trial

OpenAI co-founder under fire in Musk trial over $30 bn stake

BY BENJAMIN LEGENDRE

  • This is really about humanity as a whole," Brockman told the court, insisting that OpenAI's commercial pivot remained faithful to its original philanthropic mission.
  • Following high-profile testimony from billionaire Elon Musk last week, one of OpenAI's co-founders testified Monday in the California lawsuit brought by the world's richest man against the creators of ChatGPT. Musk's lawyers called Greg Brockman to the stand in an effort to show the jury that OpenAI's founders manipulated their original benefactor to transform a philanthropic mission into a money-making enterprise worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
  • This is really about humanity as a whole," Brockman told the court, insisting that OpenAI's commercial pivot remained faithful to its original philanthropic mission.
Following high-profile testimony from billionaire Elon Musk last week, one of OpenAI's co-founders testified Monday in the California lawsuit brought by the world's richest man against the creators of ChatGPT.
Musk's lawyers called Greg Brockman to the stand in an effort to show the jury that OpenAI's founders manipulated their original benefactor to transform a philanthropic mission into a money-making enterprise worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Musk is seeking to force his rivals to revert to a purely non-profit foundation. The outcome of the case could shape the future of OpenAI, the fast-rising generative AI giant now valued at over $850 billion and preparing for an IPO.
OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman, who in 10 years has gone from being Musk's protege to a bitter rival, is not expected to take the stand until the week of May 11.
On Monday, it was his closest ally, Brockman, who sat in the witness chair at the Oakland courthouse near San Francisco, with Altman looking on.
From the outset, Musk's attorney Steven Molo got the visibly tense 38-year-old engineer to acknowledge that he holds a stake in OpenAI now valued at $30 billion, without having invested anything himself.
Molo brandished a 2015 email in which the OpenAI co-founder had pledged to donate $100,000 to help attract other Silicon Valley donors.
"I did not end up donating, that's true," Brockman conceded.
AI "is going to be the most important technological shift in human history...This is really about humanity as a whole," Brockman told the court, insisting that OpenAI's commercial pivot remained faithful to its original philanthropic mission.
He argued that the company had not plundered the non-profit foundation to which OpenAI is still attached. 
"We have created the most well-resourced nonprofit in history, with over $150 billion worth of equity value," he said.
Over three days of testimony last week, Musk portrayed himself as a selfless early supporter of OpenAI, saying he contributed $38 million between 2016 and 2020 before being sidelined.
The head of SpaceX and Tesla argued that he wanted to counterbalance Google's dominance and ensure that transformative AI technology remains free from profit-driven pressures.

'Most hated men'

OpenAI's legal team asked the judge late Sunday to allow Brockman to show the jury a message allegedly sent by Musk on the eve of the trial, following a failed proposal to settle the case outside of court.
According to the request, which was seen by AFP, Musk said: "By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America. If you insist, so it will be."
The judge denied the request, ruling that the issue should have been raised while Musk was still on the stand.
OpenAI's lawyers have sought to convince the jury that the billionaire is using the courts for personal revenge and to slow down a competitor, having launched his own AI lab, xAI, in 2023 and its chatbot Grok.
Musk recently folded xAI into SpaceX, which is reportedly valued at about $1.25 trillion and may also pursue a public offering.
Last week, Musk -- a major Trump donor who was seen diligently taking handwritten notes -- did not miss a moment of the proceedings.

Global competition

The stakes are high. If Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers -- who will make the final ruling after hearing the jury's opinion -- ultimately sides with Musk, OpenAI's IPO could be jeopardized.
That could reshape the global AI landscape, where major players like Google and Chinese tech firms are competing aggressively.
OpenAI is also facing growing competition from Anthropic and its Claude model. Their rapid growth is beginning to generate tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue.
But those amounts still fall far short of the hundreds of billions in investment still needed to recruit talent, buy processors and build and power the massive data centers driving the AI revolution.
bl/arp/jgc

Global Edition

Amazon to ship stuff for any business, not just its own merchants

  • AWS started as an internal tool Amazon built for itself, then became a massive business by selling that same technology to other companies.
  • Amazon announced Monday it is opening up its massive shipping and delivery network to any business that wants to use it -- not just the merchants who sell on Amazon's website.
  • AWS started as an internal tool Amazon built for itself, then became a massive business by selling that same technology to other companies.
Amazon announced Monday it is opening up its massive shipping and delivery network to any business that wants to use it -- not just the merchants who sell on Amazon's website.
The new service, called Amazon Supply Chain Services (ASCS), lets companies pay Amazon to handle the behind-the-scenes work of getting products from factories to customers' doors. That includes shipping goods across oceans, storing them in warehouses and delivering packages to homes seven days a week.
Big names like Procter & Gamble, 3M, Lands' End and American Eagle are already signed up.
Amazon compared the move to the launch of Amazon Web Services, its cloud computing business. 
AWS started as an internal tool Amazon built for itself, then became a massive business by selling that same technology to other companies. Amazon is betting it can do the same thing with shipping and logistics.
Since 2006, independent sellers on Amazon's marketplace have used a program called Fulfillment by Amazon to let the company handle packing and shipping their orders. Amazon said those sellers have shipped more than 80 billion items through the program.
But until now, most of Amazon's logistics muscle was only available to businesses that sold products on Amazon's own site. 
The move puts Amazon in more direct competition with shipping giants like FedEx, UPS and DHL.
On Wall Street, investors punished UPS, which was down 10 percent, and FedEx, which fell nine percent
Amazon was up around one percent.
tu/arp/dw

theatre

French scholars seek to resurrect Moliere with AI play

BY KARINE PERRET

  • The playwright, considered the father of modern French comedy, is as central to the nation's culture as Shakespeare to the English-speaking world -- so much so that French refer to their native tongue as the "language of Moliere".
  • What might France's greatest playwright have written had he not died of tuberculosis in 1673?
  • The playwright, considered the father of modern French comedy, is as central to the nation's culture as Shakespeare to the English-speaking world -- so much so that French refer to their native tongue as the "language of Moliere".
What might France's greatest playwright have written had he not died of tuberculosis in 1673?
A team of French scholars, researchers and artists have joined forces to tap into the power of artificial intelligence to create a play they say Moliere himself might have written.
"The Astrologer, or False Omens" is the result of three years of collaboration between the Sorbonne University and Obvious, a French trio of artists and researchers, who have trained AI to imitate Moliere's style and mastery of satire.
The playwright, considered the father of modern French comedy, is as central to the nation's culture as Shakespeare to the English-speaking world -- so much so that French refer to their native tongue as the "language of Moliere".
Written in 17th‑century French, the AI creation will hit the stage at the Royal Opera of Versailles on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The three‑act farce tells the story of a credulous father whose obsession with astrology leads him to force his young daughter to marry an old wigmaker.
Fidelity to Moliere's creative process and scholarly rigour were at the heart of the project, said Pierre‑Marie Chauvin, a vice president at the Sorbonne.
"There is no existing protocol for creating a play in the style of Moliere, so we had to devise one, but in the most rigorous way possible, and above all the most faithful," he told AFP.
The Sorbonne has said the "Moliere Ex Machina" project was aimed at "bringing to life a world that never was, but could have been", and acknowledged its attempt to imitate Moliere "was bold, almost sacrilegious".
Chauvin said the success of the project would be measured by its effect on the audience.
"Does it make people laugh?" he said.

