News

Amazon looks to self-driving future by acquiring Zoox

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon said Friday that it is buying self-driving technology company Zoox, which is developing an autonomous vehicle for a ride-hailing service that people would request on their phones. Seattle-based Amazon did not disclose how much it is paying for Zoox, which was founded six years ago in Foster City, California. Analysts […]

Facebook to label all rule-breaking posts - even Trump's

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Facebook said Friday that it will flag all “newsworthy” posts from politicians that break its rules, including those from President Donald Trump. CEO Mark Zuckerberg had previously refused to take action against Trump posts suggesting that mail-in ballots will lead to voter fraud, saying that people deserved to hear unfiltered statements […]

Verizon joins ad boycott of Facebook over hateful content

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Verizon is joining an escalating movement to siphon advertising away from Facebook in an effort to pressure the company into doing more to prevent racist and violent information from being shared on its social networking service. The decision announced Thursday by one of the world’s biggest telecommunications companies is part of […]

Data privacy, other measures qualify for California ballot

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California voters will weigh in this November on whether to expand a landmark data privacy law, alter a decades-old law that limits property taxes on businesses and exempt ride-hail giants Uber and Lyft from a new state labor law. They are among 11 measures Secretary of State Alex Padilla certified on […]

SoftBank's Son leaves Alibaba board following Ma's departure

TOKYO (AP) — Masayoshi Son, the chief executive of Japanese technology company SoftBank Group Corp., said Thursday that he is stepping down from the board of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Son announced the change at the end of SoftBank’s general shareholders’ meeting. He emphasized that the decision was a “happy” one and did not reflect […]

Detroit police challenged over face recognition flaws, bias

A Black man who was wrongfully arrested when facial recognition technology mistakenly identified him as a suspected shoplifter wants Detroit police to apologize — and to end their use of the controversial technology. The complaint by Robert Williams is a rare challenge from someone who not only experienced an erroneous face recognition hit, but was […]

Mercedes, NVIDIA to develop new automated driving system

DETROIT (AP) — Four days after shelving an autonomous vehicle agreement with BMW, Mercedes has announced a deal to work with chip and software maker NVIDIA. The companies said Tuesday that the two will create a computing and artificial intelligence system for automated driving. It will be rolled out starting in 2024 in the next […]

Despite green pledges, Amazon's carbon footprint grew 15%

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon said Tuesday that its carbon footprint rose 15% last year, even as it launched initiatives to reduce its harm on the environment. The online shopping giant said activities tied to its businesses emitted 51.17 million metric tons of carbon dioxide last year, the equivalent of 13 coal burning power plants […]

Apple previews new iPhone software, changes to Mac chips

Apple on Monday provided a glimpse at upcoming software changes designed to make the iPhone even easier to use and also announced a long-anticipated shift to a new type of chip to power its line of Mac computers. The preview of the next version of the iPhone’s operating system, known as iOS 14, highlighted Apple’s […]

Germany's Wirecard: Missing accounts probably don't exist

BERLIN (AP) — German payment service provider Wirecard said Monday it has concluded that two accounts that were supposed to contain 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) probably don’t exist, deepening troubles that last week prompted the resignation of its chief executive. Wirecard AG was once regarded as a star of the growing financial technology sector, […]