Category: Technology

WASHINGTON — The U.S. on Monday imposed sanctions on an extreme right-wing online network, designating the “Terrorgram” collective a terrorist group and accusing it of promoting violent white supremacy.  The U.S. State Department said in a statement that it had designated the group, which primarily operates on the Telegram social media site, and three of its leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists.  The State Department said the group has motivated and facilitated attacks and attempted attacks by users, including a 2022 shooting outside an LGBTQ bar in Slovakia, a planned attack in 2024 on energy facilities in New Jersey and an August knife attack at a mosque in Turkey.  “The group promotes violent white supremacism, solicits attacks on perceived adversaries, and provides guidance and instructional materials on tactics, methods, and targets for attacks, including on critical infrastructure and government officials,” the State Department said.  The action freezes any of the group’s U.S. assets and bars Americans from dealing with it.  The leaders targeted on Monday with sanctions were based in Brazil, Croatia and South Africa, according to the statement.  In September, U.S. prosecutors unveiled criminal charges against two alleged leaders of the group, saying they used Telegram to solicit attacks on Black, Jewish, LGBTQ people and immigrants with the aim of inciting a race war.  Britain in April said it would proscribe the Terrorgram collective as a terrorist organization, meaning it would become a criminal offense in the country to belong to or promote the group.  U.S. President Joe Biden has …

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Trade Commission has vowed to continue the agency’s drive to break up Big Tech monopolies while adding a new focus: free speech. VOA’s Matt Dibble has the story. …

— The Biden administration announced Monday new restrictions on the export of the most advanced artificial intelligence chips and proprietary parameters used to govern the interactions of users with AI systems. The rule, which will undergo a 120-day period for public comments, comes in response to what administration officials described as a need to protect national security while also clarifying the rules under which companies in trusted partner countries could access the emerging technology in order to promote innovation. “Over the coming years, AI will become really ubiquitous in every business application in every industry around the world, with enormous potential for enhanced productivity and societal, healthcare and economic benefits,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters. “That being said, as AI becomes more powerful, the risks to our national security become even more intense.” A senior administration official said the new rule will not include any restrictions on chip sales to Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom or the United States. Countries that are under U.S. arms embargoes are already subject to export restrictions on advanced AI chips, but a senior administration official said they will now be under restrictions for the transfer of the most powerful closed weight AI models. The weights in an AI model determine how it processes the inputs from a user and determines what to provide the user as a response, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. In …

jerusalem — When a renowned Israeli TV journalist lost his ability to speak clearly because of ALS, he thought his career might be over. But now, using artificial-intelligence software that can re-create his widely recognized gravelly voice, Moshe Nussbaum — known to generations of viewers simply as “Nussi” — is making a comeback.  Nussbaum, 71, was diagnosed two years ago with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a progressive disease also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease that attacks nerve cells that control muscles throughout the body.  At the time, he vowed to viewers of Israel’s Channel 12 News to continue working as long as he was physically able. But, gradually, it became more and more difficult.  It was a devastating blow to the career of a leading, no-nonsense reporter who for more than 40 years had covered many of Israel’s most important stories from the field. He had appeared from the scenes of suicide bombing attacks and the front lines of wars in Gaza and Lebanon, and had covered scandals in Israel’s parliament and high-profile court cases.  After Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war in Gaza, Nussbaum was unable to report from the field. It was the first war of his career he had ever sat out, he noted in a recent interview with colleagues at Channel 12, the country’s largest station.  Even though he was having trouble moving and speaking, he launched a segment interviewing injured soldiers from Israeli hospitals. His questions were slow and halting, but he kept it …

WASHINGTON — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer chips in Arizona for U.S. customers, a milestone in the Biden administration’s semiconductor efforts, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Reuters. In November, the Commerce Department finalized a $6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s U.S. unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading-edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo told Reuters in an interview, saying it had begun in recent weeks. “That’s a big deal — never been done before, never in our history. And lots of people said it couldn’t happen,” Raimondo said of the previously undisclosed production start. A spokesperson for TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and a major supplier to Apple and Nvidia, which reports earnings next week, declined to comment Friday. In April, TSMC agreed to expand its planned investment by $25 billion to $65 billion and to add a third Arizona production facility by 2030. Congress created a $52.7 billion semiconductor manufacturing and research subsidy program in 2022. Commerce persuaded all five leading-edge semiconductor firms to locate production facilities in the United States as part of the program. Raimondo told Reuters earlier that Commerce had to persuade TSMC to boost its U.S. plans. “It didn’t happen on its own. … We had to convince TSMC that they would want to expand,” Raimondo said. TSMC will produce the world’s most advanced 2-nanometer technology at …

