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Tech
Meta sees profits soar in first quarter
Facebook-owner Meta on Wednesday said its quarterly profits soared last quarter as the company continues to see stellar ad growth across its family of world-leading social media apps. The company founded by Mark Zuckerberg said that net profit in the January to March period rose to $12.4 billion with total… Read
Microsoft and Amazon face scrutiny from UK competition watchdog over recent AI deals
British competition regulators said Wednesday they'll scrutinize recent artificial intelligence deals by Microsoft and Amazon over concerns that the moves could thwart competition in the AI industry. The Competition and Markets Authority said it's looking into Microsoft's partnership with France's Mistral AI and the company's hiring of key staff from… Read
Report urges fixes to online child exploitation CyberTipline before AI makes it worse
A tipline set up 26 years ago to combat online child exploitation has not lived up to its potential and needs technological and other improvements to help law enforcement go after abusers and rescue victims, a new report from the Stanford Internet Observatory has found. The fixes to what the… Read
Google fires more workers who protested its deal with Israel
Google fired at least 20 more workers in the aftermath of protests over technology the company is supplying the Israeli government amid the Gaza war, bringing the total number of terminated staff to more than 50, a group representing the workers said. It's the latest sign of internal turmoil at… Read
Spotify swings to profit; paying subscribers rise
Music and podcast streaming giant Spotify reported Tuesday an increase in the number of paying subscribers and a rare but lower-than-expected operating profit for the first quarter. The company posted a "new quarterly high" operating profit of 168 million euros ($179 million) -- a turnaround from a loss of 156… Read
Insider Q&A: Trust and safety exec talks about AI and content moderation
Alex Popken was a longtime trust and safety executive at Twitter focusing on content moderation before leaving in 2023. She was the first employee there dedicated to moderating Twitter's advertising business when she started in 2013. Now, she's vice president of trust and safety at WebPurify, a content moderation service… Read
Japan's anti-monopoly body orders Google to fix ad search limits affecting Yahoo
Japan’s antitrust watchdog said Monday that U.S. search giant Google must fix its advertising search restrictions affecting Yahoo in Japan. The Japan Fair Trade Commission said in a statement that its recent study of Google’s practices showed it was undermining fair competition in the advertising market. Yahoo Japan Corp., which… Read
AI begins to make waves at China sex toy expo
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this past weekend, the beginnings of an AI-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures around 70 percent of the world's sex toys, most of it the "hardware" on display at… Read
Microsoft teases lifelike avatar AI tech but gives no release date
Researchers at Microsoft have revealed a new artificial tool that can create deeply realistic human avatars -- but offered no timetable to make it available to the public, citing concerns about facilitating deep fake content. The AI model known as VASA-1, for "visual affective skills," can create an animated video… Read
Google combining its Android software and Pixel hardware divisions to more broadly integrate AI
Google will combine the software division responsible for Android mobile software and the Chrome browser with the hardware division known for Pixel smartphones and Fitbit wearables, the company said. It's part of a broader plan to integrate artificial intelligence more widely throughout the company. In a letter to employees, Google… Read
