Federal Court Upholds Law Requiring Sale or Ban of TikTok in U.S.
A federal appeals court panel on Friday upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok in a few short months, handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for its survival in the U.S.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the law, which requires TikTok to break ties with its China-based parent company ByteDance or be banned by mid-January, is constitutional, rebuffing TikTok’s challenge that the statute ran afoul of the First Amendment and unfairly targeted the platform.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” said the court’s opinion. “Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”
TikTok and ByteDance — another plaintiff in the lawsuit — are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump, who tried to ban TikTok during his first term and whose Justice Department would have to enforce the law, said during the presidential campaign that he is now against a TikTok ban and would work to “save” the social media platform.
The law, signed by President Joe Biden in April, was the culmination of a years-long saga in Washington over the short-form video-sharing app, which the government sees as a national security threat due to its connections to China.
The U.S. has said it’s concerned about TikTok collecting vast swaths of user data, including sensitive information on viewing habits, that could fall into the hands of the Chinese government through coercion. Officials have also warned the proprietary algorithm that fuels what users see on the app is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to shape content on the platform in a way that’s difficult to detect.
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However, a significant portion of the government’s information in the case has been redacted and hidden from the public as well as the two companies.
TikTok, which sued the government over the law in May, has long denied it could be used by Beijing to spy on or manipulate Americans. Its attorneys have accurately pointed out that the U.S. hasn’t provided evidence to show that the company handed over user data to the Chinese government, or manipulated content for Beijing’s benefit in the U.S. They have also argued the law is predicated on future risks, which the Department of Justice has emphasized pointing in part to unspecified action it claims the two companies have taken in the past due to demands from the Chinese government.
Friday’s ruling came after the appeals court panel heard oral arguments in September.
Some legal experts said at the time that it was challenging to read the tea leaves on how the judges would rule.
In a court hearing that lasted more than two hours, the panel – composed of two Republican and one Democrat appointed judges – appeared to grapple with how TikTok’s foreign ownership affects its rights under the Constitution and how far the government could go to curtail potential influence from abroad on a foreign-owned platform.
The judges pressed Daniel Tenny, a Department of Justice attorney, on the implications the case could have on the First Amendment. But they also expressed some skepticism at TikTok’s arguments, challenging the company’s attorney – Andrew Pincus – on whether any First Amendment rights preclude the government from curtailing a powerful company subject to the laws and influence of a foreign adversary.
In parts of their questions about TikTok’s ownership, the judges cited wartime precedent that allows the U.S. to restrict foreign ownership of broadcast licenses and asked if the arguments presented by TikTok would apply if the U.S. was engaged in war.
To assuage concerns about the company’s owners, TikTok says it has invested more than $2 billion to bolster protections around U.S. user data.
The company also argues the government’s broader concerns could have been resolved in a draft agreement it provided the Biden administration more than two years ago during talks between the two sides. It has blamed the government for walking away from further negotiations on the agreement, which the Justice Department argues is insufficient.
Read More: Here’s All the Countries With TikTok Bans as Platform’s Future in U.S. Hangs In Balance
Attorneys for the two companies have claimed it’s impossible to divest the platform commercially and technologically. They also say any sale of TikTok without the coveted algorithm – the platform’s secret sauce that Chinese authorities would likely block under any divesture plan – would turn the U.S. version of TikTok into an island disconnected from other global content.
Still, some investors, including Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and billionaire Frank McCourt, have expressed interest in purchasing the platform. Both men said earlier this year that they were launching a consortium to purchase TikTok’s U.S. business.
This week, a spokesperson for McCourt’s Project Liberty initiative, which aims to protect online privacy, said unnamed participants in their bid have made informal commitments of more than $20 billion in capital.
TikTok’s lawsuit was consolidated with a second legal challenge brought by several content creators – for which the company is covering legal costs – as well as a third one filed on behalf of conservative creators who work with a nonprofit called BASED Politics Inc.
If TikTok appeals and the courts continue to uphold the law, it would fall on Trump’s Justice Department to enforce it and punish any potential violations with fines. The penalties would apply to app stores that would be prohibited from offering TikTok, and internet hosting services that would be barred from supporting it.
Source: Tech – TIME | 7 Dec 2024 | 4:49 am
OpenAI’s New Ad Shows ‘Reasoning’ AI Making Basic Errors
OpenAI released its most advanced AI model yet, called o1, for paying users on Thursday. The launch kicked off the company’s “12 Days of OpenAI” event—a dozen consecutive releases to celebrate the holiday season.
