled license plate readers, in response to public outcry. But ending the contracts doesn’t necessarily mean the cameras will come down immediately – or that the information they’ve gathered will be deleted anytime soon. […]
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on cars, data privacy, and autonomous vehicles, follow Andrew J. Hawkins. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission […]
Earlier this week, Gamers Nexus, Level1Techs, and independent security researchers detailed some alarming findings about how LG’s TVs are logging and uploading data on its users. Now the company is pushing back against those allegations, saying that “Some recent media coverage may have contributed to misconceptions about how LG smart TVs work.” LG released a […]
At Wednesday’s iPhone Duo launch event, Apple announced a handful of new Siri AI Audio Intelligence features, including Siri Recap, Live Rewind, Sound Recognition, and Music Recognition. Alongside its announcement, Apple released a document laying out how it plans to balance AI “ambient listening” and users’ privacy. It says the raw audio from the new […]
Apple says its new watches won’t save raw audio, but features that can transcribe recent speech and summarize ambient conversations raise new questions about consent, privacy, and how people behave when they know they could always be recorded.
LG smart TVs are almost constantly logging and uploading data about owners and their homes, even when offline or on standby mode, according to a new report from YouTube channel Gamers Nexus. The company’s TV sets scan Wi-Fi networks for nearby devices, record audio logs through their microphones, and use audio and video sampling to […]
DJI has announced a second generation of its Romo robovac. The Romo 2 series is quieter, more powerful, and better at climbing over small steps and other obstacles. But more importantly for DJI, a new local-only data mode should go some way to reassuring anyone concerned by the first Romo’s serious security flaws. There are […]
The Nordic country says wearable camera headsets need to be regulated given their privacy risks.