There's two trials going on at the moment in the US Supreme Court that could make Section 230 - the law that allows internet platform owners to not be liable for what the users of their platform do or say - invalid. Both Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh argue that the platform is responsible for what the users on it say because they're using an algorithm to recommend it to others. If the Supreme Court agrees, it sets a precedent for countless other legal actions against Google, Meta, Twitter, TikTok and any other place hosting online content that may have harmed someone. It'll be months until a decision is reached, but initial comments from the judges make it sound like they're "concerned about the potential large-scale economic impact of making any decision that could lead to a crash of the digital economy or an avalanche of lawsuits over targeted recommendations".
Microsoft is trying to convince regulators around the world that its purchase of Activision won't mean they're gonna make all of Activision's games exclusive to the Xbox, so they've made 10 year deals with Nvidia's GeForce Now streaming service and Nintendo, promising to supply them with the latest Microsoft games at the same time they appear on Microsoft's platforms (Windows & Xbox) - including Call of Duty, the title most of the competition regulators are concerned would be locked up on Xbox, making it difficult for Sony and Nintendo to compete due to the insane popularity of the honestly tired and boring gaming franchise. Also note that Sony and Microsoft didn't make an announcement or agreement.
Cam Wilson has a story in Crikey about how places such as Woolworths, Coles, Bunnings, and Myer use a "Retail Crime Intelligence Platform" called Auror to record over 100,000 "crime events" each month. It ingests various data sources (CCTV mainly) and builds profiles on individuals using facial recognition, license plate detection and self-checkout cameras. That data is then shared with other users of its platform, along with police, who have direct access to Auror. From a technical and product perspective, Auror is impressive but damn it's creepy. Do we want this thing in our society? I'm not sure I like these private dossiers getting built with little to no oversight on who can access it and what is done with the data it collects.
Out of Spec Reviews went to Germany a few months ago and did a cool video exploring a massive electric car charging station in Zusmarshausen called the Sortimo Innovationspark. It's designed from the ground up to be for electric cars and has dozens of "slow" AC chargers, dozens of "fast" DC chargers and a couple of "rapid" DC chargers. You can even pay for the charging without an app at a machine using a credit card! The amneties look really nice too, so much better than anything here between our capital cities. It feels like Australia is a solid decade behind something like the Sortimo Innovationspark appearing on our highways.
IBM president (named CEO May, 1956) Thomas J. Watson Jr. in office (LIFE Photo Collection)
📻 Dreams - Beck
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