AI was going to progress, the same as #crypto, no matter who won.

Technology doesnt depend upon politicians. We are looking at global situation meaning that is one country stifles, another benefits.

The breakthrough is in the process of “ultra-high time precision synchronization,” which permits the beams from joining together and focusing on a single location, according to the South China Morning Post.

The Chinese research team is now able to generate precision amongst the smaller lasers that exceed the accuracy of atomic clocks, according to the Independent.

The time separation between the smaller lasers cannot exceed 170 picoseconds — or trillionths of a second, according to scientists, the South China Morning Post reported.

Researchers were able to achieve this result with the help of optical fibers.

That massive technological development — made possible due to the use of optical fibers — has allowed the weapon system to pass military testing, according to the outlet.

Chinese officials say that the weapon can be used to suppress the signals of American GPS and other satellites, according to the South China Morning Post.

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The problem is the media is so full of crap and used scare tactics to a level never seen.

Do not believe most of what they tell you...about either candaidate.

The regulators charged in June that the iPhone maker, helmed by CEO Tim Cook, had breached the bloc’s tech rules. The charge against Apple was the first by the Commission under its Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The fine is likely to come this month although the timing could still change, the sources said.

The fine would add to Apple’s mounting antitrust troubles, as EU regulators attempt to level the playing field for smaller firms.

This comes just months after Brussels fined Apple 1.84 billion euros ($2.01 billion) in March for thwarting competition from music streaming rivals via restrictions on its App Store – Apple’s first ever penalty for breaching EU rules.

Apple also faces an investigation into new fees imposed on app developers. DMA violations could result in a fine of as much as 10% of a company’s global annual turnover.

The Digital Markets Act (DMA), which came into force earlier this year, requires Apple to allow users to set the default web browser of their choice on iPads, permit alternative app stores on its operating system and allow headphones and smart pens to access iPad OS features.

Apple declined to comment. The European Commission did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Apple also lost a long-running court battle with the EU in September, resulting in the company being forced to pay 13 billion euros in back taxes to Ireland.

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“Trump’s pro-crypto stance is expected not only to invigorate the US virtual-asset industry, but also to encourage Hong Kong to further relax its own virtual-asset policies in its quest to become a global Web3 hub,” said Livio Weng, chief executive of Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency trading platform HashKey Exchange.
“This shift could also positively influence regulatory attitudes toward virtual assets in mainland China,” he added.

That reflects the enthusiasm of many Mandarin-speaking crypto-focused users on Elon Musk’s X, as they posted their congratulations to Trump on the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter, while also extolling a new all-time high reached by bitcoin on Wednesday, with some expressing good days ahead for the industry.

At one point on Wednesday, bitcoin prices reached above US$75,000, having gained more than 66 per cent since the start of this year.

Once a cryptocurrency critic, Trump in July vowed during his campaign that the US would become the “bitcoin superpower of the world” under his administration and that he would fire “on day one” Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler, who ramped up scrutiny of the crypto sector.

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$BTC got happy as well when Trump got elelected and reached new ath.

Trump Media & Technology Group said the figure includes $12.1 million in legal fees in the quarter, stemming from its acquisition of TV streaming technology in August and residual fees related to its SPAC deal in March. It was the company’s third straight quarterly loss since going public in March.

It also reported $3.9 million in research and development spend.

Shares of the company reversed earlier losses in extended trading and were last trading about 2% higher.

The report comes as the presidential election is in the final stretch, with polls showing Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris running neck and neck, as the world awaits the results of one of the most unusual elections in modern US history.

Shares of Trump Media, which operates the Truth Social media platform, have seen wild swings in recent days with the stock serving as something of a proxy for Trump’s chances of election.

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Yeah it has been a big news in europe that germanys car manufactor are doing so poorly.

It's an industry that Trump talked little about until recently but has counted on for large amounts of cash for his campaign and related PACs. Getting that money required him to make big promises pertaining to the crypto industry.

Digital asset markets surged on Election Night, with bitcoin hitting a record of over $75,000, as his victory began looking likely. Crypto-linked stocks like Coinbase and MicroStrategy moved higher as well in after-hours trading Tuesday.

With a Republican-controlled Senate on the horizon, Trump has few roadblocks to putting in place a more pro-crypto platform. Here are some of the things he's pledged to do:

Strategic national crypto stockpile
In Nashville in July, Trump headlined the biggest bitcoin conference of the year. In his keynote address, the former president said that if he returned to the White House, he would ensure the federal government never sells off its bitcoin holdings. However, he stopped short of proposing a formal federal reserve of digital currency.