Technology companies, industry executives and entrepreneurs are in Las Vegas, Nevada, this week for CES, the consumer electronics show featuring the latest advancements in artificial intelligence, vehicle technology, robotics and more. Tina Trinh reports from Las Vegas. …

WASHINGTON — Russia’s efforts to obtain China’s help in enhancing artificial intelligence is seen as a bid to challenge America’s lead in the field even as the outgoing Biden administration is expected to impose new export control measures to further curb Beijing’s access to AI chips. As the new year began, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the country’s state-owned Sberbank, to work with China in researching and developing AI technology, according to the Kremlin. “The Russian president sees his country in global competition for AI with the United States and has positioned the state resources to try and compete with the U.S. in information and cyberspace – two areas where artificial intelligence is supposed to aid Russia in what they see as Western narratives and influence,” said Samuel Bendett, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. Moscow views Beijing’s success in AI as an example to follow, and its “cooperation with China is viewed as a necessary step towards acquiring artificial intelligence-related skill sets, knowledge and technology,” Bendett told VOA in written comments. The U.S. currently leads in AI innovation, followed by China, which is falling behind by wide margins, according to a November report by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. Russia ranks 31st out of 83 countries in AI implementation, innovation and investment, according to U.K.-based Tortoise Media’s Global AI Index. Response to sanctions Western sanctions imposed on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have limited the country’s AI development, and Moscow …

LAS VEGAS — So much of the technology showcased at CES includes gadgets made to improve consumers’ lives — whether by leveraging AI to make devices that help people become more efficient, by creating companions to cure loneliness, or by providing tools that help people with mental and physical health.  But not all innovation is good, according to a panel of self-described dystopia experts that has judged some products as “Worst in Show.” The award that no company wants to win calls out the “least repairable, least private, and least sustainable products on display.”  “We’re seeing more and more of these things that have basically surveillance technology built into them, and it enables some cool things,” Liz Chamberlain, director of sustainability at the e-commerce site iFixit told The Associated Press. “But it also means that now we’ve got microphones and cameras in our washing machines, refrigerators and that really is an industry-wide problem.”  The fourth annual contest announced its decisions Thursday.  A new smart ring every few years?  Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, awarded the Ultrahuman Rare Luxury Smart Ring the title of “least repairable.”  The rings, which come in colors like dune and desert sand, cost $2,200. Wiens said the jewelry “looks sleek but hides a major flaw: its battery only lasts 500 charges.” Worse, he said, is the fact that replacing the battery is impossible without destroying the device entirely.  “Luxury items may be fleeting, but two years of use for $2,200 is a new low,” he said.  Ultrahuman …

The United States Supreme Court has fast-tracked oral arguments on a challenge by the Chinese company ByteDance — the owner of TikTok — to a new law that would ban the social media platform on grounds of national security. VOA’s Steve Herman reports. …

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA — Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday that there would be a wider range of speech on Facebook and other Meta platforms. “We’re going to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram,” he said. Here are some of the key changes: Gone will be third-party fact-checkers eyeing Facebook posts for violations in the United States. Instead, Facebook will rely on “community notes,” a system used on X (formerly Twitter) that allows community members to flag posts and vote on the legitimacy of them. Restrictions on topics such as immigration and gender identity will be lifted. “What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it’s gone too far. So, I want to make sure that people can share their beliefs and experiences on our platforms,” Zuckerberg said. Civic and political content, which the company stopped presenting to users in recent years, will be recommended again on Facebook, Instagram and Threads. And the firm’s trust and safety and content moderation teams will move from California, considered a liberal state, to Texas, considered a conservative-leaning state. The move “will help us build trust to do this work in places where there is less concern about the bias of our teams,” he said. Preparing for Trump Zuckerberg’s announcement comes as Meta and other technology companies prepare for major policy and regulatory changes with the return of President-elect Donald Trump to the …

