AI is coming for us all. Writers, doctors and artists among many others all stand to have their livelihoods decimated by artificial intelligence. And the next potential victim? The Son of God.Peters Chapel in Lucerne, Switzerland, recently unveiled Deus in machina, an experimental art installation that features an AI version of Jesus in the confessional booth, according to its website.Videos by VICEThe church has encouraged visitors to share their thoughts and questions with AI Jesus, though it clarified that this shouldnt be considered the Sacrament of Confession.AI Jesus, whose likeness appears on a screen in the confessional, may create a sacred moment, the church said. Peters Chapel added that the installation is meant to encourage visitors to think critically about the limits of technology in the context of religion.A recent video released by German media out Deutsche Welle took viewers inside the unlikely experience. When the reporter entered the confessional, AI Jesus warned, Do not disclose personal information under any circumstances. Use this service at your own risk. Press the button if you accept.Do People Like AI Jesus?About two-thirds of participants told the outlet that they came out of the tech-assisted confessional having had a spiritual experience.He was able to reaffirm me in my ways of going about things, one woman said. And he helped me with questions I had, like how I can help other people understand Him better and come closer to Him.I was surprised. It was so easy, another woman remarked. Though its a machine, it gave me so much advice, also from a Christian point of view. I felt taken care of and I walked out really consoled.Another person told the outlet that AI Jesus, who speaks 100 languages, gave a great answer to their question about being rational and faithful, while another man dubbed the experience a gimmick for sure.Why Turn to AI for Religion?Marco Schmid, a theologian at Peters Chapel, explained why he agreed to give AI Jesus a try.What were doing here is an experiment, Schmid said. We wanted to launch the discussion by letting people have a very concrete experience with AI. That way, we have a foundation for talking about it and discussing it with one another.He also pointed out the practical benefits of AI Jesus, noting, [Hes accessible] 24 hours a day, so has abilities that pastors dont.While ethics Professor Peter Kirchschlger told the outlet that the project goes too far, he agreed that it provides food for thought.We should be careful when it comes to faith, pastoral care, when finding meaning in religion, he warned. Thats an area where we humans are actually vastly superior to machines, so we should do these things ourselves.

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Lawyers for The New York Times and Daily News, which are suing OpenAI for allegedly scraping their works to train its AI models without permission, say OpenAI engineers accidentally deleted data potentially relevant to the case. Earlier this fall, OpenAI agreed to provide two virtual machines so that counsel for The Times and Daily News could perform searches for their copyrighted content in its AI training sets. (Virtual machines are software-based computers that exist within another computers operating system, often used for the purposes of testing, backing up data, and running apps.) In a letter, attorneys for the publishers say that they and experts they hired have spent over 150 hours since November 1 searching OpenAIs training data.But on November 14, OpenAI engineers erased all the publishers search data stored on one of the virtual machines, according to the aforementioned letter, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York late Wednesday. OpenAI tried to recover the data and was mostly successful. However, because the folder structure and file names were irretrievably lost, the recovered data cannot be used to determine where the news plaintiffs copied articles were used to build [OpenAIs] models, per the letter.News plaintiffs have been forced to recreate their work from scratch using significant person-hours and computer processing time, counsel for The Times and Daily News wrote. The news plaintiffs learned only yesterday that the recovered data is unusable and that an entire weeks worth of its experts and lawyers work must be re-done, which is why this supplemental letter is being filed today.The plaintiffs counsel makes clear that they have no reason to believe the deletion was intentional. But they do say the incident underscores that OpenAI is in the best position to search its own datasets for potentially infringing content using its own tools. An OpenAI spokesperson declined to provide a statement.In this case and others, OpenAI has maintained that training models using publicly available data including articles from The Times and Daily News is fair use. In other words, in creating models likeGPT-4o, which learn from billions of examples of e-books, essays, and more to generate human-sounding text, OpenAI believes that it isnt required to license or otherwise pay for the examples even if it makes money from those models.That being said, OpenAI has inked licensing deals with a growing number of new publishers, including the Associated Press, Business Insider owner Axel Springer, Financial Times, People parent company Dotdash Meredith, and News Corp. OpenAI has declined to make the terms of these deals public, but one content partner, Dotdash, is reportedly being paid at least $16 million per year.OpenAI has neither confirmed nor denied that it trained its AI systems on any specific copyrighted works without permission.

President-elect Donald Trumps pick to lead the Department of Energy is fossil fuel executive Chris Wright who has misleadingly claimed on LinkedIn that there is no climate crisis, and were not in the midst of an energy transition either. Hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, and other disasters exacerbated by climate change are already hitting the US. And renewable energy capacity is on course to more than double globally by the end of the decade.Nevertheless, Wright is a staunch evangelist for fossil fuels who consistently rejects mainstream climate science. While Wright also has ties to the nuclear energy industry, clean energy advocates say that with Trumps cabinet picks, the US is losing ground in the race to deploy renewable energy and fight climate change. Oil and gas companies, meanwhile, are patting themselves on the back. Im one of those people needlessly enriched by [the] bad energy policy environment we live in today.Picking someone like Chris Wright is a clear sign that Trump wants to turn the U.S. into a pariah petrostate, said Jean Su, director of the Center for Biological Diversitys energy justice program, in an emailed statement.Wright is the CEO of Liberty Energy, a major oil and gas service provider that launched during Americas fracking boom more than a decade ago. Around 10 percent of total US primary energy production comes from wells fracked by Liberty, according to the company.In a video posted by the right-wing think tank Heritage Foundation last year, Wright refers to irrationally restrictive policies against the production of oil and natural gas that do nothing to change the demand for oil and natural gas, he claims. Our business today is the most profitable its ever been. As I say, Im one of those people needlessly enriched by [the] bad energy policy environment we live in today. I dont celebrate that. In fact, I adamantly oppose it.RelatedTrump campaigned on a Republican platform that says simply, We will DRILL, BABY, DRILL.Wright will be a key leader, driving innovation [and] cutting red tape, Trump said on Truth Social announcing the appointment, which still needs to be confirmed by the Senate, over the weekend. He also said Wright would join a new Council of National Energy tasked with focusing on INNOVATION over longstanding, but totally unnecessary, regulation.A biography of Wright included with Trumps statement says the prospective Secretary of Energy is a self-described tech nerd turned entrepreneur who embraces all energy sources if they are abundant, affordable, and reliable and has worked in the fossil fuel, nuclear, solar, and geothermal industries. Liberty has invested in the geothermal energy startup Fervo Energy, which is working with Google to provide electricity for data centers in Nevada. Wrights appointment could also be a boon for nuclear energy. He sits on the board of Oklo, a company developing advanced nuclear reactors, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Tech companies have signed a slew of nuclear energy deals this year to try to satiate growing electricity demand from AI data centers. Trumps Agenda 47says hell support nuclear energy production... by modernizing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, working to keep existing power plants open, and investing in innovative small modular reactors. On a related note, Trumps pick to lead deregulatory efforts at the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, said he wants to make America the AI capital of the world.The fossil fuel industry is still home base for Wright, however. Chris Wright has a special connection as a fellow MIT alum and vocal promoter of the oil and natural gas industry, Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance that is made up of oil and gas companies, said in an emailed statement.Wrights sales pitch for methane, marketed by the industry as natural gas, is typically that its an affordable source of energy. My dedication to bettering human lives remains steadfast, with a focus on making American energy more affordable, reliable, and secure, Wright said in a post on X.But tumbling prices for renewable energy infrastructure have made onshore wind and solar farms cheaper sources of electricity than fossil fuels in most of the world. If we turn our back on the cheapest forms of new energy like solar and wind power it will make energy more expensive for American consumers, Environmental Defense Fund executive director Amanda Leland said in a statement. Any nominee, including Chris Wright, who ignores the stakes in this global clean energy race or fails to recognize the urgent challenge of climate change should concern all of us.

Since election day in the US, usage of the Bluesky app is more than 500% higher in the US and over 350% higher in the UK.Bluesky, the social networking service originally created as a spin-off from Twitter, is seeing the most sustained growth since it emerged from an extended invite-only beta test period. The growth is linked to users either leaving X or investing more time in exploring a promising alternative.As Techdirt editor and Bluesky board member Mike Masnick noted in a post, this burst of new users is shaping up to be different than any the service has seen previously. Before he joined the board, Masnick is the author of the paper credited with inspiring the creation of Bluesky, Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech.Key takeawaysOn Nov. 6, the day after the US presidential election, both website traffic and app usage spiked for Bluesky in the US as it became the destination of choice for journalists and opinion leaders (as well as followers of those people) who decided to either stop using X or begin using it less.In the days since the election (through Friday, November 15), usage of the Bluesky app is up 519% compared to the first 10 months of the year. The UK echoed the trend, with Bluesky usage up 352% compared with the first 10 months of the year.Blueskys audience is still much smaller than that for Threads, let alone X but could catch up with Threads if it keeps growing at this rate. As of Nov. 15, the US daily active user count for X was more than 10 times that of Bluesky, and Threads is more than 1.5 times bigger than Bluesky. Prior to the election, Threads had over 5 times more daily active users, so Bluesky has narrowed the gap considerably.Based on worldwide estimates for Android, Bluesky usage since election day is up more than 360% from where it was in the first half of the year.Accelerating daily growth in the US and UKThe growth of Bluesky has been fueled by a rush of users either deactivating their accounts on X (see our blog post) or committing to use it less while exploring alternatives. Threads, the Meta Platforms alternative, is significantly bigger and also seeing strong growth, but the explosion of use of Bluesky in the US is more sudden and dramatic. The political dimension of the change is that X owner Elon Musk made himself an outspoken advocate for the candidacy of Donald Trump, although some users may be switching for various reasons such as changes in Xs algorithms and policies.Bluesky and its user and developer communities have been actively encouraging the transition with mechanisms such as Starter Packs of recommended users to follow (searchable via blueskydirectory.com) and a Chrome extension that helps automatically map the accounts a user follows on X to their new home on Bluesky.Heres the dramatic uptick of daily active users of the app in the US and for the UK.In both the US and the UK, visits to the Bluesky website surged ahead of those for the Threads website, reflecting strong interest from potential new users.A different pattern worldwideWorldwide, the pattern looks different, particularly as measured by app daily active users (for Android, in this case), reflecting a huge influx of Brazilian users during the period when access to X was banned in that country. That increase was more than twice as big as the recent post-election surge (see detail below).Worldwide, Bluesky didnt quite surpass Threads in website daily visits in the days since the election, but it came close.Boom and bust in Brazil leaves X with much higher usage, albeit down from the peakWhen using X was not an option for users in Brazil, many of them picked Bluesky over Threads as the substitute that was closest to the experience they were used to. After the government lifted its ban on X, usage dropped dramatically as X users returned to that platform. However, usage of Bluesky for the most recent week, at 1.4 million daily active users on Android, was still about 17 times higher than it was earlier this year.A strong trend, at least for nowAt the moment, Bluesky is enjoying a virtuous cycle of rapidly increasing usage driving press coverage, which in turn drives more users to sign up and begin experimenting with Bluesky. The Washington Post headline Liberals are fleeing X again this time for Bluesky explains part of this phenomenon. Political leanings arent the only reason to switch, however. Bluesky offers features some users find appealing, such as a decreased emphasis on algorithmically driven newsfeeds in favor of more personally created feeds of accounts to follow and also shared lists of accounts worth blocking.We will be watching to see if the strong upward trend for Bluesky that has persisted since the election proves lasting for the weeks and months to come.The Similarweb Press Office can pull additional or updated data on request for the news media (write to press@similarweb.com). When citing our data, please reference Similarweb as the source and link back to this post.MethodologyDisclaimer: All names, brands, trademarks, and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The data, reports, and other materials provided or made available by Similarweb consist of or include estimated metrics and digital insights generated by Similarweb using its proprietary algorithms, based on information collected by Similarweb from multiple sources using its advanced data methodologies. Similarweb shall not be responsible for the accuracy of such data, reports, and materials and shall have no liability for any decision by any third party based in whole or in part on such data, reports, and materials.by David F. Carr David covers social media, digital advertising, and generative AI. With a background in web trends since the 1990s, hes also the author of "Social Collaboration for Dummies". Related Topics: Social Media NewsThis post is subject to Similarweb legal notices and disclaimers.

