Technology

FILE - Larry Ellison, chairman and chief technology officer of Oracle Corporation, sits in the Oval...

Musk loses crown as world’s richest to software giant Larry Ellison in new Bloomberg ranking

NEW YORK (AP) — Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday, according to wealth tracker Bloomberg, as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth […]
11 months ago
Amazon-Zoox robotaxis are beginning to give free rides through parts of Las Vegas as part of its dr...

Amazon’s Zoox launches its robotaxi service in Las Vegas

Amazon’s Zoox on Wednesday launched its robotaxi service in Las Vegas, offering free rides through parts of the entertainment mecca for anyone willing to gamble on the safety of a driverless vehicle. The Las Vegas debut of Zoox’s long-planned ride-hailing service reflects Amazon-owned robotaxi maker’s confidence in the safety of its boxy vehicles after two […]
11 months ago

Klarna prices IPO at $40, valuing buy now, pay later company at $15 billion ahead of trading debut

NEW YORK (AP) — Klarna priced its long awaited initial public offering at $40 a share late Tuesday, valuing the Swedish buy now, pay later company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies […]
11 months ago
The iPhone 17 Pro is displayed during an announcement of new products at Apple Park on Tuesday, Sep...

Apple has unveiled its iPhone 17 lineup, including the first iPhone Air. Here’s what’s new

NEW YORK (AP) — Apple’s iPhone 17 lineup is here. The tech giant on Tuesday unveiled four new models that mark the latest editions to its marquee product. That includes the introduction of the iPhone Air, which Apple says is its thinnest smartphone yet. And, as seen in years past, its newest phones boast better […]
11 months ago
Petitioner Yang Guoliang, whose family has been trapped in an increasingly tight noose of surveilla...

Takeaways from AP’s investigation into how US tech companies enabled China’s digital police state

BEIJING (AP) — Across China, tens of thousands of people tagged as troublemakers are trapped in a digital cage, barred from leaving their province and sometimes even their homes by the world’s largest digital surveillance apparatus. Most of this technology came from companies in a country that has long claimed to support freedoms worldwide: the […]
11 months ago
Petitioner Yang Guoliang looks through documents at his home in Changzhou in eastern China's Jiangs...

Detailed findings from AP investigation into how US tech firms enabled China’s digital police state

BEIJING (AP) — American tech companies to a large degree designed and built China’s surveillance state, playing a far greater role in enabling human rights abuses than previously known, an Associated Press investigation found. They sold billions of dollars of technology to the Chinese police, government and surveillance companies, despite quash dissent, persecute religious sects […]
11 months ago
Petitioner Yang Guoliang pulls back the blackout curtain used to provide privacy from nearby police...

PHOTO ESSAY: Those caught in the dragnet of China’s digital cage enabled by U.S. tech

CHANGZHOU, China (AP) — China runs the largest digital surveillance apparatus on earth. An Associated Press investigation has found that American tech companies to a large degree designed and built China’s surveillance state, playing a far greater role in enabling human rights abuses than previously known. Many in China hardly notice the country’s millions of […]
11 months ago
Security cameras are seen by a portrait of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong near Tiananmen Gate in Be...

How the AP uncovered US big tech’s role in China’s digital police state

BEIJING (AP) — Over the past quarter century, American tech companies to a large degree designed and built China’s surveillance state, playing a far greater role in enabling human rights abuses than previously known, the Associated Press has found. AP journalists spoke to more than 100 sources, scoured tens of thousands of documents, and obtained […]
11 months ago
FILE -- In this Jan. 10, 2017 file photo Backpage.com CEO Carl Ferrer appears before the Senate Hom...

Backpage executives to be sentenced after testifying against site founder about the site’s sex ads

PHOENIX (AP) — Two former executives for the now-shuttered classified site Backpage.com are scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in Phoenix for conspiring to facilitate prostitution by selling sex ads. A prosecutor has recommended five years of probation and restitution payments for former CEO Carl Ferrer and sales director Dan Hyer, both of whom pleaded guilty […]
11 months ago
Petitioner Yang Guoliang pulls back the blackout curtain used to provide privacy from nearby police...

US tech companies enabled the surveillance and detention of hundreds of thousands in China

BEIJING (AP) — The body camera hung from the top of the IV drip, recording the slightest twitch made by Yang Guoliang as he lay bloody and paralyzed in a hospital bed after a police beating with bricks. By then, surveillance was nothing new for the Yang family in rural China, snared in an intricate […]
11 months ago
FILE - An Apple logo adorns the facade of the downtown Brooklyn Apple store on March 14, 2020, in N...

Apple to unveil next iPhone amid Trump trade war that could result in higher prices

Apple on Tuesday will unveil its next line-up of iPhones amid a global trade war that’s added a potential price increase to the usual intrigue surrounding the annual evolution of the company’s marquee product. The new iPhones will be the first to be released since President Donald Trump returned to the White House and unleashed […]
11 months ago
latino game developers pax west seattle...
Luke Duecy

‘They just want to be seen’: Latino game developers use PAX West to push for more inclusion

At last week’s PAX West in Seattle, President Elaine Gomez spotlighted their mission, funding emerging Latino developers and removing everyday barriers.
11 months ago
FILE - Correctional Officer Jose Sandoval inspects one of the more than 2,000 cell phones confiscat...

