The investment will support three new semiconductor facilities — two in Sherman, Texas, and one in Lehi, Utah.

The firm has pledged more than $18bn through 2029 to the projects, which it says will create 2,000 manufacturing jobs.

TI is also expected to receive an estimated $6bn-$8bn in investment tax credits from the US Treasury Department and an additional $10m in funding for workforce development.

“With plans to grow our internal manufacturing to more than 95% by 2030, we’re building geopolitically dependable, 300mm capacity at scale to provide the analogue and embedded processing chips our customers will need for years to come,” CEO Haviv Ilan said.

Semiconductor chips are needed in almost any electronic device, including cars, for safety and intelligence systems, medical equipment, and smart home accessories.

The US has been bolstering its semiconductor manufacturing in order to suppress dominance from countries such as China and Taiwan.

“With this proposed investment from the Biden-Harris Administration in TI…we would help secure the supply chain for these foundational semiconductors that are used in every sector of the US economy and create tens of thousands of jobs in Texas and Utah,” said US Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo

US Senator John Cornyn said: “The chipmaking capabilities these resources will enable at Texas Instruments will help the US reclaim its leadership role in the critically important semiconductor industry.”

Texas Instruments added that the new facilities will be entirely powered by renewable electricity and that it will continually “invest in its fabrication processes and equipment to reduce energy, material and water consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions.”

The post Texas Instruments secures $1.6bn in US government chip funding appeared first on TechInformed.

Judge Amit Mehta found that Google violated section 2 of the Sherman Act, a US antitrust law.

“After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” he said.

The Department of Justice and a number of US states brought the case against Google in 2020.

It presented that Google paid companies such as Apple and Samsung billions of dollars a year to automatically default to its search engine.

Apple received $18billion, according to The New York Times.

Plus, Samsung received $8billion over four years to make its search engine, voice assistant and Play Store the default on its mobile devices, according to a testimony presented by Epic Games Inc.

Google’s fate will be finalised in the next phase of proceedings, which may mean a mandate to stop certain business practices or even a breakup of Google parent Alphabet.

Nevertheless, Google plans to appeal the ruling. Kent Walker, president of global affairs pointed to the ruling’s acknowledgement that Google “offers the best search engine,” yet it “concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available.”

“As this process continues, we will remain focused on making products that people find helpful and easy to use,” he said.

“This landmark decision holds Google accountable,” DOJ antitrust chief Jonathan said in a statement. “It paves the path for innovation for generations to come and protects access to information for all Americans.”

It’s the latest blow to Google after a federal jury in California found that its app marketplace is an illegal monopoly.

Plus, it faces a separate case from the DOJ and a handful of states accusing its online advertising business of dominating the market, too.

The post Google illegally dominated online search, US judge rules appeared first on TechInformed.

Over the weekend far-right groups rioted in towns and cities across the country, triggered by the stabbing of three young girls in the northwest town of Southport.

Claims that the suspected murderer was an immigrant spread across social media platforms but were proven false when police named the suspect as Cardiff-born Axel Rudakubana.

The false claims, amplified by right-wing political voices, led to Islamophobic and anti-immigration groups mobilising mass protests across the country.

Among the disorder, two Holiday Inn hotels which were reportedly hosting asylum seekers have been damaged, mosques vandalised, and cities including Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester and Belfast have seen violent attacks and threats against Black and Asian people.

Cooper’s comments come after X owner, Elon Musk, responded to a video of protestors aiming fireworks at the police with the post: “civil war is inevitable.”

“There’s been some shocking misinformation that has escalated some of this, but then there’s also been deliberate organisation of violence as well,” she said on the BBC’s Today programme.

How to check for misinformation

“You can’t just have the armchair thuggery of the people being able to incite and organise violence and also not face consequences for this.”

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer also criticised social media platforms for the role they played in the recent riots. He said that “violent disorder clearly whipped up online” is a crime.

Mark Jones, partner at legal services firm, Payne Hicks Beach, said in response to this: “but what about the individual posting the misinformation in the first place?”

Jones points to the recent Online Safety Act 2023, which he says could have been “a pivotal moment in the way we tackle harms caused by misinformation.”