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Valve Nearly Went Bankrupt Before Launching Half-Life 2 and Steam; Company Saved by a Summer Intern In a recent documentary about the creation of Half-Life 2, an interesting story emerged about how Valve nearly went bankrupt before they could launch the game and digital storefront Steam, due to a legal battle with Vivendi. The company was saved by an employee hired for a summer internship (basically an intern), who is also largely responsible for the world of PC gaming as we know it today.The problems began when Sierra, the original publisher of Half-Life, was acquired by the French conglomerate Vivendi. Vivendi began distributing Counter-Strike in South Korean internet cafes, which Valve did not like because it was not part of the original contract with Sierra. For Valve, however, this was a minor issue.According to Scott Lynch, Valves COO, the company simply wanted recognition that the original agreement had been violated. Vivendi, however, did not budge, and Valve filed a lawsuit, asking only for recognition of its rights and reimbursement of legal fees. In response, Lynch said, Vivendi decided to start World War 3. What happened was a huge pile of counter-complaints that came in, explained Valve counsel Karl Quackenbush. Everything from canceling the 2001 deal, to getting ownership of the Half-Life IP, to preventing us from doing Steam.Valve was a successful development studio at the time, but not one with unlimited funds. Vivendi had terrifying firepower in comparison and was bloodthirsty, so much so that it explicitly wanted to bankrupt Valve and destroy Lynch and Newell.Failure was indeed a near-miss, according to Newell, because there was no more money, a fact confirmed by Lynch, who explained: Gabe had basically run out of cash and was like, Should I put the house up for sale? I said, Yeah, I think its time to put the house up for sale if were going to continue.'But then came the lucky break, with the hiring of Andrew for a summer internship. Vivendi had submitted millions of pages of Korean-language documents to the cybercafe lawsuit, hoping to be saved by the volume and the language barrier. Andrew was a native Korean speaker and had a degree in the language. He was the one who found the classic needle in the haystack: in an email, a Korean Vivendi executive mentioned destroying documents related to the Valve case.He had essentially been ordered by his superiors to make them disappear. With such evidence in hand, Valve turned the tables in court, extracting a very favorable settlement and keeping all its intellectual property.In short, without Andrews intervention, Valves fate would have been uncertain and, after the launch of Half-Life 2, the company would have risked disappearing. Andrew saved a good part of the video game world, then, and allowed us to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2.(Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and readability.)More MP1st Reading:Thanks, newSillssa! Tags:Half-Life 2SteamValve Sam Shahbaz

/November 18, 2024/11:16 p.m. ETDid President Biden Just Save the CHIPS Act From Trump?The president just secured a $6.6 billion deal to build factories in Arizonasetting up a showdown when Trump, who is vehemently opposed to the key pillar of Biden's economic program, takes office.Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesNancy Pelosi celebrates the passage of the CHIPS Act in July. President Biden may have secured a government program that funds semiconductor manufacturing in the United States, critical for electronics companies.The Biden administration announced Friday that a $6.6 billion deal with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to build three fabrication plants near Phoenix had been finalized, creating thousands of jobs in Arizona. Semiconductors are used in nearly every electronic device, including cell phones, airplanes, and cars.This is a gigantic announcement, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo told reporters Friday. This will be one of the most important investments that we make as a country to advance our economic and national security.The deal was initially announced in April, with $6.6 billion in grants promised to the Taiwanese company along with $5 billion in loans. The funding comes from the CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law by Biden in 2022, which allots $52.7 billion for chip research, manufacturing and workforce development. TSMC makes chips for leading tech companies such as Apple, NVIDIA and AMDl.President-Elect Donald Trump has attacked the bill, claiming in April that the U.S. shouldnt be giving [Taiwan] billions of dollars to build chips. Trumps stance led to House Speaker Mike Johnson, who voted against the CHIPS Act, saying days before the 2024 election that he would try to repeal the bill if Trump was elected.Later, Johnson was forced to backtrack after his fellow Republican Representative Brandon Williams pointed out that a new $100 billion chip-making factory was going to be built in Williamss central New York district thanks to the bill. The Arizona deal is the biggest such foreign investment in U.S. history, according to the White House, and its finalization means that the government is obligated to follow through with its funding promises to TSMC, making it very hard, if not virtually impossible, for Trump to scuttle the CHIPS Act.Its a binding contract, said Ryan Harper, the White House CHIPS implementation coordinator. The company, as long as it meets its milestones, has a contractual binding agreement from the government to move forward.In his first term as president, Trump backed then-Wisconsin Governor Scott Walkers effort to bring Taiwanese manufacturing company Foxconn to the Badger State, with the Republican Walker offering the company $3 billion in subsidies in exchange for the promise of 10,000 new jobs and a $10 billion investment in the state.But the bill didnt deliver the promised jobs, with government subsidies ballooning to over $4.5 billion, Foxconn reducing the size of the planned factory by half, and robots doing most of the work. Walker ultimately was voted out of office because of the deal, which his Democratic successor, Tony Evers, was forced to rework. Today, the factory that was actually built only employs 1,000 people, and Wisconsin now has its hopes in the CHIPS Acts funding for something new.Bidens completed Arizona deal likely means that he can leave office with the CHIPS Act as one of his signature achievements, a small silver lining in the face of Trumps election victory. He can also point to the fact that, should everything in the contract unfold as it should, that he succeeded where Trump and Republicans previously failed.Editor's PickThe Case For Ignoring Trumps Daily Rage-Bait/November 18, 2024/11:10 p.m. ETThe Trump-Musk Bromance Has Entered a New PhaseEveryone in Trump's orbit might hate the tech billionaire, but Trump is still going everywhere with him. MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty ImagesA SpaceX rocket blasts offFrom cageside at UFC309 to side by side at the upcoming SpaceX launch, the Trump-Musk bromance knows no bounds.Its been reported that Trump will be present at SpaceXs Texas headquarters to watch a rocket shoot into the sky and before it ultimately crashes into the Indian Ocean on Tuesday. This was deduced after the Federal Aviation Administration issued flight restrictions for the president-elect at the same time and in the same area as Musks SpaceX launch. Neither Trump nor Musk have commented publicly yet.Musk has been a mainstay within the Trump team, spending countless days at Mar-a-Lago by the president-elects side. As Trumps biggest and most enthusiastic donor hes been rewarded with official leadership of the (mostly fake) Department of Government Efficiency and unofficial direct access to Trump. He has joined important diplomatic phone calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and others. Hes also expected to have an outsized role in choosing the next Department of Transportation that will surely benefit his finances as an electric vehicle company CEO.This is all much to the chagrin of Trumps inner circle, as the richest man in the world is constantly contradicting and circumventing them in Trumps ear. While its unclear how long this honeymoon will last, we know that as long as Trump likes Elon, the billionaire can do whatever he wants.Most Recent Post/November 18, 2024/10:31 p.m. ETPennsylvania Supreme Court Throws Out Votes as Senate Recount BeginsThe Pennsylvania state Supreme Court has ruled some votes cannot be counted.Rebecca Droke/AFP/Getty ImagesThe recount for Pennsylvanias U.S. Senate race wont count undated or incorrectly dated mail-in ballots, a major blow to voting rights.In an opinion filed Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that ballots that failed to arrive with a correct handwritten date on the return envelope, and thereby failed to comply with the requirements of the state election code, would not be included in the final vote tally in the race between Senator Bob Casey and his Republican opponent, Dave McCormick.McCormick was deemed the winner of the race nearly two weeks ago, nabbing 48.9 percent of the vote with 99 percent reporting compared to Caseys 48.5 percent. As the week wore on and Pennsylvanias various counties continued to tally their ballots, it became evident that the competitors were separated by fewer than 23,000 votes. By Monday, that number had dwindled to 17,000 out of almost seven million ballots that had already been recounted, reported the Associated Press.Democratic-controlled election boards in three countiesMontgomery, Philadelphia, and Bucks Countieshad argued that an incorrect date said nothing about the voters eligibility to cast their ballot.The Republican National Committee and the Pennsylvania Republican Party filed an emergency request on Thursday, asking the state Supreme Court for an immediate ruling on the case, contesting that the date was still a key component to ballot security.The court ruled 43 in their favor on Monday, with Justices Kevin Brobson, Sallie Updyke Mundy, Kevin Dougherty, and David Wecht slamming some of the counties for considering the ballots.It is critical to the rule of law that individual counties and municipalities and their elected and appointed officials, like any other parties, obey the order of this court. As Justice Felix Frankfurter once wrote: If one man can be allowed to determine for himself what is law, every man can, wrote Justice Wecht in a statement, joined by Justice Mundy. That means first chaos, then tyranny. The greater the power that defies law the less tolerant can this Court be of defiance.Read more about Pennsylvania:No, Pennsylvania Democrats Arent Trying to Steal Senate ElectionMost Recent Post/November 18, 2024/10:07 p.m. ETTrumps Department of Transportation Is Going to Be a NightmareNone of the likely nominees to lead the department are remotely qualified.JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty ImagesDonald Trump yells into a truck steering wheel in 2017.The Trump transition team continues to float wildly unqualified people to serve in very important positions.Politico reported on Monday that the short list to head the Department of Transportation includes Representative Sean Duffy, former Uber executive Emil Michael, and Representative Jenn Denham.Duffy, who is on the short list, is a former reality TV star and Fox News talking head who has been critical of Trump in the past. Michael is well liked by billionaire Trump surrogate Elon Musk (maybe because hes an investor in Musks SpaceX company). And Denham, perhaps the most qualified, thinks energy-efficient high-speed rail is an example of runaway government spending.These picks all align with Trumps bleak pro-business, anti-regulation vision for the Department of Transportation. Enjoy your walkable cities and decent public transportation (if you even have it) while you can.Editor's PickWill Trump Break Congress to Confirm Matt Gaetz?Most Recent Post/November 18, 2024/10:02 p.m. ETWatch: Mike Johnson Offers Bonkers Defense of Trump Cabinets MoralsThe House speaker had no actual defense for the nightmare people Donald Trump has picked.Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesHouse Speaker Mike Johnson didnt even bother trying to defend the quality of Donald Trumps Cabinet nominees. During an interview on CNN Sunday, host Jake Tapper asked Johnson about the president-elects recent nominations, who represent a slew of ethical dilemmas that might offend a Christian who openly totes his values like Johnson does. While the Louisiana Republican may not be offended by any of Trumps nominees policy ideas, one might imagine hed be offended by their principlesor lack thereof. Trumps picks include former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who allegedly paid two women to have sex with him and has been accused of committing statutory rape (he has denied any wrongdoing); Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth, who reportedly paid a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her as part of a nondisclosure agreement (he insists the encounter was consensual); and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaxxer who was caught in a messy extramarital affair during his failed presidential campaign.Youre a man of faith, youre a man of God, youre a man of family. With some of these nominees, Gaetz, Hegseth, RFK Jr., I wonder, does it matter anymore for Republicans to think of leaders as people who are moral in their personal lives? Is that still important to the Republican Party? Tapper asked. Um, sure. Its an important issue for anyone in leadership, Johnson replied, quickly changing the subject. This is what Ill say about the nominees that the president has put forward is that they are persons who will shake up the status quo.Johnson insisted that Trumps picks were disruptors by designanother way of saying theyre not good guys, but thats kind of the point. This shouldnt come as a surprise, though, as Johnson seems to have had no problem cozying up with Trump, a rapist who was convicted of 34 counts for falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments made to keep an adult film actress quiet about his own extramarital affair. Read more about the Cabinet:These Damning New Matt Gaetz Details Could Sink His NominationMost Recent Post/November 18, 2024/9:47 p.m. ETDonald Trump is Already Looking to Gut Medicaid Republicans are looking to cut federal assistance programs in order to extend Trumps 2017 corporate tax cut. Raedle/Getty ImagesDonald Trump at a town hall event in JanuaryNow that Donald Trump will be the next president, Republicans are eyeing overhauls to safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps.The Washington Post reports that Trumps advisers are speaking with Republicans in Congress about making big changes to federal assistance programs to pay for extending Trumps 2017 tax cuts. These changes include new work requirements and spending caps, according to anonymous sources familiar with the discussions.Some Republicans have misgivings about how such changes will go over with the public, the Post reports, noting that these programs support at least 70 million low-income and disabled Americans.I dont think that passing just an extension of tax cuts that shows on paper an increase in the deficit [is] going to be challenging, one Republican tax adviser told the Post. But the other side of the coin is, you start to add things to reduce the deficit, and that gets politically more challenging.Parts of the bill are set to expire in 2025, and extending those provisions will add over $4 trillion to the national debt, which is already high at $36 trillion. Trumps campaign promises of cutting taxes on tips and overtime will only add to that total. While Republicans say they support Trumps further cuts, they dont want more government borrowing, so they are looking for places to save money.Social welfare programs have long been in Republican crosshairs. For example, Republicans could revive their efforts to cut food stamps, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, especially because the benefit automatically increases with inflation. They could also try to impose more limits on what food products can be bought under the program. But Republicans have taken heat in the past for merely floating cuts to these programs, and Democrats would likely seize on further attempts.Trumps 2017 tax overhaul cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans and corporations, and companies used that savings to buy back their own stock instead of doing things that wouldactually benefitthe economy, for instance creating jobs. Extending those provisions would likely lead to more of the same, with the added cruelty of cutting government assistance to the most vulnerable of Americans.Editor's PickMost Recent Post/November 18, 2024/9:41 p.m. ETYou Wont Believe Whos Trying to Stop The Onion Buying InfowarsThe call is coming from inside Alex Joness house.Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesInfoWars may have been bought and sold out from under Alex Jones, but that doesnt mean the conspiracy theorist is giving up the fight.A company affiliated with JonesFirst United American Companies, which sells dietary supplementslost its bid for the far-right network last week, underbidding The Onion, which went on to claim InfoWars as its own. But the saga hasnt ended there: In an attempt to recoup the lost bid, FUAC accused the bankruptcy trustee overseeing the auction of colluding with the satirical news site, as well as families of the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre, to pass over the groups $3.5 million bid.But those allegations didnt fly with the trustee, who on Monday argued in a legal notice that the groups emergency motion was nothing more than a disappointed bidders improper attempt to influence an otherwise fair and open auction process.Having failed in its prior efforts to bully the Trustee and his advisors into accepting its inferior bid, FUAC now alleges, without evidence, collusion and bad faith in an attempt to mislead the Court and disqualify its only competition in the auction, Christopher R. Murray, the bankruptcy trustee, wrote in the filing.The Onion reportedly bid $1.75 million for the site, in addition to incentives promised by the Sandy Hook families, who won a $1.5 billion lawsuit against Jones. (The families have since agreed to settle with Jones for a minimum sum of $85 million.) The families agreed to forgo up to 100% of their share of the Infowars sale proceeds and give it to other Jones creditors, reported ABC News. Jones repeatedly claimed that the 2012 shooting that left 20 first graders and six teachers dead was a front to lure voters toward gun control policies. In the run-up to the auction, Jones had appeared to be under the impression that good guys on the right would buy his fringe network, though he did not reveal who they were. Several groups expressed interest in InfoWars assets, including a coalition of liberal and anti-disinformation watchdog groups, according to The Daily Beast, as well as some of Joness own supporters, such as Donald Trump ally Roger Stone. The sale, however, has effectively crushed what was arguably Joness most successful endeavor while marking the beginning of his descent into irrelevancy.Were obviously disappointed hes lashing out by creating conspiracies, but were also not surprised, Ben Collins, CEO of The Onions parent company, Global Tetrahedron, said in a statement Monday.Read about Infowarss new owner:Most Recent Post/November 18, 2024/9:21 p.m. ETThese Damning New Matt Gaetz Details Could Sink His NominationTwo women testified that Matt Gaetz had paid them for sex.Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/Getty ImagesMatt Gaetz, the MAGA Republican congressman nominated to be the next attorney general, allegedly paid two women for sex, according to the lawyer who represented the women before the House Ethics Committee. Attorney Joel Leppard told ABC News Monday that his clients had testified to the Ethics Committee that theyd been paid for sex through Venmo. They essentially put the Venmo payments on the screen and asked about them. And my clients repeatedly testified, What was this payment for? That was for sex, Leppard explained.Leppard said that one of his clients had also alleged that she saw Gaetz having sex with her 17-year-old friend. She testified [that] in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Rep. Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17, Leppard said.Leppard explained that his client had testified that Gaetz was not aware that the girl was underage. Her understanding was that Matt Gaetz did not know that she was a minor, and that when he learned that she was a minor, that he broke off things and did not continue a sexual relationship until she turned 18, Leppard said.Gaetz has been the subject of a multiyear ethics investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, sharing inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, and converting campaign funds for personal use. The House Ethics Committee is set to vote Wednesday on whether to release its report on Gaetz. Last week, Donald Trump nominated Gaetz to be attorney general, a mind-boggling pick considering that Gaetz has no experience as a judge or government lawyer. Rather, his only qualification is his unfaltering loyalty to the president-elect. The freshly Republican-led Senate will be forced to weigh the allegations against Gaetz when considering his confirmation, and even if the report is not formally released, the serious allegations against him have continued to mount.A separate lawsuit filed last week involves a number of people involved in the criminal investigation into Gaetz, leading to a new record of evidence outside of the ethics report, according to CNNs Paula Reid. Gaetz was previously investigated by the Justice Department over allegations that hed engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old girl and violated sex trafficking laws, but no charges were ever formally filed against him. The evidence entered into this new lawsuit reportedly included the underage victims testimony that shed had sex with Gaetz on an air hockey table.Gaetz has repeatedly denied any allegations of wrongdoing. Last week, Senator John Cornyn said that there should not be any limitation on the Senates investigation into Gaetz, and insisted that he absolutely wanted to see the ethics report on the former Florida congressperson, who has since resigned from his seat. Last week, John Clune, the attorney representing the underaged woman, posted on X urging for the committee to release its report. Mr. Gaetzs likely nomination as attorney general is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events, wrote Clune. We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses.Read more about Gaetz:Republican Senators Warn Matt Gaetz Is Totally DoomedMost Recent Post/November 18, 2024/7:39 p.m. ETChristian Nationalist Tries to Push Trump Prayer on Oklahoma SchoolsThe states superintendent, already under fire for his plan to buy Trump-branded Bibles, is in hot water again.Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesDonald Trump holds a Bible in his hands while doing a photo op amid racial justice protests in June 2020. Oklahomas state superintendent of schools, Ryan Walters, wants every teacher in the state to show a video message from him to their classes which shows him praying for Donald Trump.Unfortunately for Walters, the state attorney general says that he cant require students to watch the video,which also announces the creation of a new Department of Religious Freedom and Patriotism, and at least seven of Oklahomas school districts say they wont show it.There is no statutory authority for the state schools superintendent to require all students to watch a specific video, Phil Bacharach, a spokesman for the Oklahoma attorney generals office, told The Oklahoman. Not only is this edict unenforceable, it is contrary to parents rights, local control and individual free-exercise rights.On Thursday night, Walters sent out an email to Oklahomas public school superintendents ordering them to show his one-minute-and-24-second video to students. The email contained several grammatical errors, with Walters writing, We are in a dangerous time for this country. Students [sic]rights and freedoms regarding religious liberties are continuously under assault.Walters wrote in the email that the new department will be working to thwart any attempts to disrupt our Oklahoma students [sic] fundamental freedoms. The video closed with a prayer (which he said students did not have to participate in) where Walters asked for blessings on President Trump and his team as they continue to bring about change to the country.But the superintendents of the Edmond, Mustang, Moore, Norman, Owasso, Tulsa, and Midwest CityDel City public school districts said they would not be showing the video, rebuffing Walters.On the same day, the state superintendent announced that 500 Bibles had been purchased for Oklahomas public schools for about $25,000, despite the fact that lawsuits have been filed over Walterss attempts to integrate Bibles into school curriculum. Walterss Bible specifications have also been attacked, as only one Bible seemed to fit the specific requirements: Trumps God Bless the USA Bible.Walterss video and Bible purchases are only his latest attempts to push Christian nationalism in Oklahomas public schools, and like his other efforts, are legally questionable at best. After Trumps election and the GOPs takeover of Congress, though, Walters is probably feeling quite emboldened to ramp up his agenda. Editor's PickThe True Threat to American RetirementMost Recent Post/November 18, 2024/6:03 p.m. ETRon DeSantis Cant Stop Copying Trump DeSantiss tired imitation game grated on voters once already. But hes back at it again.Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesRon DeSantis in IowaRon DeSantis just cant seem to drop the wannabe Trump routine.The Florida governor will stage an Apprentice-style extensive vetting process to determine a replacement for Senator Marco Rubio, who is expected to serve as Donald Trumps secretary of state pending confirmation.We have already received strong interest from several possible candidates with a selection likely made by the beginning of January, DeSantis wrote on X. Florida deserves a Senator who will help President Trump deliver on his election mandate, be strong on immigration and border security, take on the entrenched bureaucracy and administrative state, reverse the nations fiscal decline, be animated by conservative principles, and has a proven record of results.DeSantiss pick will serve until 2026. Trumps daughter-in-law Lara Trump, Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuez, Attorney General Ashley Moody, former Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva, and chief of staff James Uthmeier have all been floated as possible replacements for Rubio.This is yet another example of DeSantiss weak Trump impersonation, a futile attempt to sell himself to the MAGA base. He took the same position on Ukraine as Trump, has railed against critical race theory and transgender children, claimed that slavery was beneficial to personal development, and even tried standing like the president-elect.And yet DeSantis has received nothing for his mimicry, not even Cabinet position. The governor continues to fade into the GOP ether as conservatives continue to choose the real thing.View More Posts

