Submission + - Californians Sue Over AI Tool That Records Doctor Visits (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Several Californians sued Sutter Health and MemorialCare this week over allegations that an AI transcription tool was used to record them without their consent, in violation of state and federal law. The proposed class-action lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco, states that, within the past six months, the plaintiffs received medical care at various Sutter and MemorialCare facilities.

During those visits, medical staff used Abridge AI. According to the complaint, this system “captured and processed their confidential physician-patient communications. Plaintiffs did not receive clear notice that their medical conversations would be recorded by an artificial intelligence platform, transmitted outside the clinical setting, or processed through third-party systems.” The complaint adds that these recordings “contained individually identifiable medical information, including but not limited to medical histories, symptoms, diagnoses, medications, treatment discussions, and other sensitive health disclosures communicated during confidential medical consultations.”

In recent years, Abridge’s software and AI service have been rapidly deployed across major health care providers nationwide, including Kaiser Permanente, the Mayo Clinic, Duke Health, and many more. When activated, the software captures, transcribes, and summarizes conversations between patients and doctors, and it turns them into clinical notes. Sutter Health began partnering with Abridge two years ago. Sutter spokesperson Liz Madison said the company is aware of the lawsuit. “We take patient privacy seriously and are committed to protecting the security of our patients’ information,” Madison said. “Technology used in our clinical settings is carefully evaluated and implemented in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.”

Submission + - Why AI Babysitter Is the Hottest New Profession

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "AI may allow anyone to generate code, but only a computer scientist can maintain a system," explained Google.org Global Head Maggie Johnson in a LinkedIn post, Computer Science Education in the AI Era. Johnson was formerly Director of Education at Google and a founding Board member of the Google.org-funded nonprofit Code.org, which last year launched a campaign to make CS and AI a high school graduation requirement.

Johnson continued: "As AI-generated code becomes more accurate and ubiquitous, the role of the computer scientist shifts from author to technical auditor or expert. While large language models can generate functional code in milliseconds, they lack the contextual judgment and specialized knowledge to ensure that the output is safe, efficient, and integrates correctly within a larger system without a person’s oversight. [...] The human-in-the-loop must possess the technical depth to recognize when a piece of code is sub-optimal or dangerous in a production environment. [...] "We need computer scientists to perform forensics, tracing the logic of an AI-generated module to identify logical fallacies or security loopholes. Modern CS education should prepare students to verify and secure these black-box outputs."

The NY Times reports that companies are already struggling to find engineers to review the explosion of AI-written code. Any thoughts on what AI Babysitting might/should pay?

Submission + - US Demands Reddit Unmask ICE Critic, Summons Firm To Grand Jury (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Trump administration has stepped up an effort to unmask a Reddit user who criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). After failing to obtain information through a summons issued (PDF) to Reddit, the government reportedly issued a subpoena demanding that Reddit provide the information and appear before a grand jury in Washington, DC. The Intercept described the subpoena today. “According to a subpoena obtained by The Intercept, Reddit has until April 14 to provide a wide range of personal data on one of its users, whom US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been trying unsuccessfully to identify for more than a month,” the article said.

The legal saga began in US District Court for the Northern District of California. On March 12, the anonymous Reddit user whose information is being sought filed a motion (PDF) to quash a summons seeking a host of information from Reddit. The summons was issued by the Department of Homeland Security and directed Reddit to turn information over to an ICE senior special agent. The summons cited authority under 19 U.S. Code 1509, which is part of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. The motion to quash said the summons is not authorized by the law, which deals with imports of boats, alcoholic drinks, and animals, among other things.

“J. Doe is a US citizen who has not traveled out of the country, is not engaged in any international commerce, has no business concerns outside the United States, and primarily uses their Reddit account to engage in political speech relevant to their local community,” said the filing by the Civil Liberties Defense Center (CLDC), which represents the Reddit user. “Yet the government claims the right to obtain Doe’s name, telephone number, home address, banking and credit card information, IP addresses, telephone model number(s), and the names of any other accounts associated with their Reddit account. The information sought by the government in no way pertains to customs or importing or exporting merchandise, and is clearly intended to chill free speech.”

Submission + - EU parliament fails to renew loophole allowing tech firms to report abuse (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: 'The European parliament has blocked the extension of a law that permits big tech firms to scan for child sexual exploitation on their platforms, creating a legal gap that child safety experts say will lead to crimes going undetected.