“However, the final Act falls short of the Government’s original intention of making the UK the safest place to be online.

The only references to misinformation in the Act are about setting up a committee to advise Ofcom and changes to Ofcom’s media literacy policy.”

He adds that while there is a new false communications offence in the Act that outlaws the intentional sending of false information that could cause psychological or physical harm, this is mainly aimed at internet trolls and does not cover events such as last week.

“Instead, the police are likely to have to rely on offences under the Public Order Act 1986, which is the main piece of legislation which penalises the use of violence and/or intimidation by individuals in groups,” Jones explained.

He acknowledged the Home Secretary’s comments, saying “if it’s a crime offline, it’s a crime online,” but added: “The Online Safety Act provides no additional support to the pre-existing criminal covering incidents of incitement of violence.”

Meta, X, Snap and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The post UK riots: Home Secretary demands action from social media giants appeared first on TechInformed.

Having left university after three months, an 18-year-old Brown stepped into a technology sales role and worked her way up to channel manager at eCommerce giant The Hut Group (THG).

While working at THG, she took a short stint to find love on TV, where she has since amassed a following of over 130,000 on Instagram. Now at 27, Brown joined Manchester-based SaaS startup Flowlio last year as the project management vendor’s commercial director.

How can your firm’s project management tools help businesses?

Flowlio has come on an insane amount since I came on board. It’s a project management SaaS solution that is cloud-based and open-source. It’s an enterprise-level end-to-end project management platform which helps simplify processes.

It lends itself well to local authorities such as housing, government, and healthcare where projects are unfortunately not run to the standard they should be.

We also offer a project management course. Normally, you pay a lot of money to do a course and just get given a manual. For ours, we’ll go into businesses, and for three days, they’ll bring ideas and projects they’re working on to the table, and they’ll get tangible feedback they can take back to the workplace.

It’s great because we can go into a business, train them up, and slowly integrate the software into their business over time and give them a new way to work.

As a young woman in a senior role, what’s your take on the tech sector? Any advice to pass on?

I’ve learned to build resilience. If I wanted to achieve something, I encouraged myself to put myself forward. At THG, I was part of its internal women in tech group, and I took it upon myself to deliver a talk on salary negotiation.

I’m not an expert, but I’ve always asked for more money. I didn’t realise until I spoke to other people that people don’t usually do that, especially women – I’m a commercially-minded person, so that’s probably why my head goes to money.

Whereas for those in tech roles, whether it is coding, engineering or anything, it’s just not where their brain goes. So, for me, I’ve realised how important it is to clue younger people up on that.

How do you balance your influencer work with your current role?

It’s crazy because when I was on [Married at First Sight], I spoke about being a woman in tech so much it almost pushed me to the point of being a bit comical. But afterwards, I was inundated with messages from young people, mostly women, getting into tech celebrating it and saying: ‘We don’t normally see a young voice that’s speaking about it and that’s passionate about it.’

Then I went to speak about my ADHD diagnosis online after the show, when I was diagnosed at 26, and I couldn’t believe the number of messages I got. I had parents saying, ‘My kids have ADHD, and this has been so helpful’. I honestly think people forget what influence they have online.

I’m so happy with where I am now because I’ve still got that influence to be able to show that in a positive way. It’s not just a social media influencer, but I have this business side of me, so I can take things from both sides.

How do you find switching off?

I find it so hard to switch off. I don’t take medication for my ADHD. I tried, but I just didn’t get on with it. They say if you want your personality that day, then don’t take it because it kind of dulls you down a bit.

It was great in the morning when I was getting stuff done, but there was one time I was driving home from work in floods of tears. It just pulled the essence and emotion out of me. So, I thought, I’ve done 26 years without medication and for me, I think I’m okay.

It’s amazing in some ways because it keeps me on my toes, and I’m constantly thinking of ideas and things, but then, on the flip side, it can be frustrating. It’s a constant battle.

Does having ADHD bring positives to your role?

Yeah, people say ADHD is a superpower. Tech roles lend themselves to those who are neurodivergent because of the higher focus and the detail-driven work and creativity. So, I think I kind of channelled that.