Trump makes FCC chair pick Trumps FCC chair is Brendan Carr, who wants to regulate everyone except ISPs Carr says he wants to punish broadcast media and dismantle "censorship cartel." Jon Brodkin Nov 18, 2024 12:20 pm | 136 Federal Communications Commission member Brendan Carr speaks during the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland on February 24, 2024. Credit: Getty Images | Anadolu Federal Communications Commission member Brendan Carr speaks during the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland on February 24, 2024. Credit: Getty Images | Anadolu Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn morePresident-elect Donald Trump announced last night that he will make Brendan Carr the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Carr, who wrote a chapter about the FCC for the conservative Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, is a longtime opponent of net neutrality rules and other regulations imposed on Internet service providers.Although Carr wants to deregulate telecom companies that the FCC has historically regulated, he wants the FCC to start regulating Big Tech and social media firms. He has also echoed Trump's longtime complaints about the news media and proposed punishments for broadcast networks.Trump's statement on Carr said that "because of his great work, I will now be designating him as permanent Chairman.""Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans' Freedoms, and held back our Economy," Trump wrote. "He will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America's Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America."Carr is a sitting FCC commissioner and therefore no Senate approval is needed to confirm the choice. The president can elevate any commissioner to the chair spot.Carr wants to punish broadcastersCarr thanked Trump in a post on his X account last night, then made several more posts describing some of the changes he plans to make at the FCC. One of Carr's posts said the FCC will crack down on broadcast media."Broadcast media have had the privilege of using a scarce and valuable public resourceour airwaves. In turn, they are required by law to operate in the public interest. When the transition is complete, the FCC will enforce this public interest obligation," Carr wrote.We described Carr's views on how the FCC should operate in an article on November 7, just after Trump's election win. We wrote:A Carr-led FCC could also try to punish news organizations that are perceived to be anti-Trump. Just before the election, Carr alleged that NBC putting Kamala Harris on Saturday Night Live was "a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC's Equal Time rule" and that the FCC should consider issuing penalties. Despite Carr's claim, NBC did provide equal time to the Trump campaign.Previous chairs defended free speechPrevious FCC chairs from both major parties have avoided punishing news organizations because of free speech concerns. Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel, the current FCC chairwoman, last month criticized Trump's calls for licenses to be revoked from TV news organizations whose coverage he dislikes."While repeated attacks against broadcast stations by the former President may now be familiar, these threats against free speech are serious and should not be ignored," Rosenworcel said at the time. "As I've said before, the First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy. The FCC does not and will not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage."Former Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican, rejected the idea of revoking licenses in 2017 after similar calls from Trump. Pai said that the FCC "under my leadership will stand for the First Amendment" and that "the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on the content of a particular newscast."Carr believes differently. After the Saturday Night Live incident, Carr told Fox News that "all remedies should be on the table," including "license revocations" for NBC.We've pointed out repeatedly that the FCC doesn't actually license TV networks such as CBS or NBC. But the FCC could punish affiliates. The FCC's licensing authority is over broadcast stations, many of which are affiliated with or owned by a big network.Carr targets censorship cartelCarr wrote last night that "we must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans." This seems to be referring to making social media networks change how they moderate content. On November 15, Carr wrote that "Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft & others have played central roles in the censorship cartel," along with fact-checking groups and ad agencies that "helped enforce one-sided narratives."During his first presidential term, Trump formally petitioned the FCC to reinterpret Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in a way that would limit social media platforms' legal protections for hosting third-party content when the platforms take down content they consider objectionable.Trump and Carr have claimed that such a step is necessary because of anti-conservative bias. In his Project 2025 chapter, Carr wrote that the FCC "should issue an order that interprets Section 230 in a way that eliminates the expansive, non-textual immunities that courts have read into the statute."Carr's willingness to reinterpret Section 230 is likely a big plus in Trump's eyes. In 2020, Trump pulled the re-nomination of FCC Republican member Michael O'Rielly after O'Rielly said that "we should all reject demands, in the name of the First Amendment, for private actors to curate or publish speech in a certain way. Like it or not, the First Amendment's protections apply to corporate entities, especially when they engage in editorial decision making."Carr to end FCC diversity policiesLast night, Carr also said he would end the FCC's embrace of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies. "The FCC's most recent budget request said that promoting DEI was the agency's second highest strategic goal. Starting next year, the FCC will end its promotion of DEI," Carr wrote.The FCC budget request said the agency "will pursue focused action and investments to eliminate historical, systemic, and structural barriers that perpetuate disadvantaged or underserved individuals and communities." The Rosenworcel FCC said it aimed to create a diverse staff and to help "underserved individuals and communities" access "digital technologies, media, communication services, and next-generation networks."Carr dissented last year in the FCC's 3-2 decision to impose rules that prohibit discrimination in access to broadband services, describing the rulemaking as "President Biden's plan to give the administrative state effective control of all Internet services and infrastructure in the US."Another major goal for Carr is forcing Big Tech firms to help subsidize broadband network construction. Carr's Project 2025 chapter said the FCC should "require that Big Tech begin to contribute a fair share" into "the FCC's roughly $9 billion Universal Service Fund."Media advocacy group Free Press said yesterday that "Brendan Carr has been campaigning for this job with promises to do the bidding of Donald Trump and Elon Musk" and "got this job because he will carry out Trump and Musk's personal vendettas. While styling himself as a free-speech champion, Carr refused to stand up when Trump threatened to take away the broadcast licenses of TV stations for daring to fact-check him during the campaign. This alone should be disqualifying."Lobby groups representing Internet service providers will be happy to have an FCC chair focused on eliminating broadband regulations. USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter issued a statement saying that "Brendan Carr has been a proven leader and an important partner in our shared goal to connect all Americans. With his deep experience and expertise, Commissioner Carr clearly understands the regulatory challenges and opportunities across the communications landscape."Pai, who teamed up with Carr and O'Rielly to eliminate net neutrality rules in 2017, wrote that Carr "was a brilliant advisor and General Counsel and has been a superb Commissioner, and I'm confident he will be a great FCC Chairman."Jon BrodkinSenior IT ReporterJon BrodkinSenior IT Reporter Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry. 136 Comments

