2025-08-23 06:20:31
Apple is suing a former employee on the Apple Watch team who left to join Oppo, alleging that he “conspired to steal Apple’s trade secrets relating to Apple Watch and to disclose them to his new employers.”
Ahead of starting his new job at Oppo, the employee, Dr. Chen Shi, attended “dozens” of meetings with technical members on the Apple Watch team to learn about their work and downloaded 63 documents “from a protected Box folder” that he loaded onto a USB drive, according to the lawsuit. Shi allegedly sent a message to Oppo saying that he was working to “collect as much information as possible” before starting his job. And he searched the internet for terms like “how to wipe out macbook” and “Can somebody see if I’ve opened a file on a shared drive?” from his Apple-issued MacBook before leaving the company.
Shi was formerly a sensor system architect at Apple, and the company says he had “a front row seat to Apple’s development of its cutting-edge health sensor technology, including highly confidential roadmaps, design and development documents, and specifications for ECG sensor technology.”
He now heads up a team working on sensing technology at Oppo — which Apple says it learned because of “messages he left on his Apple-issued work iPhone.” In his resignation letter to Apple, Shi said he was leaving “due to personal and family reasons.” Via that iPhone, Apple also says it found messages from Oppo demonstrating that it “encouraged, approved, and agreed to Dr. Shi’s plan to collect Apple’s proprietary information before leaving Apple.”
When The Verge tried to contact Oppo for comment, the email bounced back because the mailbox was full.
2025-08-23 05:45:38
The US is investing $8.9 billion into Intel, but most of the funds come from money that the government was supposed to pay the embattled chipmaker anyway. In an announcement on Friday, Intel said the federal government will fund its investment using the remaining $5.7 billion in grants it hasn’t yet received under the Biden administration’s CHIPS Act, in addition to the $3.2 billion received as part of the Secure Enclave program.
President Donald Trump confirmed the investment during a press briefing before the formal announcement, saying Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan agreed to give the government a 10 percent stake. Earlier this month, Trump called on Tan to resign over his ties to China, and today he positioned the deal as a way for the executive to “keep his job.”
Trump told reporters that he floated the offer during negotiations with Tan. “I said, ‘I think it would be good having the United States as your partner,’” Trump said. “They’ve agreed to do it, and I think it’s a great deal for them.” Intel has already received $2.2 billion under the CHIPS Act.
The government’s investment in Intel “will be a passive ownership, with no Board representation or other governance or information rights,” according to Intel. “We are grateful for the confidence the President and the Administration have placed in Intel, and we look forward to working to advance U.S. technology and manufacturing leadership,” Tan says in the press release.
The confirmation of the deal comes just days after SoftBank announced plans to invest $2 billion into Intel to “further expand” chipmaking in the US.
The federal government’s stake in the embattled chipmaker marks yet another move that blurs the line between government and business, as reports suggest that the Trump administration has demanded that Nvidia and AMD give the government a 15 percent cut of chip sales to China.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted at the government’s potential investment this week, saying during an interview with CNBC that it “would be a conversion of grants” meant to “stabilize the company for chip production here in the US.”
It doesn’t seem like this is the end for Trump’s approach to deal-making, as he said during the briefing that “he’ll do more of them” in the future.
Update, August 22nd: Added information from Intel.
2025-08-23 05:22:47
Netflix has already faced backlash over the use of AI in What Jennifer Did, director Jenny Popplewell’s 2024 true crime documentary that seemingly used AI-generated images in place of real archival photos. That documentary stood out as a shining example of gen AI’s ability to distort reality in situations where people are specifically looking to be told the truth about something. Now the streamer is taking steps to avoid similar problems.
This week, Netflix published a post on its Partner Help Center hub detailing its guiding principles regarding gen AI and the situations in which it is ok with production teams using the technology. In Netflix’s view, gen AI tools are “valuable creative aids” that make it easier for “users to rapidly generate new and creatively unique media (video, sound, text, and image).” Because the gen AI space is moving at such a breakneck pace, however, the company felt that it was important to outline the rules it expects its partners to follow if and when they use these tools.
“To support global productions and stay aligned with best practices, we expect all production partners to share any intended use of GenAI with their Netflix contact, especially as new tools continue to emerge with different capabilities and risks,” the post explains. “Most low-risk use cases that follow the guiding principles below are unlikely to require legal review. However, if the output includes final deliverables, talent likeness, personal data, or third-party IP, written approval will be required before you proceed.”
Netflix’s gen AI best practices are predicated on five specific guidelines that it sees as being “essential to act responsibly when employing generative workflows.” Netflix says:
Netflix also says if its partners are confident that they are following those guidelines, they only need to tell their designated company contact that they intend to use gen AI. But if partners are unsure or know that they’re not adhering to the rules, they should escalate to your Netflix contact for more guidance before proceeding, as written approval may be required.”
