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Even generative AI critics and detractors have to admit the technology is great for something: transcription. If you’ve joined a meeting on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet or other video call platform of your choice at any point in the last year or so, you’ve likely noticed an increased number of AI notetakers joining the conference call as well. Indeed, not only do these platforms all have AI transcription features built in, but there are of course other stand alone services like Otter AI (used by VentureBeat along with the Google Workspace suite of Apps), and models such as OpenAI’s new gpt-4o-transcribe and older open-source Whisper, aiOla, and many others with specific niches and roles. One such startup is San Fransisco-based Freed AI, co-founded in 2022 by former Facebook engineers Erez Druk and Andrey Bannikov, now its CEO and CTO, respectively. The idea was simple: give doctors and medical professionals a way to automatically transcribe their conversations with patients, capture accurate health specific terminology, and extract insights and action plans from the conversations without the physician having to lift a finger. The AI Impact Series Returns to San Francisco – August 5 The next phase of AI is here – are you ready? Join leaders from Block, GSK, and SAP for an exclusive look at how autonomous agents are reshaping enterprise workflows – from real-time decision-making to end-to-end automation. Secure your spot now – space is limited: https://bit.ly/3GuuPLF The idea worked well, as the medical scribe platform recently reached a new milestone: 20,000 paying clinician users, Druk shared in a recent conversation with VentureBeat, each saving 2-3 hours saved daily in manual transcription or note organization tasks. With nearly 3 million patient visits per month, Freed is rapidly becoming a foundational tool for documentation in small and mid-sized healthcare settings. That time dividend has helped drive a high degree of emotional resonance with customers, who often describe the product in terms of restored work-life balance. “Clinicians spend more than 11 hours a week on documentation,” Druk noted. “We built Freed to reduce that burden by listening to the visit and writing the clinical note.” Rising competition But Freed’s success has attracted intensifying competition. Just today, Doximity — the publicly traded physician networking company — released a free ambient AI scribe available to all verified U.S. physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and medical students, as Axios and Stat News reported. The move highlights a shift toward commoditization in the AI scribe market, where pricing is emerging as a differentiator. “We want to provide free access to tools our customers have asked for,” Doximity’s chief physician experience officer Amit Phull told Axios, “and they can figure out on their own whether the standard offering — or if they’re paying for something else — stacks up.” That launch follows other high-profile scribe funding rounds in the tens or hundreds of millions. While investors pitch visions of EHR-scale platforms, those ambitions still hinge on proving value in billing, chart review, and compliance — not just note creation. Still, Druk and the Freed team believe they have an edge. Turning burnout into opportunity Freed wasn’t born out of a technical brainstorm but from a personal pain point. Druk credits the idea to his wife’s struggles as a practicing family physician, where the constant burden of note-taking became a daily source of stress. “For seven years, every day I heard at home, ‘I have notes to do’ — more than I heard ‘I love you’ from my wife,” he said. “That’s how burdensome documentation is.” That lived experience turned into a deliberate product vision: to remove the documentation burden from clinicians and give them back control over their time and mental energy. “The idea for Freed was: why is nobody building something to help clinicians?” Druk said. “Everyone is doing things to them, not for them.” More than transcription: a modular AI system built for medicine Freed’s system does more than record and transcribe conversations. The core product is a structured, specialty-aware AI documentation engine that generates clinical notes tailored to each user’s preferences. Druk explained that Freed’s architecture relies on a highly modular pipeline. While initial transcription is powered by a fine-tuned version of OpenAI’s open source Whisper model — optimized specifically for clinical vocabulary — that’s only the starting point. The company’s platform layers on hundreds of targeted AI tasks to extract structure, filter out small talk, adjust terminology to medical standards, and match user-specific templates. “It’s not just about transcription accuracy,” Druk said. “It’s about building a system clinicians trust — one that gets smarter over time and adapts to their workflow.” “Our engine learns from clinician edits,” he added. “Over time, Freed becomes your own personal scribe, not a generic one.” More than 20 in-house clinicians regularly audit anonymized notes to improve model performance. And as clinicians make edits, the system continues to learn. Pricing and accessibility Freed offers straightforward pricing: $90/month for individual clinicians $84/month per user for teams of 2–9 clinicians Custom pricing for 10+ seats Each plan includes a 7-day free trial, and the company offers 50% discounts to students, residents, and trainees. Freed’s platform is also compliant with HIPAA, HITECH, and SOC 2 standards. Audio recordings are encrypted and deleted by default, and clinicians retain full control over their notes at all times. Quietly building a $20M ARR business While Freed recently raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital, its financial momentum has come largely from its existing customer base. In April 2025, Druk publicly shared on X that Freed has surpassed $20 million in annual recurring revenue. That growth reflects not just strong product-market fit but also a clear go-to-market strategy. Rather than chase enterprise contracts with large hospital systems, Freed has focused on small clinics and solo practitioners — a segment often overlooked by health tech vendors. “We’re focused on the long tail, supporting small clinics — the 40% of clinicians in private practice — to help keep them alive,” Druk

Stockfotos-MG – stock.adobe.com The UK has been pushed into third spot on global fintech market size data for the first half of this year By Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA Published: 24 Jul 2025 15:00 The UAE has leapfrogged the UK in the fintech market rankings, following a $2bn investment by Abu Dhabi’s MGX in cryptocurrency exchange Binance. This is the first time the UK has lost second spot, and comes at a time when global investment in fintech grew 6% to $24bn during the first six months of 2025, according to figures from the UK’s Innovate Finance. The fintech industry trade body said the market growth is a sign it is stabilising after previous volatility. The US remains number one, raising $11bn in fintech investment through over 100 deals during the period, compared with the UAE’s $2.2bn and the UK’s $1.5bn. India was not far behind the UK, making up ground with $1.4bn invested, while Singapore also saw growth in investment, which reached $798m. In Europe, excluding the UK, $2.9bn was invested in fintechs during the six months, a 28% increase compared with H2 2024. France and Germany saw strong performances, with $693m and $668m raised, respectively. “Despite the broader market adjustment, it is encouraging to see signs of stabilisation and resilience in the UK and across Europe,” said Janine Hirt, CEO of Innovate Finance. “The UK fintech sector has proven its value. It is profitable, job-creating and globally recognised.” For example, 11 of the UK’s most profitable fintechs alone reported combined profits before tax of $3.3bn last year, employ over 26,000 people and paid taxes worth $848m to the UK exchequer last year. These are: Allica Bank, Atom, Funding Circle, Iwoca, Monzo, OakNorth, Revolut, Starling, Tandem, Wise and Zopa. But Hirt warned that the UK must continue to improve access to growth capital and innovation. “We at Innovate Finance are proud to play a key role in a new initiative with the City of London Corporation and the British Business Bank to help connect scaleups with investors. This will also help connect growing firms with the new institutional capital unlocked by the Mansion House Accord.” Innovate Finance said: “While AI and frontier technologies dominate the headlines, fintech remains the UK’s most immediate, scalable and investable growth opportunity – with a proven track record of delivering unicorns, jobs and exportable innovation.” Speaking at the 11th annual Innovate Finance Global Summit in London in May, UK chancellor Rachel Reeves promised continued government backing to the fintech sector. She told the audience: “As chancellor, I’ve always said it’s my job to back the builders, the wealth creators and the job creators. So, my job is to back all of you in this room. After all, it’s thanks to your work that the UK is a world leader in fintech.” According to recent research by Boston Consulting Group, the global fintech sector saw its revenues increase three times that of the finance sector as a whole in 2024, as it entered an “era of maturity”. Despite reduced investment in fintech firms, the businesses are maturing and driving up revenues. Global fintech revenues grew by 21% last year, about a third higher than the growth in 2023, when a 13% increase was reported. Read more on Technology startups Fintech growth three times that of finance sector as a whole By: Karl Flinders Maturing UK fintechs increase tech and cyber security hiring By: Karl Flinders ‘Times are hard’ for fintech but latest report reveals glimmer of recovery By: Karl Flinders UK’s female fintech leaders hit harder by investment collapse By: Karl Flinders Read More