'On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler'
In public remarks for months, Trump has promised to unseat U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler.

"On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler," Trump said, referencing the Joe Biden-appointed SEC chairman who has taken an aggressive approach to crypto regulation.

All bitcoin will be mined in America
In June in Palm Beach, Florida, about a dozen bitcoin mining executives and experts sat down with Trump for an hour and a half in a small tea room at the Mar-a-Lago Club. The closed-door session marked the first time the former president took a meeting with the technologists securing the $1.5 trillion bitcoin network by running large banks of high-powered machines.

Fed rate cuts
In August, Trump said that, if elected, he would lower interest rates.

The Federal Reserve, which guides the country's monetary policy, sets the benchmark rate. It also, by design, operates independently from the White House.

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I'm just hoping he wasn't lying but it's clear people trusted his promises because looks at the rise of Bitcoin right now, everybody believes it'll do well so they'll investing

Lets see if he really is the $BTC president all crypto bros wishes.

"Investors think this is a sign Nintendo's next device will not be a risky experiment but rather a continuation," Serkan Toto, CEO of Tokyo-based games consultancy Kantan Games, told CNBC.

"I believe investors want Nintendo to adopt the iPhone approach of gradually improving a winning product instead of trying to reinvent the wheel with every new console generation."

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That came on the back of a 25% increase in active customers, with Wise reporting a total of 11.4 million consumer and business clients.

Revenues at the money transfer platform climbed 19% year-on-year for the period to £591.9 million, Wise reported Wednesday.

Shares of Wise surged as much as 8% shortly after the London market opened Wednesday, adding to gains from Tuesday on a partnership with Standard Chartered to power the bank's cross-border payments offering for retail customers.

The stock was last up almost 5.5% as of 10 a.m. London time.

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Fubo Faces Potential Bankruptcy as Venu Sports Looms

FuboTV, a live TV streaming service, is facing a potential existential threat from Venu Sports, a new streaming service backed by Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery. Fubo has filed a lawsuit to block the launch of Venu Sports, arguing that it would give these media giants an unfair advantage by allowing them to bypass traditional distribution channels.

If Fubo loses the lawsuit, it could lose hundreds of thousands of subscribers to Venu Sports. This would be a significant blow to Fubo, which has yet to turn a profit and has been struggling to attract and retain subscribers. The potential loss of subscribers could lead to financial difficulties and even bankruptcy for the company.

The streaming wars are heating up, with major media companies spending billions of dollars on content. Disney, Netflix, Comcast, and other companies are investing heavily in original programming and exclusive content to attract and retain subscribers. This aRMs race is putting pressure on smaller streaming services like Fubo, which may not have the resources to compete.

Comcast is also facing challenges from the increasing demand for streaming content. The company's network experienced record traffic during the week of October 21st, due to the NFL game on Amazon and the pre-download of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. This highlights the growing strain on Internet infrastructure and the need for continued investment in network capacity.

Fubo's future is uncertain, but the company is fighting to survive. The outcome of the lawsuit against Venu Sports will have a significant impact on the company's ability to compete in the streaming market. If Fubo loses, it could be forced to make significant changes to its business model or even exit the market altogether.

Biren, which Washington placed on a trade blacklist last year, has conducted a “deep” collaboration in LLM development and reasoning with Infinigence AI, boosting the training capacity of its graphics processing units (GPUs) by nearly 100 per cent, the chipmaker said in a statement on Tuesday.

Infinigence offers on-demand compute based on chips from brands including Nvidia, AMD, Huawei Technologies, Cambricon, Iluvatar Corex, and Moore Threads via its cloud platform Infini AI, which it unveiled in April.

The platform integrates 10 different chips, and has been used by leading Chinese AI start-ups Zhipu AI and MiniMax to develop models and applications. Infinigence added Biren’s GPU cluster to Infini AI on Tuesday, along with the associated software development tools, Biren said.

China’s chip development ecosystem continues to show resilience amid concerns of technological decoupling, as the US has continued to tighten access to advanced GPUs and other semiconductor technologies. Many Chinese AI start-ups face challenges in accessing enough compute resources for developing AI models. Difficulties include obtaining pricey Nvidia GPUs and lacking the technological skills needed to best optimise hardware for specific software.