OpenAI has touted o1’s “complex reasoning” capabilities, and announced on Thursday that unlimited access to the model would cost $200 per month. In the video the company released to show the model’s strengths, a user uploads a picture of a wooden birdhouse and asks the model for advice on how to build a similar one. The model “thinks” for a short period and then spits out what on the surface appears to be a comprehensive set of instructions.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Close examination reveals the instructions to be almost useless. The AI measures the amount of paint, glue, and sealant required for the task in inches. It only gives the dimensions for the front panel of the birdhouse, and no others. It recommends cutting a piece of sandpaper to another set of dimensions, for no apparent reason. And in a separate part of the list of instructions, it says “the exact dimensions are as follows…” and then proceeds to give no exact dimensions.
“You would know just as much about building the birdhouse from the image as you would the text, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of the AI tool,” says James Filus, the director of the Institute of Carpenters, a U.K.-based trade body, in an email. He notes that the list of materials includes nails, but the list of tools required does not include a hammer, and that the cost of building the simple birdhouse would be “nowhere near” the $20-50 estimated by o1. “Simply saying ‘install a small hinge’ doesn’t really cover what’s perhaps the most complex part of the design,” he adds, referring to a different part of the video that purports to explain how to add an opening roof to the birdhouse.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It’s just the latest example of an AI product demo doing the opposite of its intended purpose. Last year, a Google advert for an AI-assisted search tool mistakenly said that the James Webb telescope had made a discovery it had not, a gaffe that sent the company’s stock price plummeting. More recently, an updated version of a similar Google tool told early users that it was safe to eat rocks, and that they could use glue to stick cheese to their pizza.
OpenAI’s o1, which according to public benchmarks is its most capable model to date, takes a different approach than ChatGPT for answering questions. It is still essentially a very advanced next-word predictor, trained using machine learning on billions of words of text from the Internet and beyond. But instead of immediately spitting out words in response to a prompt, it uses a technique called “chain of thought” reasoning to essentially “think” about an answer for a period of time behind the scenes, and then gives its answer only after that. This technique often yields more accurate answers than having a model spit out an answer reflexively, and OpenAI has touted o1’s reasoning capabilities—especially when it comes to math and coding. It can answer 78% of PhD-level science questions accurately, according to data that OpenAI published alongside a preview version of the model released in September.
But clearly some basic logical errors can still slip through.
Source: Tech – TIME | 7 Dec 2024 | 3:07 am
TIME Is Looking For the World’s Top EdTech Companies of 2025
In 2025, TIME will once again publish its ranking of the World’s Top EdTech Companies, in partnership with Statista, a leading international provider of market and consumer data and rankings. This list identifies the most innovative, impactful, and growing companies in EdTech, which have established themselves as leaders in the EdTech industry.
Companies that focus primarily on developing and providing education technology are encouraged to submit applications as part of the research phase. An application guarantees consideration for the list, but does not guarantee a spot on the list, nor is the final list limited to applicants.
To apply, click here.
More information visit: https://www.statista.com/page/ed-tech-rankings. Winners will be announced on TIME.com in April 2025.
Source: Tech – TIME | 3 Dec 2024 | 8:42 am
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger Retires
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has retired, with David Zinsner and Michelle Johnston Holthaus named as interim co-CEOs.
Gelsinger, whose career has spanned more than 40 years, also stepped down from the company’s board. He started at Intel in 1979 at Intel and was its first chief technology officer. He returned to Intel as chief executive in 2021.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Intel said Monday that it will conduct a search for a new CEO.
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Zinsner is executive vice president and chief financial officer at Intel. Holthaus was appointed to the newly created position of CEO of Intel Products, which includes the client computing group, data center and AI group and etwork and Edge Group.
Frank Yeary, independent chair of Intel’s board, will become interim executive chair.
“Pat spent his formative years at Intel, then returned at a critical time for the company in 2021,” Yeary said in a statement. “As a leader, Pat helped launch and revitalize process manufacturing by investing in state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing, while working tirelessly to drive innovation throughout the company.”
Last week it was revealed that the Biden administration plans on reducing part of Intel’s $8.5 billion in federal funding for computer chip plants around the country, according to three people familiar with the grant who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
The reduction is largely a byproduct of the $3 billion that Intel is also receiving to provide computer chips to the military. President Joe Biden announced the agreement to provide Intel with up to $8.5 billion in direct funding and $11 billion in loans in March.
The changes to Intel’s funding are not related to the company’s financial record or milestones, the people familiar with the grant told The Associated Press. In August, the chipmaker announced that it would cut 15% of its workforce — about 15,000 jobs — in an attempt to turn its business around to compete with more successful rivals like Nvidia and AMD.
Unlike some of its rivals, Intel manufactures chips in addition to designing them.
Shares of the Santa Clara, California, company, jumped more than 4% in premarket trading.
Source: Tech – TIME | 3 Dec 2024 | 3:30 am
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