News of the Cyber World

[kyonides]

MUSK

Elon Musk’s Tesla pulls plug on Autopilot system — here’s why

Tesla on Thursday discontinued its basic driver-assistance system, Autopilot, in Canada and the US, in an attempt to push customers toward a more advanced version of the technology branded as Full Self-Driving (Supervised).

The company had last week said it would stop offering FSD as a one-time $8,000 purchase from February 14, meaning customers will only be able to access the software through a monthly subscription priced at $99.

Tesla’s online vehicle configuration pages showed that new cars come only with Traffic Aware Cruise Control, a feature that maintains a set speed and follows traffic at a safe distance.

Autosteer, which previously worked with cruise control to keep vehicles centered in a lane and navigate curves, is no longer listed as a standard feature.

California’s Department of Motor Vehicles had placed Tesla on a high-stakes 60-day deadline to overhaul its marketing or face a mandatory 30-day suspension of its retail sales license.

One condition was that Tesla stops using the “Autopilot” name, which regulators argued misled consumers into believing the system was capable of autonomous driving.

The department declined to comment and Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reason for the change.

For a long time, Autopilot has been the core selling point for Tesla vehicles, even as the company warned drivers that the system required active supervision and did not make cars fully autonomous.

CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday the subscription price for FSD would rise over time as the software’s capabilities improve.

EU launches probe into Elon Musk’s X over deepfakes of undressed women and children

The European Union has formally launched an investigation into Elon Musk’s social media company X over what it described as deepfakes of undressed women and children generated by its intelligence-powered chatbot Grok.

The EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, said Monday it is looking into whether Musk’s tech company violated the Digital Services Act, which requires platforms such as X to prevent the spread of manipulated sexually explicit images including child sexual abuse material.

“Sexual deepfakes of women and children are a violent, unacceptable form of degradation,” Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission’s executive vice-president overseeing tech, said in a statement.

“With this investigation, we will determine whether X has met its legal obligations under the DSA, or whether it treated rights of European citizens — including those of women and children — as collateral damage of its service.”

The Commission cited what it called the alleged “dissemination of illegal content, negative effects in relation to gender-based violence, and serious negative consequences to physical and mental well-being stemming from deployments of Grok’s functionalities into its platform” in launching the probe.

EU officials warned X could face penalties of up to 6% of global annual revenue if violations are confirmed.

Musk’s Grok AI bot sparked outrage late last year after the X app was flooded with images of women whose appearances were digitally altered to make them look like they were in bikinis or lingerie even though the original photos showed them fully clothed.

The alterations were made when users were able to ask Grok to undress them without their prior consent.

One analysis conducted by researcher Genevieve Oh found that Grok generated approximately 7,750 sexually suggestive or “nudifying” images an hour.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX merges with artificial intelligence startup xAI: reports

Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX acquired his artificial intelligence firm xAI on Monday, according to reports.

The deal gave the companies a whopping combined valuation of $1.25 trillion, according to Bloomberg.

SpaceX acquired xAI to “form the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth, with AI, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device communications and the world’s foremost real-time information and free speech platform,” the company said in a statement.

SpaceX, which has huge rocket contracts with NASA and offers the Starlink satellite internet service, let employees sell shares at a price valuing the company around $800 billion, according to the New York Times. XAI, which owns the social media site X and runs the Grok chatbot, said it raised $20 billion at a $230 billion valuation.

The merger was poised to impact SpaceX’s reported plans to go public. Last week, the Financial Times reported Musk had floated holding an IPO in mid-June to coincide with a rare planetary alignment and his 55th birthday.

Musk has said he wants to launch AI data centers into space – an expensive plan that would require SpaceX’s capabilities and a significant cash infusion.
Last week, SpaceX asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to launch up to 1 million satellites into orbit to help “accommodate the explosive growth of data demands driven by AI,” according to a filing.

By directly harnessing near-constant solar power with little operating or maintenance costs, these satellites will achieve transformative cost and energy efficiency while significantly reducing the environmental impact associated with terrestrial data centers,” SpaceX wrote in the filing.

Elon Musk loses bid to dismiss SEC lawsuit over Twitter stake

A federal judge on Tuesday rejected Elon Musk’s bid to dismiss a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit that claimed he waited too long to disclose his purchases of Twitter shares in 2022.

Washington, DC-based US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said Musk’s arguments, including that the SEC overreached in order to punish him for criticizing it, did not warrant dismissal.

Lawyers for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment. An SEC spokesperson declined to comment.

The SEC sued Musk in January 2025, saying his 11-day delay in revealing his initial 5% Twitter stake let him buy more than $500 million of shares at low prices. It wants Musk to repay the $150 million he allegedly saved at the expense of unsuspecting investors, plus a civil fine.

Musk has called the delay inadvertent. He also said the SEC case amounted to “selective enforcement” of federal securities laws, designed to target him for criticism of “government overreach” that is protected speech under the Constitution’s First Amendment. Musk also called a $150 million payout an excessive fine that violates the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, dwarfing the $100,000 penalty the SEC has sought in similar cases.

