France’s competition regulator fined Apple €150 million, saying the iPhone maker went overboard in its implementation of pop-up messages that let users consent to or reject tracking that third-party applications use for targeted advertising, ArsTechnica reported. The App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework used by Apple on iPhones and iPads since 2021 makes the use of third-party applications too complex and
An AI overhaul may be on the horizon for Apple’s Health App. In the Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple is working on a much more comprehensive version of its Health App under the code name Project Mulberry, with plans to integrate an AI agent that would somewhat “replicate” a doctor and act as a personal health
Elon Musk said Friday that his artificial intelligence startup, xAI, had acquired his social media platform, X. NBC News reported. He said the deal was an all-stock transaction that valued X at $33 billion. “xAI and X’s future are intertwined. Today, we officially take the step to combine to data, models, compute, distribution, and talent,” Musk wrote in a post
The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system — and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely — at risk, WIRED reported.
OpenAI’s new image generator has gone viral with Studio Ghibli-style memes featuring public figures like Elon Musk and Donald Trump. The tool, part of GPT-4o, allows users to recreate existing images in artistic styles, sparking copyright concerns about training on copyrighted works. Legal experts point out that while the style isn’t protected, how models are trained remains unclear. As lawsuits
It’s only been a day since ChatGPT’s new AI image maker went live, and social media feeds are already flooded with AI-generated memes in the style of Studio Ghibli, the cult-favorite Japanese animation studio behind blockbuster films such as “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away”, TechCrunch reported. In the last 24 hours, we’ve seen AI-generated images representing Studio Ghibli versions
The U.S. on Tuesday added dozens of Chinese tech companies to it’s export blacklist in its first such effort under the Donald Trump administration, as it doubles down on curtailing Beijing’s artificial intelligence and advanced computing capabilities, CNBC reported. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security added 80 organizations to an “entity list,” with more than 50
Apple is set to stave off a possible fine and an EU order over its browser options on iPhones after it made changes to comply with landmark EU rules aimed at reigning in Big Tech, people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The European Commission, which launched an investigation in March last year under the
In an extraordinary breach, a journalist was mistakenly included in a Signal group chat where top Trump officials coordinated upcoming military strikes on Yemen. Using Signal—a public messaging app—rather than burdensome government-secured systems suggests a deliberate choice to avoid painful legacy systems; unless something has changed, I do not think the app is approved for classified communications. While waivers can
Apple is working on adding cameras to the Apple Watch in order to enable AI features like Visual Intelligence within the next two years, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On Newsletter, The Verge reported. The cameras will be “inside the display” for the standard Series Watch, while the Apple Watch Ultra would feature it on the side,
TechCrunch has a new owner, again. Yahoo has sold the tech news site to the private equity firm Regent for an undisclosed sum, according to an announcement on Friday, The Verge reported. Regent is the same company that snapped up Foundry, the firm behind outlets like PCWorld, MacWorld, and TechAdvisor on Thursday. Founded in 2005, TechCrunch has experienced many shakeups
Apple and Google are rebelling against the EU’s Digital Markets Act, claiming new interoperability and openness rules hurt consumers and innovation. The European Commission says these tech giants are abusing market dominance, with Google facing potential fines for favoring its services and restricting developer freedom. Apple is under pressure to make iOS more compatible with third-party devices. The tech giants