charles taylor – stock.adobe.com Research compiled by global economic consultancy reveals deep hold that Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity tools have on public sector organisations in the European Union By Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK Published: 24 Jul 2025 14:16 Europe is sleepwalking into an even deeper dependency on Microsoft’s cloud technologies. That is the conclusion being drawn following the publication of a report into public sector usage of productivity software across the European Union (EU). The 36-page Quantifying EU public sector dependence on productivity software report set out to examine the use of productivity software across the EU and selected member states. It was compiled by economic consultancy firm Compass Lexecon and commissioned by pro-cloud market competition advocacy group the Open Cloud Coalition (OCC). The point of the exercise was to determine the extent to which public sector organisations in the EU are dependent on the productivity software offerings of specific suppliers. To achieve this, the report’s authors combined market share data from Statista and procurement details from the Ted Electronic Daily (TED) resource with partner ecosystem information from other publicly available sources. It concluded that Microsoft is the productivity software market leader, with an estimated overall market share of 77% at EU level, rising to potentially 80% at country level. “Microsoft’s lead becomes even more pronounced in the narrower segments where it is active,” the report continued. “In the collaboration segment, Microsoft’s shares could be up to 84% at the EU level and 80-86% at country level. In the office segment, Microsoft’s shares could be up to 90% at the EU level and 86% to 92% at country level.” From a public sector market adoption perspective, the report identified certain features of how software procurements are undertaken that are serving to reinforce and encourage the continued growth of Microsoft’s hold on the sector. Europe is currently sleepwalking into deeper dependency. Healthy and innovative markets need competition and fair procurement practices. Without change, Europe will continue being held back, and the cost to innovation and resilience will be high Nicky Stewart, Open Cloud Coalition This is based on an analysis of 189 tenders uploaded in TED that mention Microsoft. This analysis revealed that Microsoft is cited far more frequently than any other supplier, with an incidence share of 72% to 91% in 2023 and 89% to 100% in 2024. “Our review suggests that certain features of the tenders, such as repeat use by existing customers, compatibility requirements, and bundling with other products and services, may contribute to Microsoft’s high shares and ongoing dependency,” the report stated. According to the OCC, the findings underscore the dominant hold Microsoft has on the EU’s productivity software market and raise concerns about the long-term impact this may have on innovation and the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).   Nicky Stewart, senior advisor to the OCC, said that, without any form of intervention, it is likely Microsoft’s hold on the EU will tighten further. “Europe is currently sleepwalking into deeper dependency. Healthy and innovative markets need competition and fair procurement practices,” said Stewart. “Without change, Europe will continue being held back, and the cost to innovation and resilience will be high.” The report makes its debut at a time when Microsoft’s cloud market dominance is coming under scrutiny from regulators and trade bodies. In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is on the cusp of announcing the results of its long-running investigation into the inner workings of the UK cloud infrastructure services market, as the regulator has until 4 August to publish its findings. Interim findings from the CMA have seen Microsoft – and its cloud rival Amazon Web Services (AWS) – called out for anti-competitive behaviour, pertaining mainly to the software giant’s practice of charging users more for running its cloud software in competing environments. Read more on Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) CISPE criticised over securing preferential cloud pricing on Microsoft products for members By: Caroline Donnelly Microsoft’s ICC email block reignites European data sovereignty concerns By: Owen Sayers Microsoft’s wartime pact with the EU rings hollow – and could spell trouble for UK IT buyers By: Owen Sayers CMA urged to expedite proposed ‘targeted interventions’ against AWS and Microsoft By: Caroline Donnelly Read More

Dutch method to counter deepfakes analyses blood flow patterns in faces that current deepfake generation tools cannot yet replicate By Kim Loohuis Published: 24 Jul 2025 12:00 The race between deepfake creators and detectors has entered a new phase, with researchers from the Netherlands revealing tech that reads the human heartbeat through video analysis. While artificial intelligence (AI) generates increasingly convincing deepfake videos, forensic researchers are responding by building an ever-expanding toolkit of detection methods. Detecting deepfakes requires multiple approaches working in concert – from analysing camera fingerprints and electrical grid frequencies, to examining speech patterns and facial inconsistencies. No single method provides definitive proof, but the combination of classical inspection techniques and cutting-edge AI analysis creates a robust defence against synthetic media.  Now, researchers at the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) have developed a method that adds biological authentication to this arsenal, detecting deepfakes by analysing blood flow patterns in human faces – patterns that current deepfake generation tools cannot yet replicate.  