The post repeatedly stresses that while Netflix is very open to its partners using gen AI in a number of ways, it wants them to be mindful of the potential legal risks they might wander into by not running their plans by management and the company’s legal team beforehand. The post also makes a point of emphasizing that Netflix believes “audiences should be able to trust what they see and hear on screen.” And given gen AI’s potential to “blur the line between fiction and reality or unintentionally mislead viewers,” the streamer wants its partners to tread carefully.
Though the post does not mention production costs, all of this comes just a few weeks after Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that the company remains “convinced that AI represents an incredible opportunity to help creators make films and series better, not just cheaper.” Soon after, Sarandos began pointing to Netflix’s new Argentinian sci-fi series The Eternaut as an example of how gen AI could be used to bring a show in under budget. And now it seems like Netflix is very keen on other creative teams embracing that kind of workflow.
2025-08-23 05:09:14
Bluesky will block access from Mississippi IP addresses in response to a new state law requiring age verification and parental consent for underage users. The decision, outlined in a blog post, will stand until courts decide the fate of the law.
“Mississippi’s approach would fundamentally change how users access Bluesky,” says the post, in ways that rules like the UK’s Online Safety Act (which Bluesky complies with) don’t. The law, HB 1126, “would block everyone from accessing the site — teens and adults — unless they hand over sensitive information, and once they do, the law in Mississippi requires Bluesky to keep track of which users are children.” In the UK, by contrast, users are only blocked from accessing direct messages and sensitive content unless they undergo a verification process using a third-party tool. “Building the required verification systems, parental consent workflows, and compliance infrastructure would require significant resources that our small team is currently unable to spare as we invest in developing safety tools and features for our global community, particularly given the law’s broad scope and privacy implications.”
HB 1126 is one of numerous attempts to age-gate social media in the US, but most similar laws have been blocked under court challenges as likely unconstitutional. HB 1126 went into effect thanks to an unexplained decision by the Supreme Court earlier this month, rejecting an emergency request to block it while a legal challenge progresses. A concurring opinion from Justice Brett Kavanaugh acknowledged that the law probably violated the First Amendment but said the plaintiffs had not sufficiently demonstrated harms. While the court has said that age verification can be used to block minors from accessing explicit sexual content without unduly burdening adults’ access to information, there’s no precedent extending that option to social media in general.
Now, however, Bluesky users who log in from inside the borders of Mississippi (without a VPN, anyway) will be met with a message explaining the decision. The decision applies specifically to the Bluesky app; other apps and services on the decentralized AT Protocol will make their own calls about access.
“Child safety is a core priority, and in this evolving regulatory landscape, we remain committed to building an open social ecosystem that protects users while preserving choice and innovation,” the post says. “We’ll keep you updated as this situation develops.”
2025-08-23 05:07:04
Meta is partnering with Midjourney to “license their aesthetic technology” for use in its own models and products, Meta’s new chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, announced on Friday. The partnership involves a “technical collaboration between our research teams,” Wang said, suggesting the deal involves more than simply using Midjourney’s existing product across Meta services.
Wang didn’t specify the terms of arrangement. Meta spokesperson Ashley Gabriel declined to comment and pointed to Wang’s posts. Midjourney didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.
Meta has been investing heavily in its AI “superintelligence” efforts as of late to catch up to rivals like OpenAI and Google. Mark Zuckerberg has personally worked to poach AI researchers from other companies with humongous offers — Wang only joined Meta after it paid $14.3 billion to acquire 49 percent of Scale AI, the company he co-founded.
The partnership with Midjourney ties directly into Meta’s goals for AI imagery across its services. The Meta AI app is built around a feed of AI-generated images and videos. Facebook has added a button to create AI images when you go to make a new post. There are options to generate AI images within chats in WhatsApp and Instagram, too.
Midjourney got on the map for its AI image and video generation tools. As Meta works to build out features like the Meta AI app’s social feed, it’s easy to imagine Meta relying on Midjourney’s tech to help people make better-looking photos and videos.
“We are incredibly impressed by Midjourney,” Wang says. “They have accomplished true feats of technical and aesthetic excellence, and we are thrilled to be working more closely with them.” The two companies will share more about what they’re working on together “soon.”
Even with the partnership, Midjourney remains “an independent, community-backed research lab” with “no investors,” founder and CEO David Holz says.
2025-08-23 04:30:05
Fidji Simo is wrapping up her first week at OpenAI, where she is expected to oversee most of the company's roughly 3,000 employees.
To investors and partners, OpenAI leaders have been describing the former Instacart CEO as the kind of steady hand the company needs. Her mandate is clear: turn a chaotic, unprofitable startup into a disciplined, publicly traded tech giant. On paper, she seems well-suited. She lived through Facebook's hyper-growth era in the early 2010s, helped take Instacart public, and knows the advertising industry inside and out - experience that will be valuable once ads arrive in ChatGPT.
Simo's arrival also underscores …