'The law, which was a carve-out of the EU Privacy Act, was put in place in 2021 as a temporary measure allowing companies to use automated detection technologies to scan messages for harms, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM), grooming and sextortion. However, it expired on 3 April, and the EU parliament decided not to vote to extend it, amid privacy concerns from some lawmakers.

'The regulatory gap has created uncertainty for big tech companies, because while scanning for harms on their platforms is now illegal, they still remain liable to remove any illegal content hosted on their platforms under a different law, the Digital Services Act. Google, Meta, Snap and Microsoft said they would continue to voluntarily scan their platforms for CSAM, in a joint statement posted on a Google blog.'

Child abuse as the excuse for avoiding privacy protections. Who would have thought it?

Submission + - Meta Cafeteria Workers Take on ICE (wired.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: Staff at a Meta café in Bellevue, Washington, had made a pact that they would rally together if the Trump administration's immigration crackdown affected any one of them.

Under a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement program, federal authorities detained Serigne, a Senegalese asylum seeker and the brother of dishwasher Abdoul Mbengue in December.

"I didn't know what to do at first, but we had this community, and I told them this news," Mbengue says through a coworker who is translating his French.

A number of the cooks, dishwashers, and front-of-house staff at the Meta café known as Crashpad are from Africa, the Caribbean, or Ukraine. Some, like Mbengue, are in the U.S. on temporary authorizations while awaiting the resolution of asylum or immigration cases.
Mbengue's colleagues launched a fundraising campaign to pay for the legal defense of his brother.

Thousands of dollars altogether came in from Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon workers. On February 24, a judge ordered the release of Mbengue's brother.

"He is back because of the efforts," Mbengue says.

This activism inside the tech industry may shift as big tech companies become less responsive to worker petitions and decline to take public stands against Trump policies. A decade ago, thousands of tech workers protested against Trump's immigration bans alongside executives.

Workers allege that on January 29, two agents in "DHS" clothing looking for a specific non-Microsoft employee working at the company's headquarters campus in Redmond were turned away at the reception of the Commons building. Microsoft could not confirm that the visitors were law enforcement.

Meta declined to comment for this story. Amazon and Google didn't respond to requests for comment.

Submission + - CIA claims new quantum magnetometry tech identifies sound from miles away (nypost.com) 1

Submitted by sosume
sosume writes: The New York Post reports that the CIA used a previously classified tool called 'Ghost Murmur' (from Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works) for the first time in combat. The system allegedly uses long-range quantum magnetometry and AI to detect the unique electromagnetic signature of a human heartbeat from up to 40 miles away, helping locate the weapons systems officer from a downed F-15E in southern Iran's mountains after he evaded capture for ~48 hours.

Submission + - Microsoft pulls faulty Windows 11 Update (techrepublic.com)

Submitted by Ol Olsoc
Ol Olsoc writes: Another Windows update has tripped over its own feet, and users are once again left staring at error screens instead of progress bars. Reports Tech Republic: https://www.techrepublic.com/a...

FTA: Microsoft has rolled back a recent non-security update after widespread installation failures. Designed to quietly improve performance and stability, it instead fails before it can even get off the ground. Unlike typical update issues that surface after installation, this one blocks users at the door, refusing to install or crashing midway through the process. For many, the result is a familiar frustration: a cryptic error message, stalled systems, and no clear path forward. Microsoft has since paused the rollout entirely while it investigates the issue, leaving users waiting for a fix instead of the improvements they were promised.

Submission + - Tech Companies Are Trying to Neuter Colorado's Landmark Right-to-Repair Law (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Today at a hearing of the Colorado Senate Business, Labor, and Technology committee, lawmakers voted unanimously to move Colorado state bill SB26-090—titled Exempt Critical Infrastructure from Right to Repair—out of committee and into the state senate and house for a vote. The bill modifies Colorado’s Consumer Right to Repair Digital Electronic Equipment act, which was passed in 2024 and went into effect in January 2026. While the protections secured by that act are wide, the new SB26-090 bill aims to “exempt information technology equipment that is intended for use in critical infrastructure from Colorado's consumer right to repair laws.”

The bill is supported by tech manufacturers like Cisco and IBM, according to lobbying disclosures. These are companies that have vested interests in manufacturing things like routers, server equipment, and computers and stand to profit if they can control who fixes their products and the tools, components, and software used to make those upgrades and repairs. They also cite cybersecurity concerns, saying that giving people access to the tools and systems they would need to repair a device could also enable bad actors to use those methods for nefarious means. (This is a common argument manufacturers make when opposing right-to-repair laws.)