AI music and costumes

The project is being billed as the first theatrical play written by AI.
It cost one million euros ($1.2 million), funded by North American donors and a handful of French patrons.
Researchers worked with Le Chat, a generative AI tool developed by the French start‑up Mistral, training it on Moliere's body of work, as well as dialogues and philosophical treatises.
The generated text was then reviewed during writing workshops with Coraline Renaux, a doctoral student in literature, and Mickael Bouffard, head of the Theatre Moliere Sorbonne, which seeks to revive theatrical techniques of the 17th century.
The work was subsequently submitted to reading committees, tasked with checking its syntax and overall coherence.
"In creating this piece, there were at least 20,000 back-and-forth exchanges between the algorithms and the creative team," said Gauthier Vernier of Obvious.
The AI was also trained to create about 15 costumes, as well as music and sets.
"For each costume, we'd go through around 50 iterations," said Hugo Caselles‑Dupre, also of Obvious.
"We had a huge number of back-and-forth discussions."

'Very human skills'

The theme of astrology emerged fairly quickly, as Moliere was interested in "denouncing human credulity", Bouffard said.
"The plot is very Moliere-esque," said the Quebec native, adding that the name of the father's astrologer, Pseudoramus –-- a pseudo-Nostradamus -- was "a clever invention by AI".
For the costumes and sets, the technology was trained using sketches by Henri de Gissey, a costume designer and decorator for the court of King Louis XIV.
Musicologists guided the AI's musical output using sheet music.
The stage production involves nine actors, two dancers and four musicians. It showcases wigs, hand-sewn costumes and sets made using period techniques.
AFP attended a recent rehearsal at the Theatre des Trois Pierrots in Saint-Cloud, west of Paris.
The plot and dialogue appeared plausible.
The actors' use of Classical French and historically faithful declamation could however disorientate some viewers.
Generative AI tools have surged into prominence in recent years, dramatically reshaping the world.
The use of artificial intelligence remains one of the most sensitive issues in the entertainment industry and has generated debate.
But the teams behind the Sorbonne project defend it as an innovative cultural experiment.
"AI gives us superpowers we don't have: a universal memory and the ability to write quickly," said Bouffard.
Chauvin stressed that humans were still at the heart of the production.
"We actually saw some truly impressive effects from AI at times, but the overall structure was achieved thanks to human work and very human skills."
kp-as/ah/jhb

merger

GameStop makes $56 billion takeover bid for eBay

  • “It could be a legit competitor to Amazon."
  • US video game retailer GameStop made a takeover bid on Sunday to buy eBay for about $55.5 billion in an attempt to turn the online marketplace into a competitor to e-commerce giant Amazon.
  • “It could be a legit competitor to Amazon."
US video game retailer GameStop made a takeover bid on Sunday to buy eBay for about $55.5 billion in an attempt to turn the online marketplace into a competitor to e-commerce giant Amazon.
Gamestop is offering $125 per share in a combination of stock and cash, a 46 percent premium over the average stock price since it began acquiring shares in eBay on February 4, it said in a release.
"EBay should be worth — and will be worth — a lot more money," GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Sunday.
"I’m thinking about turning eBay into something worth hundreds of billions of dollars," he said.
“It could be a legit competitor to Amazon."
GameStop confirmed it had received a letter of commitment from TD Bank, an American subsidiary of the Canadian TD Bank Group, for approximately $20 billion in financing through a debt issuance. 
In the press release, the company also said it had about $9.4 billion in cash reserves as of January 31.
It stated it could generate $2 billion in annualized cost reductions within 12 months of the transaction's completion. 
These cost reductions alone would boost eBay's comparable-store earnings per share from $4.26 to $7.79 in the first year, the release said.
But if eBay's management is not receptive to his offer, Cohen told the Journal he will not hesitate to approach shareholders.
EBay's next annual general meeting is scheduled for June, but the deadline for submitting resolutions has passed, the WSJ pointed out. 
At Friday's close, GameStop's market capitalization reached $11.89 billion, while eBay's stood at $46.21 billion.
elm/mjf/sla

telecommunication

Apple earnings beat forecasts on iPhone 17 demand

BY GLENN CHAPMAN

  • During the quarter, iPhone sales grew by double digits in just about every country where it does business, and its services unit reached an all-time high, according to Cook.
  • Apple said Thursday it had its best-ever start to the year when it came to earnings, with iPhone demand and digital service sales helping it beat expectations.
  • During the quarter, iPhone sales grew by double digits in just about every country where it does business, and its services unit reached an all-time high, according to Cook.
Apple said Thursday it had its best-ever start to the year when it came to earnings, with iPhone demand and digital service sales helping it beat expectations.
The pioneering Silicon Valley company reported profit of $29.6 billion on revenue of $111.2 billion in the recently ended quarter.
"Today Apple is proud to report our best March quarter ever," chief executive Tim Cook said in an earnings call, noting revenue hit a record high for the three-month period.
Apple shares dipped slightly after the release but rose nearly four percent on optimism expressed on the earnings call.
During the quarter, iPhone sales grew by double digits in just about every country where it does business, and its services unit reached an all-time high, according to Cook.
The earnings come as Apple prepares for a changing of the guard, with Cook to step down as chief executive late this year.
The future of Apple is being entrusted to a company veteran said to combine hardware brilliance with "the soul of an innovator."
John Ternus, 50, will take over as Apple chief executive in September, with Cook becoming executive chairman of the iPhone maker's board of directors.
"This is the most exciting time in my 25-year career at Apple," Ternus said on the earnings call, declining to disclose details of the company's roadmap.
"There are so many opportunities before us, and I couldn't be more optimistic about what's to come."
A big question will be whether Ternus has "the appetite for the kind of bold, occasionally uncomfortable decisions" that defining an Apple AI platform will require, said IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo.
Legendary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was known for brutal honesty and unyielding perfectionism that led to culture-changing devices.
Apple celebrates its 50th anniversary this year as artificial intelligence challenges the legendary company to prove it can deliver yet another must-have innovation.
The brand's hit products -- the Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch and iPad -- command a cult-like following, long after the company's humble beginnings on April 1, 1976 in Jobs's garage in Cupertino, California.
One concern haunting investors is that Apple appears to be easing into generative AI while rivals Google, Microsoft and OpenAI race ahead.
A promised upgrade to its Siri digital assistant was delayed in what analysts called a rare stumble for the company.
And rather than relying on its own engineers to overhaul Siri, Apple has turned to Google for AI capability.
But whether built in-house or outsourced, Apple's obsession with user privacy and its premium hardware could position it to drive widespread adoption of personalized AI -- and make it profitable, a goal that has proved elusive for much of the AI industry.
Apple delivered a "standout quarter" even though iPhone revenue came in just shy of expectations, according to Emarketer senior tech analyst Jacob Bourne.
"The question is whether incoming CEO John Ternus can translate this momentum into a credible AI strategy," Bourne said.
"Investors will be watching for clues about how Ternus plans to balance Apple's cautious AI posture with the pressure to define the next consumer device for the AI era."
gc/mlm

