On Thursday, President Trump asked Republican lawmakers to end tax breaks on carried interest. The tax break allows private equity and venture fund managers to treat their earnings from investments at a lower capital gains rate, rather than as ordinary income. The removal of the tax break would be a big hit to the VC […]
Carried interest repeal could stifle investments in startups, NVCA says Read More »
A group of more than 100 organizations has published an open letter calling on the AI industry and regulators to mitigate the tech’s harmful environmental impacts just days before leading industry CEOs, heads of state, academics, and nonprofits descend on Paris for a major AI conference. The letter, which bears the signatures of prominent advocacy
Orgs demand action to mitigate AI’s environmental harm Read More »
According to a New York Times report, on Thursday, the U.S. government’s General Services Administration (GSA) removed the spoon emoji as an option that users of its videoconferencing platform can select to express themselves. The move comes a day after workers embraced the digital cutlery to protest the Trump administration’s “Fork in the Road” resignation
Government agency removes spoon emoji from work platform amid protests Read More »
A 25-year-old engineer working for the Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE) has stepped down over racist posts from an X account tied to him, the Wall Street Journal reports. Marko Elez resigned after the WSJ asked the White House about his connection to the account, which was in his name but has since deleted
DOGE staffer steps down after racist posts emerge Read More »
The European Union has published guidance on what constitutes an AI system under its new AI Act. The risk-based framework for regulating applications of artificial intelligence came into force last summer — with the first compliance deadline (on banned use cases) kicking in last weekend. Determining whether a particular software system falls within the act’s
EU details which systems fall within AI Act’s scope Read More »
Andreessen Horowitz is defending its decision to hire Daniel Penny, according to an investor memo seen by The New York Times. The venture capital firm caused a stir earlier this week after it announced it would hire Penny, who was acquitted last year of choking a homeless man to death in the New York City
a16z stands by decision to hire Daniel Penny Read More »
OpenAI on Thursday launched data residency in Europe, allowing European organizations to meet local data sovereignty requirements while using the AI company’s products. Data residency refers to the physical location of an organization’s data, as well as the local laws and policy requirements imposed on that data. Most tech giants and cloud providers offer European
OpenAI launches data residency in Europe Read More »
U.S. Democratic Representative Mark Pocan plans to introduce a bill designed to ban “special government employees” like Elon Musk from having federal contracts so they can’t steer spending towards their own self-interest. The proposed bill is called the ELON MUSK Act, which stands for Eliminate Looting of Our Nation by Mitigating Unethical State Kleptocracy. “No
Chinese ecommerce and fast fashion giant Shein is facing fresh scrutiny in the European Union in relation to consumer protection rules following the launch of a coordinated action by the bloc’s Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPCN). The action is being conducted with reference to the EU’s Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Consumer Rights Directive, Unfair Contracts
Google removed a pledge to not build AI for weapons or surveillance from its website this week. The change was first spotted by Bloomberg. The company appears to have updated its public AI principles page, erasing a section titled “applications we will not pursue,” which was still included as recently as last week. Asked for
Google removes pledge to not use AI for weapons from website Read More »
