Government & Policy

Waymo gets regulatory approval to expand across Bay Area and Southern California

Government & Policy /

Waymo continues to expand its reach, with the robotaxi company posting Friday that it’s now “officially authorized to drive fully autonomously across more of the Golden State.” Waymo already operates in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Los Angeles (and outside California as well, in Atlanta, Austin, and Phoenix). But maps published by California’s Department of […]

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Despite Chinese hacks, Trump’s FCC votes to scrap cybersecurity rules for phone and internet companies

Government & Policy /

The Federal Communications Commission voted 2-1 along party lines on Thursday to scrap rules that required U.S. phone and internet giants to meet certain minimum cybersecurity requirements. The FCC’s two Trump-appointed commissioners, chairman Brendan Carr and his Republican colleague Olivia Trusty, voted to withdraw the rules that require telecommunications carriers to “secure their networks from

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Subletting startup Kiki paid over $152K to settle charges after violating NYC short-term rental laws

Government & Policy /

Auckland-founded Kiki Club launched its peer-to-peer subletting startup in New York City in 2023 with the mission of helping renters sublet their apartments while traveling for extended periods.  However, Kiki’s model violated local short-term rental laws, leading to its shutdown this past June. The New York Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement (OSE) announced on Wednesday

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The Epstein files have claimed their first OpenAI victim: board member Larry Summers

Government & Policy /

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has resigned from OpenAI’s board days after Congress released an extensive cache of emails with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which included details of intimate affairs. Summers is also a former president of Harvard University and a current professor. The university will open its own probe into Summers’s connections with

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German court rules Google must pay €572M for violating antitrust rules in price comparison sector

Government & Policy /

A German court has found that Google has abused its dominant market position in the price comparison sector and ruled that the company must pay a total of €572 million ($665.6 million) in damages to two German price comparison companies, according to a report by Reuters. Google must pay the price comparison platform Idealo about

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EU launches antitrust probe into how Google’s anti-spam policy affects publishers’ search rankings

Government & Policy /

The European Commission has launched an investigation into how Google is implementing its “site reputation abuse policy” and its impact on publishers. The Commission said on Thursday that it had found signs that Google is using the policy to push news media and other publishers’ websites and content lower in search rankings when they include

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EU considers law to phase out Huawei and ZTE equipment from bloc’s telecom networks

Government & Policy /

The European Commission is stepping up efforts to bolster the security of Europe’s telecommunications networks by urging member states to phase out equipment from vendors such as Chinese tech giants Huawei and ZTE from its 5G and next-gen networks, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources. The EC had in 2020 recommended that member nations stop using

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OpenAI asked Trump administration to expand Chips Act tax credit to cover data centers

Government & Policy /

A recent letter from OpenAI reveals more details about how the company is hoping the federal government can support the company’s ambitious plans for data center construction. The letter — from OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane and addressed to the White House’s director of science and technology policy Michael Kratsios — argued that

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Lina Khan to co-chair NYC mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team

Government & Policy /

After Zohran Mamdani clinched the New York City mayoral race on Tuesday night, his campaign announced former FTC chair Lina Khan as one of the transition team’s four co-chairs. Khan has been an ally of Mamdani’s, praising him in a New York Times op-ed about his outreach to small business owners. But her appointment to

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China is rolling back rare earth mineral restrictions, White House says

Government & Policy /

The White House released more details Saturday about a trade deal reached between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in a meeting earlier this week. Among other things, the White House said China will suspend the restrictions on exporting rare earth minerals that it announced in October, and it will resume issuing

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