• The Cyberspace Administration of China said it would launch a cybersecurity investigation into U.S.-based computer memory manufacturer Micron Technology Inc. and would review the company’s products sold in China as part of an effort to safeguard the country’s critical information infrastructure. The move follows previous efforts by Chinese authorities to crack down on U.S. companies operating within its borders. (The Wall Street Journal)
• A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) will meet with the CEOs of Apple Inc. and Walt Disney Co. this week, as well as top executives at Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp., to discuss escalating tensions between the United States and China. The conversations are expected to center on intellectual property and trade issues, but will also branch into artificial intelligence and how the United States can “out-compete” China. (Axios)
• The Federal Trade Commission has recommended filing a complaint against Amazon.com Inc. over the accusations that the company violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting data on children through its Alexa-powered speakers without parental consent, according to two people familiar with the case. The Justice Department could sue the e-commerce giant over the allegations as early as this month. (Bloomberg)
• Twitter Inc., at the guidance of Chief Executive Elon Musk, removed the verification checkmark from the account of The New York Times after the newspaper said that it would not pay Twitter for verification. While the Times had its checkmark removed, most accounts on the platform still have the verified badge despite Musk’s claims that “legacy” checkmarks would be removed by April 1. (The Associated Press)

US semiconductor index hits highest in nearly a year on hopes for industry turn

Reuters

Tesla issues recall on Semi over defective brake module, rollaway risk

Lora Kolodny, CNBC

Tesla has issued a voluntary recall on the Semi, a first since the company began deliveries of the heavy-duty electric trucks to customers in December 2022.

Elon Musk seeks to end $258 billion Dogecoin lawsuit

Jonathan Stempel, Reuters

Elon Musk asked a U.S. judge on Friday to throw out a $258 billion racketeering lawsuit accusing him of running a pyramid scheme to support the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.

ByteDance Revenue Rose More Than 30% in 2022

Amir Efrati, The Information

TikTok parent company ByteDance crossed $80 billion in revenue in 2022, thanks primarily to growth from its Douyin video app, a China-based version of TikTok, The Information reported. 

Google Drive does a surprise rollout of file limits, locking out some users

Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica

Google rolled out this file limit without warning anyone it would happen. Users over the limit found themselves suddenly locked out of new file uploads, and it was up to them to figure out what was going wrong.

China’s chip industry will be ‘reborn’ under U.S. sanctions, Huawei says, claiming breakthrough

Arjun Kharpal, CNBC

China’s chip industry will be “reborn” as a result of U.S. sanctions, a top boss at Huawei said Friday, as the Chinese telecommunications giant claimed a breakthrough in semiconductor design technology.

Apple wins appeal against UK’s decision to investigate its mobile browser

Paul Sandle, Reuters

Apple Inc  won its appeal against the decision by Britain’s antitrust regulator to launch an investigation into its mobile browser and cloud gaming services, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruled on Friday.

China presses Japan to change course on chip export curbs

Thomas Hale and Leo Lewis, Financial Times

Beijing foreign minister warns counterpart not to ‘do to others what you don’t want others to do to you.’

Artificial Intelligence Is Teaching Us New, Surprising Things About the Human Mind

Christopher Mims, The Wall Street Journal

Thought is ever-changing electrical patterns unconnected to individual neurons. Meta is working on a system to read your mind.

San Francisco AI party takes “Woodstock” mantle

Kia Kokalitcheva, Axios

An estimated 5,000 artificial intelligence enthusiasts piled into San Francisco’s Exploratorium Friday evening, eager to mingle over drinks by the Bay and chat with representatives from various AI companies for what was dubbed the “Woodstock of AI.”

‘He Would Still Be Here’: Man Dies by Suicide After Talking with AI Chatbot, Widow Says

Chloe Xiang, Motherboard

The incident raises concerns about guardrails around quickly-proliferating conversational AI models.

The ChatGPT King Isn’t Worried, but He Knows You Might Be

Cade Metz, The New York Times

Sam Altman sees the pros and cons of totally changing the world as we know it. And if he does make human intelligence useless, he has a plan to fix it.

The Contradictions of Sam Altman, AI Crusader

Berber Jin and Keach Hagey, The Wall Street Journal

The CEO behind ChatGPT navigates the line between developing artificial intelligence on the cutting edge and pushing technology to dystopia.

Italian minister says country’s ban on ChatGPT is excessive

Federico Maccioni and Elvria Pollina, Reuters

Italy’s deputy prime minister on Sunday criticised a decision by the government’s Data Protection Authority to temporarily ban chatbot ChatGPT, saying the block over privacy concerns seemed excessive.

