Reported move would make Japanese group largest financial backer of US startup behind ChatGPT
The Japanese investment group SoftBank is reportedly in talks to invest up to $25bn (£20bn) in OpenAI in a deal that would make it the biggest financial backer of the startup behind ChatGPT.
The lender is considering putting a sum of between $15bn and $25bn into the San Francisco-based company, according to the Financial Times.
Continue reading...Zuckerberg likely to be asked about plans to spend $60-65bn on AI in 2025 as tech giant faces increased competition
Meta will report earnings for the fourth quarter of 2024 after US stock markets close on Wednesday.
Analysts will probably ask about Mark Zuckerberg’s plans to spend between $60bn and $65bn on AI infrastructure in 2025. That is up from the $50bn the CEO said he expected to spend at the end of last quarter. But as Meta faces increased competition, especially from new player DeepSeek AI, the company is ramping up its AI efforts.
Continue reading...Man fined for flying device under influence as court applies same punishment it would for drunk-driving a vehicle
A man has been convicted for drunk-driving a drone in what is thought to be the first case of its kind in Sweden.
The 55-year-old man was found guilty in July of flying the device at a classic car event in Rättvik, a town in Dalarna, central Sweden, in a temporary no-fly zone.
Continue reading...Levies threaten exporters to US market, while scrapping of subsidies will hit EV sales – and Tesla could gain
The internal combustion engine appears to hold a special place in Donald Trump’s psyche. During his inauguration speech last week, he made a “sacred pledge” to raise US car production to “a rate that nobody could have dreamt possible just a few years ago”.
Car making and the oil industry – not AI, computer chips, or even cryptocurrencies – were the only two industries the new US president highlighted as he promised to make America a “manufacturing nation once again”.
Continue reading...Tentative rise comes after emergence of cheaper Chinese rival wiped $1tn off the value of leading US tech companies
US tech stocks tentatively recovered on Tuesday after Donald Trump described the launch of a chatbot by China’s DeepSeek as a “wake-up call” for Silicon Valley in the global race to dominate artificial intelligence.
The emergence of DeepSeek, which has built its R1 model chatbot at a fraction of the cost of competitors such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, wiped $1tn (£800bn) in value from the leading US tech index on Monday.
Continue reading...Donald Trump says China’s DeepSeek is a ‘wake-up call’ for American AI firms
Donald Trump has suggested that Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok and that he would like to see a bidding war over the app.
When asked if Microsoft was in talks to buy the app, the US president said “I would say yes”, adding “A lot of interest in TikTok. There’s great interest in TikTok.”
Continue reading...Doug Gurr will lead board as watchdog rules on Microsoft and Amazon’s dominance of cloud computing market
The new chair of the UK competition watchdog will have to assess whether to curb the position of his former employer, Amazon, after an independent inquiry found that a lack of competition in the £9bn cloud computing market could mean British businesses are overpaying for services.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which last week announced the surprise appointment of former Amazon UK boss Doug Gurr as its interim chair, said that Microsoft and Amazon’s dominance of the cloud computing market could mean that British businesses are paying as much as £430m more annually for services than in a “well-functioning market”.
Continue reading...Top US Jewish advocate Halie Soifer calls Trump adviser’s address to far-right Germany rally ‘incredibly dangerous’
Elon Musk’s remarks to a German far-right party that Germans should not focus on their country’s Nazi past should prompt “deep concern” about “the security of American Jews” and “of Jews worldwide”, a leading US Jewish advocate has told the Guardian.
“Speaking as a deeply concerned American Jew,” said Halie Soifer, chief executive of the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA), “I am deeply concerned about the security of American Jews, of Jews worldwide, given our president’s clear alignment with dangerous rightwing extremists.”
Continue reading...Tech firm to make change in line with Trump’s executive order, using both names in world outside US and Mexico
Google has confirmed it will rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America on Google Maps in the US, after an executive order from Donald Trump.
It will remain the Gulf of Mexico in Mexico, while users outside of the US and Mexico will see both names on Google Maps. The Alaskan peak Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, will also be changed to Mount McKinley in the US in line with Trump’s executive order on 20 January.
Reuters contributed to this report
Continue reading...The AI app soared up the Apple charts and rocked US stocks, but the Chinese chatbot was reluctant to discuss sensitive questions about China and its government
The launch of a new chatbot by Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek triggered a plunge in US tech stocks as it appeared to perform as well as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other AI models, but using fewer resources.
