technology

China top court says drivers responsible despite autonomous technology

  • Drivers are still responsible for ensuring road safety after activating assisted driving functions, China's top court said in a "guiding case" issued on Friday.
  • China's top court has issued a ruling confirming humans in cars with assisted driving technology are responsible for their vehicle, setting a nationwide benchmark as Beijing positions itself as a standards-setter in the auto market.
  • Drivers are still responsible for ensuring road safety after activating assisted driving functions, China's top court said in a "guiding case" issued on Friday.
China's top court has issued a ruling confirming humans in cars with assisted driving technology are responsible for their vehicle, setting a nationwide benchmark as Beijing positions itself as a standards-setter in the auto market.
In its ruling the court referred to a case in which a man relied on the technology while drunk and asleep at the wheel.
Chinese tech companies and carmakers have poured billions of dollars into autonomous driving technology in the race to outperform each other, as well as rivals in the United States and Europe.
However, Beijing has moved to tighten safety rules after a high-profile crash last March.
Drivers are still responsible for ensuring road safety after activating assisted driving functions, China's top court said in a "guiding case" issued on Friday.
The reference case is a September ruling in southern Zhejiang province, in which a driver surnamed Wang was jailed and fined for fully relying on the assisted driving system while drunk.
Wang installed a device to mimic hand grip on the steering wheel, set the car to drive then fell asleep in the passenger seat, the court said.
Police found Wang after the car stopped in the middle of a road.
"The on-board assisted driving system cannot replace the driver as the primary driving subject," the Supreme People's Court said in the Friday ruling.
The driver "is still the one who actually performs the driving tasks and bears the responsibility to ensure driving safety", it added.
While most such systems currently used on the road specify that the driver is ultimately in control of the car, the court's ruling now makes that a legal standard nationwide.
Lower courts are to reference the judgement when deciding on similar cases. 
Beijing had already warned leading automakers that safety rules would be more tightly enforced after a crash that killed three college students last March raised concerns over the advertising of cars as being capable of autonomous driving.
Friday's guidance comes after China announced it will ban hidden door handles on cars, a minimalist design popularised by Tesla, from next year -- also over safety concerns.
Folding into the body of the car, such door handles help reduce drag while in motion but are prone to losing operability in the event of a crash.
One high-profile incident occurred in October, when rescuers were shown failing to open the doors of a burning electric vehicle in the southwestern city of Chengdu.
mya/reb/mtp

technology

All-in on AI: what TikTok creator ByteDance did next

BY LUNA LIN

  • "They are taking the all-in approach with AI, and they are the most aggressive player in the market," he told AFP. ByteDance, which has the biggest AI team in Chinese tech, sometimes pays salaries two or three times the market average to recruit top talent, said industry headhunter Shen Wei.
  • After soaring to global attention with its hugely popular TikTok app, Chinese tech giant ByteDance is now positioning itself as a major player in the fast-evolving AI arena.
  • "They are taking the all-in approach with AI, and they are the most aggressive player in the market," he told AFP. ByteDance, which has the biggest AI team in Chinese tech, sometimes pays salaries two or three times the market average to recruit top talent, said industry headhunter Shen Wei.
After soaring to global attention with its hugely popular TikTok app, Chinese tech giant ByteDance is now positioning itself as a major player in the fast-evolving AI arena.
While the Beijing-based company has been embroiled in a range of legal and privacy rows linked to the social media app for years, its team has been busy branching out developing new cutting-edge products.
Among them is China's most popular artificial intelligence chatbot, Doubao, which has built up more than 100 million daily users since its inception in 2023.
That makes it one of the world's largest processors of AI queries, alongside OpenAI and Google.
Meanwhile, the cinematic clips created by its latest video generator, Seedance 2.0, have further raised the company's international profile.
But like TikTok, ByteDance's AI services could face trouble in overseas markets owing to issues from data privacy to fierce competition in the sector.
Since OpenAI's ChatGPT revealed the powers of AI on its 2022 debut, ByteDance has believed the technology "would become an even more important application than web search", CEO Liang Rubo said last month.
"ByteDance's shift reflects a deliberate evolution from social media toward an AI‑native model," Charlie Dai, vice-president and principal analyst at Forrester, told AFP.
Regulatory and political pressure on ByteDance's enormously popular video-sharing app TikTok has fuelled the pivot, he said.
This month, the European Commission said TikTok's "addictive features" breached online content rules, and told it to change its design or face a fine amounting to up to six percent of ByteDance's annual global revenue.

'Evolving circumstances'

The United States had threatened TikTok with a total ban over concerns the platform could be used to harvest Americans' data or spread propaganda.
After lengthy top-level talks over a TikTok divestiture deal, a majority-American-owned joint venture was established in January to operate the app's US business, with ByteDance retaining a stake of less than 20 percent.
Rocky Lee, who uses TikTok and other sites to sell Chinese digital gadgets and pet products to buyers overseas, was relieved by the US deal.
"I can now tell other traders that 'you can go ahead and don't have to worry about it anymore'," Lee, who runs a chat group for cross-border sellers, told AFP.
Lee uses Doubao and other AI tools for various tasks including product selection, market research and sales script-writing.
"We used to have more than a dozen people in our team. Now I reckon maybe four to five people are sufficient," the veteran seller from Xi'an said.
ByteDance was US chip titan Nvidia's largest Chinese client in 2024, and it plans to spend billions of dollars on purchasing AI microchips and building AI infrastructure in 2026.
Though less prominent internationally than domestic competitors such as DeepSeek and Qwen, Doubao models process more than 50 trillion tokens, or units of text, daily.
Google said in October that it handles more than 1.3 quadrillion tokens monthly, which is roughly 43 trillion daily.
ByteDance's focus on AI is "a well-considered decision in response to the evolving circumstances", said Chen Yan, an AI industry analyst at research firm QuestMobile.
"They need to seek out the next generation of productivity," with strong growth for TikTok becoming more difficult given its already huge user base.

Big spenders

Shen Qiajin is founder of ideaFlow, an interactive content generation platform that is a heavy user of ByteDance AI models.
"They are taking the all-in approach with AI, and they are the most aggressive player in the market," he told AFP.
ByteDance, which has the biggest AI team in Chinese tech, sometimes pays salaries two or three times the market average to recruit top talent, said industry headhunter Shen Wei.
"From a headhunter's perspective, ByteDance's advantage lies in its willingness to spend big," he said.
Bytedance has not hidden its intention to replicate TikTok's international success with its AI ventures.
The Doubao team is now led by Alex Zhu, who co-founded the lip-syncing app Musical.ly that later merged with TikTok.
The app is called Dola, previously Cici, overseas. Like TikTok, ByteDance's AI services could face "concerns about data governance and geopolitical frictions", said Forrester's Dai.
While TikTok took over a niche, untapped market, Western AI giants "know local regulatory frameworks and user demands better", said QuestMobile's Chen.
Competition is also heating up at home. Tencent and Alibaba have run aggressive Lunar New Year promotions, driving their chatbots to the top of Apple's free app chart.
Like many tech companies, ByteDance is also under pressure to make running an AI chatbot app profitable.
"The real challenge for Doubao is only coming after it has surpassed 100 million daily active users," a Doubao staffer told Chinese tech media outlet the Late Post.
ll/kaf/dan

US

Europe's most powerful rocket carries 32 satellites for Amazon Leo network into space

