Technology category, Page 16
Amazon will allow U.S. customers to buy cars on its site from local car dealers starting next year
NEW YORK — Want to buy a car on Amazon? Well, now you might get your chance. The e-commerce giant will launch vehicle sales in the U.S. next year and allow local car dealers to sell directly to customers on its site. In a joint announcement with car manufacturer Hyundai...
Astrobotic expansion could spur creation of ‘space district’ in Pittsburgh, officials say
Pittsburgh’s leading space company said Tuesday it plans to move some of its operations into a $20 million office building on the North Side and more than double its workforce. Astrobotic, a Manchester-based company that builds equipment to send to the moon, said it has bought a five-story building on...
ESPN Bet, a rebranded sports gambling app from Penn Entertainment, is almost here
NEW YORK — ESPN Bet, a rebranded sports-gambling app owned by Penn Entertainment, is set to launch Tuesday. Penn signed a $1.5 billion deal with ESPN for rights to the sports media giant’s name in August. Under the agreement, Penn will operate ESPN Bet while ESPN promotes the app across...
YouTube creators will soon have to disclose use of gen AI in videos or risk suspension
YouTube is rolling out new rules for AI content, including a requirement that creators reveal whether they’ve used generative artificial intelligence to make realistic-looking videos. In a blog post Tuesday outlining a number of AI-related policy updates, YouTube said creators that don’t disclose whether they’ve used AI tools to make...
To help 2024 voters, Meta says it will begin labeling political ads that use AI-generated imagery
WASHINGTON — Facebook and Instagram will require political ads running on their platforms to disclose if they were created using artificial intelligence, their parent company announced on Wednesday. Under the new policy by Meta, labels acknowledging the use of AI will appear on users’ screens when they click on ads....
Nextdoor lays off 25% of its full-time staff as neighborhood social network works to cut costs
NEW YORK — Nextdoor is laying off 25% of its full-time staff as the neighborhood-focused social network company cuts costs with its losses widening. The job eliminations are part of a larger cost reduction plan that aims to slash Nextdoor’s current personnel expenses by up to $60 million annually, the...
Fortnite maker accuses Google of bullying and bribing to block competition to its Android app store
SAN FRANCISCO — Google on Monday confronted the second major U.S. antitrust trial in two months to cast the internet powerhouse as a brazen bully that uses its immense wealth and people’s dependence on one of its main products to stifle competition at consumers’ expense. The trial that opened in...
Don’t put that rhinestone emblem on your car’s steering wheel, U.S. regulators say
NEW YORK — U.S. regulators are warning drivers to steer clear of aftermarket decals used to embellish a car’s logo on the center of its steering wheel. Such metal or plastic emblems — which are typically adorned with rhinestones or other decorations and attached to the steering wheel with an...
Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial exposed crypto fraud but Congress has not been eager to regulate the industry
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — The conviction of former cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried for stealing at least $10 billion from customers and investors is the latest black mark for the cryptocurrency industry, but in Washington, there seems to be little to no interest in pushing through regulation. When cryptocurrencies collapsed and...
Biden set to sign executive order to address AI safeguards
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday will sign a sweeping executive order to guide the development of artificial intelligence — requiring industry to develop safety and security standards, introducing new consumer protections and giving federal agencies an extensive to-do list to oversee the rapidly progressing technology. The order reflects...
Cruise, GM’s robotaxi service, suspends all driverless operations nationwide
NEW YORK — Cruise, the autonomous vehicle unit owned by General Motors, is suspending driverless operations nationwide days after regulators in California found that its driverless cars posed a danger to public safety. The California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked the license for Cruise, which recently began transporting passengers throughout...
AI-generated child sexual abuse images could flood the internet. A watchdog is calling for action
NEW YORK — The already-alarming proliferation of child sexual abuse images on the internet could become much worse if something is not done to put controls on artificial intelligence tools that generate deepfake photos, a watchdog agency warned on Tuesday. In a written report, the U.K.-based Internet Watch Foundation urges...
