From the archive

2025

France Fines Apple €150 million For “Excessive” Pop-Ups That Let Users Reject Tracking

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

Apple Is Said To Be Developing A Revamped Health App

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’s Startup Acquires X In Deal That Values Social Media Platform At $33 Billion

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

DOGE Plans To Rebuild SSA Codebase In Months, Risking Benefits And System Collapse

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.

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ChatGPT’s New Image Model Sparks Additional Copyright Controversies

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

OpenAI’s Viral Studio Ghibli Moment Highlights AI Copyright Concerns

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

U.S. Blacklists Over 50 Chinese Companies In Bid To Curb Beijing’s AI Chip Capabilities

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