Author: GT

Technologists and policymakers are reckoning with a generation-defining problem on the internet: while it can be a revolutionary force for unprecedented education and connection across the globe, it can also pose dangers to children when they have completely unfettered access. There is no simple way, however, to monitor children’s internet access without surveilling adults, paving the way for disastrous online privacy violations. While some advocates praise these laws as victories for children’s safety, many security experts warn that these laws are being proposed and passed with flawed implementation plans, which pose dangerous security risks for adult users as well. In…

Mistral AI, the French company behind AI assistant Le Chat and several foundational models, is officially regarded as one of France’s most promising tech startups and is arguably the only European company that could compete with OpenAI. It is reportedly in the process of raising another round that would value it at $14 billion, up from about $6 billion in June, 2024. While Mistral AI describes itself as “the world’s greenest and leading independent AI lab” it is still not as well known as its biggest competitors.   “Go and download Le Chat, which is made by Mistral, rather than…

NEW YORK (AP) — Armen Kirakosian remembers the frustrations of his first job as a call center agent nearly 10 years ago: the aggravated customers, the constant searching through menus for information and the notes he had to physically write for each call he handled. Thanks to artificial intelligence, the 29-year-old from Athens, Greece, is no longer writing notes or clicking on countless menus. He often has full customer profiles in front of him when a person calls in and may already know what problem the customer has before even saying “hello.” He can spend more time actually serving the…

A ship transits the Suez Canal towards the Red Sea on November 3, 2024 in Suez, Egypt.Sayed Hassan | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesUndersea cable cuts in the Red Sea disrupted internet access in parts of Asia and the Middle East, experts said Sunday, though it wasn’t immediately clear what caused the incident.There has been concern about the cables being targeted in a Red Sea campaign by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, which the rebels describe as an effort to pressure Israel to end its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But the Houthis have denied attacking the lines in…

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Undersea cable cuts in the Red Sea disrupted internet access Sunday in parts of Asia and the Middle East, experts said, though it wasn’t immediately clear what caused the incident. There has been concern about the cables being targeted in a Red Sea campaign by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, which the rebels describe as an effort to pressure Israel to end its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But the Houthis have denied attacking the lines in the past.Microsoft announced via a status website that the Mideast “may experience increased latency due to undersea…

On Friday, a startup called Fable announced an ambitious, if head-scratching, plan to recreate the lost 43 minutes of Orson Welles’ classic film “The Magnificent Ambersons.”  Why is a startup that bills itself as the “Netflix of AI,” and that recently raised money from Amazon’s Alexa Fund, talking about remaking a movie that was first released in 1942?  Well, the company has built a platform that allows users to create their own cartoons with AI prompts — Fable is starting out with its own intellectual property, but it has ambitions to offer similar capabilities with Hollywood IP. In fact, it’s…

OpenAI is reorganizing its Model Behavior team, a small but influential group of researchers who shape how the company’s AI models interact with people, TechCrunch has learned. In an August memo to staff seen by TechCrunch, OpenAI’s chief research officer Mark Chen said the Model Behavior team — which consists of roughly 14 researchers — would be joining the Post Training team, a larger research group responsible for improving the company’s AI models after their initial pre-training. As part of the changes, the Model Behavior team will now report to OpenAI’s Post Training lead Max Schwarzer. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed…

Tesla has proposed a massive new $1 trillion compensation package for its CEO Elon Musk, and many of the benchmarks he needs to hit are simply watered-down versions of promises he’s spent years making about the company. That’s not the picture Tesla’s board of directors paints in the company’s annual proxy statement, where they revealed the proposed pay package. Instead, the board focuses on how it plans to create “the most valuable company in history.” To be sure, if Tesla accomplishes all that it aims for with this deal, it will look like a much different company at the end…

Technologists and policymakers are reckoning with a generation-defining problem on the internet: while it can be a revolutionary force for unprecedented education and connection across the globe, it can also pose dangers to children when they have completely unfettered access. There is no simple way, however, to monitor children’s internet access without surveilling adults, paving the way for disastrous online privacy violations. While some advocates praise these laws as victories for children’s safety, many security experts warn that these laws are being proposed and passed with flawed implementation plans, which pose dangerous security risks for adult users as well. In…

The European Commission announced this week that it’s fining Google €2.95 billion (just under $3.5 billion). The commission found that Google had violated European Union antitrust rules by favoring its own advertising services. Specifically, the commission said Google “abused” its “dominant positions” by favoring its ad exchange AdX in both its publisher ad server and in its ad-buying tools. The commission also said Google has 60 days to “bring these self-preferencing practices to an end” and “to implement measures to cease its inherent conflicts of interest along the adtech supply chain.” “Google must now come forward with a serious remedy…