James Farrell
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New York reverses plans to allow robotaxis in major blow to Waymo
New York Governor Kathy Hochul today pulled a proposal that could have seen the state flooded with robotaxis. The proposal, which would have allowed driverless taxis in cities other than New York City, was dropped after not receiving support from state legislators. The news will hit Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving car business Waymo LLC especially hard, ...
Spain launches probe into social media giants as European regulation starts to boil
Spanish authorities will investigate the social media companies Meta Platforms Inc., X Corp. and TikTok to determine if they’ve spread child sexual abuse material generated by artificial intelligence. The investigation follows a broader push by European countries to regulate what has often been called the “Wild West” of social media platforms. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro ...
OpenAI researcher quits over slippery slope of ChatGPT ads
OpenAI researcher Zoë Hitzig says she left her position on Monday, resigning over the recent introduction of advertisements inside ChatGPT and what she believes is a move in the wrong direction for the company. In a guest essay in The New York Times titled, “OpenAI Is Making the Mistakes Facebook Made. I Quit,” Hitzig said ...
Google and Apple agree to app store changes after British regulators ‘duopoly’ claim
Google LLC and Apple Inc. today said they’re committed to making changes to their app stores following an intervention from the U.K.’s antitrust watchdog. Last year, the Competition and Markets Authority, or CMA, said the companies had an “effective duopoly” in the U.K., giving them an unfair advantage. Their “vice-like grip” on the mobile market ...
EU tells Meta rival chatbots must be available on WhatsApp
The European Union today issued a warning to WhatsApp owner Meta Platforms Inc. today, threatening to take potential action against the firm for blocking rival chatbots from the messaging platform. The European Commission said WhatsApp Business may have violated EU antitrust rules after an update that left Meta AI as the platform’s only available AI ...
X’s Paris HQ raided by French cybercrime officers over Grok chatbot
The French offices of Elon Musk’s X Corp. were raided today as part of a preliminary investigation into allegations that the company may have spread images of child sexual abuse, as well as other alleged crimes. The raid was carried out by the French police’s cybercrime unit, the prosecutor’s cybercrime unit and Europol. Musk (pictured) ...
UK government to allow publishers to opt out of Google data scraping for AI Overview
The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority today issued a press release recommending measures that will give publishers more freedom in deciding how their content is used by Google LLC’s artificial intelligence systems. About 90% of online search queries in the country use Google search, but now with Google’s AI Overviews and AI mode, which scrapes ...
Social media giants head to court in landmark addiction trial
The world’s largest social media firms are in court this week in an unprecedented series of trials that could determine whether their platforms are responsible for harming young people’s mental health. With more than 1,600 plaintiffs, including more than 350 families and 250 school districts, companies such as Meta Platforms Inc.-owned Facebook and Instagram, Google ...
Anthropic CEO warns humanity may not be ready for advanced AI
Anthropic PBC Chief Executive Dario Amodei today released an essay on the many risks associated with developing powerful artificial intelligence systems and how we might counteract them. “I believe we are entering a rite of passage, both turbulent and inevitable, which will test who we are as a species,” Amodei (pictured) wrote in the introduction ...
That was a long wait, but TikTok US is finally a done deal
After years of high drama, the joint venture to keep the TikTok in the U.S. has been finalized. In a public announcement, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC said the 200 million Americans and 7.5 million businesses that use TikTok in the U.S. can rest easy. The deal is done. The announcement comes on the cusp ...