  • Rival Starlink, meanwhile, has nearly 9,400 satellites.
  • The most powerful version of Europe's Ariane 6 rocket Thursday carried 32 satellites into space for the Amazon Leo network, which aims to rival Elon Musk's Starlink.
  • Rival Starlink, meanwhile, has nearly 9,400 satellites.
The most powerful version of Europe's Ariane 6 rocket Thursday carried 32 satellites into space for the Amazon Leo network, which aims to rival Elon Musk's Starlink.
The launch from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on the northeastern coast of South America, is a first for Amazon Leo.
The largest number of satellites ever carried by an Ariane rocket successfully separated and set off toward their final orbit to applause from those following the event live at the control centre.
"What a day, what a launch!" exclaimed Arianespace CEO David Cavailloles, who said the operation proved the launcher's ability to "carry out the most complex missions".
"Amazon, your package has been delivered," French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X, speaking of a "European success".
US firm Amazon, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, is the main commercial partner for the Ariane 6 despite the latter being touted as a symbol of European sovereignty in the sector.
To take on the 32 satellites, the Ariane 6 was upgraded with four strap-on boosters, instead of the two used on the first five flights.
The increased number marks "our largest payload that we have launched to date," Martijn Van Delden, head of commercial development for Europe at Amazon Leo, told AFP. 
With 175 satellites already in orbit, Amazon Leo aims to expand its constellation to 3,200. 
Rival Starlink, meanwhile, has nearly 9,400 satellites.
"We're looking to then increase the payload every time we have a new mission, especially as more powerful boosters come online on Ariane 6," Van Delden said. 
"Ariane 6 is a perfect launcher for constellations" of satellites, said Arianespace CEO Cavailloles during a press briefing. 
He said the Amazon launches would help in training for a flagship multi-orbital constellation project of the European Union aimed at ensuring secure and sovereign connectivity, with deployment slated to begin in 2029.

'Build market confidence'

Ludwig Moeller, director of the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), warned that "over time a sovereign European launcher cannot be primarily dependent on foreign markets".
Foreign partners "may negotiate priority handling backed by economic power or which may become unpredictable or inaccessible without notice, given the current geopolitical environment and trade wars," he told AFP.
But in the absence of European commercial customers -- many of whom work with Musk's SpaceX -- the Amazon partnership is crucial.
Four out of five anticipated launches took place in 2025 following Ariane's inaugural 2024 flight, unprecedented for a new launcher, according to ArianeGroup president Marc Sion.
Although Ariane 6 is eventually expected to carry out 10 launches per year, Pierre Lionnet, Eurospace research director, noted that at this stage this would not be possible without commercial customers like Amazon.
Long-term investment is expected to amount to billions of euros to the European space sector. 
"If things go well here, it will help build market confidence," said Philippe Clar, ArianeGroup's head of launchers.
neo/cc/ach 

games

Ubisoft targets new decade of 'Rainbow 6' with China expansion

BY TOM BARFIELD

  • A team first-person shooter in the vein of genre classics like "Counter-Strike", "Rainbow Six Siege" is one of Ubisoft's biggest titles, rewarding coordinated tactical play and deft use of destructible environments.
  • Troubled French games giant Ubisoft will strive to project confidence this weekend with a massive esports event for its shooter "Rainbow Six Siege", while hoping a reorganisation and expansion to China can keep the money rolling in.
  • A team first-person shooter in the vein of genre classics like "Counter-Strike", "Rainbow Six Siege" is one of Ubisoft's biggest titles, rewarding coordinated tactical play and deft use of destructible environments.
Troubled French games giant Ubisoft will strive to project confidence this weekend with a massive esports event for its shooter "Rainbow Six Siege", while hoping a reorganisation and expansion to China can keep the money rolling in.
"We're stepping things up a lot for 2026 with China coming aboard," said Francois-Xavier Deniele, head of marketing and esports for the franchise.
"The balance is going to change, we know that when they arrive in a game, they're extremely competitive".
Chinese internet giant TenCent has climbed aboard as an investor in "Rainbow Six" and Ubisoft's other top-selling titles "Assassin's Creed" and "Far Cry".
The mega-franchises are stabled together in one of a string of new "creative houses", supposed to offer the group's development teams more financial and creative freedom after several years of financial woes, job cuts and a tumbling share price.
China is "a very, very mature market, a lot more mature even than (the West) for this kind of game," Deniele said.
But TenCent's billion-euro investment in exchange for a 26-percent stake in Vantage, finalised last November, suggests it believes in Ubisoft titles' ability to hold their own.
With a $3-million prize pool, this weekend's Ubisoft-organised invitational event in Paris for top teams is "a heck of a signal" that "shows we're capable of packing the Adidas Arena," Deniele said. 
The Paris venue's 8,000 seats are more often filled by basketball or music fans.
In China, "it's totally natural for the new generation to watch esports matches and play with their friends in PC bangs (cybercafes)... very similar to Korea," Deniele said.
This year's busy esports season for "Siege" follows on from last year's revamp of its systems and graphics, which "laid the foundations for the 10 years ahead," he added.
A team first-person shooter in the vein of genre classics like "Counter-Strike", "Rainbow Six Siege" is one of Ubisoft's biggest titles, rewarding coordinated tactical play and deft use of destructible environments.

Fierce competition

"Siege" has not escaped wobbles of its own in recent months.
Hackers gained access in December to systems that allowed them to ban or restore large numbers of accounts and manipulate the game's cosmetic item marketplace -- a key source of revenue.
In such cases "the community needs to be reassured very quickly", Deniele said, crediting the "ultra-fast" reaction of the development team for the fact that "people came back to the game and were happy with what we were able to do".
Developers must also ensure a steady pipeline of fresh content for today's long-lived online games, with "Rainbow Six" facing competition from incumbents such as "Call of Duty", "Valorant" or "Overwatch".
New challengers are also constantly emerging onto the unforgiving field.
Wildlight Entertainment, developers of fantasy shooter title "Highguard", which launched in January to great fanfare, on Wednesday announced layoffs from its small development team -- leaving only a "core group" to maintain the game.
At this weekend's "Rainbow Six" event "we'll be announcing a quicker release schedule for content, because people want more and more", Deniele said.
"It's a game people play every day, so we have to get faster."
tgb/adp/jj

Valentine

Nigerian conservative city turns to online matchmaking for love

BY AMINU ABUBAKAR

  • "This one... is appealing to me and she is within the age bracket," Abdulmalik pointed at one, after scanning through dozens of pictures.  
  • Aisha adjusted her beige veil over her circular-shaped headgear as a matchmaker scrolled through rows of dozens of pictures on a computer to find a man she could be interested in as a potential match. 
  • "This one... is appealing to me and she is within the age bracket," Abdulmalik pointed at one, after scanning through dozens of pictures.  
Aisha adjusted her beige veil over her circular-shaped headgear as a matchmaker scrolled through rows of dozens of pictures on a computer to find a man she could be interested in as a potential match. 
Many young women in northern Nigeria's conservative Muslim city of Kano marry as early as 18.  
After waiting for years for a suitor, Aisha is frustrated and has turned now to enlist the services of an online matchmaker site to find a husband of her dreams: rich and educated. 
Matchmaking websites are booming in Kano, blending traditional methods with artificial intelligence. 
"This is the right place to ask for help in finding a person to marry," Aisha, using a pseudonym, told AFP inside Northern Halal Marriage online matchmaking office.  
"It is not every man who sees you that will express his love," said the soft-spoken college graduate, adding online is "the best way to find true love".
She's trying her luck after some of her friends found their dream husbands through online matchmaking. 
The five-month-old site, one of several that have sprung up in the city, has attracted 1,000 clients and garnered around 10,000 followers across social media platforms, said Jaafar Isah Shanawa, its 27-year-old CEO.  
With four staff, the platform accords clients privacy by modifying their pictures using AI and changing their real names. 
The concealed details are only shown to interested clients when they visit the office in person after paying a registration fees. 
- Looking for second wife - 
"Men are afraid to speak to women on the streets because they think they are respectful people of integrity," Shanawa said. 
His clients are mostly elite: professionals and business-owners. 
Cultural dispositions makes it "difficult" for women to meet men on the streets or at work "to give them attention", said Shanawa, adding searching for love online "makes it easier and accessible to a lot of people". 
Muhammad Siraj Suleiman, 41, has been a client for the past month looking for a second wife.  
Shanawa has put the university lecturer in touch with two women he chose from the portal but none met his requirements after meeting them.  
"I have been given a third contact and we have started courtship," said Suleiman. 
Three-monthly renewable subscription contracts range between $6 and $54, with the fees reflecting the social class and educational level of the matches being sought. 
Traditional Hausa society stresses background checks on lineage, morality and family reputation before marriage. 
Kano imams also insist on medical checks for intending couples.  
However, online matchmaking platforms like Shanawa's don't provide background checks because they only act as a "bridge" connecting those wanting to marry. 
"When our clients meet and feel they are a match, our job stops there and it then becomes their responsibility to make background and medical checks for themselves," Shanawa said.  
  

