California Investigating xAI for Creating Nonconsensual Intimate Images

California’s attorney general said the state had opened an investigation into Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, for generating sexualized images of women and children. The inquiry will examine whether xAI, which owns the social media platform X and created the AI chatbot Grok, violated state law by facilitating the creation of nonconsensual intimate images.

India Issues Final Warning to Apple About Antitrust Case

India has issued a final warning to Apple that it will proceed in an antitrust case against the U.S. tech giant as the company has delayed responses to officials for over a year and undermined the investigation, a confidential order shows. Apple has said it fears it could be fined up to $38 billion if India's competition watchdog uses its global turnover calculation for penalties, after an investigation found it had abused its position on its app store.

U.S. Used Cyberweapons to Assist in Attack on Venezuela

The cyberattack that plunged Venezuela’s capital into darkness was one of the most public displays of offensive U.S. cyber-capabilities in recent years. It showed that at least with a country like Venezuela, whose military does not have sophisticated defenses against cyberattacks, the United States could use cyberweapons with powerful and precise effects, including to interfere with air defense radar.

British Authorities Pressure X's Sexual Images as New Law Takes Effect

British authorities increased pressure on X, Elon Musk’s social media platform, after it was used to create and spread artificially generated sexual images of women and children. The government will begin more aggressively enforcing a law that makes it illegal for individuals to create nonconsensual intimate images, said Liz Kendall, Britain’s technology secretary.

Senate Bill Would Create Regulatory Framework for Cryptocurrency

U.S. senators unveiled draft legislation that would create a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency which, if ​signed into law, would clarify financial regulators' jurisdiction over the burgeoning sector, potentially boosting digital asset adoption. The crypto industry has long ‌pushed for such legislation, often arguing it is existential to the future of digital assets in the U.S. and necessary to fix core, longstanding problems for crypto companies.

Trump Wants Musk to Help Iranian Protesters Avoid Internet Blackout

President Donald Trump has appealed to Elon Musk to help Iranian protesters circumvent a government-imposed Internet blackout, underscoring the frontline role Musk’s satellite company Starlink is playing in U.S. foreign policy. Iran’s government disconnected its 90 million people from the Internet, in a drastic effort to quell massive nationwide protests against the regime.

Senate Approves Bill Allowing Victims to Sue Over AI Sex Images

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation that would allow victims to sue over nonconsensual, sexually explicit AI-generated images in response to a widening uproar over a flood of graphic content on billionaire Elon Musk’s X platform. Under the measure, known as the Defiance Act, victims would gain the federal civil right to sue perpetrators responsible for creating the pornographic images.

U.S. Commerce Department Drops Plan to Ban Chinese Drones

The U.S. Commerce Department said it has withdrawn a plan to impose restrictions on Chinese drones to address national security concerns after an earlier crackdown on passenger cars and trucks. Last month, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission barred imports of new models of foreign-made drones and critical components including from China's DJI and Autel on U.S. national security grounds.

Iran Experiencing 'Near-Total Internet Shutdown' Amid Economic Protests

Iran was plunged into a nationwide Internet blackout, Internet monitoring groups said, amid widespread protests over dire economic conditions and anger at the Islamic Republic. As the government cracked down in various cities, Internet connectivity data showed an abrupt and near-total drop in connection levels in Iran, according to NetBlocks, an internet monitoring group, and the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Internet Outage Detection and Analysis database.

Character.AI, Google Agree to Settle Suits Over Teen Suicides

An artificial-intelligence startup and Google have agreed to settle several lawsuits with families of teenagers who killed or harmed themselves after interacting with the startup’s chatbot, potentially resolving some of the most high-profile cases involving AI and mental health. The families had sued the maker of the popular chatbot Character.AI and Google in states including Florida, Colorado, Texas and New York for hurting their children and negligence.

More Judges Embracing AI Tools to Help Them Save Time

AI has a somewhat dubious reputation in the legal world, where lawyers in recent months have drawn ridicule and reprimand for submitting briefs riddled with citations to fictional cases and factual errors. But a growing contingent of judges are increasingly embracing AI to help them draft opinions, analyze court filings and quickly conduct legal research.

China Reviewing Meta's $2 Billion Acquisition of AI Startup Manus

Chinese officials are reviewing Meta's $2 billion acquisition of artificial intelligence startup Manus for possible technology control violations, the Financial Times reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. Chinese commerce ministry officials began assessing whether the relocation of Manus' staff and technology to Singapore and the consequent sale to Meta required an export license under Chinese law, the report said.

French Court Finds 10 People Guilty of Cyberbullying First Lady

A Paris court found 10 people guilty of cyberbullying France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, by spreading false online claims about her gender and sexuality, including allegations that she was born a male. One defendant was sentenced to six months in prison, while eight were handed suspended sentences between four and eight months. All 10 were ordered to attend cyberbullying awareness training.

Poland Wants EC to Probe TikTok Over Posts It Says Linked to Russia

Poland has asked the European Commission to investigate TikTok after the social media platform hosted artificial intelligence-generated content including calls for Poland to withdraw from the EU, it said, adding that the content was almost certainly Russian disinformation. A TikTok profile showing videos of young women dressed in Polish national colors and calling for Poland to leave the EU has gained popularity in recent weeks.

Reporter Sues AI Companies for Using Books Without Permission

An investigative reporter best known for exposing fraud at Silicon Valley blood-testing startup Theranos sued Elon Musk's xAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Meta Platforms, and Perplexity for using copyrighted books without permission to train their artificial intelligence systems. New York Times reporter and "Bad Blood" author John Carreyrou filed the lawsuit, opens new tab in California federal court with five other writers, accusing the AI companies of pirating their books and feeding them into the large language models (LLMs) that power the companies' chatbots.

U.S. Bars Five Prominent Europeans, Accuses Them of Censorship Online

The Trump administration is barring five prominent Europeans from the United States, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced, accusing them of being involved in online censorship of Americans, a claim they have disputed. The action sharply escalated the administration’s fight against European efforts to monitor content on major social media platforms, including Elon Musk’s X as well as Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Meta.

Google Sues Alleged Chinese Cybercriminals for Phishing

Alphabet Inc.’s Google filed a lawsuit against alleged Chinese cybercriminals, accusing the group of orchestrating a vast phishing campaign designed to dupe Americans into turning over their credit card numbers. The group, which Google refers to as “Darcula,” developed a malicious software kit that enables users with little technical knowledge to automatically send waves of text messages purporting to offer free versions of Google services such as YouTube Premium, according to the complaint.

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