Judge cites congressional intent to protect investors

The SEC requires shareholders to disclose within 10 calendar days when they reach 5% ownership in order to protect investors who might otherwise be kept in the dark and sell their own stock.

In a 45-page decision, Sooknanan said that requirement reflects the intent of Congress to stop investors from buying shares cheaply while they pursue control of a company.

“The court does not doubt that Mr. Musk would prefer to avoid having to disclose information that might raise stock prices while he makes a play for corporate control,” the judge wrote. “But the balance Congress struck … does not violate the First Amendment.”

Musk has long feuded with the SEC.

In 2018, the regulator sued Musk after he said on Twitter he might take his electric car company Tesla  private and had secured funding.

He settled that case by paying a $20 million civil fine, agreeing to let Tesla lawyers review some Twitter posts in advance, and giving up his role as Tesla’s chairman.

SQUID GAME

North Korea executed schoolchildren for watching ‘Squid Game’

North Korea is executing schoolchildren for watching South Korean TV shows and listening to K-Pop, including Netflix’s hit series “Squid Game,” according to Amnesty International.

Escapees told the human rights group that teenagers and even middle school students have been publicly executed, sent to labor camps or subjected to brutal public humiliations for consuming foreign media banned by the regime.

The accounts are based on 25 in-depth interviews conducted in 2025 with North Koreans who fled the country between 2012 and 2020, the organization said.

Most were between ages 15 and 25 when they escaped.

One interviewee said people, including high school students, were executed for watching “Squid Game” in Yanggang Province near the Chinese border.
Radio Free Asia separately documented an execution for distributing the show in neighboring North Hamgyong Province in 2021.

“Taken together, these reports from different provinces suggest multiple executions related to the shows,” Amnesty wrote.

The crackdown has intensified under North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whose regime enforces the 2020 Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Act, which brands South Korean media as “rotten ideology that paralyses the people’s revolutionary sense.”

The law mandates five to 15 years of forced labor for watching or possessing South Korean dramas, films or music, with harsher penalties — including death — for distributing content or organizing group viewings, Amnesty added in its report.

Interviewees said punishment often depends on money.

“People are caught for the same act, but punishment depends entirely on money,” said Choi Suvin, 39, who fled North Korea in 2019.

“People without money sell their houses to gather $5,000 or $10,000 to pay to get out of the re-education camps,” he added.

Kim Joonsik, 28, said he was caught watching South Korean dramas three times before leaving in 2019 but avoided punishment because his family had connections.

“Usually when high school students are caught, if their family has money, they just get warnings,” he said. “I didn’t receive legal punishment because we had connections.”

Others were not so lucky.

Kim said three of his sister’s high school friends were sentenced to years-long labor camp terms in the late 2010s because their families could not afford bribes.

Several escapees described being forced, as children, to attend public executions as part of what authorities called “ideological education.”

“When we were 16, 17, in middle school, they took us to executions and showed us everything,” said Kim Eunju, 40, who fled in 2019. “People were executed for watching or distributing South Korean media. It’s ideological education: if you watch, this happens to you too.”

Amnesty said a specialized police unit known as the “109 Group” carries out warrantless home raids and street searches for foreign media.

Across different regions, 15 interviewees described the unit’s operations.

META

Meta pauses teen access to AI characters weeks before trial over alleged harm to children

Meta is halting teens’ access to artificial intelligence characters, at least temporarily, the company said in a blog post Friday.

Meta Platforms Inc., which own Instagram and WhatsApp, said that starting in the “coming weeks,” teens will no longer be able to access AI characters “until the updated experience is ready”

This applies to anyone who gave Meta a birthday that makes them a minor, as well as “people who claim to be adults but who we suspect are teens based on our age prediction technology.”

The move comes the week before Meta — along with TikTok and Google’s YouTube — is scheduled to stand trial in Los Angeles over its apps’ harms to children.

Teens will still be able to access Meta’s AI assistant, just not the characters.

Other companies have also banned teens from AI chatbots amid growing concerns about the effects of artificial intelligence conversations on children.

Character.AI announced its ban last fall.

Meta and YouTube face landmark trial over youth addiction claims as TikTok settles with 19-year-old plaintiff

A landmark case accusing some of the biggest social media platforms in the world of deliberately getting their users addicted kicked off Tuesday in Los Angeles – with Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube headed for trial as TikTok agreed at the last minute to settle with the plaintiff.

Jury selection begins this week in California Superior Court after a 19-year-old woman identified only as “KGM” accused the tech giants of designing their algorithms to hook users, harming their mental health.

The case is considered a test for how hundreds of similar suits that youths, school districts and state governments have filed against social media companies could unfold. Taking a page from a past generation’s slew of successful suits against big tobacco, plaintiffs say social media companies created addictive products that led to personal injury and other problems.

KGM said in her filing that she began using social media when she was 10 years old.

She claimed that her usage of the apps led her to develop severe mental health conditions including depression, suicidal ideation, anxiety, self-harm behavior and body dysmorphia.

