Category: Business

Microsoft on Thursday trumpeted its latest plans to put artificial intelligence into the hands of more users, answering a spate of unveilings this week by its rival Google with upgrades to its own widely used office software. The company previewed a new AI "copilot" for Microsoft 365, its product suite that includes Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and Outlook emails.   Going forward, AI can offer a first draft in Microsoft's applications, speeding up content creation and freeing up workers' time, the company said. "We believe this next generation of AI will unlock a new wave of productivity growth," Satya Nadella, Microsoft's chief executive, said in a livestreamed presentation. This week's drumbeat of news including new funding for AI startup Adept reflects how companies large and small are locked…

Britain said on Thursday it would ban TikTok on government phones with immediate effect, a move that follows other Western countries in barring the Chinese-owned video app over security concerns. TikTok has come under increasing scrutiny due to fears that user data from the app owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance could end up in the hands of the Chinese government, undermining Western security interests. "The security of sensitive government information must come first, so today we are banning this app on government devices. The use of other data-extracting apps will be kept under review," Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden said in a statement. The British government had asked the National Cyber Security Centre to look at the potential vulnerability of government data from social media apps and risks around how…

TikTok confirmed Wednesday that U.S. officials have recommended the popular video-sharing app part ways with its Chinese parent ByteDance to avoid a national ban. Western powers, including the European Union and the United States, have been taking an increasingly tough approach to the app, citing fears that user data could be used or abused by Chinese officials. "If protecting national security is the objective, calls for a ban or divestment are unnecessary, as neither option solves the broader industry issues of data access and transfer," a TikTok spokesperson told AFP. "We remain confident that the best path forward to addressing concerns about national security is transparent, U.S.-based protection of U.S. user data and systems, with robust third-party monitoring, vetting, and verification." The Wall Street Journal and other U.S. news outlets…

Moonwalking astronauts will have sleeker, more flexible spacesuits that come in different sizes when they step onto the lunar surface later this decade.  Exactly what that looks like remained under wraps. The company designing the next-generation spacesuits, Axiom Space, said Wednesday that it plans to have new versions for training purposes for NASA later this summer.  The moonsuits will be white like they were during NASA's Apollo program more than a half-century ago, according to the company. That's so they can reflect heat and keep future moonwalkers cool.  The suits will provide greater flexibility and more protection from the moon's harsh environment, and will come in a wider range of sizes, according to the Houston-based company.  NASA awarded Axiom Space a $228.5 million contract to provide the outfits for the…

From 5G infrastructure to mobile phones and more, Chinese technologies are used in many parts of the world. It’s part of China’s Digital Silk Road initiative, which is getting mixed reviews: welcomed by some countries, while others are assessing the potential risks of Chinese technology. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee explains. Camera: Henry Ridgwell, Adam Greenbaum ...

Facebook-parent Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it would cut 10,000 jobs, just four months after it let go 11,000 employees, the first Big Tech company to announce a second round of mass layoffs.  "We expect to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven’t yet hired," Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a message to staff.   The layoffs are part of a wider restructuring at Meta that will see the company flatten its organizational structure, cancel lower priority projects and reduce its hiring rates as part of the move. The news sent Meta's shares up 2% in premarket trading.  The move underscores Zuckerberg's push to turn 2023 into the "Year of Efficiency" with promised cost cuts of $5…

Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse rattled the technology industry that had been the bank's backbone, leaving shell-shocked entrepreneurs thankful for the government reprieve that saved their money while they mourned the loss of a place that served as a chummy club of innovation. “They were the gold standard, it almost seemed weird if you were in tech and didn’t have a Silicon Valley Bank account,” Stefan Kalb, CEO of Seattle startup Shelf Engine, said during a Monday interview as he started the process of transferring millions of dollars to other banks. The Biden administration's move guaranteeing all Silicon Valley Bank’s deposits above the insured limit of $250,000 per account resulted in a “palpable sigh of relief” in Israel, where its booming tech sector is “connected with an umbilical cord to Silicon…

Boeing structural analysis engineer George Ndayizeye, who grew up in Burundi, has won a 2023 Black Engineer of the Year Legacy Award. He spoke with VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya outside Seattle. ...

