THE HOT LIST. Why the FBI wants you to use end-to-end encrypted messaging. Think twice before sending your next text message. Or better yet, make sure you are using an end-to-end encryption method. Consumers regularly use different types of messaging technology from the biggest technology companies including Apple, Alphabet and Meta Platforms, including iMessage, Google Messages, WhatsApp and SMS, but the level of protection varies. Now, the U.S. government is expressing greater concern after a recent massive hack of the nation's largest telecom companies. Last month, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed a campaign by hackers associated with China, Salt Typhoon, that compromised AT&T and Verizon, and others, and was one of the largest hacks of U.S. infrastructure in history.
End-to-end encryption helps ensure that only the intended recipients can read your messages as they travel between your phone and another person's phone. WhatsApp, Signal among best end-to-end options RCS and iMessage. Google announces Android XR, Samsung headset launching 2025. Besides phones and tablets, Android is available on smartwatches, TVs, and even cars. Google today announced Android XR as the next form factor the operating system is coming to. Google is using the catch-all term of extended reality (XR) to describe virtual (VR), mixed (MR), and augmented reality (AR).
Android XR is for all device types, including headsets that offer video or optical see-through, screen-less “AI glasses,” and AR glasses with displays. Going into Android XR, Google believes it has a proven track record of creating platforms. That is more than just making an operating system for themselves, but also catering to OEM partners, cultivating a developer ecosystem, and managing an app store. However, Google has done all this before to a lesser extent with Glass, and to a greater degree with Daydream VR.
Google thinks this time will be different, and believes that the vision it had with Glass/Daydream was correct, but that the technology wasn’t ready. How Black Culture Shaped Google’s 2024 ‘Year In Search’ Google has officially released its “Year In Search” for 2024. This yearly recap reveals what has kept the world connected, entertained, and curious. Black culture and figures consistently dominate Google searches across all categories, and this year is no different. From Kamala Harris’s historic presidential run to Katt Williams' world-rocking interview on “Club Shay Shay,” these search trends underscore the global resonance of Black culture and its role as a driver of enterprise, entertainment, and social consciousness.
Politics and Leadership: Kamala Harris and the Election The 2024 election season was one of the most pivotal in recent history, making it no surprise that the “US Election” was the #1 trending search domestically and globally. Black voters, particularly women, are widely recognized as the “backbone” of the Democratic Party and played a key role in shaping national discourse this year via social media and other platforms.
Usher: A Legacy Reinvented Simone O.J. OpenAI makes ChatGPT available for phone chats. Sam Altman, co-founder and C.E.O. of OpenAI, speaks during the New York Times annual DealBook summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center on December 04, 2024 in New York City. Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images OpenAI is giving users a new way to talk to its viral chatbot: 1-800-CHATGPT. By dialing the U.S. number (1-800-242-8478) or messaging it via WhatsApp, users can access an "easy, convenient, and low-cost way to try it out through familiar channels," OpenAI said Wednesday.
At first, the company said callers will get 15 minutes free per month. The news follows a barrage of updates from OpenAI as part of a 12-day release event. OpenAI recently hired its first chief marketing officer, indicating plans to spend more on advertising to grow its user base. OpenAI closed its latest funding round in October at a valuation of $157 billion. The team built the tool "just a few weeks ago," an employee said on the livestream.
WATCH: How Sam Altman is tackling a growing threat to the future of OpenAI. UMG's Virgin Music Group Acquires Downtown For $775 Million. Universal Music Group’s Virgin Music Group said on Monday it agreed to buy Downtown Music Holdings for $775 million cash in a deal that will bolster the world’s largest music company’s slice of the independent music segment. Founded in 2007 in New York, Downtown Music Holdings is the parent company of the direct-to-creator distributor CD Baby, and the direct-to-business technology and distribution platform FUGA, as well as SongTrust and several other companies. Billboard reported in June that Downtown’s board of directors was considering a sale, as its long-time backer the family of the late Douglas Myers was looking to sell its stake. Mounting investor interest in the fast-growing independent sector of the music industry has driven a number of deals this year, with the major music companies competing on certain deals in order to maintain and grow their market share serving and distributing the music of do-it-yourself artists, songwriters and indie labels.
The Edgelord AI That Turned a Shock Meme Into Millions in Crypto. Bitcoin 2025 Price Outlooks Range From $45,000 to $250,000: Wall Street - Markets Insider. Bitcoin has surged 145% in 2024, topping $106,000 over the weekend. Bitcoin's rise is fueled by bullishness around the incoming Trump administration.Forecasters at opposite ends of the spectrum predict that bitcoin's value could range from $45,000 to as high as $500,000.