You have /5 articles left.Sign up for a free account or log in.Sign Up, Its FREELoginNumerous academics have announced departures from X in recent weeks.Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher EdTwo years ago, after Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44billion, promptly renaming it X, numerous academics decamped from the platform. Now, in the wake of a presidential election fraught with online disinformation, a second exodus from the social media site appears underway.Academics, including some with hundreds of thousands of followers, announced departures from the platform in the immediate aftermath of the election, decrying the toxicity of the website and objections to Musk and how he wielded the platform to back President-elect Donald Trump. The business mogul threw millions of dollars behind Trump and personally campaigned for him this fall. Musk also personally advanced various debunked conspiracy theories during the election cycle.Amid another wave of exits, some users see this as the end of Academic Twitter, which was already arguably in its death throes.Most PopularPostelection ExitsFormer Southern New Hampshire University president Paul LeBlanc was among the high-profile academics who have declared they are leaving X, citing a problematic tilt toward disinformation.Going off this platform now. It has become a toxic cesspool, is owned by someone I despise, and has become a tool for disinformation. I miss the fun days of Twitter and sorry to lose contact with so many. Will look for other platforms on which to connect, LeBlanc posted last week on his now-deleted account. Advertisement In an interview with Inside Higher Ed, LeBlanc said he started using Twitter in 2008 to follow other academics but noticed a change when Musk took over. His feed became full of toxic stuff, which prompted him to use the platform less before deciding to leave.When the first wave of defections occurred, when Elon took over, I really wrestled with the question [to leave] then. And a lot of people have made a case that we shouldnt cede the platform over to others, that our voice deserves to have its place there as well, LeBlanc said.But recently, after spending time on the site, LeBlanc said he usually came away feeling worse for the experience, which made him decide Idont need to be part of that. Advertisement Borrowing from Aristotle, LeBlanc said, We cant have a discussion about what should be if we cant agree on what is. If theres one thing that characterizes this election, its that we did not have a shared reality, we had two universes at work, and I think Elon contributed to that.Isaac Kamola, a political science professor at Trinity College, announced his exit by declaring Musk a dangerous fascist and encouraged others to leave the platform with him. While hes keeping his account active to allow other users to direct message him, Kamola wrote by email he plans to stop posting due to concerns about disinformation and his distaste for Xs owner.Twitter has become a plaything of a plutocrat man-child who relishes in trolling the vulnerable and spreading disinformation. Pathetic. I could no longer justify being on that platform, he said.Editors' PicksKamola added that he was tired of seeing irrelevant posts, dumb stuff that had no relevance to what I was actually interested in.The final straw for Kamola was when he saw a post from right-wing conspiracy peddler Catturd in his feed, an account Musk has worked to promote. At that point, he said, It was time to leave.Jay Rosen, a New York University professor with more than 300,000 followers, was another well-known academic who said he would step away from the site (but keep his account open).Starting Monday I wont be continuing at this site For a while Twitter was a way to do journalism education in public, for a publicand for free. I think I was effective at times in that role. I no longer know how thats done, Rosen wrote on X.LeBlanc, Kamola and Rosen all mentioned that they were moving to the platform Bluesky, which has grown to 14.5million users, welcoming more than 700,000 new accounts in recent days. In September, Bluesky had ninemillion users.(X did not respond to a request for comment from Inside Higher Ed.)Staying PutOther academics, however, plan to stick with the platform.Paul Novosad, an economics professor at Dartmouth College, argued that academics should remain on X as a way to continue to engage with a broader audience, despite the rising number of online trolls there.I understand the academic impetus to move to a new platform. But Ithink it is bad for the commons if all the academics disappear and only talk to each other. We need your good ideas to be shared widely as much we ever did, Novosad wrote in a post last week.Novosad warned against academics retreating to their own social media bubble and shared tips on how to use the platform, including making heavy use of the block and mute functions.And some cited the appeal of a broader audience as a reason to stay.Since Academic Twitter officially ended yesterday, Im also at Blue Sky. I always follow back. But Ill stay on Twitter for the foreseeable future as well because I like that the readership is much more diverse than university personnel alone, Josh Shepperd, a media studies professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, posted on X after the presidential election.Shepperd told Inside Higher Ed by email that he felt X had taken a regressive turn. But he believes its more than just Musk driving academics away, suggesting that the flight from Twitter isnt just reflective of its owner and amounts to a retreat by academics from recent turns to increase public engagement, which ran strong between roughly 2010 and now.The Death of Academic Twitter?For years, Academic Twitter was a space to connect with other users around shared research or policy interests and for scholars to engage the public and press directly. Some professors leveraged their academic expertise and witty musings into massive social media followings.Many used the website to seek or offer advice to fellow academics and raise concerns about issues at their universities or statehouses. Satire accounts poked fun at the absurdities of academe. While those purposes remain, many of the users that comprised Academic Twitter have either deactivated their accounts or disengaged from the platform, according to recent research.A study published in PS: Political Science & Politics last month concluded that academics began to engage less after Musk bought the platform. But the peak of disengagement wasnt when the billionaire took over the site in October 2022 but rather the next month, when he reinstated Donald Trumps account, which the platforms previous owners deactivated following the Jan.6, 2021, insurrection, which he encouraged.The researchers reviewed 15,700 accounts from academics in economics, political science, sociology and psychology for their study.James Bisbee, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University and article co-author, wrote via email that changes to the platform, particularly to the application programming interface, or API, undermined their ability to collect data for their research.Twitter used to be an amazing source of data for political scientists (and social scientists more broadly) thanks in part to its open data ethos, Bisbee wrote. Since Musks takeover, this is no longer the case, severely limiting the types of conclusions we could draw, and theories we could test, on this platform.To Bisbee, that loss is an understated issue: Along with many other troubling developments on X since the change in ownership, the amputation of data access should not be ignored. Want articles like this sent straight to your inbox? Subscribe to a Newsletter

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Sir David Attenborough does not approve of AI being used to replicate his voice.In a BBC News segment on Sunday, an AI recreation of the famous British broadcasters voice speaking about his new series Asia was played next to a real recording, with little to no difference between the two. BBC researchers had found the AI-generated Attenborough on a website, and said there were several that claimed to clone his voice.In response, the 98-year-old sent the following statement to BBC News: Having spent a lifetime trying to speak what I believe to be the truth, I am profoundly disturbed to find that these days, my identity is being stolen by others and greatly object to them using it to say whatever they wish. Related StoriesAI-generated Attenborough then crafted a reply, which BBC News played. Lets set the record straight. Unless Mr. Attenborough has been moonlighting for us in secret and under an assumed name with work authorization in the United States, he is not on our payroll, it said. I am not David Attenborough. We are both male, British voices for sure. However, I am not David Attenborough, for anyone out there who may be confused.Popular on VarietyDr. Jennifer Williams, an AI audio researcher at the University of Southampton, then offered her opinion on the matter after BBC News played another clip of the cloned voice speaking about Donald Trumps nomination of Matt Gaetz and the war in Ukraine. Im a little disgusted, she said. This is very serious when you have a trusted voice like Sir David Attenborough, who all around the world people recognize him as an authority, as a voice of truth. And then to have words put in his mouth about war, politics and things that he has never said or may not eve endorse, its very concerning.Watch the full BBC News segment below.

ASIA IN BRIEF President Xi Jinping of China and President Joe Biden of the USA have pledged to continue working together to ensure AI does not harm humanity.The two met on Saturday at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru.In the Chinese and American accounts of their meeting, both leaders affirmed the need to maintain human control over the decision to use nuclear weapons.The two leaders also made remarks about continuing work to ensure AI is used productively.The Chinese readout also included the following statement.There is no evidence that supports the irrational claim of the so-called cyberattacks from China.China itself is a target of international cyberattacks, and consistently opposes and combats all forms of cyberattacks.- Simon SharwoodSamsung close to settling labor disputeSamsung Electronics appears to be close to settling a ten-month dispute with local unions.The agreement includes several key points: paid time off for union members to attend meetings, two million loyalty points for all employees that can be used to purchase company products, a 5.1 percent wage increase, and expanded long-term service leave.The agreement also promises unquantifiable items, like mutual respect and improved labor-management relations, and joint corporate social responsibility activities.But the proposed deal covers on 2023 and 2024 conditions for next year havent been agreed.LG reveals wearable and stretchy displayLG last week introduced a display panel that can stretch from 12 inches to 18 inches over 10,000 times.The 100 ppi full color RGB display is an upgrade from a 2022 prototype that only stretched two inches.The device is made of a silicon substrate thats similar to substances used in contact lenses.The screen was debuted at a demonstration at LG Science Park before being featured [VIDEO] at Seoul Fashion Week where LG hit the runway to show off clothes that change color and display moving images.Singtels profits plunge while battling disruptions, scamsAsian telecoms giant Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel) last week reported a 42 percent drop in first-half net profit, which landed at S$1.23 billion ($920 million).The drop was attributed [PDF] to the exceptional gain of S$1.2 billion in the prior year after a merger.The telco also drew attention in its home last week when government ministers addressed an October 8 outage that saw, among other services, emergency hotlines disrupted.The root cause of the outage was attributed to a technical issue which affected the proper functioning of a network component in one of the two systems supporting Singtels fixed line voice service.Two systems, housed in different telephone exchanges, are configured to automatically handle the full load should one experience a malfunction. However, that did not happen and the services experienced a disruption.Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling suggested in parliament [VIDEO] that the government is now considering diversifying emergency hotline providers.Singtel also made headlines after reports of a woman scanning QR code to receive a free ice cream and finding she was billed $7.99 on her phone bill for allegedly subscribing to a mobile service even after immediately cancelling the subscription.The Register asked Singtel to confirm the incident and better understand the carriers approach to preventing QR code scams, but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.Despite the eventful week, the CEO reportedly found time to express optimism over an incoming Donald Trump presidency. Group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon feels new opportunities could arise as businesses may be inspired to relocate operations or investments to Southeast Asia.Vietnam threatens Chinese e-commerce giants with banVietnams Ministry of Industry and Trade set a deadline of the end of November for Chinese online retailers Shein and Temu to register with the government, or face having their apps and domains blocked.Until the companies have complied with regulations, both platforms are required to cease advertising and marketing activities.The move comes amid concerns over the platforms' deep discounting practices, which have raised issues for local businesses, as well as fears about the sale of counterfeit products.The government is also considering ending a tax exemption on imported goods under $40. Vietnam's e-commerce market, now valued at $22 billion, is growing rapidly, but the government is focusing on regulating foreign platforms to ensure fair competition and consumer protection.Japan to postpone cybersecurity billThe Japanese government will likely delay the submission of a bill for an "active cyberdefense" system until next year.Local media reported that there is just not enough time to thoroughly consider the bill in the upcoming session of parliament as other issues have priority.Cyber attacks are an imminent threat. We will accelerate our efforts to formulate a bill to further enhance our response capabilities on the cyber security front so that we can submit it to the Diet as soon as possible, stated this years new prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, in a press conference last Monday.APAC DealbookRecent alliances and deals spotted by The Register across the region last week include:The parent company of telecom company Reliance Jio, Reliance Industries, and Disney completed the transaction that will see the pair create a digital streaming joint venture for the Indian market.Malaysias TM Global, the wholesale business arm of Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), is expanding its data centers in Cyberjaya and Johor. The expansion includes a second phase for the Klang Valley Data Centre (KVDC) and Iskandar Puteri Data Centre (IPDC), offering a combined capacity of 20MW.GoTo Group, Tencent Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud announced agreements to enhance cloud infrastructure and digital talent in Indonesia. Tencent Cloud will invest USD 500 million to build a third data center by 2030 in the country, Alibaba Cloud, which already operates three data centers, plans to double its training efforts to 800,000 individuals by 2033 and establish a university skills center. Both will be built around GoTo cloud service contracts.