A global shortage of semiconductor chips in the automotive industry starting in 2020 has motivated many countries to increase their domestic manufacturing. The United States has allocated more than $50 billion to promote semiconductor production and research stateside as the global need for the chips is expected to double over the next decade. Keith Kocinski has more from New York. Camera: Keith Kocinski and Rendy Wicaksana ...

China’s government on Thursday criticized the Netherlands for joining Washington in blocking Chinese access to technology to manufacture advanced processor chips on security and human rights grounds. A Dutch minister told lawmakers Wednesday that exports of equipment that uses ultraviolet light to etch circuits on chips would be restricted on security grounds. ASML of the Netherlands is the only global supplier. Industry experts say a lack of access to ASML's most advanced technology is a serious handicap for China's efforts to develop its own chip industry. Washington in October blocked Chinese access to U.S. tools to make advanced chips that it said might be used in weapons or in equipment for the ruling Communist Party's surveillance apparatus. The Biden administration is lobbying European and Asian allies to tighten their own…

The Netherlands' government on Wednesday said it planned new restrictions on exports of semiconductor technology to protect national security, joining the United States’ effort to curb chip exports to China.  The U.S. in October imposed sweeping export restrictions on shipments of American chipmaking tools to China, but for the restrictions to be effective, they need other key suppliers in the Netherlands and Japan, who also oversee key chipmaking technology, to agree. The allied countries have been in talks on the matter for months.  Dutch Trade Minister Liesje Schreinemacher announced the decision in a letter to parliament, saying the restrictions would be introduced before the summer.  Her letter did not name China, a key Dutch trading partner, nor did it name ASML Holding NV, Europe's largest tech firm and a major…

Drones are routinely used in warfare, law enforcement and agriculture. Now more and more U.S. businesses are using them to deliver cookies and coffee right to your front door. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. Camera: Adam Greenbaum, Chad Baugh  ...

Add a top U.S. intelligence official to the list of Americans expressing concern about Chinese-made technology and Chinese social media platforms like TikTok.  General Paul Nakasone, who heads both the U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, told lawmakers Tuesday there are multiple reasons to be wary of China’s rapid expansion in cyberspace, calling Beijing "a very formidable foe." "TikTok concerns me for a number of different reasons," Nakasone said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. "One is that the data that they have. Secondly is the algorithm and the control. Who has the algorithm?"   Third, he said, "is the broad platform" both for unleashing potential influence operations but also for the ability to give China a way to "turn off the message."  Last month, the United States…

U.S. National Security Agency director Paul Nakasone on Tuesday expressed concern about Chinese-owned video app TikTok's data collection and potential to facilitate broad influence operations. In response to a lawmaker's question about any concerns he has on the influence of TikTok on American children, Nakasone told a Senate hearing, "TikTok concerns me for a number of different reasons." Nakasone said his concerns include "the data that they have." "Secondly is the algorithm and the control of who has the algorithm," Nakasone added. Nakasone ended his comments by asserting that the TikTok platform could enable sweeping influence operations. Nakasone said his concern is not only the fact that TikTok can proactively influence users, but also its ability to "turn off the message," and noted its large number of users. The app…

Japan's new medium-lift rocket failed on its debut flight in space on Tuesday after the launcher's second-stage engine did not ignite as planned, in a blow to its efforts to cut the cost of accessing space and compete against Elon Musk's SpaceX.  The 57-metre tall H3 rocket lifted off without a hitch from the Tanegashima space port, a live-streamed broadcast by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) showed.  But upon reaching space, the rocket's second-stage engine failed to ignite, forcing mission officials to manually destroy the vehicle.  "It was decided the rocket could not complete its mission, so the destruct command was sent," a launch broadcast commentator from JAXA said. "So what happened? It's something we will have to investigate looking at all the data."  The failed attempt followed an…

