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Tag: computer science and information technology

  • Texas sues Google over alleged ‘indiscriminate’ biometric data collection | CNN Business

    Texas sues Google over alleged ‘indiscriminate’ biometric data collection | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Google on Thursday, alleging the tech giant had violated the state’s biometric privacy law by “indiscriminately” collecting voiceprints and facial recognition data from users and non-users of the company’s products without their consent.

    The lawsuit, filed in Texas’ Midland County District Court, claims the company’s broad application of facial recognition technology in Google Photos, as well as its use of voice recognition technology in its line of smart speakers and other home products, is a violation of the state’s Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act.

    Google

    (GOOG)     didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

    In Google Photos, Google scans uploaded images to identify and categorize pictured subjects, including people who may not have been aware their faces would be analyzed or stored, the complaint said. The company has also allegedly listened in on Texans “without regard to whether a speaker has consented to Google’s indiscriminate voice printing,” according to the complaint.

    Adobe Stock

    The complaint describes Google’s Nest Hub Max, a smart home display with a built-in camera, as “a modern Eye of Sauron—constantly watching and waiting to identify a face it knows.”

    “All across the state, everyday Texans have become unwitting cash cows being milked by Google for profits,” the complaint said.

    Texas is one of just a few states with a law governing the use of biometric data, and this marks the second time that Texas has invoked the 2009 law to file a suit against a company. In February, the state claimed a now-shuttered Facebook photo-tagging tool — which was the subject of a $650 million biometric privacy settlement in Illinois last year — had also been a violation of the Texas biometric law.

    Texas has multiple lawsuits ongoing against Google, including two other consumer protection cases and an antitrust case targeting Google’s dominance in digital advertising.

    – CNN’s Rachel Metz contributed to this report.

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  • Uber launches advertising unit to let marketers target ads based on where you go | CNN Business

    Uber launches advertising unit to let marketers target ads based on where you go | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    Uber is launching an in-house advertising division and rolling out its own form of targeted digital ads as it seeks to develop new revenue sources.

    The ridehailing giant announced the launch of its “enterprise-wide” advertising unit on Wednesday, saying it will be helmed by Amazon advertising veteran Mark Grether.

    Uber

    (UBER)     at the same time unveiled its new in-app “Journey Ads” service, which lets marketers place ads within the Uber

    (UBER)     app to reach customers at each step on their trips. This means the customers will be served ads when they check to see how far away their driver is, or follow the route of their journey via the app.

    In a statement, Grether said Uber has a global audience of customers who “tell us where they want to go and what they want to get.”

    “While these consumers are making purchase decisions and waiting for their destination or delivery we can engage them with messages from brands that are relevant to their purchase journeys,” Grether added.

    Tech giants like Meta and Google have long used the data they collect from users to target ads, despite some digital privacy advocates denouncing this behavior.

    Users can opt out of targeted ads on the Uber app at any time, Grether told the Wall Street Journal.

    The announcement comes after Lyft launched its own advertising business in August.

    The news also comes in the shadow of the Biden administration proposing a new labor rule last week that could classify millions of gig workers as employees — serving a potential challenge to the low-cost models that have powered the growth of gig economy companies like Uber and Lyft.

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  • What I learned from diving headfirst into the metaverse | CNN

    What I learned from diving headfirst into the metaverse | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Until a couple of months ago, I would have described myself as a Luddite when it came to the metaverse. But working on the Decoded show for CNN International I had the opportunity to dive headfirst into these virtual worlds and meet some of the key players in this space.

    At its most basic definition, the metaverse is the internet gone three-dimensional. The word itself it much older than you might think; it was first created in 1992 by sci-fi author Neal Stephenson, who, with alarming foresight, wrote about a dystopian future where people escaped into a virtual world, accessed with goggles.

    The metaverse has been reimagined many times in the three decades since, but Stephenson gave me the best definition of what it is right now: “It’s a virtual environment where large numbers of people can get together and interact with each other, through avatars.”

    Perhaps the most surprising element for me as I got to know the metaverse, was that there’s more than one, and they all look and feel very different.

    If I wanted to meet friends virtually and have some fun, I might head into Somnium Space. On this platform users create incredible virtual experiences and earn real money for their efforts. This is where you can find worlds within worlds. It’s like descending into the movie “Inception.” If you want to dance in a virtual club, or race cars in a desert, this may be the metaverse for you.

    However, if I want to have a meeting for work, you’ll find me in Meta’s Horizon Workrooms.

    The whole Decoded team meet here, sat around a virtual desk chatting about the next episode. We can share ideas and even have a viewing of the latest episode on the big virtual screen. I live in London, the producer and cameraman live in Dubai, but this makes us feel like we are together and collaborating in a way that a video call just can’t.

    Why brands are buying real estate in the metaverse


    02:53

    – Source:
    CNN

    If you don’t have a VR headset, then Second Life may be for you. It’s the oldest metaverse platform, created in 1999. Here I went to a virtual Paris, bought a virtual lion in a virtual pet shop and flew off with it into a virtual heart-shaped cloud.

    It may have been fun but it wasn’t easy; in my effort to buy the lion my avatar somehow lost her trousers. It was embarrassing, not least as I was with the founder of Second Life, Philip Rosedale at the time, who thankfully saw the funny side.

    One of Rosesdale’s biggest concerns is how future metaverse platforms make money. “It has to be a business model that doesn’t include surveillance, targeting and advertisement,” he says.

    It’s a shared concern for many, and a rational one given the biggest social media company in the world is staking its future on the metaverse; it’s even changed its name to Meta.

    Andrew Bosworth is the CTO and our avatars met in Horizon Workrooms, where I was struck by the fact neither of us had any legs – a feature that’s isn’t yet available in this metaverse, but will be in the future, according to a recent announcement.

    He joined the company formerly known as Facebook in its infancy and is adamant that Meta can be trusted to forge this new generation of the internet. “Frankly, there’s no one who’s investing more in privacy and data security. Nobody is more focused on this problem than Meta,” he said.

    He admits though, it won’t be easy to convince people.

    “It’s going to take a long time for consumers to see that value, to understand that, to believe that, and that’s what you expect,” said Bosworth. “Trust arrives on foot and leaves on horseback.”

    In my mind there is no doubt that there is a lot of hype about the metaverse. NFTs (non-fungible tokens) spring to mind. The technology behind NFTs, which uses the blockchain to transfer ownership, is valuable – I’m just not sure about some of the use cases, like digital artwork selling for millions of dollars. I’m also not convinced about virtual real estate on metaverse platforms selling for similar figures.

    Brands can interact with customers by building experiences within these worlds, but it’s unclear which platforms will be a success, and how brands should best use them. So valuing virtual real estate is a tricky business.

    I entered the headquarters of a well-known alcoholic beverage brand in Decentraland. I was the only avatar there, and while there was a game and a quiz on offer, they were not fun. There’s certainly no way to sample the brand’s drinks virtually, and I left confused about what it was trying to achieve.

    But according to research company Gartner, by 2026 a quarter of us will spend at least one hour a day in the metaverse for work, shopping, education or socialising. I think it’s possible, not least if you consider a game like Fortnite is effectively a metaverse using the broadest definition, and, following the pandemic years of more people working from home and using video conferencing, a better virtual work meeting experience seems like a logical next step.

    The metaverse will fundamentally change the way we do things, it’s just hard to pin down the how and the what.

    “This doesn’t just change individual lives, it changes society,” said Bosworth. “We have collective access to the entirety of human talent, not just human talent lucky to be born in certain places, which has been the reality.

    “This technology starts with something trivial like virtual bowling, and ends with an entirely different outlook on society.”

    The metaverse is still evolving – even the definition of the word is changing, and the exciting part is we can all be a part of its future. So pick a platform and explore.

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  • How Covid prompted Asian startups to use tech in revolutionizing mental health support | CNN Business

    How Covid prompted Asian startups to use tech in revolutionizing mental health support | CNN Business

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    Singapore
    CNN Business
     — 

    Many Asian countries introduced tougher Covid-19 restrictions than in other continents, a reality that has caused concerns about elevated levels of stress, anxiety and isolation. Now, a number of young entrepreneurs are leveraging technology to provide greater access to mental healthcare there.

    In July, Singapore-based Intellect raised $20 million in its Series A funding, the largest amount raised by a mental health start-up in Asia.

    Founded in 2019, Intellect runs a mobile app that regularly checks in on users’ mood, provides rescue sessions and exercises that tailor to their needs, and allows them to connect with therapists in real time if needed.

    “The traditional form of therapy is in-person and on-on-one, and it is hard to scale,” said Theodoric Chew, the 26-year-old co-founder of Intellect. “When technology comes in, we can scale access to mental care to everyone.”

    The start-up now serves more than 3 million users across the Asia-Pacific region in 15 languages since services began in early 2020.

    Chew said he was inspired to try to popularize mental healthcare after battling a panic attack when he was 16 years old.

    “I saw first-hand how therapy and working with professionals helped me become better,” he said. “On the flip side, I saw a lot of people struggling across the region – not clinically, but not having the right tools or know-how to access care.”

    While Intellect was founded before the pandemic, it quickly grew in popularity as companies became aware of their employees’ mental health as Covid-19 related lockdown and quarantine measures were imposed.

    “A lot of people were thrown into an array of things – anxiety of the pandemic, being locked up, and getting stay-home notices,” he said. “What has changed fundamentally was that mental health is no longer just a nice-to-have element that companies should consider, it’s something that’s needed across the board today.”

    “It does benefit companies in very real ways … because if you’re not feeling well mentally, you tend to not perform as well,” he said.

    Justin Kim, CEO and co-founder of Ami, another digital mental healthcare start-up based in Singapore and Jakarta, agreed that there’s a need to scale mental health offerings.

    “Many companies are spending millions of dollars a year and paying for gym memberships. But why don’t people invest into their mental health the same way? It’s because there are no resources that are being offered to them, that’s just as accessible and affordable,” he added.

    Justin Kim is the CEO and co-founder of Ami. His start-up has received funding from Meta, the owner of Facebook.

    Since the start-up was founded in January this year, it has raised at least $3 million from a number of investors, including Meta, the owner of Facebook.

