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Tech roundup: DOJ bans data selling
📜 No data for you: The U.S. Department of Justice has issued an executive order banning companies from selling our personal data to hostile nations. The goal? To block countries like China, North Korea and Russia from using our info for cyberespionage and social media disinformation campaigns. I always assumed China has extremely sophisticated spying tech they use on us. Well, that balloon burst.
Erase the past: Newspapers across the U.S. are removing old crime stories or names from their online archives. Why? To help folks move on without fear of being googled. Good news: This only applies to minor crimes. Articles about violence and sex offenses are staying put.
🙏 Give me an AI-men: The New York Times did an excellent piece about how religious leaders are using AI to help them deliver their sermons. Take Rabbi Fixler: A chatbot trained on his data can write the sermon, deliver it in his voice and even answer questions aloud during the service. Other leaders are using bots to translate their livestreams into other languages in real time.
Are you cirrus? Turns out the government’s technology for controlling the weather doesn’t work. “Cloud seeding,” where silver iodide crystals are added to clouds to increase rain, only boosts precipitation by a measly 0% to 20%. Oh, and it’s not cheap, either; we’re spending tens of millions on this every year.
Intel slipping away: The once-mighty innovator is steadily losing market share in critical areas that keep its profits afloat. One prime example (paywall link): AMD surpassed Intel’s revenue for data center chips — a crazy shift, considering Intel’s revenue was three times AMD’s in 2022. And let’s not forget the booming GPU demand for AI, where Intel is trailing Nvidia by thousands of miles.
👂 Taking a page from Apple: You’ll soon be able to connect hearing aids to your Android phone. Code strings found in a Google Play Services beta show hearing aids listed as Fast Pair-supported devices. Translation? Pairing them could become as simple as connecting earbuds.
AirTags in a house with kiddos? Apple skipped an important safety warning for its AirTags related to the small batteries inside. The AirTags are easy to open to get the batteries out. New models follow Reese’s Law, named after an 18-month-old who died after ingesting a button cell battery.
💔 Me love you long time: Nearly a decade ago, a handsome U.S. Marine discovered his photos were being used in a multibillion-dollar romance scam. Hundreds of women have been conned out of their money, and it’s still happening today. The worst part? Victims contact his wife to warn her he’s up to no good. Here’s the full story I wrote for The Daily Mail, with all the juicy details.