James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Britain’s beleaguered Royal Mail held to ransom by hackers
The ransomware group LockBit has claimed responsibility for the January Royal Mail cyberattack and today is making threats to Britain’s centuries-old service. After the attack happened on Jan. 12, the Royal Mail said it had to close down international shipping because of “severe service disruption.” At the time, it was speculated that LockBit, which may have ...
TikTok updates safety policies as US scrutiny continues
As ByteDance Ltd.-owned TikTok stares down the barrel of a shotgun in the U.S., the company announced today that it’s introducing new moderation policies for creators and users. Julie de Bailliencourt, TikTok’s global head of policy, said in a blog post that the company will now have a strike system for people who violate community ...
Look out, Google: Microsoft is looking to integrate GPT-4 with Bing search engine
In an effort to compete with Google LLC’s search engine, Microsoft Corp. will integrate ChatGPT with its Bing search engine. That’s according to Semafor, which said it spoke to people familiar with the matter. They said Microsoft will use OpenAI LLC’s latest iteration of the bot, GPT-4. The one currently being used by much of ...
Instagram creators have launched an AI-driven news aggregation app
Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger told the world today what they’ve been doing in the four years since they walked away from their creation. The answer is working on various next-generation social apps, including the one they released today – or at least said people can join an invitation list to sign up ...
TikTok CEO will speak with Congress in March about US national security concerns
As security fears over ByteDance Ltd.’s popular app TikTok swirl around the corridors of U.S. government buildings, Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew is set to speak with Congress in March to attempt to placate those concerns. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers confirmed today that the meeting will take place March 23. ...
BuzzFeed’s stock price soars as company announces AI content push
BuzzFeed Inc.’s shares just rose by as much as 150% as the digital media company announced today that it will start producing a lot more content with OpenAI LLC’s tool, ChatGPT. ChatGPT has taken the world by storm since it was released in 2022. Countless artists, philosophers and technologists have weighed in on what kind ...
Meta says Donald Trump can return to Facebook and Instagram – if he behaves himself
Meta Platforms Inc. surprised many people today when it announced that former President Trump could be back on Facebook and Instagram in the coming weeks. After the chaos on Capitol Hill in January 2021 and the fact that Trump (pictured) had used social media to air his views on what he said was a rigged ...
Twitter whistleblower tells Congress and FTC that a major security problem hasn’t gone away under Elon Musk
Twitter Inc. has a new whistleblower who has told Congress and the Federal Trade Commission that engineers at the company still have the use of a controversial tool that gives them godlike powers over content. According to The Washington Post, which first reported the story today, the whistleblower is saying that a program called “GodMode” ...
Details emerge on why Apple’s new mixed reality headset won’t come cheap
Apple’s long-awaited mixed reality headset should be coming out sometime in the next few months, according to reports today that added a few more details about what we might see in the company’s first big release since the Apple Watch in 2015. It seems almost certain now that the headset will be called the Apple ...
Netflix’s Reed Hastings exits co-CEO position
Reed Hastings, the co-founder and co-chief executive officer of Netflix Inc., today announced that he’s stepping down from his position but will stay on as the company’s executive chairman after 25 years in charge. The former Marine, who had spent some time in Africa with the Peace Corps and was later snubbed by the Massachusetts ...