Verizon snags $2.4B network contract with FAA

Diana Goovaerts, Fierce Telecom

Verizon scored yet another mammoth government contract win, securing a $2.4 billion deal to upgrade the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) telecommunications and information management systems. The award represents new business for the company.

Google Makes It Easier to Share Files Between Windows and Android

Marco Marcelline, PCMag

The Nearby Share beta app makes it possible to send photos, documents, and files between PCs and Android devices as long as they are within 16 feet of each other.

‘I’ve never seen anything like this:’ One of China’s most popular apps has the ability to spy on its users, say experts

Nectar Gan et al., CNN

It is one of China’s most popular shopping apps, selling clothing, groceries and just about everything else under the sun to more than 750 million users a month. But according to cybersecurity researchers, it can also bypass users’ cell phone security to monitor activities on other apps, check notifications, read private messages and change settings.

Western Digital reports network security incident

Yana Gaur, Reuters

Data storage devices maker Western Digital Corp on Monday said it is looking into a network security incident, after a breach in some systems disrupted parts of its business operations.

A Front Company and a Fake Identity: How the U.S. Came to Use Spyware It Was Trying to Kill.

Mark Mazzetti and Ronen Bergman, The New York Times

The Biden administration has been trying to choke off use of hacking tools made by the Israeli firm NSO. It turns out that not every part of the government has gotten the message.

How TikTok and its parent company spent over $13 million on struggling lobbying campaign

Brian Schwartz and Lauren Feiner, CNBC

TikTok and its parent company combined to spend more than $13 million on lobbying federal government officials since 2019 — an effort that appears to have fallen flat as lawmakers push proposals targeting the app’s ownership by a Chinese company or even seek to ban TikTok in the U.S. outright.

Twitter Shares Some of the Secret Sauce Behind How It Works

Sarah E Needleman and Alex Corse, The Wall Street Journal

Twitter Inc. opened up a significant portion of its source code, an uncommon move for a large social-media company and one that owner Elon Musk said will make the platform more trustworthy.

April fools? The Twitter blue check apocalypse that wasn’t

Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing, Politico

Verified Twitter users who said goodbye to their coveted blue check marks overnight awoke Saturday morning to a surprise — the blue checks were still there, leading some to suggest an elaborate April Fools’ prank was at play.

Cori Bush joins ‘Squad’ members in opposing TikTok ban

Mychael Schnell, The Hill

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) is joining other members of ” the Squad” in opposing a ban on TikTok, as a debate over the video sharing app heats up on Capitol Hill.

Elon Musk’s Twitter Updates Verified User Descriptions So You Can’t Tell Who Paid for a Blue Check-Mark Anymore

Todd Spangler, Variety

The text for both Twitter Blue subscribers and legacy verified accounts now reads, “This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account.”

Twitter’s algorithm specifically tracks how Elon Musk’s tweets are doing

Matt Binder, Mashable

After pouring through the code, multiple people found at least one really interesting portion of the code that shows Twitter is specifically tracking metrics for users broken up into four different groups: “power_user,” “republican,” “democrat” and “elon.”

Tesla and Musk Lose Ruling on Factory Union Issues

Noam Scheiber, The New York Times

A court upheld a finding that Tesla wrongly fired a worker involved in labor organizing and that a Twitter post by Elon Musk was illegally anti-union.

Lyft Staff Pressed Founders for Change as Uber Pulled Ahead

Preetika Rana and Emily Glazer, The Wall Street Journal

Lyft Inc. leadership change this week followed months of discontent among some employees over the company’s shrinking market share and stock price.

Google CFO Signals More Spending Cuts to Meet Savings Targets

Miles Kruppa, The Wall Street Journal

Google’s finance chief told employees to expect more spending cuts in areas from how it uses its servers to when it closes employee cafes as the company tries to meet savings targets this year.

Activision threatened, spied on workers amid union drive, U.S. agency says

Daniel Wiessner, Reuters

Activision Blizzard Inc violated U.S. labor law by illegally surveilling employees during a walkout and threatening to shut down internal chat channels as a union sought to organize its workers, a federal labor agency said on Friday.

Google announces a series of cost-saving measures across the company as it cuts some staff perks

Hugh Langley, Insider Premium

Google has announced a series of cost-cutting measures as the company continues to tighten its belt and prioritize its work in artificial intelligence.