Bill Gates pulls out…of AI Summit, grieving parents anger at Zuckerberg

Share

Bill Gates will not deliver his keynote address at the India AI Impact Summit in Delhi, his philanthropic organisation said hours before the Microsoft co-founder was due to speak. The Gates Foundation said the decision was made after “careful consideration” and “to ensure the focus remains on the [summit’s] key priorities”, but did not elaborate. Gates’s withdrawal comes amid a controversy over his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after he was named in new files released by the US Department of Justice in January. BBC 

Grieving parents awaited Mark Zuckerberg’s arrival at a courthouse in downtown Los Angeles for what is being called the social media industry’s “big tobacco moment”. “I’m comforted by the fact he’s here alone, with only his lawyers and a jury. He’s without his lobbyists or his PR machine,” says Lori Schott, whose 18-year-old daughter Annalee had a social media addiction and died by suicide in 2020. “If we would have been here in this court 10 years earlier she would have still been alive,” she adds. Sky News 

Deepfake nudes and “revenge porn” must be removed from the internet within 48 hours or technology firms risk being blocked in the UK, Keir Starmer has said, calling it a “national emergency” that the government must confront. Companies could be fined millions or even blocked altogether if they allow the images to spread or be reposted after victims give notice. Amendments will be made to the crime and policing bill to also regulate AI chatbots such as X’s Grok. The Guardian 

If you’ve ever wanted to make music but have neither the talent nor the inspiration, Google has the AI tool for you. Gemini will now generate a 30-second song for you directly from a text prompt, photo, or video.  Google launched Lyria 3, the latest iteration of its music creation AI, on Wednesday, and has made it far more available than the previous versions of the engine. Like image creation tool Nano Banana and video-making AI Veo, Lyria 3 lives right in the Gemini Tools menu, where it can be selected and used to create a song with little more than a short description. The Register 

Donald Trump’s administration is launching a website that could let British and European internet users bypass online safety laws, escalating a transatlantic row over censorship. The US state department has launched freedom.gov, which will reportedly allow people overseas to access content banned by their own governments. The move threatens to open a new rift between Britain and the US over free speech, which the White House claims is being suppressed in the UK. Telegraph 

If you’ve been keeping an eye on independent resale markets to try to buy a used mobile device at a fair price over the last month or so, you may have noticed a curiously high (and growing) number of iPhone 17 Pro Max units available in mint or “good” condition. Believe it or not, that’s evidence of the handset’s unrivaled quality in addition to an unusual inability to connect with broad audiences for long-term use, at least according to a very intriguing (and surprising) new SellCell report.

For latest tech stories go to TechDigest.tv