Technology
Latest stories
Trump joins TikTok, an app he once tried to ban

Donald Trump has joined the popular video-sharing app TikTok, a platform he once tried to ban while in the White House, and posted from a UFC fight two days after he became the first former president and presumptive major party nominee in U.S. history to be found guilty on felony charges.

"It's an honor," Trump said in the TikTok video, which features footage of him waving to fans and posing for selfies at the Ultimate Fighting Championship fight in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday night. The video ends with Trump telling the camera: "That was a good walk-on, right?"

W140 Full Story
EU cybersecurity chief says disruptive attacks have doubled, sees Russia behind many

Disruptive digital attacks, many linked to Russian-backed groups, have doubled in the European Union in recent months and are also targeting election-related services, according to the EU's top cybersecurity official.

Juhan Lepassaar, head of the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, or ENISA, told The Associated Press in an interview that attacks with geopolitical motives have steadily risen since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

W140 Full Story
Scarlett Johansson says ChatGPT voice 'eerily similar' to hers

OpenAI on Monday said it plans to halt the use of one of its ChatGPT voices that "Her" actor Scarlett Johansson says sounds "eerily similar" to her own.

In a post on the social media platform X, OpenAI said it is "working to pause" Sky — the name of one of five voices that ChatGPT users can chose to speak with. The company said it had "heard questions" about how it selects the lifelike audio options available for its flagship artificial intelligence chatbot, particularly Sky, and wanted to address them.

W140 Full Story
World leaders plan new agreement on AI at virtual Seoul summit

World leaders are expected to adopt a new agreement on artificial intelligence when they gather virtually Tuesday to discuss AI's potential risks but also ways to promote its benefits and innovation.

The AI Seoul Summit is a follow-up to November's inaugural AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in the United Kingdom, where participating countries agreed to work together to contain the potentially "catastrophic" risks posed by galloping advances in AI.

W140 Full Story
Facebook and Instagram face fresh scrutiny under the EU's strict digital regulations

The European Union opened fresh investigations Thursday into Facebook and Instagram over suspicions that they're failing to protect children online, in violation of the bloc's strict digital regulations for social media platforms.

It's the latest round of scrutiny for parent company Meta Platforms under the 27-nation EU's Digital Services Act, a sweeping set of regulations that took effect last year with the goal of cleaning up online platforms and protecting internet users.

W140 Full Story
What is the celebrity 'blockout' over the war in Gaza?

Some social media users are calling out celebrities for what they say is inaction in the face of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza — and they've taken to a "blockout" to pressure the stars to take a stand.

For the blockout, users put a block on seeing any and all content from the accounts of certain celebrities on social media platforms including X, TikTok and Instagram. Some have posted about the celebrities they've blocked, using a hashtag such as #blockout, #blockout2024, or #celebrityblockout, while others have shared posts from users lambasting attendees of high-glamour events like the Met Gala and contrasting it with the situation in Gaza.

W140 Full Story
Technology crushing human creativity? Apple's new iPad ad strikes nerve online

A newly released ad promoting Apple's new iPad Pro has struck quite a nerve online.

The ad, which was released by the tech giant Tuesday, shows a hydraulic press crushing just about every creative instrument artists and consumers have used over the years — from a piano and record player, to piles of paint, books, cameras and relics of arcade games. Resulting from the destruction? A pristine new iPad Pro.

W140 Full Story
Judge grills Apple exec about whether company is defying order to enable more iPhone payment options

A federal judge has questioned whether Apple has set up a gauntlet of exasperating hurdles to discourage the use of alternative payment options in iPhone apps, despite a court order seeking to create more ways for consumers to pay for digital services.

The verbal sparring between Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers and the head of Apple's app store kicked off a hearing focused on whether Apple is still steering U.S. consumers to its once-exclusive app payment system in defiance of an injunction aimed at promoting more choices that could help lower prices.

W140 Full Story
12 suspects charged in TikTok child molestation case

Mount Lebanon Attorney General Tanios al-Saghbeeni on Thursday filed charges against 12 suspects in the so-called TikTok child molestation case, the National News Agency said.

Those charged include five detainees, NNA added.

W140 Full Story
Famous Lebanese TikToker and his gang held for molesting children

A drug and child molestation gang led by a famous Lebanese TikToker has been busted by Lebanese security forces, in a case that has shocked the country.

The well-known TikToker, Georges Moubayed, is a barber whose shop lies in the Metn neighborhood of Sabtyieh near Beirut, media reports said.

W140 Full Story