Sometimes, it’s extremely annoying, but I think it’s about harnessing the parts that can help you in the right way. I could get really frustrated with myself all the time because I have so many thoughts going on, and I can’t concentrate on one thing or focus. But, bigger picture-wise, it’s definitely helped me in the long term.

What can workplaces do to support neurodivergent people?

We’re in an era of self-diagnosis, which shouldn’t be undermined because some people don’t have the funds to go private or the time to wait for an NHS diagnosis. So, it’s not just those who have a diagnosis from a doctor who feels they have tendencies; there are people out there who feel they have tendencies.

However, there are still so many people who don’t come forward when they’re neurodivergent. They don’t say: ‘I’ve got ADHD’, or ‘I’m autistic’, or ‘I’m dyslexic’ because there’s still a bit of a stigma.

Employers need to create safe spaces for people, and make people feel comfortable to talk about it. You must do things with integrity. You can’t put [neurodiversity] campaigns or days in place to talk about this just to tick a box.

The post A coffee with… Sophie Brown, commercial director, Flowlio appeared first on TechInformed.

During this time, the consultancy has grown a team of over 3,000 talented specialists globally and acquired over sixteen businesses in the UK and Ireland. The firm employs around 500 people in its Dublin base.

Version 1 has worked on a range of digital transformation projects, improving efficiencies in areas such as the motor tax system in Ireland, the courts system and for farmers to help with crop classification.

Speaking with TI, O’Connor discusses how the consultancy has seen the public sector grow and why tech innovations in this area are more common than people think.

Digital transformation means something different to everyone. What does it mean for you and the public sector?

I would describe it as citizen-first redesign of public-facing services. So, putting the citizen at the centre of how you translate what can sometimes be knotty government policy decisions and deliver an efficient and effective solution.

That means translating statutory legislation or an instrument into something citizens can use.

It is also not just about the citizen, but also government and public sector employees involved in delivering the services in a way that makes lives simpler, easier, more efficient and the government overall, more effective.

Would you say that one of the greatest challenges facing the public sector is legacy IT systems?

I don’t think that’s true. The public sector is massive, so there are obviously going to be parts that are a little bit behind, but I think on the whole, the UK public sector, in particular, has shown great innovation and leadership around things like digital-first, cloud-first, design-led thinking.

If you compare it to the financial services sector, for example, you will walk into any large financial services institution or bank and find significant “legacy systems” still running massive parts of their business.

So, the legacy IT perception is one that I understand because we’re all so used to interactions with parts of governments that maybe aren’t as efficient, but that experience is becoming more outdated based on the investment that’s been made over the last five years.

Where would you say the public sector is truly innovating?

We’ve done a lot of work with HM Courts & Tribunals on essentially revolutionising how justice is delivered in areas like family courts and tribunals.

We worked to transform everything from video hearings to how cases are scheduled, making sure there’s efficiency around the recording of judgements, the issuing of penalties and fines, and the recording of the collection of fines.

That was an area that was ripe for transformation, and through investment and insight, they had to do it and put citizens first, then also involved listening to every stakeholder from jurors to judges to court staff.

Another area is the whole area of vehicle licencing and transport in Ireland. It used to be the case that to tax your car, you had to go into an office. The issue with this is – the office closes at lunchtime, you had to bring in a bunch of papers, and there was a queue. Now, we’ve taken it 100% online. It’s completely streamlined the entire process.

I will say it did come back to bite me once because one piece of work we did was enable policemen to automatically check whether a vehicle was appropriately taxed based on car licences at the start of COVID.

When I was getting thousands of emails a day, I missed the renewal notice and my wife was driving down the road one day, and she was stopped by a cop, and when they checked the licence plate the car hadn’t been taxed. I said “that’s our system working…” but she didn’t see the bright side!

How have you seen different sectors innovate with technology? 

Commercial businesses look to technology to improve workflow and save costs. We recently partnered with Reach PLC, the UK and Ireland’s largest commercial publisher, to drive digital transformation within the business.

Society has moved on from print magazines and newspapers that we use to read our daily news from, and we now find ourselves in this digital world where everything we consume is online. Because of this consumer change, traditional publications such as Reach are having to digitise to adapt to customer preferences. We are helping Reach become a more data-led and digital business by streamlining its IT support model and services through our ASPIRE framework which involves reducing costs, risks, and time by improving technology estates.