Hours before the trial was set to begin, KGM and TikTok agreed on a settlement. She’d accused the company of deliberately installing its continuous-scroll feature as well as autoplay, push notification and algorithmic content-targeting to maximize engagement and foster addiction.

Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. was previously named in the suit. KGM agreed to a settlement with it last week. The sum of neither settlement was immediately known.

The Post has sought comment from Google, Snap and TikTok.

“We strongly disagree with these allegations and are confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the company previously added features like Teen Accounts “with built-in protections” based on feedback from parents and other stakeholders.

Studies estimate that 5% to 10% of social media users meet the criteria for behavioral addiction, with significantly higher rates among adolescents.

Jeffrey Epstein boasted about ‘wild’ dinner with Mark Zuckerberg, Reid Hoffman in unsealed 2015 email

Jeffrey Epstein once boasted about meeting Mark Zuckerberg, Reid Hoffman, Elon Musk and Peter Thiel at what he described as a “wild” dinner,” an email released by the Justice Department showed.

The late financier and sex offender referenced the dinner in an Aug. 20, 2015 email to billionaire Tom Pritzker, who had asked him if he was planning to travel to New York later that month.

Epstein replied: “not sure yet. i had dinner with zuckerburg, mu=k, thiel hoffman, wild.”

The convicted pedophile did not relate what happened at the dinner, which was first reported by Vanity Fair in 2019. The outlet said Hoffman, the cofounder of LinkedIn, had hosted the meal in Palo Alta, Calif., for the MIT neuroscientist Ed Boyden.

When reached for comment, a Meta spokesperson pointed to a statement released in 2019.

“Mark met Epstein in passing one time at a dinner honoring scientists that was not organized by Epstein,” Zuckerberg spokesman Ben LaBolt said at the time. “Mark did not communicate with Epstein again following the dinner.”

Vanity Fair reported that Musk had introduced Zuckerberg to Epstein at the dinner – an allegation that Musk denied in an email to the outlet.

“I don’t recall introducing Epstein to anyone, as I don’t know the guy well enough to do so, Epstein is obviously a creep and Zuckerberg is not a friend of mine,” Musk said at the time.

As The Post reported, newly released Epstein emails this week showed Hoffman discussing visits to Epstein’s private island, as well as his New Mexico ranch and his New York City apartment.

“Reid will spend the night at 71st,” stated one 2014 email from Hoffman’s team that was included in the document dump, in reference to Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse.

Hoffman addressed the newly uncovered emails in an X post on Sunday, denying any wrongdoing.

APPLE

Apple iPhone sales hit record $85B as CEO Tim Cook calls demand ‘staggering’

Apple on Thursday forecast a surge of up to 16% in revenue for the March quarter, well ahead of Wall Street’s expectations, powered by strong demand for its iPhones and a sharp rebound in China.

That followed holiday-quarter results that beat estimates as well, with CEO Tim Cook telling Reuters that demand for the latest handsets was “staggering.”

Apple’s iPhone 17 lineup helped lift sales across key markets, easing investor concerns about a hardware sales plateau. The devices have been well received for their upgraded camera features and performance improvements, with Apple also benefiting from a wave of upgrades from users holding onto older models.

Apple shares rose 3.5% in extended trading after the results were released, but later pared gains to trade up 0.8%.

Apple expects revenue for its fiscal second quarter to grow 13% to 16%, versus a 10% rise that analysts expected, according to LSEG. The company also forecast operating expenses of $18.4 billion to $18.7 billion, slightly above spending in the first quarter.

IPhone revenue rose to $85.27 billion in the fiscal first quarter ended Dec., well above the $78.65 billion analysts had expected. Apple said iPhone sales set records in every geographic segment, highlighting broad-based demand despite macroeconomic uncertainty.

“The demand for iPhone was simply staggering, with revenue growing 23% year over year to achieve its biggest quarter in history,” Cook told Reuters in an interview.

GOOGLE

Google, Apple pay customers $163M over explosive claims they secretly listened to users’ private chats

Hey, Siri, butt out!

Google and Apple listened in on and recorded millions of unwitting customers’ conversations — and will soon fork over a combined $163 million to resolve the eavesdropping debacle, according to a pair of bombshell lawsuits.

Apple has started sending out payments to settle its $95 million class-action complaint, which accused the Cupertino tech giant of spying on users who never once uttered the prompt, “Hey, Siri,” according to court documents.

Some people reported that their Apple devices pushed ads for brands — like Olive Garden and Air Jordan — that they had discussed in conversations that were secretly recorded.

Google, meanwhile, has reached a tentative, $68 million settlement after its Google Assistant surreptitiously activated and recorded users without the hot words, “OK Google,” according to court documents viewed by The Post.

That deal, part of a 2019 lawsuit, still has to be OKed by a judge.

Siri and Google Assistant are voice-activated aides that can perform tasks, including sending text messages, making calls or reciting the weather.

Both tech behemoths, which are accused of using the secret recordings to improve their respective products, have denied any wrongdoing.

Apple now requires users to opt in before recorded audio is used for improving Siri’s functionality, according to The Mac Observer.

