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For more than six days, almost 90 million Iranians have been living under a total internet blackout. The shutdown comes after Iranians endured a similar total internet blackout at the beginning of January, followed by weeks of limited connectivity while the regime brutally attacked and killed thousands of anti-government protesters. But as the US and Israel’s war on Iran intensifies, the conflict is adding a new dimension to what would otherwise be a damaging but not unprecedented internet blackout.In these situations, and by the regime’s design, the populace still has access to the country’s homegrown intranet and suite of applications,…

Enterprises and startups that use Anthropic Claude through Microsoft and Google products need not fear that the model will be ripped from their reach, Microsoft and Google confirmed to TechCrunch. Microsoft was the first big tech company to offer assurance that Anthropic’s models will remain available to its customers even though the Trump administration’s Department of War — formally known as the Department of Defense — has escalated its feud with Anthropic. The Defense Department officially designated the American AI startup as a supply-chain risk on Thursday after the AI company refused to give it unrestricted access to its tech…

I’ve spent the past few days asking AI companies to convince me that the prospects for AI safety have not dimmed. Just a few years ago, it seemed that there was universal agreement among companies, legislators, and the general public that serious regulation and oversight of AI was not just necessary, but inevitable. People speculated about international bodies setting rules to insure that AI would be treated more seriously than other emerging technologies, and that could at least provide obstacles to its most dangerous implementations. Corporations vowed to prioritize safety over competition and profits. While doomers still spun dystopic scenarios,…

The Pentagon has officially designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk after the two failed to agree on how much control the military should have over its AI models, including its use in autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. As Anthropic’s $200 million contract fell apart, the DoD turned to OpenAI instead, which accepted and then watched ChatGPT uninstalls surge 295%. As the stakes keep rising, the question remains: how much unrestricted access should the military have to an AI model?  Watch as Equity hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane break down what startups should know about chasing federal AI contracts, plus the week’s biggest tech stories, from Paramount’s Warner Bros. deal and MyFitnessPal’s Cal…

On the hunt for a fresh pair of headphones that stand out in the style department? Until the end of the weekend, Best Buy has the Beats Studio Pro marked down to just $200, a $150 discount from the usual price.While this headset isn’t nearly as fancy as some of our other favorite over-ear headsets, it makes up for it with classic Beats styling and a sound profile that the brand has become known for among its fans. They’re bass-forward and punchy, a fact you’ll just have to live with whether you like it or not, because they lack a…

Indonesia will soon become the latest country to pass laws restricting children from accessing social media, following in the footsteps of Australia and its neighbor Malaysia. But unlike Australia, which has banned users under 16 from social media altogether, Indonesia is taking a more age-gated approach to its restrictions. Indonesia’s communication and digital ministry said on Friday that it would delay children’s access to social media platforms: Children 13 or older will be able to use platforms the country deems “lower-risk,” while “higher-risk” platforms will be only open to users above 16 years old. Platforms deemed “higher-risk” include YouTube, TikTok,…

Other Laptop Docking Stations to ConsiderWe test a lot of laptop docking stations and, quite frankly, most of them are … fine. They’re fine! We get into the nitty-gritty for specific use cases to find the best, but that leaves a bunch of devices that are great options even if they don’t make our top picks. Here’s a selection of some of our favorites, past favorites, or just alternatives to our picks above.Satechi Triple 4K Docking Station Photograph: Eric RavenscraftSatechi Triple 4K Docking Station for $300: Satechi’s Triple 4K Docking Station supports three monitors, and while the first display output…

Over the past few months, several countries have announced plans to restrict social media access for children and teens. Australia became the first to implement such measures at the end of last year, setting a precedent that other countries are now closely watching.  Australia’s regulations, along with other countries’ proposals, aim to reduce the pressures and risks that young users may face on social media, which include cyberbullying, addiction, mental health issues, and exposure to predators.  Of course, there are concerns about privacy regarding invasive age verification and excessive government intervention. Critics, including Amnesty Tech, have said such bans are…

