While one regulator continues its attempt to bring the crypto industry to heel by penalizing it, another regulator is emerging to take a different tack, and seize authority over digital assets.
Driving the news: Hours after Coinbase was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for breaking market rules, a House committee hearing on a discussion draft legislation for the regulation of digital assets kicked off.
The White House has not shared much of anything with lawmakers about who the administration thinks should be the next national cyber director, a top cyber-minded senator told Axios.
Why it matters: It's been nearly four months since Chris Inglis stepped down as the first national cyber director inside the White House, and lawmakers and policy experts have been putting pressure on President Joe Biden in recent weeks to name a replacement.
Apple showed enough of its Vision Pro headset on Monday to spark excitement — but it will probably take another year or so to know if we have truly entered a new era of "spatial computing," as the company calls it.
The big picture:: The vision Apple painted is tantalizing and expansive — but also incomplete and expensive.
Why it matters: Social media platforms are arguing that the risk of harm no longer outweighs the benefits of political dialogue, drawing concerns from lawmakers and consumer advocacy leaders.
Apple announced Vision Pro, a long-awaited mixed reality headset on Monday, alongside several new Macs and updates to the software that powers the iPhone and other devices.
Why it matters: The headset is Apple's most significant new device in years and a big bet that augmented and virtual reality are more than just a fad.
Sam Ezersky, the editor of the New York Times’ popular daily word-finder game Spelling Bee, is less picky these days about the words he allows people to use.
Why it matters: Ezersky, along with his fellow editors who curate Wordle and the crossword, are at the forefront of figuring out how best to run popular daily digital games.
Diablo IV launches this week, extending a series that makes as many headlines for its quality as for the drama perpetually surrounding it.
Why it matters: For the past decade, Diablo’s creators at Blizzard and parent corp Activision Blizzard have used the massively popular franchise to test new business models.
Anyone who's ever stood in front of trash-sorting containers and wondered whether their empty yogurt cup is recyclable will appreciate Oscar, an AI-driven system that scans your throwaways and tells you where to toss them.
Why it matters: "Consumer error" is a top contributor to the abysmal rate of recycling, which the Environmental Protection Agency most recently pegged at 32.1% in 2018, down from 34.7% in 2015.
OpenAI let ChatGPT loose on the world last November 30, and six months later the generative AI explosion continues to shake tech's ground.
The big picture: Conversational AI has become a gateway to online information, an interface to computing power, a platform for new tools and businesses, a source of companionship and psychological support and a power boost for coders.