Anyone who purchased an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook, iMac, HomePod, iPod touch or Apple TV between Sept. 17, 2014 and Dec. 31, 2024 and experienced an unintended Siri activation was eligible for a payout. Some have been doled out via prepaid cards or direct deposit.

The amount paid out to individuals is capped at $20 per Siri-enabled device, according to the settlement website, with a maximum of five impacted devices per person.

The $95 million figure represents about nine hours of profit for Apple, which raked in $93.74 billion in net income over the last fiscal year.

“Apple denies all of the allegations made in the lawsuit and denies that Apple did anything improper or unlawful,” the giant said on its website.

The suit was filed in 2019 by Fumiko Lopez and others who alleged their recorded discussions were shared with third-party businesses, such as restaurants and brands, which led to targeted ads in Apple Search and Safari.

Google’s Sergey Brin teams up with Eric Schmidt, rich techies to fight California’s 5% billionaire tax

Google co-founder Sergey Brin and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt have banded together with some of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest moguls to create a new, pro-business organization that is poised to lobby against the proposed billionaire tax in California.

The organization, Building a Better California, is planning to wield its influence by backing political candidates and ballot initiatives throughout the state, according to Bloomberg News.

A key priority for the group is opposing a one-time 5% wealth tax on billionaires in California, which is scheduled to be on the ballot this coming November.

The fine print of the proposal shows company founders’ voting shares in their businesses would be treated as equivalent to ownership — artificially inflating how much wealth they have and raising their tax bill.

This has “the potential to strip the founders of some of the world’s largest companies of their controlling interests and force them to sell off a significant portion of their shares,” noted the nonprofit Tax Foundation. “This could send stock prices plummeting to the detriment of tech employees and investors of all stripes, including ordinary workers.”

There’s also concern that the tax could be applied to people who aren’t super-rich.

“The fine print in the bill allows the California legislature to apply this asset tax to non-billionaires as well whenever they want. Your car, home and jewelry would all count,” former Facebook exec Chamath Palihapitiya recently wrote on X.

“California isn’t coming just for the rich,” he added. “This bill, while disguised as a tax on the wealthy, is actually the infrastructure to tax everyone in California even more – but now on everything you own.”

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has come out against the wealth tax, noting the introduction of the proposal has already driven some billionaires out of the state.

“This will be defeated — there’s no question in my mind,” he said earlier this month. “I’ll do what I have to do to protect the state.”

Campaign filings cited by Bloomberg News show that Building a Better California has raised $35 million, including a $20 million donation from Brin.

Building a Better California has already spent $11 million backing ballot initiatives aimed at boosting middle-class homeownership and reforming California’s environmental review law.

Brin previously approached other business leaders about raising hundreds of millions of dollars for a California influence campaign.

According to Bloomberg News, he made the pitch to other tech industry figures using the encrypted messaging service Signal.

Others said to be involved in the initiative include crypto billionaire Chris Larsen, venture capitalist Mike Moritz, DoorDash co-founder Tony Xu and tech investors John Doerr, Max Levchin and Patrick Collison.

Stewart Resnick, co-owner of The Wonderful Company, donated $2 million — the largest contribution from a donor outside of tech, according to Bloomberg News.

Google DeepMind employees request plans to keep them ‘physically safe’ from ICE: report

Employees at Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence lab reportedly demanded that management detail plans on how to keep them “physically safe” from ICE after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

An unnamed DeepMind employee made the request Monday on an internal message board, according to Wired, which obtained screenshots of the post.

“US focused question: What is GDM doing to keep us physically safe from ICE? The events of the past week have shown that immigration status, citizenship, or even the law is not a deterrent against detention, violence, or even death from federal operatives,” the worker was quoted as saying.

“What kinds of plans and policies are in place to ensure our safety at the office? Coming to and from work? As we have seen, government agency tactics can change and escalate quite rapidly. With offices in many metro areas across the US, are we prepared?”

The post was sent to a channel with more than 3,600 employees, said a source familiar with the matter . About 40 of them interacted with the post, with many adding a “plus emoji.”

Google did not comment.

The post went unanswered by senior management as of Monday night, according to Wired.

A DeepMind employee posted a separate message citing an incident in which a federal agent allegedly attempted to enter Google’s office in Cambridge, Mass. The entry reportedly occurred at some point last fall, though it’s unclear when the employee’s message was posted.

Google’s security chief responded to that message with details confirming that an “officer arrived at reception without notice” and was “not granted entry because they did not have a warrant and promptly left.”

Google CEO Sundar Pichai and DeepMind boss Demis Hassabis have yet to weigh in publicly on the Pretti killing. DeepMind chief scientist Jeff Dean called the shooting “absolutely shameful.”

Robocar Waymo costs more to ride than paying a human to drive Uber or Lyft

At least clankers don’t ask for tips.

Taking a trip in a Waymo robotaxi costs more on average than taking a drive in an Uber or Lyft driven by a human.

However, that price gap is narrowing, according to a new report from Obi, a global real-time aggregator for rideshare prices.