[...] During the hearing, more than a dozen repair advocates spoke from organizations like Pirg, the Repair Association, and iFixit opposing the bill. YouTuber and repair advocate Louis Rossmann was there. The main problem, repair advocates say, is that the bill deliberately uses vague language to make the case for controlling who can fix their products. “The ‘information technology’ and ‘critical infrastructure’ thing is as cynical as you can possibly be about it,” says Nathan Proctor, the leader of Pirg’s US right-to-repair campaign. “It sounds scary to lawmakers, but it just means the internet.” [...]

The Colorado Labor and Technology committee advanced the bill, but it still needs to go through votes on the Colorado Senate and House floors before going into effect. Those votes may take place as early as next week. Regardless of how the bill goes in the state, it’s likely that manufacturers will continue their push to alter or undo repair legislation in other states across the country. “This only hardens my resolve,” Proctor says. “We cannot stop until this problem is addressed. In practice everywhere, people need to be able to fix their stuff. This is proof that we have to keep going.”

Submission + - Perplexity's 'Incognito Mode' Is a 'Sham,' Lawsuit Says (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Perplexity’s AI search engine encourages users to go deeper with their prompts by engaging in chat sessions that a lawsuit has alleged are often shared in their entirety with Google and Meta without users’ knowledge or consent. “This happened to every user regardless of whether or not they signed up for a Perplexity account,” the lawsuit alleged, while stressing that “enormous volumes of sensitive information from both subscribed and non-subscribed users” are shared.

Using developer tools, the lawsuit found that opening prompts are always shared, as are any follow-up questions the search engine asks that a user clicks on. Privacy concerns are seemingly worse for non-subscribed users, the complaint alleged. Their initial prompts are shared with “a URL through which the entire conversation may be accessed by third parties like Meta and Google.” Disturbingly, the lawsuit alleged, chats are also shared with personally identifiable information (PII), even when users who want to stay anonymous opt to use Perplexity’s “Incognito Mode.” That mode, the lawsuit charged, is a “sham.”

“‘Incognito’ mode does nothing to protect users from having their conversations shared with Meta and Google,” the complaint said. “Even paid users who turned on the ‘Incognito’ feature still had their conversations shared with Meta and Google, along with their email addresses and other identifiers that allowed Meta and Google to personally identify them.”

Submission + - Group Pushing Age Verification Requirements for AI Sneakily Backed By OpenAI (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: OpenAI hasn’t been shy about spending money lobbying for favorable laws and regulations. But when it comes to its involvement with child safety advocacy groups, the company has apparently decided it’s best to stay in the shadows—even if it means hiding from the people actually pushing for policy changes. According to a report from the San Francisco Standard, a number of people involved in the California-based Parents and Kids Safe AI Coalition were blindsided to learn their efforts were secretly being funded by OpenAI.

Per the Standard, the Parents and Kids Safe AI Coalition was a group formed to push the Parents and Kids Safe AI Act, a piece of California legislation proposed earlier this year that would require AI firms to implement age verification and additional safeguards for users under the age of 18. That bill was backed by OpenAI in partnership with Common Sense Media, which proposed the legislation as a compromise after the two groups had pushed dueling ballot initiatives last year.

But when the coalition started to reach out to child safety groups and other advocacy organizations to try to get them to lend support to the bill, OpenAI was apparently conveniently left off the messaging. The AI giant was also left out of the marketing on the coalition’s website, according to the Standard. That reportedly led to a number of groups and individuals lending their support to the Parents and Kids Safe AI Coalition without realizing that they were aligning themselves with OpenAI. As it turns out, OpenAI isn’t just one of the members of the coalition; it is the group’s biggest funder. In fact, the Standard characterized the Parents and Kids Safe AI Coalition as being “entirely funded” by OpenAI. While it’s not clear exactly how much the company has funneled to this particular group, a Wall Street Journal report from January said OpenAI pledged $10 million to push the Parents and Kids Safe AI Act.

