China culls AI lovers

Beijing has issued guidance curtailing the use of AI companions, which had grown popular. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Here’s your wrap of the latest must-read tech news. For more expansive and analytical coverage from around the globe, get the Tech In Depth newsletter. Market Snapshot Apple Inc $327.50 +4.0% NVIDIA Corp $212.50 +0.3% Baidu Inc $111.48 +1.6% Market data as of 12:59 AM ET. Data is subject to provider delays. Your watchlist Top Stories Like LinkedIn: Hinge rolled out a new feature that lets aspiring daters recruit people they know to leave testimonials on their profiles for other singles to see. Users get to approve endorsements from friends before publishing. Farewell, OnePlus: The Chinese maker of Android smartphones, once popular with techies, is ceasing operations in the US and Europe as soon as this week. The change is part of restructuring at parent company Oppo. Apple AI in China: The iPhone maker received long-awaited government approval to roll out Apple Intelligence in China, potentially giving it a boost in the world’s most competitive smartphone market. Alibaba and Baidu are part of the launch. Must Reads Anthropic Plans IPO Investor Meetings as Mega-Listing Nears Anthropic PBC is seeking to meet with investors ahead of its potential mega-IPO, according to people familiar with the matter, as the company prepares to join the rush of artificial intelligence-driven stock market debuts. Toyota-Backed Startup Walden Robotics Comes Out of Stealth With $1.1 Billion Valuation Walden Robotics, a startup working on humanoids that was spun out of a Toyota robotics research lab, has secured approximately $300 million in funding as it emerges from stealth with a valuation of $1.1 billion.The seed round was co-led by Deviation Capital and Toyota Motor Corp., along with the automaker’s strategic investment and early-stage venture capital arms. Other backers include Nvidia Corp., Boeing Co., AE Ventures, Samsung Ventures and CoreWeave Ventures.Cambridge, Massachusetts-based SpaceX Shares Briefly Slip Below IPO Price for First Time SpaceX shares slumped to their lowest level since the rocket, satellite, and artificial intelligence company went public, briefly falling below their initial public offering price, as investor fanfare quickly evaporated in the month since its trading debut. Beyond The Brief China is shunning AI boyfriends and girlfriends after seeing young people develop unhealthy emotional attachments to them, Luz Ding writes in today’s Tech In Depth. The move is one of several by governments around the world to curtail the interaction between impressionable young users and AI. This Week In Cyber Bulletin FBI agents are seizing websites as part of an investigation into residential proxy networks, which is a once-obscure industry used by cybercriminals and AI companies alike, Jake Bleiberg reports in this week’s Cyber Bulletin. Providers of these networks sell, in essence, internet relays that enable people to route their online actions through someone else’s office or home. AI companies use them to scrape data that trains their models while hackers use them to disguise their identities, he writes. Before You Go... New EVs From Toyota, Subaru Breathe Life Into Struggling Market The automakers released a crowd of relatively affordable models that lured buyers despite the end of federal incentives.  Read more We’re improving your newsletter experience and we’d love your feedback. If something looks off, help us fine-tune your experience by reporting it here. Follow Us You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg’s Tech In Brief newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, sign up here to get it in your inbox. Unsubscribe Bloomberg.com Contact Us Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue New York, NY 10022 |