Another industry I have seen embrace innovation is the retail sector. Many companies today are managing a growth in e-commerce and increased consumer demand for online shopping. We partnered with a leading international clothing retailer employing more than 80,000 colleagues across 17 countries in the UK, Europe and the US to provide a future-proof financial system that could handle the expanding global footprint of the company to meet growing consumer demands.

We implemented a new financial system that helped transform the company’s operations and allow them to monitor real-time financial insights. This new system ensured the management team could make informed strategic decisions to support continued growth, opening new stores and entering new markets worldwide

Where do you think tech improvements are needed in the public sector?

There are many areas that need to catch up, but it’s more a case of continuously evolving how you deliver and what you deliver to citizens in line with their expectations.

People who work in public sector organisations are used to using very simple, straightforward apps. How they bill their taxes, how they do their shopping, banking, everything.

So, I wouldn’t point to a huge body of work that needs transforming and say there is simply a need to evolve on how to deliver services to keep up with the expectations of citizens as they continuously evolve.

The post A coffee with…Tom O’Connor, CEO, Version 1 appeared first on TechInformed.

Research found 58% of senior managers are prioritising the development of ‘change and transformation’ skills, with an emphasis on technological advancements. Yet, while upskilling is important, managers also need to be sure to infuse humanity, warmth, empathy and authenticity into their leadership style if they’re to succeed in our ever-evolving digital world.

Leadership demands a sense of responsibility: to support people and equip them with the right skills to manage the evolving landscape of the digital era. Digital transformation allows us to break free of tired, old ways of work and embrace smarter, newer ways of thinking, but we need to future-proof our processes. Technology such as AI, machine learning and big data analytics have streamlined operations, but an essential part of the transition is recognising that the human element of leadership is still vital for success.

Redefining leadership in a digital age

Research from BT around this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week found that despite 88% of businesses investing in new technology to improve productivity and gain a competitive edge, nearly 9 in 10 company directors and executives are suffering from ‘bytemares’: tech-related stress that’s enough to disrupt their sleep. Leaders are concerned about the impact tech and digitalisation is having on their teams and leadership styles, but these concerns, while valid, need not get in the way of progress.

Instead, if we’re to be effective leaders in the digital era, we must simply redefine what good leadership looks like. While technology can eliminate mundane tasks and allow us to operate a far more efficient workplace, it lacks the integral human touch that has allowed leaders to foster collaboration and creativity within their businesses. This humanity must be built back into our workflows, as a starting point rather than an afterthought. Despite more employees returning to offices, many leaders and managers are now used to seeing their employees less often, and the contemporary work environment has the potential to leave those we seek to lead feeling disconnected.

Without focusing on employee empowerment, we risk losing the crucial spark of inspiration that has allowed us to innovate and excel; without instilling a sense of warmth and empathy we risk building an environment where employees feel undervalued and neglected. Digitalisation is an incredible step forward, but it should never result in an industrial brain drain.

It can be easy to forget that being a leader is not just a title: we have a responsibility to cultivate the right environment for our teams. We must recognise the importance and intrinsic worth of every team member, and the role they play in collective success. Technology is amazing, but it is people that innovate and enhance.

Human leadership styles

The first step in developing a more human leadership style is one that many of us have forgotten in the move towards remote work: be available for your colleagues. Ultimately, leadership is people-centric, which means making time for those we work with. Despite being a small thing, employees will notice if you block out time to speak one-to-one with team members and regularly attend team meetings. It’s a powerful gesture that makes them feel valued and noticed.

Another important point is to show empathy towards team members’ emotional wellbeing, offering support and validation. Being an empathetic leader is essential if we’re to foster a workplace that builds psychological safety for our colleagues – one where we get the best out of those we work with and are able to recognise when something isn’t right.

