Author: GT

A top Social Security Administration official turned whistleblower says members of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uploaded hundreds of millions of Social Security records to a vulnerable cloud server, putting the personal information of most Americans at risk of compromise. Charles Borges, the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer, said in a newly released whistleblower complaint published Tuesday that other top agency officials signed off on a decision in June to upload “a live copy of the country’s Social Security information in a cloud environment that circumvents oversight,” despite Borges raising concerns. The database, known as the…

Meta plans to launch a super PAC to support California candidates favoring a light-touch approach to AI regulation, Politico reports. The news comes as other Silicon Valley behemoths, like Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI’s Greg Brockman, pledge $100 million for a new pro-AI super PAC.  Meta will pour tens of millions into its new group, dubbed Mobilizing Economic Transformation Across California, according to Politico. Brian Rice, Meta’s VP of public policy and head of the new PAC, has argued that Sacramento’s regulatory environment “could stifle innovation, block AI progress, and put California’s technology leadership at risk.” Meta’s lobbying force earlier this…

AI is transforming the banking industry, but the expected benefits and savings come at great human cost with the impact on finance jobs.The report, a collaboration between digital bank Zopa and Juniper Research, forecasts that generative AI will deliver £1.8 billion in cost savings by 2030, driven by an equivalent level of investment. However, this 100 percent investment return comes at a large human cost—placing an estimated 27,000 finance industry jobs at risk. The findings suggest that AI technologies are moving beyond experimental pilots and becoming deeply embedded in the core processes of banking, from customer service to the unseen functions…

Library e-book and audiobook app Libby is adding AI, much to the disappointment of some readers and librarians, who would prefer not to have AI inserted into their favorite apps. The new feature, “Inspire Me,” allows users to get book recommendations by using prompts or from their previously saved titles in Libby. To use the feature, readers tap on the “Inspire Me” options on Libby’s home page, where they can ask for fiction or nonfiction, then narrow down the suggestions by other factors, like age range, type of content, and more. For instance, you might tap on suggestions like “spine-tingling”…

MongoDB shares skyrocketed more than 30% on Wednesday after the database software company posted better-than-expected fiscal results and gave an upbeat forecast.Here’s how the company did in comparison with LSEG consensus:Earnings per share: $1.00 adjusted vs. 66 cents expectedRevenue: $591 million vs. $556 million expectedMongoDB’s revenue increased 24% from a year ago in the fiscal second quarter that ended July 31. The company had a net loss of $47.04 million, or 58 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $54.5 million, or 74 cents per share, in the year-ago period.Sales of MongoDB Atlas, the company’s cloud database service,…

The Trump administration made an unprecedented, and confusing, move last week when it announced plans to convert money Intel was supposed to receive through Joe Biden-era government grant programs into a 10% equity stake.While it remains unclear if converting those government grants into equity is even possible — that’s up for debate — it’s even less obvious how this move will solve Intel’s biggest problem, its waffling foundry business. Even Intel is unconvinced. Intel Foundry, which manufactures custom semiconductors for outside customers, has not been fruitful for the company. The business division lost out on potential big contracts, like one with…

Decentralised artificial intelligence has been hailed as one of the most profound innovations of our time, promising to give users control of the most transformative technologies. Yet the industry faces some daunting challenges if the vision is to be fulfilled.Proponents of decentralisation imagine a world where AI is not controlled by a select few big tech corporations, but rather by a global community that invites everyone to participate and have their say. It’s an audacious goal, but as it slowly comes into view, a question arises – are we really on the cusp of democratising access to intelligent automation, or…

Any day now, a federal judge is expected to issue a landmark ruling that could upend some of the most lucrative deals in Silicon Valley: Google’s default search contracts.At stake is more than $26 billion a year, $20 billion of which goes to Apple. That’s nearly a quarter of Alphabet’s operating income.For decades, the Apple-Google pact has helped determine who controls the internet, which is exactly why it’s now in the crosshairs.U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled last year that Google held a monopoly in search and ads. He’s been weighing remedies since the final phase of the trial wrapped…

Anthropic has settled a class action lawsuit with a group of fiction and nonfiction authors, as announced in a filing on Tuesday with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Anthropic had won a partial victory in a lower court ruling and was in the process of appealing that ruling. No details of the settlement were made public, and Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Called Bartz v. Anthropic, the case deals with Anthropic’s use of books as training material for its large language models. The court had ruled that Anthropic’s use of the books qualified as…

Thanks to an unexpected surge in popularity on TikTok, Radiohead now has its fourth-ever song on the Billboard Hot 100: the morosely gorgeous track “Let Down” from the 1997 album “OK Computer.” “Let Down” never broke through to mainstream attention like Radiohead’s “Creep” or “Karma Police,” but it’s by no means a deep cut, like the Pavement B-side “Harness Your Hopes” that went viral due to a quirk in Spotify’s recommendation algorithm. This Radiohead song is a fan favorite from an album that’s considered among the best rock records of all time. Unlike the rise of songs like Kate Bush’s…