TECH

Photo Credit: Gregory Bull

Wildfires fueled by climate change have ravaged communities from Maui to the Mediterranean this summer, killing many people, exhausting firefighters and fueling demand for new solutions. Enter artificial intelligence.

Firefighters and startups are using AI-enabled cameras to scan the horizon for signs of smoke. A German company is building a constellation of satellites to detect fires from space. And Microsoft is using AI models to predict where the next blaze could be sparked.

Photo Credit: Patrick Sison

The family of a North Carolina man who died after driving his car off a collapsed bridge while following Google Maps directions is suing the technology giant for negligence, claiming it had been informed of the collapse but failed to update its navigation system.

Philip Paxson, a medical device salesman and father of two, drowned Sept. 30, 2022, after his Jeep Gladiator plunged into Snow Creek in Hickory, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Wake County Superior Court. Paxson was driving home from his daughter’s ninth birthday party through an unfamiliar neighborhood when Google Maps allegedly directed him to cross a bridge that had collapsed nine years prior and was never repaired.

Photo Credit: Rebecca Blackwell

Lawyers for FTX Trading have filed a lawsuit accusing the parents of its founder Sam Bankman-Fried of exploiting their influence over their son to siphon millions of dollars from the company, while spending lavishly on a luxury home in the Bahamas and funnelling contributions to their “pet causes” as well as Stanford University.

The complaint filed on Monday against Allan Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried in the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange’s bankruptcy case in Delaware seeks to recover damages allegedly caused by the couple to the company.

Photo Credit: Richard Drew

Lawyers have presented opening arguments in a landmark antitrust case against the search engine Google, which could test the limits of corporate power in the United States.

On Tuesday, in a crowded federal courthouse in Washington, DC, the US Justice Department argued that Google uses its wealth and influence to stifle competition and maintain its dominance as the most popular search engine. Google countered that internet users rely on the search engine because of its quality.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Elon Musk’s X Corp. sued California to undo the state’s law aimed at exposing sources of hate speech and disinformation by requiring social media companies to explain how they moderate their content.

X, which operates the social network that used to be known as Twitter, argued in a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Sacramento that the law interferes with its editorial judgments that are protected as free speech under the Constitution.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said when he signed AB 587 last year that it was designed to protect the public by demanding companies reveal their policies on hate speech, disinformation, harassment and extremism on their platforms, and report data on their enforcement of the policies.