FCC taking steps that would allow US prisons to jam prisoners’ cellphone signals

CHAPIN, S.C. (AP) — Federal officials on Friday said they are taking steps that will give state and federal prisons the right to jam the signals of cellphones smuggled to inmates, devices they argue allow prisoners to plot violence and carry out crimes. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Friday during a news conference in Arkansas […]
11 months ago
Thriller novelist Andrea Bartz is photographed in her home, in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Th...

Anthropic to pay $1.5 billion to settle lawsuit over pirated chatbot training material

NEW YORK (AP) — Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit by book authors who say the company took pirated copies of their works to train its chatbot. The landmark settlement, if approved by a judge as soon as Monday, could mark a turning point in legal […]
11 months ago
FILE - The OpenAI logo appears on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen with random binary d...

California and Delaware AGs warn OpenAI over ChatGPT safety

The attorneys general of California and Delaware on Friday warned OpenAI they have “serious concerns” about the safety of its flagship chatbot, ChatGPT, especially for children and teens. The two state officials, who have unique powers to regulate nonprofits such as OpenAI, sent the letter to the company after a meeting with its legal team […]
11 months ago
This image provided by NASA on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, shows a scene of star birth in Pismis 24, a y...

Thousands of newborn stars dazzle in the latest snapshot by NASA’s Webb Space Telescope

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Thousands of newborn stars sparkle and dazzle in the latest snapshot by NASA’s Webb Space Telescope. Released this week, the picture provides a breathtaking view of a nearby star-birthing center, 5,500 light-years away. A single light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. Besides baby stars in a variety of sizes and colors, […]
11 months ago
This image provided by Fabian Mosele shows A.I.-generated animation of Italian Brain Rot characters...

Don’t look now, but there’s an AI-generated Italian teacup on your child’s phone. What does it mean?

In the first half of 2025, she racked up over 55 million views on TikTok and 4 million likes, mostly from tweens glued to their cellphones. Not bad for an AI-generated cartoon ballerina with a cappuccino teacup for a head. Her name is Ballerina Cappuccina. Her smiling, girlish face is accompanied by a deep, computer-generated […]
11 months ago

San Francisco Bay Area commuter trains shut down due to computer issue

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco Bay Area residents were scrambling Friday for alternate routes after a regional commuter rail system shut down all its trains due to a computer issue, a second systemwide closure for the beleaguered rail line in four months. The Bay Area Rapid Transit District’s suspension of service started about 5 […]
11 months ago
Expedition 501 member Verena Heuer looks out from the bridge of the Gaspee, a crew transport vessel...

Takeaways from a hunt for ‘secret’ fresh water under the North Atlantic seabed

ABOARD LIFTBOAT ROBERT, North Atlantic (AP) — It turns out the Continental Shelf has been holding a secret from the ages. Beneath the sea floor off the U.S. northeast lies an enormous reserve of fresh water whose existence was long unknown, then was suspected and now is confirmed. The first global expedition to drill systematically […]
11 months ago
The wireline drilling core barrel is visible from the underside of the Liftboat Robert platform, fr...

Scientists tap ‘secret’ fresh water under the ocean, raising hopes for a thirsty world

ABOARD LIFTBOAT ROBERT, North Atlantic (AP) — Deep in Earth’s past, an icy landscape became a seascape as the ice melted and the oceans rose off what is now the northeastern United States. Nearly 50 years ago, a U.S. government ship searching for minerals and hydrocarbons in the area drilled into the seafloor to see […]
11 months ago
Students build a dragon out of LEGO bricks during class at Lively Elementary on Thursday, Aug. 21, ...

Girls fell behind boys in math during the pandemic. Schools are trying to make up lost ground

IRVING, Texas (AP) — Crowded around a workshop table, four girls at de Zavala Middle School puzzled over a Lego machine they had built. As they flashed a purple card in front of a light sensor, nothing happened. The teacher at the Dallas-area school had emphasized that in the building process, there is no such […]
11 months ago
google damages improper smartphone snooping...
Associated Press

Google facing $425.7 million in damages for nearly a decade of improper smartphone snooping

A federal jury has ordered Google to pay $425.7 million for improperly snooping on people's smartphones during a nearly decade-long period of intrusions.
11 months ago
Heribeto Blanco-Joya sits in his living room, Thursday, July 31, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John...

Artificial intelligence helps break barriers for Hispanic homeownership

For many Hispanics the road to homeownership is filled with obstacles, including loan officers who don’t speak Spanish or aren’t familiar with buyers who may not fit the boxes of a traditional mortgage applicant. Some mortgage experts are turning to artificial intelligence to bridge the gap. They want AI to help loan officers find the […]
11 months ago
FILE - President Donald Trump walks to sign executive orders during an artificial intelligence summ...

The president blamed AI and embraced doing so. Is it becoming the new ‘fake news’?

Artificial intelligence, apparently, is the new “fake news.” Blaming AI is an increasingly popular strategy for politicians seeking to dodge responsibility for something embarrassing — among others. AI isn’t a person, after all. It can’t leak or file suit. It does make mistakes, a credibility problem that makes it hard to determine fact from fiction […]
11 months ago