Meta is ending its fact-checking program in the U.S. and replacing it with a “Community Notes” system similar to that on Elon Musk-owned X, the Facebook parent said on Tuesday.   The Community Notes model will allow users on Meta’s social media sites Facebook, Instagram and Threads to call out posts that are potentially misleading and need more context, rather than placing the responsibility on independent fact checking organizations and experts.   “Experts, like everyone else, have their own biases and perspectives. This showed up in the choices some made about what to fact check and how … A program intended to inform too often became a tool to censor,” Meta said.   Meta added that its efforts over the years to manage content across its platforms have expanded “to the point where we are making too many mistakes, frustrating our users and too often getting in the way of the free expression we set out to enable.”  The company said it would begin phasing in Community Notes in the United States over the next couple of months and would improve the model over the course of the year.  It will also stop demoting fact-checked content and use a label notifying users there is additional information related to the post, instead of the company’s current method of displaying full-screen warnings that users have to click through before even viewing the post.   …

LAS VEGAS — Home appliances that do chores, cars that know your favorite cafe, and robot pets aiming to please are among artificial intelligence-infused offerings at the Consumer Electronics Show opening Tuesday. All these will compete for attention at the annual CES extravaganza in Las Vegas, as vendors behind the scenes seek ways to deal with tariffs threatened by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. AI is once again a major theme of the show, along with autonomous vehicles ranging from tractors and boats to lawn mowers and golf club trollies. South Korean consumer electronics giant LG kicked off a media day Monday by outlining a vision for “Affectionate Intelligence” in which home appliances watch over people — from tracking how well they sleep to making sure they remember umbrellas when rain is in the forecast. “At LG, we’re seamlessly integrating AI into physical living spaces around us,” said CEO William Cho. “We see space not merely as a physical location but as an environment where holistic experiences come to life — across the Home, Mobility, Commercial and even Virtual spaces.” Before the show floor even opened, vendors enticed visitors with electric roller skates, hologram booths for life-size remote collaboration, and even a robot that looked like a lamp affixed to the top of a walking table. Most offerings boasted being enhanced with AI. “Everybody is going to be talking about AI … whether it is there or not,” Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi told AFP. AI on the move CES will also …

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has criticized those, in his words, “spreading lies and misinformation,” after coming under fire from billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump accused Starmer of failing to prosecute past cases of child sexual exploitation. As Henry Ridgwell reports, it’s the latest in a series of interventions by Musk in European politics …

WASHINGTON — The U.S. cyber watchdog agency CISA said Monday there was “no indication” the recently reported breach at the U.S. Treasury Department had affected any other federal agency.  Late last month the U.S. Treasury reported that an unspecified number of computers had been compromised by Chinese hackers following a breach at contractor BeyondTrust, which provides cybersecurity services.   BeyondTrust said last month that a limited number of clients were affected but has not elaborated.  “As the forensic investigation is ongoing, BeyondTrust is unable to confirm the other customers who may or may not have been impacted,” the company said Monday in an email.  The Washington Post has reported that the hackers breached the U.S. Treasury office that administers economic sanctions, aiming to steal information about Chinese entities that the U.S. government might be considering designating for financial sanctions.  Republican lawmakers have demanded a briefing about the breach, which is the latest in a series of intrusions blamed on Beijing.  Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, has previously described the Treasury hack reports as “irrational” and represented “smear attacks” against China.  …

Will TikTok in the U.S. be banned this month? That’s the pressing question keeping creators and small business owners in anxious limbo as they await a decision that could upend their livelihoods. The fate of the popular app will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear arguments on Jan. 10 over a law requiring TikTok to break ties with its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, or face a U.S. ban. At the heart of the case is whether the law violates the First Amendment with TikTok and its creator allies arguing that it does. The U.S. government, which sees the platform as a national security risk, says it does not. For creators, the TikTok doomsday scenarios are nothing new since President-elect Donald Trump first tried to ban the platform through executive order during his first term. But despite Trump’s recent statements indicating he now wants TikTok to stick around, the prospect of a ban has never been as immediate as it is now with the Supreme Court serving as the final arbiter. If the government prevails as it did in a lower court, TikTok says it would shut down its U.S. platform by Jan. 19, leaving creators scrambling to redefine their futures. “A lot of my other creative friends, we’re all like freaking out. But I’m staying calm,” said Gillian Johnson, who benefited financially from TikTok’s live feature and rewards program, which helped creators generate higher revenue potential by posting high-quality original content. The 22-year-old filmmaker and recent …

