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Concerns Arise About Inadequate AI Policy from Unreliable Congress, Says Helen Toner

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Earlier that same year, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which establishes federal technology standards, published a roadmap for identifying and mitigating the emerging risks of AI. But Congress has yet to pass legislation on AI — or even propose any law as comprehensive as regulations like the EU’s recently enacted AI Act. Colorado recently approved a measure that requires AI companies to use “reasonable care” while developing the tech to avoid discrimination. Consider this example: in many state laws regulating AI, “automated decision making” — a term broadly referring to AI algorithms making some sort of decision, like whether a business receives a loan — is defined differently. Toner thinks that even a high-level federal mandate would be preferable to the current state of affairs.

Limiting Children’s Access to ‘Addictive Feeds’ in New York City

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New York’s state legislature has passed a bill that would prohibit social media companies from showing so-called “addictive feeds” to children under 18, unless they obtain parental consent. The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act defines an addictive feed as one where the content is recommended or prioritized based on information about the user or the user’s device — basically, these are the algorithmic news feeds used by most social apps. “Non-addictive feeds,” a category that includes “feeds listed in chronological order,” would still be allowed. “New York is leading the nation to protect our kids from addictive social media feeds and shield their personal data from predatory companies,” Governor Hochul said. It would also prohibit platforms from sending notifications related to these feeds between the ages of midnight and 6am without parental consent.

“VC Insights with Notable Capital’s Hans Tung: Assessing the Current Climate and Uncovering the Opportunities of Down Rounds”

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Notable Capital’s Hans Tung on the state of VC and the upside to down roundsTo some investors, “down round” is a dirty phrase, but not to Notable Capital’s Hans Tung. Hans is a managing partner at Notable Capital, formerly GGV Capital, a venture firm focusing on investments in the U.S., Latin America, Israel, and Europe. Hans, whose portfolio includes the likes of Airbnb, StockX and Slack, sat down with TechCrunch’s Equity podcast to discuss the overall state of venture and why he still believes down rounds can make a lot of sense. Of course, we dug into recent changes at his own firm, which evolved from 24-year-old cross-border firm GGV Capital and rebranded its U.S. and Asia operations to Notable Capital and Granite Asia, respectively. GGV’s transformation is the latest in a string of changes we’ve seen in the world of venture capital, including personnel changes at Founders Fund, Benchmark and Thrive Capital.

China Orders Apple to Remove WhatsApp and Threads from App Store

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Apple has removed the Meta-owned end-to-end encrypted messaging app WhatsApp from its App Store in China following a government order citing national security concerns, the news agency Reuters reported Friday. Meta’s newer, Twitter-esque text-based social networking app, Threads, has also been pulled from the App Store for the same reason, it said. But the AppleCensorship site, which tracks App Store removals, records both Signal and Telegram as having been “disappeared” from Apple’s mainland China App Store. Last year another Twitter alternative, Jack Dorsey-backed Damus, was also pulled from Apple’s China App Store shortly after it had been approved. Although quite a number evidently managed to do so, as Threads quickly landed in the top 5 on Apple’s China App Store last summer.

“Exclusively for VIPs: Head of States Can Now Join Bluesky Social Network!”

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Bluesky now allows heads of states to sign up for the social networkSocial networking platform Bluesky lifted its ban on sign-ups for heads of state over the weekend. This applies to recent/prominent heads of state as well,” the company had said at that time. Bluesky faced moderation challenges early in its lifespan and battled issues like allowing racial slurs in handles. With the social network now allowing political heads to join the platform, there could be new types of moderation issues that it hasn’t faced yet. However, Bluesky users don’t have to rely on a central algorithm to look at different kinds of political content, as they can subscribe to different feeds.

Catch Change Healthcare Hackers: US Grants $10M in Assistance

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The State Department blamed the prolific ransomware group for targeting U.S. critical infrastructure, including healthcare services. Last month, an affiliate group of the ALPHV/BlackCat gang took credit for a cyberattack and weeks-long outage at U.S. health tech giant Change Healthcare, which processes around one-in-three U.S. patient medical records. The affiliate group went public after accusing the main ALPHV/BlackCat gang of swindling the contract hackers out of $22 million in ransom that Change Healthcare allegedly paid to prevent the mass leak of patient records. Change Healthcare has said since that it ejected the hackers from its network and restored much of its systems. U.S. health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of Change Healthcare, has not yet confirmed if any patient data was stolen.

“Bumble’s Texas Team Shrinks by 33% in Wake of Restrictive Abortion Legislation”

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Bumble has lost a third of its Texas workforce in the months since the state passed the controversial abortion SB 8 (Senate Bill 8), also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act, over a year ago. We’ve supported employees who’ve chosen to move out of state,” Monteleone added. “We — since SB 8 — have seen a reduction in our Texas workforce by about a third. The dating app maker became the first business to join an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit against the Texas abortion law, Zurawski v. State of Texas, filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights. The dating app maker posted a weak Q4, with a $32 million net loss and $273.6 million in revenue.

Oregon House Passes Parts Pairing Targeting Right to Repair Bill

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The Oregon House this week passed a right to repair bill by nearly a 3-to-1 margin at 42 votes to 13. If signed into law, the northwestern state wouldn’t be the first the union to pass a right to repair bill (more like the fourth), but the legislation contains aggressive language that goes beyond those on the books. “Apple agrees with the vast majority of Senate Bill 1596,” John Perry, Apple senior manager, Secure System Design, said in a testimony to state lawmakers last month. “By eliminating manufacturer restrictions, the Right to Repair will make it easier for Oregonians to keep their personal electronics running. they will stand on the hill on is the parts pairing.”The bill has received bipartisan support in both the state Senate and House.

“Nation-State Breach: UnitedHealth Discovers Hack on Change Healthcare, Continues to See Pharmacy Outages”

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UnitedHealth says Change Healthcare hacked by nation state, as pharmacy outages drag onU.S. health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group said Thursday in a filing with government regulators that its subsidiary Change Healthcare was compromised likely by government-backed hackers. In a filing Thursday, UHG blamed the ongoing cybersecurity incident affecting Change Healthcare on suspected nation state hackers but said it had no timeframe for when its systems would be back online. UHG did not attribute the cyberattack to a specific nation or government, or cite what evidence it had to support its claim. Change Healthcare provides patient billing across the U.S. healthcare system. Change Healthcare has not yet disclosed the specific nature of its cyberattack.

Status of Investment Ventures in India

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State of venture investments in India, according to Lightspeed Lightspeed partners examine right-sizing VC funds in India, spectrum of startup investing and the country's prospects in the global AI race. Over 150 investors, including Singapore’s sovereign fund Temasek and Malaysia’s Khazanah, gathered at Mumbai’s five-star Trident Oberoi hotel on a recent Friday for venture firm Lightspeed India Partners’ “Lift Off” summit. In 2021, $33 billion of venture capital (early and late stage) was invested in India. So 2023 is also not necessarily reflective of the venture market opportunity in India,” he added. “We had a lot of funds not based in India but investing in India because of the opportunity the country offered to them outside their own.