Author: arthursheikin@gmail.com

[ad_1] SB 53, the AI safety and transparency bill that California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law this week, is proof that state regulation doesn’t have to hinder AI progress.   So says Adam Billen, vice president of public policy at youth-led advocacy group Encode AI, on today’s episode of Equity.  “The reality is that policy makers themselves know that we have to do something, and they know from working on a million other issues that there is a way to pass legislation that genuinely does protect innovation — which I do care about — while making sure that these products are safe,” Billen told TechCrunch.  At its core, SB 53 is a first-in-the-nation bill that requires large AI…

[ad_1] Elon Musk had a message for his social-media followers on Wednesday morning: “Cancel Netflix for the health of your kids.”The Tesla CEO, who made the remarks in response to criticism of an animated Netflix show featuring a teenage protagonist who is trans, indicated earlier on Tuesday that he had canceled his subscription to the streaming service.It’s the latest example of Musk wading into the culture wars and urging his 226 million followers to take action against a company with which he disagrees.Netflix’s stock was down around 2% on Wednesday amid a volatile market.Musk’s denouncement of Netflix comes as some…

[ad_1] Very few stocks made the “100% club” in the third quarter, meaning they saw shares more than double in the span of just three months. Tuesday marked the final session of the third quarter, which saw the S & P 500 gain nearly 8%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jump more than 11% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rise more than 5% since the end of June. U.S. stocks recorded an unusually solid September, during which the S & P 500 gained more than 3% in a month that has averaged a 4.2% drop over the past five years.…

[ad_1] Character.AI received a cease-and-desist letter from Disney, urging the chatbot company to remove Disney characters from among the millions of AI companions on its platform, Variety reports. The company allows users to generate AI chatbots that can range from real people like Elon Musk to fictional characters like Hermione Granger, plus users’ own original creations. These chatbots can be quite unfiltered — in one particularly horrific case, a family sued Character.AI after a chatbot inspired by a Game of Thrones character allegedly encouraged their teenage son to commit suicide. “Character.ai is freeriding off the goodwill of Disney’s famous marks…

[ad_1] Given the government shutdown, a question I’ve heard a lot this week is whether gold should be considered a safe-haven. Perhaps — but in 2025, gold has been acting like anything BUT a boring safe haven. Thus, sometimes, the price action, itself, tells the story better than the headlines. This is one of those times. Here’s why: Coming into September, gold was sporting one of the most attractive technical formations. Price had moved sideways from April through August, logging a series of higher lows along the way that resembled a classic continuation pattern—a setup that GLD had successfully broken out…

[ad_1] Fitbit is the original fitness tracker. Although the wearable world has been flooded with new brands and categories (ahem, smart rings), the best Fitbit devices remain some of the most dependable, user-friendly, and affordable trackers out there. Whether you’re aiming to up your daily step count, improve your sleep, or train for a half-marathon, there’s a Fitbit that fits your needs and budget.Fitbit was launched in 2007 and acquired by Google in 2021. The change in ownership hasn’t significantly affected the brand, but Fitbit’s technology has now been integrated into the Google Pixel Watch. Fitbit health and fitness trackers…

[ad_1] As geopolitical tensions mount, from Ukraine to Gaza to Iran, nations are pouring greater amounts of money into their defense systems — not just to protect their borders, but also to guard against cyberattacks. Bank of America identified several stocks that are best positioned to profit from the growing defense sector, a new report said. “Developing greater self-sufficiency in strategic sectors such as Energy and Defense is becoming an increasingly important aspect of resilience at the national level,” the BofA analysts said in out Tuesday. “The opportunities across advanced defense technologies, their dual-use applications and the value chain are…

[ad_1] In a video on OpenAI’s new TikTok-like social media app Sora, a never-ending factory farm of pink pigs are grunting and snorting in their pens — each is equipped with a feeding trough and a smartphone screen, which plays a feed of vertical videos. A terrifyingly realistic Sam Altman stares directly at the camera, as though he’s making direct eye contact with the viewer. The AI-generated Altman asks, “Are my piggies enjoying their slop?” This is what it’s like using the Sora app, less than 24 hours after it was launched to the public in an invite-only early access…

[ad_1] New York City regulators have extended Waymo’s autonomous vehicle testing permit through the end of the year, the company said Wednesday.   The permit was initially granted in August to allow Waymo to test its robotaxis in the city until the end of September. The terms of the extended permit are the same: Waymo can deploy up to eight of its Jaguar I-Pace vehicles in Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn with a human safety operator behind the wheel. A spokesperson for Waymo said the permit makes the company’s drivers exempt from New York’s rules mandating they keep one hand on the wheel at all times.  Waymo’s permit extension signals that it is inching toward being the first AV company to…

[ad_1] Microsoft employees are worried customers can’t keep all of its Copilot products straight, but the company has a plan to address the confusion, according to audio from an internal meeting reviewed by Business Insider.In a recent all-employee town hall, a Microsoft employee asked how the company plans to make the fact that it has multiple Copilot apps less confusing to users.Microsoft has two different Copilot apps in mobile app stores. One consumer version built by Microsoft AI and another that’s a rebranded Microsoft Office app called Copilot. They both open to a similar-looking chat experience, the employee said, and…