Axios

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) is the latest politician to call out Sony PlayStation over its exclusive gaming deals, adding to the bizarre side drama spinning out of Microsoft's $69 billion attempt to buy Activision Blizzard.

Driving the news: Cramer sent a letter on April 13 to Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida expressing "concern about Sony's efforts to protect its gaming console business from competition."

Downloads of a fake ChatGPT browser extension have put thousands of Facebook accounts at risk of compromise, researchers at CybelAngel said in a report this week.

What's happening: Researchers at CybelAngel came across an exposed database of stolen personal information late last week that hosted data collected from a malware-laced, fake ChatGPT browser extension.

An arrest in connection with the Pentagon leaks is leaving former cyber officials with even more questions about how a trove of classified documents landed on social media last month.

Driving the news: The 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard arrested Thursday was trained as a cyber transport systems specialist, according to the New York Times.

Security researchers have a new set of allies in Washington to help defend against potential legal battles over the flaws they uncover.

Driving the news: A group of tech companies, security vendors and nonprofits unveiled two new Google-backed initiatives Thursday aimed at protecting "good faith" security researchers from legal threats and giving them a voice in policy discussions.

The SEC is considering reopening the comment period for its proposal last year to re-define the definition of "exchange."

Why it matters: The small proposed change would have sweeping implications for traditional financial firms and crypto — and specifically decentralized finance (DeFi).

There's an old saying that the surest path to profit in a gold rush is to bet on the companies supplying the pickaxes — and that idea is now igniting the toolmakers and wholesalers of today's generative AI boom.

Why it matters: It's comparatively easy to see a broad tech trend on the horizon, but often much harder to home in on who will win and over what timeframe. Netscape and BlackBerry serve as cautionary tales.

It's something you might find inside James Bond's Aston Martin: A gun that only lets a specific person use it.

Driving the news: It's what Biofire Technologies, a company based in Broomfield, Colorado, on Thursday said it created, launching the world's first biometric handgun, The Biofire Smart Gun, according to a company statement.

The New York Times is publicly testing a new game called Digits as it explores careful and limited expansion of its puzzle game portfolio.

Driving the news: Digits, a math-based game, entered public testing on the Times’ website this week.

San Francisco police have arrested a tech consultant in connection with the April 4 killing of Cash App founder Bob Lee.

Driving the news: Police said the suspect, Nima Momeni, and Lee knew each other, but at a news conference Thursday declined to give additional details on what led to Lee's fatal stabbing. Momeni has been charged with murder and will be arraigned Friday.

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes got headlines earlier this week after a judge ruled that she must soon begin serving her prison sentence, but Holmes wasn't the only ex-CEO of a health tech unicorn to leave court unhappy.

Driving the news: Rishi Shah, who founded Outcome Health and led it to a $5.5 billion valuation, on Tuesday was found guilty of mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering.

Insider plans to begin experimenting with ways to leverage AI in its journalism, its global editor-in-chief Nicholas Carlson told Axios.

Why it matters: "A tsunami is coming," Carlson said. "We can either ride it or get wiped out by it."

Amazon Web Services is announcing several new tools and services aimed at convincing developers to use its cloud to build and host generative AI systems.

Why it matters: Cloud providers see tremendous opportunity in AI, especially the white-hot generative AI trend, which tends to require massive amounts of computing to achieve its impressive results.

Amazon's "best days" are ahead despite "turbulent times," CEO Andy Jassy wrote in his second annual shareholder letter.

Driving the news: Large language models, and Generative AI projects specifically, are going to be "transformative" for the company, he said.

Generative AI programs like ChatGPT, which can supercharge  fraudsters' efforts to rip taxpayers off, are a new wild card for tax filing season this year.

Driving the news: The IRS' “2023 Dirty Dozen list” of top scams, released last week, includes gambits like made-up pitches about pending large refunds, phishing emails trying to get personal information, and fraudulent advice from social media accounts.

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied Tesla's petition to review a case involving allegations of systemic racial discrimination at the company's facilities in the state.

Why it matters: The unanimous ruling allows Black workers at a Tesla assembly plant in Fremont to seek a public injunction requiring the electric vehicle maker to acknowledge and address discrimination in the workplace.