“When Waymo entered the market, our research saw that a ride was priced 30% to 40% higher than an Uber or Lyft ride, but consumers were still taking them enthusiastically, viewing an autonomous rideshare as a premium product,” Ashwini Anburajan, CEO of Obi, said in a statement.

Obi simulated more than 94,000 ride requests in the San Francisco Bay Area between Nov. 27 and Jan. 1 and found that Waymo costs an average of $19.69 for a ride, while Uber was slightly cheaper at $17.47 and Lyft averaged at $15.47.

The data showed that Waymo is an average of 12.7% more expensive than getting an Uber and 27.3% more expensive than a Lyft.

There are two main components working working in tandem that are causing the gap to get smaller — Waymo has lowered pricing while traditional ride-hailing trips on Uber and Lyft have risen in price, according to Obi.

In June 2025, Obi’s first report showcased price differences between robotaxis and rideshare with data taken from rides in April 2025.

At the time, that data revealed that Waymo rides averaged $20.43, Uber at $15.58, and Lyft rides at $14.44, detailing a 30-40% premium.

Comparing these numbers to Obi’s most recent data, Waymo’s average cost dropped 3.62%, while Uber’s went up 12% and Lyft’s increased 7%.

But for longer rides, “the premium can almost disappear,” the report said.

According to the data, rides between 4.3 and 9.3 kilometers (or about 2.7 and 5.8 miles), Waymo is only 2% more expensive than Uber and 17% more expensive than Lyft per kilometer.

Teamsters demand Waymos be pulled from California streets after robo-taxi hit child

The Teamsters demanded Monday that California suspend Waymo taxis indefinitely after one of the self-driving cars hit a 5-year-old near a Santa Monica elementary school.

The largest union in the state put Golden State officials on blast, telling them to pull the company’s license to operate the futuristic vehicles after the accident on Jan. 23, which left the unidentified child with minor injuries.

The statement from the co-chairs of the Teamsters California, whose members include transportation workers and truckers, comes after the National Transportation Safety Board announced a probe of the company.

“This incident is emblematic of the broader goal Big Tech companies have to replace skilled human labor with AI,” co-chairs Peter Finn and Victor Mineros said in a statement.

“They want to force millions of people into destitution by destroying their livelihoods, seize money that belongs to workers, and force our communities to reckon with the fallout of automation’s shortcomings,” the statement went on. “Robotaxis threaten workers’ jobs and are now terrorizing our kids.”

The regulatory California Public Utilities Commission should intervene or “the next incident could be much worse,” the union bosses said.

Waymo did not directly respond to The Post’s request for comment, instead referring to the original statement issued following the incident, in which the company referred to the child as a “pedestrian.”

“We remain committed to improving road safety where we operate, as we continue on our mission to be the world’s most trusted driver,” the statement said.

The company had said the child “suddenly entered the roadway” from behind an SUV and stepped in the path of the driverless taxi. The vehicle braked and slowed to 6 mph before contact, the company said.

This is not the first time Waymo has had malfunctions.

Google parent Alphabet latest tech giant to announce plans to spend billions on AI

Alphabet said Wednesday that capital expenditure could as much as double this year, in yet another aggressive spending ramp-up by the Google parent as it deepens investments to push ahead in the AI race.

Alphabet shares were volatile in after-hours trading — falling 6% before recouping losses, as investors weighed the swell in spending against surging revenue and profit, both of which beat expectations in the December quarter.

The company said it was targeting capital expenditure of $175 billion to $185 billion this year, a massive jump compared with average analyst expectations that it would spend about $115.26 billion this year, according to data compiled by LSEG.

CEO Sundar Pichai said in a release that Alphabet hiked its forecast spending “to meet customer demand and capitalize on the growing opportunities we have ahead of us.”

He added: “We’re seeing our AI investments and infrastructure drive revenue and growth across the board.”

The company spent $91.45 billion in 2025, primarily on AI infrastructure including servers, data centers and networking equipment. That compares with its projections for total spending of between $91 billion and $93 billion last year.

Growth in Google’s cloud division, where the company is enjoying early returns on AI investment, helped the stock pare losses. The unit’s revenue grew 48% to $17.7 billion in the fourth quarter ended December, compared with analysts’ average estimate of a 35.2% jump, according to data compiled by LSEG.

“Google Cloud growth was far ahead of expectations and importantly higher growth than Microsoft Azure for the first time in several years,” said Gil Luria, D.A. Davidson analyst. “The acceleration in Google Cloud seems to justify the increased [capex] investment.”

The company reported total revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, beating analyst estimates of $111.43 billion, per LSEG data. Adjusted profit per share of $2.82 also beat estimates of $2.63.

Cloud computing majors have poured hundreds of billions of dollars to expand their AI infrastructure, both to meet the growing enterprise demand for their cloud services and to fuel their own development of AI technologies and products.

Like larger rivals Amazon Web Services and Microsoft’s Azure, Google Cloud has been grappling with capacity constraints that have dented its ability to fully cash in on AI demand from its customers.