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Some $40 million of crypto money was directed at defeating Brown, with one PAC paying for five ads designed to boost awareness of Moreno, a businessman who worked as a luxury car dealer and had virtually no name recognition going into the contest.

The race was also a litmus test for whether the more than $245 million raised by the crypto industry this cycle would prove effective at the ballot box. The Ohio contest drew more ad spending than any Senate race in history, and was the biggest single target of crypto money this cycle.

Brown was unpopular with crypto fans, in part because he backed Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in holding hearings on whether digital tokens were tied to terrorism. He voted against pro-crypto legislation, called for more regulation of the sector, and regularly posted anti-crypto rhetoric on social media.

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The database needs a lot more. It is hungry.

Still need your news threadcast.

SEO is likely dying. In an agentic internet, this is not going to be important since the website is not going to be the base unit of the Internet.

Perplexity started the year with a roughly $500 million valuation. Since then, the company has continued to attract investor interest amid the generative AI boom, raising four funding rounds so far this year.

Last week, OpenAI launched a search feature within ChatGPT, its viral chatbot, that positioned it to better compete with Perplexity, as well as leading search engines like Google and Microsoft's Bing. OpenAI's search feature offers up-to-the-minute sports scores, stock quotes, news, weather and more, powered by real-time web search and partnerships with news and data providers, according to the company.

Despite the AI boom, Perplexity has been embroiled in controversy due to accusations of plagiarizing content from media outlets. The New York Times last month sent Perplexity a "cease and desist" notice, claiming that the startup scrapes the news outlet's content to generate answers. Perplexity has denied the allegations.

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NBC News projected that Trump will defeat Vice President Kamala Harris after winning 276 Electoral College Votes, including some key swing states.

"With the crypto markets experiencing low volatility in the lead up to the election as the industry looks to gain clarity on future regulatory conditions, traders are bracing for volatility once results start to come out," said Chris Chung, CEO at Titan, a decentralized exchange aggregator built on the Solana blockchain. "Certain sectors that have buoyed prices, such as the renewed interest in memecoins, may experience major price movements as individual states report election results."

In the lead-up to Election Day, memecoins and AI-related crypto tokens outperformed the overall crypto market. The sector of the crypto market is used as a measure of retail investors' risk appetite.

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The company unveiled a new extended range charging system for its EVs, known as Kunpeng Super Electric System, during its corporate AI Day on Wednesday in Guangzhou, its operational base in southern Guangdong province.

Kunpeng will be the new benchmark in the industry capable of achieving more than 1,400km and a pure- electric range of 430km, Xpeng claimed, suggesting the carmaker will be producing hybrid models in the near future to complement its current all-electric line-up.

“The Kunpeng system will accelerate Xpeng’s globalisation process by addressing the limitations of charging infrastructure overseas,” founder and CEO He Xiaopeng said at the event. “We need to be prepared for the challenges.”

The range-extended system will make Xpeng’s AI-powered vehicles available in more regions globally to meet climate and infrastructure conditions, the CEO said. The firm plans to expand to around 60 countries by end-2025 and set up over 300 overseas sales and services centres, he added on Wednesday.

Extended-range EVs (EREVs) are a type of plug-in hybrid car, equipped with a small internal combustion engine which generates additional power to charge the battery when needed. The hybrids can also be charged directly using a power cable.

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In a press release, the Commission said it’s concerned that Corning may have abused a dominant position for global supply of protective glass screens for handheld electronic devices, which may have resulted in distorted competition. In the Commission’s own words, Corning signed “anti-competitive exclusive supply agreements” with mobile phone manufacturers and companies that process raw glass (also known as OEMs and finishers, respectively).

“The Commission is concerned that the agreements that Corning put in place with OEMs and finishers may have excluded rival glass producers from large segments of the market, thereby reducing customer choice, increasing prices, and stifling innovation to the detriment of consumers worldwide,” the EU wrote.

The Commission said it will now carry out an in-depth investigation as a matter of priority. There’s no fixed timeline for concluding such a probe so it remains to be seen whether or not the EU will confirm any breach. But if it does, penalties for competition violations can be up to 10% of global revenue.

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A imagem foi capturada em 24 de outubro, e a empresa a publicou no X/Twitter no dia 30. “Quer esse impacto tenha sido de um micrometeoroide ou de um pedaço de lixo espacial, a colisão destaca a necessidade de operações espaciais responsáveis em órbita e nos faz refletir sobre a resiliência do satélite contra esses tipos de eventos”, escreveram os membros da NanoAvionics em um comunicado.