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Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, were breaking down Blueskys big surge in users, Elon Musk co-leading Trumps Department of Government Efficiency, and Mark Zuckerbergs latest foray in extreme wife-guy behavior. Lets go.Bluesky is seeing a major surge as X users unhappy with the platforms latest policy decisions make the move to the competitor social network. The decentralized social media platform has grown to more than 16 million users, including Swifties. If youre making the switch or at least wanting to see if the grass is greener (or bluer) on the other side weve put together a guide on how to get started.Teslas Cybertruck is facing its sixth recall in a year, affecting 2,431 units. A report from Tesla found that those trucks are or were equipped with a faulty drive inverter. Unlike Octobers Cybertruck recall, which could be solved with an over-the-air update, Tesla will need to physically replace the recalled drive inverters for this batch. The EV maker said it would do so free of charge.Elon Musk will co-lead President-elect Donald Trumps Department of Government Efficiency, the acronym of which references Musks favorite cryptocurrency. Musk will lead the department with biotech entrepreneur and former presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy to help Trumps administration dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies.This is TechCrunchs Week in Review, where we recap the weeks biggest news. Want this delivered as a newsletter to your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here.NewsImage Credits:Album art for Mark Zuckerberg's cover of "Get Low" with T-PainMark Zuckerberg T-Pain: Mark Zuckerberg enlisted T-Pain to write and record an acoustic cover of Lil Jon & The East Side Boyzs Get LowRead moreStanding desks arent as healthy as you think: Sorry to standing desk users, but a new study found that standing for more than two hours a day doesnt protect against cardiovascular risks, and it actually heightens an individuals risk of circulatory problems. Read moreTalk Tuah dating coach: Social media star Haliey Welch has launched Pookie Tools, an AI-powered dating advice app for Gen Z singles. The apps chatbot helps write conversation starters, while another tool predicts if a potential match is lying about their height. Read moreWriter nabs $200M: The generative AI startup has raised $200 million at a $1.9 billion valuation to expand its platform. CEO May Habib says the new cash will be used for product development and cementing the companys leadership in the enterprise generative AI category. Read moreAmazon takes on Temu: Amazon has rolled out the Amazon Haul store, a storefront that offers discounted and mass-produced items, most of which ship from China, to better compete with highly popular competitors Temu and Shein. Read moreJust Eat sells off Grubhub: TheRead moreSBF is headed to the big screen: Lena Dunham is working with Apple and A24 to adapt Michael Lewis book Going Infinite, which chronicles the life of Sam Bankman-Fried and the implosion of FTX. Now to wonder who will be cast as SBF Read morePrepare to see more AI-video slop: InVideo is launching a generative AI-powered video creation feature that lets people use prompts to make videos in a variety of styles, including live-action, animated, or anime. Read moreApples wall-mounted tablet: Apple is reportedly planning to release a tablet that mounts to your wall, controls smart home appliances, and does video calls, as early as March 2025. Of course, the device will feature Apple Intelligence. Read moreAds are coming to Perplexity: The AI-powered search engine is experimenting with ads. The site will be showing ads in the U.S. to start, and theyll be formatted as sponsored follow-up questions from partners like Indeed, Whole Foods, Universal McCann, and PMG. Read moreYou can now play Hot Cross Buns on your phone: Artinoises latest product is reimagining the classic plastic recorder.Read more

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Viewers have been talking about Friday evenings boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul but probably not for the reasons Netflix was hoping.Yes, the 27-year-old Paul (a YouTuber turned professional boxer) defeated the 58-year-old Tyson (a former heavyweight champion who came out of retirement for this match) in eight rounds, but the real headline was the glitchy experience for audiences watching live on Netflix, with freezing and buffering seemingly a common occurrence.The #NetflixCrash hashtag was trending on X, Downdetector said it received over 1 million reports of Netflix issues in 50 countries, including 530,000 reports in the United States, with the issues peaking at around 11pm Eastern.This is the biggest event, Paul declared after the match. Over 120 million people on Netflix. We crashed the site.Netflix has stumbled with live programming before last year, the broadcast of the Season 4 reunion of Love is Blind was delayed by more than an hour. Since then, the streamer has been ramping up its live lineup with exhibition golf and tennis matches, live talk shows, and awards ceremonies, without major issues.While the streamer only releases selective data about its viewership, Netflix says 60 million households watched the fight live, with viewership peaking at around 65 million concurrent streams so its probably safe to say that the Tyson/Paul match was the biggest test of Netflixs live infrastructure to date.The streamer now has a little over a month to make improvements before airing two NFL games on Christmas Day, followed by WWE Raw in January.

X sued to block a new California law that would require social media platforms to censor materially deceptive content, aka deepfakes, about politicians in the lead up to an election. The company, owned by Elon Musk, claimed in its Thursday court filling the new law would trample the First Amendment, as well as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which gives social platforms the broad legal immunity to moderate content however they see fit. It is difficult to imagine a statute more in conflict with core First Amendment principles, the lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of California Federal Court, said. The new law in question, Assembly Bill 2655, which has been dubbed the Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024, would require platforms like X to remove inauthentic, fake, or false content of politicians 120 days before an election. Platforms would also have to develop procedures that allow California residents to file complaints about altered content, and would also require platforms to label certain additional content inauthentic. AB 2655 is set to go into effect next year. This system will inevitably result in the censorship of wide swaths of valuable political speech and commentary and will limit the type of uninhibited, robust, and wide-open debate on public issues that core First Amendment protections are designed to ensure, Xs lawsuit said, while citing the 1964 case New York Times v. Sullivan case.The new law, the lawsuit added, would impose unintelligible prohibitions on political speech,greatly incentivizing covered platforms to censor all content that could reasonably fall within the statutes purview to avoid substantial enforcement costs. This will lead to censorship at the direction of the State, the lawsuit said, due to AB2655s draconian and one-sided provisions. If this sounds familiar, thats because a California judge blocked a similar anti-deepfake law last month, two weeks after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it into law. U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez agreed with Musk that the law, which prohibited the distribution of materially deceptive audio or visual media of a candidate within two months of an election, unless the post included a disclosure that the content was a deepfake, went too far. Mendez said the law, AB2839, gave legislators unbridled license to bulldoze over the longstanding tradition of critique, parody, and satire protected by the First Amendment.

Bluesky, which has benefited from celebrities and left-leaning users ditching X this week, took a not-so-subtle jab at Elon Musks platform on Friday.The social media app said it has no intention of using user data to train its AI models something that X (formerly Twitter) is now able to do, following a change to its terms of service. Heres a look at Blueskys comment on the matter, below: A number of artists and creators have made their home on Bluesky, and we hear their concerns with other platforms training on their data. We do not use any of your content to train generative AI, and have no intention of doing so. Bluesky (@bsky.app) 2024-11-15T17:17:39.921ZX recently changed its rules, requiring users to file lawsuits against the company in Texas either in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas or in state courts in Tarrant County. Another key change: users now grant X the ability to use their data for training of our machine learning and artificial intelligence models, whether generative or another type.The changes go into effect on Friday. CNNs Don Lemon and actress Gabrielle Union pointed to the updated terms of service as reasons for their exits from X. Others who have left this week include author Stephen King, who said on Friday that the app has become too toxic, MSNBCs Joy Reid and Jamie Lee Curtis. The wave of celebrity and media departures come after Musks preferred candidate, Donald Trump, beat Kamala Harris last week in the 2024 election. Musk has been the president-elects most vocal supporter on the app, and also helped Trump via his America PAC, which spent more than $100 million to help get the Republican back in the White House. The Tesla and X boss was alsonamed the co-head of the new Department of Government Efficiency(DOGE) by Trump on Tuesday. Meta-owned Threads and Bluesky have become the go-to apps for many self-imposed X exiles this week. Bluesky has also enjoyed a post-election user surge onethatpushed it to the top of Apples App Storeon Thursday.Data provided to TheWrap by Sensor Tower, a market research company, showed Blueskys daily active users count jumped 62% in the week following the election. The Guardianreported the social posting app now had 14.5 million users.But even with big names leaving the app, X has still seen its daily user base increase 5% after the election, according to Sensor Towers data.

There were periods over the weekend where I was getting more than 1,000 new Bluesky followers every hour. This was very exciting not just because I was enjoying the dopamine of seeing a number go up, but because it was happening to many other people on Bluesky, too. Over the last week, more than a million people have joined Bluesky and, more importantly, people who already had accounts there started actively using it again, to the point where it felt like the most energetic move away from Twitter since Elon Musk took over. Bluesky is different and, in my opinion, better than X and Threads because it is operated as a public benefit corporation and not owned by an oligarch. It is also decentralized and is federated, meaning it is moving toward a future where users own their audiences and can port them elsewhere (you can, and many do, argue about the details here, and about the differences between ActivityPub, which Mastodon uses, and the AT Protocol, which Bluesky uses).The active migration away from social media networks that are owned, controlled by, and distorted by the richest men and most powerful companies in the world to a decentralized platform that is not owned and controlled by billionaires is one of the more hopeful things to happen in what has largely been a bleak year for the human internet as AI slop infects everything and billionaires put their thumbs on the scale of what we see on social media. The Bluesky migration is good news, and I hope it continues.Bluesky feels more vibrant and more filled with real humans than any other social media network on the internet has felt in a very long time. It has surpassed Threads as the current most popular app on the App Store, and now has more than 15 million users overall.If you're on Bluesky, you can follow all of us here.(We talk much more about Bluesky in the second half of this episode of the podcast)Close followers of 404 Media may remember an article I did a year ago called Mastodon Is the Good One, in which I put my eggs in the Mastodon basket. I am now taking most of those eggs (my attention and effort) and putting them in the Bluesky basket for a few different reasons, most notably the fact that Bluesky feels incredibly vibrant across a wide variety of topics. There are journalists and academics and scientists and Swifties and all the Brazilians who left X when Brazil temporarily banned it. Lots of people from Black Twitter are there. There are main characters on Bluesky and they are getting dunked on sometimes, and that's something I like. Importantly for me, many of my favorite baseball writers and accounts have made their way over to Bluesky and are actively posting there. It has, as they say, the juice.I still think Mastodon is important and I will continue to use it, but a year after my article, I have complicated feelings about it. I still think that federation and decentralization, where publications and users own their followings and can port them across a variety of different services is the future of the internet if we want to have any hope of taking back any control from billionaires. I do not find Mastodon itself to be that difficult to use, and I find the people there to be very nice. I believe in decentralization and federation broadly speaking, and 404 Media will continue to support and hopefully be involved in attempts to disseminate our content more widely across the fediverse (it should be noted that Mastodon is not the only part of the fediverse, and that there are an increasing number of services that use ActivityPub). My Mastodon feed still has many interesting people talking, but Ive found it difficult to make a diverse and active feed that has a lot of posts about things that arent technology, cybersecurity, open source, etc.But something happened to many of the larger Mastodon servers over the last few months. I have a theory about this: Threads happened to it. Threads announced that it would become a part of the fediverse, and that it would allow people to share their Threads posts using ActivityPub.The website Mastodon-Analytics, which tracks active users on Mastodon instances shows that the number of active users has steadily dropped over the last year, from 1.6 million in November, 2023 to a little less than 900,000 at the end of October. This cannot be fully blamed on Threads federating, but, anecdotally, Threadss uneven entry into the Fediverse feels like it has made my personal feeds deader. My theory and fear is that Threads has allowed people to perform the act of federating by having their Threads posts go to the fediverse, but it does not allow people on Threads to respond to people on Mastodon. This gives people a permission structure to abandon their Mastodon accounts, use Threads, and sort of passively invest in the future of decentralized social media while actually just giving more power to Mark Zuckerbergs side project.This makes for what is at the moment a really bad dynamic, where youre broadcasting your Threads posts to the fediverse, and people on Mastodon can respond to them, but you cant respond to those people.I talked about this on the Dot Social podcast with Flipboards CEO Mike McCue and ProPublicas Ben Werdmuller, both of whom are extremely bullish on the future of the decentralized web, and they both told me that they think in the long run having a big fish like Threads investing in the fediverse will be good. Part of the whole point of the fediverse and decentralized social media is that it will ultimately not matter what server youre posting from.But we are not quite at that point yet, in my opinion, because it still feels very difficult for me to build a feed on Mastodon where I feel like that is the only social media platform I can visit and where I am getting everything I need from that one place. Mastodon and ActivityPub still heavily overindexes on people talking about tech and nerdy internet topics (said lovingly), and its hard to find active discussion about, say, sports, pop culture, celebrities, etc. In the short term, I think that Threads cannonballing in a partial way into the fediverse has cannibalized some of the energy that Mastodon has had over the last year, whereas Bluesky has been allowed to grow its own voice and userbase kind of on its own, without Zuckerberg jumping into the pool.This article is nominally about Bluesky, but Threads and Mastodon are as much a part of the Twitter-replacement story as X and Bluesky itself are. (You should check out the episode of Dot Social where McCue interviews Blueskys primary owner and CEO Jay Graber, by the way.)Threads has also become more vibrant over the last few months, with Meta forcing people onto the platform by injecting Thread posts onto Instagram. This has led Threads to apparently add a million users a day, but it is not clear to me how real that userbase is, and how many of them are simply downloading Threads because they saw something on Instagram and are not regularly using the app or are just interacting with it when they see something on Instagram. Threads still feels to me like a gas leak social media network with a busted algorithm that over indexes on extremely annoying middle managers in Silicon Valley who dogpile on anyone who thinks that maybe social media network that suppresses links and political content, has horrible and uneven content moderation, and is owned by the same company that is paying an army of posters in developing nations to spam their flagship platform with busted AI is maybe not the platform to bet on. It is alsosorryfull of people who think Threads is perfectly fine and do not want to do even the tiniest bit of work to take a microscopic bit of power away from a company that has dominated global social media to disastrous outcomes for 20 years, and who cannot be bothered to do the bare minimum amount of introspection or reading to understand why a viable platform not owned by Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk might be something worth building toward. So, anyway. Bluesky. I am not going to pretend to be an expert on Blueskys AT protocol, how it differs from ActivityPub (which Mastodon uses), and its future plans for interoperability. I know enough to know that if I attempt to explain it here, I will get something wrong and people will be mad at me. But I have been impressed with the tools that the open source development community is building to bridge the gap between the AT protocol and ActivityPub, and Im hopeful that some mixture of Bluesky and Mastodon will eventually serve most of my needs as a social media user and, hopefully, as someone who co-owns a website.I do not know if this current enthusiasm will last. 404 Medias Sam Cole has endlessly made fun of my willingness to embrace new social media platforms and declare them to suddenly be where we should all focus our energy, and perhaps I will look back on this post and realize that I was naive or stupid.Cory Doctorow, who is perceptive about such things, worries about Bluesky enshittifying, and its model of decentralization is not as robust at the moment as Mastodon's, which is certainly a concern. But I do know that the energy on Bluesky is exciting, that the app and website are very usable, and that, as a journalist, I appreciate a platform that does not and says it will not punish links in any algorithm and which mostly operates in reverse chronological order. I think that the Starter Packs that let you follow tons of people at once according to your interests have made the onboarding process really easy. Whats happening on Bluesky right now feels organic and it feels real in a way no other Twitter replacement has felt so far, and it feels better than X.com has been ever since Elon Musk took over. If the masses are going to move off Twitter, we can do much better than Threads. And we could do much worse than Bluesky.Jason is a cofounder of 404 Media. He was previously the editor-in-chief of Motherboard. He loves the Freedom of Information Act and surfing.More from Jason Koebler