    Kim’s team has been working on developing an app that would allow users to text or call mental health coaches confidentially at any time – without having to make prior appointments. He said this allows users to seek professional help whenever they need it in the most efficient way.

    Both Chew and Kim are targeting employers in their business models – companies can pay for a subscription and workers will have unlimited access to their services, which are kept private from their bosses.

    Alistair Carmichael, an associate partner at McKinsey & Company, said employers will benefit from better mental health in their workforce. “The impacts of poor mental health outcomes are significant. … If we focus on the employment and organizational level, those impacts can be things like presenteeism, absenteeism, lost productivity, lost engagement and attrition,” he said.

    Depression and anxiety disorders have cost the global economy $1 trillion each year in lost productivity, the World Health Organization has estimated. And a report by the WHO in March showed the global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25% during the first year of the pandemic.

    Chew said Intellect is attempting to close the gap by proactively safeguarding mental wellbeing before symptoms get worse. When employees open the app, the system asks them how they feel at the moment. Mini “rescue sessions” are also provided to users who are experiencing a rough time, while live therapy sessions are also available for those who require them.

    The app that Intellect developed proactively asks users how they feel at the moment. Mini

    The app features numerous learning programs for users to overcome mental roadblocks, such as self-esteem issues, depression or procrastination. A journal function guides users through writing what’s on their mind, while a “mood timeline” keeps track of their stress levels.

    Since launching the app, Intellect has served a number of high-profile corporate clients such as Dell, Foodpanda, and Singaporean communications conglomerate Singtel, Chew said, which allowed Intellect to expand from a team of two to 80.

    Kim, whose start-up has been building a prototype, said employers could also benefit by identifying trends and general concerns among their workforces.

    “With employees’ consent, we do share aggregated levels of data. And that offers employers a birds’ eye perspective of what their employees are actually struggling with, that they need to deep dive on,” he said.

    “But we never identify who said that, because we don’t want employees to feel like this isn’t a safe space where they can freely address concerns they have.”

    Karen Lau, a Hong Kong-based clinical psychologist with mental health initiative Mind HK, said addressing mental health in Asia comes with unique challenges.

    “In Asian contexts, many cultures tend to uphold values such as honor, pride, and a concept of face,” she said. “Mental illness is usually viewed and judged as a sign of weakness and a source of shame for the family.”

    “I think when it comes to mental health, just like your physical health, every issue is easier to prevent than fixed,” Kim said. “If people get out there and admit and celebrate the fact that they’re receiving coaching or services to invest in their mental health, it’s going to normalize the practice.”

    Chew said one of his goals is to break social stigma and build a new mental healthcare system for the Asia-Pacific region.

    “Mental health has long had a stigma across Asia, whereby traditionally we’ve seen it as a clinical issue, a crisis,” he said. “We see mental health just as important as physical health. You and I face things like stress, burnout, sleep issues, and relationship struggle as well. That’s where actually a lot of us should start working on our mental wellbeing.”

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  • The US is spending billions to boost chip manufacturing. Will it be enough? | CNN Business

    The US is spending billions to boost chip manufacturing. Will it be enough? | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    The United States government is pulling out all the stops to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing, injecting billions of dollars into the beleaguered sector and flexing all policy muscles available to give it a leg up over competition from Asia.

    When the pandemic hit in 2020, firms initially curtailed orders for these micro building blocks needed for smartphones, computers, cars and many other products. Then, as people began working from home, demand soared for information and communication technology – and the chips that power them. A chip shortage ensued, and auto plants had to stop production because they could not obtain chips. This contributed to skyrocketing new and used vehicle prices, a major driver of the painful inflation Americans were feeling.

    In a statement earlier this year, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo dubbed the semiconductor shortage a “national security” issue because it exposed the dependency of US manufacturing on imports of semiconductors from abroad. Chips also serve critical military applications and are necessary for cybersecurity tools.

    The Biden administration and lawmakers rallied in response, passing the CHIPS and Science Act into law in August. The legislation includes $52 billion to strengthen semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. Of this, $39 billion is earmarked for manufacturing incentives, $13.2 billion for research and development and workforce training, and $500 million for international information communications technology security and semiconductor supply chain activities.

    Against that backdrop, several prominent companies have announced significant investments in US manufacturing. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), a powerhouse in the industry committed at least $12 billion to build a semiconductor fabrication plant in Arizona, with production expected to begin in 2024. At the start of the year, Intel said it planned to build a $20 billion semiconductor manufacturing plant in Ohio, and groundbreaking for the new chip plant took place just last month. And this month, Micron said it would invest up to $100 billion over the next two decades to build a massive semiconductor factory in upstate New York.

    In a flurry of tweets earlier this month President Joe Biden pledged: “America is going to lead the way in microchip manufacturing.”

    But the US has much catching up to do. US-based fabs, or chip manufacturing plants, currently only account for 12% of the world’s modern semiconductor manufacturing capacity, according to data from the Semiconductor Industry Association trade group. Some 75% of the world’s modern chip manufacturing is now concentrated in East Asia – a majority of that in geopolitically-vulnerable Taiwan. And even with these renewed efforts, the United States does not currently have the same talent and supply chain pipeline as some Asian markets do to support a robust homegrown industry.

    To complicate matters, the surge in public and private investments comes at a questionable time, as concerns over the global chip supply shortage have eased. Pandemic-related supply chain blockages are letting up somewhat and a worsening economic outlook has hampered demand.

    In an earnings call last week, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei warned it expects the “semiconductor industry will likely decline” in 2023. “TSMC also is not immune,” Wei added, but said it expects “to be more resilient than the overall semiconductor industry.”

    Promoting semiconductor manufacturing in the United States now may risk leading to overcapacity and excess supply. And with demand weakening, it isn’t immediately clear if government subsidies will be enough to overcome other obstacles the country faces in developing a competitive semiconductor manufacturing hub.

    To understand the latest US efforts, it’s important to be clear on where the country stands – not just in the overall chip industry, but in relation to specific, valuable pockets of it.

    “The US is very unlikely to increase its share of global production because even as the US brings online more fab capacity; TSMC, Intel and others are announcing fabs in other places and building them even more quickly,” said Scott Kennedy, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    “But I don’t necessarily think that’s really a huge problem,” he added. He noted that measuring manufacturing based on pure output lumps together the lower-end chips and the cutting-edge, higher-end chips that are a more realistic and significant measure of chip manufacturing success. “The US does need to expand chip production for a specific kind of chips, that are directly related to American national security,” he said.

    The Biden administration last Friday imposed sweeping new export curbs designed to restrict China’s access to advanced semiconductors made with US equipment, in a move that targets the manufacturing of advanced weapons systems.

    While only “about 10% to 14% of chips sold [globally] come from US manufacturing facilities,” according to Columbia Business School professor Dan Wang, the United States does have other strengths. “In terms of design expertise, a lot of that still resides in the U.S.”

    Technicians inspect a piece of equipment during a tour of the Micron Technology automotive chip manufacturing plant Feb. 11, 2022, in Manassas, Va.

    Still, the shortcomings are real. “When it comes to foundries, which are the manufacturing side of semiconductors, the U.S. has not really been a major player for many, many years,” said Wang. While it very much used to be, manufacturing began migrating to Asia during the 1980s and ’90s, Wang said. “One of the big reasons for this is that the cost of labor is lower, and it’s just far cheaper to produce at a very massive scale, integrated circuits and chips, in those parts of the world,” Wang added. Morris Chang, the founder of TSMC, said that it costs 50% more to manufacture chips in the U.S. than in Taiwan.

    Now, simply having the facilities already set up to produce or expand chip manufacturing gives Asia a big advantage. Wang said he thinks that might be why you see the U.S. “axe-throwing so much money at companies to set up plants in the United States.” It’s not just to respond to demand and become more self-reliant, “but also because you need to get these things up and running very, very quickly, in order to even be in the race at all.”

    Building new chip fabs itself is a costly and time-consuming endeavor. “A modern fab is something like half a million square feet,” said Bob Johnson, an analyst at Gartner, and requires “monstrous clean rooms that have massive air handling capabilities.” He added that these massive buildings require “exceptionally strong foundations.” As he put it, “you cannot have any vibration in the fab because it can wreck the manufacturing process.”

    In addition, a single extreme ultraviolet lithography machine, required to map out the circuitry of chips, costs about $150 million, and Reuters reports “a cutting-edge chip plant needs 9-18 of these machines.”

    Moreover, the manufacturing of semiconductors requires a range of specialized inputs, including pure chemicals such as fluorinated polyimide, and etching gas, chip etching machines, and more. In places like Taiwan and Fukuoka, Japan, supply chains have developed where the providers of these products are located close to the semiconductor factories. There are also one or two companies that produce vital inputs and that have been trustworthy suppliers to companies in Asia for a long time. This is not yet the case in places like Arizona and Ohio, where plans to build massive chip manufacturing plants are already underway.

    You also need a labor force willing and able to do the work.

    In the United States, there is both a shortage of new graduates and experienced workers with the technical and engineering knowledge necessary to manufacture semiconductors. Many of those who might have the right experience instead prefer to work in trendier industries, according to Kennedy.

    “If we were to today, snap our fingers and have ten new fabs with the world’s leading chips, we probably wouldn’t have enough people to staff them,” Kennedy said. “That’s the biggest bottleneck to the expansion of America’s fab capacity, not capital.”

    Intel has tried to establish close relations with Arizona State University to recruit engineers, but it is unclear whether it and other companies building fabs in America will be able to hire enough trained engineers and technicians. If not, even the billions of dollars committed by the private and public sector may not be enough to reshore semiconductor manufacturing.

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  • Kakao’s co-CEO steps down after widespread outage at South Korea’s top chat app | CNN Business

    Kakao’s co-CEO steps down after widespread outage at South Korea’s top chat app | CNN Business

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    Kakao Corp’s co-CEO Namkoong Whon has stepped down, the company said on Wednesday, after an outage that shut down South Korea’s largest mobile chat app and other services, triggering widespread backlash from authorities and the public.

    The resignation, effective Wednesday, leaves co-CEO Hong Euntaek as sole CEO.

    The company apologized for the outage that started on Saturday due to a fire at a data center run by SK C&C near Seoul.

