Inside Anthropic’s existential negotiations with the Pentagon
Inside Anthropic's existential negotiations with the Pentagon Anthropic’s weekslong battle with the Department of Defense has played out over social media posts, admonishing public statements, and direct quotes from unnamed Pentagon officials to the news media. But the future of the $380 billion AI startup comes down to just three words: “any lawful use.” The […]
Discord distances itself from Persona age verification after user backlash
Discord distances itself from Persona age verification after user backlash Discord is attempting to distance itself from the age verification provider Persona following a steady stream of user backlash. In an emailed statement to The Verge, Discord’s head of product policy, Savannah Badalich, confirms the company “ran a limited test of Persona in the UK […]
Georgia says Elon Musk’s America PAC violated election law
Georgia says Elon Musk's America PAC violated election law Of course, it’s the guy who constantly complains about voter fraud who may have committed voter fraud. | Image: The Verge For all his bluster about voter fraud, Elon Musk has been one of the most flagrant flaunters of US election law. Now his America PAC […]
Trump Mobile is just Liberty Mobile in gold foil
Trump Mobile is just Liberty Mobile in gold foil Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. This week, we explain how the presidential phone company connects to an older company that’s really running the show. We’ve long known that Trump Mobile was linked to Liberty Mobile, a carrier that’s […]
Smart glasses in court are a privacy nightmare
Smart glasses in court are a privacy nightmare When Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrived at a Los Angeles courthouse on Wednesday, he did so with a team that appeared to be wearing Meta’s camera-equipped Ray-Ban smart glasses. Judge Carolyn Kuhl was concerned. According to CNBC, Kuhl warned anyone recording with the glasses, “If you have […]
Prop bet
Prop bet Pondering my orb. | Cath Virginia Substack has updated its partnership with betting platform Polymarket, “introducing native tools that make it easier to share, discuss, and debate prediction market data directly on Substack.” Additionally, Polymarket will effectively pay “a cohort of creators,” including Matt Yglesias, to use its data though the newsletter platform’s […]
The executive that helped build Meta’s ad machine is trying to expose it
The executive that helped build Meta's ad machine is trying to expose it Brian Boland spent more than a decade figuring out how to build a system that would make Meta money. On Thursday, he told a California jury it incentivized drawing more and more users, including teens, onto Facebook and Instagram – despite the […]
Texas is suing TP-Link over its ties to China
Texas is suing TP-Link over its ties to China Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing TP-Link over claims that the router-maker is misleading customers about its ties to China. In a lawsuit filed this week, Paxton claims TP-Link is “masking its Chinese connections,” while serving as “an open window for Chinese-sponsored threat actors and […]
West Virginia sues Apple for allegedly letting child abuse spread in iCloud
West Virginia sues Apple for allegedly letting child abuse spread in iCloud West Virginia has filed a lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of allowing the distribution and storage of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in iCloud. In a lawsuit filed on Thursday, West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey claims that by abandoning a CSAM […]
The speech police came for Colbert
The speech police came for Colbert Generally speaking, arcane and mostly unenforced FCC rules are not the province of late night talk shows. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr seems intent on changing that, though; not long after causing a ruckus that briefly took Jimmy Kimmel off the air, his vague threats appear to have been enough […]