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Posted on November 13, 2024 (November 14, 2024) Election ProtectionA group of computer security experts have written to Vice President Kamala Harris to alert her to the fact that voting systems were breached by Trump allies in 2021 and 2022 and to urge her to seek recounts in key states to ensure election verification.Following the 2020 election, operatives working with Trump attorneys accessed voting equipment in order to gain copies of the software that records and counts votes. The letter to Vice President Harris argues that this extraordinary and unprecedented breach in election system security merits conducting recounts of paper ballots in order to confirm computer-generated tallies. The letter also highlights the fact that the post-election audits in many key states will be conducted after certification and after the window to seek recounts closes, and that therefore recounts should be sought promptly.The letter states: Possessing copies of the voting system software enables bad actors to install it on electronic devices and to create their own working replicas of the voting systems, probe them, and develop exploits. Skilled adversaries can decompile the software to get a version of the source code, study it for vulnerabilities, and could even develop malware designed to be installed with minimal physical access to the voting equipment by unskilled accomplices to manipulate the vote counts. Attacks could also be launched by compromising the vendors responsible for programming systems before elections, enabling large-scale distribution of malware.In December 2022 and again in 2023, many of us, concerned by the security risks posed by these breaches, wrote to the Attorney General, FBI Director, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director outlining the security concerns and urging an investigation. Though there have been limited, localized investigations, there is no evidence of a federal investigation to determine what was done with the misappropriated voting software.The letter is signed by Professor Duncan Buell, Ph.D., Chair Emeritus NCR Chair in Computer Science and Engineering, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, University of South Carolina*; David Jefferson Ph.D., Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory* (retired), Election Integrity Foundation*; Susan Greenhalgh, Senior Advisor for Election Security, Free Speech For People; Chris Klaus, Chief Executive Officer, Fusen World*; William John Malik, Malik Consulting, LLC*; Peter G. Neumann Ph.D., Chief Scientist, SRI International Computer Science Lab*; and Professor John E. Savage, Ph.D, An Wang Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, Brown University*.*Affiliations are listed for identification purposes only and do not imply institutional endorsement.The letter can be read here.

The Guardian has announced it will no longer post content on Elon Musks social media platform, X, from its official accounts.In an announcement to readers, the news organisation said it considered the benefits of being on the platform formerly called Twitter were now outweighed by the negatives, citing the often disturbing content found on it.We wanted to let readers know that we will no longer post on any official Guardian editorial accounts on the social media site X, the Guardian said.The Guardian has more than 80 accounts on X with approximately 27 million followers.The Guardian said content on the platform about which it had longstanding concerns included far-right conspiracy theories and racism. It added that the sites coverage of the US presidential election had crystallised its decision.This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism, it said.The US presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.Anti-hate speech campaign groups and the EU have criticised Musk, the worlds richest person, over content standards on the platform since he bought it for $44bn in 2022. A self-declared free speech absolutist, the Tesla chief executive has reinstated banned accounts including those of the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, the misogynist influencer Andrew Tate and the British far-right activist Tommy Robinson.The Guardian said X users would still be able to share its articles across the platform and that posts on X would occasionally be embedded in its work as part of its live news reporting. Reporters would also be able to continue using the platform for newsgathering purposes, the Guardian said.Although the Guardians official accounts are withdrawing from X, there will be no restrictions on individual reporters using the site beyond the organisations existing social media guidelines.Social media can be an important tool for news organisations and help us to reach new audiences but at this point X now plays a diminished role in promoting our work. Our journalism is available and open to all on our website and we would prefer people to come to theguardian.com and support our work there, the Guardian said.Responding to the announcement, Musk posted on X that the Guardian was irrelevant and a laboriously vile propaganda machine.Last year National Public Radio (NPR), the non-profit US media organisation, stopped posting on X after the social media platform labelled it as state-affiliated media. PBS, a US public TV broadcaster, suspended its posts for the same reason.This month the Berlin film festival said it was quitting X, without citing an official reason, and last month the North Wales police force said it had stopped using X because it was no longer consistent with our values.In August the Royal National orthopaedic hospital said it was leaving X, citing an increased volume of hate speech and abusive commentary on the platform.

Short-form posting platform Bluesky crossed the 15 million user mark today amid a recent surge of user signups in the wake of the US presidential election. Thats according to a stat-tracking site put together by Bluesky developer Jaz, using the Bluesky API. The platform, which rests on the decentralized AT Protocol, added about a million new users in the last week. Bluesky COO Rose Wang recently told The Verge that the majority of new users flocking to the platform have been from the US. The Bluesky app is currently at number one in the iOS app store, followed by Threads, ChatGPT, and the Google app. Bluesky is the number one free iOS app this morning. Screenshot: iOS App StoreMetas Threads is still outpacing Bluesky, having recently hit 275 million monthly users and growing at a rate of over a million signups per day. But Bluesky offers a very different experience. Both are ad-free (for now), but whereas Threads uses a single Meta-made algorithmic feed, Bluesky offers user-created algorithmic feeds in addition to its Discover and Popular With Friends ones. New features that Bluesky has recently rolled out include video posting, pinned posts and custom fonts, and a slew of anti-toxicity features that let you do things like detach your posts when someone else quotes them.

The new year had barely dawned, and Kurt Barwis, president of Bristol Hospital and Health Care Group in Connecticut, was on the phone in the emergency room. His back was (literally) against the wall.It was January 2022, and omicron, a new variant of COVID-19, was evading vaccines and antibodies from prior infections. The virus spread rapidly throughout the United States, overwhelming hospitalsincluding the small, 154-bed Bristol Hospital.On this particular night, more than 100 people were waiting for treatment; the line stretched outside into the cold, Barwis told Newsweek. He was calling local hospital CEOs to see if they could take any more patientswhile other CEOs were ringing him with the same request.Meanwhile, more than a dozen patients were needlessly sitting in acute care beds. They had already been treated, and doctors had cleared them to discharge to skilled nursing facilities. But their insurance companies hadn't yet granted the prior authorizations required to transfer.More health insurance claims and prior authorization requests are being denied, sending hospitals into administrative overload, industry leaders have reported.More health insurance claims and prior authorization requests are being denied, sending hospitals into administrative overload, industry leaders have reported.Photo Illustration by Newsweek/Getty Images So they sat and waited. And the people queuing for their spots sat and waited. And Barwis stood against the wall and called other hospitals, where even more people were sitting and waiting.At Bristol Hospital, omicron exposed how the prior authorization process can delay and disrupt emergent health care operations. And although the consequences aren't always visible to the public, they're an ever-present concern for hospitals nationwide. In a 90-day period, patients with Medicare Advantage plans spent 14,000 unnecessary days in New York hospitals due to discharge delays, the Healthcare Association of New York State reported in 2023.According to Barwis, working with Medicare Advantage insurance plans is like dealing in the Wild West. And it's gotten exponentially worse since the cowboys started using AI.Why Does AI Allegedly Target Medicare Advantage?It's hard to nail down exactly when insurance companies began implementing AI tools; they tend to be vague about internal automation processes. But multiple health care and tech leaders who spoke with Newsweek began noticing accelerated claims denials between 2019 and 2020.The lawsuits came years later, but in quick succession. In July 2023, Cigna was hit with a class action lawsuit over an algorithm that reportedly rejected more than 300,000 claims in two monthsspending about 1.2 seconds on each. A second, similar suit was filed against the company the next month.In November 2023, a lawsuit against UnitedHealthcare claimed that the company deployed an AI tool developed by NaviHealth (itself an arm of the company's health services business, Optum) to deny care to elderly Medicare Advantage (MA) beneficiaries. Weeks later, Humana was served papers for allegedly utilizing the same NaviHealth tool, which had a known 90 percent error rate, according to the initial lawsuit. Patients on MA plans are often denied care at above-average rates. Between 2022 and 2023, denials rose more than 20 percent for private, commercial claims and nearly 56 percent for MA claims, the American Hospital Association reported in September. Nearly one in five health systems stopped accepting at least one MA plan last year amid frustrations with prior authorization requirements and rising claims denials, according to a January 2024 survey of health system CFOs from the Healthcare Financial Management Association.Though the network is starting to thin, more than half of the eligible Medicare population is currently enrolled in a MA plan. Unlike traditional Medicare, MA offers some premium-free plans with out-of-pocket limits and additional benefits like vision and dental. MA members experience 45 percent lower out-of-pocket costs and have a more than 40 percent lower rate of avoidable hospitalizations than original Medicare enrollees, a UnitedHealthcare spokesperson told Newsweek.Another difference between traditional Medicare and MA is that the latter is covered by private insurance companies. These companies are contracted with the federal government, and receive a monthly sum from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to cover estimated care costs for each beneficiary. CMS generates each individual's risk score using data from traditional Medicare beneficiaries with similar clinical profiles. This informs the pay rate that insurers receive for MA plans, which is adjusted on an annual basis.These fixed payments motivate MA plans to invest in a beneficiary's health through preventative services and early interventionsat least, that's the idea. Healthier patients are less likely to require expensive medical interventions. If a patient spends less than CMS anticipated based on their profile, the MA plan pockets the rest of the money. On the flip side, if the patient grows sicker and spends more than CMS anticipated, the MA plan must pay the difference.Enter prior authorization, a cost-control measure used by private insurance companies. At its best, the prior authorization process helps ensure insurance companies are being billed fairly and discourages wasteful spending in the health care system. At its worst, prior authorization can be used to deny or delay pricier treatments, even when a patient's doctor insists upon them.This can clog the health care system, like Barwis reported at Bristol Hospital. Some patients need a level of care between hospital and home, like a post-acute rehabilitation hospital or a skilled nursing facility. These centers provide more specialized care for conditions that take time to heal: physical therapy to recover from surgery, speech therapy to regain function from a stroke.However, because of their specialized, live-in nature, these facilities can be expensive. They're often recommended for elderly patients who happen to have Medicare, and some MA plans have been known to stall clearance for post-acute care or outright deny it.But lately, hospital leaders have noticed an uptick in what they consider unwarranted denials. In September, Newsweek gathered more than 100 physicians and health care executives to discuss AI's impact on doctorsand an increase in claims denials emerged as a concern.Dr. Eric Williamson, Associate Chair for Radiology Informatics and Supervisor of the Radiology AI Program at Mayo Clinic, called this an "unintended consequence" of AI. While the technology was originally designed to automate administrative tasks and ease the burden on providers, its adoption by insurance companies has created more denied claims, according to Williamson, requiring doctors to spend more time contesting these decisions."We know that AI is contributing to an increased number of claims denials, and yet a very high number actually get overturned once they're challenged," Williamson told the audience. "That requires human effort on the part of the provider."The issue is likely beyond individual physicians' control, Williamson continued: "This is part of a big system that needs to be fixed."Now, the U.S. Senate agrees.Senate Calls Out MA Prior Authorization DenialsOn October 17, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report detailing a MA prior authorization environment that it says "has become not just a bureaucratic maze, but a potential threat to [MA beneficiaries'] health."Led by Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, the committee obtained more than 280,000 pages of documents from the three largest MA insurersUnitedHealthcare, Humana and CVSwhich together cover nearly 60 percent of MA enrollees.Between 2019 and 2022, each company denied prior authorization requests for post-acute care facilities significantly more than other requests, according to the report. UnitedHealthcare and CVS denied these requests at triple their overall denial rate in 2022, while Humana's post-acute denial rate was more than 16 times higher than its baseline.These denials increased as the companies began using predictive technologies like AI to automate the prior authorization process, according to the report. Historically, insurers have staffed physicians to review claims from their peers (in accordance with standards set by the insurers). But with the help of AI models, insurers can shorten or even bypass the human review process, leading to higher profits from increased denials and reduced labor spend.Insurance companies generally argue that AI is not used to replace humans, but to reduce administrative burdens and improve efficiency. When Newsweek first asked UnitedHealthcare to elaborate on its AI use, the company pointed to a webpage that says, "AI and [machine learning models] are used safely and responsibly to enable and supportbut not replacecritical human decision-making."However, the subcommittee suggested that in some cases, when stacked against AI models that are generating such significant cost savings, human reviewers could be pressured to follow the predictive technologies' recommendations.The Senate subcommittee also said insurance companies have intentionally used algorithms to deny care and drive down costsUnitedHealthcare included.In 2019the year before Optum acquired tech company NaviHealthUnitedHealthcare denied 1.4 percent of MA beneficiaries' claims for admission to skilled nursing facilities, according to the report. In 2022the first full year that NaviHealth was managing MA claims for UnitedHealthcarethe denial rate was reportedly 12.6 percent, or nine times higher than before the company acquired NaviHealth.The Minnetonka, Minnesota, headquarters of UnitedHealthcare, one of three insurance companies named in the Senate's October 17 "Refusal of Recovery" report.The Minnetonka, Minnesota, headquarters of UnitedHealthcare, one of three insurance companies named in the Senate's October 17 "Refusal of Recovery" report.Getty Images A spokesperson for UnitedHealthcare denied the report's assertions, and said only a "small fraction" of Medicare claims require prior authorization at all.Although 99 percent of Medicare Advantage enrollees are required to obtain prior authorization for some services, those services are usually expensive ones that are requested less frequently (like stays at skilled nursing facilities or chemotherapy), according to the health policy and research organization KFF. In 2022, there were 1.7 prior authorization requests per MA enrollee."This report inaccurately represents how automation is used in decision makingwe do not use ANY algorithmic tools to make adverse coverage determinations for post-acute care," the UnitedHealthcare spokesperson said over email.Humana has also contracted with NaviHealth since 2017, but the Senate subcommittee could not determine whether predictive technologies drove the 54 percent increase in its denial rates for long-term acute care hospital stays from 2020 to 2022. However, the subcommittee did identify such long-term admissions as a cost concern for the company. A spokesperson for Humana did not return Newsweek's requests for comment.CVSwhich provides MA coverage through its subsidiary, Aetnahas been refining its automation capabilities for years, the report said. According to a 2019 internal presentation obtained by the Senate subcommittee, a model designed to predict the probability of approval for inpatient authorizations was calibrated and tested at two levels. One level would "maximize savings," while the other would "maximize auto-approvals."When the model-in-training analyzed past requests from MA beneficiaries, its "maximize savings" function produced a net savings of $3.6 million, while its "maximize auto-approvals" function produced a net loss of $400,000.The model wasn't used to make care decisions during the Senate report's time frame, between 2019 and 2022, and was only applied to skilled nursing facilities when implemented in May 2023. However, the 2019 presentation said it was a "key priority" to build a "separate model" for post-acute prior authorization requests, according to the report. A different presentation later that month suggested an auto-approval rate of more than 12 percent for the company's overall MA division, and 2 percent for MA post-acute care.According to the Senate report, the documents suggest that by the end of 2019, CVS "was calibrating its automation strategy to prevent approvals of cases it felt ought to be denied." A CVS Health spokesperson told Newsweek via email that the report "significantly misrepresents" the company's use of prior authorization, and that "many" of the documents included were drafts, not indicative of final decisions. The insurer is frequently audited by CMS, according to the spokesperson (as are its competitors).But some of these technologies did make it to prime time. In mid-2021, CVS launched its AI-powered Post-Acute Analytics initiative, with the goal of "optimizing [skilled nursing facility] utilization." The initiative began in two states' MA plans, but by the end of 2022, it was approved in 16 states, according to the report. Initially, it was slated to save $10 to $15 million over three years, but by November 2021, projections had skyrocketed to $77.3 million in savings.Post-Acute Analytics (PAA), the vendor responsible for this AI tool, responded to the report on its website, alleging the Senate subcommittee "mistakenly" attributed increased prior authorization denials to its Anna software. The vendor claimed that PAA software was "never" used to make prior authorization recommendations or deny skilled nursing facility requests.Elaborating on its processes, PAA said its AI tools accelerate approvals, enhance compliance and reduce administrative burden. "We focus on approvals, not denials," PAA said.But a CVS document obtained by the Senate listed "medical cost savings" as the "value driver" for Post-Acute Analytics. Five other initiatives were listed in the same table, each with a value driver of "admin cost savings" or "admin & medical cost savings." Although PAA claims to reduce administrative burden and emphasize approvals, it was the only initiative on the document that CVS did not identify as an administrative cost saver.Newsweek reached out to PAA and asked about this discrepancy. The company has not responded to Newsweek's questions.Can Hospitals Fight Rising Claims Denials?The Senate subcommittee recommended that CMS start collecting prior authorization information broken down by service category to see if any are being "singled out" for denials, and to conduct targeted audits if insurer data reveals notable increases in adverse denials. It also suggested CMS expand regulations for predictive technology usefor example, requiring that MA insurers disclose how these tools are used in the prior authorization process and developing rules to ensure they don't sway physicians' opinions.In an October 2 conversation with Newsweek, Chandler Barron, president of Parathon (a revenue cycle management vendor that provides denials management services to health systems), suggested that more clarity on the insurance companies' algorithms could be useful. Today, there's little transparency about how AI is being used to deny claims. If health systems could see the AI model's scorecards, at least they'd know what they're up against, according to Barron."It's like all of a sudden, the language has changed on them, and there's no interpreter anywhere close," Barron said.But even with improved transparency, most hospitals don't have the resources to interpret that information, according to Barron. They're already spending about $19.7 billion a year arguing with insurers about denied claims, health care consultant Premier estimated in March.Oftentimes, there are more people on the administrative side of the hospital than on the care delivery side, Dr. Michael Gaowho led NewYork-Presbyterian's AI strategy as medical director for transformation before founding his own AI company, SmarterDx, in 2020told Newsweek. When clinicians are swept into work that doesn't face patients, it accentuates the shortage of medical workers, according to Gao.On October 28, SmarterDx announced a new tool that can scan denied claims and produce comprehensive appeal letters, including clinical evidence and coding references. The tool was piloted for inpatient care at three hospitals, and reportedly cut the time it takes to craft an appeal letter from roughly an hour to about five minutes."We want all of our doctors and nurses to be treating patients, not writing appeal letters," Gao said.Advocates protested outside the U.S. Capitol on July 25, 2023, as Congressional Democrats hosted a news conference calling for an end to "wrongful delays and denials" from Medicare Advantage plans.Advocates protested outside the U.S. Capitol on July 25, 2023, as Congressional Democrats hosted a news conference calling for an end to "wrongful delays and denials" from Medicare Advantage plans.Alex Wong, Getty Images But not every hospital can afford to fight AI with AI, according to Barwis, Bristol Hospital's president who also serves on the American Hospital Association's Board of Trustees. Bristol Hospital pays physician advisers to dispute denials, but isn't compensated by insurers for that administrative load. Without the extra resources of a big health system, such cost pressures can force community and rural hospitals into consolidation.Most insurance companies are for-profit entities with shareholders and investors who incentivize them to produce a return. It doesn't cost them anything to deny a claim, but hospitals must expend significant resources to fight back, health care leaders told Newsweek. Sometimes, the burden of denials is so large that hospitals must pick and choose which ones to fightaccepting that they won't be reimbursed by insurers for some of the care that they have provided.In some of these cases, Dr. Joe Evans, chief medical information officer at Virginia-based health system Sentara Health, believes AI could actually help. If utilized fairly, automatic approvals could allow patients and providers to make informed decisions about their care while they're still in the same room. For example, a patient who needs a CT scan and is automatically approved could schedule that appointment before leaving the office.There's "great opportunity" for some algorithmic approvals, where models could give green lights to all claims that meet certain criteria, Evans said.But, as the Senate subcommittee found, auto-approval models are significantly less profitable.Against Doctor's OrdersUnlike insurance companies, hospitals bear the immediate burden of patients' safety. When patients sit in the hospital unnecessarily, they increase their risk of a fall or hospital-acquired infection. Still, hospitals cannot release patients without a safe discharge plan.Sometimes, denied claims make patients sicker, Barwis said. For the cancer center's MA patients, the average time from clinical diagnosis to treatment has more than doubled over the past two years. It can take up to a month for patients to get the treatment they need as their doctors work to obtain approval. Patients' conditions can worsen during that time, leading to more expensive ER and hospital visits.After reading the Senate subcommittee's report, Barwis is concerned about savvy tech being used to maximize denials."The sophistication that's being utilized, it's shameful," he said. "It is absolutely shameful."

