James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
US spy chief says UK has dropped backdoor order for Apple
The U.S. director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said earlier today that the U.K.’s controversial order to mandate Apple Inc. to open a backdoor to user data has been dropped. Gabbard wrote on X that after working with U.K. authorities to “ensure Americans’ private data remains private” and “constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected,” ...
AI chatbot scrutiny intensifies: Texas AG launches probe of Meta and Character.AI over misleading mental health claims
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today announced plans to launch a probe into Meta Platforms Inc. and Character.AI over the companies’ chatbots being used by young people as mental health tools. Paxton (pictured) believes that the AI tools could be utilized by vulnerable children who may believe the bots represent professional care. In a press ...
Workday acquires Flowise to boost AI-powered workflows
Workday Inc., the human resources and finance software giant, announced today that it has acquired Flowise, an open-source, low-code platform for building artificial intelligence agents and workflow automation. Workday provides cloud-based software for human capital management and financial operations, serving more than 11,000 customers worldwide, including over 60% of the Fortune 500. The company has ...
Igor Babuschkin, co-founder of Elon Musk’s xAI, is leaving the company to focus on AI safety
Igor Babuschkin, a founding member of Elon Musk’s xAI, today announced that he is departing the company to focus on artificial intelligence that is “safe and beneficial to humanity.” “Today was my last day at xAI, the company that I helped start with Elon Musk in 2023,” Babuschkin wrote on X. “I still remember the ...
High Court rejects Wikipedia’s challenge to UK online safety laws
The High Court in the U.K. today dismissed Wikipedia’s challenge to the country’s far-reaching online safety laws, rejecting its claim that the rules were flawed. The Online Safety Bill, or OSA, which the government has vowed will tame the “Wild West” of the internet, has been controversial since it was first proposed. It’s viewed by ...
Lyft is partnering with Baidu to deploy robotaxis in Europe
U.S. ride-hailing firm Lyft Inc. announced today that it’s teaming up with the Chinese tech giant, Baidu, Inc., to deploy driverless taxis across Europe, starting with the U.K. and Germany in 2026. In the U.S. market, Lyft is the second-largest ride-hailing firm behind Uber Technologies Inc., but while the latter has a pervasive presence across ...
Figma stock more than triples from $33 offering price in another blockbuster IPO
Updated with initial trading Thursday: In the latest in a series of blockbuster initial public offerings this year, Figma Inc. Thursday saw its stock price more than triple from its initial offering price before trading was halted. The graphic design software provider had priced its initial public offering at $33 per share today, a buck ...
OpenAI launches ChatGPT study mode to reduce AI misuse at schools and universities
OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, today announced the launch of “study mode” in an effort to cut down on students using the chatbot effectively to remove themselves from many of the processes required for an education. OpenAI says the feature “helps you work through problems step by step instead of just getting an answer.” Accessible ...
Google DeepMind is now using AI to improve understanding of ancient Roman history
Scientists at U.K.-based DeepMind, the Google LLC laboratory that specializes in advanced artificial intelligence, have developed a solution to decipher ancient Roman texts that are often damaged and difficult to interpret. The solution is Aeneas, an AI software model named after a mythical Greek and Roman hero. There are currently a plethora of ancient objects ...
Meta execs settle with board in $8B lawsuit over data harvesting scandal
Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, along with former and current company directors and officers, today reached a settlement in a trial in which shareholders sought $8 billion in damages for losses related to the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal. The trial was only on its second day at Delaware’s Court of Chancery, with Zuckerberg ...
