Spotify on Friday announced a new multiyear deal to distribute "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast exclusively, while still allowing the show to be available on other platforms, including Apple, Amazon and YouTube.
Why it matters: The deal represents a shift in Spotify's podcast strategy toward owning the distribution and monetization rights to the show across its platform and others.
Federal agencies have until midnight Friday, Feb. 2 to disconnect all Ivanti Connect Secure and Policy Secure devices under a new emergency directive.
Why it matters: Nation-state and cybercriminal hackers are actively exploiting security flaws in the two Ivanti VPN products — which could allow attackers to bypass authentication protocols and remotely navigate a victim's network.
China's hacking operations pose the biggest existential threat to the safety of U.S. critical infrastructure — but despite years of investment, the U.S. is far from nailing the cyber basics.
Why it matters: U.S. cyber officials warned Congress this week that China has shown a persistent interest in not only stealing state secrets, but also disrupting basic services, like access to clean water and electricity.
Joe Biden and Xi Jinping agreed at last year's APEC summit in San Francisco to open a bilateral channel for AI consultation, but analysts say the U.S. and China can't even agree on what problems they're trying to solve.
Why it matters: As China and the U.S. compete for global AI dominance across civil and military applications, it's increasingly important for the countries to find common ground on AI safety.
A former CIA software engineer who was convicted of carrying out the largest data breach in the agency's history was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Thursday, the Department of Justice announced.
The big picture: Joshua Adam Schulte's "transmission of that stolen information to WikiLeaks is one of the largest unauthorized disclosures of classified information in the history of the United States," the DOJ noted in a statement.
Amazon is adding a new AI-powered shopping assistant named Rufus to its mobile app, the company announced Thursday.
The big picture: Rufus launched in beta to a small subset of customers and will continue to roll out to the rest of Amazon's U.S. customers in the coming weeks, the company said.
Shares in Meta skyrocketed more than 12% in extended trading Thursday after the tech giant said it declared its first-ever quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share. It also authorized a $50 billion stock buyback to increase the value of its shares.
Why it matters: The moves are a sign of maturity for Meta, which has grown to become one of the most powerful companies in the world since it went public in 2012.
On Apple's earnings call Thursday, CEO Tim Cook said the company continues to work and invest in artificial intelligence and added, "We're excited to share the details of our ongoing work in that space later this year."
Why it matters: While far from an announcement of specific products or strategy, Cook's comment represents Apple's most concrete suggestion to date that it is planning its own response to the tech industry's generative AI frenzy.
Wednesday's Senate hearing about protecting kids on social media focused on regulating yesterday's and today's technology — but lawmakers failed to grill executives on the rise of AI and the new problems it is generating.
Why it matters: The hearing, like those that preceded it, looked for solutions to longstanding problems — failures in content moderation, age verification, protection of teens' mental health and enforcement of laws against child sexual abuse material (CSAM) — but the tech industry keeps inventing new services that get put to bad use.
Sen. Josh Hawley wrote to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Thursday asking him to personally bankroll a victims' compensation fund for families of children who say they were exploited by Meta's platforms, per a letter shared exclusively with Axios.
Driving the news: On Wednesday Hawley prompted Zuckerberg to stand up and apologize to families at a Senate Judiciary hearing about online harms for children and the role of social media.
The Allen Institute for AI (AI2) released a fully open-source large language model designed to help researchers better understand what's taking place under the hood.
Why it matters: The move comes as some have argued open-source alternatives are needed to avoid concentration of power, while others worry that such models could be harder to regulate.
