TikTok’s research reportedly acknowledges negative effects on teens
Court documents suggest that TikTok executives are aware of the app’s potential harm to teenagers, according to reporting by NPR and Kentucky Public Radio. Fourteen U.S. attorneys general sued TikTok earlier this week, claiming that the app harms children’s mental health. Much of the material in those suits was redacted,
Read more‘Where we are today in biology AI is similar to GPT in 2020’: An interview with the CEO of Africa’s biggest AI startup
In January last year, German biotech company BioNTech acquired African AI startup Instadeep for over $550 million, a deal finalized in July of the same year. Instadeep, whose exit is currently the largest from Africa, has been operating under the German pharma umbrella for just over a year. Now is
Read moreThe most interesting unicorns to come out of Japan
Japan’s startup sector, despite being one of the biggest in the world, has lagged behind other regions like the U.S., China, and the U.K., in terms of the number of unicorns and the scale of venture capital investment. For years, an aging population, overall economic deflation, and salarymen’s inclination to
Read more‘Chat control’: The EU’s controversial CSAM-scanning legal proposal explained
The European Union has a longstanding reputation for strong privacy laws. But a legislative plan to combat child abuse — which the bloc formally presented back in May 2022 — is threatening to downgrade the privacy and security of hundreds of millions of regional messaging app users. The European Commission,
Read moreAmazon’s Tye Brady discusses the next-generation robotic warehouses
For the last several years, the Delivering the Future event has showcased the latest technologies powering Amazon operations. Seattle’s 2023 event showcased updates to the company’s pharmacy offerings and drone deliveries. This year in Nashville, Amazon discussed AI updates to its shopping experiences and how the company is using computer
Read moreHow do you solve a problem like MariaDB? Cozy up to the community, says new CEO
The new CEO of MariaDB (Plc) says he wants closer-knit collaboration with the foundation behind the eponymous open source database project. He cites the corporation’s newfound stability from its recent acquisition by a private equity firm as to why it should now be able to get on a firmer footing.
Read moreWhat is wearable neurotech and why might we need it?
The wearables category already contains multitudes, from exercise-focused smart watches and sleep tracking smart rings to smart femtech and semi-invasive blood glucose monitors — to name a few of the gizmos we’ve tracked over roughly a decade of novel personal hardware launches. But the space is set to get even
Read moreCalifornia police aren’t loving their Tesla cop cars
Elon Musk on Thursday night rolled out the latest tech from Tesla, saying of its sleek Cybercab robotaxis and a prototype of its new electric van that “the future should look like the future.” Back in the present day, however, California police departments are beginning to regret their decision to
Read moreAnthropic CEO goes full techno-optimist in 15,000-word paean to AI
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wants you to know he’s not an AI “doomer.” At least, that’s my read of the “mic drop” of a ~15,000 word essay Amodei published to his blog late Friday. (I tried asking Anthropic’s Claude chatbot whether it concurred, but alas, the post exceeded the free
Read moreTributes Pour In for Former Finance Minister Tito Mboweni
In a somber announcement, the family of Tito Mboweni, former South African Finance Minister and Reserve Bank Governor, confirmed his passing on Saturday night. Mboweni, 65, died of a short illness in a Johannesburg hospital, surrounded by his loved ones. Alto Mboweni stated on behalf of the Mboweni family, “It
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