Two senators give TikTok until 1 September to explain its safety test
Two senators give TikTok until 1 September to explain its safety test

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…

White House tech strategy leaves open-weight AI off its critical list
White House tech strategy leaves open-weight AI off its critical list

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…

OpenAI previews Private Safety Processing to keep zero data retention
OpenAI previews Private Safety Processing to keep zero data retention

OpenAI has told enterprise customers that its promise not to keep their data will survive the next generation of models. The company set out the position on Wednesday in a post titled “Offering Zero Data Retention for frontier models”. In it, it previe…

Munich Re is buying cyber-insurer At-Bay for $575mn, half its 2021 price
Munich Re is buying cyber-insurer At-Bay for $575mn, half its 2021 price

Munich Re has agreed to buy At-Bay, a cyber-insurance startup, for $575mn. The deal values the company at less than half what it was worth in 2021. The German insurance group announced the acquisition on Wednesday, in a statement. The price is a reset….

OpenAI’s CFO told staff it will go public in 2027, or sooner
OpenAI’s CFO told staff it will go public in 2027, or sooner

OpenAI has finally put a date on its stock market debut. The company “will be a public company in 2027,” or sooner if its business keeps growing fast, chief financial officer Sarah Friar told staff at an all-hands meeting. CNBC reported the comments, c…

Comcast is turning tens of millions of routers into motion detectors
Comcast is turning tens of millions of routers into motion detectors

Comcast is turning tens of millions of its home routers into motion detectors. The feature, called WiFi Motion, uses a home’s own WiFi signal to sense movement, without any cameras. It is part of a new service called Xfinity Shield, which the company b…

A $1.3bn loan will help build a Texas data centre for Anthropic
A $1.3bn loan will help build a Texas data centre for Anthropic

An investment firm is lending about $1.3bn to help build a giant AI data centre in Texas that will house Anthropic. It is one of the latest jumbo deals fuelling the AI boom. Eagle Point Credit Management is providing the loan, Bloomberg reported. The l…

Relativity Networks raised $22mn to make AI’s fibre run at nearly light speed
Relativity Networks raised $22mn to make AI’s fibre run at nearly light speed

Relativity Networks has raised $22mn and landed a $40mn order from a large cloud provider. The company is pitching a faster kind of fibre for AI data centres. The Orlando-based company announced the funding and the commercial deal on Tuesday, in a pres…

Big Tech is on a charm offensive to get its data centres built
Big Tech is on a charm offensive to get its data centres built

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 Justice Department is backing xAI against Minnesota’s nudify ban
The Justice Department is backing xAI against Minnesota’s nudify ban

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 …