An asteroid the size of a school bus is due to zip past our planet on Wednesday, coming closer to us than the moon.The asteroid, named 2024 VX3, is forecast to skim past the Earth at a distance of 92,100 miles Wednesday evening, bringing it much closer to us than the moon's 238,900-mile orbit.2024 VX3 is estimated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) to be between 20 and 43 feet in diameter, making it between the same size as a giraffe or a Brachiosaurus.Two other asteroids are also expected to pass the Earth's neighborhood on Wednesday, with two more scheduled to visit Thursday.Stock image of an asteroid passing the Earth (main) and a school bus (inset). A bus-sized asteroid is due to pass the Earth today, coming closer than the moon.Stock image of an asteroid passing the Earth (main) and a school bus (inset). A bus-sized asteroid is due to pass the Earth today, coming closer than the moon.ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS On Wednesday, 2024 VO2 and 2020 AB2, both estimated to be around the size of a house at between 36 and 78 feet in diameter, will fly by our planet, albeit at a much greater distance than 2024 VX3. 2024 VO2 will pass us at a distance of 2,730,000 miles, while 2020 AB2 will be even further away, at 4,490,000 miles.Thursday's asteroids, named 2024 VV1 and 2024 UA10, will pass at 4,520,000 miles and 4,550,000 miles respectively. 2024 VV1 is also roughly house-sized, while 2024 UA10 is about the size of a plane, between 78 and 173 feet in diameter.For reference, at its nearest point to Earth, our neighboring planet Venus is about 24 million miles away.Due to its relatively close distance, Wednesday's 2024 VX3 is classified by CNEOS as Near-Earth Objects or NEOs, which are objects that are within 30 million miles of Earth."A NEO is defined as an object that has a closest approach to the Sun less than 1.3 AU [approximately 120 million miles]," Martin Barstow, a professor of astrophysics and space science at the University of Leicester in the U.K., told Newsweek.We have detected about 36,000 objects in our solar system so far that we have classified as NEO.Some particularly large NEOs are also classified as potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) or potentially hazardous objects (PHOs). These are defined as coming within around 4.6 million miles of Earth, having a diameter of at least 460 feet across, and being brighter than a magnitude of 22.0 or less."Astronomers consider a near-Earth object a threat if it has an Earth minimum orbit intersection distance of 0.05 AU (around 4.7 million miles or 7.5 million km) or less and is at least 140 meters [460 feet] in diameter. Those are known as potentially hazardous objects (PHOs)," Svetla Ben-Itzhak, an assistant professor of space and international relations at Johns Hopkins University, previously told Newsweek.2020 AB2, 2024 VO2, 2024 VX3, and 2024 UA10 are all NEOs, but none are also PHAs due to their larger distance from the Earth.If a PHA did ever collide with Earth, it could be apocalyptic for humankind."Not all cosmic objects present a threat to Earth. If a cosmic body [of 460 feet (140 meters) in diameter] crashed into Earth, it could destroy an entire city and cause extreme regional devastation; larger objects over 1 kilometer [in diameter] could have global effects and even cause mass extinction," Ben-Itzhak said.Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about asteroids? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.

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Using theMonarch personal finance program, I went through my finances recently and found that I pay $510 every month on various subscriptions. (Thats not counting things such as my Internet bill, $120 a month for AT&T 2Gbps fiber.) Im talking about Netflix, Google One,The Wall Street Journal, and other services and publications I actually want.But there were also over $100 worth of subscriptions that, frankly, Id forgotten aboutand no longer wanted or needed. Thats real money.So, how do I get rid of them? Today, I have to dig into every last lousy one of them and jump through numerous hoops to cancel but that may not be the case for much longer.The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last month announced aclick-to-cancel ruleaimed at making it easier for you and me to end recurring subscriptions and memberships. The new regulation requires sellers to make canceling services as simple as when you initially signed up for them.As FTC Commission Chair Lina M. Khan explained: Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription. The FTCs rule will end these tricks and traps, saving Americans time and money. Nobody should be stuck paying for a service they no longer want.Amen, sister!The new regulations arent going to affect just Disney+ subscribers and the like. Businesses that rely on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) as either users or providers are going to be affected as well.The new rule, which goes into effect six months after being published in the Federal Register, will have significant implications, for example, for providers like Google One and Microsoft 365.Heres how its likely to affect these services.For example, practices like requiring phone calls or in-person visits to cancel will no longer be allowed. If you think thats an exaggeration, by the way, you clearly havent had aPlanet Fitness subscription, which required snail-mail or an in-person visit to close out your membership.Additionally, SaaS providers must provide clear and conspicuous disclosures about subscription terms: For example, automatic renewal information must be clearly stated and cancellation deadlines by which customers must cancel to avoid charges must also be spelled out.Under these regulations, you can no longer automatically resubscribe customers. They must consent before automatic renewals take place. Clearly, businesses that use automatic renewals will have to change how theyll handle subscription renewals.If your business gets customers by offering free trials that convert to paid subscriptions, youll also need to clearly disclose the trials terms, including when the trial ends and what charges will occur. And, of course, canceling after a free trial must be as simple as signing up for the trial.All of this means, of course, that your company will have to update its terms and conditions. Youre going to have to pay your lawyers (as well as your programmers) to address these new rules.On the plus side, while none of this will be cheap, the FTC argues that customers will be happier and more likely resubscribe. And new transparent practices could even lead tostronger customer relationships.Not everyone is happy about the new regulations. Business organizations such as the Internet & Television Association (NCTA), the Interactive Advertising Bureau, and the US Chamber of Commerce oppose them. They have three major arguments: that the FTC doesnt have the legal authority to implement the rules; the change will cost companies money; and theyll force industries to change current cancellation processes that protect consumers or offer better deals.In other words, its exactly what youd expect them to say.Given the click-to-cancel rule is part of the Biden administrations efforts to combat junk fees, you might think its dead as a doornail. Usually, Id agree. But while Kahn has been alightning rod for both Democrats and Republicans, she has one ally you probably didnt expect; Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, who said: I look atLina Khan as one of the few people in the Biden administration that I think is doing a pretty good job,In addition,overall, the rule appears to be quite popular among consumers and consumer advocates. Lets get real. People are sick of perpetual subscriptions. Their budgets are tight. Even if the FTC regulation costs companies some coin, itll be worth it in the long run.