    Most of its systems were restored by Wednesday, but miscellaneous functions remain shaky and disruptions to a wide range of services from payments to taxis and restaurant bookings have raised questions about public reliance on the app.

    KakaoTalk, launched in 2010, has more than 47 million active accounts in South Korea, making it one of the most ubiquitous apps in the country of 51.6 million.

    Hong, who is also leading the company’s response to the outage, said Kakao would look into why service recovery work was slow, prepare compensation for users and businesses affected by service disruptions and build its own data centers.

    “We’ll build our own infrastructure including data centers to ensure our services will not be affected by similar incidents going forward,” Kakao said in a statement.

    The company plans to invest 460 billion won ($325 million) to start operating its own data center from next year, and another one will be completed in the following year, it said.

    More than 500 small businesses complained about lost sales due to the Kakao outage, lobby group Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise said.

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  • Kanye West to acquire conservative social media platform Parler | CNN Business

    Kanye West to acquire conservative social media platform Parler | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    Kanye West is acquiring Parler, the alternative social media platform favored by many conservatives.

    Parler’s parent company announced the deal on Monday morning, saying West had made “a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again.”

    The acquisition comes after West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, had his account temporarily locked by Twitter this month over an antisemitic tweet.

    Exact terms of the Parler deal weren’t disclosed, though Parler said it must still enter into a definitive agreement with West and expects to close in the fourth quarter. Parler’s parent, Parlement Technologies, would remain involved by providing technical services and cloud support.

    Buying Parler could make West the latest celebrity owner of a social media platform after former President Donald Trump’s bid to win over conservatives with Truth Social and Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s proposed acquisition of Twitter. It also highlights how a small group of wealthy men, some of whom were banned or suspended themselves for incendiary remarks, are looking to own social media platforms in an effort to bolster what they call “free speech.”

    “In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” West said in a release by Parler.

    As part of the announcement, Parler linked to West’s account on the platform, which appeared to have launched simultaneously. As of early Monday, the account had roughly 500 followers.

    For Ye, the deal comes during a particularly controversial period. West has made headlines in recent weeks for wearing a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt in public and defending his use of the slogan — a phrase the Anti-Defamation League has linked to white supremacy groups — as “funny” to Fox News host Tucker Carlson. After the shirt incident, the apparel company Adidas this month said it was reviewing its partnership with West. In September, West also said he was abandoning a two-year partnership with the clothing retailer Gap.

    Speaking on CNN Monday, Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s CEO, called Parler a “haven” of hate.

    Parler was founded in 2018 and saw rapid growth surrounding the 2020 election. Billing itself as a loosely moderated free-speech haven, the app became popular with conservative politicians and media figures, peaking at an estimated 2.9 million daily users, according to the market research firm Apptopia. But since then, its fortunes have dimmed, with Parler’s estimated daily user count slipping to just 40,000, Apptopia told CNN on Monday. (Twitter, by comparison, has more than 237 million daily active users.)

    In the weeks following the Jan. 6 riots, Parler was removed from both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for what the companies said was a failure to adequately moderate violent rhetoric on the platform. Documents provided to the House committee investigating the Capitol riots have shown how the Secret Service was aware of posts on Parler that suggested the possibility of violence surrounding that day. Separately, Parler has written to Congress claiming that lawmakers’ interest in the app’s role in the riots has been intended to “scapegoat” the app.

    Parler has since been restored to both app stores after making changes to its content moderation practices.

    Parler has faced more competition in recent months as the burgeoning right-wing digital media ecosystem has expanded. Truth Social launched in February on Apple’s app store, and was approved for Google’s app store on Oct. 13. Truth Social saw a spike of downloads last week due to its appearance on the Google Play Store, Apptopia said, and before then had been hovering at 144,000 daily active users.

    Musk’s move to buy Twitter, if the deal goes through, also has the potential to upend Parler and similar services. Musk has repeatedly called for eliminating permanent bans and rethinking Twitter’s approach to content moderation, which could once again make the much larger platform a home for some of the users who jumped to small services like Parler.

    It could also effectively mean that Musk and Ye, who are said to be friends, are now competing with each other. After Ye’s antisemitic tweet sparked an outcry, Musk tweeted: “Talked to ye today & expressed my concerns about his recent tweet, which I think he took to heart.”

    One week later, Ye’s deal to buy Parler was announced.

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  • Google approves Truth Social for the Google Play Store | CNN Business

    Google approves Truth Social for the Google Play Store | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    Truth Social, the social media app backed by former President Donald Trump, has been approved for the Google Play Store, Google said Wednesday.

    The decision means Truth Social will now be downloadable to Android smartphones via Google’s proprietary app store, after Truth Social moved to implement stronger content moderation policies.

    Google had previously said Truth Social could not appear in its app store until it had implemented policies that sufficiently addressed incitement and threats of violence. It had also said social media apps on the Google Play store must provide an in-app system for reporting objectionable content. (Truth Social had already been available to some Android devices via non-Google sources, such as the Samsung Galaxy store.)

    On Wednesday, a Google spokesperson told CNN those standards have now been met.

    “Apps may be distributed on Google Play provided they comply with our developer guidelines,” the spokesperson said, “including the requirement to effectively moderate user-generated content and remove objectionable posts such as those that incite violence.”

    Under Truth Social’s policies, user content that encourages violence “may result in” that content, or the account creating that content, being removed from the platform.

    Truth Social has agreed to enforce its policies against incitement, Google added. Truth Social’s approval was first reported by Axios.

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  • Binance-linked blockchain hit by $570 million crypto theft | CNN Business

    Binance-linked blockchain hit by $570 million crypto theft | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    Binance, which describes itself as the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, is the latest company to be impacted by a major theft this year.

    A Binance-linked blockchain was involved in a $570 million hack late Thursday, a company spokesperson confirmed to CNN Business on Friday.

    Binance temporarily suspended its blockchain network, BNB Smart Chain, “due to irregular activity,” the company tweeted Thursday. The company said Friday that hackers had stolen two million BNB cryptocurrency tokens – which are issued by Binance – worth about $570 million at the time.

    Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao initially tweeted that an estimated $100 million worth of crypto had been stolen.

    “Your funds are safe,” Zhao tweeted on Thursday night. “We apologize for the inconvenience.”

    The company said $100 million worth of tokens remain “unrecovered” and moved off chain by the hacker. The remaining funds have been frozen on the BNB Chain.

    In order to carry out the theft, the hackers targeted what’s called a cross-chain bridge. Bridges, increasingly the targets of hackers in recent months, are the infrastructure that allow users to exchange crypto assets between different blockchains.

    Bridge services typically hold large reserves of various coins. These coin reserves are attracting the attention of hackers and turning blockchain bridges into prime targets for heists, according to blockchain analysis firm Elliptic.

    Some $1.83 billion has been stolen from bridges as of August, with the majority of that ($1.21 billion) taking place just this year, according to Elliptic. Some of the largest thefts this year include $190 million stolen from cryptocurrency bridge provider Nomad in August, California-based firm Harmony’s $100 million loss in late June, and Axie Infinity’s Ronin bridge $625 million hack in March.

    This latest attack put the BNB blockchain offline for about nine hours. In order “to stop the incident from spreading,” the chain ecosystem contacted each of the chain’s validators, who verify transactions on the blockchain as legitimate, BNB wrote in a company post.

    The chain was back up and running around 2:30 a.m. ET. according to a company tweet.

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  • Microsoft unveils $4,299 Surface desktop computer | CNN Business

    Microsoft unveils $4,299 Surface desktop computer | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Microsoft’s most expensive Surface device is about to get even pricier.

    At a press event on Wednesday, Microsoft is set to unveil several Surface Pro tablets, Surface Laptop models and a Surface Studio 2+ desktop computer, the last of which has not been updated in several years.

    The new 28-inch Surface Studio 2+, an all-in-one desktop, now has an Intel Core H-35 processor, 50% faster CPU performance and an updated NVIDIA chip for faster graphics. The device also includes an updated display, cameras, microphones and supports a digital pen for on-screen drawing. It also has several ports, including USB with Thunderbolt 4, and the display can split into four different apps at once for greater multitasking.

    The Surface Studio 2+ starts at $4,299, and $4,499 with the digital pen. The previous Surface Studio 2, released in 2018, received some criticism for its $3,499 starting price. Microsoft told CNN Business this year’s price jump is attributed to several significant improvements, including the new processor, a 1 TB SSD hard drive for faster file transfers and an enhanced 1080p camera, among other features.

    The announcements about the refreshed Surface product lineup will kick off Microsoft’s days-long Ignite developer conference on Wednesday. The event comes as Microsoft marks the tenth anniversary of the Surface line, which originally launched with a tablet to take on the iPad.

    Like other tech companies that have unveiled new products this fall, Microsoft is also confronting a more difficult economic environment, including high inflation and fears of a looming recession, that could make it harder to convince customers to spend three or even four figures upgrading devices.

    While the new Surface products aren’t much different in terms of design or screen size than previous iterations, the latest devices feature some upgrades, including new chipsets for better performance.

    Microsoft showed off its flagship Surface Pro 9 tablet, once again aimed at replacing the laptop. The two-in-one device features an aluminum casing in new colors as well as a built-in kickstand and a PixelSense display. Underneath the display is an HD camera, updated speakers and microphones, and a custom G6 chip. Microsoft said the chip helps power apps with digital ink, such as Ink Focus in Microsoft OneNote and the GoodNotes app for Windows 11, which is designed to make it feel like the user is writing with a pen and paper.

    The Surface Pro 9 also offers a choice between processors. The first option is a 12th Gen Intel Core processor built on the Intel Evo platform 4 with Thunderbolt 4 – a combination which promises 50% more performance, better multitasking and desktop productivity, faster data transfer, and the ability to dock to multiple 4K displays. The second option is a Microsoft SQ3 processor powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon with 5G connectivity, with up to 19 hours of battery and new AI features.

    The Surface Pro 9 is available in four colors, including platinum, graphite, sapphire and forest. It starts at $999.

    Microsoft also introduced an update to its ultra-portable laptop, Surface Laptop 5, which looks very similar to its predecessor but with a processor update that may attempt to bring it closer in competition with Apple’s ARM-based chipsets for macOS laptops.

