James Farrell – SiliconANGLE

Elon Musk to receive $1T Tesla pay package if ambitious targets are met

James Farrell — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 02:37:18 +0000

Tesla Inc. shareholders today approved a $1 trillion compensation plan for Chief Executive Elon Musk, which would considerably increase the wealth of the world’s richest person if he meets shareholders’ expectations. During Tesla’s annual general meeting today, when it was announced that 75% of investors had given the thumbs up to the future paycheck for […]

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Google to make major changes to its app store to settle Epic Games lawsuit

James Farrell — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 02:26:31 +0000

“Fortnite” video game maker Epic Games Inc. has reached a “comprehensive settlement” with Google LLC that ends a five-year-old legal battle and will lead to reforms to Android and the Google Play Store. In 2020, Epic filed lawsuits against both Google and Apple Inc., claiming that the 15% to 30% commission fee to download apps […]

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Amazon blocks Perplexity from sending its AI agents to purchase goods

James Farrell — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 02:36:25 +0000

Amazon.com Inc. has sent a cease-and-desist letter to AI startup Perplexity, asking that the company refrain from using its Comet browser’s AI agents to make purchases on Amazon’s marketplace, a move Perplexity has called “bullying.” Amazon argued that agents taking the place of human shoppers would degrade the customer experience. The company explicitly prohibits “any […]

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Trump claims not to know the crypto king he just pardoned

James Farrell — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 02:58:17 +0000

In a CBS “60 Minutes” interview aired on Sunday, President Trump said he didn’t know who Changpeng Zhao is, even though he’s the crypto billionaire with ties to the Trump family’s own crypto venture. Zhao was the co-founder of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading volume. In 2023, Zhao, also known […]

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After a death and lawsuits, Character.AI will ban teens from speaking to its chatbots

James Farrell — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 01:21:37 +0000

Character.AI today said today that it soon will no longer allow minors to communicate with its chatbots in a move to address complaints about child safety. The Silicon Valley Google LLC-funded chatbot startup, which lets users create character-based avatars, has been the focus of scrutiny for some time now, recently at the center of a […]

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OpenAI says more than a million people a week show severe mental distress when talking to ChatGPT

James Farrell — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 01:48:47 +0000

In a report released by OpenAI today, the company illustrated just how many of its users are struggling with mental health issues and what it’s doing to mitigate the problem. Working with 170 mental health experts, OpenAI analyzed responses from its 800 million weekly users to better understand how many were experiencing emotional distress at […]

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Trump calls off National Guard operation in San Francisco after speaking with mayor and tech CEOs

James Farrell — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 02:23:10 +0000

President Donald Trump today announced that he no longer plans to deploy federal troops to San Francisco after having spoken to the mayor and two major tech figures. “The Federal Government was preparing to ‘surge’ San Francisco, California, on Saturday, but friends of mine who live in the area called last night to ask me […]

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Reddit is suing Perplexity and AI data scraping firms for using its data without permission

James Farrell — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 01:34:42 +0000

Reddit Inc. has launched lawsuits against startup Perplexity AI Inc. and three data-scraping service providers for trawling the company’s copyrighted content to be used to train AI models. Reddit compared the data scraping companies — SerpApi, Oxylabs and AWMProxy — to “bank robbers,” adding that one of the firms “will apparently do anything to get […]

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Open AI to crack down on deepfakes after backlash in Hollywood

James Farrell — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 01:56:49 +0000

OpenAI said today that it has released new policies around its artificial intelligence tool Sora 2, following concerns from Hollywood studios and actors’ unions that the talent is being generated without consent. OpenAI’s new generative video model lets users to create videos with a prompt. With little effort, famous figures, living or deceased, can do […]

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Ron Conway exits Salesforce Foundation board over CEO Marc Benioff’s call to deploy National Guard to SF

James Farrell — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 01:27:23 +0000