AMAZON

Amazon axes 16,000 more jobs as companies keep replacing workers with AI

Amazon’s latest round of layoffs is set to hit 16,000 corporate employees starting Wednesday — with the tech titan suggesting artificial intelligence will do their work, instead.

The firings come after Amazon said in October it was laying off 14,000 corporate workers — with the goal of trimming its 1.58 million-strong workforce by nearly 10% — and after it and other big tech companies were widely viewed as over-hiring during the COVID pandemic.

The e-commerce giant has explicitly linked the layoffs to increased use of AI, particularly in corporate and technology functions.

“Some may ask why we’re reducing roles when the company is performing well,” Amazon senior vice president Beth Galetti wrote in October.

“This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and altogether new ones),” she explained.

“We’re convinced that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business.”

Amazon’s President and CEO Andy Jassy said last summer new tech could create new job opportunities – though he also admitted it could bring “efficiency gains” by helping to reduce the overall workforce.

People familiar with this week’s layoffs told Reuters that the layoffs would hit teams across Amazon Web Services, retail, Prime Video and human resources, though details were not immediately known.

The layoffs come amid high hopes for AI’s potential to boost productivity — and concern it could lead to widescale firings.

AI killed some 55,000 jobs in the US last year, according to consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

On the consumer side of things, Amazon has embedded artificial intelligence across its core products, rolling out generative AI tools that handle shopping, voice interaction and task automation.

Amazon could invest up to $50B in OpenAI: report

Amazon is reportedly in talks to invest as much as $50 billion into Sam Altman’s OpenAI — in what would be a massive bet on the ChatGPT creator.

Amazon boss Andy Jassy is leading negotiations with Altman, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The sources said the potential terms were not finalized and subject to change.

OpenAI is reportedly aiming to raise up to $100 billion in a fundraising round that would value the artificial giant at $830 billion. Amazon would be the largest single contributor to the round if it follows through with a $50 billion bet.

An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the report. OpenAI did not immediately return a request for comment.

Amazon already holds a sizable take in Anthropic, which is one of OpenAI’s chief rivals in the AI sector.

Earlier this week, the retail giant laid off about 16,000 employees. The company said the cuts were meant to streamline its operations and management ranks, but Amazon executives have also acknowledged that advancements in AI were a factor in the restructuring.

Meanwhile, Japanese investment giant SoftBank, which is already one of OpenAI’s largest shareholders, is in discussions to pour as much as $30 billion more into the company, The Journal previously reported.

Earlier this week, The Information reported that Nvidia, Amazon and Microsoft were in talks to collectively invest more than $60 billion in OpenAI. The tech outlet’s sources said Amazon was mulling an investment of up to $20 billion or more.

Amazon shares tumble as $200B AI spending spree rattles investors

Amazon on Thursday projected a surge of more than 50% in capital expenditures this year, joining its peers in a spending spree to build out artificial-intelligence infrastructure, and sending its shares down 9% in after-hours trading.

It is the latest sign that Big Tech will not be hitting the brakes any time soon on hefty AI investments. Amazon shares closed down 4.4% during regular trading as worries deepened about the enormous cost of the artificial-intelligence boom.

The top four hyperscalers – Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet’s Google and Meta – are expected to collectively spend more than $630 billion this year.

Amazon also forecast a first-quarter profit range whose lower end would miss analysts’ expectations by a quarter, baking in roughly $1 billion in higher costs related to its high-speed internet business Leo, as well as investment in quick commerce and sharper prices in its international stores business.

The company said it expects to invest about $200 billion in capital expenditures across Amazon in 2026, compared with about $131 billion in 2025.

Amazon’s forecast for first-quarter operating income of $16.5 billion to $21.5 billion disappointed, falling below analysts’ estimate of $22.04 billion.

Tech earnings over the past few days have shown Wall Street has a clear message for tech firms: Soaring AI spending can continue only if companies show commensurate operational or financial returns.

“We wanted to see more of a consecutive cadence of strong earnings growth and that’s just not happening here,” said Dave Wagner, portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors, referring to Amazon’s results.

“The market just dislikes the substantial amount of money that keeps getting put into capex for these growth rates.”

TIKTOK

TikTok’s new owners accused of censoring Minneapolis ICE shooting, blocking word ‘Epstein’

TikTok users are accusing the app’s new US owners of censoring videos about the fatal Minneapolis shooting of Alex Pretti and political content including mentions of “Epstein.”

The hashtag #TikTokCensorship took off on X on Sunday as creators claimed videos about political unrest in Minneapolis were getting far fewer views than usual and facing long delays uploading.

In a late Monday statement on X, TikTok US’ new owners wrote: “We’re continuing to resolve a major infrastructure issue triggered by a power outage at one of our US data center partner sites.”

“You may notice multiple bugs, slower load times, or timed-out requests, including when posting new content,” the new owners added. “Creators may temporarily see ‘0’ views or likes on videos …This is a display error.”

It was a rough start for the new US spin-off of TikTok, which announced last Thursday that it finally reached a deal to transfer operations to American ownership after staring down threats of a ban for years.