Queen of matchmaking

Matchmaking is a tradition in northern Nigeria dating generations within families, friends or close social units.  
Over time, the tradition expanded and parents take the pictures of their daughters they want to marry off but have no suitors to a traditional matchmaker to find them a lover. 
Population explosion and the pressure of work which limits socialisation among people has made matchmaking "more popular and attracting more people," said Asabe Abba Yarmaishinkafi, a Kano matchmaker for 25 years and head of an 85-member matchmakers association in Kano.  
With a population of around 16 million, Kano is Nigeria's second most populated state after Lagos.  
"It seems like there are more women than men and they all want to get married. 
That's why the matchmaking was expanded to online," said Yarmaishinkafi, 50, and mother of five. 
"This is why the whole matchmaking business is booming," said Yarmaishinkafi who also runs an online matchmaking portal. 
With the proliferation of smartphones, parents send her pictures of their daughters via WhatsApp which she shows to her male clients.  
Unlike the online matchmaking platforms, Yarmaishinkafi conducts "thorough background checks" on her clients, provides marriage counselling and settles marital disputes all for a one-off $4 fee.  
Now, known as the "queen of matchmaking", she has over the years matched more than a 1,000 couples.  
Only 11 out of the marriages she matched ended in divorce, a huge feat in a city with the highest divorce rate in Nigeria, according to the morality police, Hisbah.  
Trader Anwar Dahiru Abdulmalik, 25, arrived just at Yarmaishinkafi's office, is looking for a match two years younger, tall and fair in complexion from a middle-class background.  
"This one... is appealing to me and she is within the age bracket," Abdulmalik pointed at one, after scanning through dozens of pictures.  
"But I have to wait until we meet in person and see if we match." 
abu/sn/cw   

politics

AI's bitter rivalry heads to Washington

BY ALEX PIGMAN

  • The group -- whose funders can remain anonymous -- plans to back 30 to 50 candidates from both parties in state and federal races during the midterm cycle.
  • Anthropic's major donation to a political group that competes with an OpenAI-backed organization has highlighted a bitter rift over AI regulation -- a key issue heading into the US midterm elections.
  • The group -- whose funders can remain anonymous -- plans to back 30 to 50 candidates from both parties in state and federal races during the midterm cycle.
Anthropic's major donation to a political group that competes with an OpenAI-backed organization has highlighted a bitter rift over AI regulation -- a key issue heading into the US midterm elections.
With the artificial intelligence industry rapidly advancing, Democrats and Republicans alike have found themselves squeezed between a powerful tech lobby flush with cash and a broadly wary public.
Leading the charge on the industry side is Leading the Future, a pro-AI super PAC backed by OpenAI's Greg Brockman, venture capital behemoth Andreessen Horowitz, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and AI search company Perplexity.
Brockman, OpenAI's longtime president, and his wife Anna are also among the largest recent donors to President Donald Trump's political coffers, to the tune of $25 million last year.
Super PACs are political organizations in the United States that can raise and spend unlimited funds for media campaigns, but not give directly to candidates.
Leading the Future raised $125 million in the second half of 2025, according to official filings, and is co-led by Josh Vlasto -- a former adviser to Fairshake, the crypto-aligned super PAC whose playbook Leading the Future is looking to repeat.
That playbook proved devastatingly effective in the 2024 election cycle, when Fairshake poured money into races against candidates skeptical of cryptocurrency.
Now spooked by the prospect of a repeat in AI, Anthropic has entered the fray.
On Thursday, the company gave $20 million to a competing super PAC, Public First Action, which supports AI guardrails -- effectively setting up a direct fight against Leading the Future.
The group -- whose funders can remain anonymous -- plans to back 30 to 50 candidates from both parties in state and federal races during the midterm cycle.
Founded in 2021 by former AI researchers, Anthropic has grown into a world-leading AI company focused on businesses and software developers.
The company, led by CEO Dario Amodei, is disdained by some in Trump's Washington for its outspoken focus on AI safety and its warnings about the job losses that generative AI could unleash.
The Trump administration has pushed back forcefully, championing a light regulatory touch and giving AI companies free rein to release their latest models without guardrails or pre-release vetting of their products.
White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks recently accused the "left-wing" company of "running a sophisticated regulatory capture strategy based on fear-mongering."
He also accused Anthropic of retaining Democratic-aligned staffers to "lobby for the old Biden AI agenda."
The two groups are also clashing over the Trump administration's repeated — and so far unsuccessful — efforts to ban AI legislation at the state level.
In the absence of federal action, dozens of states have introduced hundreds of proposals to regulate the technology.

'Vast resources'

While not as well financed as its rival, Public First Action argues it has something Leading the Future does not: the backing of public opinion.
Polls show that Americans broadly favor AI safety measures and support a more cautious approach to the technology.
"At present, there are few organized efforts to help mobilize people and politicians who understand what's at stake in AI development," Anthropic said in a statement.
"Instead, vast resources have flowed to political organizations that oppose these efforts."
Amodei has also made visits to Capitol Hill to meet with Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren to back a ban on the sending of powerful chip technology from Nvidia to China, something the Trump administration supports.
The battle is already playing out in specific races. In Florida, Leading the Future is preparing to spend millions to support Byron Donalds' campaign for governor as Republicans in the state fight over AI legislation.
In New York, Alex Bores — a pro-AI safety congressional candidate and former Palantir employee — has already faced a barrage of attack ads from the group.
"Crazy populists...could be about to break all of this and we can't let that happen," Palantir co-founder Lonsdale said on CNBC in November, defending Leading the Future's mission to fight AI safety advocates.
arp/des/jfx

Oly

Ukraine says Russia behind fake posts targeting Winter Olympics team

BY ANNA MALPAS WITH EDUARD STARKBAUER IN BRATISLAVA

  • "Russians have rolled out an information campaign to discredit Ukraine," Kyiv's centre for countering disinformation said Thursday.
  • Ukraine blamed a Russian disinformation campaign Thursday after fake news posted online about its Winter Olympics team, including a story criticising an athlete disqualified for trying to highlight war deaths.
  • "Russians have rolled out an information campaign to discredit Ukraine," Kyiv's centre for countering disinformation said Thursday.
Ukraine blamed a Russian disinformation campaign Thursday after fake news posted online about its Winter Olympics team, including a story criticising an athlete disqualified for trying to highlight war deaths.
The fake posts, which racked up over a million views across multiple platforms, included a claim about Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych, banned from competing Thursday for wearing a helmet with images of athletes killed in the war.
"Russians have rolled out an information campaign to discredit Ukraine," Kyiv's centre for countering disinformation said Thursday.
"With such fakes, Russia is trying to discredit Ukrainians and undermine international support for Ukraine," Ukraine's sports minister Matviy Bidny told AFP.
One post digitally manipulated a text story by Reuters news agency about Heraskevych. It added false claims that his brother recruited soldiers for the war and a Hungarian athlete wore a sticker saying "we're all fed up with U(kraine)".
AFP saw Russian-language accounts on X make similar claims.
Other false stories online included claims that Ukrainian team members had been housed separately due to "toxic" behaviour; that doping controls had been eased for them to take "psychoactive substances"; and that 52 of their translators had absconded.
A fake video with a logo similar to US E! News entertainment television claimed rapper Snoop Dogg -- who is covering the games for US network NBC -- had refused a photo with the Ukraine team because of the country's army's "Nazism".
The posts are part of a Russian-aligned campaign called Operation Overload that was also active during the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, said Pablo Maristany de las Casas, an analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue think tank.
Some posts impersonate media such as Euronews while others imitate the Israeli espionage agency Mossad and even the Italian health ministry, he said.
The campaign aims to discredit not just Ukrainian athletes but also refugees, he said, with a message that "Ukrainians are sowing chaos".