Os detalhes do impacto ainda não estão claros. A NanoAvionics também não tem informações exatas de quando a colisão aconteceu, já que a câmera não havia tirado fotos do local afetado por 18 meses antes da identificação da pequena abertura. Felizmente, o buraco é tão pequeno que não afetou a produção de energia do satélite.

Este incidente traz atenção para o problema crescente do lixo espacial, que coloca em risco satélites como este e até espaçonaves tripuladas. Apesar de o MP42 ser pequeno, estruturas de maior porte, como a Estação Espacial Internacional, ficam mais expostas ao perigo das colisões com objetos em órbita. E pedaços de detritos espaciais maiores existem em menor quantidade, mas são capazes de destruir completamente um satélite.

A Agência Espacial Europeia estima que existam mais de um milhão de objetos com até 1m cm de diâmetro em órbita. Enquanto isso, outros 40.500 detritos orbitais com mais de 10 cm se movem rapidamente ao redor do planeta; cerca de 36 mil deles podem ser monitorados, o que permite que as operadoras dos satélites podem realizar manobras de desvio para evitar colisões.

As ações da Tesla registraram um aumento de 12,05% por volta de 11h durante as negociações de pré-mercado. Musk, vale lembrar, é o acionista majoritário da fabricante de carros elétricos.

O crescimento ocorre após o apoio do bilionário ao candidato republicano Donald Trump, com contribuições milionárias para a campanha. Diante da aproximação entre ambos, o político chegou a chamar o executivo da Tesla de “super gênio”.

O candidato republicano também pretende implementar tarifas em importações de produtos chineses, segundo a Forbes. Tal demanda pode acirrar a disputa no mercado americano de carros elétricos, o que beneficiaria a Tesla e impactaria empresas como a BYD.

Além da Tesla, Musk tem participações em outras empresas, como a SpaceX, e é proprietário do X (ex-Twitter). Atualmente, o executivo ocupa o posto de homem mais rico do mundo, com uma fortuna estimada em US$ 264,7 bilhões.

A alta acontece após o início da apuração da eleição dos Estados Unidos nesta terça-feira (5). Conforme apontado pela projeção do jornal New York Times, Trump já conquistou mais de 270 delegados do colégio eleitoral e será o próximo presidente dos Estados Unidos.

O problema parece afetar usuários do Waze no Brasil e em outros países, com diversas reclamações no X (antigo Twitter). Um perfil relatou que o app mudou idioma, unidades de medida e até o ícone do veículo no mapa.

Prints obtidos pelo Canaltech mostram que a mudança repentina afeta o menu principal do aplicativo. O site Downdetector, que registra instabilidades em plataformas digitais, notou um pico de mais de mais de 400 reclamações sobre o app às 9 horas da manhã (horário de Brasília) de hoje.

O Canaltech entrou em contato com o Waze e ainda aguarda um retorno — a matéria poderá ser atualizada com uma eventual resposta. Aparentemente, a situação afeta apenas o aplicativo de navegação, visto que outros softwares instalados nos celulares seguem com o idioma padrão do aparelho.

O recurso chamado X-Ray Recaps pode criar textos sobre temporadas inteiras, episódios individuais ou até um trecho de um episódio específico, caso o espectador tenha perdido alguma cena crucial do capítulo e não queira voltar alguns minutos na reprodução. A empresa garante que a ferramenta não traz spoilers e evita o trabalho de procurar por um resumo na internet.

O texto pode trazer alguns detalhes importantes, como acontecimentos marcantes e mudanças vividas pelos personagens da história. Os resumos são úteis para refrescar a memória quando uma nova temporada de uma série entra no catálogo (normalmente, são feitos em vídeo antes do primeiro capítulo), mas a novidade da Amazon permite criar textos personalizados para diferentes etapas do seriado.

A novidade, ainda em fase de testes, fica disponível dentro da ferramenta X-Ray, que apresenta informações sobre o elenco em cena e a trilha sonora do capítulo. O usuário pode escolher entre recapitular uma temporada inteira ou selecionar um episódio específico para conferir o trecho em texto.

De acordo com a empresa, o recurso usa a tecnologia do Amazon Bedrock com modelos de IA treinados na plataforma Amazon SageMaker para analisar vários segmentos de vídeo, extrair textos e diálogos e gerar as descrições. O modelo de IA conta com alguns mecanismos para evitar os spoilers e criar textos coerentes.