China-based ByteDance will retain a 19.9% ownership stake, while US and global investors — including Trump ally Larry Ellison’s Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, an Emirati state-owned investment firm that has been done a range of deals smiled on by the White House — each hold a 15% stake.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in a post late Monday that he is launching a state investigation into TikTok, alleging his office “independently confirmed instances” of the app censoring content critical of President Trump.

A White House spokesperson told The Post it “has no role in TikTok’s content moderation.”

In a viral post on X, David Leavitt, a freelance writer, shared a screenshot of his TikTok account that showed he regularly gained hundreds or thousands of views on his videos — but his recent political videos were flagged as “ineligible for recommendation.”

American singer Billie Eilish wrote on Instagram that TikTok “is silencing people” after her musician brother Finneas O’Connell posted a TikTok video about the shooting of Pretti — who was fatally shot by federal agents on Saturday — that gained fewer views than O’Connell’s usual content.

TikTok reaches last-minute settlement with 19-year-old who said app gave her depression, body dysmorphia

A 19-year-old California woman has reached a settlement with TikTok just hours before the scheduled start of the trial in her suit alleging that the social media platform designed its algorithm to hook users, harming their mental health.

The woman, who has only been identified as “KGM,” previously reached a separate settlement with Snapchat’s parent company Snap. Terms of both settlements were not disclosed.

News of the latest settlement was first reported by Bloomberg.

The Post has sought comment from TikTok and Snap.

The plaintiff has also sued Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and Google-owned YouTube on similar grounds in Los Angeles Superior Court.

KGM said in her filing that she began using social media when she was 10 years old.

She claimed that her usage of the apps led her to develop severe mental health conditions including depression, suicidal ideation, anxiety, self-harm behavior and body dysmorphia.

In the complaint, KGM alleged that TikTok deliberately installed its continuous-scroll feature as well as autoplay, push notification and algorithmic content targeting in order to maximize engagement and foster addiction.

The cases are part of an ongoing legal battle involving more than 2,200 lawsuits alleging that major social media platforms intentionally designed addictive products that damage young users’ mental health.

Studies estimate that 5% to 10% of social media users meet the criteria for behavioral addiction, with significantly higher rates among adolescents.

Teenagers now spend an average of 7 to 9 hours a day on screens, much of it on social media platforms designed for constant engagement.

Multiple large-scale reviews have found consistent links between heavy social media use and worsening mental health.

Researchers have associated prolonged use with higher rates of depression, anxiety, psychological distress, sleep deprivation and academic decline, particularly among children and teens whose brains are still developing.

ROBLOX

Dad claims 16-year-old daughter took her own life after meeting a predator on Roblox, slams game platform beloved by kids

Penelope Sokolowski was just 16 years old when she took her own life last February.

Her father, Jason, believes her suicide was the culmination of a grooming process that began on Roblox, the game platform beloved by kids — with some 170,000 users under the age of 13, according to company data from 2023.

“We kind of thought we were covering all the bases,” Jason told The Post, noting that his family had used a third-party app to monitor Penelope’s online activity.

Jason alleges that his only child was contacted by a predator on Roblox who coerced her into cutting his name into her chest and sending videos of herself bloodied from self-harm — and who, ultimately, sent Penelope down a spiral that culminated in her death.

The girl was 7 or 8 years old when she first signed up for Roblox, players rove around online worlds and can chat with other users.

“I’d come in and sit in the room with her and see what she was doing, ask who those people were,” Jason said, recalling Penelope drawing an anime-style sketch for a friend she’d made on Roblox.

“As a dad I thought, oh, this is nice, she’s artistic, and she’s made artistic friends,” he added. “But I didn’t understand what Roblox was and its effect on her.”

The dad, who works in the film industry in Vancouver, British Columbia, separated from Penelope’s mother and moved out of the family home when the girl was 13.

He recalls how Penelope’s grades began to tumble and, when she was 14, he noticed scars from self-inflicted cuts on her arms, which she had been covering with bracelets and his oversized hockey jerseys.

Penelope confided that she had been recruited into a self-harm group via Roblox, but assured her father she had moved on.

But not long after her 16th birthday, she took her own life.

Later, when Jason opened up his daughter’s cell phone, he found what he describes as a “crime scene.”

According to the dad, there were messages spanning two years with a person who egged on her self-destruction. Jason believes Penelope met this person on Roblox and then began privately conversing with them over Discord — sometimes for hours.

UBER

Uber ordered to pay woman $8.5M in first trial over driver sex assault claims

A federal jury in Phoenix ordered Uber on Thursday to pay $8.5 million after finding it liable in a lawsuit brought by a woman who said she was sexually assaulted by a driver, a verdict that could influence thousands of similar cases against the ride-hailing company.

The case, brought by plaintiff Jaylynn Dean, was the first trial – known as a “bellwether” – of more than 3,000 similar lawsuits against Uber that have been consolidated in federal court. Bellwether trials are used to test legal theories and help gauge the value of claims for possible settlements.

The jury found that the driver was an agent of Uber, so the company was responsible for his actions. They awarded Dean $8.5 million in compensatory damages but declined to award punitive damages. Attorneys for Dean had sought more than $140 million in damages.