NEW YORK — Your car is spying on you.  That is one takeaway from the fast, detailed data that Tesla collected on the driver of one of its Cybertrucks that exploded in Las Vegas, Nevada, earlier this week. Privacy data experts say the deep dive by Elon Musk’s company was impressive but also shines a spotlight on a difficult question as vehicles become less like cars and more like computers on wheels.  “You might want law enforcement to have the data to crack down on criminals but can anyone have access to it?” said Jodi Daniels, CEO of privacy consulting firm Red Clover Advisors.   Many of the latest cars not only know where you’ve been and where you are going, but also often have access to your contacts, your call logs, your texts and other sensitive information thanks to cell phone syncing.  The data collected by Musk’s electric car company after the Cybertruck packed with fireworks burst into flames in front of the Trump International Hotel Wednesday proved valuable to police in helping track the driver’s movements.  Within hours of the New Year’s Day explosion that burned the driver beyond recognition and injured seven, Tesla was able to track Matthew Livelsberger’s movements in detail from Denver to Las Vegas — and confirm that the problem was explosives in the truck, not the truck itself. Tesla used data collected from charging stations and from onboard software.  “I have to thank Elon Musk, specifically,” said Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin …

Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the privacy-minded company of deploying its virtual assistant Siri to eavesdrop on people using its iPhone and other trendy devices. The proposed settlement filed Tuesday in an Oakland, California, federal court would resolve a five-year-old lawsuit revolving around allegations that Apple surreptitiously activated Siri to record conversations through iPhones and other devices equipped with the virtual assistant for more than a decade. The alleged recordings occurred even when people didn’t seek to activate the virtual assistant with the trigger words, “Hey, Siri.” Some of the recorded conversations were then shared with advertisers in an attempt to sell their products to consumers more likely to be interested in the goods and services, the lawsuit asserted. The allegations about a snoopy Siri contradicted Apple’s long-running commitment to protect the privacy of its customers — a crusade that CEO Tim Cook has often framed as a fight to preserve “a fundamental human right.” Apple isn’t acknowledging any wrongdoing in the settlement, which still must be approved by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White. Lawyers in the case have proposed scheduling a February 14 court hearing in Oakland to review the terms. If the settlement is approved, tens of millions of consumers who owned iPhones and other Apple devices from Sept. 17, 2014, through the end of last year could file claims. Each consumer could receive up to $20 per Siri-equipped device covered by the settlement, although the payment could be reduced or …

Washington — A U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday the Federal Communications Commission did not have legal authority to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules.  The decision is a blow to the outgoing Biden administration that had made restoring the open internet rules a priority. President Joe Biden signed a 2021 executive order encouraging the FCC to reinstate the rules.  A three-judge panel of the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the FCC lacked authority to reinstate the rules initially implemented in 2015 by the agency under Democratic former President Barack Obama, but then repealed by the commission in 2017 under Republican former President Donald Trump.  Net-neutrality rules require internet service providers to treat internet data and users equally rather than restricting access, slowing speeds or blocking content for certain users. The rules also forbid special arrangements in which ISPs give improved network speeds or access to favored users.  The court cited the Supreme Court’s June decision in a case known as Loper Bright to overturn a 1984 precedent that had given deference to government agencies in interpreting laws they administer, in the latest decision to curb the authority of federal agencies. “Applying Loper Bright means we can end the FCC’s vacillations,” the court ruled.  The decision leaves in place state neutrality rules adopted by California and others but may end more than 20 years of efforts to give federal regulators sweeping oversight over the internet.  FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel called on Congress to act after the decision. “Consumers across …

Beijing has launched a series of retaliatory actions against U.S. technological sanctions, including cutting off supplies of rare earth elements and punishing American companies operating in China. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly warned of additional tariffs on Chinese exports, and analysts believe he will further tighten technological restrictions on China. What other cards might Beijing play on the 2025 U.S.-China trade and technology battlefield?    Click here for the full story in Mandarin. …

Quantum computing is emerging as a revolutionary technology capable of solving complex problems that traditional computers cannot address. The U.S. leads in quantum innovation, driven by companies like Google and IBM, robust government funding and top-tier research institutions. China, however, has rapidly advanced through massive state-led investments, dominating global quantum patents and establishing specialized research centers.    Click here for the full story in Mandarin. …

