All Articles

Regulator contacts Meta over workers watching intimate AI glasses videos

Article URL: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0q33nvj0qpo Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47257020 Points: 7 # Comments: 1

Hong Kong unveils incentives to attract gold refiners and boost global hub plan

Hong Kong will roll out targeted measures to attract precious metals companies as part of broader efforts to establish itself as a premier global gold trading hub, according to the city’s agency tasked with attracting foreign direct investment. InvestHK will assist companies setting up headquarters in Hong Kong with site selection and applications for overseas certifications to enhance refining operations, Benjamin Wong Kwok-fan, the agency’s head of transport, logistics and industries, said in...

Seven tech giants signed Trump’s pledge to keep electricity costs from spiking around data centers

Trump summoned tech leaders to the White House on Wednesday, March 4, 2026 to sign pledges committing their companies to foot the electricity bill for energy-hungry data centers.  | Photo: Getty Images Leaders from Google, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, OpenAI, Amazon, and xAI met with President Donald Trump today to sign a "rate payer protection pledge." It's one way they're responding to growing bipartisan concerns about electricity rates rising as tech companies and the Trump administration rush to build out a new generation of AI data centers. "[Tech companies] need some PR help because people think that if a data center goes in, their electricity prices are going to go up," Trump said during the event. "Some centers were rejected by communities for that and now I think it's going to be the opposite." Trump signed a proclamation formally … Read the full story at The Verge.

Big tech companies agree to not ruin your electric bill with AI data centers

Today the White House announced that several major players in tech and AI have agreed to steps that will keep electricity costs from rising due to data centers. Under this Ratepayer Protection Pledge, companies are agreeing to practices that are intended to protect residents from seeing higher electricity costs as more and more businesses create power-hungry data centers. Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI have all apparently signed on. A few of the participants — Amazon, Google and Meta — had conveniently timed press releases patting themselves on the back for their participation and touting whatever other policies they have for mitigating the negative impacts of data center construction. The main provisions of the federal pledge have tech companies agreeing to "build, bring, or buy the new generation resources and electricity needed to satisfy their new energy demands, paying the full cost of those resources." It also claims they will pay for any needed power infrastructure upgrades and operate under separate rate structures for power that will see payments made whether or not the business uses that electricity. The pledge doesn't appear to be any form of binding agreement and there's no discussion of enforcement or a penalty for companies that don't honor the stipulated provisions. It also doesn't address any of the other impacts data centers and AI development might be having, either on local communities, on other utilities and resources, or on access to critical computing elements like RAM. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/big-tech-companies-agree-to-not-ruin-your-electric-bill-with-ai-data-centers-230102956.html?src=rss

Here’s how Google describes its fee-reducing Apps Experience and Games Level Up programs

Today, Google killed its 30 percent app store fee, partially uncoupled Google Play from Google Play Billing after they were declared an illegal monopoly in the US, and much more. From July, depending on where you live, Google will now generally charge developers 20 percent for in-app purchases, or 10 percent for subscriptions - but it's also carving out several new categories of app which might pay differently. One of them is the mysterious new "metaverse browsers" category, whose details have been redacted. But Google is public that two other programs, Apps Experience and Games Level Up will let developers save up to 5 percent more of th … Read the full story at The Verge.

Mark Zuckerberg downplays Meta's own research in New Mexico child safety trial

Jurors in a New Mexico child safety trial heard testimony from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg today. During pre-recorded testimony, Zuckerberg was repeatedly asked about the company's understanding of social media addiction and other issues that had been studied by its researchers.  During the deposition, which was recorded last March, Zuckerberg was asked about numerous findings from researchers at Meta who studied how the company's apps affect users and teens. The CEO downplayed the significance of many of these documents. Early in the testimony, which was viewed by Engadget on Courtroom View Network, Zuckerberg was questioned about a document on the effect of feedback on Facebook users. The document stated that "contributors on Facebook are likely to learn to associate the act of posting with feedback" which will "lead contributors to seek rewards by visiting the site more often.” Zuckerberg said he wasn’t “sure if that's actually how it works in practice, but I agree that you're summarizing what they appear to be saying.” Later, the CEO was questioned about a document that graphed the proportion of 11 and 12-year-olds who were monthly active users on Instagram. The chart indicated that at the time, around 20 percent of 11-year-olds were monthly users of the service. "I agree that the graph says that, I am not familiar with what methodology we were using to estimate this," Zuckerberg said. "I assume that if we had direct knowledge that any given person was under the age of 13, that we would have them removed from our services." New Mexico's attorney general sued the company in 2023 for alleged lapses in child safety, including facilitating predators' access to minors and building features it knew were addictive. In court, Meta's lawyers and executives have disputed the idea that social media should be considered an "addiction." In public statements, the company has said that lawsuits have relied on "cherry-picked quotes and snippets of conversations taken out of contex

Trump signs agreement with Big Tech to cover data center electricity costs

President Trump and major tech firms announced an agreement Wednesday to have Big Tech companies cover the cost of the electricity they consume as development of artificial intelligence shows no signs of stopping. Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI, and Amazon have agreed to sign onto the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge,” the White House said Wednesday,...

Epic and Google have signed a special deal for a new class of ‘metaverse’ apps

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Epic Games and Google are burying the hatchet, but documents released today reveal that they aren't only aligned on how Google is shaking things up for app stores. The two companies have also agreed to terms about a new class of apps that they're calling "metaverse browsers," according to a heavily redacted section of a revised binding term sheet. While the term "metaverse" has largely fallen out of favor - Mark Zuckerberg, for example, is now much more interested in AI - Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has been talking for years about the metaverse and how it might work in the future. (Depending on how you define the concept, Epic's Fortnite is alrea … Read the full story at The Verge.

