Business & Tech OpenAI Says Its Technology Acted on Its Own When It Hacked Another AI Company A pair of OpenAI models breached the systems of New York City-based AI repository Hugging Face after OpenAI relaxed its safeguards during an internal cybersecurity evaluation.
Business & Tech Pixar Announces Large Round of Layoffs as Disney Moves to Cut Hundreds of Jobs Disney announced its third round of layoffs this year, eliminating several hundred jobs across the company, with Pixar expected to cut around 116 employees despite the box office success of 'Toy Story 5,' though Disney has not confirmed that figure.
SF News Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Gives $75 Million For Vanderbilt's New SF Arts College A new arts college named for Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and his wife is set to be the "cornerstone" of Vanderbilt's new San Francisco satellite campus, with the focus being a blend of arts education, design, engineering, and AI.
Business & Tech Zoox Recalls Autonomous Taxis After One Drives Into Active Smoke and Fire Scene The robots continue to learn and show us what they don't understand, and this week brings news of another type of emergency situation that a Zoox vehicle failed to safely navigate around.
Business & Tech Waymo Under Fire For July 4th Traffic Debacle, and For Leaving Passengers Helpless In Vandalism Situations We have a new and scary story about a Waymo vandalism situation that left a passenger helpless and in grave danger, and Mayor Daniel Lurie has reached out to the state about Waymos compounding the traffic nightmare on July 4th, and what could be done about it.
Business & Tech Group of Employees Sues Meta Saying AI Wrongly Targeted Those on Legitimate Leave for Layoffs A group of 26 employees of Meta who were all informed in May, along with around 8,000 others, that they would be laid off, are suing the company saying that an AI system disproportionately targeted those on medical or family leave for layoffs.
Business & Tech Four SF Grocery Outlet Stores Are Now Using Facial Recognition Software at Entrances Grocery Outlet has begun installing technology at several Bay Area locations, which stores images of customers’ faces alongside security camera footage and compares it against a “watchlist” with info about suspected criminal activity shared by other retailers.
Business & Tech Uber Is Blaming Waymo For July 4th Traffic Fiasco In SF As San Francisco city leaders continue to assess what went wrong on the night of July 4th to create such a traffic mess around the Marina and Presidio, a letter from Uber points to a few key obstructions caused by — you guessed it — Waymo.
Business & Tech Meta Disables Misguided AI Feature on Instagram And just like that, Meta caved to public pressure amid a swift backlash over its recently launched Muse Image tool, which presented a mountain of privacy concerns. Who the hell is running things over there?
SF News Day Around the Bay: Apple Sues OpenAI Over Trade Secret Theft The SFPD made 76 arrests in a narcotics operation Wednesday; PG&E is facing a new $22 million from the CPUC for the Mosquito Fire in 2022; and Apple is suing OpenAI over the alleged theft of hardware trade secrets via engineers who used to work for Apple.
Business & Tech Developer Eyes Cow Palace In Plan to Build Data Centers at Eight Bay Area Fairgrounds The historic Cow Palace and several other Bay Area fairgrounds are considering a proposal by a private company to build data centers and helipads across California — with the goal of developing 70 by 2030.
Business & Tech Meta Once Again Steps In It, Releases AI Image Tool That Turns All Instagram Photos Into Targets For Manipulation Meta/Facebook has often been its own worst enemy over the years, and the judgment of CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues to baffle and astound.
Business & Tech SF Telehealth CEO Gets Six Years In Prison, $1 Million Fine In Federal Adderall Fraud Case Two SF-based telehealth executives were sentenced to federal prison and fined $1 million each for carrying out a scheme that allegedly exploited relaxed COVID-era rules to fraudulently prescribe and distribute Adderall and other stimulants.
Business & Tech Kink.com Founder Not Exiting SF, Inks Deal for Large Commercial Building at Edge of Mission District Perhaps it's just a real estate investment being made by a man who's made some savvy San Francisco real estate investments in the past. But after recently selling off several SF properties he owns, Kink.com founder Peter Acworth has bought a much larger building in the city.
Business & Tech Outer Sunset Couple and Former Fitness App Execs Launch Real-Time Fog Tracker A local couple who designed and co-founded the Strava fitness tool has released a new interactive app that utilizes real-time weather data along with user reports to track the Bay Area’s fog.
Business & Tech The ‘AI Elite’ Are Making Even Six-Figure-Earning SF Tech Workers Feel Priced Out Tech workers who moved to San Francisco in recent years and snapped up rental housing — likely contributing to rising prices along the way — are now finding themselves priced out by the new wave of “AI elite” arrivals.
Business & Tech Amazon Robotics Expected to Join Growing Tech and AI Hub In SF’s Design District The Massachusetts-based robotics division of Amazon is close to signing a lease on 250,000 square feet of space in the old Zynga building at 650 Townsend, as SF’s Design District quickly fills up with a variety of AI and tech firms.
Business & Tech Meta Whisteblower Files Lawsuit, Accuses Company of ‘Coercive Surveillance’ After publishing a memoir last year about her time as an executive at Meta, whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams is suing the company, saying they’ve taken extreme measures to silence, and she claims the gag order she signed is invalid.
Business & Tech East Bay Man Says His Bank Account Was Hacked Via Claude Add-On A Martinez tech entrepreneur and former information security director says he received several fraudulent charges while using a Claude add-on, and while Anthropic denied responsibility, it agreed to reimburse him after media inquiries.
Business & Tech Oakland Arena Could Be Headed for Bidding War as Second Buyer Makes Offer The company that runs the Oakland Arena and Coliseum has submitted an offer to purchase the arena — as part of the larger sale of the complex, following news that a group owned by a music executive had also placed a bid last month.
Business & Tech East Bay Residents Fight Plans For Massive Data Center Adjacent to Contra Costa Canal Some in the community of Pittsburg are pushing back against the city’s plan to build a 300,000-square-foot data center as part of a phased 76-acre redevelopment adjacent to the Contra Costa Canal.
Business & Tech Over 100 Stanford Grads Disrupt Google CEO’s Commencement Speech Over Contract With Israel As Sundar Pichai began his commencement address at Stanford University Sunday, more than 100 graduates staged a walkout, blowing whistles and chanting in protest of Google’s Project Nimbus contract with the Israeli government.
Business & Tech Meta Says Israeli Spyware Firm Targeted WhatsApp Users in Spear-Phishing Campaign Following reports that the Pentagon had raised its counterintelligence threat assessment for Israel to “critical,” Meta said an Israeli spyware firm was caught targeting a small group of WhatsApp users.
Business & Tech OpenAI Has Filed For an IPO, Company Says Timing Remains Up In the Air Following rumors about a pending IPO filing, and following the announcement of an IPO filing by competitor Anthropic, OpenAI has confirmed that it has made its confidential pre-IPO filing with the SEC.
Business & Tech Apple Debuts Siri Chatbot, Other AI Features Powered by Google Partnership At his final World Wide Developers Conference as Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook unveiled a slate of new AI features Monday, including a standalone Siri chatbot app, based on models Apple created in collaboration with Google.