Por enquanto, a novidade foi liberada apenas nos Estados Unidos nos dispositivos Fire TV, com previsão de ampliá-lo para mais aparelhos até o final do ano. Ainda não há informações sobre a distribuição a outros países.

Os resumos do X-Ray podem ser usados em todas as séries originais da Amazoon com o MGM Studios, o que inclui Daisy Jones and The Six, The Boys e Upload.

The situation arose when Alaska’s Education Commissioner, Deena Bishop, used generative AI to draft the cellphone policy. The document produced by the AI included supposed scholarly references that were neither verified nor accurate, yet the document did not disclose the use of AI in its preparation. Some of the AI-generated content reached the Alaska State Board of Education and Early Development before it could be reviewed, potentially influencing board discussions.

Commissioner Bishop later claimed that AI was used only to “create citations” for an initial draft and asserted that she corrected the errors before the meeting by sending updated citations to board members. However, AI “hallucinations”—fabricated information generated when AI attempts to create plausible yet unverified content—were still present in the final document that was voted on by the board.

The final resolution, published on DEED’s website, directs the department to establish a model policy for cellphone restrictions in schools. Unfortunately, the document included six citations, four of which seemed to be from respected scientific journals. However, the references were entirely made up, with URLs that led to unrelated content. The incident shows the risks of using AI-generated data without proper human verification, especially when making policy rulings.

Alaska’s case is not one of a kind. AI hallucinations are increasingly common in a variety of professional sectors. For example, some legal professionals have faced consequences for using AI-generated, fictitious case citations in court. Similarly, academic papers created using AI have included distorted data and fake sources, presenting serious credibility concerns. When left unchecked, generative AI algorithms, which are meant to produce content based on patterns rather than factual accuracy, can easily produce misleading citations.

The reliance on AI-generated data in policymaking, particularly in education, carries significant risks. When policies are developed based on fabricated information, they may misallocate resources and potentially harm students. For instance, a policy restricting cellphone use based on fabricated data may divert attention from more effective, evidence-based interventions that could genuinely benefit students.

Furthermore, using unverified AI data can erode public trust in both the policymaking process and AI technology itself. Such incidents underscore the importance of fact-checking, transparency, and caution when using AI in sensitive decision-making areas, especially in education, where impact on students can be profound.

Alaska officials attempted to downplay the situation, referring to the fabricated citations as “placeholders” intended for later correction. However, the document with the “placeholders” was still presented to the board and used as the basis for a vote, underscoring the need for rigorous oversight when using AI.

The research – conducted by MHP – surveyed 4,700 car drivers across China, the US, Germany, the UK, Italy, Sweden, and Poland, revealing significant geographical disparities in AI acceptance and understanding.

According to the study, while AI is becoming integral to modern vehicles, European consumers remain hesitant about its implementation and value proposition.

The study found that 48 percent of Chinese respondents view in-car AI predominantly as an opportunity, while merely 23 percent of European respondents share this optimistic outlook. In Europe, 39 percent believe AI’s opportunities and risks are broadly balanced, while 24 percent take a negative stance, suggesting the risks outweigh potential benefits.

Understanding of AI technology also varies significantly by region. While over 80 percent of Chinese respondents claim to understand AI’s use in cars, this figure drops to just 54 percent among European drivers, highlighting a notable knowledge gap.

Marcus Willand, Partner at MHP and one of the study’s authors, notes: “The figures show that the prospect of greater safety and comfort due to AI can motivate purchasing decisions. However, the European respondents in particular are often hesitant and price-sensitive.”

The willingness to pay for AI features shows an equally stark divide. Just 23 percent of European drivers expressed willingness to pay for AI functions, compared to 39 percent of Chinese drivers. The study suggests that most users now expect AI features to be standard rather than optional extras.

Dr Nils Schaupensteiner, Associated Partner at MHP and study co-author, said: “Automotive companies need to create innovations with clear added value and develop both direct and indirect monetisation of their AI offerings, for example through data-based business models and improved services.”

Despite these challenges, traditional automotive manufacturers maintain a trust advantage over tech giants. The study reveals that 64 percent of customers trust established car manufacturers with AI implementation, compared to 50 percent for technology firms like Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

The research identified several key areas where AI could provide significant value across the automotive industry’s value chain, including pattern recognition for quality management, enhanced data management capabilities, AI-driven decision-making systems, and improved customer service through AI-powered communication tools.

