White House

The Biden administration announced the details of a long-awaited executive order on AI today, ahead of an international summit on AI safety being held in the U.K. But as with…

Biden’s AI EO hailed as broad, but not deep without legislation to match

As a part of an ongoing White House initiative to make software more secure, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) plans to launch a two-year contest, the AI Cyber…

DARPA launches two-year competition to build AI-powered cyber defenses

While substantive AI legislation may still be years away, the industry is moving at light speed and many — including the White House — are worried that it may get…

Top AI companies visit the White House to make ‘voluntary’ safety commitments

Update 2: 10 days later, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has paused the injunction pending oral arguments in that jurisdiction. Update: Bizarrely, there are actually two cases before this…

Judge silences White House social media talks in lawsuit that departs from reality

President Biden published an op-ed yesterday in the Wall Street Journal putting Big Tech on notice that his administration was working — in fact, has been working — to rein…

Biden’s call to ‘unite against big tech abuses’ sure sounds familiar

The White House this morning unveiled what it’s colloquially calling an “AI Bill of Rights,” which aims to establish tenets around the ways AI algorithms should be deployed as well…

White House proposes voluntary safety and transparency rules around AI

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has confirmed it was hit by a ransomware attack that is causing ongoing technical disruptions. LAUSD is the second largest school district in…

Los Angeles school district warns of disruption as it battles ongoing ransomware attack

A new White House directive will require academic journals to provide immediate access to papers that are publicly funded. Announced Thursday, the policy, which will be phased in over the…

New White House directive will require free access to studies funded by tax dollars

The Department of Justice is preparing a second major antitrust suit against Google, according to new reporting by Bloomberg. The DOJ could sue Google “as soon as next month,” according…

The DOJ is reportedly prepping an antitrust suit against Google over its ad business

Patent trolling, critics say, is guided by one principle alone: money. Yet tackling it remains a complex task with many angles. Today, a consortium called LOT — set up to…

LOT, the anti-patent-troll group, launches Adapt to tackle inclusion in the world of IP

Elon Musk has dominated this summer’s headlines beyond the EV business he’s trying to scale. During the first half of July, the Tesla CEO commanded attention for adding twins to…

4 indicators to watch for on Tesla Q2 earnings day

Researchers at cybersecurity company Proofpoint said they have observed the China-backed advanced persistent threat group, TA412, also known as Zirconium, engaging in several reconnaissance phishing campaigns since early last year.…

China-backed hackers targeted White House journalists before January 6

An executive order signed by President Biden places the White House’s weight firmly behind states where access to abortion is guaranteed, urging the FTC and other executive entities to examine…

Biden order fortifies data privacy ahead of state-by-state legal battle over abortion

The U.S. House Oversight Committee is probing a collection of period tracking apps and data brokers in light of emerging concerns about how private health data might be weaponized in…

Congress probes period tracking apps and data brokers over abortion privacy concerns

Tesla plans to begin opening its Supercharger network to other electric vehicles by the end of the year, according to a White House memo that shared the automaker’s plans. The…

White House: Tesla to expand its US Supercharger network to other EVs in late 2022

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, some Facebook and Instagram users planning to help distribute legal abortion pills are finding themselves censored. According…

Facebook and Instagram are removing posts offering to mail abortion pills

Google Cloud is holding its annual Security Summit this week and unsurprisingly, the company used the event to launch a few new security features. This year, the announcements focus on…

Google Cloud launches new software supply chain and zero trust security services

Tech giants including Amazon, Google and Microsoft have pledged millions of dollars to bolster the security of open source software. The pledge was made during a meeting in Washington, DC…

Tech giants pledge $30M to boost open source software security

Back in February, Amazon tried to arrest labor organizer Christian Smalls for bringing food to warehouse employees during a union drive. One unfathomably monumental labor victory later, and today, the…

Amazon Labor Union president tells Senate that workers’ rights aren’t a ‘Democrat or Republican’ issue

The political agreement reached late last month between the European Union and the United States on a new trans-Atlantic data transfers pact, which aims to end years of legal uncertainty…

EU-US trans-Atlantic data transfers ‘deal in principle’ faces tough legal review

The Biden White House showed off a new executive order on Wednesday regarding the regulation of cryptocurrencies. The order essentially lays out a broad strategy for how the government plans…

White House issues its executive order on cryptocurrencies

Meta’s external advisory organization issued new recommendations Tuesday, urging the company to bolster its policies that protect users against doxing. Facebook requested advice on the policy last year, acknowledging that…

Meta’s Oversight Board urges Facebook and Instagram to tighten doxing rules

Quantum computing promises to unlock a new wave of processing power for the most complex calculations, but that could prove to be just as harmful as it is helpful: security…

PQShield raises $20M for its quantum-ready, future-proof cryptographic security solutions

With COP26 negotiations in full throw this week, the climate is probably the highest up the global agenda it’s ever been. And as the world slowly emerges from the global…

Watr launches ESG-oriented blockchain for commodities, partners with Algorand

Infrastructure on this level will need robust changes that incorporate emerging technologies during design and construction, or much of the construction will only hamper our major cities and hubs.

The US infrastructure bill is a huge opportunity. Let’s not waste it

YouTube expanded its medical misinformation policies today to include new guidelines that ban vaccine misinformation. The Google-owned video platform had previously banned over 1 million videos spreading dangerous COVID-19 misinformation.…

YouTube will now ban content with vaccine misinformation

As the broader crypto world enjoys a late summer surge in enthusiasm, more and more blockchain developers who have taken the plunge are bumping into the blaring scaling issues faced…

Offchain Labs raises $120 million to fix Ethereum’s shortcomings with its Arbitrum product

The survey asked professionals: Do you believe antitrust legislation should be used to break up Big Tech companies like Amazon and Google?

A majority of tech workers support antitrust legislation enforcement

Biden’s major bipartisan infrastructure plan struck a rare chord of cooperation between Republicans and Democrats, but changes it proposes to cryptocurrency regulation are tripping up the bill. The administration intends…

Crypto community slams ‘disastrous’ new amendment to Biden’s big infrastructure bill

Facebook posted its second quarter earnings Wednesday, beating expectations with $29 billion in revenue. The world’s biggest social media company was expected to report $27.8 billion in revenue for the…

Facebook warns of ‘headwinds’ to its ad business from regulators and Apple