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Terraforms Labs CEO Do Kwon spent the last day of 2024 getting extradited to the US, Reuters reports. Kwon faces charges in the US for "orchestrating a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud involving an algorithmic stablecoin and other crypto asset securities." The Terraforms co-founder has been held in Montenegro since March 2023, when he tried to board a flight with a forged passport six months after Interpol put out a "red notice" warrant for his arrest. South Korean-based Terraforms Labs wiped out $40 billion from the crypto market when its TerraUSD and Luna stable coins turned out to not be so stable and collapsed in May 2022. Kwon had already fled South Korea the month before. The US announced its charges in February 2023, with the SEC chair Gary Gensler stating, "We allege that Terraform and Do Kwon failed to provide the public with full, fair, and truthful disclosure as required for a host of crypto asset securities, most notably for Luna and TerraUSD. We also allege that they committed fraud by repeating false and misleading statements to build trust before causing devastating losses for investors." South Korea has issued similar charges. Montenegro doesn't have extradition treaties with the US or South Korea. The request played out in court over the last year and a half, with Montenegro's Justice Minister Bojan Bozovic ordering Kwon's extradition last week. Terraform Labs filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US last January. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/terraform-labs-co-founder-do-kwon-will-face-securities-fraud-charges-in-the-us-142734704.html?src=rss
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The tricky thing about naming the years biggest losers in tech is that in 2024, it once again felt like everyone lost. Amid the depressing spiral that is social media, the will-they-or-wont-they dance of banning TikTok in the US and the neverending edited and deepfaked content that has everyone questioning whats real, the world lost. And it is lost. But a few areas this year stood out as particularly troubling. Specifically, AI and dedicated AI gadgets proliferated more than ever, spreading not only to our digital assistants and search engines but to our wearables as well. We also saw more deterioration in Intels standing and bid farewell to a robot maker, as well as Lightning cables. Im pretty happy about that last one, though. Our annual collection of the worst tech developments each year is shorter than usual, but that might be because were all exhausted. And also because most of the bad things can be attributed to AI, social media or misinformation. Still, we journey down this nightmarish memory lane, hopefully so we can avoid similar pitfalls in future. Generative AI in every possible crevice 2024 was a year in which consumer-facing AI tools became harder and harder to ignore. That's thanks to the tech giants Google, Meta and finally Apple baking AI tools into some of the most-used software on the planet. And in this push to get AI in front of everyone, I cannot help but stop and wonder who exactly is asking for this, and is anyone actually using it? In the past few months, I've been testing a Samsung Chromebook with a host of AI tools built-in as well as trying the various Apple Intelligence features that have rolled out through the autumn. It all came to a head in one of Engadget's Slack channels in early December, just after Apple launched its generative emoji and Image Playground features. Getting Image Playground to spit out AI-created pictures was easy enough, and Genmoji does feel like the logical next step after Apple introduced its personalized Memoji back in 2018. But across the board, the results felt uninspired, off-putting and - perhaps worst of all - extremely lame. Since I take so many pictures on my iPhone, there are tons of images categorized under my name in the Photos app (it will group together similar faces for years, if you let it). With hundreds of images to pick from, Image Playground should have no problem making a convincing facsimile of me... playing the guitar on the moon, right? Well, yes and no. In this image, as well as ones created of my colleagues Cherlynn Low, Valentina Palladino and Sam Rutherford, there are a few facial characteristics that made me feel that the AI-generated cartoon I was looking at was at the very least inspired by these people. But they all gave off serious uncanny valley vibes; rather than being a cute digital cartoon like we all built with Bitmoji back in the day, these results are soulless representations with no charm and mangled fingers. In a totally different vein, I just had occasion to try out Google's "help me read" summarization features on a 250-page government report. I knew I did not have time to read the entire document and was just curious what AI could do for me here. Turns out, not much. The summary was so brief that it was essentially meaningless not unreasonable, as it tried to parse 250 pages into about 100 words. I tried this trick on a review I was writing recently, and it did a much better job of capturing the gist of the article, and it also accurately answered follow-up questions. But given that the final product amounted to maybe four pages, my impression is that AI does a decent job of summarizing things that most people can probably read themselves in the span of five minutes. If you have something more complex, forget it. I could go on I've been having a blast laughing at the ridiculous notification summaries I get from Apple Intelligence with my co-workers but I think I've made my point. We're in the middle of an AI arms race, where massive companies are desperate to get out ahead of the curve with these products well before they're ready for primetime or even all that useful. And to what end? I don't think any AI company is meaningfully answering a consumer need or finding a way to make people's lives better or easier. They're releasing this stuff because AI is the buzzword of the decade, and to ignore it is to disappoint shareholders. Nathan Ingraham, deputy editor Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget Humane AI Pin and other AI gadgets This year, no two devices arrived with more manufactured hype than the Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1. And no two devices were more disappointing either. Both Humane and Rabbit made the argument that people were ready to drop their phones for something smarter and more personal, but neither of their devices were actually good or useful. Of the two, Humane was easily the biggest loser of 2024. The company achieved the ignominious honor of reaching net negative sales because former buyers began returning the AI Pin faster than new units could be sold. I wish I could say its troubles stopped there, but they didnt. After Humane first warned customers that the AI Pins charging case was a fire risk, it issued a formal recall in October. In the intervening months, the company has reportedly tried to find a buyer without success. Rabbit has certainly faced its own share of troubles, too. After being roundly panned
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Were wrapping up 2024, so why not do it with some frivolous CES announcements? Like this premium (it has to be premium!) microwave from LG, with a touchscreen bigger than your iPad. Im not sure what youll watch in the three-and-a-half minutes it takes to heat that butter chicken curry, but you can do it in glorious full HD resolution. LG The touchscreen integrates with LGs ThinQ Smart Home Dashboard if you think its the right time to change channels on your TV or tinker with compatible Matter and Thread devices, like smart lights and er, and other things. It can also pair with the companys induction range oven to display cooking progress if you struggle to crane your neck from your microwave to your kitchen burners. Its no washing machine inside a washing machine, but still, you gotta love CES. LG is on a trip this year. Mat Smith Get this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here! The biggest tech stories you missed YouTube copies Netflix's old 'Play Something' button in new test Donald Trump asks the Supreme Court to delay the TikTok ban CES 2025: What we're expecting to see in Las Vegas The US Treasury says it was hacked in a China-linked cyberattack The breach was first reported on December 8. Documents and workstations at the US Treasury Department were accessed during a cyberattack linked to a "China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat actor." The attack was pretty bad, and its been cited as "a major cybersecurity incident." The Treasury Department said it has worked with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI to understand the full scope of the breach but hasn't shared how long files and workstations were accessible or what was accessed. Beijing has denied any involvement. Continue reading. In 2024, the camera of the year was a drone DJIs Neo made aerial video accessible for everyone. Engadget Honesty? 2024 was a dull year for cameras, with new devices offering small tweaks and minor improvements. But drones? Specifically, entry-level ones? DJI made it an intriguing year, spitting out multiple models, including the versatile, easy-to-use Neo, all while fending off the US government's plans to ban sales from the company. Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121536994.html?src=rss
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