Active listening is also more important than ever. With a focus on driving increased productivity through technology, it can be easy to be distracted by a dozen different tasks and notifications during employee conversations. But team members deserve our full attention and will notice if you seem distracted. Which leads on to the need for authenticity. It is essential that you are authentic with your team when it comes to your values. Embedding humanity into your leadership style requires a transparent approach in which you share your own thoughts and feelings with your team. Being a more open leader will lead to team members recognising that you practise what you preach and will ultimately follow suit.

Why this matters for digital transformation

BT research estimates that 104,000 British businesses may be avoiding implementing new technologies due to the stress involved with the process, leading to a potential £11.79bn in lost growth opportunities by 2030. It’s easy to see why these anxieties exist: across industry, many past digital transformation attempts have been plagued with failure. According to management consultancy firm McKinsey, 70% of all digital transformation attempts fall apart.

But this needn’t be the case. As part of his analysis of the many reasons behind this figure, former McKinsey senior partner Jon Garcia believed it wasn’t in fact a lack of knowledge that led to these failures, but often a failure to attach a ‘why?’ to digital transformation efforts. Leaders weren’t offering their employees a compelling argument to give a reason to rally behind a new way of thinking and doing.

Digital transformation has become an essential part of business growth, especially as we attempt to drive sustainable change. But reimagining business processes and adopting headline-grabbing new technologies can be a difficult challenge for employees if they’re not offered a clear vision, sound motivation and purposeful direction.

Opportunities for human leadership have become much more difficult in our virtual, flexible and increasingly digitised world. But by ensuring we move forwards together, focusing on human connection as a baseline rather than an afterthought, we can harness the increased productivity promised by the exciting new technologies entering our industries, without jeopardising the crucial relationships we have with our employees along the way.

The post Being a human leader in a digitalised world appeared first on TechInformed.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales was among several tech founders, chief executives, and former leaders who backed a letter saying Labour has changed and “wants to work with business” on long-term growth.

They said the public should now “give it the chance to change the country and lead Britain into the future”.

Wales – interviewed by TechInformed last year – told the BBC’s Today Programme he is “very convinced” by Labour.

“We’re not talking about an extreme left-wing government by any means. We’re talking about a sensible, solid centrist government,” he added.

It comes as part of Labour leader Keir Starmer and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves’ efforts to position the party — heavy favourites for the upcoming general election — to win over the business community.

Other tech leaders to have put their names to the letter include Tunde Adenrian, co-founder of AI-powered data platform Lerno; Amul Batra, co-founder of tech talent firm Northcoders Group; David Brindley, president at auction software firm Bidpath; Phil Chambers, CEO of UK aerospace firm Orbex; Mark Claydon, director at Trustech Smart Healthcare Ventures;  David Cleevely, former chair of Raspberry Pi; Alasdair Croft, managing director at electric charging firm AmpEV; Mark Dickinson, CEO of Intrinsic Semiconductor Technologies; and Helen Guillaume, CEO of wild.AI.

Overall, more than 120 business leaders from across tech, finance, culture and other industries signed the letter, with big names also including celebrity chef Tom Kerridge and the former CEOs of Heathrow, JP Morgan and Aston Martin.

The open letter, published in The Times, said it was “time for a change” as “for too long now, our economy has been beset by instability, stagnation, and a lack of long-term focus”.

The leaders added: “We are looking for a government that will partner fiscal discipline with a long-term growth strategy, working in partnership with the private sector to drive innovation and investment to build digital and physical capital and fix our skills system.

“This is the only way to put us on track for sustained productivity growth.

“Labour has shown it has changed and wants to work with business to achieve the UK’s full economic potential. We should now give it the chance to change the country and lead Britain into the future.

“We are in urgent need of a new outlook to break free from the stagnation of the last decade and we hope by taking this public stand we might persuade others of that need too.”

The UK is due to go to the polls on July 4 after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak dissolved Parliament and called for a general election on Thursday. It will be the first election since 2019 when Boris Johnson led the Conservative Party to a large majority.

The post Tech leaders sign letter backing Labour’s election plans appeared first on TechInformed.

A bi-partisan group of senators has called for more than $32 billion of annual spending to fund research into AI outside of the military, as part of a wider regulatory plan for the emergent technology.

Senators said they also support legislation to prevent AI-fuelled election interference in the form of manipulated recordings of what people say or do, aka deepfakes.