ATHENS, GREECE — Greece announced plans on Monday to enhance parental oversight of mobile devices in 2025 through a government-operated app that will help get digital age verification and browsing controls.  Dimitris Papastergiou, the minister of digital governance, said the Kids Wallet app, due to launch in March, was aimed at safeguarding children under the age of 15 from the risks of excessive and inappropriate internet use.  The app will be run by a widely used government services platform and operate in conjunction with an existing smartphone app for adults to carry digital identification documents.  “It’s a big change,” Papastergiou told reporters, adding that the app would integrate advanced algorithms to monitor usage and apply strict authentication processes.  “The Kids Wallet application will do two main things: It will make parental control much easier, and it will be our official national tool for verifying the age of users,” he said.  A survey published this month by Greek research organization KMOP found that 76.6% of children ages 9-12 have access to the internet via personal devices, 58.6% use social media daily, and 22.8% have encountered inappropriate content.  Many lack awareness of basic safety tools such as the block and report buttons, authors of the study said.  Papastergiou said the government was hoping to have the children’s app preinstalled on smartphones sold in Greece by the end of 2025.  While facing criticism from some digital rights and religious groups, government-controlled apps and online services — many introduced during the pandemic — are generally …

WASHINGTON — Chinese hackers remotely accessed several U.S. Treasury Department workstations and unclassified documents after compromising a third-party software service provider, the agency said Monday.  The department did not provide details on how many workstations had been accessed or what sort of documents the hackers may have obtained, but it said in a letter to lawmakers revealing the breach that “at this time there is no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury information.”  “Treasury takes very seriously all threats against our systems, and the data it holds,” the department said. “Over the last four years, Treasury has significantly bolstered its cyber defense, and we will continue to work with both private and public sector partners to protect our financial system from threat actors.”  The department said it learned of the problem on Dec. 8 when a third-party software service provider, BeyondTrust, flagged that hackers had stolen a key used by the vendor that helped it override the system and gain remote access to several employee workstations.  The compromised service has since been taken offline, and there’s no evidence that the hackers still have access to department information, Aditi Hardikar, an assistant Treasury secretary, said in the letter Monday to leaders of the Senate Banking Committee.  The department said it was working with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and that the hack had been attributed to Chinese culprits. It did not elaborate. …

Caracas, Venezuela — Venezuela’s highest court Monday fined TikTok $10 million in connection with viral challenges that authorities say left three adolescents dead from intoxication by chemical substances. Supreme Tribunal of Justice Judge Tania D’Amelio said that the popular video-sharing app had been negligent in failing to implement “necessary and adequate measures” to stop the spread of content encouraging the challenges. TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, was ordered to open an office in the South American country and given eight days to pay the fine or face “appropriate” measures. Venezuela would use the money to “create a TikTok victims fund, intended to compensate for the psychological, emotional and physical damages to users, especially if these users are children and adolescents,” D’Amelio said. The company told the court that it “understands the seriousness of the matter,” she said. According to Venezuelan authorities, three adolescents died and 200 were intoxicated in schools across the country after ingesting chemical substances as part of social media “challenges.” TikTok’s huge global success has been partly built on the success of its challenges — a call that invites users to create videos featuring dances, jokes or games that sometimes go viral. The app has been accused of putting users in danger with the spread of hazardous challenge videos. TikTok’s official policy prohibits videos promoting self-harm and suicide. In November, President Nicolas Maduro threatened “severe measures” against TikTok if it did not remove content related to what he called “criminal challenges.” Parliament is considering laws regulating …

For Makenzie Gilkison, spelling is such a struggle that a word like rhinoceros might come out as “rineanswsaurs” or sarcastic as “srkastik.”  The 14-year-old from suburban Indianapolis can sound out words, but her dyslexia makes the process so draining that she often struggles with comprehension. “I just assumed I was stupid,” she recalled of her early grade school years.  But assistive technology powered by artificial intelligence has helped her keep up with classmates. Last year, Makenzie was named to the National Junior Honor Society. She credits a customized AI-powered chatbot, a word prediction program and other tools that can read for her.  “I would have just probably given up if I didn’t have them,” she said.  New tech; countless possibilities Artificial intelligence holds the promise of helping countless  students with a range of visual, speech, language and hearing impairments to execute tasks that come easily to others. Schools everywhere have been wrestling with how and where to incorporate AI, but many are fast-tracking applications for students with disabilities.  Getting the latest technology into the hands of students with disabilities is a priority for the U.S. Education Department, which has told schools they must consider whether students need tools like text-to-speech and alternative communication devices. New rules from the Department of Justice also will require schools and other government entities to make apps and online content accessible to those with disabilities.  There is concern about how to ensure students using it — including those with disabilities — are still learning.  Students …