Iran has targeted roughly a dozen people tied to President Biden and former President Trump, including those in the government and associated with their campaigns, as part of a long-running phishing attack, Google said in a report today.
Why it matters: Until now, no third-party organizations had verified the Trump campaign's claim that it was the target of an Iranian hack.
The big picture: The Harris campaign isn't breaking any rules with the ads, which link out to actual news stories but display headlines favorable to Harris. These types of ads are common on Google, have been used by other political campaigns, and don't violate Google's policies, as Axios reported.
In a shifting advertising landscape, rewards apps like Fetch are flipping the script on consumer data collection and targeted advertising, creating a new kind of data-driven ecosystem in which consumers share purchase preferences in exchange for rewards and personalized experiences.
Instagram did not act on 926 out of 1,000 abusive comments directed at female politicians that were flagged to the app, a study released Wednesday found.
Why it matters: Vice President Kamala Harris' presence at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket shines a spotlight on the violent threats and sexist attacks regularly directed at women in politics.
EVgo, one of the nation's largest charging networks, is rolling out efforts to diagnose equipment issues in real time as part of a broader plan to replace outdated chargers and improve customer service, the company tells Axios exclusively.
Why it matters: While the number of public chargers continues to grow, many networks still aren't reliable enough to ease the public's charging anxiety — a leading concern about EVs.
The Defense Innovation Unit will start vetting advanced manufacturing companies and technologies, like 3D printers and digital modelers, in an effort to expand the pool of defense contractors and secure it from malign influence.
Why it matters: Defense Department arcana is a roadblock for smaller firms that want to fulfill military orders for weapons, software and spare parts.
Pentagon officials say the U.S. stands at the precipice of a new golden age of defense innovation driven by upstart contractors, advances in technology and a world brimming with threats.
Why it matters: The Defense Department's inability to make unorthodox bets, feed a vibrant industrial base and embrace readily available technologies has rendered it under-supplied, the target of dual-use evangelists and vulnerable to more nimble adversaries.
Google's Tuesday announcement of several new Gemini features is part of a broader effort by tech giants to make their chatbots more personal by giving them access to more of your data.
Why it matters: Apple and Microsoft have also taken steps to combine the generic knowledge of a large language model with a user's personal data — a move that makes AI assistants both more practical and more of a potential privacy problem.
X will continue to pursue antitrust litigation against several major brands and an ad industry group, even after one of the lawsuit's defendants shut down, CEO Linda Yaccarino told Axios Tuesday.
Why it matters: Yaccarino was the face of the ad industry for over a decade at NBCUniversal. Now, she's charging some of its biggest players with abusing their power.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released its highly anticipated standards for how to protect encryption from future quantum technologies.
Why it matters: China and other foreign foes are likely already collecting encrypted U.S. secrets with the hopes of breaking into them once quantum computers' technology catches up.
Generative AI's promise to automatically detect and patch security flaws in code is nearly a reality — as seen during a government-backed competition at the DEF CON hacker conference over the weekend.
Why it matters: Critical infrastructure organizations, including hospitals and water systems, are being bombarded with unsophisticated but debilitating cyberattacks.
The United Auto Workers union said Tuesday that it filed federal labor charges against former President Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk after the duo's conversation on X veered into talk about workers striking.
The Harris campaign has been editing news headlines and descriptions within Google search ads that make it appear as if the Guardian, Reuters, CBS News and other major publishers are on her side, Axios has found.
Why it matters: It's a common practice in the commercial advertising world that doesn't violate Google's policies, but the ads mimic real news results from Search closely enough that they have news outlets caught off guard.
Elon Musk gently tried steering Donald Trump toward acknowledging climate risks and backing some kind of energy transition — and didn't get far.
Why it matters: The Tesla boss has endorsed Trump and has his ear. The pair chatted Monday night for two hours on X in an interview delayed by glitches.
President Biden plans to address the Democratic National Convention on its opening night, touting his partnership with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Why it matters: Biden's speech Monday night in Chicago will amount to a changing of the guard ceremony for Democrats, as the president kicks off a convention that he had intended to close as his party's nominee.
Donald Trump's false charge that his opponent used AI to forge a photo of a crowd of supporters shows yet another dimension of AI's potential to harm democracy.
Why it matters: AI's greatest danger, many experts in the field argue, isn't that it can be used to manufacture falsehoods — but that its very existence makes it so easy to undermine the truth.
Former President Trump turned his "conversation" with Elon Musk on Monday night into an extension of a campaign speech, often bulldozing the tech founder's attempts to join the dialogue.
Why it matters: The conversation started on a tough note for Musk with a 40+ minute delay, then featured lots of Trump criticism of President Biden despite his advisers' attempts to get him to focus his attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris.
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