“We’re not going to wait on legislation that addresses every aspect of AI and society,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, told reporters Tuesday. “If some areas are ready earlier than others, they should go forward.”

The proposed legislation will see one of the biggest moves by US politicians to tackle the rise of generative AI, which has become a central concern for governments since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022.

Read more

Lewd behaviour between live Dublin-New York portal forces closure 

A “livestream” portal connecting Dublin with New York has had to be shut down by authorities after people were caught demonstrating lewd behaviour on the Irish side.

The portal uses cameras, a large screen, and cutting-edge live broadcasting to link the US with Ireland, allowing people on either side to see and interact with each other.

But authorities decided to temporarily close the portal after videos on social media emerged showing people on the Dublin side flashing body parts and displaying inappropriate content through their smartphones, including swear words and pictures of 9/11.

Organisers of the art project said they would shut off the portal while they sought out solutions to prevent bad behaviour.

“While we cannot control all of these actions, we are implementing some technical solutions to address this and these will go live in the next 24 hours,” said the Dublin City Council in a statement on Monday.

Read more

NHS approves home blood testing kit for cancer victims

A diagnostic device that will help reduce the time cancer victims need to spend in hospital has been given regulatory approval in the UK.

The Liberty has been undergoing testing at Christie in Manchester. The device allows cancer patients to carry out blood tests and upload results while at home, cutting down the need for hospital visits, and allowing for more regular tracking.

Clinicians claim that the device, which will initially be made available at 12 NHS sites, could help boost NHS productivity, although some have warned that more testing needs to be carried out before it is deployed more widely.

In recent studies, 22 patients participated in home-based trials, supplemented by regulatory approval trials involving 470 patients. However, Cancer Research urged cautious interpretation of these findings due to the limited participant pool.

US billionaire Frank McCourt eyes TikTok

Billionaire and former LA Dodgers-owner has reportedly expressed an interest in buying TikTok from Chinese owners Bytedance, which faces having to offload the social media platform in the next year or risk being banned in the US.

Real estate mogul Frank McCourt – executive chairman and former CEO of McCourt Global – told reporters this week he is assembling a group of investors with the aim of buying TikTok. The group will include investment bank Guggenheim Securities and law firm Kirkland & Ellis, as well as technology experts, academics, and parent groups.

Buyers are beginning to express their interest in acquiring the social media firm after President Joe Biden signed into law rules that mean Bytedance must offload the firm within a year, citing security threats.

Bytedance has launched legal action against the legislation.

“We thought this was a really fantastic opportunity to accelerate the creation of an alternative internet,” McCourt told the Associated Press, with the acquisition set to be made through his internet advocacy group Project Liberty.

Several high-profile technologists, including Tim Berners-Lee, support the bid, the group claims. Should it succeed, McCourt plans to transform TikTok into an open-source model.

Read more

The post US senators launch $32bn AI plan; Dublin to New York portal closes appeared first on TechInformed.

FTX still owes customers billions of dollars following the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange in November 2022.

The firm is aiming to sell off all its remaining assets to a value of around $16.3 billion to cover around $11 billion worth of debt owed to customers left out of pocket when the firm closed under a cloud of controversy.

FTX was one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges before its downfall, which was triggered when customers withdrew billions of dollars amid reports about the behaviour of founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

In March, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison for defrauding FTX customers and investors.

Read more

US government blocks chips sales to Huawei

US regulators have banned US chipmakers from exporting certain unspecified goods to Huawei in the latest setback for the Chinese telecoms vendor.

The Department of Commerce did not disclose which licences it had revoked but reports from Reuters claim US chip companies such as Intel and Qualcomm have all been affected by the move.

The US acted after Huawei released its first AI-powered laptop, the Matebook X Pro, powered by Intel’s Core Ultra 9 processor. Republican lawmakers had criticised President Joe Biden for not taking tougher actions against the Chinese company, claiming the launch showed Huawei was “making a comeback” despite previous US sanctions.

US officials have accused Huawei helping China engage in espionage around the world, something the company has repeatedly denied, prompting the ban on sales of its telecoms equipment in the US.