Submission + - Robotaxi Outage in China Leaves Passengers Stranded on Highways (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An unknown technical problem caused a number of robotaxis owned by the Chinese tech giant Baidu to freeze on Tuesday in the middle of traffic, trapping some passengers in the vehicles for more than an hour. In Wuhan, a city in central China where Baidu has deployed hundreds of its Apollo Go self-driving taxis, people on Chinese social media reported witnessing the cars suddenly malfunction and stop operating. Photos and videos shared online show the Baidu cars halted on busy highways, often in the fast lane.

[...] Local police in Wuhan issued a statement around midnight in China that said the situation was “likely caused by a system malfunction,” but the incident is still under investigation. No one was injured, and all passengers have exited the vehicles, the police added. It’s unclear how many of Baidu’s robotaxis may have been impacted. [...] There were at least two other collisions on the same day, according to photos and videos posted on Chinese social media. A RedNote user in Wuhan confirmed to WIRED that she drove past a white minivan that had gotten into a rear-end collision with a parked robotaxi. The back of the Baidu car was badly damaged, but the two people standing beside the scene looked unharmed, she says. She added that she estimates she also saw at least a dozen more parked robotaxies.

Submission + - Code red at OpenAI as it 'pours money down a black hole' (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: Since its release in late 2022, OpenAI has become one of the world’s most valuable start-ups, raising tens of billions of dollars and making Sam Altman, its chief executive, one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent figures.

But even as it breaks records, OpenAI is facing questions about whether the vast sums investors have ploughed into the company will ever be repaid.

Some have even speculated that the poster child of the AI boom could run out of cash and potentially bring down much of the US tech sector with it.

Submission + - Tech CEOs Suddenly Love Blaming AI For Mass Job Cuts (bbc.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Sweeping job cuts at Big Tech companies have become an annual tradition. How executives explain those decisions, however, has changed. Out are buzzwords like efficiency, over-hiring, and too many management layers. Today, all explanations stem from artificial intelligence (AI). In recent weeks, giants including Google, Amazon, Meta, as well as smaller firms such as Pinterest and Atlassian, have all announced or warned of plans to shrink their workforce, pointing to developments in AI that they say are allowing their firms to do more with fewer people. [...] But explaining cuts by pointing to advances in AI sounds better than citing cost pressures or a desire to please shareholders, says tech investor Terrence Rohan, who has had a seat on many company boards. "Pointing to AI makes a better blog post," Rohan says. "Or it at least doesn't make you seem as much the bad guy who just wants to cut people for cost-effectiveness."

That does not mean there is no substance behind the words, Rohan added. Some of the companies he's backing are using code that is 25% to 75% AI-generated. That is a sign of the real threat that AI tools for writing code represent to jobs such as software developer, computer engineer and programmer, posts once considered a near-guarantee of highly paid, stable careers. "Some of it is that the narrative is changing, some of it is that we really are starting to see step changes in productivity," Anne Hoecker, a partner at Bain who leads the consultancy's technology practice, says of the recent job cuts. "Leaders more recently are seeing these tools are good enough that you really can do the same amount of work with fundamentally less people."

There is another way that AI is driving job cuts — and it has nothing to do with the technical abilities of coding tools and chatbots. Amazon, Meta, Google and Microsoft are collectively planning to pour $650 billion into AI in the coming year. As executives hunt for ways to try to ease investor shock at those costs, many are landing on payroll, typically tech firms' single biggest expense. [...] Although the expense of, for example, 30,000 corporate Amazon employees is dwarfed by that company's AI spending plans, firms of this size will now take any opportunity to cut costs, Rohan says. "They're playing a game of inches," Rohan says of cuts at Big Tech firms. "If you can even slightly tune the machine, that is helpful." Hoecker says cutting jobs also signals to stock market investors worried about the "real and huge" cost of AI development that executives are not blithely writing blank cheques. "It shows some discipline," says Hoecker. "Maybe laying off people isn't going to make much of a dent in that bill, but by creating a little bit of cashflow, it helps."

Submission + - Chromebook Remorse: Tech Backlash at Schools Extends Beyond Phones

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In addition to student cell phone bans, the New York Times' Natasha Singer reports that some schools are also rethinking the wisdom of always-on-and-available school-issued laptops :

Inge Esping, the principal of McPherson Middle School, has spent years battling digital devices for children’s attention. Four years ago, her school in McPherson, Kan., banned student cellphones during the school day. But digital distractions continued. Many children watched YouTube videos or played video games on their school-issued Chromebook laptops. Some used school Gmail accounts to bully fellow students.