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Ron Conway today resigned from the board of the Salesforce Foundation following comments made by Salesforce Inc. Chief Executive Marc Benioff urging President Trump to send the National Guard to San Francisco to police streets. A day earlier, Trump spoke at a press conference, calling the city “a mess” and expressing […]

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Sam Altman says ChatGPT will become friendly again with a touch of erotica for adult users

James Farrell — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 01:57:48 +0000

OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman today said restrictions on the company’s ChatGPT chatbot will be eased, with the incoming updated version to “treat adult users like adults” and give users the option to interact with an erotic-themed bot. The new update lets users shape the chatbot’s personality, giving it a more natural, human feel. This […]

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Tesla faces probe after accidents in cars fitted with full self-driving software

James Farrell — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 01:52:24 +0000

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said today that it has opened a probe into a series of incidents concerning Tesla Inc. cars, some of them resulting in injuries. About 2.8 million Tesla vehicles with the company’s Full Self-Driving or FSD system will be scrutinized after a total of 58 traffic safety incidents involving FSD, amounting […]

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Apple comes under criticism for removing apps related to ICE arrests

James Farrell — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 02:18:50 +0000

Apple Inc. is currently taking flak for its decision to remove two apps from the App Store that tracked the activity of people being arrested by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Last week, ICEBlock became the first ICE-related app removed from the App Store after pressure from the Trump administration. The app was […]

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Meta will start mining AI chatbot conversations to target users with ads and content

James Farrell — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 01:56:56 +0000

Meta Platforms Inc. announced today that, in an effort to improve its targeted advertising across all its platforms, it will start analyzing users’ conversations with AI chatbots. Users will receive a notification about the change on Oct. 7, while Meta’s privacy policy will be updated on Dec. 16. The new policy will apply to most […]

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California Governor Gavin Newsom signs landmark AI safety bill into law

James Farrell — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 02:16:07 +0000

California Governor Gavin Newsom today signed into law a sweeping measure requiring major artificial intelligence developers to meet state-mandated safety standards and disclose potential risks associated with their products. The Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, SB 53, also strengthens protections for employees and executives who blow the whistle on harms or unsafe practices. Though […]

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TikTok will stay: Trump signs executive order to keep app in the US

James Farrell — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 03:08:34 +0000

President Donald Trump signed an executive order today, sealing the deal that will keep the app in the U.S. Though there will still be some regulatory hurdles to jump, it appears that Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Trump are both on board to separate the app from its Chinese owner, ByteDance Ltd. As reported earlier […]

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Trump to sign off on TikTok deal Thursday

James Farrell — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 01:57:31 +0000

The Trump administration says it has brokered a deal to keep TikTok operating in the U.S., which the president is expected to sign Thursday, a White House official said. As reported earlier this week, Oracle Corp. will serve as the app’s data and security provider, which, together with private-equity firm Silver Lake, will own a […]

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Secret Service disrupts plot to cripple New York cell phone system

James Farrell — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 01:29:07 +0000

The U.S. Secret Service today announced that it recently disrupted a hidden telecom network in the New York Tri-State Area that had the potential to wreak havoc on New York’s telecom systems and posed a threat to United Nations General Assembly meetings this week. As about 150 world leaders were preparing to arrive in Manhattan […]

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Oracle to oversee TikTok algorithm in Trump-backed deal

James Farrell — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 02:50:12 +0000

After months of negotiations between the U.S. and China, a preliminary agreement apparently has been reached over the fate of TikTok, with Oracle Corp. set to oversee the app’s algorithm. The White House today explained that under the terms of a proposed deal, Oracle will audit the algorithm, while a newly formed joint venture — […]

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Meta whistleblowers claim company buried information on child safety

James Farrell — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 01:35:04 +0000

Meta Platforms Inc. reportedly suppressed internal research into safety concerns on its virtual reality platforms, including findings that a child under the age of 10 had been sexually propositioned in-app. “Meta knew that underage children were using its products, but figured, ‘Hey, kids drive engagement,’ and it was making them cash,” Jason Sattizahn, one of […]

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Melania Trump invites tech CEOs to White House to inaugurate education AI task force

