James Farrell – SiliconANGLE

US and UK join forces in ‘historic agreement’ to tackle child safety online

James Farrell — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 01:25:32 +0000

The U.S. and U.K. governments today announced they’re creating a joint children’s online safety working group in an effort to find “common solutions” to the issue of child safety online. “As more children across the U.S. and around the globe have access to online platforms for online learning and social media, there is also increased […]

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Russian rampage against US tech continues with ban of Discord

James Farrell — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 01:41:44 +0000

Russia’s communications regulator has banned the instant messaging platform Discord for violations of Russian law, adding to a growing list of American tech firms whose services are now restricted in Russia. “The access to Discord is being restricted in connection of violation of requirements of Russian laws, compliance with which is required to prevent the […]

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Coalition of US attorneys general goes after TikTok for ‘wreaking havoc’ on children’s mental health

James Farrell — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 02:49:29 +0000

A bipartisan group of more than a dozen state attorneys general filed lawsuits today against the Chinese social media app TikTok, claiming it’s causing a multitude of problems where children’s mental health is concerned. The suits, each filed individually but led by the attorneys general of New York and California, accuse the platform of violating […]

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Texas AG sues TikTok over breach of new child safety law

James Farrell — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 01:32:39 +0000

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today filed a lawsuit against the social media giant TikTok for allegedly sharing the personal data of young people, a violation of the state’s new child safety law. That law, the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act, or SCOPE, is part of a wider push by U.S. politicians to […]

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Free speech row erupts over X suspending journalist who published JD Vance dossier

James Farrell — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 02:04:06 +0000

After X Corp. suspended journalist Ken Klippenstein’s account today when he published a Trump campaign document hacked by Iran, various media outlets have asserted that X isn’t the free speech platform it claims to be. The document in question, a 271-page opposition research file on former president Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (pictured), […]

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X releases first transparency report since Elon Musk took over the platform

James Farrell — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 01:17:24 +0000

X Corp. released its first transparency report today under its owner Elon Musk, detailing the platform’s arguably surprising moderation strategies. The last time such a report was issued was back in 2021, when X was Twitter Inc., and being a user of the website wasn’t quite so much a politically polarizing issue. Since Musk’s acquisition […]

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Sam Altman says superintelligence is on the way, and the future is bright

James Farrell — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 01:54:24 +0000

OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman published a blog post today stating that the world will have superintelligence in “a few thousand days” and what he sees ahead is not the techno-dystopia some critics see but “massive prosperity.” Altman’s post was only a few hundred words long, but he managed to pack it with enough assertions […]

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X has found a way to come back to life in Brazil

James Farrell — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 01:27:28 +0000

Elon Musk’s X Corp. is back up in Brazil after the government blocked the app under orders from the country’s Supreme Court. Earlier this month, Brazil’s 28 million or so X users found themselves without a platform after the government ordered the National Telecommunications Agency to block access to the app. X owner Elon Musk […]

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Big changes to Instagram: Will teens be saved?

James Farrell — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 02:01:51 +0000

Meta Platforms Inc.-owned Instagram today announced some profound changes to how the platform works for young people in an effort to address the growing concern that social media is damaging the minds of children. The company said it is ushering in “built-in protections” for young folks, giving parents more control over how their kids use […]

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TikTok jousts with US appeals court in attempt to avoid nationwide ban

James Farrell — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 02:17:13 +0000

Chinese-owned social media app TikTok faced a barrage of questions today from a U.S. appeals court as the company fights to block a law that will ban the app in the U.S. if it’s not sold. In April, President Joe Biden signed legislation that meant TikTok’s owner, ByteDance Ltd., had one year to sell the […]

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White House secures commitment from AI firms to curb deepfake porn

James Farrell — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 01:16:04 +0000

The White House today announced voluntary commitments from several leading artificial intelligence companies to rein in the creation and distribution of image-based sexual abuse, IBSA, including “deepfake” content generated by AI. The announcement was made by President Biden and Vice President Harris on the eve of the anniversary of the introduction of the Violence Against […]

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Coalition of US attorneys general calls for warning labels on social media

James Farrell — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 02:02:09 +0000

A bipartisan group of 42 attorneys general today called for Congress to require Surgeon General warning labels on social media apps to attend to the growing mental health crisis among young adults in the U.S. In June this year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy penned an op-ed for the New York Times in which he called the […]

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US man raked in millions from AI-generated songs played by bots on streaming platforms

James Farrell — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 00:59:10 +0000

Federal prosecutors today charged a North Carolina musician who’d taken in around $10 million in royalties from his AI-generated songs that were streamed by the bots he deployed. Michael Smith, a 52-year-old real musician, had seemingly decided that making a living in the legitimate world of music was a bridge too far. He proceeded to […]

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Internet Archive loses appeal, court rules e-book lending is copyright infringement

James Farrell — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 01:53:04 +0000

The online digital library Internet Archive today lost its appeal to lend out scanned e-books without the approval of publishers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected the nonprofit’s claim in a lawsuit with a coalition of book publishers that its digitized library of books can legally operate under the fair use […]

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Telegram investigated in South Korea over surge of sexual deepfake content

James Farrell — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 01:55:32 +0000

Authorities in South Korea have begun an investigation into the embattled instant messaging app Telegram, focusing on the platform’s relationship with deepfake sex crimes that have caused a stir in the country. The probe comes after Telegram’s founder and chief executive, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France in late August for a slew of charges […]

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Brazil’s Supreme Court upholds X ban, Starlink won’t comply