I take a lot of screenshots. Like, an excessive amount. I’m not sure whether to blame my ADHD, my FOMO, or pure sentimentality, but as it stands, I have more than 100,000 screenshots on my iPhone. (For context, a quick informal poll of coworkers revealed numbers closer to 2,000 on most of their phones.) I’ve got a fever, and the only cure is taking another screenshot.See something funny? Screenshot. Something gossip-worthy? Screenshot. Conversation I want to remember forever? Screenshot. Swiping on a dating app? You already know. Forget the familiar volume-up-button-power-button combo. I take screenshots so frequently that I set…

DoorDash chief marketer Kofi Amoo-Gottfried will step down in May after seven years in the role, the company confirmed to ADWEEK.Amoo-Gottfried announced the decision in a LinkedIn post, expressing his desire to spend more time with his kids before they leave for college.“How we spend our time has tremendous power,” he wrote. “In many ways, it’s all the power we have.”Amoo-Gottfried, 46, joined DoorDash in 2019 as vp of marketing, becoming the company’s first CMO in 2021. Prior to his tenure at the restaurant-delivery company, he held several senior marketing and strategy roles at Facebook, FCB New York, Publicis, and…

Health tech giant TriZetto has confirmed that more than 3.4 million people’s personal and health information was stolen in a 2024 cyberattack, which the company failed to detect for almost a year. The tech company, owned by multinational conglomerate Cognizant, serves around 200 million people across 875,000 healthcare providers throughout the U.S., according to its website. Doctors’ offices and healthcare providers use TriZetto to assess patients’ insurance for medical treatments. TriZetto said in a filing with Maine’s attorney general on Friday that hackers stole patients’ insurance eligibility transaction reports from the company’s servers. The data includes personal information like patients’…

Photograph: Simon HillOther Flash Drives We LikeWe have tested many other USB flash drives that did not make the cut. Here are a few that might be worth considering for some folks.Photograph: Simon HillKingston Dual Portable SSD (1 TB) for $229: With a snazzy metallic red body, this SSD disguised as a flash drive is very speedy, matching the stated 1,050 MB/s read and 950 MB/s write in my tests. It is USB 3.2 Gen 2 with a C jack at one end and an A jack at the other, both with removable covers. As much as I like this…

It was a big week for brands leaning into humor and absurdity. Mr. Clean got a glow-up, Uber Eats sent Ernie from Sesame Street spiraling over a pile of literal bees, and Chupa Chups announced a more user-friendly wrapper by making the least user-friendly object imaginable. Not every campaign went for laughs, though. NPR made a confident case for curiosity in the middle of a funding crisis, and Heineken made a documentary about an Irish village fighting to save its local pub. Plus, our Most Effective Ad of the Week, in partnership with EDO, turns to basketball to tout a great deal.Here…

City Detect, a company that uses vision AI to help local governments monitor the health of buildings and neighborhoods, announced on Friday a $13 million Series A round led by Prudence Venture Capital. The startup launched in 2021, and Gavin Baum-Blake, the remaining co-founder, serves as CEO. He said the company was founded in part because cities were struggling to deal with “urban blight and decay.” The idea was to use advanced computer vision and AI technology to help cities track and fix such problems. City Detect mounts cameras on public vehicles like garbage trucks and street sweepers, captures photos…

While this assembly works well and allows for the mouse to be incredibly lightweight and rigid, I found a few concerns with repairability. With both shells, there is a risk of repeated disassembly breaking the plastic clips. With the carbon fiber shell, there is also a risk of the threads in the upper shell becoming stripped if the screws are over-tightened, something that is made worse by the fact that the screws used are self-tapping.Typically, anything made from carbon fiber or lightweight plastic would use metal inserts inside of the material to prevent stripping, but this has not been done…

Advertising luminary Dame Annette King has died at 57. In a statement, King’s husband, Henry Stevens, said: “On Wednesday, we said goodbye to our Annette, my AK, Dame Annette. A deeply loved and loving wife, mother, friend, and peer to so many of you.”Thanking people for their condolences, Stevens continued: “As anyone who had the privilege of being in Annette’s world will know, there was nothing she loved more than people. She cared deeply about her work and the advertising industry at large, but nothing lit her up like being in the company of the people she held close.”One of the…