Category: Technology

Meta has rolled out Instagram Map in Pakistan, offering users an interactive way to discover content and connect with friends, while ensuring strong privacy controls. This interactive map allows users to explore stories, reels, posts, and notes tagged with specific locations, making it easier to find what’s happening around them. Instagram parent company meta announced the latest feature on Oct 4, which is available directly at the top of users’ DM inboxes. The new feature allows Pakistanis to share their location and explore stories, reels, posts, and notes with location…

Read More

Indonesia said it has suspended TikTok’s registration status as an electronic system provider after it failed to hand over all data relating to the use of its live stream feature, though the social media app was still accessible to users on Friday. Alexander Sabar, an official at Indonesia’s communications and digital ministry, said in a statement some accounts with ties to online gambling activities used TikTok’s live stream feature during recent national protests and monetised it. Protests rocked the world’s third-largest democracy over exorbitant lawmaker allowances and police brutality from…

Read More

Apple removed on Thursday several apps used to anonymously report the movements of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from its app store, reportedly following Trump administration pressure. The apps had become increasingly popular in recent months as President Donald Trump’s deportation drive gained steam in cities around the country. But Trump administration officials had fiercely criticised the apps as endangering officers, particularly following a deadly shooting at an ICE facility in Texas last month. Officials said the shooter had used such an app in the days leading up…

Read More

WASHINGTON: Alphabet’s Google has warned that hackers are bombarding company executives with threatening emails, claiming they have stolen sensitive information from Oracle business systems. The emails, linked to a ransomware group, demand massive payments to keep the alleged data from being exposed. In a statement, Google said a group claiming affiliation with the ransomware gang cl0p was sending emails to “executives at numerous organisations claiming to have stolen sensitive data from their Oracle E-Business Suite.” Google cautioned that it “does not currently have sufficient evidence to definitively assess the veracity of…

Read More

A Washington, DC judge rejected Elon Musk’s request to shift an SEC lawsuit over his delayed disclosure of Twitter shares to Texas, despite his argument that he was too busy to fight the case in the capital. US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said on Thursday she “takes Mr Musk’s convenience seriously,” but the world’s richest person has “considerable means” and spends at least 40% of his time outside Texas. “Indeed,” she wrote, “Mr Musk’s brief itself indicates that he has spent substantial time here this year,” when he ran the…

Read More

The valuation of ChatGPT developer OpenAI soared to a chart-topping $500 billion in a deal for employees to sell a limited number of shares, financial media reported Thursday. If confirmed, OpenAI workers’ sale of a reported $6.6 billion in shares to investors would make the company the world’s most valuable startup, overtaking Elon Musks rocket company SpaceX — valued at around $400 billion, according to Bloomberg. A gaggle of investors snapping up the shares included Japanese investment giant SoftBank, the Financial Times and Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the transaction.…

Read More

BEIJING: As part of Beijing’s ongoing efforts to position itself as a world leader in those sectors ahead of the United States, China has introduced a new visa programme to attract foreign talent in the field of science and technology. The Chinese measure, announced in August, stands in stark contrast to recent US policy, with the Trump administration suddenly introducing new and expensive changes to its own skilled worker visas last month. China’s new K visa significantly simplifies the immigration process for those eligible, according to state media. “Against the…

Read More

OpenAI is releasing an AI video-generating app called Sora that lets people create and share AI videos that can be spun from copyrighted content and shared to social media-like streams. Copyright owners, such as television and movie studios, must opt out of having their work appear in the video feed, company officials said, describing it as a continuation of its prior policy toward image generation. The copyright policy is likely to ruffle feathers throughout Hollywood. The ChatGPT-maker has been in talks with a variety of copyright holders in recent weeks…

Read More

NEW YORK: YouTube has agreed to pay $22 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump, after the platform suspended his account over the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, according to a court filing Monday. The Google-owned video service is the latest Big Tech company to reach a settlement with Trump, who filed multiple suits challenging his broad deplatforming in the aftermath of the Capitol riots. The $22 million will go toward Trump’s latest construction project at the White House, through a nonprofit called Trust for…

Read More

OpenAI has announced the launch of parental control in ChatGPT on both phone and browser on Monday, after a lawsuit filed by the parents of a teenager who attempted suicide after chatboat suggested him a method of self-harm. The controls let parents and teenagers opt in for stronger safeguards by linking their accounts, where one party sends an invitation and parental controls activate only if the other accepts, the company said. US regulators are increasingly scrutinising AI companies over the potential negative impacts of chatbots. In August, Reuters had reported…

Read More