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Microsoft has published a lengthy piece talking about its vision for artificial intelligence development over the next four years, under the incoming Trump administration. In the piece, the company has revealed that it's spending a total of $80 billion on AI-enabled data centers in 2025. Microsoft said it's building out the data centers to be able to train and deploy AI models, as well as to power its cloud-based applications. While that's the entirety of its budget for projects around the world, more than half of it will go towards building data centers in the United States. The company explained that none of the progress on AI the industry has achieved thus far would be possible "without new partnerships founded on large-scale infrastructure investments." It's now calling for the incoming Trump administration to expand the government's support for the advancement of AI within the US, such as providing the National Science Foundation and US universities more funding for research. Microsoft admitted in the piece that it knows AI will "disrupt the economy and displace some jobs," but it also said its "confidence has grown that AI will create new opportunities that will outweigh many of the challenges ahead." The key, Microsoft explained, is to train Americans so that they'd be able to use AI as a tool for their jobs, similar to how they're currently using smartphones and laptops. Finally, it said that the third critical priority for 2025 is the promotion of American AI exports. There will be a race between the United States and China to spread their technologies to other countries, so the US needs a smart strategy because the race "will be won by the fastest first mover."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/microsoft-is-spending-80-billion-on-data-centers-this-year-130016150.html?src=rss
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Streams on TikTok Live were used to exploit children, according to a newly unredacted lawsuit filed by Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes. The lawsuit says that TikTok was not only aware that TikTok Lives were exposing minors to concerning messages from adults, but the company also directly profited off of some of the exchanges through TikTok Live's virtual gifting system. Following an investigation by Forbes into TikTok Live, TikTok conducted its own review called "Project Meramec," according to the suit. The company found that "hundreds of thousands of children" were getting around TikTok's age restrictions, hosting livestreams and interacting with adults. Because TikTok pockets a portion of the sale of digital gifts in livestreams, the company was technically making money on "transactional gifting" over "nudity and sexual activity" that happened during streams. And since TikTok's algorithm favors livestreams where virtual gifts are being exchanged, the lawsuit says, some of these sexually exploitative streams were also distributed more widely than they would have been otherwise. The lawsuit details another TikTok investigation, "Project Jupiter," that looked in to whether TikTok Live's gifting feature was being used to launder money. As it turns out, it was. According to the lawsuit, the company found that "criminals were selling drugs and running fraud operations" during livestreams. When reached for a comment on the lawsuit, TikTok shared the following statement: This lawsuit ignores the number of proactive measures that TikTok has voluntarily implemented to support community safety and well-being. Instead, the complaint cherry-picks misleading quotes and outdated documents and presents them out of context, which distorts our commitment to the safety of our community.We stand by our efforts, which include: robust safety protections and screen time limits for teen accounts enabled by default, Family Pairing tools for parents to supervise their teens, strict livestreaming requirements, and aggressive enforcement of our Community Guidelines on an ongoing basis. Utah's AG filed the redacted version of this lawsuit in June 2024, following a different suit from 2023 concerning the addictive design of the TikTok app. The Utah lawsuit isn't the first time the company has come under scrutiny for its handling of child safety. The FTC has investigated TikTok's handling of child privacy, and the ban of the app now headed to the Supreme Court on appeal was partially pushed over concerns with how social video app could be used to influence children. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/utah-lawsuit-alleges-tiktok-knew-minors-were-being-exploited-on-livestreams-220851340.html?src=rss
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Sony Be it for the Walkman portables and Trinitron TVs of old or the PlayStation consoles, Alpha cameras and superlative headphones of the twenty-first century, Sony has long been a mainstay at CES. But for the past couple of years at the world's biggest electronics trade show, Sony has opted to focus on a different field: Automotive. The Afeela electric vehicle dominated Sony's 2023 and 2024 CES press conferences, and we know that trend will continue for 2025, with an appearance at the Sony event (and a followup press conference) already confirmed. What to expect at Sony's CES 2025 press conference The Afeela is the first product from Sony Honda Mobility, a joint venture between the Japanese electronics and transportation giants. After a surprise rollout at CES 2023, the Sony CES presser teed up additional details on the EV's LiDAR-heavy sensor array and AI-enhanced cabin tech (the latter coming with an assist from Microsoft) at CES 2024. If the car's previously announced scheduling waypoints preorders in 2025 ahead of 2026 availability remain intact, we're hoping to hear which of the Afeela's concept car niceties will actually make the cut once it enters the streets of the real world. Of course, it won't be all Afeela all the time in Vegas. Expect Sony to spend time talking up its imaging, gaming or maybe even its movie studio division. And with any luck, we'll get more info on the company's XR headset, which was shown off at the 2024 show, only to never be seen again. CES 2025 would be the perfect place to show off a meaty update of a possible competitor to the Apple Vision Pro. Sony's CES 2025 livestream You can watch the Sony CES press conference as it happens below. The feed will start Monday, January 6 at 8:00PM ET. The separate Afeela press conference will take place on Tuesday, January 7 at 4:30PM PT, and will be streamed on YouTube as well. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/sony-ces-2025-press-conference-watch-it-here-monday-at-8pm-et-212207358.html?src=rss
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