A group of attorneys general from 45 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., demanded Monday that social media app TikTok produce materials as part of an investigation into its effect on young users’ mental health.    “We know that social media is taking a devastating toll on young people’s mental health and well-being, and through our investigation we are getting a clearer sense of TikTok’s role,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement.    The investigation began last year when eight states, including California, Massachusetts and Tennessee, launched a bipartisan probe of TikTok, focusing on whether the popular video-sharing app is endangering young people and violating state consumer protection laws.     On Monday, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti asked a Tennessee court to order TikTok to produce subpoenaed materials sought by the…

Twitter users reported a string of problems with the social media site on Monday, including broken links and images not loading. The company's tech support account said in a tweet, "Some parts of Twitter may not be working as expected right now. We made an internal change that had some unintended consequences. We're working on this now and will share an update when it's fixed." Twitter's billionaire owner, Elon Musk, tweeted Monday: "This platform is so brittle (sigh). Will be fixed shortly."  The problems appeared to be resolved about an hour after they began. "Things should now be working as normal," the company tweeted around 1 p.m. Eastern time. The glitches started around midday Monday, with users around the world saying they were unable to read links to articles from…

Only a third of people in the world's poorest countries can connect to the internet, the U.N. telecoms agency said Sunday, but low-flying satellites could bring hope to millions, especially in remote corners of Africa. Tech giants including Microsoft have pledged to help populations hobbled by poor internet services to "leapfrog" into an era of online connectivity, with satellites set to play a key role as rival firms send thousands of new generation transmitters into low level orbit. At the moment just 36% of the 1.25 billion people in the world's 46 poorest countries can plug into the internet, the International Telecommunication Union said. By comparison, more than 90 percent have access in the European Union. The ITU condemned the "staggering international connectivity gap" that it said had widened over…

The Biden administration is pushing for more comprehensive federal regulations to keep the online realm safer against hackers, including by shifting cybersecurity responsibilities away from consumers to industry and treating ransomware attacks as national security threats. The plan is part of the National Cyber Strategy that the administration released Thursday, outlining long-range goals for how individuals, government and businesses can safely operate in the digital world. This includes placing the burden on the computer and software industry to develop “secure by design” products that are purposefully designed, built and tested to significantly reduce the number of exploitable flaws before they're introduced into the market. The strategy “fundamentally reimagines America's cyber social contract” and will “rebalance the responsibility for managing cyber risk onto those who are most able to bear it,”…

Ethiopia's hydropower dam on the Blue Nile River has angered downstream neighbors, especially Sudan, where people rely on the river for farming and other livelihoods. To reduce the risk of conflict, a group of scientists has used artificial intelligence, AI, to show how all could benefit. But getting Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt to agree on an AI solution could prove challenging, as Henry Wilkins reports from Khartoum, Sudan. ...

The Biden administration approved more than $23 billion worth of licenses for companies to ship U.S. goods and technology to blacklisted Chinese companies in the first quarter of 2022, a Republican lawmaker said Tuesday. The data comes amid growing pressure on the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden to further expand a broad crackdown on shipments of sensitive U.S. technology to China from Republican lawmakers, who now control the House of Representatives. “Overwhelmingly, [the Commerce Department] continues to grant licenses that allow critical U.S. technology to be sold to our adversaries,” Republican Representative Michael McCaul, chair of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said at a hearing on combating the generational challenge of Chinese aggression, as he grilled U.S. officials for allowing the licenses to be approved. “How does…

