Category: Tech News

Reddit Goes Offline Amid Mass Community Protests Over New Pricing Policy

Social platform Reddit went offline for some time on June 12 when numerous subreddits or communities began protesting against the company’s new policy for access to the application programming interface (API), which would charge web developers for access to the site’s backend interface. The outage began at about 10:25 a.m. Eastern time, TechCrunch reported. “We’re aware of…


New Twitter CEO Says Platform Will Be ‘World’s Most Accurate Real-Time Information Source’

Twitter’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino vowed on June 12 that the platform will become the “world’s most accurate real-time information source” and a “global town square for communication” as part of its expansion toward “Twitter 2.0.” Yaccarino, the former head of advertising at NBCUniversal, was named by Elon Musk as the new CEO of Twitter…


Former ByteDance Executive Says Chinese Communist Party Tracked Hong Kong Protesters via Data

HONG KONG—A former executive at ByteDance, the Chinese company which owns the short-video app TikTok, says in a legal filing that some members of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) used data held by the company to identify and locate protesters in Hong Kong. Yintao Yu, formerly head of engineering for ByteDance in the United…


DOJ Charges 2 Russian Nationals in Mt. Gox Crypto Hack

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged two Russian nationals linked to the 2011 hack of cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox and the illicit bitcoin exchange BTC-e, according to charges unsealed on Friday. Both suspects will face charges related to money laundering conspiracy in the Southern District of New York. One suspect will also be charged…


Driverless Cars Are Causing Havoc in San Francisco, Residents Say

Driverless cars have been causing havoc in the streets of San Francisco over the past year, much to the annoyance of local residents. The self-driving vehicles have become common in the Bay Area, after two tech firms, Cruise and Waymo, were given permission by local authorities several months ago to test their new vehicles on the…


NZ Government Agency Bans Staff Form Using AI Platforms

In what appears to be a world first, a government agency in New Zealand has banned employees from using AI technology over data and privacy concerns. The New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) issued the ban on tools like ChatGPT after concerns sensitive information inputted into such platforms could be later retrieved, reported…


NZ Government Agency Bans Staff From Using AI Platforms

In what appears to be a world first, a government agency in New Zealand has banned employees from using AI technology over data and privacy concerns. The New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) issued the ban on tools like ChatGPT after concerns sensitive information inputted into such platforms could be later retrieved, reported…


Creator of Conservative Chatbot Powered by ChatGPT Says OpenAI Tried to Censor Content

The creators of a conservative chatbot powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT announced that they shut down the chatbot because of pressure from OpenAI to censor the bot’s responses. The conservative chatbot, named GIPPR in honor of the late President Ronald Reagan, debuted in May and is part of TUSK, a pro-free speech and anti-censorship web browser. GIPPR…


Uber to Offer Car Rental Services in US

Ride-hailing service Uber is planning to enter the car rental market in the United States, allowing people to hire cars from owners in select cities. The Carshare rental program was announced by Uber on Thursday. The program will provide a platform where car owners can list their vehicles and rent them out to borrowers at…


UK to Host 1st Global Summit on AI

The UK will host the first major global summit on AI safety this autumn, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced, vowing to take a “coordinated approach” on emerging tech with U.S. President Joe Biden. The announcement came ahead of the meeting between the two leaders in Washington on Wednesday. The UK will be at the…