telecommunication

Apple earnings beat forecasts on iPhone 17 demand

  • During the quarter, iPhone sales grew double digits in every country where it does business, and its services unit reached an all-time record high, according to Cook.
  • Apple on Thursday said it had its best start to the year ever when it came to earnings, with iPhone demand and digital service sales helping it beat expectations.
  • During the quarter, iPhone sales grew double digits in every country where it does business, and its services unit reached an all-time record high, according to Cook.
Apple on Thursday said it had its best start to the year ever when it came to earnings, with iPhone demand and digital service sales helping it beat expectations.
Apple reported profit of $29.6 billion on revenue of $111.2 billion in the recently ended quarter.
"Today Apple is proud to report our best March quarter ever," chief executive Tim Cook said in an earnings release, noting revenue hit a record high for the quarter ending in March.
Apple shares slipped slightly, however, as investors mulled its future in a tech world shaken up by artificial intelligence.
During the quarter, iPhone sales grew double digits in every country where it does business, and its services unit reached an all-time record high, according to Cook.
The earnings come as Apple prepares for a changing of the guard, with Cook to step down as chief executive late this year.
The future of Apple is being entrusted to a company veteran said to combine hardware brilliance with "the soul of an innovator."
John Ternus, 50, will take over as Apple chief executive in September, with Cook becoming executive chairman of the iPhone maker's board of directors.
A big question will be whether Ternus has "the appetite for the kind of bold, occasionally uncomfortable decisions" that defining an Apple AI platform will require.
Legendary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was known for brutal honesty and unyielding perfectionism that led to culture-changing devices.
Apple celebrates its 50th anniversary as AI challenges the Silicon Valley legend to prove it can deliver yet another must-have innovation.
Apple's hit products — the Mac, the iPhone, the Apple Watch and the iPad — command a cult-like following, long after the company's humble beginnings on April 1, 1976, in Jobs' Cupertino, California garage.
A concern haunting investors is that Apple appears to be easing into generative AI while rivals Google, Microsoft and OpenAI race ahead.
A promised upgrade to its Siri digital assistant was delayed in what analysts called a rare stumble for the company.
And rather than relying on its own engineers to overhaul Siri, Apple has turned to Google for AI capability.
But whether built in-house or outsourced, Apple's obsession with user privacy and its premium hardware could position it to drive widespread adoption of personalized AI -- and make it profitable, a goal that has proved elusive for much of the AI industry.
gc/msp

trial

Musk grilled on AI profits at OpenAI trial

BY BENJAMIN LEGENDRE

  • He is seeking to have OpenAI -- which rivals Anthropic and Google at the top of the global AI race -- return to nonprofit status, in a trial whose outcome could reshape the question of who controls AI innovation in the United States.
  • Elon Musk sparred with lawyers for a third day Thursday at his California trial against OpenAI, struggling to explain why his own for-profit AI empire differs from the one he is trying to take down.
  • He is seeking to have OpenAI -- which rivals Anthropic and Google at the top of the global AI race -- return to nonprofit status, in a trial whose outcome could reshape the question of who controls AI innovation in the United States.
Elon Musk sparred with lawyers for a third day Thursday at his California trial against OpenAI, struggling to explain why his own for-profit AI empire differs from the one he is trying to take down.
"Few answers are going to be complete, especially when you cut me off all the time," the visibly irritated multibillionaire said as he resumed his duel Thursday morning with the defense attorney for OpenAI.
Federal Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who must decide whether OpenAI -- the creator of ChatGPT -- betrayed its original nonprofit mission, had to intervene several times to compel the world's richest man to answer questions.
After the judge accused him of playing lawyer by complaining that opposing counsel's questions were "leading," the tech mogul conceded: "I am not a lawyer."
"Well, technically I did take Law 101 in school," he added, drawing laughter from the courtroom.
A benefactor to OpenAI's co-founders -- to whom he gave $38 million during the project's early days from 2015 to 2017 -- Musk accuses CEO Sam Altman and his partner Greg Brockman of betraying the startup's charitable mission by transforming it into a commercial company valued at more than $850 billion and poised to go public.
He is seeking to have OpenAI -- which rivals Anthropic and Google at the top of the global AI race -- return to nonprofit status, in a trial whose outcome could reshape the question of who controls AI innovation in the United States.
OpenAI's attorney William Savitt sought to demonstrate that Musk is a mirror image of what he denounces: all of his companies -- Tesla, Neuralink, X and his own AI firm xAI, recently absorbed into SpaceX -- are for-profit, and the entrepreneur himself presents them as beneficial to humanity.
"There's nothing wrong with having a for-profit organization," Musk answered, repeating his mantra: "You just can't steal a charity" -- meaning OpenAI should simply have started as a normal company from the outset.
"The worst-case situation would be that AI kills us all, I suppose," Musk declared with a smile, seizing an opening from his own attorney to invoke the climactic scenario from the film "Terminator."
The judge had sought to bar such digressions, telling Musk's attorney at the start of the hearing: "I think it's ironic that your client, despite these risks, is creating a company that's in the exact same space."
Musk's testimony concluded Thursday, his third day on the stand, although he could be called back before mid-May.
Altman, his former protégé turned adversary, was present for Thursday's exchanges and left the courthouse shortly after Musk finished.
Altman's testimony is expected next week or the week after. OpenAI President Brockman, another early co-founder, will precede him on the witness stand. A ruling on the merits is expected in mid-May.
bl/arp/dw 

cybercrime

Cambodia deports more than 600 Thais linked to cyberscams: minister

  • Cambodian Information Minister Neth Pheaktra told AFP "635 Thai nationals involved in illegal online business operations and transnational criminal networks were deported to Thailand" through a border checkpoint on Thursday.
  • Cambodia deported more than 600 Thais allegedly involved in online scams on Thursday, the information minister said, part of a crackdown against the multibillion-dollar illicit industry that has ballooned in the country in recent years.
  • Cambodian Information Minister Neth Pheaktra told AFP "635 Thai nationals involved in illegal online business operations and transnational criminal networks were deported to Thailand" through a border checkpoint on Thursday.
Cambodia deported more than 600 Thais allegedly involved in online scams on Thursday, the information minister said, part of a crackdown against the multibillion-dollar illicit industry that has ballooned in the country in recent years.
Cambodia has emerged as a hub for crime syndicates running fake romantic relationship and cryptocurrency investment schemes in which scammers -- some willing, others trafficked -- defraud internet users around the world.
Operated out of hotels, casinos and fortified compounds around the region, the global cyberscam industry has reached "industrial proportions", with estimates of its annual revenues as high as $64 billion, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
Cambodian Information Minister Neth Pheaktra told AFP "635 Thai nationals involved in illegal online business operations and transnational criminal networks were deported to Thailand" through a border checkpoint on Thursday.
Thirty suspects were "being processed by Cambodian authorities" over alleged criminal offences, he said.
Rights monitors and other experts have accused officials in Cambodia of complicity -- allegations the government has denied.
Authorities say they have detained and deported more than 13,000 foreign nationals involved in online scams since early last year.
From January to April, more than 240,000 people, including Chinese, Indonesians, Indians and others, accused of scam involvement "voluntarily departed" Cambodia, the government said last week.
Neth Pheaktra said police searched a condominium building in Poipet city, on the border with Thailand, on Saturday.
The location was suspected of being the site of illegal online businesses, online gambling and other activities "potentially linked to transnational criminal networks", the minister said.
Nearly 4,700 mobile phones and more than 400 computer monitors were found inside the building, he added.
"The inspection of electronic devices also uncovered numerous online gambling websites targeting customers in Thailand," he said.
The raid came two days after the United States announced sanctions on a Cambodian senator and businessman, Kok An, who Washington accused of controlling scam compounds in Cambodia and protecting a criminal network that has defrauded Americans of millions of dollars.
The US Treasury alleged Kok An's firm Crown Resorts owns casinos and other buildings, including in Poipet, that have been "converted into compounds from which criminal organizations conduct digital asset investment fraud and other scams".
Cambodian authorities raided another suspected scam compound in Poipet on Wednesday, detaining many foreigners, mostly Chinese nationals, police said.
suy-sco/lga

