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China new year holiday spending surges past pre-pandemic levelsChina's new year holiday spending last week surged past pre-pandemic levels, official figures showed, a rare bright spot for an economy struggling with sluggish consumption and deflation.... Read more
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OpenAI in deal valuing it at $80 billion: MediaOpenAI has concluded a deal with investors that reportedly values the California start-up at $80 billion or more, after a roller-coaster year for the inventor of ChatGPT.... Read more
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To protect user privacy online, governments need to reconsider their use of opt-in policiesInternet users—almost all of us—are growing used to seeing requests for consent to gather our information: "Do you accept cookies from this website?" Most of us just click "yes" and continue browsing, rather than bothering with convoluted settings and choices we don't quite understand.... Read more
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France, Germany block EU deal on scaled-back app worker lawFrance and Germany on Friday refused to back a watered-down agreement on controversial EU rules covering app workers in the gig economy, European diplomats said.... Read more
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Q&A: What is the best route to fair AI systems?In December, the European Union passed the AI Act, the first major law aiming to regulate technologies that fall under the umbrella of artificial intelligence. The legislation might have arrived sooner, but the sudden success of ChatGPT in late 2022 demanded the act be updated.... Read more
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Q&A: Facebook turns 20—where does it go from here?Deep down, Facebook is not entirely unlike many brilliant, high-potential 20-year-olds. Its appeal is clear. Its performance is generally very strong, if not outstanding. Yet it's still subject to occasional lapses in judgment and bouts of immaturity.... Read more
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Experts call for new economic modeling to meet energy transition ambitionThe ambition of policymakers navigating the energy transition has surpassed the capacity of economic modeling for the first time, a new keynote paper argues.... Read more
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Research espionage is a real threat—but a drastic crackdown could stifle vital international collaborationAustralia's research institutions are targets for nefarious actors, from China and elsewhere. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has publicly tabled an "awareness" of various attempts to compromise the sector.... Read more
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Electrification or hydrogen? Both have distinct roles in the European energy transitionA study, published in One Earth, is the first to analyze the interplay of electrification and hydrogen in EU climate neutrality scenarios at greater sectoral detail. The analysis shows higher potential for electrification and identifies a more confined deployment range for hydrogen-based energy than earlier studies.... Read more
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EU watchdog urged to reject Meta 'pay for privacy' schemeCivil rights groups on Friday called on an EU watchdog to rule against Facebook owner Meta's scheme to let Europeans pay to opt out of data tracking, which they say violates EU law.... Read more
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The European Union expands digital crackdown on toxic content, dodgy goods to all online platformsThe European Union is expanding its strict digital rulebook on Saturday to almost all online platforms in the bloc, in the next phase of its crackdown on toxic social media content and dodgy ecommerce products that began last year by targeting the most popular services.... Read more
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What to know about the EU's landmark digital content lawThe EU's milestone legislation known as the Digital Services Act demands that digital companies crack down on illegal and problematic content.... Read more
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EU rules policing digital content kick in SaturdayDigital companies will have nowhere to hide after the EU's landmark content law enters into full force from Saturday, with the risk of heavy fines for any violations.... Read more
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Taiwan chipmaker TSMC stock surges after Morgan Stanley raises price target on NvidiaTaiwan's Taiex benchmark index jumped 3% to a record high on Thursday, buoyed by a surge in the share price of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world's biggest maker of computer chips.... Read more
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OpenAI reveals Sora, a tool to make instant videos from written promptsThe maker of ChatGPT on Thursday unveiled its next leap into generative artificial intelligence with a tool that instantly makes short videos in response to written commands.... Read more