southwestern united states

24Oct

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Technology

States sue Instagram-parent Meta over ‘addictive’ features and youth mental health harms

CNN — Dozens of states sued Instagram-parent Meta on Tuesday, accusing the social media giant of harming young users’ mental health through allegedly addictive features such as infinite news feeds and frequent notifications that demand users’ constant attention. In a federal lawsuit filed in California by 33 attorneys general, the states allege that Meta’s products have harmed minors and contributed to a mental health crisis in the United States. “Meta has profited from children’s pain by intentionally designing its platforms with manipulative features that make children addicted to their platforms while lowering their self-esteem,” said Letitia James, the attorney general for New York, one of the ...

Chipmaker Qualcomm to lay off over 1200 California workers

13Oct

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Technology

Chipmaker Qualcomm to lay off over 1200 California workers

New York CNN — Qualcomm, one of the largest microchip manufacturers globally, is scaling back its workforce. The San Diego, California-based company will be laying off about 1258 roles in California, according to a filing with the California Employment Development Department. Impacted employees include those based out of San Diego and Santa Clara in multiple roles, from engineers to legal counsel to human resources, with job reductions coming around December 13th. The layoff news comes about a month after the company announced a deal with Apple to provide 5G chips through at least 2026. Qualcomm is also the chip supplier for the newly announced Meta Quest 3. But in an August call with...

3Oct

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Technology

A woman was found trapped under a driverless car. It’s not what it looks like, the car company said

CNN — A pedestrian in downtown San Francisco was found critically injured and trapped underneath a driverless car Monday night. But the company that operates the autonomous car says it’s not at fault. San Francisco Fire Department spokesperson Justin Schorr told CNN early Tuesday that the victim has multiple life-threatening injuries. The driverless vehicle was operated by Cruise, a San Francisco-based self-driving car company and subsidiary of General Motors (GM). But the company says another vehicle was to blame for the pedestrian’s injury. “A human-driven vehicle struck a pedestrian while traveling in the lane immediately to the left of a Cruise AV,” said Cruise spokesperson Navideh...

28Sep

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Technology

Yelp sues Texas to defend its labeling of crisis pregnancy centers

Washington CNN — Yelp is suing Texas to ensure it can continue to tell users that crisis pregnancy centers listed on its site do not provide abortions or abortion referrals, opening a new front in the fight between states and the tech industry over abortion restrictions. In a complaint filed Wednesday in San Francisco federal court, Yelp said it is suing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton preemptively, to head off a lawsuit it anticipates from his office as soon as Friday that may seek to bar Yelp from applying its labels to crisis pregnancy centers. Yelp said it currently applies the following label to crisis pregnancy center listings: “This is a Crisis Pregnancy Center. Crisis Pregnancy Centers do ...

GGV Capital, a top Silicon Valley investor, is splitting off its China business as pressure mounts

23Sep

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Technology

GGV Capital, a top Silicon Valley investor, is splitting off its China business as pressure mounts

Editor’s Note: Sign up for CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter which explores what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world. Hong Kong CNN — GGV Capital, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm, has become the latest big investor to break up its US and China operations into separate companies as tensions between the two countries over tech and geopolitics continue to rise. The firm announced Thursday that it would divide its business into two “completely independent” firms with separate new brands, which have not been revealed. According to the company, one side will concentrate on North America, Latin America, Europe, Israel and cross-border US-India de...

Google reaches $93 million settlement in tracking location case

15Sep

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Technology

Google reaches $93 million settlement in tracking location case

New York CNN — Google has reached a $93 million settlement with the state of California to resolve allegations that it was collecting consumers’ data without their consent, the state’s attorney general said in a statement Thursday. The California Department of Justice found that, after a multi-year investigation, the tech giant was “deceiving users by collecting, storing, and using their location data for consumer profiling and advertising purposes without informed consent.” California Attorney General Rob Bonta also said Google accepted taking future actions to prevent those practices. These actions would apply beyond California to other states, according to the proposed order. “Consis...

9Sep

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Technology

Elon Musk’s X Corp. sues California AG over content moderation law

New York CNN — Elon Musk’s X Corp., the parent company of the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Friday sued California’s attorney general over the state’s new content moderation law. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed bill AB 587 into law last September. The law requires social media companies to post their terms of service online and submit a semiannual report to the state attorney general outlining their content moderation policies and practices. Platforms must, among other things, disclose how their automated content moderation systems work, how they define controversial content categories such as “hate speech” and “disinformation,” and the number of pieces of content flagged or removed in such catego...

GM’s Cruise slashed fleet of robotaxis by 50% in San Francisco after collisions

23Aug

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Technology

GM’s Cruise slashed fleet of robotaxis by 50% in San Francisco after collisions

CNN — California authorities have asked General Motors to “immediately” take some of its Cruse robotaxis off the road after autonomous vehicles were involved in two collisions – including one with an active fire truck – last week in San Francisco. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles confirmed to CNN that it is investigating “recent concerning incidents involving Cruise vehicles in San Francisco.” “The DMV is in contact with Cruise and law enforcement officials to determine the facts and requested Cruise to immediately reduce its active fleet of operating vehicles by 50% until the investigation is complete and Cruise takes appropriate corrective actions to improve road safety,” the departmen...

11Aug

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Technology

Regulators give green light to driverless taxis in San Francisco

CNN — California regulators gave approval Thursday to two rival robotaxi companies, Cruise and Waymo, to operate their driverless cars 24/7 across all of San Francisco and charge passengers for their services. The much-anticipated vote, which followed roughly six hours of public comment both for and against driverless taxis, came amid clashes between the robotaxi companies and some residents of the hilly city. San Francisco first responders, city transportation leaders and local activists are among those who shared concerns about the technology. The California Public Utilities Commission regulates self-driving cars in the state and voted 3-to-1 in favor of Waymo and Cruise expanding their opera...