'Propaganda network'

Other false claims included that the Ukrainian feminist collective Femen had vandalised the Colosseum, and that Ukraine had taken away the passports of athletes' family members to stop them defecting.
Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation said it had identified a "coordinated" campaign of "completely falsified" stories that had first appeared on Russian-language Telegram channels.
These were then "amplified by a network of propaganda accounts", it added.
Canadian broadcaster CBC released its own fact check of a fake news video about Ukrainian athletes. The fake report had used the first 15 seconds of a genuine video from its social media, featuring CBC chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault, it said.
Then an "AI-generated version of Adrienne's voice takes over", said CBC fact-check producer Avneet Dhillon.
The reporter appears to say the Ukrainian team has been accommodated "as far away as possible" from others because the athletes were "extremely toxic" at the Paris Olympics.
The real video did not mention Ukraine or Ukrainian athletes, CBC said.
The International Olympic Committee's press team told AFP the Ukrainians were in the same facilities as other teams. It called the video "absolutely false and an attempt at deliberate misrepresentation".
This video began circulating on a Russian-language Telegram channel called "Odessa for Victory" on February 5, said Provereno Media, a fact-checking organisation based in Estonia.
The posts, amplified by bots, have been viewed over one million times, it added -- and the story has been picked up by pro-Kremlin media citing it as coming from CBC.
An AFP fact-checker saw also this claim circulating on Slovak-language accounts on Facebook.
burs-es-am/nla/jj

earnings

'Avatar' and 'Assassin's Creed' shore up troubled Ubisoft

  • Major contributors to sales growth included the latest instalment in the Assassin's Creed series, released last year, and the "Avatar" film tie-in game "Frontiers of Pandora" -- updated to coincide with the release of the James Cameron saga's latest episode in December.
  • Strong performances from major franchises including an "Avatar" tie-in game and juggernaut "Assassin's Creed" buttressed struggling French games giant Ubisoft's third-quarter results, the company said Thursday.
  • Major contributors to sales growth included the latest instalment in the Assassin's Creed series, released last year, and the "Avatar" film tie-in game "Frontiers of Pandora" -- updated to coincide with the release of the James Cameron saga's latest episode in December.
Strong performances from major franchises including an "Avatar" tie-in game and juggernaut "Assassin's Creed" buttressed struggling French games giant Ubisoft's third-quarter results, the company said Thursday.
Revenue at 318 million euros ($380 million) in October-December had made for a "solid" period "exceeding our expectations" chief executive Yves Guillemot said in a statement.
Ubisoft's star has fallen with investors in recent months, as it has weathered mixed reception for some new titles and announced a far-reaching restructuring and cost-cutting drive.
Shares in the group have lost almost 95 percent of their value in five years, booking their worst single-day performance in January with a 40-percent collapse.
Ubisoft reported Thursday that its preferred "net bookings" yardstick, which excludes revenue from deferred sales, climbed 12 percent year-on-year to almost 340 million euros in its third quarter.
The pace was still higher over the first nine months of the financial year, adding 17.6 percent to reach 1.1 billion euros.
Major contributors to sales growth included the latest instalment in the Assassin's Creed series, released last year, and the "Avatar" film tie-in game "Frontiers of Pandora" -- updated to coincide with the release of the James Cameron saga's latest episode in December.
The company will release two mobile games from popular franchises "Rainbow Six" and "The Division" by the end of March.
But Ubisoft also confirmed its January forecast of an operating loss of around one billion euros for the full financial year, sapped by multiple delays and cancellations announced alongside details of its restructuring.
Bosses' woes are far from over, as the company this week faced a three-day strike by several hundred of its 3,800 French employees.
Triggers for the walkout included an end to work-from-home provisions.
Ubisoft's restructuring will farm out many of its dozens of studios worldwide into an industry-first system of five "creative houses", each dedicated to developing a different genre of game.
The company is making "key leadership appointments... including external hires of experienced, respected industry veterans" to head the houses, Guillemot said Thursday.
Ubisoft had said in January that it was launching a third round of cost-cutting aimed at finding 200 million euros of savings over two years.
The company announced the same month that it would look to slash up to 200 of around 1,100 positions at its Paris headquarters.
Such cuts follow studio closures elsewhere in its global network, including San Franciso, Osaka, Stockholm, Leamington in Britain and Canada's Halifax.
France's biggest games company, Ubisoft today has around 17,000 employees worldwide after shedding more than 3,000 in recent years.
kf/tgb/rl

internet

Russia cracks down on WhatsApp as it pushes state-backed rival

  • Russia's internet watchdog said Tuesday it would also slap "phased restrictions" on another popular messaging platform, Telegram, which it also accused of not complying with local legislation.
  • Russia has blocked the popular messaging service WhatsApp over its failure to comply with local legislation, the Kremlin said Thursday, urging its 100 million Russian users to switch to a domestic alternative.
  • Russia's internet watchdog said Tuesday it would also slap "phased restrictions" on another popular messaging platform, Telegram, which it also accused of not complying with local legislation.
Russia has blocked the popular messaging service WhatsApp over its failure to comply with local legislation, the Kremlin said Thursday, urging its 100 million Russian users to switch to a domestic alternative.
Moscow has for months been trying to shift Russian users onto Max, a domestic messaging service that lacks end-to-end encryption and that activists have called a potential tool for surveillance.
"As for the blocking of WhatsApp... such a decision was indeed made and implemented," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Peskov said the decision was due to WhatsApp's "reluctance to comply with the norms and letter of Russian law".
"Max is an accessible alternative, a developing messenger, a national messenger. And it is an alternative available on the market for citizens," he said.
WhatsApp, owned by US social media giant Meta, said Wednesday that it believed Russia was attempting to fully block the service in a bid to force users onto Max.
"We continue to do everything we can to keep users connected," it said.
Critics and rights campaigners say the restrictions are a transparent attempt by the Kremlin to ramp up control and surveillance over internet use in Russia.
They also say it will make it harder for Russians to communicate abroad.
But Vilgelm, a 32-year-old engineer from Moscow, told AFP he believed the move would not isolate Russia. 
"Given Russia's weight in international affairs and trade, it is unlikely we would get a North Korea situation, where everything is completely blocked," he told AFP. 
Still, he finds it problematic that the authorities are "actively" promoting Max so aggressively.
"It all looks a bit too tempting," said Vilgelm, who, like most people AFP spoke to, only gave his first name.

