Tag Archives: business

Fledgling founders entering a three-month residency at Y Combinator often start their term with a bang: Brian Chesky, the cofounder and CEO of Airbnb, fires off an inspirational speech. His company, of course, started with three nobodies going through the program. This year, Chesky topped himself. Y Combinator cofounder and …

If the past five years of EU tech rules could take human form, they would embody Thierry Breton. The bombastic commissioner, with his swoop of white hair, became the public face of Brussels’ irritation with American tech giants, touring Silicon Valley last summer to personally remind the industry of looming …

On Friday, customers around the world flocked to Apple Stores locations to buy the iPhone 16 on its launch day. But customers in over a dozen cities were met by protests organized by current and former Apple employees. The protesters—holding signs and banners saying that Apple is “profiting from genocide”—demanded …

Given the flood of photorealistic AI-generated images washing over social media networks like X and Facebook these days, we're seemingly entering a new age of media skepticism: the era of what I'm calling “deep doubt.” While questioning the authenticity of digital content stretches back decades—and analog media long before that—easy …

I wait to meet Xavier Niel in a room that feels fitting for one of France’s richest men. Gold-encrusted walls frame a boardroom table the size of a small swimming pool. And beyond the large windows, a lily pond. Niel is the original French internet mogul, of the generation before …

A United Nations report released today proposes having the international body oversee the first truly global effort for monitoring and governing artificial intelligence. The report, produced by the UN secretary general’s High Level Advisory Body on AI, recommends the creation of a body similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate …

When Palmer Luckey was hacking together virtual reality headsets at his startup Oculus VR in the mid-2010s, he would sometimes imagine a future in which US soldiers used the technology to sharpen their battlefield senses. That vision is now virtually a reality after a deal that will bring software from …

A group of sex industry professionals and advocates issued an open letter to EU regulators on Thursday, claiming that their views are being overlooked in vital discussions on policing AI technology despite also being implicated in AI’s momentous rise. In response to European internet regulations, a collective of adult industry …

For more than a month, thousands of employees of Evolution, an online gambling company, have been on strike in Tbilisi, Georgia, protesting over pay, allegations of harassment, and unsafe working conditions. The strike began on July 12 but escalated in August. Initially, says Giorgi Diasamidze, head of the employee union …

A fresh wave of anxiety about children and technology is cresting, with parents and pundits increasingly interrogating how kids use smartphones, social media, and screens. It hasn’t stopped teenagers from embracing generative AI. New research reveals what AI tools teenagers in the United States are using, and how often—as well …