cybercrime

White House against Anthropic expanding Mythos model access: report

  • The AI startup proposed expanding access to the model to some 70 additional companies, which would bring the total number of organizations with access to around 120, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter.
  • The White House is opposing Anthropic's plans to expand access to its new artificial intelligence model Mythos to 120 companies, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
  • The AI startup proposed expanding access to the model to some 70 additional companies, which would bring the total number of organizations with access to around 120, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter.
The White House is opposing Anthropic's plans to expand access to its new artificial intelligence model Mythos to 120 companies, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
President Donald Trump's administration and Anthropic had only recently started to mend ties following a dispute over the AI firm's refusal to grant the military unconditional use of its software.
Anthropic has withheld the powerful Mythos model from public release citing potential cybersecurity risks and concerns it could be exploited by hackers.
Instead it shared a version with selected companies including Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia under a project called "Glasswing" to help improve their security infrastructure.
The AI startup proposed expanding access to the model to some 70 additional companies, which would bring the total number of organizations with access to around 120, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter.
The White House, which has been at loggerheads with Anthropic for months, opposed the expansion over security concerns, according to the Journal.
Authorities were also reportedly worried that Anthropic does not have sufficient computing power to share the technology with the additional companies without hindering the government's ability to use it.
In February, Trump instructed the US government to "immediately cease" using Anthropic's technology after Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth designated Anthropic a national security supply chain risk.
The company behind the Claude chatbot is now fighting these measures in court.
Tensions eased after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei met with US officials at the White House this month for discussions, which the company described as "productive."
Earlier this week, Anthropic said it was investigating unauthorized access to Mythos after Bloomberg News reported that a small group of users in a private online forum had gained access.
The California-based developer says Mythos can spot undiscovered security loopholes that have existed for decades, in systems tested by both human experts and automated tools.
But the company has also been accused of overhyping the powers of a technology that is its stock in trade, and the subject of neck-and-neck competition with rival OpenAI.
aks/hol

internet

No 'meaningful' shift from social media sites after Australia teen ban: govt report

BY STEVEN TRASK

  • "Australia's world-leading social media laws are not failing.
  • There was "no meaningful shift" away from big tech platforms like TikTok and Instagram in the immediate wake of Australia's world-leading teen social media ban, government documents obtained by AFP show.
  • "Australia's world-leading social media laws are not failing.
There was "no meaningful shift" away from big tech platforms like TikTok and Instagram in the immediate wake of Australia's world-leading teen social media ban, government documents obtained by AFP show.
Australia in December banned under 16s from a raft of popular social media platforms, launching a world-first crackdown designed to protect children from online bullying and "predatory algorithms".
There is strong global interest in whether Australia's laws could provide a blueprint for how to rein-in increasingly powerful tech giants.
Government documents obtained by AFP using freedom of information laws give an early glimpse into how the restrictions are working.
They showed that platforms such as Instagram and TikTok were still "dominating app store rankings and downloads" one month on from the ban.
Data compiled throughout January showed "no meaningful shift away" from these platforms, noted an internal briefing from Australia's eSafety Commission.
Users dabbled with other apps not covered by the ban but "largely returned to major, established platforms", officials wrote in the briefing dated February 2.
A separate document cautioned it was hard to draw firm conclusions from app download data so soon after the ban.
"Limitations of this data are that it does not reflect usage of an app or the age of the user, however it gives early indicators if an app is rising in popularity."
One of the chief concerns driving Australia's social media ban was the desire to stamp out cyberbullying. 
Complaints of cyberbullying on banned social media platforms increased 26 percent when comparing January 2026 with January 2025, the documents said.
Complaints had largely stemmed from TikTok. 
A spokeswoman for the eSafety Commission -- Australia's online watchdog -- said the documents only covered a short period of time as the laws were bedding down.
"Continued analysis as more data becomes available will support more robust, evidence-based conclusions regarding longer-term trends, reporting behaviours and impacts of (a minimum age for social media)," the commission told AFP in a statement.
TikTok was approached for comment.

'Global interest'

A raft of nations are now reportedly mulling a similar social media crackdown.
The documents showed that Israel, the United Kingdom, Norway and New Zealand met with Australian officials after expressing an "interest" in the ban.
"eSafety has experienced significant global interest in the world's first social media minimum age legislation, including implementation and compliance," the commission said.
"The internet doesn't stop at the border and nor should our efforts to minimise harm, especially to children."
Australia in March accused big tech companies of "failing to obey" their obligations under the new laws.
The eSafety Commission found a "substantial proportion of Australian children" were still scrolling banned platforms.
"Australia's world-leading social media laws are not failing. But big tech is failing to obey the laws," Communications Minister Anika Wells told reporters at the time.
"Australia will not let the social media giants take us for mugs."
Tech companies face fines of up to $33.9 million (Aus$49.5 million) under the laws.
More than five million accounts belonging to underage Australian users have been removed since the laws came into effect, according to government figures.
sft/oho/abs

internet

Australia's 'most beautiful' street fed up with viral fame

BY OLIVER HOTHAM

  • Others are setting up a committee to demand the road be declared a one-way street -- a bid to halt the seemingly endless stream of cars slowing to a halt as they film the viral view.
  • Viral posts of an Australian street dubbed the country's "most beautiful" have enticed coachloads of visitors to a picturesque seaside town -- and locals have had enough of it.
  • Others are setting up a committee to demand the road be declared a one-way street -- a bid to halt the seemingly endless stream of cars slowing to a halt as they film the viral view.
Viral posts of an Australian street dubbed the country's "most beautiful" have enticed coachloads of visitors to a picturesque seaside town -- and locals have had enough of it.
Just a two-hour drive south of Sydney, Gerringong is much like many other photogenic hamlets along Australia's east coast, with multi-million-dollar properties set against stunning views of the azure blue sea.
But recent posts on Instagram, TikTok and as far afield as China's RedNote showing the town's Tasman Drive have left residents fuming that their little slice of paradise has turned into an internet sensation.
"It's getting beyond a joke for a small country town," Peter Hainsworth, 81, told AFP as tourists frolicked on the rolling hills nearby.
"You've got people who are trying to do three-point turns, they're standing in the middle of the road taking photographs, they're leaving their rubbish.
"Everyone's fed up."
Nearby, tourists posed in the middle of the road for selfies to the fury of a sweary local resident on a bicycle who declined to speak to AFP.
Overtourism concerns have sparked backlash in many hotspots worldwide, from European cities Barcelona and Venice to Japan -- where officials erected a barrier to block a popular view of Mount Fuji in 2024 because of the disruptive behaviour of unruly tourists.
Some Gerringong residents have resorted to extreme measures, turning on garden sprinklers to prevent tourists from taking pictures on their lawns.
Others are setting up a committee to demand the road be declared a one-way street -- a bid to halt the seemingly endless stream of cars slowing to a halt as they film the viral view.
One neighbour reportedly sold their house to escape the furor.
"It's nice to see people enjoying it, but really, it's just getting a bit too much," resident Linda Bruce, 76, told AFP on a hill next to the viral view.
"It's just so weird to see so many people coming all this way for the view."
Thanks to the massive reach of the posts, which have racked up millions of views, tourists have come from across Asia -- an "unusual" sight in Gerringong, Bruce said.
"I mean, it's an amazing country, and it's there to share... it's just a bit much for the locals."