'Carrier pigeons'

The government directed manufacturers to include Max on all new phones and tablets starting last September, and it claimed 75 million users by December.
Released by Russian social media giant VK last year, it has been touted as a "super app" similar to China's WeChat or Alipay, capable of doing everything from accessing government services to ordering a pizza.
Critics say the weak encryption, where messages are not scrambled between devices, means communications could be easily intercepted and read.
Some Russians told AFP they were forced to download it by their employers.
Many schools, which use chat apps to communicate with parents, have also switched to Max.
"In late December, we received a message from my daughter's homeroom teacher telling us that WhatsApp no longer worked at all," said one Muscovite, who refused to give her name. 
"All communication related to the children's school activities would be conducted via the Max app," she added. 
Russia's internet watchdog said Tuesday it would also slap "phased restrictions" on another popular messaging platform, Telegram, which it also accused of not complying with local legislation.
For Natalia Nikolaeva, a 23-year-old painter, it is especially regrettable that the bans will complicate communication with older people. 
"At first, we've tried to use VPNs but it no longer works. Thus, of course, we've lost some connections, because some generations simply can't switch to Telegram or other social networks," she said.  
Both WhatsApp and Telegram appeared to still be available via VPN connections in Russia on Thursday. And some users said they were still using the services as before without any workarounds.
Ekaterina, a 47-year-old actress, said he hopes the decision will be overturned.
"This is wrong," she told AFP.
"We tried to log in yesterday, and it seems to be still working, but we hope that this decision will be reversed."
Vilgelm was nevertheless lining up other options, including a South Korean rival that has so far not fallen into Moscow's crosshairs.
"If need be, I'll use carrier pigeons," he quipped.
bur/phz

US

Belgian museum blocks US firm's access to DRC mining files

BY MATTHIEU DEMEESTERE

  • Belgium is the former colonial power in Congo, which became independent in 1960 and is now called the Democratic Republic of Congo.
  • Belgium's AfricaMuseum is the country's biggest dedicated to the Congo, displaying millions of colonial-era objects and zoological specimens.
  • Belgium is the former colonial power in Congo, which became independent in 1960 and is now called the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Belgium's AfricaMuseum is the country's biggest dedicated to the Congo, displaying millions of colonial-era objects and zoological specimens.
But it also holds the archives from the 1960s and 70s of Belgian companies that ceased operations in the former colony, including geological maps.
Now, with a race for rare earths gathering pace across the globe, the institution is grappling with the question of whether it should share them with the mining sector.
The museum, which until 2018 was called the Royal Museum for Central Africa, has disclosed that it turned down a request from a US company suspected of wanting to monetise the data.
"We cannot allow a private company, which may have commercial interests, to get hold of an entire archive collection," AfricaMuseum director Bart Ouvry told AFP.
"That would be against our ethics as a scientific institution," he said on Thursday.
The request from the firm, KoBold Metals, was made about six months ago and involved access to a large quantity of data on the Congolese subsoil in order to digitise it, Ouvry explained.
Belgium is the former colonial power in Congo, which became independent in 1960 and is now called the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to Ouvry, the museum's geological archive runs to "half a kilometre", and the institution intends to digitise and make it public in the next four to five years, as part of a partnership with the DRC, backed by funding from the European Union.
Private interests controlling the archive is not a matter solely for the museum or the Belgian state, because the DRC authorities are also involved.
"We want to share these archives first with our Congolese partner, which is the national geological service, because ultimately, the question of mining exploration and economic development is the responsibility of the Congolese government," said Ouvry.

Bezos, Gates and minerals

The Belgian government is singing from the same hymn sheet.
"Belgium cannot grant privileged and exclusive access to a foreign private company with which it has no contractual link, which would affect research and public consultation," said Digital Minister Vanessa Matz, whose brief includes federal scientific institutions.
In the background lies the question of the supply of minerals essential for industry.
The DRC, one of the 15 least-developed countries in the world, has some of the richest land on the planet, notably in copper, cobalt, coltan and lithium, which are used in components for weapons, mobile phones and electric cars.
Last summer, KoBold Metals, a US start-up using artificial intelligence to discover mineral deposits, especially lithium, signed a large-scale exploration agreement with the DRC.
The company, backed by US tech billionaires Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, also obtained approval from the authorities in the DRC to exploit its valuable mining database.
Asked by AFP on Thursday about an alleged dispute with the AfricaMuseum, the office of Congolese Mines Minister Louis Watum did not respond immediately.
But Watum was quoted as saying in the Financial Times on Wednesday that he wanted to speed up the sharing of Belgian data, and said he had given instructions to that effect to the country's geological service.
"They gave me very positive feedback so there's no need for me to push further," he told the British daily.
At an African mining sector conference in Cape Town on Wednesday, Watum rejected accusations he had "sold off" the DRC's mining potential to the United States under a recent agreement between the two countries.
mad/jca/phz/jhb

internet

Russia is cracking down on WhatsApp and Telegram. Here's what we know

  • It has since progressively slowed down WhatsApp and in November announced it would ban the platform outright unless it complied with Russian legislation.
  • Russia announced Thursday it had blocked WhatsApp over its alleged failure to comply with Russian legislation, days after restricting access to rival messaging service Telegram for similar reasons.
  • It has since progressively slowed down WhatsApp and in November announced it would ban the platform outright unless it complied with Russian legislation.
Russia announced Thursday it had blocked WhatsApp over its alleged failure to comply with Russian legislation, days after restricting access to rival messaging service Telegram for similar reasons.
Moscow has for months been trying to shift users onto Max, a domestic messaging service that lacks end-to-end encryption and which activists have called a potential surveillance tool.
Critics say the restrictions are part of a broader campaign by Russian authorities to tighten control over internet use and more easily monitor Russian citizens online.
Here's what we know about both apps and Russia's attempts to push users onto Max.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp, which has over 100 million users in Russia, is owned by US tech giant Meta.
The app was the most popular messaging service among Russians aged 25 and over in 2023, while Telegram was more popular among younger users, according to a report by Russian news outlet RBK.
Russia announced it was blocking calls on both applications last August, accusing them of facilitating crime.
It has since progressively slowed down WhatsApp and in November announced it would ban the platform outright unless it complied with Russian legislation.
Russia has asked for both messengers to provide access to data when requested by law enforcement for fraud probes and for investigating activities Russia describes as "terrorist".
Rights advocates fear that would extend Russia's surveillance state and could be used to target critics of the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin or the war in Ukraine.
WhatsApp said Wednesday that Russia had finally "attempted to fully block" the service, which the Kremlin confirmed on Thursday.
It was unclear how widespread or effective Russia's attempts were. 
VPN users in Russia still seem able to circumvent the ban.

Telegram  

Telegram, founded by Russian-born entrepeneur Pavel Durov, is the most popular messaging service in Russia, boasting more than one billion monthly active users worldwide.
Russia's internet watchdog announced it was throttling access to the app on Tuesday, accusing it of failing to follow legislation.
It was not immediately clear if Russia planned to ban the application outright.
Russian officials -- including the Kremlin -- still use it to issue statements and it is the most popular outlet for pro-government military bloggers commenting on the Ukraine war.
Some have warned that blocking the app would hobble communications around the front line and in Russian-occupied territory.
Durov, who now lives outside Russia, has called the Kremlin's restrictions "an attempt to force its citizens to switch to a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship".
He has clashed with the Russian authorities before.
He was forced out of the VK social media site he founded -- a Russian equivalent of Facebook -- under pressure from the authorities.
Russia spent two years trying to block Telegram, but having failed either to restrict access or to stop the growth of the service, it lifted the ban in 2020.