    Surface Laptop 5 runs on Intel Evo platform and comes in two display sizes: 13.5 inches and 15 inches. It comes with updated Dolby Atmos 3D spatial speakers, a front-facing HD camera that automatically adjusts camera exposure in any lighting, and several new aluminum colors, such as cool metal, sage and alcantara. The company also said it promises one day of battery life on a single charge and is 50% more powerful than its predecessor.

    The Surface Laptop starts at $999 for the 13.5-inch version and $1299 for the 15 inch. Pre-orders begin for Surface products on Wednesday in select markets and start hitting shelves later this month.

    Microsoft hardware devices amount to between 3% to 5% of the tablet market, according to David McQueen, an analyst at ABI Research. Instead, the bulk of its revenue comes from Microsoft OS across different device types and associated applications and cloud services.

    “Microsoft is able to stay in the hardware sector because of revenue generated from these services,” McQueen said. It’s an approach similar to Google whose Pixel smartphone remains a niche product but serves as a way for the company to highlight its apps and OS.

    On Wednesday, the company also announced a new Microsoft Designer app and Image Creator in Bing and the Edge browser to bring advanced graphic design to mainstream audiences. The platform relies heavily on a partnership with startup OpenAI and its AI-powered DALL-2 tool, which generates custom images using text prompts. DALL-2 is also coming to Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service.

    Brands are increasingly using DALL-2 for both ads and product inspiration, according to Microsoft. In a blog post, the company detailed how toy company Mattel sought out Dall-E 2 to conceptualize how future cars may look, such as by changing colors and typing “make it a convertible,” among other commands.

    Experts in the AI field have raised concerns that the open-ended nature of these systems — which makes them adept at generating all kinds of images from words — and their ability to automate image-making means they could automate bias on a massive scale. In previous test of OpenAI’s system, for example, typing in “CEO” showed images that all appeared to be men and nearly all of them were white.

    Microsoft said it is taking the concerns seriously. Inappropriate text requests will be denied by Microsoft’s servers, according to the company, and users will ultimately be banned for repeat offenses.

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  • Meta’s newest VR headset is impressive. Here’s why you probably won’t buy it | CNN Business

    Meta’s newest VR headset is impressive. Here’s why you probably won’t buy it | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    Meta’s newest virtual-reality headset, the Meta Quest Pro, is a slick, powerful device. It can display text and fine details in VR, making it possible to read even small type with ease. It can track your eyes and facial features, giving you a sense of connection with other people in virtual spaces: If you arch your eyebrows or they puff up their cheeks in real life, so too will the VR avatars. And it can be used as a mixed-reality headset, showing you a view of the world around you in color while letting you interact with digital objects — whether you’re painting on an ersatz easel or putting on a faux mini-golf course.

    But the black headset, which Meta unveiled on Tuesday during an online event, is probably not in your price range. At $1,500 ($1,499.99, to be precise), it costs nearly four times that of the company’s cheapest Quest 2 headset. Its price, power, and potential are aimed more toward businesses — think architects and designers — with pockets deep enough to shell out for the headset, and some creative and die-hard VR users.

    Buyers can pre-order the Quest Pro as of Tuesday, and it will ship out on October 25. It can be purchased online directly from Meta, and in the United States it can also be bought at Best Buy stores, via Best Buy’s website, and through Amazon.

    The capabilities of the Quest Pro mark an important milestone for Meta (and for CEO Mark Zuckerberg), which has spent years and billions of dollars steering toward a future where it believes people will spend more and more time in virtual spaces and mixing digital elements with the real world. The company’s VR unit, Reality Labs, is still tiny compared to its main business of selling ads on Facebook and Instagram, and costly: Meta said it lost $2.8 billion during the second quarter of this year because of Reality Labs.

    It’s also a major strategy shift, showing the company is now pushing its best VR technology to business customers, hoping they’ll be eager to use VR and mixed-reality apps at work. It’s a plan that could be lucrative, though it risks alienating its consumer VR business (the company plans, from here on out, to have two Quest product lines and to use the higher-end one to decide which features to add to the less expensive one).

    This shift may unnerve companies such as Microsoft and Magic Leap, which have been working for years to convince enterprise users that their pricier mixed-reality headsets represent the future of work. (Microsoft, maker of the mixed-reality HoloLens headset, is apparently hedging its bets by bringing its software to the Quest Pro and Quest 2, in a partnership announced Tuesday at Meta’s Connect event, which focuses on its latest advances in virtual reality and related technologies.)

    And it’s not clear whether — or how — this powerful device will help Meta popularize the so-called metaverse, which Zuckerberg believes so strongly in that he rechristened Facebook as Meta in 2021. Meta is the leader in the nascent VR headset market with its consumer-geared Quest 2 headset, but that market is still tiny compared to, say, console gaming.

    I spent several hours using the Quest Pro last week at a Meta office near San Francisco, coming away both impressed and flummoxed. It was quickly clear that it’s not intended to be a headset for the masses — a decision that will frustrate some Quest 2 owners waiting for an upgrade to the two-year-old headset. Yet it does offer a glimpse of what VR and mixed-reality experiences may be like in the coming years: better looking, more fun, and increasingly intuitive.

    The Quest Pro looks markedly different from the Quest 2, as Meta took the battery out of the main body of the headset, curved it, and moved it behind the wearer’s head. This, plus a dial on the back of the head strap that lets you adjust it precisely (making it much easier for those of us who wear glasses to keep them on in VR), gives it a layout reminiscent of HoloLens 2. The dial also makes it easier to get the headset on and off, especially if you have long hair.

    Unfortunately, this new layout may mean that some people find it less comfortable to wear, particularly over an extended period of time. With the increased weight behind my head and just a knob to adjust the single strap around my noggin, I had to keep adjusting it slightly. I wore multiple identical headsets over the course of roughly two hours; after six different demos, ranging from virtual painting to DJing, I left with a headache.

    The Quest Pro comes with a charging dock that can power up the headset and controllers.

    One of the most noteworthy new features on the Quest Pro is its ability to track the wearer’s eyes and face — something that may make people feel more present when interacting with other avatars in virtual spaces. To do this, the headset uses five infrared sensors to capture details like where you gaze and whether you sneer, smile, frown, or raise an eyebrow. This tracking is turned off by default; Meta also said that it’s processing eye and face images on the headset and then deleting them, and that this will be the case even for developers who add this tracking to their apps.

    I tried this new tracking out while playing around with a demo of a green-faced alien character, named Aura, that Meta is making available to developers so they can get a feel for how it works. With the Quest Pro on my head, I could smile, sneer, wink, scrunch up my eyes, wiggle my nose, and so on, while Aura did the same, in real time (munfortunately, there is no tongue tracking). The responsiveness and specificity of Aura’s facial mimicry was impressive, even at this early stage.

    This kind of tracking feels like a step in the direction of what Zuckerberg promised was coming after he was widely criticized online in August for a Facebook post featuring an image of his blocky, cartoon-like avatar in Meta’s flagship social app, Horizon Worlds. Upon its release, Quest Pro users will be able to use it in that app and Horizon Workrooms, Meta said, as well as in several developers’ apps such as painting app Painting VR and DJ app Tribe XR.

    The headset is also more of a mixed-reality headset than a VR headset, as it isn’t meant to block out all ambient light all the time. This is a big departure from Meta’s past focus on immersive VR, where your physical surroundings were typically more of an obstacle than an asset. Meta is including magnetic light-blocking panels that can pop on to the sides to cut out more light, and starting in late November, it will also sell a $50 accessory meant to fully block out ambient light.

    Letting some surrounding light in is part of the company’s effort to make headset wearers feel in touch with their physical surroundings. To build on this, the Quest Pro uses outward-facing cameras on the headset to let you see your surroundings in color (rather than black and white, as on the Quest 2), and continues Meta’s recent push toward getting apps to interact with the real world.

    The Quest Pro headset has sensors that can track your eyes and facial expressions.

    This was on display during a demo in which I used Painting VR to paint on a virtual canvas, moving around a real-world space set up with a virtual brush and tool stand on one side of the canvas and a shelf of paint cans on the other. I could mix paints, grab brushes, and post my finished (and admittedly awful) painting on the actual wall behind me, all while seeing what was happening around me and getting advice from the app’s creator.

    The hand controllers that accompany the Quest Pro will also play an important role in both VR and mixed-reality apps, and they’ve been vastly improved over the ones that come with the Quest 2. Now, rather than relying on the headset to help determine where the controllers are in space, each controller includes three sensors to shoulder the load. This means they can track 360 degrees of motion, which should make for smoother and better hand and arm tracking in all kinds of apps. (Sadly, though, they still won’t let you have legs in VR.)

    A pressure sensor on each controller enables more precise motions than with the current Quest 2 controllers. I tried this out with a demo in which I was able to pick up and toss around a variety of small objects like a teacup, blocks, and a garden gnome. I found that if I picked up the teacup gently, particularly by the handle, I wouldn’t harm it; if I grabbed it, however, I crushed it (I mostly crushed it).

    The things the Quest Pro and these controllers can do without connecting to a powerful computer or setting up a slew of external sensors seemed impossibly far away when then-Facebook bought VR headset maker Oculus in 2014. At that time, most people didn’t even consider VR a mass-market technology; eight years and billions of dollars later, we know and expect more. The headset may deliver technologically, but it will be up to Meta’s customers to decide whether it’s worth the price.

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  • The White House released an ‘AI Bill of Rights’ | CNN Business

    The White House released an ‘AI Bill of Rights’ | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    The White House on Tuesday released a set of guidelines it hopes will spur companies to make and deploy artificial intelligence more responsibly and limit AI-based surveillance, despite the fact that there are few US laws compelling them to do so.

    The guidelines, which have been in the works for a year, are not binding in any way. But the White House hopes it will convince tech companies to take additional steps to protect consumers, including clearly explaining how and why an automated system is in use and designing AI systems to be equitable. The blueprint joins a number of other voluntary efforts to adopt rules regarding transparency and ethics in AI, which have come from government agencies, companies and non-government groups.

