Technology category, Page 18
OpenAI CEO suggests international agency like UN’s nuclear watchdog could oversee AI
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates— Artificial intelligence poses an “existential risk” to humanity, a key innovator warned during a visit to the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, suggesting an international agency like the International Atomic Energy Agency oversee the ground-breaking technology. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is on a global tour...
Banks’ growing reliance on chatbots to handle customer service tasks worries consumer watchdog
NEW YORK — Can you trust Erica, or Sandi or Amy to increasingly control parts of your financial life without giving you inaccurate information or sending money to the wrong place? That’s what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is asking in a report released Tuesday, where the bureau lays out...
Apple unveils sleek, $3,500 ‘Vision Pro’ goggles
CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple on Monday unveiled a long-rumored headset that will place its users between the virtual and real world, while also testing the technology trendsetter’s ability to popularize new-fangled devices after others failed to capture the public’s imagination. After years of speculation, Apple CEO Tim Cook hailed the...
Is it real or made by AI? Europe wants a label for that as it fights disinformation
LONDON — The European Union is pushing online platforms like Google and Meta to step up the fight against false information by adding labels to text, photos and other content generated by artificial intelligence, a top official said Monday. EU Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said the ability of a...
Apple is expected to unveil a sleek, pricey headset. Is it the device VR has been looking for?
Apple appears poised to unveil a long-rumored headset that will place its users between the virtual and real world, while also testing the technology trendsetter’s ability to popularize new-fangled devices after others failed to capture the public’s imagination. After years of speculation, the stage is set for the widely anticipated...
Money stored in Venmo, other payment apps could be vulnerable, financial watchdog warns
NEW YORK — Customers of Venmo, PayPal and CashApp should not store their money for the long term with these apps because their funds might not be safe during a crisis, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warned on Thursday. The alert comes several weeks after the failure of Silicon Valley...
Jaguar recalls I-Pace electric vehicles due to fire risk in batteries, tells owners to park outside
DETROIT — Jaguar is recalling more than 6,000 I-Pace electric SUVs in the U.S. due to the risk of the high-voltage battery catching fire, and it’s telling owners to park them outdoors. The recall is the latest in a series of electric vehicle battery recalls because of the potential for...
U.S., Europe working on voluntary AI code of conduct as calls grow for regulation
LONDON — The United States and Europe are drawing up a voluntary code of conduct for artificial intelligence, a top European Union official said Wednesday, as the developing technology triggers warnings about the risks it poses to humanity and growing calls for regulation. The voluntary code would bridge the gap...
Artificial intelligence threatens extinction, experts say in new warning
LONDON — Scientists and tech industry leaders issued a new warning Tuesday about the perils that artificial intelligence poses to humankind. “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” said the statement posted online. Sam Altman,...
E.U. official says Twitter abandons bloc’s voluntary pact against disinformation
LONDON — Twitter has dropped out of a voluntary European Union agreement to combat online disinformation, a top EU official said Friday. European Commissioner Thierry Breton tweeted that Twitter had pulled out of the E.U.’s disinformation “code of practice” that other major social media platforms have pledged to support. But...
Microsoft: State-sponsored Chinese hackers could be laying groundwork for disruption
BOSTON — State-backed Chinese hackers have been targeting U.S. critical infrastructure and could be laying the technical groundwork for the potential disruption of critical communications between the U.S. and Asia during future crises, Microsoft said Wednesday. The targets include sites in Guam, where the U.S. has a major military presence,...
Netflix to charge an additional $8 month for viewers living outside U.S. subscribers’ households
Netflix on Tuesday outlined how it intends to crack down on the rampant sharing of account passwords in the U.S., its latest bid to reel in more subscribers to its video streaming service as its growth slows. To combat password sharing, Netflix said it will limit U.S. viewership of its...
Meta fined $1.3 billion, ordered to stop sending European user data to U.S.
