James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
UK court gives Microsoft more time to negotiate with CMA over $69B Activision Blizzard acquisition
The U.K.’s Competition Appeal Tribunal today agreed to extend Microsoft Corp.’s appeal to buy the gaming giant Activision Blizzard Inc. after the acquisition was blocked by the U.K.’s competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, or CMA, citing concerns over Microsoft’s potential grip on the cloud gaming market. Both Microsoft and the CMA had asked ...
US university professors cry foul on Texas’ ‘unconstitutional’ TikTok ban
A free speech group of professors at New York’s Columbia University has sued Texas Governor Greg Abbott and others for the state’s TikTok ban on official devices, saying that the ban is unconstitutional under the First Amendment and impinges on academic freedom. In December 2022, Texas joined other states in banning the app on devices ...
FTC is still trying to kill Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal that appeals court ruling blessed
The Federal Trade Commission is taking its fight into the 12th round in its attempt to block Microsoft Corp’s pending $68.7 billion acquisition of the gaming giant Activision Blizzard Inc. The agency filed an appeal today after Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley denied its request for a preliminary injunction which would have put the brakes on ...
US senators sound slightly overwhelmed at first-ever classified briefing on artificial intelligence
U.S. senators today discussed the rise of artificial intelligence at what was the first-ever briefing on the technology, and most of them sounded somewhat concerned about the future. The senators listened to experts on the matter of AI from a list of experts and officials, including Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Deputy Secretary of ...
Massachusetts might become the first state to ban the sale of phone location data
Lawmakers in Massachusetts are in the process of considering a bill that would ban the sale of mobile phone location data, which would make the state the first in the U.S. to restrict what has become a highly controversial and very lucrative industry. Some states have certain restrictions on the selling of data or ask ...
Volkswagen is about to launch a self-driving car testing program in Texas
The German automaker Volkswagen AG announced today that it will start testing a small fleet of self-driving microbuses in Austin, Texas, with a mind to expanding to more U.S. cities in the future. Using technology from the chipmaker Mobileye Global Inc., VW will run a fleet of 10 all-electric, autonomous ID Buzz vehicles – a ...
Judge tells Biden administration to stop contacting social media companies
A federal judge in Louisiana today issued a preliminary injunction that will limit how agencies in the Biden administration can contact social media companies, a ruling that may well shape the future of free speech in the U.S. U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana made the ruling in response to a 2022 lawsuit brought ...
All you need is AI: Artificial intelligence is about to help the Beatles release a new record
No modern journalist ever thought that he’d be writing a story about the new Beatles track, but according to former Beatle Paul McCartney today, that’s about to happen thanks to new developments in artificial intelligence. The singer-songwriter, who’s one of two Beatles still alive along with Ringo Starr, told the BBC that new technology has ...
Reddit users come together in protest after highly unpopular API changes
Thousands of Reddit Inc. forums today switched into private mode in protest over the company’s controversial changes to its application programming interface, API. At least 7,000 pages engaged in voluntary blackouts, which restrict the public from seeing those pages. This included the r/todayilearned, r/funny, and r/gaming subreddits which, between them, have about 30 million subscribers. ...
Meta to take action after investigation finds Instagram algorithm promoted child sex abuse material
Meta Platforms Inc.-owned Instagram today said it will take action after an investigation by The Wall Street Journal and researchers at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst revealed the company’s algorithm was promoting child sexual abuse material to pedophiles. The investigation found that accounts owned and operated by minors were creating self-generated child ...