Read more

TikTok sues US over ban

TikTok is suing the US government to block an incoming law that will see the video sharing app banned unless its Chinese owners sell its share in the firm.

Parent-company ByteDance called the law – signed last month by President Joe Biden – an “extraordinary intrusion on free speech rights” of American citizens who use TikTok.

The social media app has around 170 million users in the US but has faced criticism from US lawmakers across both major parties who claim its Chinese ownership raises the risk of Beijing exploiting data or promoting propaganda, meaning it should be classed as a national security risk.

The law gives ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok, which has maintained its stance that it is independent of the Chinese government. In the filing with the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, TikTok said the sale requirement was “simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally. And certainly not on the 270-day timeline required by the Act”.

Read more

AI start-up wins Wayve of funding for automated vehicle tech

The UK AI start-up has raised more than £1 billion in funding to develop the next generation of artificial intelligence-powered vehicles.

Major tech names including Japan’s SoftBank, chipmaker Nvidia and Microsoft all backed London-based Wayve in what is the biggest ever investment round to date for a European AI startup.

Wayve’s current technology is integrated into six vehicle platforms including electric cars such as the Jaguar I-Pace and the Ford Mustang MachE, as part of advanced driver assistance systems. It said the funding will be used as part of global expansion plans.

Alex Kendall, a co-founder and the chief executive of Wayve, said: “This investment will help us launch our embodied AI products and expand our operations globally. It sends a crucial signal to the market of the strength of the UK’s AI ecosystem, and we look forward to watching more AI companies here thrive and scale.”

Read more

UK regulator warns social media giants to hide toxic content from kids

Ofcom has warned social media firms such as Facebook and TikTok that they face being named and shamed if they fail to protect children from harmful content online.

New UK online safety rules empower the UK regulator to potentially ban platforms that fail to enact more robust age-checking measures and reformulate algorithms to protect under-18s from “toxic content”.

Ofcom’s children’s safety codes call on services to make their platforms child-safe by default or implement robust age checks to identify children and give them safer versions of the experience.

More seriously harmful content, including that relating to suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, will need to be kept off children’s feeds entirely, as will pornography.

Read more

The post FTX begins asset sale to repay debts and US blocks Huawei chip licences appeared first on TechInformed.

More than two billion voters are expected to head to the polls this year, and misinformation, whether text-based articles or comments or deepfake audios, videos, or images, has been weaving users’ online news and social media consumption.

Named ‘The Misinformation MOT’, the guidance emphasises that individuals must acknowledge and address their own biases, educate themselves on key subjects such as AI, engage in constructive debates within their communities, and verify the credibility of information sources.

Year of elections: a deepfake threat on politics and business

While technologies such as web scraping and AI are being used to detect misinformation, experts advise people to be critical of the information they get online.

Misinformation affects politics and businesses through skewed product reviews, advertisements, brand trustworthiness, and the credibility of AI-generated content.

The Misinformation MOT is as follows:

Check the source — Before trusting a surprising comment or article, look at who posted it and whether the author is credible.

Validate before sharing — The academics enforce intentionality in what information users choose to share and always avoid sharing anything that hasn’t been personally validated.

Use the tools at your disposal — If something seems off or stirs strong emotions, use fact-checking features on media platforms or social media. Academics say this is often a tactic to manipulate a user into impulsively engaging.

Consider your bias — Often, it is easier to disbelieve information that does not correlate to existing beliefs. Consider avoiding relying on and consuming information supporting current views, and diversify sources and news platforms for a more rounded and informed opinion.

Upskill yourself — This year is an opportunity to learn about AI literacy, misinformation, and critical thinking by examining already-identified misinformation to spot the signs.

Get your community MOT’d — Ensure those around you are also up to date with the misinformation rate, share individual views, and discuss issues that are most susceptible to misinformation and limit their ability to influence views.

“Consumers are increasingly exposed to fake reviews and being misled by misinformation and malicious disinformation about products and services,” said Sameer Hosany of the School of Business and Management at Royal Holloway.

“With the prevalence of social media and advancements in AI, it’s increasingly challenging to distinguish truth from fiction,” Hosany added.

The post How to check for misinformation in the year of elections appeared first on TechInformed.