Zeno Geradts, a forensic digital researcher at the NFI and one of the directors of the AI for Forensics Lab, which is jointly operated with the University of Amsterdam, recently presented this groundbreaking research at the European Academy of Forensic Science conference in Dublin. “If you have good-quality images, there are small arteries in your face that expand slightly with each heartbeat,” he said.” That colour difference per heartbeat can be seen in a video. This is also a method used in the medical industry and smartwatches, but our method works remotely.”  The technique builds on existing remote photoplethysmography (RPPG) technology, which measures pulse rates through subtle colour changes in skin caused by blood circulation. When applied to video analysis, researchers can detect the rhythmic colour variations around the eyes, forehead and jaw where blood vessels lie close to the skin surface.  From snuff films to deepfake detection  The origin of this research traces back to 2012, when the NFI was occasionally asked to investigate so-called snuff movies – extremely violent films circulating on clandestine channels. Geradts needed to determine whether people in certain films had actually died.  “I accidentally came across a publication from MIT where researchers had discovered that you can measure someone’s heartbeat based on the small arteries in the face,” recalled Geradts. “I immediately knew we could use this for image detection.”  However, the technology wasn’t ready at the time. Video compression techniques destroyed the subtle colour differences that indicate heartbeat. Thirteen years later, improved compression methods preserve enough image quality to make the detection possible.  A digital research team of the NFI analysed 79 facial points where colour differences per heartbeat could be measured, testing under various conditions, including movement and low light. Results showed consistent correlations between measured heartbeat (via smartwatch and heart rate monitor) and facial colour variations under all circumstances. Literature indicates the method works across all skin tones, although darker skin presents additional challenges due to reduced colour contrast.  Expanding the detection arsenal  Blood flow detection represents the latest addition to a comprehensive forensic toolkit. The NFI employs multiple detection methods simultaneously, each suited to different scenarios and video qualities. The power lies not in any single technique, but in their combined application.  Electric Network Frequency (ENF) analysis examines the subtle flickering of lights in videos caused by variations in power grid frequency, which helps determine when the footage was recorded. Photo Response Non-Uniformity (PRNU) creates a “fingerprint” of specific cameras by analysing how individual pixels respond to identical light levels.  Traditional inspection methods remain valuable, including the detection of speech anomalies, irregular blinking or poorly rendered facial edges. AI detection algorithms trained on authentic versus fake content can sometimes identify the specific generation tool used to create a particular deepfake.  “The strength of good deepfake detection lies in using a combination of classical methods and AI,” said Geradts. “You have to look at the complete picture – both image and audio. Synthetic voices are challenging to make realistically.”  Each method contributes crucial evidence, but none stands alone; instead, they complement one another. High-quality source material might favour blood flow detection, while compressed YouTube videos might require different approaches. The forensic value emerges from cross-validation across multiple techniques.  The perpetual arms race  The effectiveness of detection methods faces constant challenges as generation technology improves. Conference feedback suggested that future deepfake training might incorporate heartbeat signals, potentially neutralising this detection method.  “It remains a cat-and-mouse game,” said Geradts. “We’ll have to keep researching and discovering new methods to stay ahead of criminals.”  State actors with substantial resources and knowledge of detection methods pose particular challenges. However, major tech companies that develop legitimate deepfake tools often provide their own detection capabilities alongside their generation software.  The research paper on blood flow detection is nearing completion and is expected to be published within six months. Until scientific validation is complete, the method cannot be used in forensic investigations; however, Geradts expects deployment for suitable cases with high-quality source material.  Implications for digital evidence  The development highlights growing concerns about the proliferation of deepfakes across various sectors. From fraudulent business communications requesting financial transfers to non-consensual intimate imagery, the potential for harm extends far beyond entertainment applications.  For investigators and legal systems, the challenge intensifies with each technological advancement. Forensic analysis, which once took weeks, may soon require months as detection methods become more sophisticated and comprehensive. “Sometimes I worry that eventually nobody will believe real images anymore,” said Geradts. “That everything will be seen as fake. What is still true then?”  The NFI’s multi-method approach provides a template for other forensic institutes facing similar challenges. As deepfake technology democratises and its quality improves, robust detection capabilities become essential infrastructure for maintaining digital evidence integrity in legal proceedings.  The heartbeat detection method may face obsolescence as generation tools evolve, but it demonstrates the ongoing innovation required to preserve trust in digital media. For European law enforcement and judiciary systems, such research represents a crucial investment in future investigative capabilities. Read more on Hackers