Bitcoin has been on a tear in 2024, surging 145% year-to-date and breaching the psychological $106,000 in recent days. The volatile cryptocurrency has been a polarizing asset, but with an incoming Trump administration, combined with the launch of bitcoin ETFs earlier this year, it seems more and more investors are starting to embrace bitcoin. But not everyone is bullish, and there are some on Wall Street who still see a coming correction in 2025. Here are the biggest bear and bull cases for the token next year. Bitcoin will fall to $45,000: BCA Research Chief global strategist Peter Berezin of BCA Research expects bitcoin to crash in 2025.
The three-times levered ETF seeks to track daily movements in the Nasdaq 100 Index. Why Are Women CEOs Still So Underrepresented In Music’s Top Roles? In July, six women — Taylor Swift, Gracie Abrams, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan, Ariana Grande and Charli XCX — cracked the top 10 of the Billboard 200, the first time that had happened since 2019.
And when Grammy nominations were announced Nov. 8, six of the eight slots for record, album and song of the year were headlined by women — the second year in a row women had such high representation in the major categories. Women artists are ruling pop music in 2024. At the major companies that power these superstars, however, women have been leaving powerful roles — moves that have rattled other women fighting for inclusion and influence at the top of the business. Between Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music and Warner Music Group (WMG) — the three major music companies — there were four labels that started this year with women CEOs: Capitol Music Group’s Michelle Jubelirer, Atlantic Music Group’s Julie Greenwald, Epic Records’ Sylvia Rhone and UMG Nashville’s Cindy Mabe.
Meta asks California AG to block OpenAI’s switch from non-profit to for-profit. Dear General Bonta:As a California company that builds Generative AI technology, Meta Platforms, Inc. (“Meta”) is deeply concerned about OpenAI’s attempt to shed the non-profit status under which it was founded in order to establish a for-profit entity. We urge you to review this proposed transaction, including the nature and timing of any transfer of assets from OpenAI’s non-profit entity to other entities. Failing to hold OpenAI accountable for its choice to form as a non-profit could lead to a proliferation of similar start-up ventures that are notionally charitable until they are potentially profitable.
The People of California have direct and urgent interests in stopping this behavior. Former OpenAI Employee Who Died by Suicide Tied to Key AI Court Case. Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher, died by suicide late last month.After he left the company, Balaji raised questions about OpenAI possibly violating copyright law.His name appears in a New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI that could have far-reaching implications. Eight days before the former OpenAI researcher Suchir Balaji was found dead in a San Francisco apartment, the 26-year-old's name appeared in a lawsuit against his former employer that could have significant implications for the future of AI and the internet. The lawsuit — filed by The New York Times last December — accused OpenAI and Microsoft of using "millions" of articles published by the newspaper without permission to train the AI startup's popular ChatGPT model.
The companies have denied that they violated copyright law. On November 18, the Times' attorneys asked a judge to add Balaji as a "custodian" in the lawsuit, according to court documents viewed by Business Insider. For Hollywood, AI Is a Double-Edged Sword. Almost every time Robert Zemeckis called cut on a scene in Here, Tom Hanks would run back to the playback monitors. The veteran actor had been on dozens of sets through his 40-year career but nothing like this. On Here, he plays a character whose arc is traced from high school to senior citizen with the help of a generative AI tool from VFX studio Metaphysic. For every shot he was going to be de-aged, there were two monitors. One showed what the cameras were capturing. The other showed him in the scenes at various ages in real time, as if he came straight from shoots on Splash or Saving Private Ryan. After seeing the takes, he would adjust his physicality to walk with a bit more spring in his step or appear stiffer getting up off the couch, depending on his age in the scene.
Rewind just a couple of years, and a movie like Here would not get greenlit. Since the filming of Here last year, production of movies and TV shows of all sizes has approached historic lows. OpenAI Pauses Sora Video Sign-Ups Due To Surging Demand At Launch. Eager to try OpenAI’s Sora text-to-video tool now that it’s launched to the public? Looks like you’re going to have to be patient. At 10 a.m. PT on Monday, the San Francisco-based company made its generative AI product available to anyone with a paid ChatGPT Plus or Pro subscription, but later paused the ability to create new accounts, citing strong demand. “We’re currently experiencing heavy traffic and have temporarily disabled Sora account creation,” a message on Sora.com reads.