Nokia plans to cut up to 14,000 jobs after sales, profits plunge in weak market
HELSINKI — Telecom gear maker Nokia said Thursday that it is planning to cut up to 14,000 jobs worldwide, or 16% of its workforce, as part of a push to reduce costs following a plunge in third-quarter sales and profit. The Finnish wireless and fixed-network equipment provider said the planned...
Amazon will start testing drones that will drop prescriptions on your doorstep
Amazon will soon make prescription drugs fall from the sky when the e-commerce giant becomes the latest company to test drone deliveries for medications. The company said Wednesday that customers in College Station, Texas, can now get prescriptions delivered by a drone within an hour of placing their order. The...
LinkedIn cuts more than 600 workers, about 3% of workforce
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — LinkedIn said Monday it is laying off hundreds of employees amounting to about 3% of the social media company’s workforce. The Microsoft-owned career network is cutting about 668 roles across its engineering, product, talent and finance teams. “Talent changes are a difficult, but necessary and regular part...
What Google’s antitrust trial means for your search habits
If government regulators prevail against Google in the biggest U.S. antitrust trial in a quarter century, it’s likely to unleash drastic changes that will undermine the dominance of a search engine that defines the internet for billions of people. As the 10-week trial probing Google’s business practices nears its midway...
X promises ‘highest level’ response on posts about Israel-Hamas war, yet misinformation still flourishes
The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, says it is trying to take action on a flood of posts sharing graphic media, violent speech and hateful conduct about the war between Israel and Hamas. X says it’s treating the crisis with its highest level of response. But outside...
X removes article headlines in latest platform update, widening a rift with news media
SAN FRANCISCO — X, formerly known as Twitter, has stopped showing headlines on articles shared on the platform. Now, X only displays an article’s lead image and a link to the story. Plans for the change were first reported by Fortune in August, when owner Elon Musk confirmed in a...
Self-driving vehicle testing in Pittsburgh area shifting gears to focus on trucking industry
Not long ago, cars topped with a futuristic apparatus could regularly be seen cruising along Pittsburgh’s streets, testing technology that allowed the vehicles to get around without a person steering the wheel. But such car sightings have become rare as the autonomous vehicle sector has refocused from the hype of...
Report: Elon Musk to cut X election integrity team by half
Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, reportedly plans to gut its election integrity team and dump the group’s boss — a decision that has caused concern as the United States and countries around the world prepare for major elections. X’s worldwide cuts will reduce the team’s...
Data privacy law seen as needed precursor to AI regulation
While artificial intelligence appears to be a shiny new bauble full of promises and perils, lawmakers in both parties acknowledge that they must first resolve a less trendy but more fundamental problem: data privacy and protection. With dozens of hearings on data privacy held in the past five years, lawmakers...
With the future of AM unclear, a look back at the powerful role radio plays in baseball history
NEW YORK — Growing up in the Boston suburbs, Suzyn Waldman fell madly in love with two things: baseball and Broadway shows. During the 1950s and ’60s, the long arm of AM radio brought both into her home. “I can still hear Ned Martin of the Red Sox reciting poetry...
‘Game of Thrones’ creator and other authors sue ChatGPT-maker OpenAI for copyright infringement
NEW YORK — John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George R.R. Martin are among 17 authors suing OpenAI for “systematic theft on a mass scale,” the latest in a wave of legal action by writers concerned that artificial intelligence programs are using their copyrighted works without permission. In papers filed Tuesday...
2 Vegas casinos fell victim to cyberattacks, shattering the image of impenetrable casino security
LAS VEGAS — A persistent error message greeted Dulce Martinez on Monday as she tried to access her casino rewards account to book accommodations for an upcoming business trip. That’s odd, she thought, then toggled over to Facebook to search for clues about the issue on a group for MGM...
TikTok is hit with $368 million fine under Europe’s strict data privacy rules
LONDON — European regulators slapped TikTok with a $368 million fine on Friday for failing to protect children’s privacy, the first time that the popular short video-sharing app has been punished for breaching Europe’s strict data privacy rules. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, the lead privacy regulator for Big Tech companies...