'Totally stunned'

Some of the tourists have had less far to travel.
Sagar Munjal, a 28-year-old taxi driver living in Parramatta, near Sydney, drove down with friends to see the view after spotting it on Instagram.
"My eyes were totally stunned," he said.
"You can enjoy the coastal drive with the beach plus beautiful mountains."
"I was amazed to see that."
Andy Liao, a property developer originally from Chengdu, China who now lives in Sydney, told AFP he and his family had driven down after seeing the street on RedNote.
"The landscape is so beautiful," he said. "That's why I drove two hours."
But Andy said he understood why locals might be annoyed with the attention.
"If I'm living here, I don't want too many people coming to my backyard."
Others were less sympathetic to the residents' plight.
Kevin Medina, a 22-year-old cook from Colombia, provoked a string of expletives from one local when he took selfies on the roadside.
"They should be really happy, because are they getting more people to know this beautiful place."

'Why are they doing this?'

Chief among the locals' complaints is that the tourists are not spending money in the area -- they simply show up, snap their selfies and leave.
Deputy mayor and local business owner Melissa Matters told AFP the financial impact was mixed.
"Some businesses are experiencing not a lot of uptake," but others "are doing quite well out of it", she said.
And while many residents had moved down from the big city seeking a quiet life, Matters said Gerringong was hardly a stranger to outsiders.
"We've always been about tourism here."
Back on Tasman Drive, tourists excitedly posed for pictures next to a speed bump sign as a grumbling resident glared at them.
"You sort of wonder, why are they doing this?" Bruce said.
"Is it because they really, really love the area and think it's so wonderful to see the view, or are they just ticking off another box on their to-do list?"
oho/djw/ami/cms

earnings

Meta chief Zuckerberg doubles down on AI spending

  • "The way to think about the investment is that we're making a bet (on) the individual things that people care about, and that people are going to be more important in the future," Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg said during an earnings call, as analysts pressed him about the company's heavy spending on AI. He gave the example of a hot trend in "agentic" AI in which digital assistants handle computer tasks independently at the behest of people.
  • Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday defended massive spending on artificial intelligence that dragged down shares despite strong earnings boosted by the technology.
  • "The way to think about the investment is that we're making a bet (on) the individual things that people care about, and that people are going to be more important in the future," Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg said during an earnings call, as analysts pressed him about the company's heavy spending on AI. He gave the example of a hot trend in "agentic" AI in which digital assistants handle computer tasks independently at the behest of people.
Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday defended massive spending on artificial intelligence that dragged down shares despite strong earnings boosted by the technology.
The social networking colossus raised its capital expenditures for this year to a range of $125 billion to $145 billion without laying out exactly how that investment would translate into profit.
"The way to think about the investment is that we're making a bet (on) the individual things that people care about, and that people are going to be more important in the future," Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg said during an earnings call, as analysts pressed him about the company's heavy spending on AI.
He gave the example of a hot trend in "agentic" AI in which digital assistants handle computer tasks independently at the behest of people.
"There are a lot of agents out there that people are building for different things, and there aren't that many that I would want to give to my mother," Zuckerberg said.
"I think getting to that quality bar is something that I care about more than hitting a specific week for launching (a new product) or something like that."
Zuckerberg spotlighted a new Muse Spark AI model built by Meta's nascent "Superintelligence Lab", saying its technology will be put to work in Meta's offerings such as smartglasses and its advertising system.
"We are trying novel things," Zuckerberg said.
The AI investment from the company that owns Instagram and Facebook is not directly tied to a revenue stream as with Amazon, Microsoft and Google, which sell their AI-powered cloud services to clients worldwide.
Meta sent tremors on Wall Street by announcing in its earnings release that expenses at the tech giant notched up to $33.4 billion as it chases "superintelligence" through major infrastructure buys, and went on a hiring spree for top AI talent.
Shares dropped more than 6 percent even though the company topped forecasts with a profit of $26.8 billion on revenue of $56.3 billion in the quarter.

Headwinds and scrutiny

Adding to investor unease about Meta, chief financial officer Susan Li told analysts Meta continues to monitor legal and regulatory "headwinds" in the US and Europe, including social media addiction lawsuits.
"We continue to see scrutiny on youth related issues and have additional trials scheduled for this year in the US, which may ultimately result in a material loss," Li warned.
A Los Angeles jury in March found Meta and YouTube liable for harming a young woman because of an addictive design of their social media platforms, ordering the companies to pay millions of dollars in damages.
The verdict hands plaintiffs in more than a thousand similar pending cases significant leverage -- and signals to the tech industry that juries are prepared to hold social media companies accountable for the mental health toll of their design choices.
gc/arp

AI

Google-parent Alphabet soars as Meta stumbles over AI costs

  • Microsoft also reported quarterly revenue and earnings ahead of Wall Street expectations Wednesday, powered by demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.
  • Google-parent Alphabet impressed Wall Street with its latest quarterly earnings on Wednesday, as big tech rival Meta left investors lukewarm amid concerns about the huge cost of AI development.
  • Microsoft also reported quarterly revenue and earnings ahead of Wall Street expectations Wednesday, powered by demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.
Google-parent Alphabet impressed Wall Street with its latest quarterly earnings on Wednesday, as big tech rival Meta left investors lukewarm amid concerns about the huge cost of AI development.
The earnings -- along with reports from Microsoft and Amazon -- came as AI titans pump billions of dollars into cloud computing and artificial intelligence, vying to lead in technology that they insist will transform all aspects of life.
Shares in Alphabet rose by more than six percent in after-hours trading as investors lauded the company's success in making the pivot to AI and solid revenue across its major divisions.
The tech giant reported a profit of $62.6 billion on revenue just shy of $110 billion, easily eclipsing the same period a year earlier and beating market expectations.
Shares of Alphabet, maker of Gemini AI, have risen 26 percent in the past six months while rivals Meta and Microsoft have watched their shares dive nearly 11 percent and 22 percent respectively in the same period.
"Alphabet remains one of the top names in the AI Revolution given the vertically integrated approach across Search, YouTube, and its ad cohort which continues to accelerate," said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.
Social media behemoth Meta, which rivals Google for advertising revenue, meanwhile saw its shares slide by more than six percent, despite topping earnings expectations for the recently ended quarter.
Meta sent tremors through its results by announcing that expenses at the tech giant notched up to $33.4 billion as it chases "superintelligence," including a hiring spree for top AI talent.
Meta also increased its projected capital spending -- mainly for data centers -- for the year by $10 billion, to a new range of $125 billion to $145 billion.
The company reported a profit of $26.8 billion on revenue of $56.3 billion in the quarter.
AI investments from the company that owns Instagram and Facebook are not directly tied to a revenue stream as with Amazon, Microsoft and Google, which sell AI capabilities to cloud clients.
Meta has moved to rein in costs to help fund its AI ambitions, announcing last week that it would cut roughly 8,000 jobs and leave 6,000 open roles unfilled.