“If you've never logged into Sora before, please check back again soon.” OpenAI declined to comment on how many people were able to create accounts so far or when the capability will resume, though users who did gain access are sharing their creations on social media. What Is OpenAI’s Sora Video Tool? Sora produces short, high-fidelity videos from written text prompts, and users can also input their own visual assets for remixing and blending.
Artists Behind Sora Leak Speak Out. G-Unit Streaming: 50 Cent, Lionsgate Launch Exclusive Action Channel on Roku – Yo! Tech This Out. Image Credit: Roku Dec 8, 2024 In a groundbreaking collaboration, renowned rapper and entrepreneur 50 Cent, along with Lionsgate, has announced the launch of the “50 Cent Action Channel” exclusively on Roku. Set to debut on December 10, the channel will showcase a curated selection of action-packed films and TV shows handpicked by the artist himself. Drawing from Lionsgate’s extensive library of over 20,000 titles, the channel will feature high-octane blockbusters such as “The Expendables,” “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” and “Rambo,” along with TV series including the hit show “Power.” Additionally, fans can look forward to themed programming centered around 50 Cent’s music, like a heist-themed lineup inspired by his album “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” featuring films such as “Empire State,” “Reservoir Dogs,” and “Man on a Ledge.”
Crypto debates Google’s quantum breakthrough as bitcoin investors urge calm - Sherwood News. Breaking a coin to bits… The crypto industry’s head was on a swivel this week after a Google announcement that some investors feared could threaten the foundation of bitcoin. On Monday the tech giant said its latest “quantum chip” (meet Willow) solved a computation in under five minutes that’d take modern supercomputers 10 septillion years to work out. Crypto’s concern: quantum computers could one day undermine bitcoin’s encryption (as well as other coins’ security) and in the process defeat the integrity of the $2T blockchain.
Showin’ cracks: Hodlers use their private keys — an alphanumeric code generated alongside a public key — to move their bitcoin. Quantum computers have the potential to defeat this mathematical protection.Nakamot-oh wait: The price of bitcoin slid after Google’s announcement, but as of yesterday had largely clawed back the loss. Keep calm and hodl on? Google's Gemini 2.0 Is Here – and It's All About AI Agents. Google unveiled Gemini 2.0, enhancing the AI product's capabilities.Gemini 2.0 focuses on agentic AI, improving multi-step problem-solving.Google's Project Astra and Mariner showcase advanced AI integration with popular services. It's December, which apparently means it's time for all the AI companies to show off what they've been working on for the past year. Not to be left out, Google lifted the lid on its next-generation AI model, Gemini 2.0, which it promises is a big step up in smarts and capabilities.
If the theme of Gemini 1.0 was multimodality — an ability to combine and understand different types of information, such as text and images — Gemini 2.0 is all about agents, AI that can act more autonomously and solve multi-step problems with limited human input. Users can test out some of Gemini 2.0's new abilities this week, including a new "Deep Research" feature that will have Gemini scour the web for information on a topic and prepare it in an easy-to-read report. Related stories. The Irreplaceable Value of Human Decision-Making in the Age of AI. Media Deals Outlook: "Pent-Up Demand" to Fuel Big Year in 2025.
If the prevailing wisdom among media executives the last several years was “it’s not worth trying to buy our rival, or scale up with a bolt-on acquisition, because it’ll get tangled up in red tape government reviews” then, post-Election Day, the mood has swung the other way rapidly to “expect a deal bonanza next year.” Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers’ latest closely-watched forecast formalizes this sentiment: “we expect a robust 2025 M&A market due to pent-up demand which may have been sidelined due to regulatory concerns,” its media and telecom deals outlook, released Thursday, forecasts. Trump’s pick for the FTC chair, Andrew Ferguson, has pitched that he’d like to “reverse Lina Khan’s anti-business agenda” by repealing “burdensome regulations” while the President-elect’s choice of Brendan Carr for FCC chair was greeted warmly by media companies (Comcast, Nexstar offered congrats) as well as industry trade organizations (The National Association of Broadcasters).
Meta to Open $10B AI Data Center in Louisiana. Warner Bros Discovery Steps Toward Separating TV Channels From Studios. Google unveils 'mind-boggling' quantum computing chip. Jack Ma Pushes AI Drive in Rare Speech Since Ant Crackdown. OpenAI Adds $200 Monthly ChatGPT Pro Subscription With New Model. Vox Media Lays Off Staff at Its Lifestyle Brands As Part of Reorg. Dia is the The Browser Company’s AI-powered follow-up to Arc. Generating Worlds. AI-Powered Holograms Converse at AWS re:Invent 2024. Google says its new AI models can identify emotions — and that has experts worried.