Russia blames Ukrainian naval drones as tanker sinks in Mediterranean

The Arctic Metagaz went down between Libya and Malta after it was hit by explosions and a fire, Libyan officials say.

Regulator contacts Meta over workers watching intimate AI glasses videos

Videos, including of glasses-wearers using the toilet or having sex, are sometimes reviewed by a Kenya-based subcontractor.

Experto asegura que los fármacos para reducir la obesidad han revolucionado la expectativa en síndrome metabólico

Published: 20260304T134500Z

Aluminum Hits Highest Since 2022 as Alba Declares Force Majeure

Aluminum prices surged to the highest since 2022 after Aluminium Bahrain BSC suspended deliveries of metal to some customers under so-called force majeure clauses in its supply contracts.

Trump’s Iran timeline spurs concern over US weapons stockpiles

The U.S. will likely start to feel strain on its munition stockpiles if America's war with Iran stretches beyond the four-to-five-week timetable laid out by President Trump. The Trump administration has said that its biggest wave of attacks on Iran is coming in the days ahead. And Trump on Tuesday insisted that the U.S. can...

Zimbabwean child waste-pickers work ‘hazardous’ jobs to help their families

Boys as young as six scout for scrap metal to sell in a country where 14 percent of children have jobs.

Gold and silver flows disrupted as Iran war grounds flights

Dubai is key shipping hub for precious metals from Africa and Europe to Asia

Hunt for reactive metabolites uncovers unusual chemistry in a human pathogen

A glucocorticoid–FAS axis controls immune evasion during metastatic seeding

Lipid metabolism drives dietary effects on T cell ferroptosis and immunity

A metabolic alarmin from keratinocytes potentiates systemic humoral immunity

Meta signs a multimillion dollar AI licensing deal with News Corp

Meta has signed an AI licensing deal with News Corp that will allow the Meta AI maker to use content from The Wall Street Journal and other brands in its chatbot responses and for training of its AI models. News Corp confirmed to Engadget that it had struck a deal with Meta, but didn't provide specifics on the terms of the arrangement. According to The Wall Street Journal, Meta will pay News Corp. "up to $50 million a year" for a three-year deal that covers content from The Journal, as well as the media giant's other brands in the US and UK.  News Corp previously struck a five-year deal with OpenAI that was valued at around $250 million. During a recent appearance at Morgan Stanley's annual Technology, Media & Telecom (TMT) conference, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson hinted that the media company was in the "advanced stage with other negotiations." He described the company's overall approach to such arrangements as "a woo and a sue" strategy, depending on whether companies want to pay for content or scrape it without permission. "We have what you might call a woo and a sue strategy," he said. "We'll woo you. We'd like you to be our partner. But if you're stealing our stuff, we are going to sue you. So there'll be a discount for those who hand themselves in, and there'll be a penalty for those that resist." Meta didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. But the company, which has been reorganizing its AI teams as it looks to create its next model, has struck a number of licensing deals in recent months. It previously signed multi-year agreements with USA Today, People, CNN, Fox News and other outlets. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-signs-a-multimillion-dollar-ai-licensing-deal-with-news-corp-234157902.html?src=rss

Aluminum Traders Brace for Turmoil as Iran Crisis Chokes Supply

The Iran war is sending shock waves through the global aluminum industry, with manufacturers facing a spike in prices and traders expecting widespread suspensions of supply contracts unless flows through the Strait of Hormuz resume quickly. Aluminum is the most ubiquitous industrial metal after steel, but in recent years the market has been periodically rocked by supply shocks that have exposed fragilities in the complex network of bauxite mines, alumina refineries and aluminum smelters that supply to manufacturers around the world — often in highly specialized forms that can’t readily be replaced. Timna Tanners, Managing Director of Equity Research at Wells Fargo Securities, joins Bloomberg Businessweek Daily to discuss. She speaks with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec from the Bloomberg Invest conference in New York City. (Source: Bloomberg)

Grounded Flights in Middle East Stall Gold Flows From Dubai

The mass cancellation of flights to and from bullion hub Dubai has left traders unable to move their metal, highlighting the potential bottlenecks to physical gold flows that could emerge from war in the Middle East.

X to require AI labels on armed conflict videos from paid creators, citing ‘times of war’

X will suspend creators from its revenue sharing program if they post AI-generated videos depicting armed conflicts without disclosing they were made with AI. Head of product Nikita Bier announced the policy change on March 3, saying first-time violators will be cut off for 90 days and repeat offenders would be permanently removed from the program. Today we are revising our Creator Revenue Sharing policies to maintain authenticity of content on Timeline and prevent manipulation of the program. During times of war, it is critical that people have access to authentic information on the ground. With today’s AI technologies,… — Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) March 3, 2026 The policy is notably narrow, applying only to creators enrolled in the platform’s revenue sharing program and only to AI-generated videos of armed conflicts, not AI content in general or non-monetized accounts. Violations will be flagged through Community Notes, X's crowd-sourced fact-checking system, or by detecting metadata from generative AI tools. Bier framed the change as necessary “during times of war,” though the current conflict unfolding between the United States, Israel and Iran has not been formally, or at least not legally, declared a war. Of course, the US has not formally declared war since 1942. The quality of AI video generation has progressed at a rapid pace, and generated content has become almost indistinguishable from real footage for most viewers. X already watermarks images and videos generated by its Grok chatbot but has not previously required users to disclose AI-generated content. The platform is separately testing a broader AI labeling toggle that would let users mark any post as containing synthetic content, as first reported by Social Media Today, though X has not shared a timeline for that feature. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-to-require-ai-labels-on-armed-conflict-videos-from-paid-creators-citing-times-of-war-18363

Dear Meta Smart Glasses Wearers: You’re Being Watched, Too

Not for your eyes only.