Stock jitters

While investors are wary of whether spending fortunes on AI is financially shrewd, companies insist it is justified by seemingly insatiable demand, a position Wall Street mostly supports even if shares in some of the tech giants have struggled in recent months.
Microsoft also reported quarterly revenue and earnings ahead of Wall Street expectations Wednesday, powered by demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.
The tech giant posted revenue of $82.9 billion for the quarter ended March 31, up 18 percent from a year earlier and topping analyst consensus forecasts. Net income climbed 23 percent to $31.8 billion.
CEO Satya Nadella said Microsoft's AI business has surpassed a $37 billion annual revenue run rate, a figure that takes a recent period's revenue -- typically a month or quarter -- and extrapolates it out to a full year.
But the company founded by Bill Gates saw its shares drop by more than two percent after its earnings post, before seeing that loss largely erased. Microsoft's stock was down about 12 percent this year through Wednesday's close.
Amazon meanwhile reported a sharp rise in first-quarter profit, saying that its investment in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic supercharged the bottom line.
The Seattle-based e-commerce and technology colossus said net profit jumped to $30.3 billion in the three months ended March 31, nearly doubling from $17.1 billion a year earlier.
Amazon has struck deals with OpenAI and Anthropic that commit the two AI labs to spend more than $100 billion on AWS cloud services in the coming years. 
Amazon shares rose more than four percent in after-hours trading.
arp/mlm

AI

'I literally was a fool': Musk grilled in OpenAI trial

  • I literally was a fool," Musk told the court Wednesday, before cross-examination began.
  • Elon Musk faced fiery questioning Wednesday in his court showdown with OpenAI, as he insisted that the maker of ChatGPT had fooled him by turning what was an altruistic pursuit into a profit-making juggernaut.
  • I literally was a fool," Musk told the court Wednesday, before cross-examination began.
Elon Musk faced fiery questioning Wednesday in his court showdown with OpenAI, as he insisted that the maker of ChatGPT had fooled him by turning what was an altruistic pursuit into a profit-making juggernaut.
His second day of testimony in federal court in Oakland, California grew testy at times, as OpenAI's lawyers sought to portray the Tesla tycoon as an unreliable narrator of the company's history.
Musk, who helped co-found OpenAI in 2015 with Sam Altman and other Silicon Valley figures, has called for it to be forced to revert to a pure nonprofit. He also is seeking the ouster of Altman and company president Greg Brockman.
"Your questions are not simple. They're designed to trick me essentially," Musk complained to OpenAI's lead attorney William Savitt.
"Mr. Musk, you're a bright guy. I'm asking you questions that mostly have a yes or no answer," Savitt shot back.
The cross-examination sought to dismantle the narrative Musk had built during questioning from his own attorney. 
In hours of testimony, Musk -- who left the project in 2018 -- insisted he was blindsided by OpenAI's transformation into a major tech company with a for-profit arm that has made it one of the most valuable private companies in history.
"I gave them $38 million of essentially free funding which they then used to create an $800 billion for-profit company. I literally was a fool," Musk told the court Wednesday, before cross-examination began.

Promise broken?

At the heart of the case is his accusation that OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman betrayed the company's original nonprofit mission. 
But on Wednesday, OpenAI's counsel used old emails to show that Musk himself, at various points, had questioned whether a nonprofit was the right model as he and the OpenAI leadership explored other corporate structures.
"You didn't respond that creating a for-profit would break any promise to you, did you?"
"No, as long as the for-profit is in service to the nonprofit, it is not breaking the promise."
On the stand Tuesday, Musk traced his motivation to help launch OpenAI to a deep distrust of Google, which he believed did not take AI safety seriously and could not be trusted to responsibly develop such powerful technology.
He told the court he backed the project on the understanding it would be a nonprofit that would put society's interests first, with any technology it developed released as open source, freely available to all.
Since Musk's exit, OpenAI has become an AI superpower valued at $852 billion, buoyed by its ChatGPT chatbot, and is preparing for a high-profile IPO.
Musk has since launched his own AI lab, xAI, which he merged into SpaceX in February. The rocket company is valued at $1.25 trillion, and its IPO -- expected in June -- could rank among the largest in history.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will decide by late May whether OpenAI broke its promise to Musk. 
Along with seeking to force OpenAI back to a nonprofit structure and oust Altman and Brockman, Musk has sought as much as $134 billion in damages -- which he has pledged to redirect to the OpenAI nonprofit.
bl-arp/sst

US

OpenAI facing 'waves' of US lawsuits over Canada mass shooting

  • Over the next several weeks, a cross-border team... will be filing over two dozen cases on behalf of the victims of the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting.
  • Seven lawsuits were filed in US court on Wednesday against OpenAI on behalf of families impacted by the February mass shooting in the small Canadian mining town of Tumbler Ridge.
  • Over the next several weeks, a cross-border team... will be filing over two dozen cases on behalf of the victims of the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting.
Seven lawsuits were filed in US court on Wednesday against OpenAI on behalf of families impacted by the February mass shooting in the small Canadian mining town of Tumbler Ridge.
The artificial intelligence behemoth has faced intense criticism over its decision not to report the troubling ChatGPT usage of Jesse Van Rootselaar, the 18-year-old transgender woman who killed eight people at her home and a school.
OpenAI banned her account in June 2025 but said it did not report the account to Canadian police because it saw no evidence of an imminent attack.
The lawsuits filed in a US federal court in California allege OpenAI decided not to report Van Rootselaar "because reporting one case would mean reporting thousands," a statement from the legal team said.
The lawsuits also challenge the assertion that Van Rootselaar's ChatGPT account was actually banned.
They allege that when an account is shut down for dangerous behavior, OpenAI instructs the individual on how to resume usage, including tips on how to circumvent the 30-day suspension period.
"OpenAI also tells users that if they don't want to wait, they can open a new account immediately using a different email address," the statement said.
Van Rootselaar reportedly opened a second ChatGPT account after her first one was shut down.
The US legal team said it is working in coordination with Canadian lawyers who had previously filed a lawsuit against OpenAI on behalf of the family of Maya Gebala, a 12-year-old gravely injured in the shooting.
But the US actions will "supersede" the Canadian case, Wednesday's statement said.
"There are more cases to come. Over the next several weeks, a cross-border team... will be filing over two dozen cases on behalf of the victims of the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting. The lawsuits will be filed in waves," it added.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman apologized to the remote community of Tumbler Ridge earlier this month, saying he "was deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June."
The company has also said that under its current security policies, which have been revised since June, Van Rootselaar's conduct would have been flagged to police.
Asked to comment on Wednesday's legal filing, an OpenAI spokesperson said: "We have a zero-tolerance policy for using our tools to assist in committing violence. As we shared with Canadian officials, we have already strengthened our safeguards, including improving how ChatGPT responds to signs of distress."
Van Rootselaar killed her mother and brother at the family's home before heading to the local secondary school, where she shot dead five children and a teacher.
She died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after police entered the building.
bs/mlm