wutzkoh – stock.adobe.com While Google’s public cloud business ramps up thanks to artificial intelligence, agentic search is the new frontier to conquer By Cliff Saran, Managing Editor Published: 24 Jul 2025 11:45 As Google Cloud posts a big increase for the company’s second quarter, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of parent company Alphabet, has acknowledged the need to address how to partner with agentic artificial intelligence (AI) providers. The public cloud business posted revenue of $13.6bn for the quarter ending 30 June, an increase of $3.3bn compared with the same quarter in 2024. “AI is positively impacting every part of the business, driving strong momentum,” said Pichai. According to a transcript of the company’s earning call, posted on Motley Fool, he claimed the capital expenditure (CapEx) being spent on building out Google’s cloud, AI capabilities and other investments has “a healthy ROI”. Specifically, the value delivered to Google’s AI customers, according to Pichai, “is growing significantly”, which he anticipated would help the business. More servers and datacentres are due to come online later this year. Discussing the investment in cloud infrastructure, Lee Sustar, principal analyst at Forrester, said: “Google Cloud, once a sidelight in Alphabet’s earnings and beset with huge losses, is now standing out as a significant earner, with a 32% jump in earnings compared to the same period a year earlier. “AI is a big – but far from the only – reason for this gain, as Google Cloud has systematically built out wide enterprise compute capacity beyond its signature data, analytics and AI offerings,” he added. “Just as notable is that operating margin doubled to about 20%, showing that Google Cloud can grow without burning up all its revenue in vast AI investments, even as Alphabet’s capital expenses surged to a 70% year-on-year growth rate. The era of the AI-native cloud is here, and it shows up in Google Cloud’s numbers.” Agentic Google search When asked about the growth of agentic AI, Pichai said: “Just like the early days of the web, there are aspects about it that will expand access and grow the use cases, etc. I think those elements are there.” But beyond the actual technology, he said: “We have to solve the business models for the varying players involved. There is the value proposition for all the players involved, and I think that’s going to be an equally important thing to create the ‘unlock’ here.” Through its Project Mariner initiative, the company is beginning to integrate Gemini AI functionality into Google Search to deliver agentic capabilities, which uses natural language to assign AI agents to handle time-consuming tasks. Robby Stein, vice-president of product for Google Search, explained in a recent YouTube video that such a capability would save people time as it would be able to perform multiple searches on, for instance, a ticket booking site, to determine how best to book seats for a group of people. Another example is Deep Search, an advanced research tool in Google Search, which the company made available on July 16. Google said Deep Search helps researchers save time by issuing hundreds of searches, and is able to reason across disparate pieces of information to quickly produce what Google calls “a comprehensive, fully-cited report”. Forrester principal analyst Nikhil Lai said Google appears to be copying rather than outcompeting with rivals such as OpenAI and Perplexity. “Google is spending tremendously to just keep pace with OpenAI and Perplexity, who both launched agents for deep research more than a quarter before Google,” he said. “Now, the race to the bottom of the funnel is heating up. If Google can get a critical mass of consumers to shop on AI Mode before ChatGPT or Perplexity do, it will retain its place atop the heap of the search engine market.” Read more on Artificial intelligence, automation and robotics Why Apple is ripe for an AI acquisition to improve Siri By: Esther Shittu Google adds new features in Search as AI race intensifies By: Esther Shittu XAI releases Grok 4 amid furor over antisemitic comments By: Esther Shittu Google expands Gemini model, Search as AI rivals encroach By: Esther Shittu Read More