Max

Max, released by Russian social media giant VK last year, has been touted as a "super app" -- capable of doing everything from accessing government services to ordering a pizza, similar to China's WeChat or Alipay.
The government directed manufacturers to include it on all new phones and tablets starting last September, and it claimed 75 million users by December.
But it has been met with scepticism from some Russians, some of whom have told AFP they were forced to download it by their employers.
Unlike WhatsApp, Max appears to lack end-to-end encryption, meaning messages are not scrambled while travelling between the reader and sender and could possibly be retained by the state.
Sarkis Darbinyan, co-founder of digital rights NGO Roskomsvoboda, told AFP last year that shifting users onto Max could also allow authorities to limit information it does not want users to see.
Russia is moving people to a "kind of vacuum, where they do not have that undesirable information", he said.
bur/jj

Epstein

Pro-Kremlin accounts using Epstein files to push conspiracy: research

  • But pro-Kremlin accounts have also spread the idea that the documents prove Ukraine is a global hub for sex trafficking -- an allegation Russia has long pushed.
  • Pro-Kremlin social media accounts are using the latest Jeffrey Epstein files to bolster efforts to spread baseless claims that Russia has saved Ukrainian children from sex trafficking, research by AFP and a London-based think-tank showed Thursday.
  • But pro-Kremlin accounts have also spread the idea that the documents prove Ukraine is a global hub for sex trafficking -- an allegation Russia has long pushed.
Pro-Kremlin social media accounts are using the latest Jeffrey Epstein files to bolster efforts to spread baseless claims that Russia has saved Ukrainian children from sex trafficking, research by AFP and a London-based think-tank showed Thursday.
AFP and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) found posts viewed millions of times on Facebook, X and TikTok pushing the narrative, which contradicts real accounts of Russia forcibly deporting Ukrainian children since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
On January 30, US authorities released a trove of files related to Epstein, the US financier who was found dead in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on child sex offences.
The revelations have ensnared high-profile figures across the world.
But pro-Kremlin accounts have also spread the idea that the documents prove Ukraine is a global hub for sex trafficking -- an allegation Russia has long pushed.
Some users claimed the files revealed Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to save Ukrainian children from a network linked to Epstein, a convicted child sex offender.
One recent post on X, viewed more than three million times, said the Epstein files "confirmed... Putin didn't kidnap children from Ukraine, instead evacuated them to protect them from being sold into child sex trafficking".
Since the invasion, Russia unlawfully moved almost 20,000 Ukrainian children over the border, according to Kyiv. Russia has acknowledged taking some children, saying this was for their safety. 
Some posts even suggested the latest tranche of files proves Epstein was trying to meet Putin to counter his efforts to stop child sex trafficking.
Such claims surged on social media after the latest file release, with over 15,000 X posts in two days, the ISD said in a report released Thursday.
While there is no evidence that the Russian state is behind the posts, the Epstein release "plays into their hands" as a way to amplify previous claims, said one of the report's authors, Liana Sendetska.
"They are just trying to saturate the information space with all of this to see if it sticks," said the report's co-author, Olga Tokariuk.
The ISD also found over 150,000 X posts about saving children and Ukraine being a trafficking hub between September 2024 and August 2025, peaking around the third anniversary of the invasion.
These claims were amplified by British and European politicians including acting MEPs, the ISD said.
The Urban Scoop media platform set up by British anti-migrant activist Tommy Robinson last year released a documentary where a former UK lawmaker, Andrew Bridgen, made unproven claims about Ukrainian child trafficking. 
Bridgen, who was expelled from the Conservative party for comparing Covid vaccines to the Holocaust, also spoke on the show of US radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
The anti-Ukraine narrative involves British officials because the UK is "one of the strongest supporters of Ukraine", Tokariuk said.
am/rb/jkb/phz

internet

Russia confirms ban on WhatsApp, says it failed to abide by law

  • Moscow has for months been trying to shift Russian users onto Max, a domestic messaging service that lacks end-to-end encryption and that activists have called a potential tool for surveillance.
  • Russia has blocked the popular messaging service WhatsApp over its failure to comply with local legislation, the Kremlin said Thursday, urging its 100 million Russian users to switch to a domestic alternative.
  • Moscow has for months been trying to shift Russian users onto Max, a domestic messaging service that lacks end-to-end encryption and that activists have called a potential tool for surveillance.
Russia has blocked the popular messaging service WhatsApp over its failure to comply with local legislation, the Kremlin said Thursday, urging its 100 million Russian users to switch to a domestic alternative.
Moscow has for months been trying to shift Russian users onto Max, a domestic messaging service that lacks end-to-end encryption and that activists have called a potential tool for surveillance.
"As for the blocking of WhatsApp ... such a decision was indeed made and implemented," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Peskov said the decision was due to WhatsApp's "reluctance to comply with the norms and letter of Russian law".
"Max is an accessible alternative, a developing messenger, a national messenger. And it is an alternative available on the market for citizens," he said.
WhatsApp, owned by US social media giant Meta, said Wednesday that it believed Russia was attempting to fully block the service in a bid to force users onto Max.
"We continue to do everything we can to keep users connected," it said.
Critics and rights campaigners say the restrictions are a transparent attempt by the Kremlin to ramp up control and surveillance over internet use in Russia.
Russia's internet watchdog said Tuesday it would slap "phased restrictions" on the Telegram messaging platform, which it also accused of not complying with local legislation.
bur/yad

AI

Samsung starts mass production of next-gen AI memory chip

  • Samsung said it had "begun mass production of its industry-leading HBM4 and has shipped commercial products to customers".
  • Samsung Electronics announced Thursday it had started mass production of next-generation memory chips to power artificial intelligence, touting an "industry-leading" breakthrough.
  • Samsung said it had "begun mass production of its industry-leading HBM4 and has shipped commercial products to customers".
Samsung Electronics announced Thursday it had started mass production of next-generation memory chips to power artificial intelligence, touting an "industry-leading" breakthrough.
The high-bandwidth HBM4 chips are seen as a key component needed to scale-up the vast data centres powering the explosion in artificial intelligence.
US tech giant Nvidia -- the world's most valuable company -- is widely expected to be one of Samsung's main buyers.
Samsung said it had "begun mass production of its industry-leading HBM4 and has shipped commercial products to customers".
"This achievement marks a first in the industry, securing an early leadership position in the HBM4 market," the South Korean company said in a statement.
A global frenzy to build AI data centres has sent orders for advanced, high‑bandwidth memory microchips soaring.
Samsung said its new chip was significantly faster than older models, exceeding industry standards for processing speed by more than 40 percent.
This would satisfy "escalating demands for higher performance", the company said.
Samsung Electronics stock was up more than six percent in afternoon trade on South Korea's stock exchange.
The South Korean government has pledged to become one of the world's top three AI powers, alongside the United States and China.
Samsung and its South Korean rival SK hynix are already among the leading producers of high-performance memory chips, and the two companies had raced to start HBM4 production.
Taipei-based research firm TrendForce predicts that memory chip industry revenue will surge to a global peak of more than $840 billion in 2027.

Frontrunner

Samsung Electronics posted record quarterly profits earlier this year, riding on massive market demand for its powerful memory chips.
The company has already earmarked billions of dollars to expand chip production facilities, pledging to continue spending in "transitioning to advanced manufacturing processes and upgrading existing production lines to meet rising demand".
An industry observer said the move would help Samsung seize the moment in the intensifying race for chips critical to AI infrastructure. 
"Samsung struggled in the race for HBM3 chips, lagging behind its rival SK hynix," Kim Dae-jong, a professor of business at Sejong University, told AFP. 
"But with the early production of HBM4, it has positioned itself as a frontrunner in the competition," he added.
Nvidia designs hardware that powers AI computing, and has an almost insatiable demand for memory chips made by the likes of Samsung and SK hynix.
The US-based company's almost singular role in the AI revolution has taken the world by storm since the introduction of OpenAI's ChatGPT in late 2022.
Apple, Microsoft and Amazon have also developed chips with AI in mind, but for now are stuck trying to get their hands on Nvidia's coveted products.
Major electronics manufacturers and industry analysts have warned that chipmakers focusing on AI sales will cause higher retail prices for consumer products across the board.
cdl-kjk/sft/ami/ceg

