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| Here's a look at today's tech briefing: - U.S. Supreme Court to hear landmark social media cases.
- Odysseus lander sends back moon images.
- AT&T offers credit to customers after major outage.
- Samsung debuts new smart ring.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on laws from Florida and Texas designed to limit social media content moderation, alleging bias against conservative speech. The court will decide whether the laws violate social media companies' free speech rights under the First Amendment. More: - The Republican-led states passed the laws in 2021 after Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms banned former President Trump following the U.S. Capitol riots.
- Officials from both states argue that the legislation would prevent social media platforms from unfairly censoring conservatives.
- In addition to curbing content moderation, the laws would require that companies give personalized explanations to users when content is taken down.
Lawsuits: - Neither law has taken effect due to ongoing litigation. A federal appeals court blocked key provisions of Florida's statute, while another court upheld the Texas law.
- Tech industry trade groups, representing the social media platforms, sued in federal court, arguing that the laws infringe on the platforms' freedom of speech.
- The companies argue that without the ability to make their own decisions about content moderation, their sites would be overwhelmed with spam, bullying, extremism, and hate speech.
Zoom out: - Next month, the Supreme Court will review an appeal from Louisiana, Missouri, and others alleging that Biden administration officials pressured social media companies to silence conservative viewpoints.
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| 2 | | Intuitive Machines has publicly shared the first images captured by its Odysseus moon lander, a day before it's expected to lose contact with the spacecraft. Odysseus touched down on the moon Thursday, marking the first U.S. soft spacecraft landing on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. More: - Odysseus, which carries several NASA scientific instruments and experiments, landed a few miles off its intended site near the moon's south pole.
- The mission team believes the lander tipped over on the lunar surface and rests horizontally, affecting its antenna alignment and restricting some data flow.
- Intuitive Machines, the Houston-based company behind Odysseus, currently has limited communication with the craft.
- The team expects to lose contact with the lander on Tuesday, when sunlight will stop reaching its solar panels.
Zoom out: - Last month, Japan became the fifth country to successfully land a craft on the moon, joining Russia, India, China, and the U.S.
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| 3 | | AT&T will issue a $5 billing credit to customers affected by a major network outage last Thursday. Some AT&T customers criticized the amount of the credit on social media, saying it wasn't high enough. More: - AT&T said the $5 "make it right" credit, equal to the average day's service cost, will appear in wireless accounts within two billing cycles.
- The credit will automatically apply to eligible accounts, excluding AT&T Business, AT&T Prepaid, and Cricket users.
- While AT&T hasn't shared the cost details, CEO John Stankey said covering the reimbursements is "fully manageable" within the company's business objective and financial guidance for the year.
Zoom out: - The FBI, FCC, and DHS are investigating the hours-long outage, which disrupted service for tens of thousands of U.S. customers.
- According to AT&T's initial review, the outage was caused by "an incorrect process" while it was expanding its network, ruling out a cyberattack.
- On Saturday, AT&T said it was taking measures to avoid future outages, without elaborating.
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| 4 | | Samsung showcased its new Galaxy health-tracking ring during today's Mobile World Congress. The smart ring market is now a rapidly growing sector within wearables, offering features like notifications, fitness tracking, and mobile payments. Forecasts predict market growth to $34.87B by 2032, fueled by rising demand, tech advancements, and greater consumer awareness. 
Details: Samsung's new Galaxy Ring, set to rival Oura's product line, provides readings about a user's heart and respiratory rates, sleep movement, and sleep onset time, and could potentially measure blood flow for heart rate monitoring. The sensor-equipped wearable also gathers data on "physical and mental readiness" to predict a user's productivity for the day. Samsung is expected to unveil the Ring alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6 at its Galaxy Unpacked event this summer. What brands should care: According to a Bloomberg report, Apple has explored the idea of developing a health-focused smart ring, though it has yet to come to fruition. Despite the interest by companies, smart rings remain in the early stages of development, with options limited to the Oura Ring, RingConn Smart Ring, Ultrahuman Ring Air, Circular Ring Slim, and NFC payment rings like the Mclear RingPay. | | | |
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| 5 | | TSMC has opened its first factory in Japan, where it will mass-produce chips for camera sensors and cars by the end of this year. The Taiwanese chipmaker plans to build a second plant in the country, supported by up to $4.86B in subsidies from the Japanese government. More: - The government has pledged to fund over 40% of TSMC's new plant in Kikuyo, southwestern Japan, with Sony and Denso also involved.
- The first Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing plant, or JASM, is set to come online by the end of this year.
- Construction of a second plant, located nearby, is expected to start around the same time.
Zoom out: - Japan has provided billions in subsidies to encourage companies like TSMC, Samsung, and Micron to relocate their operations and bolster its semiconductor industry.
- TSMC, the largest contract chip manufacturer, is diversifying its supply chains away from Taiwan amid rising U.S.-China trade tensions.
- The chipmaker is also building a U.S. factory in Arizona and entering Europe with a new plant in Germany.
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| 6 | | Google says tuning problems caused its Gemini AI app to generate historically inaccurate images or, in some cases, refuse to generate images altogether. Google has temporarily disabled the Gemini feature and is updating it before a planned re-launch in several weeks. More: - In a blog post, Google SVP Prabhakar Raghavan explained why Gemini's image generator produced images of the U.S. Founding Fathers and Nazi soldiers as people of color.
- Raghavan said the company tuned Gemini to make sure it showed different ethnicities but failed to take into account "cases that should clearly not show a range."
- The model became overly cautious over time, he wrote, mistakenly treating benign prompts as sensitive and refusing to respond to some prompts entirely.
- However, prompting Gemini with specific scenarios like "a Black teacher in a classroom" or "a white veterinarian with a dog" should generate accurate responses, Raghavan said.
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 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is a contributing editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters. She has written for publications including USA Today, the Arizona Business Gazette, and The Arizona Republic, where she received recognition with a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a First Amendment Award for collaborative reporting on state pension cost increases. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Eduardo Garcia | |
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