In December, the middle school asked all 480 students to return the Chromebooks they had freely used in class and at home. Now the school keeps the laptops, which run on Google’s Chrome operating system, in carts parked in classrooms. Children take notes mostly by hand, and laptops are used sparingly, for specific activities assigned by teachers. “We just felt we couldn’t have Chromebooks be that huge distraction,” said Ms. Esping, 43, Kansas’ 2025 middle school principal of the year. “This technology can be a tool. It is not the answer to education.”

McPherson Middle School no longer gives students their own Chromebooks to use in school and take home. The laptops are now kept in classroom carts and used only for specific activities assigned by teachers. McPherson Middle School, about an hour’s drive from Wichita, is at the forefront of a new tech backlash spreading in education: Chromebook remorse.

Elsewhere in the Times, an opinion piece by CS prof Cal Newport explains why Johnny — and his parents — can't concentrate and what to do about it.

Submission + - A coalition in the EU is building Euro-Office as an alternative to MS Office

Submitted by thephydes
thephydes writes: It will be interesting to see how this progresses.

https://tech.eu/2026/03/27/eur...

"Across Europe, public administrations, enterprises and educational institutions are reassessing their dependence on non-European productivity platforms. While office software remains mission-critical infrastructure, there is currently no solution that combines full Microsoft format compatibility, a familiar user experience and genuine digital sovereignty under European stewardship."

Submission + - Big Tech deserves its Big Tobacco moment (marketwatch.com) 1

Submitted by sinij
sinij writes:

Landmark verdicts shatter the Section 230 shield, turning ‘addictive’ product design into a legal thicket for Meta, Alphabet and others.

The fact that social media is designed to be addictive is now court-tested fact.

Submission + - Mozilla and Mila team up on open source AI push (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Mozilla just teamed up with Mila to push open source AI, and it feels like a direct response to Big Tech tightening its grip on the space. Instead of relying on closed models, the goal here is to build AI thatâ(TM)s more transparent, privacy-focused, and actually under the control of developers and even governments. Theyâ(TM)re starting with things like private memory for AI agents, which sounds niche but matters if you care about where your data goes. Big question is whether open source can realistically keep up with the billions being poured into proprietary AI, but at least someoneâ(TM)s trying to give folks an alternative.

Submission + - Melania Trump Hosts World's First Spouses at White House AI Show-and-Tell

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In Melania and the Robot, the New York Times reports on First Lady Melania Trump's inaugural Fostering the Future Together Coalition Summit, which brought together international leaders, First Spouses from around the world, tech leaders, educators, and nonprofits to collaborate on practical solutions that expand access to educational tools while strengthening protections for children in digital environments (Day 2 WH summary). The Times begins:

"On Wednesday, Mrs. Trump appeared at the White House alongside Figure 3, a humanoid, A.I.-powered robot whose uses, according to the company that makes it, include fetching towels, carrying groceries and serving champagne. But Mrs. Trump joins tech executives and some researchers in envisioning a world beyond robot butlery. She is interested in how these robots could cut it as educators. Both clad in shades of white, the first lady and the visiting robot walked into a gathering of first spouses from around the world, a group that included Sara Netanyahu of Israel, Olena Zelenska of Ukraine, and Brigitte Macron of France. The dulcet tones from a (presumably human) military orchestra played as the first lady and her guest entered the event. Both lady and robot extolled the virtues of further integrating robots into the educational and social lives of children. In the history of modern first-lady initiatives, which have included building a national book festival (Laura Bush), reshuffling the food pyramid (Michelle Obama) and advocating for free community college (Jill Biden), Mrs. Trump’s involvement of a humanoid robot in education policy was a first."

"Figure 3 delivered brief remarks and delivered salutations in several languages. With its sleek black-and-white appearance, Figure 3 would fit right in with the first lady’s branding aesthetic, which includes a self-titled coffee table book and movie, not least because the name “MELANIA” was emblazoned on the side of its glossy plastic head. After Figure 3 teetered gingerly away, Mrs. Trump looked around the room and told them that the future looked a lot like what they had just witnessed. 'The future of A.I. is personified,' she told her audience. 'It will be formed in the shape of humans. Very soon artificial intelligence will move from our mobile phones to humanoids that deliver utility.' She invited her guests to envision a future in which a robot philosopher educated children."