“It is worth OEMs and suppliers considering the opportunities offered by the new technology along their entire value chain,” explains Augustin Friedel, Senior Manager and study co-author. “However, the possible uses are diverse and implementation is quite complex.”

The study reveals that while up to 79 percent of respondents express interest in AI-powered features such as driver assistance systems, intelligent route planning, and predictive maintenance, manufacturers face significant challenges in monetising these capabilities, particularly in the European market.

These antics don’t always reflect well on the brands that collaborate with especially attention-hungry influencers, leaving marketers no choice but to conduct careful due diligence on the individuals they work with. Luckily, that task can be made much easier thanks to the evolving utility of AI.

Lightricks, a software company best known for its AI-powered video and image editing tools, is once again expanding the AI capabilities of its suite with this week’s announcement of SafeCollab. An AI-powered influencer vetting module that lives within the company’s Popular Pays creator collaboration platform, SafeCollab is a new tool for marketers that automates the vetting process.

Traditionally, marketers have had no choice but to spend hours researching the backgrounds of influencers, looking through years’ worth of video uploads and social media posts. It’s a lengthy, manual process that can only be automated with intelligent tools.

SafeCollab provides that intelligence with its underlying large language models, which do the job of investigating influencers to ensure the image they portray is consistent with brand values. The LLMs perform what amounts to a risk assessment of creators’ content across multiple social media channels in minutes, searching through hours of videos, audio uploads, images and text.

In doing this, SafeCollab significantly reduces the time it takes for brand marketers to perform due diligence on the social media influencers they’re considering partnering with. Likewise, when creators opt in to SafeCollab, they make it easier for marketers to understand the brand safety implications of working together, reducing friction from campaign lifecycles.

The idea here is to empower brand marketers to avoid working with creators whose content is not aligned with the brand’s values – as well as those who have a tendency to kick up a storm.

Such due diligence is vital, for even the most innocuous influencers can have some skeletons in their closets. A case in point is the popular lifestyle influencer Brooke Schofield, who has more than 2.2 million followers on TikTok and co-hosts the “Canceled” podcast on YouTube. With her large following, good looks and keen sense of fashion, Schofield looked like a great fit for the clothing brand Boys Lie, which collaborated with her on an exclusive capsule collection called “Bless His Heart.”

However, Boys Lie quickly came to regret its collaboration with Schofield when a scandal erupted in April after fans unearthed a number of years-old social media posts where she expressed racist views.

The posts, which were uploaded on X between 2012 and 2015 when Schofield was a teenager, contained a string of racist profanities and insulting jokes about Black people’s hairstyles. In one post, she vigorously defended George Zimmerman, a white American who was controversially acquitted of the murder of the Black teenager Trayvon Martin.

Schofield apologized profusely for her posts, admitting that they were “very hurtful” while stressing that she’s a changed person, having had time to “learn and grow and formulate my own opinions.”

However, Boys Lie decided it had no option but to drop its association with Schofield. After a statement on Instagram saying it’s “working on a solution,” the company followed by quietly withdrawing the clothing collection they had previously collaborated on.

If the marketing team at Boys Lie had access to a tool like SafeCollab, they likely would have uncovered Schofield’s controversial posts long before commissioning the collaboration. The tool, which is a part of Lightricks’ influencer marketing platform Popular Pays, is all about helping brands to automate their due diligence processes when working with social media creators.

By analyzing years of creators’ histories of posts across platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, it can check everything they’ve posted online to make sure there’s nothing that might reflect badly on a brand.

Brands can define their risk parameters, and the tool will quickly generate an accurate risk assessment evaluation, so they can confidently choose the influencers they want to work with, safe in the knowledge that their partnerships are unlikely to spark any backlash.

Without a platform like SafeCollab, the task of performing all of this due diligence falls on the shoulders of marketers, and that means spending hours trawling through each influencer’s profiles, checking everything and anything they’ve ever said or done to ensure there’s nothing in their past that the brand would rather not be associated with.

When we consider that the scope of work might include audio voiceovers, extensive comment threads and frame-by-frame analyses of video content, it’s a painstaking process that never really ends. After all, the top influencers have a habit of churning out fresh content every day. Careful marketers have no choice but to continuously monitor what they’re posting.

Beyond initial history scans, SafeCollab’s real-time monitoring algorithms assume full responsibility, generating instant alerts to any problematic content, such as posts that contain graphic language, inappropriate images, promote violence or drug and alcohol use, mention violence, or whatever else the brand deems to be unsavory.