J_News_photo – stock.adobe.com Some Fujitsu employees feel they are suffering for the actions of the company’s management in the Post Office scandal By Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA Published: 25 Jul 2025 10:32 Fujitsu has put nearly 500 UK employees on notice of possible redundancy, as it plans to cut more than 100 roles. The supplier could face financial pressure in the coming months when it finally contributes to the huge costs of the Post Office scandal. A question posed to management during a recent company forum requested details about the planned workforce reductions. In response, management confirmed that 480 people are at risk, with over 100 redundancies proposed. Cuts are being made in departments including digital transformation, customer service management and enterprise cyber security. Fujitsu, which employs about 6,000 people in the UK, said: “As all large organisations do, we regularly review internal skills and resourcing to ensure we can meet market demands while remaining competitive.” In April last year, Fujitsu made about 100 job cuts in its UK sales and pre-sales teams. Two months later, it made over half of its Oracle Practice team – about 60 jobs in the UK – redundant. Fujitsu helped Post Office cover up Fujitsu is embroiled in the Post Office scandal, which saw lives ruined and hundreds prosecuted as a result of being wrongly blamed for accounting shortfalls that were caused by errors in its Horizon software. The supplier has been hit by uncertainty and is waiting to discover how much of the financial costs of the scandal it will pay. It promised to pay its share, but only after the completion of the statutory public inquiry into the scandal. The evidence has now been heard, and part one of the chair’s report has been published. It will be complete when part two of the report is published later this year. In part one of the report, which looked at the human impact of the scandal, chair Wyn Williams said it is a “real possibility” that 13 people took their own lives as a result of their treatment by the Post Office after they suffered unexplained shortfalls in their branches. Fujitsu employees fear for their jobs One worker at the supplier said: “Fujitsu used to be a good place to work, but I felt sick when I read the first part of the public inquiry report and how many postmasters took their own lives or lost everything. “All the people at Fujitsu who have lost or are losing their jobs had nothing to do with Horizon, and yet again, nothing happens to anyone in leadership who makes these decisions.” The second part of the inquiry report, due later this year, will, among other things, report on the Horizon IT system: its procurement, design, pilot, roll-out and modifications. It will analyse Horizon’s operation, including training, the resolution of disputes, and the knowledge and rectification of errors in the system. It will also make judgments on Fujitsu’s role in the prosecution of subpostmasters, who were blamed for accounting shortfalls. It is the upcoming part of the inquiry report where Fujitsu can expect severe criticism for its role. Beyond its software causing errors, the supplier helped the Post Office cover up the scandal, including giving false evidence in court. Fujitsu should pay for its part In February, Former MP and now peer Kevan Jones, who has campaigned for subpostmasters affected by the scandal for a decade and a half, called on Fujitsu to make an interim payment of £300m. This is, coincidentally, the same amount the Post Office – and therefore taxpayers – have paid lawyers since 2014, a period when the organisation was attempting to hide the scandal. According to a Freedom of Information request from a campaigner, known on X as Monsieur Cholet, during those 11 years, the Post Office has spent £308m on legal firms, including £188m on services from Herbert Smith Freehills. On top of this, more than £1bn has already been paid from the public purse to provide financial redress for the affected subpostmasters, with costs rising all the time. In April last year, Liam Byrne, chair of the Business and Trade Committee, told Computer Weekly that the starting point for government negotiations with Fujitsu should be an equal share of costs. “When it comes to Fujitsu, the government’s starting point has to be 50:50,” he said. Fujitsu staff told Computer Weekly that the supplier should have paid some contribution already. The Post Office scandal was first exposed by Computer Weekly in 2009, revealing the stories of seven subpostmasters and the problems they suffered due to Horizon accounting software, which led to the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British history (see below timeline of Computer Weekly articles about the scandal since 2009). Read more on IT for retail and logistics Kroll reviewing Post Office Horizon’s current integrity and discrepancy identification By: Karl Flinders Post Office scandal data leak interim compensation offers made By: Karl Flinders Government announcement on Fujitsu talks add ‘vague words’ and no interim payment By: Karl Flinders Metropolitan Police concern puts brakes on Post Office Horizon data migration By: Karl Flinders Read More