Submission + - Intuit Beats FTC In Court, Ending Restrictions On 'Free' TurboTax Ads (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An appeals court invalidated the Biden-era Federal Trade Commission’s attempt to punish Intuit for allegedly deceptive ads that pitched TurboTax as free. Under then-Chair Lina Khan, the FTC determined in 2024 that the TurboTax maker violated US law with deceptive advertising and ordered it to stop telling consumers, without more obvious disclaimers, that TurboTax or other products are free. The FTC’s chief administrative law judge had previously found that Intuit’s ads violated prohibitions on deceptive advertising because the firm “advertised to consumers that they could file their taxes online for free using TurboTax, when in truth, for approximately two-thirds of taxpayers, the advertised claim was false.”

Intuit appealed in the conservative-leaning US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and got a resounding victory on Friday in a 3–0 ruling issued (PDF) by a panel of judges. “Following the Supreme Court’s decision in SEC v. Jarkesy, we hold that adjudication of a deceptive advertising claim before an administrative law judge violated the constitutional separation of powers,” the 5th Circuit panel said. The Supreme Court’s June 2024 ruling (PDF) in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy held that the SEC system for issuing fines violated the right to a jury trial. The 5th Circuit panel said the Jarkesy decision confirms that the FTC must pursue deceptive advertising claims in courts rather than its own administrative process. [...]

The 5th Circuit ruling acknowledged that most people can’t use TurboTax for free. “TurboTax ‘Free Edition’ has been part of the TurboTax range for more than a decade, available to taxpayers for what Intuit refers to as ‘simple tax returns,’” the ruling said. “Most American taxpayers do not have ‘simple tax returns.’ The TurboTax website is designed so that any individual taxpayer can begin preparing a tax return in TurboTax Free Edition, but those who enter disqualifying information are prompted before filing to upgrade to a paid product.” Although the court noted that Intuit stopped the specific ads challenged by the FTC, the ruling said the cease-and-desist order issued by the agency could have far-reaching effects on Intuit marketing. “The cease-and-desist order is remarkably broad: it prohibits Intuit for the next twenty years from advertising ‘any goods or services’ as free unless specific, extensive, and arguably unworkable requirements are satisfied. The order is not confined to tax-preparation solutions and extends to all products sold by Intuit,” the ruling said. The 5th Circuit said the FTC’s deceptive advertising claims are “traditional actions at law and equity and thus involve private rights that demand adjudication in an Article III court.” The court rejected the FTC’s argument that the claims involve public rights that may be adjudicated by administrative agencies. “In sum, there is overwhelming evidence that Section 5 of the FTC Act did not create a new duty for merchants to refrain from deceptive advertising,” the 5th Circuit said. “That duty long predated the FTC Act and could be enforced by private parties in actions at common law or equity for fraud, deceit, or unfair competition.”

Submission + - China's Green Energy Bets Make It a Winner from Iran War (yahoo.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: While the Strait of Hormuz has remained closed to the United States and its allies for over two weeks now, Iran has continued to send at least 11.7 million barrels of crude oil through to China. This is on top of China’s already significant strategic oil stockpiles, which it built to new heights in the months leading up to the war. The country’s true advantage will come from its ‘supergrid’ and its years-long push to wean itself off of fossil fuel imports and buildout of renewable energies to become the world’s first electro-state. A huge part of China’s energy spending has been directed toward building out and fortifying its power grid for greater resilience. “China’s infrastructure build-out is far more efficient than that of most countries, and the power grid is no exception,” Penny Chen, a senior director with Fitch Ratings, recently told Fortune. And as AI and manufacturing continue to ramp up strain on global power grids, this will give China an even greater leg up in the competition for global tech and energy production – a race that it's already winning handily. “In some ways, the grid investments highlight how energy security — once viewed as a lofty, long-term goal of President Xi Jinping — is now becoming an immediate and crucial source of economic insulation,” reports Fortune. China invested almost $1 trillion in renewable energies in 2025 alone and has 38 nuclear reactor units under construction in addition to its massive solar and wind energy production. Its macro-economic data seem to be improving with stronger-than-expected industrial production (+6.3% year-over-year) and retail sales figures (+2.8% year-over-year) for January-February released Monday, while deflation is starting to ebb. Veteran strategist David Rosenberg regards China's as a victor in the trade war with America so far, by virtue of the $1.2 trillion trade surplus it recorded in 2025. Moreover it is "gaining serious ground" in the hotly-contested competition for AI supremacy.

Slashdot Top Deals