Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan have bought Strancally Castle and its 440-acre estate in County Waterford as an Irish base. He is the third tech billionaire to buy a large Irish country estate since 2021, after Stripe’s John Collison and James Dyson…
Cinemas became the latest institution to move against Meta smart glasses on Thursday. The UK Cinema Association said many operators are introducing policies to restrict camera-enabled eyewear. It gave two reasons: film piracy, and customer privacy. Tak…
Two US senators have written to TikTok about an experiment that switched off a safety feature for roughly 15 million American users. Their letter runs to four pages and sets out 13 questions. It gives the company until 1 September to reply. The senator…
The White House has published a new National Security Science and Technology strategy. It names 15 critical technology areas the United States intends to lead. Artificial intelligence and autonomy is one of them, with 12 subfields listed underneath. Op…
Big Tech is pouring money into local PR campaigns to win support for the data centres it needs. Opposition to the buildings is spreading across the United States. They are holding town halls, dropping tax demands and sponsoring community groups. That i…
The US Department of Justice has stepped into a court fight on the side of Elon Musk’s xAI. It is backing the company’s challenge to a Minnesota law that bans AI “nudification” tools. A federal judge heard arguments on Wednesday and said he would rule …
Australia’s parliament passed the News Bargaining Incentive on Thursday, closing a five-year argument that began when Meta worked out it could avoid paying for news by simply not carrying any. The new law removes that option. Platforms with a significa…
The Securities and Exchange Commission spent Tuesday proposing the friendliest set of crypto rules an American regulator has ever put on paper. On Wednesday, the industry that would benefit from them was at the White House, having lunch with the presid…
The surveillance firm Flock Safety has told the public for years that its cameras “cannot recognize, identify, or track individuals.” It has now built a tool that does both, according to a new investigation. The artificial-intelligence system lets poli…
Tesla asked Nevada regulators for permission to run up to 5,000 robotaxis across Las Vegas. It was granted 10. The Nevada Transportation Authority set out the limit in an interim order dated 27 July. The cap sits far below what the company requested. T…