    Though the use of AI has proliferated in recent years — being used for everything from confirming people’s identities for unemployment benefits to generating a highly realistic picture in response to a written prompt — the US legislative landscape has not kept pace. There are no federal laws specifically regulating AI or applications of AI, such as facial-recognition software, which has been criticized by privacy and digital rights groups for years over privacy issues and leading to the wrongful arrests, of at least several Black men, among other issues.

    A handful of individual states have their own rules. Illinois, for instance, has a law known as the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), which forces companies to get permission from people before collecting biometric data like fingerprints or scans of facial geometry. It also allows Illinois residents to sue companies for alleged violations of the law. Since 2019, a number of communities and some states have also banned the use of facial-recognition software in various ways, though a few have since pulled back on such rules.

    The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights includes five principles: That people should be protected from systems deemed “unsafe or ineffective;” that people shouldn’t be discriminated against via algorithms and that AI-driven systems should be made and used “in an equitable way;” that people should be kept safe “from abusive data practices” by safeguards built in to AI systems and have control over how data about them is used; that people should be aware when an automated system is in use and be aware of how it could affect them; and that people should be able to opt out of such systems “where appropriate” and get help from a person instead of a computer.

    “Much more than a set of principles, this is a blueprint to empower the American people to expect better and demand better from their technologies,” said Alondra Nelson, the deputy director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, during a press briefing.

    While some privacy and technology advocates responded positively to the guidelines, they also pointed out that they are just that, guidelines — and not legally binding.

    In a statement, Alexandra Reeve Givens, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit, said, “Today’s agency actions are valuable, but they would be even more effective if they were built on a foundation set up by a comprehensive federal privacy law.”

    In a separate statement, ReNika Moore, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Racial Justice Program, called the principles “an important step in addressing the harms of AI” and added that “there should be no loopholes or carve-outs for these protections.”

    “It’s critical that the Biden administration use all levers available to make the promises of the Bill of Rights blueprint a reality,” Moore said.

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  • Elon Musk may want a WeChat for the world. It won’t be easy to build | CNN Business

    Elon Musk may want a WeChat for the world. It won’t be easy to build | CNN Business

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    Hong Kong
    CNN Business
     — 

    Elon Musk is taking inspiration from China’s top social media platform, WeChat, while planning a future for Twitter. And while he has shared very few details of his ambition for an app for everything, experts say it won’t be easy to achieve.

    The Tesla

    (TSLA)     CEO said late Tuesday that he wanted to create a new app called “X” after buying Twitter.

    “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app,” he tweeted.

    Musk’s comment came on the heels of news that he had once again reversed course and decided to follow through with his bid to buy Twitter for $44 billion, a price originally agreed back in April.

    The acquisition would put the world’s richest man in charge of one of the most influential social networks around, after months of acrimony and bitter U-turns.

    Now, Musk’s intention to build out what’s assumed to be a multipurpose platform has drawn comparisons to “super-apps” in Asia, essentially one-stop shops that do it all for users.

    Several tech companies in the region have already succeeded with their own versions of such applications. Chief among them is WeChat, the platform that is owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent

    (TCEHY)     and sometimes described as Facebook

    (FB)    , Twitter

    (TWTR)    , Snapchat

    (SNAP)     and PayPal

    (PYPL)     all rolled into one.

    More than a billion users, primarily in mainland China, rely on the social network to do virtually everything — from ordering groceries to booking a yoga class to paying bills — without leaving the app.

    Elsewhere in Asia, people have also flocked to apps such as Grab (GRAB) in Singapore and Malaysia, or Line in Japan. Grab was initially best known as a ride-hailing service provider, while Line gained popularity as a messaging app, and both have since branched out significantly to offer other features.

    Musk has not been shy about his desire to emulate the success of WeChat. In June, at a town hall with Twitter employees, he compared the American company’s potential to that of Tencent’s ubiquitous service in China.

    “I think an important goal for Twitter would be to try to include as much of the country, as much of the world, as possible,” said the billionaire businessman. “You basically live on WeChat in China because it’s so usable and helpful to daily life, and I think if we can achieve that, or even get close to that at Twitter, it would be an immense success.”

    Musk isn’t the only prominent US tech leader taking cues from China: Previously, Facebook

    (FB)     CEO Mark Zuckerberg also suggested that WeChat should be a case study for his company.

    For now, Musk has yet to outline his plans for X. But analysts say he would face numerous challenges.

    First: the fiercely competitive landscape. To some extent, WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and practically “everything” are trying “to become super-apps as well,” said Ivan Lam, a senior research analyst at Counterpoint Research based in Hong Kong.

    “To try to become a super-app, it’s actually very hard,” he said in an interview.

    Xiaofeng Wang, a principal analyst at Forrester who focuses on digital marketing and engagement strategies in Asia Pacific, echoed that view, noting that the industry had only become more saturated in recent years.

    “When WeChat first launched extended services beyond social, there weren’t that many established competitors in related businesses yet,” she told CNN Business.

    “For example, when WeChat Pay was first launched, there [weren’t] any well-established mobile payment services in China yet … While in the US, there are already PayWave, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Venmo.”

    Companies trying to branch out in the sector could also face considerable pushback from policymakers, according to Wang.

    “The more flexible regulatory environment in China at the time gave internet companies like Tencent and Alibaba more room to extend to a wide range of businesses. WeChat benefited from that and grew into a super-app,” she said.

    “It would be a lot harder now, given the stricter anti-monopoly regulations in China and it would be certainly harder for Twitter or the future X to do that in the US,” she added.

    Perhaps the core challenge, however, is simply trying to be everything for everyone.

    Lam noted that many successful “super-apps” have typically targeted specific audiences, making it easier to tailor a suite of services to their needs. That would be tough to replicate globally — and could mean that Twitter or X would need to also focus on certain regions to get off the ground, he said.

    Musk has acknowledged the uphill battle. On Tuesday, a Twitter user posited that “it would have been easier to just start X from scratch,” prompting the billionaire to respond that Twitter was an important part of the plan.

    “Twitter probably accelerates X by 3 to 5 years, but I could be wrong,” Musk wrote.

    Wang said that Forrester’s research had shown there were fundamental differences in how Western and Chinese users viewed social media, making it harder for Western companies “to build the same level of trust.”

    “Putting the ambitions aside, it may be a lot more difficult to create a super-app like WeChat in the West,” she concluded.

    — Clare Duffy contributed to this report.

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  • Micron to invest up to $100 billion to build chip factory in upstate New York | CNN Business

    Micron to invest up to $100 billion to build chip factory in upstate New York | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Micron on Tuesday said it would invest up to $100 billion over the next two decades to build a massive semiconductor factory in upstate New York. The move comes in the wake of US government efforts to boost domestic chip production.

    The Idaho-based firm said it plans to build the “largest semiconductor fabrication facility in the history of the United States” in Clay, New York. Micron said the new facility, about 15 miles from Syracuse, will create nearly 50,000 New York jobs over the next two decades.

    The initial investment of $20 billion is planned “by the end of this decade,” the company said. Site preparation work will start in 2023, with construction slated to begin in 2024 and production output expected to “ramp up in the latter half of the decade, gradually increasing in line with industry demand trends,” according to the company.

    Shares for Micron rose nearly 5% Tuesday after the news was announced.

    In August, President Joe Biden signed into law the CHIPS and Science Act, which aimed to boost American chip manufacturing with a more than $200 billion investment over the next five years. The package included some $52 billion for chip manufacturing and research, providing companies incentives to build, expand and modernize US facilities and equipment. The legislation aimed to lessen a US dependency on offshore chip production from Asia, and came in the wake of a global shortage of these building blocks required for smartphones, autos and computers.

    In a statement Tuesday, Micron President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said he is “grateful to President Biden and his Administration for making the CHIPS and science Act a priority.”

    “This historic leading-edge memory megafab in Central New York will deliver benefits beyond the semiconductor industry by strengthening U.S. technology leadership as well as economic and national security, driving American innovation and competitiveness for decades to come,” Mehrotra added. (A fab refers to a semiconductor fabrication plant).

    The company said that the $5.5 billion in incentives from the state of New York over the life of the project, alongside anticipated federal grants and tax credits from the CHIPS and Science Act, “are critical to support hiring and capital investment.”

    New York Governor Kathy Hochul touted Micron’s investment in a statement, saying it “marks the start of something transformative in scale and possibility for our state’s economic future.” She added that this investment, which is the largest private-sector investment in state history, will help “usher the state into another Industrial Revolution.”

    Getting new semiconductor factories up and running in the US can take years. Ahead of the CHIPS legislation, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company committed at least $12 billion to build a semiconductor fabrication plant in Arizona, with production expected to begin in 2024.

    Intel announced plans to build a $20 billion semiconductor manufacturing plant in Ohio at the beginning of the year, but then warned that this project could be delayed if lawmakers did not pass the CHIPS legislation. Groundbreaking for the new Intel chip plant took place just last month. Biden traveled to Ohio to celebrate the occasion.

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  • Dream, the Minecraft-playing YouTube star, finally reveals his face | CNN Business

    Dream, the Minecraft-playing YouTube star, finally reveals his face | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    Dream, a YouTube star with more than 30 million subscribers, has finally revealed his face after hiding behind a smiley-face mask for years.

    “My name is Clay, maybe you’ve heard of me, maybe not,” he posted in a YouTube video Sunday night. “Maybe you clicked on this video out of pure curiosity and you don’t care who I am.”

    He explained that the purpose of the face reveal was that he was meeting a friend for the first time after chatting online for several years. He added that he wanted to live a more public life and “start doing things” including meeting fellow internet creators.

    The face reveal took place about one minute and thirty seconds in the five-minute video, which has amassed 16 million views in less than 12 hours.

    Dream has been an internet presence since 2014 and is best known for being a Minecraft gamer. He’s occasionally garnered controversy for cheating at the game and said he’s received some hate online. At one point the FBI reaching out to him about a “threat” on his life.

    “I feel like I got so desensitized to hate, that I find it funny,” he said in the clip.

    He ended the video said that his channel is “living proof that anyone can do anything” and that he doesn’t want his face reveal to take away from that.

