| |
| Here's a look at today's tech briefing: - U.S. senators to be briefed on TikTok threats amid sale push.
- Lawsuit accusing social media of contributing to mass shooting allowed to proceed.
- Nvidia unveils most powerful AI chip.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | National security officials are set to brief U.S. senators on TikTok's threats during classified briefings this week. The closed-door meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday come as the Senate decides how to proceed after the House passed a bill supporting TikTok's sale or ban. More: - The House last week approved a bill to force China's ByteDance to divest TikTok's U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban.
- The bill must still clear the Senate and be signed into law, which President Biden said he would do.
- Senior officials from the Justice Department will now brief senators on the legislation to keep TikTok operating in the U.S. independently from its Chinese owner.
- Led by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, the department wants to separate TikTok from ByteDance rather than ban the app altogether.
- White House national security adviser John Kirby urged the Senate to "move swiftly" to advance the bill.
Zoom out: - The legislation seeks TikTok's divestiture and potential purchase by U.S. investors or entities.
- Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and ex-Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick have both said they are seeking investment partners to try and purchase the app.
|     | |
| 2 | | A New York judge has denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit accusing social media companies of hosting content that contributed to the 2022 Buffalo mass shooting. The social media companies argued their platforms merely hosted the third-party content, claiming immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. More: - Plaintiffs, including a family member and witnesses, sued the social media companies in 2023, claiming shooter Payton Gendron was "radicalized" by social media algorithms promoting racist, antisemitic, and violent content.
- The suit claims that this enabled Gendron, a white supremacist, to kill 10 Black individuals at the Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, New York, on May 14, 2022.
- On Tuesday, Justice Paula Feroleto of the Erie County Supreme Court agreed to let the lawsuit move forward.
- The judge ruled that if third-party content on social media sites is seen as a product, the companies could face liability under New York's consumer protection laws.
- She said plaintiffs should be able to argue that social media "defects" caused injuries, and recognized the mental distress from the attack as grounds for negligence claims.
Zoom out: - The defendants in the lawsuit include Meta Platforms, Snap, Google parent Alphabet, Discord, Reddit, and Amazon.
- Google's YouTube and Reddit said they plan to appeal. The lawsuit could still be dismissed if the companies demonstrate their algorithms are not considered products.
| | | |
| A message from our sponsor, MM01 AI LIMITED. |  | | Unlocking the future of AI Agents - $1 Million Challenge With a prize pool of $1 million, this challenge stands as one of the most prestigious and generous in the AI arena, open to attract the brightest minds from around the globe. Whether you're an AI enthusiast, a pioneering innovator, a student, or a professional, this is your arena to shine. In this challenge, creativity meets complexity, and intelligent solutions are born for real-world impact. Unleash your creativity and expertise across a spectrum of fields, from healthcare to cybersecurity, and beyond. Push AI Agents beyond the frontiers of today’s capabilities. Apply Today | |
|
| 3 | | Nvidia unveiled its latest and most advanced AI chips. The graphics processing units, based on Nvidia's new Blackwell architecture, are the "world's most powerful" AI chips, according to Nvidia. More: - The flagship GPU, the B200, is expected to ship later this year, allowing companies to train bigger and more complex AI models.
- Blackwell is twice as powerful at AI model training and offers five times the inference capability compared to its predecessor.
- An entire server, called GB200 NVLink 2, will merge 72 Blackwell GPUs and other Nvidia components.
- Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle plan to include NVL72 racks in their cloud services.
Zoom out: - Blackwell is named after mathematician and statistician David Blackwell, the first Black inductee into the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
| | | |
| 4 | | Networking giant Cisco said it completed its $28B acquisition of cybersecurity firm Splunk, making it "one of the largest software companies globally." Cisco stated that acquiring Splunk will expand its presence in the artificial intelligence market and "supercharge" its use of AI for customers. More: - The all-cash deal pays Splunk investors $157 per share, a 31% premium over its last unaffected stock price.
- In a statement, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said the transaction will help Cisco "revolutionize the way our customers leverage data to connect and protect every aspect of their organization as we help power and protect the AI revolution."
- The acquisition, Cisco's largest to date, reflects its strategy of shifting away from hardware sales and toward software and services under Robbins, according to analysts.
Zoom out: - Splunk offers software for IT and security operations data monitoring, including software that analyzes the data to identify cyberattacks.
- Cisco sells network equipment such as routers and switches and provides security services and software products.
| | | |
| |
|
| 5 | | In a bid to address EU concerns over data privacy, Meta has offered to halve the subscription fees for ad-free Facebook and Instagram in Europe. Meta launched the paid ad-free Facebook and Instagram subscriptions in Europe in November in response to new EU privacy regulations. Background: - The regulations require users to consent to targeted ads, which Meta said would negatively impact its ad revenue in Europe.
- As a result, the company began charging EU users who opt out of targeted ads.
- Without subscriptions, Meta can still collect user data for targeted ads, as its free service is still powered by advertising revenue.
- However, critics have argued that Meta effectively makes users pay to protect their privacy.
- Meta has now offered to cut the subscription price to €5.99/month, down from nearly €13, to appease privacy regulators.
| | | |
| 6 | | Solar hit 53% of all the new power capacity added in the U.S. last year, crossing the halfway mark for the first time, according to an industry report by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie. 
By the numbers: The U.S. solar industry set a record in 2023 by adding 32.4 gigawatts of electric generating capacity, a 37% rise from 2021's record and a 51% increase over 2022, according to the report. It predicts that by 2034, U.S. solar capacity will reach 673 GW, enough to power over 100 million homes. By 2040, solar is projected to be the largest source of U.S. electric capacity. The bigger picture: The report also describes how policy and economic factors, including the upcoming presidential election, could affect the solar market, with a potential 200 GW gap between optimistic and pessimistic forecasts by 2034. The Solar Energy Industries Association attributed last year's growth in U.S. solar manufacturing to incentives in Biden's Federal Inflation Reduction Act. The clean energy tax credits from the Act could be repealed if Trump wins in November, despite its durability in Republican districts. For example, Texas led the U.S. in solar installations last year, adding over 15 GW since 2021—more than the whole country in 2019. It's set to add nearly 100 GW by 2034. | | | |
| 7 | | QUICK HITS *This is a sponsored post. | | | |
| Upcoming Events | | MAR
27 | | Join DTC industry leaders and CEOs at the pivotal virtual roundtable event 'Shaping the Future of DTC in 2024.' | | | | | | | SEP
1 | | Join the $1M prize AI Challenge: Unleash your creativity and push AI Agents beyond today's limits - | | | | | | * This is a sponsored event | | | |
 | 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 | |
| |
| |
|
 | Act-On is a marketing automation that is easy to use without sacrificing the power and precision you expect. | |
|
| |