conflict

EU chief says Kremlin imposing 'digital Iron Curtain' on Russians

  • "With inflation increasing and interest rates skyrocketing, the consequences of Russia's war of choice are also being paid for out of Russian people's pockets," European Commission head von der Leyen told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg.
  • EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday accused the Kremlin of cutting Russians off from the internet to hide worsening economic conditions in the country as sanctions over the Ukraine war bite.
  • "With inflation increasing and interest rates skyrocketing, the consequences of Russia's war of choice are also being paid for out of Russian people's pockets," European Commission head von der Leyen told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday accused the Kremlin of cutting Russians off from the internet to hide worsening economic conditions in the country as sanctions over the Ukraine war bite.
"With inflation increasing and interest rates skyrocketing, the consequences of Russia's war of choice are also being paid for out of Russian people's pockets," European Commission head von der Leyen told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg.
"So much so that the Kremlin responds... by restricting the internet and free communication."
Von der Leyen said that "Russians feel that they live behind an Iron Curtain again, this time a digital Iron Curtain."
"If history has one lesson, it's that all worlds eventually fall," she said.
Russian authorities have recently stepped up efforts to control internet access in the country, throttling messenger apps Telegram and WhatsApp, tightening restrictions on VPNs (virtual private networks), and imposing blackouts.
The switch-offs, including in the capital Moscow, have caused rare expressions of public discontent after years of the Kremlin clamping down on free speech.
Since sending troops into Ukraine, Russia has hardened its rules against public signs of dissent, outlawing criticism of the Kremlin and the Russian army with strict military censorship laws.
The European Union last week approved a massive loan for Ukraine and imposed a new package of sanctions on Moscow after months of delay.
The new round of economic sanctions is the 20th from the 27-nation bloc since Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine in 2022.
While Russia's economy has so far largely weathered the economic punishment, EU officials insist that cracks are increasingly beginning to show.
del/raz/jhb

management

Anxiety, resentment around AI spur violence against tech's figureheads

BY THOMAS URBAIN

  • "Anxiety about emerging technologies is nothing new," said researcher Nirit Weiss-Blatt, whose Substack newsletter "AI Panic" covers the growing hostility towards artificial intelligence. 
  • Several proponents of artificial intelligence (AI) have become the victims of violent acts in recent days, reflecting the existential dread around the emerging technology -- and the public's growing resentment towards its advocates.
  • "Anxiety about emerging technologies is nothing new," said researcher Nirit Weiss-Blatt, whose Substack newsletter "AI Panic" covers the growing hostility towards artificial intelligence. 
Several proponents of artificial intelligence (AI) have become the victims of violent acts in recent days, reflecting the existential dread around the emerging technology -- and the public's growing resentment towards its advocates.
Billionaire OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is among the most prominent, with someone throwing a Molotov cocktail at his home on April 10. A suspect, 20-year-old Daniel Moreno-Gama, has been arrested. 
But the violence extends beyond Silicon Valley's elite to include local policymakers, like Ron Gibson, a city councilmember in Indianapolis who had 13 bullets shot through his front door after expressing support for a data center construction project. 
Those behind the April 6 attack also left a note reading "No Data Centers." 
"Anxiety about emerging technologies is nothing new," said researcher Nirit Weiss-Blatt, whose Substack newsletter "AI Panic" covers the growing hostility towards artificial intelligence. 
"With Artificial Intelligence, though, it feels more extreme," she added, noting that Moreno-Gama was radicalized through the "'AI existential risk' rhetoric" rather than its employment or environmental impacts. 
"We need to have a broader discussion about how the 'extinction risk' rhetoric radicalizes the most vulnerable individuals," Weiss-Blatt said. 
"The fact that some edges justify violent acts is very troubling, and it needs to be condemned as strongly as possible." 
The attacks against AI figureheads have no demonstrable ties to one another, nor do they claim affiliation with any shared organization. 
But Mauro Lubrano, a lecturer in International Relations at the University of Bath, said calling such actors lone wolves "is actually not that accurate, because these groups are embedded in some sort of digital ecosystem." 
Lubrano connects the recent string of violence to the vandalism of Tesla vehicles and dealerships in 2025 in response to founder Elon Musk's work with the administration of US President Donald Trump. 
The recent reports of violence have led to an increased demand for physical protection among tech companies.
"In recent months, we've definitely seen a clear uptick," said Rory Moran, who oversees executive security at United Security, Inc. 
"These AI and technology companies, especially the big ones, they're always in the news, and when that happens... we're going to see an uptick in interest in potential attacks," he added.

'Violence will not help'

The response to the violence on the Internet has been less panicked.
Many commentators on platforms like TikTok have downplayed or justified the attacks, comparing those involved to Luigi Mangione, the suspect behind the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in 2024.
But some organizations advocating for limiting AI expansion, such as Pause AI and Stop AI, now worry they will be associated with endorsing violent acts against AI proponents.
Dean Ball, a former AI policy advisor for the Trump administration, wrote in a post on X: "The rhetoric of the pause/stop crowd is out of control and it has gotten worse with time."
"This rhetoric always had the potential to cause violence and now this seems to be no longer hypothetical," he added.
Valerie Sizemore, one of the cofounders of Stop AI, said Moreno-Gama -- the Molotov cocktail suspect -- posted on Stop AI's Discord server to ask if he could discuss violence against AI founders.
The server's moderators said posting about such subject matter would get him banned, and he never returned.
"Violence will not help," Sizemore said, instead urging people concerned about AI to opt for "non-violent actions."
"It is really my hope that this is the icebreaking moment that leads everyone to listen to the public and start trying to have the conversation we need to have," she said.
tu/bl/ube/jgc/sla/hol

AI

An experimental cafe run by AI opens in Stockholm

BY NIOUCHA ZAKAVATI

  • Once the premises were found, the lease, along with some starting capital, was handed to the AI with a simple mission: run the cafe profitably.
  • The avocado toasts and baristas making foamy lattes make it look like any other cafe, except at this one, located in a Stockholm residential neighbourhood, artificial intelligence (AI) is running the place.
  • Once the premises were found, the lease, along with some starting capital, was handed to the AI with a simple mission: run the cafe profitably.
The avocado toasts and baristas making foamy lattes make it look like any other cafe, except at this one, located in a Stockholm residential neighbourhood, artificial intelligence (AI) is running the place.
The cafe features a minimalist design: a few tables decorated with small plants and grey walls.
Behind the counter is barista Kajetan Grzelczak who was hired by "Mona", the AI cafe manager -- which is powered by Google's Gemini.
Grzelczak told AFP that "ordering isn't really her best suit".
"So, I made for her... a wall of shame," he said, pointing to shelves behind him.
The wall display showcases some of Mona's unnecessary purchases, including 10 litres (2.6 gallons) of cooking oil or 15 kilogrammes (33 pounds) of canned tomatoes.
Grzelczak laments that he can't use those for anything that "Mona" has put on the menu.
Orders can either be placed with Mona or one of the employees.
In one corner, a large screen shows the cafe's revenue and balance in real time, and a phone lets customers talk to Mona.
The screen also displays a description of the unusual cafe -- which is an experiment by San Francisco–based startup Andon Labs.