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  • Amazon’s $999 dog-like robot is getting smarter | CNN Business

    Amazon’s $999 dog-like robot is getting smarter | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Amazon on Wednesday unveiled a collection of product updates that tie together its vast suite of services and help ensure it remains at the center of peoples’ lives and homes.

    Nearly a year after Amazon

    (AMZN)     was met with criticism over its controversial vision for the future of home security, the company is doubling down on new features for Astro, its dog-like robot, to help it better patrol the household when the owners are away. Amazon

    (AMZN)     also announced a new sleep-tracking device as well as an updated Alexa-powered Fire TV that knows when you’re in the room, among a number of other products.

    The new updates, announced at an invite-only press event, come a week after the company introduced four new Fire HD 8 tablet models and appear aimed at drumming up excitement for its products ahead of the all-important holiday shopping season.

    Amazon, like other tech companies, must convince customers to upgrade or buy new gadgets at a time when fears are mounting about a possible global recession. At the same time, Amazon must also confront shifting comfort levels with its growing reach into the lives of consumers and how closely its household products may be tracking them.

    Last month, Amazon agreed to buy iRobot, the company behind the popular automated Roomba vacuums, in a $1.7 billion deal that quickly raised concerns. The Federal Trade Commission is now probing the deal after more than two dozen groups wrote to the agency alleging the acquisition could help Amazon “entrench their monopoly power in the digital economy.”

    Amazon did not mention the Roomba at Wednesday’s event, but Amazon clearly remains committed to investing to make every home a little more of an Amazon home.

    Here’s a look at what the company announced:

    Amazon is rolling out its first major software update to Astro, an autonomous 20-pound dog-like robot with large, cartoon-y eyes on its tablet face, and a cup holder. The robot – not unlike an Alexa on wheels – uses voice-recognition software, cameras, artificial intelligence, mapping technology and voice- and face-recognition sensors as it zooms from room to room, capturing live video and learning your habits.

    Soon Astro will be able to detect cats and dogs in the home, take short video clips of what they’re up to when owners aren’t around and watch and talk to them in real time. Amazon is also adding the ability to monitor if windows or doors are left open, building on what the company said users have been already doing, such as checking to see if the stove was left on.

    Amazon is also opening Astro up to the developer community by offering tools that enable them to build software or specific commands for the robotic pup. And Astro will now work with a real-time subscription service from Amazon’s smart-doorbell company, Ring, to provide security monitoring to small and medium-sized businesses.

    The company emphasized that Astro was conceived with security and privacy as a priority, with data processed on the device itself and the ability to restrict where Astro can go in the home.

    Astro is currently available for $999, which includes a six-month free trial of Ring Protect Pro. (Pricing will later jump to $1,499.)

    Amazon unveiled a new series of Fire TV Omni QLED models – the first Fire TV to ship with Dolby Vision IQ.

    Through adaptive technology, the 4K TVs know when you walk into a room and leave, so it can save on power and turn off when needed. It also features a gallery of 1,500 curated pictures that can be displayed when not in use – a concept similar to Samsung’s existing Frame TVs.

    Its deeper integration with Alexa could be a true standout: with its built-in microphones, users can access widgets such as sticky notes, the calendar, the weather or dim the lights by talking directly to the TV. A 65-inch model costs $799 and 75-inch version costs $1,099.

    Amazon is also rolling out a premium remote, called Alexa Voice Remote Pro, that includes a feature to make it easier to find when the remote gets misplaced.

    Amazon is expanding its suite of Halo wellness products beyond wearables into sleep tracking. The new Halo Rise sits on the nightstand and monitors the sleeping and breathing patterns of the person closest. It also tracks humidity and light in the room, and presents a natural light to wake up to as an alternative to an alarm.

    The device, which uses sensor tech and machine learning to approach sleep, works even if the person is turned in the other direction, or covered in pillows and blankets, as it can detect micro-movements, according to the company.

    Amazon said it developed the product to offer consumers more choices around sleep tracking, noting many people don’t like sleeping with a wearable device and that batteries often turn off mid-sleep cycle.

    Halo Rise is $139.99 and includes a six-month Halo membership, which provides workouts, insights and tools for health tracking.

    Fifteen years after launching the Kindle, Amazon is introducing a higher-end version that also serves as a writing device.

    With a 10.2-inch HD display and its first-ever Kindle pen, the Kindle Scribe allows users to write to-do lists, journal entries and review documents imported from their phone. Amazon said it will partner with Microsoft to support its suite of products on the Kindle Scribe early next year.

    Kindle Scribe

    The new Kindle supports USB-C charging and has a battery designed to last for months. The device starts at $339 with a pen and 16 GB of storage and costs $369 for a premium pen and 32 GB. (The company did not go into specifics on the premium pen.) In comparison, a basic Kindle starts at $99, while its higher-end Kindle Oasis is $249.

    Amazon updated its Echo Dot speaker lineup. The new devices feature twice the bass, updated processors and can serve as a Wi-Fi extender for the company’s Eero mesh system. Amazon is also rolling out a software update to its high-end Echo Studio speaker to include new spatial audio processing and improve sound quality. The speaker, which is $199, now comes in white.

    The company is also taking another shot at getting Alexa into the car. Its Echo Auto device ($54.99) is now smaller, sleeker and can be more easily mounted in a vehicle. The gadget is intended to let users send hands-free messages, listen to music and podcasts, access navigation and seamlessly sift from the car to another device when you get home.

    Amazon also announced a number of software updates coming to its existing Echo Show 15, a device the company said is especially popular in the kitchen.

    The upgrade includes free access to Fire TV and a much more personal Alexa. The voice assistant can now rattle off a morning routine for each person in the home, including providing calendar updates, playing specific music and highlighting traffic reports for commuters.

    Other new features include receiving alerts for weather forecast changes; the ability to record video messages that can be displayed on the Echo Show screen or via the Alexa app; asking Alexa to dim the lights up to 24 hours in the future; and receiving updates about when a Whole Foods Market curbside pickup order is ready. The updates will roll out in the coming months.

    The Echo Show is also getting an interactive storytelling feature that lets kids pick from a handful of themes, such as an undersea or outer space adventure, and characters like an octopus or an astronaut, to create a story that is immediately animated on the gadget’s display and told by Alexa. The story is generated using a number of AI models that determine elements including the script and music, making it different each time.

    “Amazon has invested in embedding more intelligence in its Alexa devices for awhile now and the ability to extend that capability into greater system-wide intelligence is significant,” said Jonathan Collins, a research director at market research firm ABI Research. “New functionality, including its Routines feature, could help make Amazon smart home systems more intelligent, responsive and helpful, and more tightly integrated with other Amazon offerings from grocery shopping and beyond.”

    CNN Business’ Rachel Metz contributed to this report

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  • Anyone can now use powerful AI tools to make images. What could possibly go wrong? | CNN Business

    Anyone can now use powerful AI tools to make images. What could possibly go wrong? | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    If you’ve ever wanted to use artificial intelligence to quickly design a hybrid between a duck and a corgi, now is your time to shine.

    On Wednesday, OpenAI announced that anyone can now use the most recent version of its AI-powered DALL-E tool to generate a seemingly limitless range of images just by typing in a few words, months after the startup began gradually rolling it out to users.

    The move will likely expand the reach of a new crop of AI-powered tools that have already attracted a wide audience and challenged our fundamental ideas of art and creativity. But it could also add to concerns about how such systems could be misused when widely available.

    “Learning from real-world use has allowed us to improve our safety systems, making wider availability possible today,” OpenAI said in a blog post. The company said it has also strengthened the ways it rebuffs users attempts to make its AI create “sexual, violent and other content.”

    There are now three well-known, immensely powerful AI systems open to the public that can take in a few words and spit out an image. In addition to DALL-E 2, there’s Midjourney, which became publicly available in July, and Stable Diffusion, which was released to the public in August by Stability AI. All three offer some free credits to users who want to get a feel for making images with AI online; generally, after that, you have to pay.

    These so-called generative AI systems are already being used for experimental films, magazine covers, and real-estate ads. An image generated with Midjourney recently won an art competition at the Colorado State Fair, and caused an uproar among artists.

    In just months, millions of people have flocked to these AI systems. More than 2.7 million people belong to Midjourney’s Discord server, where users can submit prompts. OpenAI said in its Wednesday blog post that it has more than 1.5 million active users, who have collectively been making more than 2 million images with its system each day. (It should be noted that it can take many tries to get an image you’re happy with when you use these tools.)

    Many of the images that have been created by users in recent weeks have been shared online, and the results can be impressive. They range from otherworldly landscapes and a painting of French aristocrats as penguins to a faux vintage photograph of a man walking a tardigrade.

    The ascension of such technology, and the increasingly complicated prompts and resulting images, has impressed even longtime industry insiders. Andrej Karpathy, who stepped down from his post as Tesla’s director of AI in July, said in a recent tweet that after getting invited to try DALL-E 2 he felt “frozen” when first trying to decide what to type in and eventually typed “cat”.

    CNN's Rachel Metz created this half-duck, half-corgie with AI image generator Stable Diffusion.

    “The art of prompts that the community has discovered and increasingly perfected over the last few months for text -> image models is astonishing,” he said.

    But the popularity of this technology comes with potential downsides. Experts in AI have raised concerns that the open-ended nature of these systems — which makes them adept at generating all kinds of images from words — and their ability to automate image-making means they could automate bias on a massive scale. A simple example of this: When I fed the prompt “a banker dressed for a big day at the office” to DALL-E 2 this week, the results were all images of middle-aged white men in suits and ties.

    “They’re basically letting the users find the loopholes in the system by using it,” said Julie Carpenter, a research scientist and fellow in the Ethics and Emerging Sciences Group at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

    The prompt

    These systems also have the potential to be used for nefarious purposes, such as stoking fear or spreading disinformation via images that are altered with AI or entirely fabricated.

    There are some limits for what images users can generate. For example, OpenAI has DALL-E 2 users agree to a content policy that tells them to not try to make, upload, or share pictures “that are not G-rated or that could cause harm.” DALL-E 2 also won’t run prompts that include certain banned words. But manipulating verbiage can get around limits: DALL-E 2 won’t process the prompt “a photo of a duck covered in blood,” but it will return images for the prompt “a photo of a duck covered in a viscous red liquid.” OpenAI itself mentioned this sort of “visual synonym” in its documentation for DALL-E 2.