James Farrell — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 01:41:45 +0000

The first lady today invited some of the U.S.’s foremost tech leaders to the East Wing of the White House to inaugurate a task force on artificial intelligence with an emphasis on integrating AI into the education of children. “I predict AI will represent the single largest growth category in our nation during the Trump […]

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Disney agrees to pay FTC $10 million over YouTube videos for children

James Farrell — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 01:19:25 +0000

The Federal Trade Commission announced today that the Walt Disney Co. has agreed to pay $10 million to settle allegations that the entertainment company had engaged in the “unlawful collection” of children’s personal data on the YouTube platform. Regulators at the FTC said the company failed to flag certain videos on its platform as “Made […]

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Landmark AI wrongful death lawsuit alleges OpenAI’s ChatGPT played major role in teen’s suicide

James Farrell — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 02:10:22 +0000

The parents of a teenage American boy who died by suicide today filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI, whose ChatGPT chatbot they say helped their son “explore suicide methods.” According to the New York Times, which today laid out the case, the victim, 16-year-old Adam Raine, was found hanged in his bedroom closet in […]

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Microsoft AI chief tells us we should step back before creating AI that seems too human

James Farrell — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 01:23:33 +0000

Microsoft AI Chief Executive Mustafa Suleyman published an essay this week on the development of AI, and it comes with a warning: We should be very cautious about treating future AI products as if they possess consciousness. Suleyman (pictured) said in his essay Tuesday that his “life’s mission” has been to create AI products that […]

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US spy chief says UK has dropped backdoor order for Apple

James Farrell — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 02:15:14 +0000

The U.S. director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said earlier today that the U.K.’s controversial order to mandate Apple Inc. to open a backdoor to user data has been dropped. Gabbard wrote on X that after working with U.K. authorities to “ensure Americans’ private data remains private” and “constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected,” […]

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AI chatbot scrutiny intensifies: Texas AG launches probe of Meta and Character.AI over misleading mental health claims

James Farrell — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 02:41:39 +0000

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today announced plans to launch a probe into Meta Platforms Inc. and Character.AI over the companies’ chatbots being used by young people as mental health tools. Paxton (pictured) believes that the AI tools could be utilized by vulnerable children who may believe the bots represent professional care. In a press […]

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Workday acquires Flowise to boost AI-powered workflows

James Farrell — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 05:01:41 +0000

Workday Inc., the human resources and finance software giant, announced today that it has acquired Flowise, an open-source, low-code platform for building artificial intelligence agents and workflow automation. Workday provides cloud-based software for human capital management and financial operations, serving more than 11,000 customers worldwide, including over 60% of the Fortune 500. The company has […]

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Igor Babuschkin, co-founder of Elon Musk’s xAI, is leaving the company to focus on AI safety

James Farrell — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 02:01:08 +0000

Igor Babuschkin, a founding member of Elon Musk’s xAI, today announced that he is departing the company to focus on artificial intelligence that is “safe and beneficial to humanity.” “Today was my last day at xAI, the company that I helped start with Elon Musk in 2023,” Babuschkin wrote on X. “I still remember the […]

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High Court rejects Wikipedia’s challenge to UK online safety laws

James Farrell — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 02:21:29 +0000

The High Court in the U.K. today dismissed Wikipedia’s challenge to the country’s far-reaching online safety laws, rejecting its claim that the rules were flawed. The Online Safety Bill, or OSA, which the government has vowed will tame the “Wild West” of the internet, has been controversial since it was first proposed. It’s viewed by […]

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Lyft is partnering with Baidu to deploy robotaxis in Europe

James Farrell — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 01:33:27 +0000

U.S. ride-hailing firm Lyft Inc. announced today that it’s teaming up with the Chinese tech giant, Baidu, Inc., to deploy driverless taxis across Europe, starting with the U.K. and Germany in 2026. In the U.S. market, Lyft is the second-largest ride-hailing firm behind Uber Technologies Inc., but while the latter has a pervasive presence across […]

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