Newsom’s veto means AI industry free-for-all continues... for now
The unregulated free-for-all in AI development will continue for the foreseeable future. Yesterday, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed SB 1047 (“Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial...
Harris promises to support digital assets, hoping to win over the crypto constituency
Crypto's gone bipartisan. Vice President Kamala Harris came out in support of an industry that has, over the past several years at least, viewed the Democratic party with suspicion. At a Sunday fundra...
FTC: Here’s how social media and streaming companies are exploiting your data
A new detailed report by the FTC exposes the ways the biggest social media and streaming companies have been monetizing our data. And the lack of a comprehensive federal privacy law has basically let ...
Should we ban TikTok? ByteDance doesn’t think so, and Americans are increasingly unsure
This morning, a US federal appeals court will hear the case for keeping TikTok — almost 5 months after the Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of legislation which, at present, will see the popular s...
Here’s the transcript of the secret briefing that kicked off the TikTok law
It’s hard for Americans — or American politicians — to agree on much of anything these days. But, following a classified briefing on the potential national security threat posed by TikTok on March 7, ...
Corporate surveillance technology is out of control
When you log on to your work computer, or swipe your badge to get into your office, your expectation of privacy should change significantly — especially if your job involves sensitive legal, financial...
Zuckerberg says Biden administration pressured Meta to censor COVID-19 misinformation
Regrets, Mark Zuckerberg has a few. In a letter to Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg said that was repeatedly pressured by the Biden administration...
Big Tech's onslaught of bots forces publishers to play an impossible game of Whac-A-Mole
In the battle to protect their valuable content from content-thirsty AI scraping bots, publishers have to rely upon a single text file for their defense. For thirty years , the humble "robots.txt" fil...
Who should a price-gouging crackdown hit, the stores or the brands?
Grocery stores are worried they’re going to be caught in the crossfire as talks of a price gouging ban take aim at corporate greed. Vice President Kamala Harris proposed a ban on price gouging on food...
The official Democratic platform skips over crypto as the DNC kicks off
The official platform of the Democratic Party has nothing to say about crypto. At least for now. The Democratic National Convention kicks off today in Chicago, and ahead of the four-day event the part...
Sen. Schumer vows to pass crypto legislation in 2024 as the industry courts VP Harris
The crypto industry wants to make one thing clear: it’s not all in on former President Donald Trump. A collection of crypto insiders and elected officials gathered Wednesday evening to stage a forcefu...
FTC bans fake reviews. Sorry, scammers.
The FTC has finalized its fake review ban, which covers many of the sneaky review shenanigans that have plagued e-commerce sites for years, as well as shady social media practices like buying fake fol...
Senators investigate surge pricing at Kroger
Senators Elizabeth Warren and Robert Casey announced an investigation into potential use of dynamic pricing for grocery goods, via the use of electronic shelving labels. The lawmakers claim that at a...
iLobby: Apple, like the rest of big tech, wants to change the rules
iLobby After butting heads with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) on everything from iPhones to smart watches in recent years, Apple is increasing its lobbying efforts in Washington to get ...
Tik, Tik, boom: New bill leaves TikTok’s future in the balance
Tok of the town As you might have heard from news sites, broadcasters, or even TikTok’s CEO himself while scrolling through the app, the House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday requiring ...
Paid social: Meta could be trying a new business model in Europe
Paid social Meta is considering introducing paid versions of Facebook and Instagram for European users , giving them access to endless ad-free scrolling. The move is largely in response to the bloc’...
TikTok: US lawmakers are probing the world's most addictive app, again
In the dock In devastating news for lip-syncers and procrastinators, TikTok looks to be edging closer to a potential ban in the US as a House panel gears up to vote on the motion next month . Shou Zi...
Juul: The meteoric rise, and fall, of the e-cigarette company
You can't vape with us Yesterday the FDA announced that Juul cannot sell its e-cigarettes in the US anymore — a huge blow for a company that was recently one of the most highly-valued startups in all...
Facebook's day off: Facebook is having quite a week
Facebook has had quite a week. On Monday the company's 3 major platforms, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, all went down for 6+ hours. Then a whistleblower, Frances Haugen, testified in front of a Se...
The EU's Artificial Intelligence Act upends the free-for-all era of AI
For American tech companies building AI, the past few years have been an unregulated free-for-all, with companies rapidly developing and releasing their powerful new technologies, turning the public m...