By Brian Fung, CNN Two Democratic senators urged Meta this week to suspend a reported plan to offer Horizon Worlds, the company’s flagship virtual reality app, to teens between the ages of 13 and 17, arguing the technology could harm young users’ physical and mental health. The lawmakers, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey and Connecticut Sen.
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By Jennifer Korn GoodRx customers who typically receive emails about prescription drug deals and refill reminders from the company saw something very different in their inboxes this week. GoodRX sent a notice to users detailing allegations from the Federal Trade Commission that the company shared sensitive health data with third parties for advertising purposes without
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By Catherine Thorbecke, CNN Waymo, the self-driving car division of Google’s parent company Alphabet, said on Wednesday that it has cut approximately 8% of its staff across two rounds of layoffs this year. Some 209 jobs were eliminated in total, after cuts in late January and another more recent round, the company confirmed on Wednesday.
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By Brian Fung, CNN A personal Twitter account belonging to Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee was suspended without warning or explanation, according to the senator. Tweeting from his official Senate account, Lee said he has reached out to Twitter “seeking answers.” “My personal Twitter account — @BasedMikeLee — has been suspended,” Lee tweeted. “Twitter did
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CNN By Jennifer Korn Ryan Reynolds is about to have a nice payday. T-Mobile announced Wednesday that it’s buying budget wireless provider Mint Mobile in a larger deal for up to $1.35 billion. The acquisition of Mint Mobile’s parent Ka’ena Corporation will also include Ultra Mobile, an international calling service, and wireless wholesaler Plum. Reynolds,
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By Samantha Murphy Kelly, CNN Business Prepare to see ChatGPT responses in even more places. OpenAI is opening up access to its ChatGPT tool to third-party businesses, paving the way for the viral AI chatbot to be integrated into numerous apps and services. The company on Wednesday said developers can now access ChatGPT’s application programming
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By Brian Fung, CNN Twitter has unveiled a new policy on violent speech that expands restrictions on some types of threats uttered on its platform, including new prohibitions on using coded language to incite violence indirectly as well as a ban on wishing harm on others and on making direct threats against physical infrastructure. “Healthy
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CNN, CNN BUSINESS By Clare Duffy, CNN Twitter’s timeline page appeared to experience a prolonged outage on Wednesday morning, marking the latest service disruption for the platform under new owner Elon Musk. Some Twitter users who opened up their “for you” timeline were greeted with a blank screen and a message saying, “welcome to your
Continue Reading By Clare Duffy, CNN Twitter’s timeline page appeared to experience a prolonged outage on Wednesday morning, marking the latest service disruption for the platform under new owner Elon Musk. Some Twitter users who opened up their “for you” timeline were greeted with a blank screen and a message saying, “welcome to your timeline,” encouraging them
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By Catherine Thorbecke, CNN TikTok announced Wednesday that every user under 18 will soon have their accounts default to a one-hour daily screen time limit, in one of the most aggressive moves yet by a social media company to prevent teens from endlessly scrolling. Teenage TikTok users will be able to turn off this new
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By Rhea Mogul, CNN India imposed the highest number of internet shutdowns globally in 2022, a new report has revealed, in what critics say is yet another blow to the country’s commitment to freedom of speech and access to information. Of 187 internet shutdowns recorded worldwide, 84 took place in India, according to the report
Continue ReadingBy Xiaofei Xu, Eve Brennan and James Frater, CNN The European Parliament on Tuesday banned TikTok from staff devices over cybersecurity concerns, meaning the Chinese video-sharing app is now barred in all three of the EU’s main institutions. “In view of cybersecurity concerns, in particular regarding data protection and collection of data by third parties,
Continue ReadingBy Brian Fung, CNN The US government is reviewing a policy that permits certain US exports to continue to Huawei, despite an overall push by the Trump and Biden administrations to block the Chinese telecommunications giant from receiving American technology. Alan Estevez, a Commerce Department official, told lawmakers Tuesday that the policy is “under assessment”
Continue ReadingBy Catherine Thorbecke, CNN Mark Zuckerberg said Meta is creating a new “top-level product group” to “turbocharge” the company’s work on AI tools, as it attempts to keep pace with a renewed AI arms race among Big Tech companies. In a Facebook post late Monday, Zuckerberg said the elite new group will initially be formed
Continue ReadingCNN, CNN BUSINESS By Catherine Thorbecke, CNN Mark Zuckerberg said Meta is creating a new “top-level product group” to “turbocharge” the company’s work on AI tools, as it attempts to keep pace with a renewed AI arms race among Big Tech companies. In a Facebook post late Monday, Zuckerberg said the elite new group will
Continue ReadingBy Brian Fung, CNN A powerful House committee voted to advance legislation on Wednesday that would make it easier to ban TikTok from the United States and crack down on other China-related economic activity, amid vocal objections from some lawmakers and civil liberties advocates who argue the proposal is unconstitutionally broad and threatens a wide
Continue ReadingBy Samantha Murphy Kelly, CNN Business Microsoft will roll out on Tuesday an update to Windows 11 that puts its new AI-powered Bing capabilities front and center on its taskbar, one of the operating system’s most widely used features, in the latest sign the company is doubling down on the buzzy technology despite some recent
Continue Reading CNN By Brian Fung, CNN Twitter has unveiled a new policy on violent speech that expands restrictions on some types of threats uttered on its platform, including new prohibitions on using coded language to incite violence indirectly as well as a ban on wishing harm on others and on making direct threats against physical infrastructure.
Continue ReadingBy Catherine Thorbecke, CNN Elon Musk has reclaimed the title of the richest person in the world, per Bloomberg’s tally. The Tesla CEO was unseated from the top spot by Bernard Arnault, CEO of French luxury brand LVMH, in December of last year, making Musk No. 2 on the list for more than two months.
Continue ReadingCNN By Brian Fung, CNN The Canadian government is banning TikTok from official electronic devices, making it the latest to announce restrictions on the short-form video app in light of cybersecurity concerns. The ban is set to take effect on Tuesday. Government-issued devices will be blocked from downloading TikTok, and existing installations of the app
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