A California entrepreneur who sought to merge the bitcoin culture with celebrities and social media has been arrested on a fraud charge. Nader Al-Naji was arrested in Los Angeles on Saturday on a wire fraud charge. Civil claims were brought against him by federal authorities on Tuesday. Authorities say Al-Naji lied to investors who poured hundreds of millions of dollars into his BitClout venture. They say he promised that money would only be spent on the business but instead steered millions of dollars to himself, his family and some of his company's workers. A lawyer for Al-Naji did not respond to a request for comment.
- July 30, 2024
- 82°
Technology
Microsoft reported a 10% increase in quarterly profits Tuesday as it tries to maintain its position as a leader in artificial intelligence technology. The software giant said its fiscal fourth-quarter profit was $22 billion, or $2.95 per share, slightly beating analyst expectations for $2.94 per share. It posted revenue of $64.7 billion in the April-June period, up 15% from last year. Analysts polled by FactSet Research had been looking for revenue of $64.38 billion.
The Senate has passed legislation designed to protect children from dangerous online content. It's pushing forward with what would be the first major effort by Congress in decades to hold tech companies more accountable for the harm they cause. The bill has bipartisan support and has been pushed by parents of children who died by suicide after online bullying. It would force companies to take reasonable steps to prevent harm on online platforms frequently used by minors, requiring them to ensure they generally default to the safest settings possible. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut wrote the bill with Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
Workers at Amazon’s only unionized warehouse in the U.S. have elected new union leaders. Results from a vote count completed on Tuesday showed that a slate of candidates headed up by a former Amazon worker and union organizer named Connor Spence won the election. Spence led a dissident group that sued the Amazon Labor Union last year to force a new leadership election at the warehouse located in the New York City borough of Staten Island. Turnout was very low. An attorney who represents the dissident faction says only 5% of the 5,312 workers employed in the warehouse voted by mail-in ballots. Spence received 137 out of 247 votes cast.
Officials say Meta has agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas in a privacy lawsuit over allegations that the tech giant used biometric data of users without their permission. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Tuesday that the settlement is the largest secured by a single state. A judge in 2021 approved a $650 million settlement with the company, formerly known as Facebook, over similar allegations of users in Illinois. Meta says in a statement that the company is pleased to resolve the matter. The Texas lawsuit said that Meta was in violation of a state laws that prohibits capturing or selling a resident’s biometric information, such as their face or fingerprint, without their consent.
Pakistan has developed and successfully tested a government messaging app for secure communication among officials, even as it restricts social media use and regularly shuts down internet and mobile phone networks to prevent dissent. Baber Majid, the CEO at the National Information Technology Board, said on Tuesday that should the government approve it, the platform could eventually be available to millions of citizens. He said “beep” has already successfully undergone trial runs since 2023 and is "now ready for launch.” Ordinary Pakistanis are struggling to access X, which authorities blocked ahead of the Feb. 8 parliamentary elections, a vote that was overshadowed by violence, an unprecedented shutdown of all mobile phone services and allegations of vote rigging.
A U.S. government agency says Amazon is responsible for hazardous products sold on its platform by third-party sellers and shipped by the company. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Tuesday that it determined that the e-commerce company is a “distributor” of faulty goods sold on its site. That means the company is on the hook legally for the recalls of more than 400,000 products, including certain hairdryers and carbon monoxide detectors. Amazon didn't immediately reply to a request for comment. The online retailer has fought the “distributor” label since 2021, when it was sued by the agency for allegedly distributing hazardous items. Amazon says it planned to appeal the decision in court.
Britain’s competition watchdog said Tuesday it’s looking into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, adding fresh regulatory scrutiny to investment money flooding into the AI industry. The Competition and Markets Authority said it’s seeking comments as it considers whether the deal between the two companies has resulted in a “substantial lessening of competition” in the United Kingdom for AI services. The watchdog said it will accept feedback from “any interested party” until Aug. 13 before deciding whether to open a formal investigation.
The White House is coming out in favor of “open-source” artificial intelligence technology, arguing in a report Tuesday that there’s no need right now for restrictions on companies making key components of their powerful AI systems widely available. The report sought by President Joe Biden is the U.S. government’s first to delve into a tech industry debate between developers who advocate closing off the inner workings of their most advanced AI models to guard against misuse, and others who have lobbied for a more open approach they say favors innovation.
Thousands of people have rallied in several towns in Serbia to protest a lithium excavation project the Balkan country’s government recently signed with the European Union. The protests were held simultaneously in the western town of Sabac and the central towns of Kraljevo, Arandjelovac, Ljig and Barajevo. The deal reached earlier this month could reduce Europe’s dependency on China and push Serbia, which has close ties to Russia and China, closer to the EU. The deal, however, has been criticized by environmentalists and opposition groups in Serbia who argue it would cause irreversible damage to the country’s nature while bringing little benefit to its citizens.
Artificial intelligence’s growing visibility in everyday life has made it a popular discussion topic but hasn’t yet elevated it to a top election concern for American voters. But this could be the first presidential election where the candidates are crafting competing visions on how to guide American leadership over the fast-developing technology.
On a “White Dudes for Harris” virtual call, it was probably fitting that “The Dude” dropped in. Actor Jeff Bridges addressed a fundraising call geared toward white men supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and sang her praises on Monday night. Organizers said the call drew more than 180,000 participants and raised more than $3.7 million. It was the latest in a series of virtual gatherings to raise money and rally support among tens of thousands of Harris supporters that have been organized by supporters’ backgrounds — including Black women, Hispanic women, Black men, Asian Americans, Native Americans and the LGBTQ+ community.
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