According to a report from The Washington Post, DOGE is using an AI tool to analyze federal regulations and determine which to get rid of. A DOGE PowerPoint presentation obtained by the publication notes that its “AI Solution” — reportedly called the DOGE AI Deregulation Decision Tool — found that 100,000 out of over 200,000 regulations “can be deleted.” The document sets a September 1 goal deadline for agencies to complete their own deregulation lists using the tool, which it says can be done in under four weeks, and then “DOGE will roll-up a delete list of 50% of all Federal Regulations (100k Regulatory Rules).” The tool is targeting regulations that are no longer required by law, The Washington Post reports. After it makes its suggestions, staffers would review the proposed deletions before finalizing a plan. According to the PowerPoint, the tool has already been tried out by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), where it’s been used to write “100% of deregulations,” and by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for decisions on 1,083 regulatory sections. The Washington Post spoke to three HUD employees who confirmed it was recently used. One also said that the tool got things wrong on several occasions, misreading the language of the law at times. DOGE will reportedly start training other agencies on the tool this month. Head over to The Washington Post to read the full report. Read More

For less than the price of a fully decked-out MacBook Pro, you can buy Unitree’s latest humanoid robot called the R1. You only have to shell out $5,900 for a robot that weighs around 55 lbs, stands about four feet tall, and is built with a Large Multimodal Model to handle complex tasks. If you’re wondering what the R1 will be used for, your guess is as good as ours. Unitree said its robot is “fully customizable” and demoed its capabilities in a video showing off cartwheels, handstands, boxing, roundhouse kicks and running downhill, but didn’t offer examples with any practical use yet. The lightweight robot has an ultra-wide view and a four-microphone array to help it recognize voices and images, but was also built with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity. It’s not hard to envision a world where people program the R1 as a robot butler to handle daily chores, much like what Meta is reportedly working on. However, you might even be able to square up two R1s to fight each other, as evidenced by Unitree promoting a unique fighting tournament that felt like a less aesthetically polished version of 2011’s Real Steel. The latest R1 is a much lower entry point than Unitree’s previous humanoid robot, the G1, which starts at $16,000 and was demoed at CES 2025 with somewhat disastrous results. Even though the R1’s sub-$6,000 price tag is arguably high, it’s still much cheaper compared to other similar options, like Tesla’s Optimus bot that’s expected to go for at least $20,000. Read More

As of Friday, anyone trying to watch porn online in the UK will need to subject themselves to an awkward selfie or get their photo ID ready. The UK government announced it will start checking compliance with its Online Safety Act, which requires any website that publishes or displays pornographic content to implement a system for “highly effective age checks.” Ofcom, the UK’s media regulatory agency, offered a few methods for sites to provide more extensive age verification, including credit card checks, photo ID matching and even estimating a user’s age with a provided selfie. Several popular porn sites, including the country’s most-visited site PornHub, have agreed to the new regulations. Beyond popular porn providers, social media sites like Reddit and Bluesky, have already implemented an age verification system that complies with the Online Safety Act’s rules. Savvy internet users are already circumventing the age checks by using a VPN, providing a fake ChatGPT-generated photo ID, or taking a high-quality selfie of video game characters. However, the UK’s new law also makes it illegal for websites to promote VPNs that get around age verification. To make sure the Online Safety Act is effective, Ofcom will fine companies caught breaking the rules with fines of up to £18 million or 10 percent of their global revenue. Read More

China wants to work with other countries and has laid out its plans for the global governance of artificial intelligence at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai. Li Qiang, the country’s premier, warned about “technological monopolies” and said that AI could become “an exclusive game for a few countries and companies.” As such, he proposed the creation of a “world AI cooperation organization” during the event. Li didn’t specifically mention the United States when he talked about monopolies, but the US restricts AI chip exports to his country. NVIDIA had to develop chips that are only meant for China and conform to export rules so it wouldn’t lose the Chinese market completely. Meanwhile, Chinese companies like Huawei are developing their own AI systems to make up for China’s lack of access to more advanced AI chips from American firms. Li also made the statement a few days after the Trump administration revealed its AI Action Plan, which seeks to limit state regulation of AI companies and which aims to ensure that the US can beat China in the AI race. The Chinese premier said his country would “actively promote” the development of open source artificial intelligence and that China is “willing to provide more Chinese solutions to the international community” when it comes to AI. He also said that his country was eager to share AI technologies with developing countries in the global south. “Currently, overall global AI governance is still fragmented. Countries have great differences, particularly in terms of areas such as regulatory concepts [and] institutional rules,” Li said. “We should strengthen coordination to form a global AI governance framework that has broad consensus as soon as possible.” Read More