    Chris Gilliard, a Just Tech Fellow at the Social Science Research Council, thinks the companies behind these image generators are “severely underestimating” the “endless creativity” of people who are looking to do ill with these tools.

    “I feel like this is yet another example of people releasing technology that’s sort of half-baked in terms of figuring out how it’s going to be used to cause chaos and create harm,” he said. “And then hoping that later on maybe there will be some way to address those harms.”

    To sidestep potential issues, some stock-image services are banning AI images altogether. Getty Images confirmed to CNN Business on Wednesday that it will not accept image submissions that were created with generative AI models, and will take down any submissions that used those models. This decision applies to its Getty Images, iStock, and Unsplash image services.

    “There are open questions with respect to the copyright of outputs from these models and there are unaddressed rights issues with respect to the underlying imagery and metadata used to train these models,” the company said in a statement.

    But actually catching and restricting these images could prove to be a challenge.

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  • Tesla robot slowly walks on stage at AI Day | CNN Business

    Tesla robot slowly walks on stage at AI Day | CNN Business

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    Washington, DC
    CNN
     — 

    Tesla revealed on Friday a prototype of a humanoid robot that it says could be a future product for the automaker.

    The robot, dubbed Optimus by Tesla, walked stiffly on stage at Tesla’s AI Day, slowly waved at the crowed and gestured with its hands for roughly one minute. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the robot was operating without a tether for the first time. Robotics developers often use tethers to support robots because they aren’t capable enough to walk without falling and damaging themselves.

    The Optimus’ abilities appear to significantly trail what robots from competitors like Hyundai-owned Boston Dynamics are capable of. Boston Dynamics robots have been seen doing back flips and performing sophisticated dance routines without a tether.

    “The robot can actually do a lot more than we just showed you,” Musk said at the event. “We just didn’t want it to fall on its face.”

    Tesla also showed videos of its robot performing simple tasks like carrying boxes and watering plants with a watering can.

    Musk claimed that if the robot was produced in mass volumes it would “probably” cost less than $20,000. Tesla maintains that Optimus’ advantage over competitors will be its ability to navigate independently using technology developed from Tesla’s driver-assistance system “Full Self Driving,” as well as cost savings from what it has learned about manufacturing from its automotive division. (Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” requires a human that is alert and attentive, ready to take over at any time, as it is not yet capable of fully driving itself.)

    Tesla has a history of aggressive price targets that it doesn’t ultimately reach. The Tesla Model 3 was long promised as a $35,000 vehicle, but could only very briefly be purchased for that price, and not directly on its website. The most affordable Tesla Model 3 now costs $46,990. When Tesla revealed the Cybertruck in 2019, its pick-up truck that remains unavailable for purchase today, it was said to cost $39,990, but the price has since been removed from Tesla’s website.

    Tesla AI Day is intended largely as a recruiting event to attract talented people to join the company.

    Musk claimed the robot could be transformative for civilization. The robot displayed Friday, despite its limitations compared to competitors, was significantly ahead of what Tesla revealed a year ago, when a person jumped on stage in a robot suit and danced around.

    “‘Last year was just a person in a robot suit,” Musk said before the robot walked on stage. “We’ve come a long way. Compared to that, it’s going to be very impressive.”

    Tesla is not the first automaker to develop a humanoid robot. Along with Hyundai’s Boston Dynamics, Honda worked on robots dubbed “Asimo” for nearly 20 years. In its final form, Asimo was a child-size humanoid robot capable of untethered walking, running, climbing and descending stairs, and manipulating objects with its fingers.

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  • Tesla’s AI Day is tonight. It may wow you — or end with a gaffe | CNN Business

    Tesla’s AI Day is tonight. It may wow you — or end with a gaffe | CNN Business

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    Washington, DC
    CNN Business
     — 

    Tesla

    (TSLA)     will hold its second annual AI Day in Palo Alto, California, Friday evening. The six-hour event will include updates on Tesla

    (TSLA)    ’s work in artificial intelligence, “Full Self-Driving,” its supercomputer “Dojo” and maybe a humanoid robot, according to invitations posted online by Tesla

    (TSLA)     supporters. The event is expected to be live-streamed.

    Dojo is a supercomputer being designed to train AI systems to complete complex tasks like Tesla’s driver-assistance systems Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving,” which sometimes perform some driving tasks like steering and keeping up with traffic. Tesla’s previous AI Day included detailed technical explanations of the company’s work in a bid to attract leading engineers.

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk has claimed before that in the long run people will think of Tesla as an AI company, rather than a car company or energy company. He has said that Tesla AI may play a role in computers matching general human abilities, a huge milestone many experts say is decades away and perhaps unattainable. Musk, who has a long history of predictions, has said it may be reached in 2029.

    But more limited and easier to develop forms of artificial intelligence — like identifying emergency vehicles stopped on a highway — have proven to be a significant hurdle for the company as it pursues its dreams of self-driving cars. AI powers “Full Self-Driving,” but the system has faced criticism and backlash as it still requires driver intervention to prevent collisions and Musk’s deadlines for its capabilities slip year after year.

    And this summer Tesla’s director of artificial intelligence, Andrej Karpathy, exited the company, several months after it was announced he was taking a sabbatical.

    It’s not easy to predict what may or may not show up at any event helmed by Musk. Products heralded and talked about sometimes don’t perform as designed — like when Musk showed off the Tesla Cybertruck’s supposedly “unbreakable” windows, that promptly broke — and can’t even be bought years later. (Three years after the event Tesla sells a T-shirt that memorializes the broken window, but it has yet to sell a Cybertruck.)

    Musk has unquestionably disrupted entire industries with his work at Tesla and SpaceX. But he’s also earned a reputation for missing deadlines and overpromising.

    Last year’s AI Day “surprise,” for instance, was a Tesla “robot,” which was just a human dancing in a suit.

    Musk then claimed that the automaker is building a 5-foot-8, 125-pound humanoid robot, called Optimus or Tesla Bot and a prototype would likely be unveiled this year. It’s unclear if a prototype will be revealed Friday, but Musk tweeted Thursday that the event would include “cool hardware demos.”

    Tesla is also working on wheeled robots for manufacturing and autonomous logistics, according to a Tesla job posting for a senior humanoid mechatronics robotics architect.

    Musk claimed last year that the humanoid robot would have a profound impact on the economy. It would begin by working on boring, repetitive and dangerous tasks, he said.

    Tesla and Musk are not, of course, the first to bet on robots. Robots already handle many factory jobs, and companies like Boston Dynamics have worked for years to develop humanoid, animal-like, and other robots for industrial applications.

    Humanoid robots have long fascinated the public and earned a place in pop culture as powerful but sometimes dangerous. Tesla tapped into this when it posted on Instagram in a promotion for the event that, “if you can run faster than 5 mph, you’ll be fine.” The Tesla humanoid robot is planned to have a top speed of 5 mph, the automaker has said.

    But creating a humanoid robot that rivals a human’s abilities has proved incredibly difficult for robotics experts. Artificial intelligence has seen major advances yet trails the general abilities of a human toddler. Most robots in use today are restricted to simple tasks in basic environments like vacuuming a home or moving parts in a factory.

    Tesla would not be the first automaker to build a humanoid robot, either. Honda worked on a series of robots, known as Asimo, for nearly 20 years. The Japanese company shut down development of Asimo in 2018. Korean automaker Hyundai bought Boston Dynamics in 2020.

    Musk said Thursday that AI Day would be “highly technical” as it is meant for recruiting engineers to work on artificial intelligence, robotics and computer chips.

    “Engineers who understand what problems need to be solved will like what they see,” Musk tweeted Friday.

    Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

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  • ‘No matter the law, no matter the stigma, no matter the cost.’ This European network helps people access abortions | CNN

    ‘No matter the law, no matter the stigma, no matter the cost.’ This European network helps people access abortions | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: This story is part of As Equals, CNN’s ongoing series on gender inequality. For information about how the series is funded and more, check out our FAQs.


    Amsterdam, the Netherlands
    CNN
     — 

    It’s early evening in an affluent neighborhood in the Dutch city of Haarlem and bed and breakfast owners Arnoud and Marika are waiting for their next guest to arrive. They’ve prepared their single room for her, a brightly colored space with massive windows overlooking a leafy drive.

    The traveller is a woman from France. She’s only staying one night, but her hosts want her to feel at home because she’s not here on vacation. She’s come to have a second-trimester abortion.

    The Netherlands is one of just a few countries in Europe where access to abortion is possible past 12 weeks of pregnancy, and Arnoud and Marika’s guest is one of around 3,000 people from abroad who have accessed one annually in recent years.

    Here, abortions for non-Dutch residents can be carried out until 22 weeks, according to Dutch abortion providers, and nationals can access terminations up to 24 weeks.

    In the United Kingdom (with the exception of Northern Ireland), it’s possible for anyone to get an abortion until 24 weeks, and for a very limited set of circumstances afterwards, however Brexit has made it increasingly more difficult for people to travel there. And in Spain, abortions past 14 weeks of pregnancy are only legal under extremely limited circumstances, although abortion rights groups say the law is often interpreted loosely.

    The restrictions mean that, for many in their second trimester, the Netherlands is their last chance to access a safe abortion. By opening up their home, Arnoud and Marika have become part of a grassroots network of people helping to facilitate that access.

    “This is a house without taboos,” Arnoud told CNN. Arnoud and Marika are pseudonyms that CNN agreed to use over concerns that the couple’s B&B – which is also where they live – will be targeted by anti-abortion protesters.

    Now in their 70s, the retired pair have made it their mission to be a welcoming point of entry for the people they host, many of whom they receive bleary eyed from a long day or more of travel, punctuated by weeks of anxiety and stress leading up to the journey.

    “They are so relieved, they have made this terrible journey, and they come in and they’re crying,” Marika said. “I love to be a light for them.”

    Arnoud and Marika look through messages written by their guests in their B&B in Haarlem. Photo: Kara Fox/CNN

    Arnoud and Marika’s guest book. “Thanks for the kind words that cheered me up,” a message from a Polish guest in September reads. Photo: Kara Fox/CNN

    Since they opened their B&B seven years ago, Arnoud and Marika say they have hosted around 350 people seeking abortion care from across Europe. They explain that some came alone, others were joined by partners or friends, while some brought their family.

