Tech Policy & Government | TechCrunch

‘Prediction markets’ set to pay out $450M to election bettors

Connie Loizos — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 00:02:01 +0000

Following Donald Trump’s election victory, thousands of bettors anticipate a potential $450 million payout from online betting sites, says Reuters. As Trump’s odds surged on so-called prediction markets near the end of the race, platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket gained attention for diverging sharply from traditional polls, which suggested a much closer race. Talking with […]

The FTC comes after neobank Dave for misleading marketing, hidden fees

Sarah Perez — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 20:06:57 +0000

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Tuesday that it will be taking action against the online cash app and neobank Dave, which it says used “misleading marketing to deceive consumers.” At issue is how Dave marketed $500 cash advances to consumers that it rarely offered, and the “Express Fee” it charged if customers wanted […]

The other election night winner: Perplexity

Maxwell Zeff — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 19:54:10 +0000

On Tuesday, two AI startups tried convincing the world their AI chatbots were good enough to be an accurate, real-time source of information during a high-stakes presidential election: xAI and Perplexity. Elon Musk’s Grok failed almost instantly, offering wrong answers about races’ outcomes before the polls had even closed. On the other hand, Perplexity offered […]

What Trump’s win might mean for Elon Musk

Rebecca Bellan, Aria Alamalhodaei — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 18:51:03 +0000

Elon Musk — the billionaire CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, and the owner of The Boring Company, Neuralink, and X — took a sharp swing to the right this election to support President-elect Donald Trump, using his vast wealth, influence, and megaphone on X to influence the outcome of the election. Musk’s support came […]

How Trump’s election could affect the startup-friendly Inflation Reduction Act

Tim De Chant — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 15:59:18 +0000

While Trump's administration is unlikely to be supportive of certain climate tech startups, it will have a harder time ending the broadly popular law.

Corning, maker of toughened Gorilla Glass for phones, faces EU antitrust probe

Natasha Lomas — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 12:40:37 +0000

On Wednesday, the European Union opened an investigation of U.S. manufacturer Corning over possible anti-competitive practices. Corning may not be a name that’s super familiar to the average tech consumer, but you are almost certainly within touching distance of its products, as it’s a leading supplier of speciality toughened glass for mobile devices, including Apple’s […]

Apple to be fined for breaching EU’s Digital Markets Act, Bloomberg reports

Natasha Lomas — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 12:17:54 +0000

The European Union’s flagship market contestability regulation has been in force on a handful of tech giants for months. Since March, the bloc has had open investigations on several gatekeepers. But it’s Apple that will face the first Digital Markets Act (DMA) fine, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the case. Apple’s App Store rules […]

It’s Election Day, and all the AIs — but one — are acting responsibly

Kyle Wiggers — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 00:08:16 +0000

TechCrunch found that X's AI chatbot produced incorrect results about the U.S. presidential election, even as votes were still being cast.

X reinstates SwapYourVote’s account after suspending it as spam

Maxwell Zeff — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 22:09:20 +0000

In the final days leading up to the U.S. presidential election, Elon Musk’s X suspended the official account of a progressive-donor-backed ballot initiative called SwapYourVote. The volunteer-run website tries to get third-party voters in swing states to cast their ballots for Kamala Harris, matching them with Democrats in solidly blue states who agree to vote […]

Elon Musk’s false and misleading election claims have been viewed 2 billion times on X

Rebecca Bellan — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 17:08:40 +0000

The world’s richest man buys out one of the most popular social media platforms and uses it as a propaganda and disinformation machine in support of a presidential candidate. What could go wrong? An analysis from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit that tracks misinformation, found that Elon Musk posted at least […]

Anticipating post-election drama, Meta extends political ad ban past Election Day

Dominic-Madori Davis — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 16:40:47 +0000

Meta announced Tuesday that it is extending its restriction on political ads until later in the week, though it did not specify which day the ban would be lifted. When asked for more information, a Meta spokesperson pointed TechCrunch to the announcement about the company working to “protect the integrity of elections on Facebook and […]

Wikipedia says hasn’t received notice over alleged bias concerns from India

Manish Singh — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 11:24:03 +0000

Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia, said on Thursday that the firm hasn’t received an official notice from the Indian government over alleged concentrated editorial control and persistent complaints about bias and inaccuracies on the platform. A number of outlets, including TechCrunch, reported on Tuesday that the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting […]

From Lime to Uber to Hertz: Free and discounted Election Day rides

Rebecca Bellan — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Election Day is nearly here, and if you haven’t already mailed in your ballot or gone in for early voting, you might need a ride come November 5. Here’s a roundup of all the freebies, discounts, and information on getting to the polls that transportation companies are offering. Micromobility Lime is offering free rides to […]

Meta says it’s making its Llama models available for US national security applications

Kyle Wiggers — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 17:19:59 +0000

To combat the perception that its “open” AI is aiding foreign adversaries, Meta today said that it’s making its Llama series of AI models available to U.S. government agencies and contractors in national security. “We are pleased to confirm that we’re making Llama available to U.S. government agencies, including those that are working on defense […]

US laws regulating AI prove elusive, but there may be hope

Kyle Wiggers — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 12:02:47 +0000

Can the U.S. meaningfully regulate AI? It’s not at all clear yet. Policymakers have achieved progress in recent months, but they’ve also had setbacks, illustrating the challenging nature of laws imposing guardrails on the technology. In March, Tennessee became the first state to protect voice artists from unauthorized AI cloning. This summer, Colorado adopted a tiered, risk-based […]

How national interest startups should be thinking about government contracts

Rebecca Bellan — Sat, 02 Nov 2024 12:00:00 +0000

National interest technology can show up in a lot of ways, like in data analysis and cybersecurity, as well as satellites and weapons. Many startups with dual-use applications are increasingly looking at the government as an attractive customer due to its wide range of use cases and the amount of federal dollars available. And while […]

What can we do about the spread of AI-generated disinformation?

Kyle Wiggers — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 23:05:09 +0000

Disinformation is spreading at an alarming pace, thanks largely to openly available AI tools. What can be done about it?

Microsoft and a16z set aside differences, join hands in plea against AI regulation

Devin Coldewey — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 22:48:13 +0000

Two of the biggest forces in two deeply intertwined tech ecosystems — large incumbents and startups — have taken a break from counting their money to jointly plead that the government desist from even pondering regulations that might affect their financial interests, or as they prefer to call them, innovation. “Our two companies might not […]

Perplexity launches an elections tracker

Kyle Wiggers — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 21:43:04 +0000

Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine, might hallucinate from time to time. But the company wants to show that it’s trustworthy enough to use for tracking election results. Today, Perplexity announced a dedicated hub for U.S. general election information. Populated by data from The Associated Press and Democracy Works, the company described it in a blog […]

Chinese military researchers reportedly used Meta AI to develop defense chatbot

Kyle Wiggers — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 14:44:02 +0000

Chinese research scientists linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the military wing of China’s ruling party, reportedly used “open” AI from Meta to develop a tool for defense applications. According to Reuters, Chinese researchers, including two affiliated with a PLA R&D group, used Meta’s Llama 2 AI model to create a military-focused chatbot. The […]