In a statement, an Uber spokesperson noted that the jury rejected Dean’s other claims, that the company was negligent or that its safety systems were defective, adding that the company plans to appeal. “This verdict affirms that Uber acted responsibly and has invested meaningfully in rider safety,” the spokesperson said.

Sarah London, an attorney for Dean, said the verdict “validates the thousands of survivors who have come forward at great personal risk to demand accountability against Uber for its focus on profit over passenger safety.”

Uber shares fell 0.5% in extended trading following announcement of the verdict.

Dean, an Oklahoma resident, sued Uber in 2023, one month after her alleged assault in Arizona. She said Uber was aware of a wave of sexual assaults committed by its drivers, but had failed to take basic actions to improve the safety of its riders. Such assertions have long dogged the company, drawing headlines and congressional scrutiny.

Alexandra Walsh, an attorney for Dean, said during the trial’s closing arguments that Uber had marketed itself as a safe option for women traveling at night, particularly if they had been drinking.

GREENLAND

Boycott on US goods in Greenland surges as app sees massive spike in downloads

COPENHAGEN — The makers of mobile apps designed to help shoppers identify and boycott American goods say they saw a surge of interest in Denmark and beyond after the recent flare-up in tensions over U.S. President Donald Trump’s designs on Greenland.

The creator of the “Made O’Meter” app, Ian Rosenfeldt, said he saw around 30,000 downloads of the free app in just three days at the height of the trans-Atlantic diplomatic crisis in late January out of more than 100,000 since it was launched in March.

Apps offer practical help

Rosenfeldt, who lives in Copenhagen and works in digital marketing, decided to create the app a year ago after joining a Facebook group of like-minded Danes hoping to boycott U.S. goods.

“Many people were frustrated and thinking, ‘How do we actually do this in practical terms,’” the 53-year-old recalled. “If you use a bar code scanner, it’s difficult to see if a product is actually American or not, if it’s Danish or not. And if you don’t know that, you can’t really make a conscious choice.”

The latest version of “Made O’Meter” uses artificial intelligence to identify and analyze several products at a time, then recommend similar European-made alternatives. Users can set preferences, like “No USA-owned brands” or “Only EU-based brands.” The app claims over 95% accuracy.

“By using artificial intelligence, you can take an image of a product … and it can make a deep dive to go out and find the correct information about the product in many levels,” Rosenfeldt told The Associated Press during a demonstration at a Copenhagen grocery store. “This way, you have information that you can use to take decisions on what you think is right.”

‘Losing an ally’

After an initial surge of downloads when the app was launched, usage tailed off. Until last month, when Trump stepped up his rhetoric about the need for the U.S. to acquire Greenland, a strategically important and mineral-rich Arctic island that is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark.

Usage peaked Jan. 23, when there were almost 40,000 scans in one day, compared with 500 or so daily last summer. It has dropped back since but there were still around 5,000 a day this week, said Rosenfeldt, who noted “Made O’Meter” is used by over 20,000 people in Denmark but also by people in Germany, Spain, Italy, even Venezuela.

FROM CA TO FL

California tech company moving headquarters to Florida in another devastating blow

The state of California is losing yet another tech company to Florida.

In a dramatic sign of the rising allure of low-tax, pro-business states, quantum computing firm D-Wave Quantum Inc. announced it is relocating its corporate headquarters and key R & D operations from Palo Alto to Boca Raton, Florida.

The move, confirmed in a statement from the company, marks a stinging blow to Silicon Valley, in what many see as a broader trend of tech companies leaving high-cost Cali for more business-friendly regions.

CEO Dr. Alan Baratz made no secret of the strategy: Florida’s rapidly growing tech ecosystem, expanding talent pool, and supportive research environment make the state ideal for quantum innovation.

“With our new headquarters in Boca Raton, D-Wave will bring to South Florida incredible opportunities for advanced research, talent recruitment, and high-impact technology development that is shaping the future of computing,” Baratz said in a statement.
Florida officials hailed the move as a major victory.

“We’re excited to welcome D-Wave to Florida as it accelerates the development and delivery of its quantum computing technologies, which will help further establish the state as a center of high demand job growth and business formation through innovation,” said Florida Secretary of Commerce J. Alex Kelly.

“By welcoming D-Wave’s flagship … we are strengthening our position as a destination for advanced innovation, attracting top-tier technology talent, and laying the foundation for long-term economic growth,” Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer said.

The relocation is a centerpiece of a major partnership with the state of Florida. D-Wave will install its “Advantage2” quantum computer at Florida Atlantic University’s Boca Raton campus, in an effort to “accelerate and solidify the state of Florida’s position as a leader in quantum computing.”

While Sacramento faces political uncertainty and weighs a controversial new “billionaire tax,” Florida has been rolling out the red carpet with tax breaks and economic development incentives.

Earlier in January, Boca Raton officials approved a resolution where D-Wave would get up to $500,000 to relocate there and create 100 new jobs with an average annual salary of at least $125,000, per local news outlets.