Ethical questions

"We think that AI will be a big part of the society and the job market in the future," Hanna Petersson, a member of the technical team at the company, which has 10 employees, told AFP.
"We want to test that before that's the reality and see what ethical questions arise when, for example, an AI employs human beings," she explained.
Once the premises were found, the lease, along with some starting capital, was handed to the AI with a simple mission: run the cafe profitably.
"Mona" quickly got to work, requested the necessary permits, created the menu, found suppliers, and handled daily restocking. 
The AI also realised that a person was needed to make the coffee and ended up hiring two people.
"She posted job listings on Indeed and LinkedIn and held phone interviews and then made hiring decisions," Petersson said.
When he saw the ad, Grzelczak first thought it was a joke, especially since it had been posted on April 1. But after a 30-minute interview with the AI, he got the job.
The salary he receives is good but his right to disconnect from work is not respected at all, the barista remarked.
"Mona" sends him messages at all hours of the night, does not remember his holiday requests and regularly asks him to cover purchases out of his own pocket.
Examining such issues are part of the experiment, Petersson noted.
"What salary did she decide on? What other benefits did she decide on? I think she did a good job. She gives a good salary. If she hadn't, we would have stepped in," she said.
The cafe has only been open for a week but already draws between 50 and 80 curious customers a day. 
Urja Risal, a 27-year-old AI researcher, came by to enjoy a beverage with her friend.
"You hear so much about AI is about to take our jobs but what does that look like," Risal told AFP.
"I hope more people interact with 'Mona' and think about the actual risks of having an AI manager... like if someone gets injured, how would Mona react to that?" she said.
nzg/ef/jll/phz/ane

armament

Pentagon makes deal to expand use of Google AI: reports

  • More than 600 Google employees demanded Monday that the company reject a proposed Pentagon deal that would allow its artificial intelligence technology to be deployed in classified military operations, a statement said.
  • The Pentagon has arranged a deal to increase its use of Google's artificial intelligence in classified operations, US media outlets reported on Tuesday.
  • More than 600 Google employees demanded Monday that the company reject a proposed Pentagon deal that would allow its artificial intelligence technology to be deployed in classified military operations, a statement said.
The Pentagon has arranged a deal to increase its use of Google's artificial intelligence in classified operations, US media outlets reported on Tuesday.
The news comes as the US military looks to wean itself off Anthropic's AI due to the company's objection to its technology being used for mass domestic surveillance or autonomous killing machines.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In February, Trump instructed the US government to "immediately cease" using Anthropic's technology after Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth designated Anthropic as a national security supply chain risk -- a label typically reserved for organizations from unfriendly foreign countries.
The company is now fighting these measures in court.
Anthropic's AI model, Claude, was the only one authorized for use in classified operations within the US military.
Following the Anthropic crisis, rival OpenAI reached an agreement with the government to integrate its AI interfaces into this framework.
According to technology news website The Information, Elon Musk's AI firm xAI also struck a deal with the Pentagon after its clash with Anthropic.
"Overreliance on one vendor is never a good thing," Pentagon chief digital officer Cameron Stanley said in an interview with broadcaster CNBC.
The Pentagon's agreements with technology providers is reported to include only using AI tools in ways allowed by law.
More than 600 Google employees demanded Monday that the company reject a proposed Pentagon deal that would allow its artificial intelligence technology to be deployed in classified military operations, a statement said.
A letter addressed to Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai was signed by workers from several company divisions.
"Classified workloads are by definition opaque," said one organizing employee, who was not named in the statement.
"Right now, there's no way to ensure that our tools wouldn't be leveraged to cause terrible harms or erode civil liberties away from public scrutiny."
The Pentagon has pushed for broad wording in AI agreements, arguing that it is necessary to maintain operational flexibility.
In 2018, an employee movement successfully pushed Google to abandon Project Maven, a Pentagon program to integrate AI into drone operations.
But in recent years Google has embarked on a strategy shift, steadily rebuilding its military business and competing with rivals for defense cloud contracts.
tu-gc/jgc

media

AI fakes of accused US press gala gunman flood social media

BY BILL MCCARTHY

  • Aaron Parnas, an independent journalist whose likeness appeared in AI-enabled posts claiming Allen worked for him, pleaded on Facebook for people to report the "completely fake" images.
  • Facebook has been overrun with low-effort AI fakes inventing biographical details and celebrity connections for the man charged with trying to assassinate Donald Trump at a Washington press gala Saturday.
  • Aaron Parnas, an independent journalist whose likeness appeared in AI-enabled posts claiming Allen worked for him, pleaded on Facebook for people to report the "completely fake" images.
Facebook has been overrun with low-effort AI fakes inventing biographical details and celebrity connections for the man charged with trying to assassinate Donald Trump at a Washington press gala Saturday.
Trump and senior administration officials were evacuated from the White House Correspondents' Association dinner as sounds of gunfire rang from a floor above the ballroom, where the suspect had attempted to sprint past security.
Within hours of authorities identifying the suspect as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of California, AI-generated images depicting him beside numerous celebrities pinballed across Facebook in posts saying he was their "former driver," "assistant" or "production crew member."
An AFP investigation found more than 50 public figures falsely associated with Allen, from actors Tom Hanks and Sydney Sweeney to musicians Chris Brown and Taylor Swift.
Politicians including former US president Barack Obama and Canada's Pierre Poilievre were also falsely implicated, as well as Pope Leo XIV and NBC News anchor Savannah Guthrie.
Meta did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment.
The fakes reflect an online ecosystem saturated with content known as "AI slop." Once largely focused on celebrities, generative content has quickly scaled to portray individuals like Allen, whose online presence was limited.
"Two years ago, you probably wouldn't have been able to make those images of him, because we could only really make compelling fakes of celebrities who had a large digital footprint from which the AI systems had been trained," said the University of California, Berkeley's Hany Farid, who is also chief science officer at GetReal Security. "Now, all I need is a single image of you."
Aaron Parnas, an independent journalist whose likeness appeared in AI-enabled posts claiming Allen worked for him, pleaded on Facebook for people to report the "completely fake" images.
"This is extremely dangerous," Parnas told his followers.

'Designed for virality'

A separate rush of posts falsely claimed Allen had been on staff for over 40 different professional and collegiate sports teams, with AI-generated visuals dressing him in gear for teams across the NFL, NHL, NBA, WNBA and NASCAR.
Many of the renderings appear based on the picture from a tutoring company's post recognizing Allen as "teacher of the month" in December 2024.
The template-driven format resembles the output of content mills that mass-produce made-up clickbait stories, said digital literacy expert Mike Caulfield.
"This looks a lot like the same content farm behavior, just with AI," Caulfield told AFP.
Recent improvements in AI technologies have made visual fakes easier to create and more convincing, with once-telltale mishaps such as six-fingered hands increasingly less common.
"AI makes it trivially easy to take existing photos and change their clothes, environment, or to swap out someone else's face," said Jen Golbeck, a professor at the University of Maryland’s College of Information. "As soon as someone gets an idea, they can make it a visual reality."
"Five years ago, it would not have been unusual to see people manually photoshopping pictures like the ones we are seeing, but it would never have been at this volume."
Researchers expressed fears about the quantity wearing on social media users, who could tire of determining what is real.
AFP documented similar bursts of fakes after other major events, including the US capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in January and Charlie Kirk's assassination last year.
"These things are being designed for virality, and then of course the algorithms pick up on them," said Farid, from GetReal Security. "It's super profitable."
"Every time there's a world event, we are just flooded with this kind of nonsense. I don't think that's going away."
bmc/mgs/pnb