With the launch of SafeCollab, Lightricks is demonstrating yet another use case for generative AI. The company first made a name for itself as a developer of AI-powered video and image editing apps, including Photoleap, Facetune and Videoleap.

The latter app incorporates AI-powered video filters and text-to-video generative AI functionalities. It also boasts an AI Effects feature, where users can apply specialized AI art styles to achieve the desired vibe for each video they create.

Lightricks is also the company behind LTX Studio, which is a comprehensive platform that helps advertising production firms and filmmakers to create storyboards and asset-rich pitch decks for their video projects using text-to-video generative AI.

With all of Lightricks’ AI apps, the primary benefit is that they save users time by automating manual work and bringing creative visions to life, and SafeCollab is a great example of that. By automating the due diligence process from start to finish, marketers can quickly identify controversial influencers they’d rather steer clear of, without spending hours conducting exhaustive research.

This version of the Steam client is also the first to drop support for Windows 7 and 8 machines, as well as Macs running macOS 10.13 and 10.14 after Valve announced the move at the beginning of this year.

After an automatic update, players can start recordings manually using a hotkey (Ctrl + F11 is the default) or set it to trigger automatically, with options to restrict the length, quality, and storage space that Steam can use. Valve says it works with any game, including non-Steam games that allow Steam Overlay to run. Recording is off by default — you’ll find its settings in a new Game Recording tab in Steam’s settings.

Valve has updated Steam Game Recording with a handful of new features that weren’t there when the beta period began in June, including adding “advanced” export options and the ability to configure game-specific settings. The company also added Session View, which includes a “Recordings & Screenshots manager with game-specific tags and data.”

Well, I stand corrected. The hyperloop, in fact, lives on — as a 1/12th scale model in Switzerland.

Sure, this isn’t exactly the full realization of Musk’s 2013 white paper, in which he theorized that aerodynamic aluminum capsules filled with passengers or cargo could be propelled through a nearly airless tube at speeds of up to 760mph. These tubes, either raised on pylons or sunk beneath the earth, could be built either within or between cities. Musk called it a “fifth mode of transportation” and argued it could help change the way we live, work, trade, and travel.

The idea is being put to the test in Lausanne, Switzerland, where a 120-meter circular test track is being operated by a team that includes the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), the School of Business and Engineering Vaud (HEIG-VD), and Swisspod Technologies. This week, the group announced that it had conducted “the longest” hyperloop test of its kind: traveling 11.8 km (7.3 miles) at a speed of 40.7km/h (25.3mph).

The circular test track has a circumference of 125.6 meters (412 feet) and a diameter of 40 centimeters (15.7 inches). It sounds modest, but the group claims that in a full-scale system, their test “directly translates” to a journey of 141.6 km (88 miles), which is about the distance between Geneva and Bern, or San Francisco to Sacramento, and speeds of up to 488.2 km/h (303.4mph).

The project is called LIMITLESS, which stands for Linear Induction Motor Drive for Traction and Levitation in Sustainable Hyperloop Systems. During the test, the team “monitored the performance of vital subsystems,” including propulsion, communication infrastructure, power electronics, and thermal management. They assessed “energy consumption, thrust variations, [linear induction motor] response, and control during acceleration, cruising, coasting, and braking scenarios.”

Of course, a 1/12th-scale circular test track is hardly a sign that the hyperloop is alive and well. Most of the startups and companies pursuing a full-scale hyperloop have shut down, victims of financial mismanagement, as well as infrastructure and regulatory hurdles. Critics said that while the hyperloop may be technically feasible, it still only amounts to vaporware. It’s been called a “utopian vision” that would be financially impossible to achieve.

But the Swiss team is undeterred, promising to conduct a battery of future tests to further validate the system. Swisspod CEO Denis Tudor said the group plans to test its first freight product soon, and is currently building a larger test track in the US.

“This is a key step toward making hyperloop for passengers a reality and changing how we connect, work, and live,” he said.

That would be a feat unto itself, considering that no full-scale hyperloops exist anywhere in the world. Musk’s test tunnel in California is gone. The man himself has become more enamored with campaigning for Donald Trump than solving the problem of car traffic.

The Boring Company, Musk’s tunneling operation, is still digging underground passageways in Las Vegas — but for Teslas, not hyperloops. The future, it would seem, is nearly the same as the present.