In the weeks after Donald Trumps 2016 victory, many top tech leaders found themselves at a meeting in Trump Tower, frowning and quite obviously full of dread. Now, the same executives sound enthusiastic when they say theyre looking forward to working with the next president.After Tuesdays election, the congratulations from the tech elite to Trump came in fast. The day after he secured the White House, everyone from Tim Cook to Mark Zuckerberg posted their well wishes for Trumps second term. Even Jeff Bezos weighed in, hailing Trumps extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory. This, from a man who has been in more than one public feud with Trump.The newfound praise does not, however, signal a political realignment in all of Silicon Valley. Tech executives as well as rank-and-file workers overwhelmingly supported Kamala Harris in the election, which shouldnt be too surprising: Shes been involved in Bay Area politics for many years and has deep ties with the tech and venture capital industries. That allegiance continued the trends of the Obama era, which was marked by a bit of a love fest between Washington and Silicon Valley. Barack Obama, who won the White House in 2008 with the help of Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, embraced the ethos of startup culture and celebrated tech companies as a positive force in the United States. He developed personal relationships with executives like Zuckerberg and championed tech-friendly policies. Now, that era is over. In its place is something darker and dominated by a small but very loud group of techno-libertarian Trump fans whose ranks include not only Elon Musk but also the industrys most influential investors, most of the PayPal Mafia, and the vice president-elect. Does that mean the tech industry has taken a turn to the right? Is Silicon Valley Trump country now?It is neither left nor right, Democrat or Republican, Margaret OMara, an American history professor at the University of Washington, told me after the election. She pointed out that the tech industry culture in Silicon Valley has its roots in post-Vietnam baby boomers viewing personal computers as a form of liberation. They didnt feel like they had anything in common with political conservatives, but they shared a libertarianism that ran its way all the way across the political spectrum, OMara added. Its kind of a funny libertarianism.Tim Cook and other tech leaders met with Donald Trump, Peter Thiel, and other members of the transition team at Trump Tower on December 14, 2016. Albin Lohr-Jones/Getty ImagesYou get a sense of Silicon Valleys anti-bureaucratic worldview in everything from Apples famous 1984 ad, which quite literally suggests tearing down the establishment, to Googles celebrated 20 percent rule, which lets employees work on side projects of their own choosing. Theres also a more extreme version of this philosophy in the tech industry, especially lately, one that leans into anti-establishment thinking, which explains their affinity for crypto. These 21st-century techno-libertarians just want to be left alone to build things and make money. The tech executives busy kissing the ring this week are not necessarily part of this crowd. The Tim Cooks of the world are just doing business, and that requires doing business with the president of the United States, whomever it might be. After the tumultuous first Trump administration, these leaders learned that the president-elect responds best to flattery and praise. Theyve actually been sucking up to Trump for months in hopes that they might have some sway in the event of his return to office. This would be handy for many reasons. The Biden administration, in a break from Obama, has been tough on Big Tech. He appointed anti-monopoly legal star Lina Khan to chair the Federal Trade Commission, and she mounted multiple antitrust suits against the countrys biggest tech companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta. Now, Khan is currently waiting to see if shell keep her job, and the targets of those lawsuits may have an ally in Trump, who gets to decide Khans fate. In addition to less intense regulatory scrutiny, tech companies would also enjoy lower corporate taxes, which Trump has promised to provide. In my mind, this isnt a story about Silicon Valley overall and DC overall, said Robert Lalka, a professor at Tulane University. Instead, whats occurring now involves the influence of far fewer people: a very close-knit network of like-minded Trump supporters, especially if we focus on the PayPal Mafia, and the transformation of the Republican Party and its policy agenda.The PayPal Mafia refers to a group of entrepreneurs who worked at PayPal in its early days before going on to found or help build hugely influential tech companies. If you had to pick a godfather of the PayPal Mafia and hence the leader of this pro-Trump techno-libertarian political revolution it would be Peter Thiel. The PayPal co-founder donated over $1 million to Trumps campaign back in 2016 and spent $10 million to help JD Vance win a Senate seat in Ohio in 2022. Thiel also helped fund a project to establish autonomous, floating nations in international waters, where they would be free of all laws and regulations one reason he has been called the avatar of techno-libertarianism.The motivations of the techno-libertarians, also now known as techno-authoritarians, are more twisted. Elon Musk, who was also a PayPal co-founder, emerged this year as Trumps biggest supporter after donating nearly $119 million to his campaign through his America PAC and has made the promotion of free speech one of his missions. Free speech is also a big part of why, after accusing it of censorship, Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and turned it into X, where the promotion of right-wing propaganda and misinformation may or may not have helped Trump get elected too. Its not hard to see why Musk would benefit from a close relationship with the White House. The billionaire certainly didnt have much of a rapport with the Biden administration, which snubbed him at an electric vehicle summit, an incident that reportedly led Musk to embrace Trump. Musks rocket company, SpaceX, makes billions of dollars through government contracts, while his car company, Tesla, is lobbying for fewer regulations around self-driving cars as it attempts to launch a robotaxi business. Musks company Tesla Energy, formerly SolarCity, has received billions in subsidies over the years and surely looks to benefit from the federal governments continued investment in the energy transition. Meanwhile, Trump has promised Musk a role in his administration as the secretary of cost-cutting a position that doesnt yet exist, but one that Trump seems to be seriously entertaining.The other loud pro-Trump voices in Silicon Valley share a web of connections to each other and to Musk. Theres former PayPal COO and Musk pal David Sacks, who spoke at the Republican National Convention in July; Joe Lonsdale, who co-founded Palantir with Peter Thiel and helped launch Musks America PAC; and Marc Andreessen, who last year published the 5,200-word Techno-Optimist Manifesto that envisions tech leaders as keepers of the social order. Its worth noting that not every member of the PayPal Mafia has pledged allegiance to Trump. Reid Hoffman, another former PayPal COO and LinkedIn co-founder is a prominent Democratic Party fundraiser. He donated $7 million to pro-Harris and pro-Biden PACs, even though hes a vocal Lina Khan critic. He was also on a list of more than 100 venture capitalists who threw their support behind Harris leading up to the election.Donald Trump did a campaign stop at a crypto-themed bar in New York Citys West Village on September 18. Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesAnd then theres cryptocurrency.Andreessens VC firm announced in 2022 it was going all-in on crypto, a bet thats starting to pay off after two years of looking very foolish. Trump has promised to create a strategic cryptocurrency stockpile for the US government in his second term. Trumps general anti-regulation, pro-crypto stance sent Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies soaring to all-time highs after election night, following a widely covered crypto winter that lasted a couple of years. You could argue that the crypto vote was vital to helping Trump and a lot of other Republican candidates win, too. The crypto industry has emerged as one of the most powerful lobbying forces in the country, pouring tens of millions of dollars into races against politicians they perceive to be anti-crypto and its working. So far, 48 candidates backed by pro-crypto PACs have won their races this year. Zero have lost. When you think of it that way, Trumps win on the back of techno-authoritarian billionaires seems less like a seismic shift in the politics of the tech industry and more like a bunch of one-issue voters who donated lots of money and got their way.I think a lot of it is about crypto, OMara said. Crypto is also tied in and always has been tied in to a broader worldview, which is one of libertarianism, deregulation, or privately regulated markets that are separate from government. She described this ethos as escaping the state.Now, the techno-libertarians are the state. The day after Trump declared victory, he asked Musk to join him on a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. And in the coming months, several more members of the PayPal Mafia get to decide what US tech policy will be for the next four years. You have to wonder if they just want to tear it all down. Or maybe theyll get bored and move to a floating nation in international waters where there are no laws and never have been.Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

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Nintendo is suing a player who it says repeatedly streamed pirated Switch games, while taunting the company that he couldnt be caught.Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against Jesse Keighin, who it says streams games on various online platforms under his username Every Game Guru.According to the company, Keighin is a recidivist pirate who has obtained and streamed Nintendos leaked games on multiple occasions.The lawsuit alleges that since 2022, Keighin has streamed at least 10 of Nintendos leaked games before they were released, more than 50 times in total, the most recent being Mario & Luigi: Brothership.Although Nintendo says it has submitted dozens of takedown notices, and platforms such as YouTube and Twitch have shut his channels down, it says Keighin continues to unlawfully stream Nintendos copyrighted works and thumb his nose at Nintendo and the law.It also claims that Keighin taunted Nintendo, sending the company a letter boasting that he has a thousand burner channels to stream from and can do this all day'.Keighin is also accused of continuing to seek to profit off his unauthorised streaming of Nintendos games by adding CashApp details to his streams after his channels were demonitised.On top of all the above, Keighin is also accused of regularly posting links to ROM repositories, emulators and the illegally obtained prod.keys which are needed to make them run.Nintendos lawsuit includes images from Keighins streams showing frame rate and performance specs in the corner, showing the pre-release games were being played on an emulator.By not only streaming leaked games, but also directly providing users links to circumvention software, Nintendos proprietary cryptographic keys, and pirated ROM repositories, Defendant is giving his viewers everything they need to pirate as many games as they wish, Nintendo claims.Indeed, Defendant recently boasted online that he wants to help anyone and everyone who wants to get Nintendo games for free (and early), or who needs help installing and setting up Switch emulators that let you play Switch games for free.Listing 10 games it believes Keighin has streamed in a pre-release pirated form on an emulator, Nintendo is seeking $150,000 damages with respect to each copyrighted work. Given that it claims he has streamed these games more than 50 times in total, its not currently clear whether it means $150,000 per game ($1.5 million) or per stream ($7.5 million).It also seeks $2,500 for each act of circumvention Keighin made (which it says he did each time he loaded unauthorised copies of games into Ryujinx, Yuzu, or another emulator and streamed them), as well as $2,500 for each time he offered to help the public to play emulated games by providing links to emulators, ROMs and crypto keys.Post a commentRelated VGC ContentRelated ProductsPokmon Scarlet and Violet Dual PackNintendo Switch Wireless Pro ControllerNintendo Switch Joy-Con PairOther ProductsNintendo Switch OLEDNintendo Switch LiteLEGO Nintendo Entertainment SystemSome external links on this page are affiliate links, if you click on our affiliate links and make a purchase we might receive a commission.

Apple illegally threatened workers over their talk about pay and remote work, feds chargeNov. 6, 2024Updated Wed., Nov. 6, 2024 at 4:45 p.m. Apple Parks spaceship campus is seen from this drone view in Sunnyvale, California on Oct. 21, 2019. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group/TNS) By Ethan Baron The Mercury News One Apple employee was allegedly threatened with unspecified reprisals if they talked about their performance bonus. Another was purportedly ordered to delete a post on social media about how to continue working remotely at the company. One was allegedly told to stop talking about pay on internal messaging systems and warned that the tech giant was monitoring these discussions. And another, software engineer Cher Scarlett, was purportedly railroaded out of the company after creating an online pay survey for workers at the trillion-dollar company.Those claims form the basis of a federal government charge accusing the Cupertino iPhone giant of illegally interfering with, restraining and coercing employees exercising their rights under the National Labor Relations Act to help each other with workplace issues.Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the administrative complaint, filed Oct. 31 by the National Labor Relations Board.The legal action by Scarlett the former employee and the agency that enforces the Labor Relations Act also claims that Apple denied an employees request to create an internal-messaging channel about pay equity, telling the worker the messaging platform was only for business purposes despite letting other employees use it for non-business topics.Additionally, the complaint alleges, Apple told an employee not to speak to the press after they were quoted in the media about workplace issues.The worker who was ordered to remove the social-media post about remote work was also asked by a human resources representative to provide names of other Apple employees the person had talked with about working remotely, the complaint claims.A manager in a phone call told a worker that Apple did not want employees talking about wages or pay equity, the complaint alleges.The alleged incidents are purported to have happened in 2021.According to the complaint, Scarlett helped found Apple Too, modeled after the #MeToo movement against sexual violence, and intended to encourage Apple employees to share stories and create transparency around incidents of discrimination, inequity, racism and sexism they experienced in the course of their employment at Apple.In the summer of 2021, Scarlett created and posted online a pay-equity survey where Apple employees could anonymously share information about their compensation, job categories, experience and personal information in order to identify potential pay disparities. Scarlett posted the survey on her personal account on social media platform Twitter, now called X.The labor board and Scarlett argue in the complaint that she was forced to leave the company by its response to her work on behalf of her fellow Apple workers. She announced on Twitter in November 2021 that she was leaving the company; technology website The Verge reported that she had reached a settlement with Apple.Apple allegedly cracked down on other employees who took action in response to Scarletts advocacy. Apple demanded that one worker refrain from participating in the wage survey and was threatened with unspecified reprisals if they did, or if they continued to take part in wage discussions on the internal messaging platform, the complaint claims.An Apple human resources manager refused to meet collectively with Apple workers concerned about the results of the wage survey, and insisted on individual meetings, the complaint alleges. That manager, Jeannie Wong, in a videoconference interrogated an employee about why and how the employee got involved with Scarletts pay equity survey and who else was involved, the complaint claims.The Spokesman-Review NewspaperLocal journalism is essential.Give directly to The Spokesman-Review's Northwest Passages community forums series -- which helps to offset the costs of several reporter and editor positions at the newspaper -- by using the easy options below. Gifts processed in this system are not tax deductible, but are predominately used to help meet the local financial requirements needed to receive national matching-grant funds.Meet Our JournalistsSubscribe now to get breaking news alerts in your email inboxGet breaking news delivered to your inbox as it happens.Sign up