defense

Taiwan leader wants greater defence cooperation with Europe: AFP interview 

BY ALLISON JACKSON AND PHIL CHETWYND

  • "I would like Taiwan and Europe to enhance cooperation in the defence industry and on defence technology," Lai told AFP on Tuesday in an exclusive interview at the Presidential Office Building.  
  • Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te called for greater defence and AI cooperation between Taiwan and Europe, as the democratic island seeks to bolster its protection against China. 
  • "I would like Taiwan and Europe to enhance cooperation in the defence industry and on defence technology," Lai told AFP on Tuesday in an exclusive interview at the Presidential Office Building.  
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te called for greater defence and AI cooperation between Taiwan and Europe, as the democratic island seeks to bolster its protection against China. 
Lai told AFP in his first interview with an international news agency since taking office in 2024 that Taiwan also supports the island's semiconductor companies investing overseas, including in Europe.
Taiwan has stepped up efforts to strengthen security and economic ties with Europe, its third-largest export market, at a time when questions have been raised over US willingness to defend the island against a Chinese attack. 
China claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring the self-governed island under its control.
"I would like Taiwan and Europe to enhance cooperation in the defence industry and on defence technology," Lai told AFP on Tuesday in an exclusive interview at the Presidential Office Building.  
Lai added that Taiwan, which makes nearly all of the world's most advanced chips, is also eager to "work with Europe on joint development in AI and usher in an era of comprehensive smart transformation."
In response, Beijing's foreign ministry said efforts to boost cooperation between Taiwan and Europe would be futile as a means of defending the island.
"Seeking independence by relying on foreign support and using force to refuse reunification are acts of sheer folly, and doomed to fail," foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a regular news conference.
The ongoing war in Ukraine, where devastating drone attacks have been a key feature of the years long conflict, has offered valuable lessons for Taiwan's government as it plans for a potential attack by China. 
Lai praised "European efforts to uphold universal values and their support for Ukraine's resistance against the Russian invasion". 
"Taiwan also stands with the Ukrainian people," Lai said.
Taiwan has ramped up military spending over the past decade and is building up its defence industry to make more equipment and ammunition on the island.
But Taipei is under US pressure to do more on defence -- and for its semiconductor manufacturers to increase production capacity in the United States.
Advanced chips are not only the bedrock of AI development, but also essential in new generation technologies and equipments.
The concentration of chip production in Taiwan has long been seen as a protection against an attack by China and an incentive for the United States to defend it.
Lai said his government supports the semiconductor industry's investments overseas. TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, has expanded into the United States, Japan and Europe.
But for Taiwan to remain indispensable in the global supply chain, Lai said the island's semiconductor industry needs to keep its "centres for research and development, the most advanced manufacturing processes, and the largest production capacity".
"No single country in this supply chain can be missing," Lai said.
"For this reason, the Taiwanese government supports the semiconductor industry's investments in Japan, the US and Europe."
Ahead of US President Donald Trump's planned meeting with Xi in Beijing in April, Lai said Taiwan welcomed any talks that helped maintain the status quo.
"We believe President Trump is undertaking a difficult peace-building effort, which entails safeguarding US interests and deterring Chinese expansionism in the short term," Lai said.
amj/jm

media

Instagram CEO denies addiction claims in landmark US trial

BY BENJAMIN LEGENDRE

  • Meta -- the parent company of Instagram and Facebook -- and Google-owned YouTube are defendants in the blockbuster trial, which could set a legal precedent regarding whether social media giants deliberately designed their platforms to be addictive to children.
  • Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri on Wednesday rejected the notion that users could be clinically addicted to social media, as he testified in a landmark California trial over whether his company knowingly hooked children on its platform for profit.
  • Meta -- the parent company of Instagram and Facebook -- and Google-owned YouTube are defendants in the blockbuster trial, which could set a legal precedent regarding whether social media giants deliberately designed their platforms to be addictive to children.
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri on Wednesday rejected the notion that users could be clinically addicted to social media, as he testified in a landmark California trial over whether his company knowingly hooked children on its platform for profit.
Meta -- the parent company of Instagram and Facebook -- and Google-owned YouTube are defendants in the blockbuster trial, which could set a legal precedent regarding whether social media giants deliberately designed their platforms to be addictive to children.
"I think it's important to differentiate between clinical addiction and problematic use," Mosseri said as he was grilled by plaintiff attorney Mark Lanier.
"I'm sure I said that I've been addicted to a Netflix show when I binged it really late one night, but I don't think it's the same thing as clinical addiction," he added.
Lanier immediately challenged this point, emphasizing that the witness did not have a degree in medicine or psychology. 
"I've never claimed being able to diagnose addiction clinically," Mosseri responded during the exchange.
"I'm sure I was using the word too casually."
Facing him, mothers of teenagers who had taken their own lives held back their anger in the public gallery.
These representatives of families who have filed complaints against major platforms in the United States had camped out in the rain outside the courthouse to secure seats.

Dopamine dispensers?

Addiction is at the heart of the civil trial, which centers on allegations that a 20-year-old woman, identified as Kaley G.M., suffered severe mental harm after becoming addicted to social media as a young child.
She started using YouTube at six and joined Instagram at 11, before moving on to Snapchat and TikTok two or three years later.
"The Instagram that Kaley signed up for was very different and presented a much smaller set of risks back then," Mosseri said, noting that the service was "a much smaller, more focused app" before it had to adapt to the changing world.
Mosseri described safety features added to Instagram since it was bought by Facebook in 2012, some of which had "negative effects" on engagement and revenue.
Mosseri was the first major Silicon Valley figure to appear before the jury to defend himself against accusations that Instagram functions as little more than a dopamine "slot machine" for vulnerable young people.
Meta's attorney reasoned in opening remarks that the suffering encountered by the plaintiff was due to troubles in her home life and could not be attributed to use of Instagram or other social media.
An attorney for YouTube insisted that the video platform was neither intentionally addictive nor technically social media, but more a viewing venue like Netflix.
In front of the jury of six men and six women, Mosseri pushed back against the idea that Meta was motivated by a "move fast and break things" ethos that valued profit over safety.
"Protecting minors over the long run is even good for the business and for profit," he said.
Mosseri's testimony precedes the highly anticipated appearance of his boss, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, currently scheduled for February 18, with YouTube CEO Neil Mohan the following day.

Apps or traps?

In opening remarks this week, plaintiffs' attorney Lanier told the jury that YouTube and Meta both engineer addiction in young people's brains to gain users and profits.
Meta and Google "don't only build apps; they build traps," Lanier said.
Under questioning, Mosseri said that while teens tended to be trendsetters when it comes to technology, Instagram makes less money from them than from older users because they tend not to click on ads.
"They don't have a lot of expendable income to then buy things if they do click on ads," Mosseri added.
Social media firms face more than a thousand lawsuits accusing them of leading young users to become addicted to content and suffer from depression, eating disorders, psychiatric hospitalization, and even suicide.
Kaley G.M.'s case is being treated as a bellwether proceeding with an outcome that could set the tone for a wave of similar litigation across the United States.
arp-gc/sla

history

AI cracks Roman-era board game

  • They trained this AI, baptised Ludii, with the rules of about 100 ancient games from the same area as the Roman stone.
  • A smooth, white stone dating from the Roman era and unearthed in the Netherlands has long baffled researchers.
  • They trained this AI, baptised Ludii, with the rules of about 100 ancient games from the same area as the Roman stone.
A smooth, white stone dating from the Roman era and unearthed in the Netherlands has long baffled researchers.
Now with the help of artificial intelligence, scientists believe they have cracked the mystery: the stone is an ancient board game and they have even guessed the rules.
The circular piece of limestone has diagonal and straight lines cut into it.
Using 3D imaging, scientists discovered some lines were deeper than others, suggesting pieces were moved along them, some more than others.
"We can see wear along the lines on the stone, exactly where you would slide a piece," said Walter Crist, an archaeologist at Leiden University who specialises in ancient games.
Other researchers at Maastricht University then used an artificial intelligence programme that can deduce the rules to ancient games.
They trained this AI, baptised Ludii, with the rules of about 100 ancient games from the same area as the Roman stone.
The computer "produced dozens of possible rule sets. It then played the game against itself and identified a few variants that are enjoyable for humans to play," said Dennis Soemers, from Maastricht University.
They then cross-checked the possible rules with the wear on the stone to uncover the most likely set of movements in the game.
However, Soemers also sounded a note of caution.
"If you present Ludii with a line pattern like the one on the stone, it will always find game rules. Therefore, we cannot be sure that the Romans played it in precisely that way," he said.
The aim of the "deceptively simple but thrilling strategy game" was to hunt and trap the opponent's pieces in as few moves as possible.
The research and the possible rules were published in the journal Antiquity.
ric/gv