    At first, the majority of their guests came from France and Germany, where abortion is available until 14 and 12 weeks of pregnancy, respectively. (France extended that time limit from 12 to 14 weeks earlier this year.) They say they have also hosted a number of women from other European countries including Belgium and Luxembourg, and Romania. One woman traveled from as far as the Caribbean island of Martinique, they said.

    But in recent years data shows the demographics have changed, with an influx of people now traveling to the Netherlands from Poland, after the country’s highest court further tightened its abortion laws – which were already among the strictest in Europe.

    The numbers coming to the Netherlands from Poland have swelled further as Ukrainians displaced there due to the war find they need to seek safe abortion access beyond Polish borders.

    In October 2020, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal banned virtually all abortions, allowing them only in circumstances where the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest, or if the pregnant person’s life was at risk. The law came into effect the following January. Prior to this, abortions were also allowed in the case of fetal abnormalities – which accounted for approximately 97% of all known legal terminations carried out in Poland in 2019, according to data from the Polish Ministry of Health.

    The change in the law has left many people in Poland without legal access to safe terminations in their own country, and has created an even more hostile environment for abortion rights activists and those seeking abortions.

    When asked about the worsening climate for those seeking or providing abortions in Poland, a statement provided to CNN by the Polish government simply reiterated the law, saying: “In the event of a situation that threatens the life or health of a pregnant woman (e.g. suspected infection of the uterine cavity, hemorrhage, etc.) …it is lawful to terminate a pregnancy immediately.”

    “The decision whether there are circumstances in which the pregnancy threatens the life or health of the pregnant woman is and can only be made by a doctor in a specific case,” the statement added.

    But abortion rights activists say the law has created a chilling effect on healthcare providers, with some doctors appearing more fearful of potential repercussions that include prosecution than doing everything they can to save a pregnant person’s life. Three pregnant women have died in Polish hospitals after being denied an abortion since the court decision, according to Abortion Support Network, a UK-based organization that helps people in Poland obtain abortion care as part of the Abortion Without Borders (AWB) network.

    AWB was formed in response to the Polish government’s long standing proposals to ban abortion in 2019.

    The grassroots feminist network is made up of six organizations from Poland, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. They say the Polish state is failing women and have made it their mission to ensure safe access to abortion for any reason a person chooses to have one – including whether the pregnancy is wanted or not.

    “We don’t want to make you feel like you have to explain yourself, and that you have to earn your abortion with a sob story,” said Polish abortion rights activist Kasia Roszak.

    Kasia Roszak of Abortion Network Amsterdam says the work that she does is

    Roszak, who now lives in Amsterdam where she works with Abortion Network Amsterdam (part of AWB), says she knows exactly how it feels to not have agency over her reproductive rights, which is one of the reasons she works to ensure access for anyone globally who needs it.

    “We believe that abortions are part of life. It can be an empowering, positive experience. And if it’s not, if it’s something hard for you, then we’re going to give you space and validation of your feelings,” Roszak said. “I feel like it’s my responsibility to be able to share with people that there are options.”

    From December 2020 to December 2021, AWB says they helped 32,000 people from Poland access abortions across Europe – an almost six-fold increase from the previous year.

    In 2021, the network says they facilitated travel for 1,186 people in Poland – more than quadruple the number of people they supported with travel in 2020. More than half of those people travelled to the Netherlands, making up 52% of the total they helped to visit the country for abortions that year, according to AWB.

    Official 2021 data from the Dutch government shows 651 people from Poland had abortions in the Netherlands, more than double the number of people in 2020.

    “Effectively, we took over all [of Poland’s] fetal anomaly cases,” said Roszak. Numbers previously hovered around 1,000 cases a year in Poland, according to government data.

    The network gets connected with people who need their help through a process like this: A person with an unwanted pregnancy will first call a hotline in Poland, where they have two options, depending on how far along they are: take pills or travel for a procedure.

    If they are less than 12 weeks pregnant, they are sent the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol – approved by the World Health Organization – to take in the privacy of their own home. This is the case for the majority of the people who reach out to them, according to AWB data.

    Mariprist, a safe and effective abortion medication that contains mifepristone and misoprostol, seen at the Women Help Women offices in Amsterdam.

    However, for people whose pregnancies have already passed the 12-week mark, they will likely need to travel to a clinic abroad. This is also the case for those living in other European countries where laws prohibit abortions after the first trimester. For these people, the network taps into its web of volunteers and activists who will work around the clock to arrange appointments at clinics, translate documentation and provide financial assistance to help meet the cost of the procedure and related travel.

    Second trimester abortions may be available in the Netherlands but they are expensive for non-Dutch residents, costing up to 1,100 euros (roughly $1,100) for the surgical procedure which typically takes no longer than 20 minutes. Counselling, preparation for the procedure and recovery however require the better part of a day.

    Depending on each individual circumstance, assistance arrives in many ways and AWB may cover all or part of the costs, which can include flights, accommodation, and handling appointments with the treatment center directly.

    Money is raised mostly from private donations, according to activists within the AWB network, but some of the organizations within it are supported by big donors. Without financial assistance, abortion travel is especially prohibitive for working-class people, migrants and others living in poverty.

    Kinga Jelińska, Executive Director of the Amsterdam-based group Women Help Women – which is also part of AWB – told CNN: “We return abortion back to common people, no matter the law, no matter the stigma, no matter the cost.”

    Kinga Jelińska, Executive Director of Women Help Women, says the network is essentially running a

    Second-trimester abortions constitute a relatively small proportion of the total number of officially recorded abortions in high-income countries. The vast majority are carried out in the first trimester.

    Those seeking second-trimester abortions do so for a number of reasons, including not having previously realized they were pregnant; a change in personal circumstances such as financial difficulties or the breakdown of a relationship; unexpected medical problems in themselves or the fetus, and trauma surrounding rape and sexual abuse cases, which can also be a reason that one might not recognize the pregnancy until it is too late to access an abortion in their country.

    “People sometimes think that it’s a matter of fundamental principles and beliefs. [But]we see day after day, people coming to us and saying… ‘I used to be against abortion, but my situation is different,’ Jelińska explained.”The decision whether to continue the pregnancy or not, is highly contextual.”

    At the Bloemenhove clinic in Haarlem, one of two clinics in the country that offer abortions past 18 weeks, the parking lot looks “like the United Nations,” Roszak quipped, referencing the fact that car registration plates can be seen from all over Europe.

    The clinic, a bright and modern space with a peaceful garden area, treats approximately 15 people a day, 4 days a week, according to its director, Femke van Straaten. But the influx of Polish patients has, van Straaten said, led to a shift in the way that her team works.

    Prior to the Polish court ruling, more than half of the patients at Bloemenhove were Dutch and most came to terminate unwanted pregnancies, van Straaten explained. As such, staff were able to recommend in-country aftercare, including counseling resources.

    Now, with more patients coming to the clinic from Poland with wanted pregnancies (many of whom came for terminations due to fetal abnormalities), they have “different needs for care,” said van Straaten.

    One of the ways the clinic responded was to establish a memorial at a local cemetery for women to find some closure for their unviable pregnancies.

    “They couldn’t take their child back home, and they had no place for their grievance,” said van Straaten, who helped organize the memorial last year at the suggestion of the Polish abortion rights network. She added that memorial services are also available for people carrying viable fetuses who chose to terminate their pregnancies.

    As part of this aftercare, patients can opt for a cremation and are permitted to take the ashes home. For those who can’t wait for cremation, the cemetery offers to scatter the ashes on the site, where a steel tree has been erected and babies’ names are engraved onto a rainbow of leaves that hang on its branches.

    The “Little Stars Meadow,” a memorial space for people to grieve and find closure at the Haarlem cemetery. Photo: Kara Fox/CNN

    Engraved “leaves” on the memorial tree. Van Straaten says her team decided to use the word “stillborns” for the terminated pregnancies – the closest word in English that they could find – to help people who wanted their babies acknowledge their loss and move forward.. Photo: Kara Fox/CNN

    Dr. Elles Garcia, an abortion care provider at Bloemenhove since 2016, works to assuage concerns that some people – particularly those from Poland – have about returning home after their termination.

    “They often ask me the question: ‘What do I tell my gynaecologist? Can I tell them that I had a miscarriage?’ They’re so afraid of getting back to their doctor in their own country and to tell them the truth – they can’t,” she said from one of the clinic’s consultation rooms.

    Garcia said that while she assures patients that medically, their doctors back at home won’t be able to know whether they had a miscarriage or an abortion, she still encourages them to be honest about what they went through, not only for themselves, but in hopes it might start to break down societal taboos.

    “I tell them to say that you were here for an abortion, because here it’s legal – you can tell them the truth,” she said, before acknowledging, “but then they get afraid and anxious.”

    To help people prepare to return to a society where abortion is both restricted and taboo, the AWB Polish helpline has also expanded its remit to provide aftercare, including psychological counseling for those in need.

    Dr. Elles Garcia of the Bloemenhove clinic says she always advises patients from countries where abortion is taboo to talk with each other to reduce the stigma around the subject.

    Back at their B&B, Arnoud and Marika are reflecting on the past several years of providing hospitality to people at a difficult time in their lives.

    Only around a third of their guests stay for two nights, they say, the majority return to their countries of origin straight from the clinic. And so the relationships are fleeting, but the septuagenarians know their impact can be profound. They see their job as being to listen and reassure.

    “People come from the room and ask: ‘Can we talk to each other?’ said Arnoud, explaining that guests often gather around their dining room table or sit in their garden for a chat if they stay the second night.

    The couple say that while they were never planning on becoming a hub for abortion travel when they first decided to open their business, they can’t imagine their B&B in any other way.

    But unlike most business owners, they say they relish the day when their business might go bust.

    “When the law changes in France, like we have in Holland, when the law changes in Poland, like we have here, it will be better – I will sing a song,” Arnoud said.

    He looks to Marika and adds: “Our business is not important. It’s more important that women can decide for themselves … that’s the most important.”

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