LONDON — The European Union slapped Meta with a record $1.3 billion privacy fine Monday and ordered it to stop transferring user data across the Atlantic by October, the latest salvo in a decadelong case sparked by U.S. cybersnooping fears. The penalty of 1.2 billion euros is the biggest since...
Will dashboard AM radio be saved? Bipartisan bill would require automakers to keep it in new cars
NEW YORK — Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are pushing to keep AM radio in the nation’s cars. A bipartisan group in Congress on Wednesday introduced the “AM for Every Vehicle Act.” The bill calls on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to require automakers to keep AM radio in new...
ChatGPT makes its debut as a smartphone app on iPhones
ChatGPT is now a smartphone app, which could be good news for people who like to use the artificial intelligence chatbot and bad news for all the clone apps that have tried to profit off the technology. The free app started to become available on iPhones in the U.S. on...
Check your artificial intelligence ‘bossware’ tools for bias, says U.S. agency head
The head of the U.S. agency charged with enforcing civil rights in the workplace says artificial intelligence-driven “bossware” tools that closely track the whereabouts, keystrokes and productivity of workers can also run afoul of discrimination laws. Charlotte Burrows, chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, told The Associated Press that...
Montana becomes 1st state to ban TikTok
HELENA — Montana became the first state in the United States to enact a complete ban on TikTok on Wednesday when Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a measure that’s more sweeping than any other state’s attempts to curtail the social media app, which is owned by a Chinese tech company....
What you need to know about a glass cliff and why it could put Twitter’s new CEO in danger
Less than two months into his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, Elon Musk declared that whoever took over as the company’s CEO “must like pain a lot.” Then he promised he’d step down as soon as he found a replacement “foolish enough” to want the job. That person, Musk announced...
Philadelphia Inquirer hit by cyberattack causing newspaper’s largest disruption in decades
PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Inquirer says a weekend cyberattack caused the biggest disruption to its operations in 27 years and prevented it from publishing its Sunday print edition. The attack was detected Saturday morning when employees found that the paper’s content-management system wasn’t working, the Inquirer reported on its website....
Twitter’s new CEO is an NBCUniversal executive with deep ad industry ties
Elon Musk confirmed that the new CEO for Twitter will be NBCUniversal’s Linda Yaccarino, an executive with deep ties to the advertising industry. “I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” Musk wrote in a Friday tweet. He added that Yaccarino “will focus primarily on...
Elon Musk says he’s found a woman to lead Twitter as new CEO
Elon Musk said Thursday he has found a new CEO for Twitter, or X Corp. as it’s now called — and it’s a woman. He did not name her but said she will be starting in about six weeks. Musk, who bought Twitter last fall and has been running it...
Carnegie Mellon artificial intelligence institute to receive $20M in federal funding
Carnegie Mellon University will use $20 million in federal funding to establish an artificial intelligence institute that will look for ways to use AI to deal with public health, disaster management and other societal needs. The AI Institute for Societal Decision Making will develop “human-centric AI tools” that can respond...
Google is giving its dominant search engine an artificial-intelligence makeover
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google on Wednesday disclosed plans to infuse its dominant search engine with more advanced artificial-intelligence technology, a drive that’s in response to one of the biggest threats to its long-established position as the internet’s main gateway. The gradual shift in how Google’s search engine runs is...
‘BlackBerry’ film taps into device that ruled pre-iPhone eraVideo
Almost everyone knows Steve Jobs’ uncanny vision, relentless drive and technological wizardry hatched the iPhone, a breakthrough that continues to reshape culture 16 years after the late Apple co-founder introduced the device to the world. But when Jobs unveiled the first iPhone in 2007, another smartphone was the must-have gadget....
Long popular in Asia, floating solar catches on in U.S.
When Joe Seaman, the city planner for the working class town of Cohoes, N.Y., Googled the term “floating solar,” he didn’t even know it was a thing. What he did know is that his tiny town needed an affordable way to get electricity and had no extra land. But looking...