Italy

New drones provide first-person thrill to Olympic coverage

  • - Pretty cool - The drones are particularly useful on the sliding track -- for luge, bobsleigh and skeleton -- where they help avoid having cameras positioned at every turn.
  • Whether chasing skiers as they fly down the mountain or tracking the luge as it tears around bends, new drone-mounted cameras are offering Winter Olympics viewers a wild ride.
  • - Pretty cool - The drones are particularly useful on the sliding track -- for luge, bobsleigh and skeleton -- where they help avoid having cameras positioned at every turn.
Whether chasing skiers as they fly down the mountain or tracking the luge as it tears around bends, new drone-mounted cameras are offering Winter Olympics viewers a wild ride.
So-called "first person view" (FPV) drones have made their Winter Games debut this year, with 15 deployed across the Milan-Cortina events, offering an exhilarating experience.
Traditional drones, which have been used in live broadcasting for more than a decade, are piloted by an operator looking up at the machine.
But FPVs are piloted by a driver wearing goggles and holding a controller, allowing incredibly precise guidance.
The downside for TV viewers is the constant buzzing, which disrupts the stillness of the mountains.
But many athletes say they are not bothered -- even when it looks from afar like the drones are getting too close.
"I saw on the replay that I nearly got hit by it but I wasn't aware of it while I was doing it," Australian snowboarder Ally Hickman told 7News.

Pretty cool

The drones are particularly useful on the sliding track -- for luge, bobsleigh and skeleton -- where they help avoid having cameras positioned at every turn.
German luger Felix Loch, a triple gold medallist competing in his fifth Olympics, said he had no problem with the drones.
"No, you don’t notice something like that," he told AFP's German sports subsidiary SID, praising the use of the technology.
"They're definitely different images. It really looks pretty cool. You have to say, it’s really, really a nice thing what the guys are doing there," he said.
German alpine skier Emma Aicher, the 22-year-old who has won two silver medals at the Milan-Cortina Games, also said the drones didn't affect her concentration as she shot down the piste. 
"For us, it's really cool footage. I don't notice the drone, it's so far away," she said.
Yiannis Exarchos, the head of Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), who supply the images to the broadcasters for Olympics, said they had worked with athletes in designing the system.
"We didn't want this to become a factor affecting them. We wanted this to become a factor enhancing them," he told reporters on Wednesday.
Drone cameras made their debut in the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, in 2014, while FPV were first introduced in Paris in 2024, providing live images of mountain biking.
Exarchos said that technology had moved on hugely.
Now, it is possible to "achieve safely speeds like some of the athletes do. A few years ago this was not possible", he told reporters.

Fast and noisy

The noise depends on the size of the propeller, which in turn depends on how fast they are going, according to one expert involved in the Olympics who asked not to be named due to commercial confidentiality.
Each drone is custom built, with the smallest measuring just ten centimetres (four inches) and weighing less than 250 grams (half a pound).
"If you are going to chase something super fast, you go for a small system that is super powerful -- and that’s going to be really noisy," he told AFP.
One issue for operators during the Olympics is the cold, which drains the batteries quickly, according to another drone operator.
"There's a constant change of battery, every race," he told AFP.
bur-ar/gj/dt/gv

space

xAI sees key staff exits, Musk promises moon factories

  • The back-to-back exits bring the total number of departed co-founders to six out of the 12-member team that launched xAI in 2023 with the ambitious goal of challenging ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.
  • Half of the original founding team at Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI has now departed after two co-founders resigned in rapid succession this week, raising fresh questions about talent retention ahead of an expected initial public offering.
  • The back-to-back exits bring the total number of departed co-founders to six out of the 12-member team that launched xAI in 2023 with the ambitious goal of challenging ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.
Half of the original founding team at Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI has now departed after two co-founders resigned in rapid succession this week, raising fresh questions about talent retention ahead of an expected initial public offering.
The exodus comes at a delicate moment for xAI, which was valued at more than $200 billion when it was integrated with Musk's SpaceX rocket company last week.
The merged entity is expected to go public as early as this summer.
The company has also faced consumer backlash and regulatory scrutiny in multiple countries after its Grok chatbot and image generation tools enabled the mass creation of deepfake pornographic images, including of minors.
Tony Wu announced his resignation late Monday in a post on X, the social media platform owned by Musk, writing that it was "time for my next chapter."
Less than 24 hours later, fellow co-founder Jimmy Ba followed suit, calling Tuesday his last day and thanking Musk for "bringing us together on this incredible journey."
The back-to-back exits bring the total number of departed co-founders to six out of the 12-member team that launched xAI in 2023 with the ambitious goal of challenging ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Google and Anthropic. Other key staffers have also left in recent months.
Ba, a prominent AI researcher, played a central role in the development of Grok chatbot models, including work on the forthcoming Grok 4.
"It's time to recalibrate my gradient on the big picture," he wrote. 
Wu helped build the company's core reasoning capabilities.
Musk appeared to acknowledge the turnover during an all-hands meeting on Tuesday evening, according to The New York Times, telling staff that the company was reorganizing.
"When this happens, there's some people who are better suited for the early stages of a company and less suited for the later stages," he said, according to the newspaper.
In the same meeting, Musk outlined sweeping ambitions for the merged xAI-SpaceX entity, including plans for a lunar factory to manufacture AI satellites, a space catapult to launch them into orbit, and data centers in space to expand xAI's computing power.
The churn at xAI mirrors a wider pattern of staff turnover across the AI industry, where a fierce war for top talent has driven pay packages into the tens of millions of dollars and, reportedly in one case, past the billion-dollar mark.
arp/acb

AI

Actor behind Albania's AI 'minister' wants her face back

  • "It's an exploitation of my identity and my personal data," the 57-year-old actress told AFP. According to Bisha, she had originally signed a contract authorising the use of her image until the end of 2025 to represent a virtual assistant on an online government services portal.
  • An actor whose face was used by Albania's government for an AI chatbot that it promoted to be a "minister" told AFP on Wednesday that she had launched a legal fight to stop the use of her image and accused the government of "exploitation".
  • "It's an exploitation of my identity and my personal data," the 57-year-old actress told AFP. According to Bisha, she had originally signed a contract authorising the use of her image until the end of 2025 to represent a virtual assistant on an online government services portal.
An actor whose face was used by Albania's government for an AI chatbot that it promoted to be a "minister" told AFP on Wednesday that she had launched a legal fight to stop the use of her image and accused the government of "exploitation".
Prime Minister Edi Rama announced in September that an AI system, dubbed Diella, would oversee a new public tenders portfolio as a "minister" that he pledged would cut corruption.
The move drew criticism from the opposition and experts who questioned the system's accountability and transparency.
Well-known Albanian actor Anila Bisha, whose face and voice were used to create Diella's avatar, said she had not approved her identity for use in that way.
Bisha said she filed a petition with the administrative court earlier this week requesting the suspension of the use of her image.
"It's an exploitation of my identity and my personal data," the 57-year-old actress told AFP.
According to Bisha, she had originally signed a contract authorising the use of her image until the end of 2025 to represent a virtual assistant on an online government services portal.
But after Rama's government announced that Diella would become a minister, a video featuring a computer-generated version of her addressed parliament. 
In the video, purportedly made with AI, the "minister" appeared as a woman dressed in a traditional Albanian outfit and said it was "not here to replace people".
Bisha also discovered that the National Agency for Information Society, which developed the AI, filed a patent on her image and voice without informing her -- a move that she says affected her ability to work.
Despite reaching out to authorities in the hope of negotiating a solution, she received no reply and decided to take legal action.
Diella, which means "sun" in Albanian, is responsible for all decisions relating to public procurement tenders -- in a move that Rama promised would make the process "corruption-free".
bme-cbo/al/jxb