James Farrell — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 01:19:44 +0000

Five Brazilian Supreme Court justices today voted to uphold a decision that requires the National Telecommunications Agency, Anatel, to block access to Elon Musk’s X Corp. platform. Millions of X users in Brazil found themselves without X over the weekend as the country’s internet providers and mobile phone companies restricted access. Alexandre de Moraes (pictured), […]

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US AI Safety Institute will have access to OpenAI and Anthropic for a safer future

James Farrell — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 02:19:50 +0000

OpenAI and Anthropic PBC today announced they have agreed to share AI models before and after release with the U.S. government’s AI Safety Institute. The institute, housed at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, was set up through an executive order by President Biden in 2023. Working with […]

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TikTok told it must face lawsuit over deadly viral challenge, despite Section 230 protections

James Farrell — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 01:05:19 +0000

The Chinese social media giant TikTok could potentially be found liable for content posted on its platform that led to the death of a girl, despite federal protections for publishers in such cases. A U.S. appeals court revived a lawsuit today that was filed by the mother of a 10-year-old girl who died in Pennsylvania […]

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A man is playing video games again after Neuralink’s second successful brain implant surgery

James Farrell — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 01:36:24 +0000

Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface company, Neuralink Corp., announced today a successful surgery in what is now its second human implant. This follows the first success back in January this year, a milestone for Neuralink, which has been talking about hooking human brains up with computers since it was founded in 2017. Hundreds of millions of […]

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Google inks controversial deal with California’s lawmakers to fund local news

James Farrell — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 02:20:15 +0000

Google LLC and the state of California have agreed to a deal under which the tech giant will commit $172.5 million to fund local journalism over the next five years while some of the money will be set aside for artificial intelligence development in the state. The deal comes after months of dispute between lawmakers […]

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US judge blocks FTC’s ban on noncompete clauses

James Farrell — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 02:10:27 +0000

A federal judge in Texas today derailed the Federal Trade Commission’s ban on noncompete agreements, blocking the ban from taking effect in September as planned. In a 27-page opinion, District Judge Ada Brown said that the FTC didn’t have the authority to make such decisions, calling the rule “arbitrary and capricious.” Brown added that the […]

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ALS sufferer ‘speaks’ for first time in years with groundbreaking brain implant

James Farrell — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 01:00:19 +0000

Scientists at the University of California at Davis have helped a man to speak again using a brain chip that can interpret his brain signals to read them aloud using artificial intelligence to mimic the man’s real voice. In 2023, Casey Harrell was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. The disease […]

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X slammed for lack of guardrails on Grok image generation

James Farrell — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 01:31:49 +0000

As Elon Musk’s xAI Corp. debuted two new language models today, they’re already under the spotlight for appearing to push the limits of freedom of speech. Though Musk announced today that Grok is “the most fun AI in the world!”, the image generator, available only to paid subscribers of X, has caused something of a […]

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EU Commissioner just warned Elon Musk over dangerous content and it backfired badly

James Farrell — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 00:44:45 +0000

EU Commissioner Thierry Breton shared words with X Corp. owner Elon Musk yesterday, reminding him that Musk and X have a responsibility to adhere to the EU’s Digital Services Act, or DSA. Breton’s strongly worded missive to Musk sent yesterday was sent in response to what he called the “risk of amplification of potentially harmful […]

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Advertising coalition disbands after lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s X

James Farrell — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 01:29:17 +0000

The coalition of advertisers described by X Corp. owner Elon Musk as a “cabal” has shut down after X hit it with a lawsuit earlier this week. The group, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, or GARM, was formed in 2019 by the World Federation of Advertisers, or WFA, in an effort to encourage boycotts […]

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UK government clashes with X’s Elon Musk over hate speech and misinformation

James Farrell — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 02:05:06 +0000

Following protests and riots on the streets of England this week, officials in the British government have condemned X Corp. and its owner Elon Musk for stoking the flames of discontent. In an interview with The Times newspaper published today, Peter Kyle, Britain’s secretary of science, innovation, and technology, said Musk “is accountable to no […]

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X goes to war with advertisers over boycott

James Farrell — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 02:18:47 +0000

Elon Musk’s X Corp., which has long felt that the pulling away of advertisers from the platform over hate speech concerns is unfair, today fought back and launched a lawsuit against a number of firms. The lawsuit claims that certain members of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, or GARM, have breached antitrust laws by […]

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X is leaving San Francisco but will stay in Silicon Valley

James Farrell — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 01:37:46 +0000

Elon Musk’s X Corp. is closing down its flagship office in San Francisco, although the new location for the office won’t be quite as far as Texas, as Musk had threatened last month. In July, after California Governor Gavin Newsom enacted the SAFETY ACT, legislation designed to protect LGBTQ+ students, Musk announced that this was the […]

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Entertainment industry gets behind new bill that will outlaw AI deepfakes

James Farrell — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 02:14:31 +0000

The entertainment industry today came out in support of a new bill designed to prevent people from using artificial intelligence to recreate a person’s voice or likeness without that person’s consent. The bipartisan bill, “Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act of 2024” or the “NO FAKES Act,” was introduced by senators Chris […]

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Senate passes controversial bills designed to protect children online

James Farrell — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 01:36:35 +0000

The Senate today unanimousl passed two children’s online safety bills in a rare show of bipartisan support. One of the bills, the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, was introduced in 2022 following mounting criticism against Big Tech for what experts and politicians said was companies focusing much more on the bottom line than the […]

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