By Monday, DeepSeek’s AI assistant had rapidly overtaken ChatGPT as the most popular free app in Apple’s US and UK app stores. Despite its popularity with international users, the app appears to censor answers to sensitive questions about China and its government.
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Continue reading...Former Beatles member says government should protect creative workers as consultation on copyright continues
Sir Paul McCartney has warned artificial intelligence could “rip off” artists if a proposed overhaul of copyright law goes ahead.
The proposals could remove the incentive for writers and artists and result in a “loss of creativity”, he told the BBC.
Continue reading...Some say recent suspected sabotage of transatlantic cables serving Europe and UK means Ireland must be able to defend itself
They are the bedrock of the internet, keeping everything from TikTok to emergency services, business, banking systems and political and military communications running smoothly.
But deep under the sea, the network of cables around British and Irish shores are being considered as increasingly attractive targets for military, terrorist or criminal actors after several incidents in the Baltics where internet cables were severed and internet communications were disrupted.
Continue reading...Study by parental control software firm Qustodio also shows Roblox is the gaming app most blocked by parents
Australian children who play Roblox are on the app for an average of 139 minutes a day and it is the gaming app most blocked by parents, a new industry report has found.
It comes as new documents reveal the federal government excluded games from the under 16s social media ban due to “regulatory overlap”.
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Continue reading...App has resumed operations after saying it received assurance over de facto ban, but its future remains uncertain
TikTok is restoring its service in the US after Donald Trump said he would issue an executive order when president to allow the app to continue operating.
It had shut itself down late on Saturday in advance of a Sunday deadline to divest its Chinese shareholders or face a ban, but resumed operations on Sunday, the day before Trump’s inauguration, saying it had received the appropriate assurances from the president-elect.
Continue reading...Bitcoin rises by 4% past $109,000, reversing earlier losses; Donald Trump meme coin price tanks after wife Melania also launches token
The UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will travel to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos this week in the hope of convincing some of the world’s largest companies to invest, with allies saying she will use spending cuts rather than further tax increases to meet her own fiscal rules.
At the same time, the Treasury is considering a push to cut the benefits bill, in a move that is causing nervousness among Labour MPs.
Continue reading...Claiming a threat from a ‘foreign adversary’, the US has yet to prove China shared propaganda or collected US user data
The United States of America deleted TikTok early on the morning of 19 January. A government formed “by the people, for the people”, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, has made scant evidence available to those people as to why. As those in power at the 11th hour realize how unpopular such a paternalistic move might be, each is doing their best to lay blame with the others.
Why did the US ban an app used and beloved by some 170 million Americans? For fear of China’s propaganda and data collection. It’s a far-reaching, unprecedented move. The text of the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, passed in April and signed by Joe Biden, reads: “This bill prohibits distributing, maintaining, or providing internet hosting services for a foreign adversary controlled application (eg, TikTok).” Both a federal appeals court and the US supreme court have affirmed that rationale as sufficient.
Continue reading...App no longer available on US Apple and Google stores after supreme court upholds lawmakers’ ban
TikTok stopped working in the US late on Saturday, shortly before a federal ban on the Chinese-owned short-video app was due to take effect.
The app was no longer available on Apple’s iOS App Store or Google’s Play Store. The US Congress passed a law in April mandating that parent company ByteDance either sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner or face a total shutdown. It chose the latter.
Continue reading...President-elect said he’d probably give the company an extension from US ban the supreme court recently upheld
Donald Trump has said he will “most likely” give the Chinese-owned TikTok app a 90-day reprieve from a potential ban in the US after he takes office on Monday morning.
The incoming president said on Saturday, in an interview with NBC News, that he was considering the extension on a Sunday deadline laid down for the parent company of the wildly popular app to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese-buyer or face a ban under US law.
Continue reading...The digital option will be made available through a government app, but will not be mandatory
The UK is to introduce digital driving licences this year as the government looks to use technology to “transform public services”.
The digital version of driving licences will be available in a virtual wallet in a government app, instead of being added to existing Google or Apple wallets. It could be accepted as a form of ID when voting, purchasing alcohol or boarding domestic flights.
Continue reading...Social media accounts blocked for breaking Beijing rules as millions of users join up before ban takes effect
Nine invaluable things I’ve learned from TikTok
When Angelica Oung received the notification that her Xiaohongshu account had been blocked for violating the social media app’s code of conduct, her mind started racing.
The only picture she had posted on her account, apart from her profile headshot, was of herself wearing an inflatable polar bear suit, holding a sign saying: “I love nuclear”. What could be the problem with that, wondered Oung, a clean energy activist in Taiwan.
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