Mexico's president announced Tuesday that electric car company Tesla has committed to building a major plant in the industrial hub of Monterrey in northern Mexico. President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador said the promise came in phone calls he had Friday and Monday with Tesla head Elon Musk. It would be Tesla's third plant outside the U.S., after one in Shanghai and one near Berlin. Lopez Obrador had previously ruled out such a plant in the arid northern state of Nuevo Leon, where Monterrey is the capital, because he didn't want water-hungry factories in a region that suffers water shortages. But he said Musk's company had offered commitments to address those concerns, including using recycled water. "There is one commitment that all the water used in the manufacture of electric automobiles…

Holding the bulky brick cellphone he’s credited with inventing 50 years ago, Martin Cooper thinks about the future. Little did he know when he made the first call on a New York City street from a thick gray prototype that our world — and our information — would come to be encapsulated on a sleek glass sheath where we search, connect, like and buy. He's optimistic that future advances in mobile technology can transform human lives but is also worried about risks smartphones pose to privacy and young people. “My most negative opinion is we don’t have any privacy anymore because everything about us is now recorded someplace and accessible to somebody who has enough intense desire to get it,” the 94-year-old told The Associated Press at MWC, or Mobile…

Europe's existing telecom networks aren't up to the job of handling surging amounts of internet data traffic, a top European Union official said Monday, as he defended a consultation on whether Big Tech companies should help pay for upgrades. The telecom industry needs to reconsider its business models as it undergoes a “radical shift” fueled by a new wave of innovation such as immersive, data-hungry technologies like the metaverse, Thierry Breton, the European Commission's official in charge of digital policy, said at a major industry expo in Barcelona called MWC, or Mobile World Congress. Breton's remarks came days after he announced a consultation on whether digital giants should help contribute to the billions needed to build the 27-nation bloc's future communications infrastructure, including next-generation 5G wireless and fiber-optic cable connections,…

A top U.S. cybersecurity official launched a warning shot at major technology companies, accusing them of "normalizing" the release of flawed and unsafe products while allowing the blame for safety issues, security breaches and cyberattacks to fall on their customers. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly called Monday for new rules and legislation to hold technology and software companies accountable for selling products that she says are released despite known vulnerabilities. While massive hacking campaigns by China and other adversaries, including Russia, Iran and North Korea, are a major problem, "cyber intrusions are a symptom rather than a cause," Easterly told an audience at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "The cause, simply put, is unsafe technology products," she said. "The risk introduced to all of us by…

Twitter Inc has laid off at least 200 employees, or about 10% of its workforce, the New York Times reported late on Sunday, in its latest round of job cuts since Elon Musk took over the micro-blogging site last October.  The layoffs on Saturday night impacted product managers, data scientists and engineers who worked on machine learning and site reliability, which helps keep Twitter's various features online, the NYT report said, citing people familiar with the matter.  Twitter did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.  The company has a headcount of about 2,300 active employees, according to Musk last month.  The latest job cuts follow a mass layoff in early November, when Twitter laid off about 3,700 employees in a cost-cutting measure by Musk, who had acquired the company…

NASA and SpaceX postponed a planned Monday launch of a four-member crew to the International Space Station due to a ground systems issue.  The decision came less than three minutes before the spacecraft was due to lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.  A backup launch date had already been set for early Tuesday.  The four-person crew includes two Americans, one Russian and one astronaut from the United Arab Emirates.  NASA said their planned six-month mission includes a range of scientific experiments including studying how materials burn in microgravity, collecting microbial samples from outside the space station and “tissue chip research on heart, brain, and cartilage functions.”  ...

Mexico is undergoing a fevered competition among states to win a potential Tesla facility in jostling reminiscent of what happens among U.S. cities and states vying to win investments from tech companies. Mexican governors have gone to extremes, like putting up billboards, creating special car lanes or creating mock-ups of Tesla ads for their states. And there's no guarantee Tesla will build a full-fledged factory. Nothing is announced, and the frenzy is based mainly on Mexican officials saying Tesla boss Elon Musk will have a phone call with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The northern industrial state of Nuevo Leon seemed to have an early edge in the race. It painted the Tesla logo on a lane at the Laredo-Colombia border crossing into Texas last summer and is erecting…