But he has also closely aligned himself with Elon Musk, who runs the biggest EV company in the US. And he will likely have Musk continuing to whisper in his ear on important policy matters moving forward, even going so far as to promise to appoint the mercurial billionaire to a role in his administration.

So now that he’s the president-elect, what will he actually do that will affect the auto industry and its tenuous shift to electric vehicles?

First off, he said he would “rescind all unspent funds” in President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which includes many of the administration’s efforts to incentivize EV production in the US. Trump is likely to kill these incentives, everything from the EV tax credit to incentives for battery factories and mining.

It could prove to be an unpopular move, as the tax credits have been shown to work. The Biden administration claims that the tax credits have been successful, saving car buyers $1 billion in 2024 alone. The credit can now be applied at the point of sale, meaning shoppers can accept a discount on their EV purchase directly from dealers. And EV sales are continuing to increase, growing 11 percent year over year in the third quarter of 2024, according to Cox Automotive.

Eliminating these tax credits and incentives will make EVs more expensive to buy for many Americans, which will likely result in fewer vehicles sold. Manufacturers will have to adjust their plans to account for the less generous tax environment. Any factory that has yet to break ground is in jeopardy.

But making cars is expensive, and development cycles last for years. Automakers will be lobbying hard for regulatory certainty — whether Trump pays heed is entirely up in the air.

“Depending on how much [the individual tax credit] would be changed, it could be very detrimental to the North American automotive industry,” Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions, told Automotive News. “A lot of the demand for EVs currently is driven by that incentive, and that incentive feeds the manufacturers.”

Trump could also kill the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program to install more EV chargers. However, at least 14 percent of NEVI funds have gone directly to Tesla, which is the largest provider of EV charging in the US. It’s unclear whether Trump would axe a program that benefits his new BFF. But Musk has spoken disparagingly of NEVI, so it’s certainly a possibility.

Some Tesla investors say that while the new Trump administration is likely to be a negative for the auto industry, it could end up working out for Musk, who famously went all in for Trump, spending over $119 million to support his campaign.

“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched in the EV industry and this dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, “coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players (BYD, Nio, etc.) from flooding the US market over the coming years.”

Trump is likely to attempt to roll back or weaken the Biden administration’s new tailpipe emission standards, which would slash greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2032. This is likely what he’s talking about when he rails against the “EV mandate.” Republicans have falsely portrayed the new standards as a ban on gas-powered cars. EVs would need to account for over half of new vehicle sales for automakers to meet these strict mandates.

If that happens, expect automakers to tap the brakes on EV production. That will likely result in Detroit’s Big Three — Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis — becoming less competitive globally, as the rest of the world continues to innovate and produce more EVs. It could also open the door for foreign automakers to come in and snap up the market. Tariffs could deter countries like China from flooding the US with cheap EVs, but that could be short-lived if China keeps making cheaper and cheaper EVs.

Trump’s plan to slap tariffs on a variety of imported goods, including foreign-made cars, could make many vehicles more expensive to buy. Shares in BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche all fell on Germany’s stock market on the news of Trump’s victory on Wednesday. Meanwhile, stock prices in the Big Three, as well as Tesla, surged in early trading.

Fighting — over tax credits, emission standards, federal spending, state’s rights, and more — will become a hallmark of this presidency and its approach to the auto industry, just as it was last time. But this time around, EVs are becoming mainstream, and a lot of the investments can’t just be unspooled. Climate change is a looming threat, and EVs are seen as an important tool to fighting it. This time, there’s just a lot more at stake.

Ten years ago this week, on November 6th, 2014, Amazon launched the Echo and the smart speaker era. The device quickly spawned countless more, from Amazon and others. It became the emblem of a voice-first way of using technology, the “ambient computing” revolution Amazon and others came to believe would change how we do everything. Now there are Alexa devices in millions of homes, just listening and chirping away all day.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we wrestle with what all that really adds up to. The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy joins the show to talk about the reasons for that surprise 2014 launch, the explosive growth of the Alexa ecosystem, and the challenges Amazon and everyone else faced in trying to figure out what these smart speakers could really do. By some measures, Alexa is an undeniable hit, an utterly mainstream part of our technological lives. But for all that success, Alexa has never lived up to Amazon’s lofty goals. It’s not the ultra-powerful and ultra-versatile Star Trek computer; it’s not even a better way to shop. After all this time, it’s for music and timers. Alexa has always been for music and timers.