Government & Policy

UK launches £500M package to support diverse, underrepresented investors and founders

The British Business Bank, owned by the UK government, is creating a £500 million (around $674 million) economic package to help support diverse and underrepresented fund managers and founders in the country.  Fifty million pounds will be set aside for female-led venture funds, which means the BBB has now committed at least £100 million (around […]

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A United Nations research institute created an AI refugee avatar

A research institute connected to the United Nations has created two AI-powered avatars designed to teach people about refugee issues. 404 Media wrote about an experiment conducted by a class at the United Nations University Center for Policy Research that resulted in the creation of two AI agents or avatars — Amina, a fictional woman

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Marc Andreessen reportedly told group chat that universities will ‘pay the price’ for DEI

Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen sharply criticized universities including Stanford and MIT, along with the National Science Foundation, in a group chat with AI scientists and Trump administration officials, according to screenshots viewed by the Washington Post. According to the Post, Andreessen described MIT and Stanford (which I attended two decades ago) as “mainly political operations

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US appeals court blocks FTC’s ‘click-to-cancel’ rule for subscriptions

A U.S. appeals court has blocked the Federal Trade Commission’s “click-to-cancel” rule that would have required companies to make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it was to sign up. The rule was set to take effect on July 14. Reuters reports that the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis

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California lawmaker behind SB 1047 reignites push for mandated AI safety reports

California State Senator Scott Wiener on Wednesday introduced new amendments to his latest bill, SB 53, that would require the world’s largest AI companies to publish safety and security protocols and issue reports when safety incidents occur. If signed into law, California would be the first state to impose meaningful transparency requirements onto leading AI

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Steve Davis left DOGE in May, but officials say he’s still running the show

Though he officially left the U.S. government in May, Steve Davis — Elon Musk’s low-flying former top lieutenant at the Department of Government Efficiency — continues to wield influence at DOGE, according to the WSJ. The outlet says Davis, who is a longtime Musk ally and insider, regularly gives directions to current DOGE officials and

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ByteDance reportedly plans to release US-specific version of CapCut

TikTok owner ByteDance is planning to move U.S. users to a new version of CapCut, its video editing app, according to a report from Business Insider. Launching a U.S.-specific app could be part of the company’s broader plan to comply with a 2024 law requiring ByteDance to divest from TikTok and its other U.S. assets,

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Google faces EU antitrust complaint over AI Overviews

A group known as the Independent Publishers Alliance has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission over Google’s AI Overviews, according to Reuters. The complaint accuses Google of “misusing web content for Google’s AI Overviews in Google Search, which have caused, and continue to cause, significant harm to publishers, including news publishers in the

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Microsoft is closing its local operations in Pakistan

Microsoft is closing its operations in Pakistan, marking the end of a 25-year presence in the South Asian nation. The Redmond-based company on Friday told TechCrunch that it is changing its operational model in Pakistan and will now serve its customers through resellers and “other closely located Microsoft offices.” “Our customer agreements and service will

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