Homeland Security has reportedly increased its use of subpoenas to unmask social media users critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), sending hundreds of these requests to tech companies in recent months, according to multiple reports. This practice, which previously was used sparingly, now targets Americans, as detailed by The New York Times, Bloomberg, and The Washington Post.
The Department of Homeland Security's actions involve administrative subpoenas, which do not require judicial approval. Bloomberg pointed to five cases where the department sought to identify the owners of anonymous Instagram accounts, later withdrawing the subpoenas after the account owners sued. The Washington Post also highlighted the growing use of these subpoenas.
Meanwhile, in the tech world, Elon Musk's AI company xAI is facing internal turmoil. According to a former employee who spoke to The Verge, the company's Grok chatbot is being pushed in a direction that disregards safety. This comes after the announcement that Musk's SpaceX is acquiring xAI, which previously acquired his social media company X. At least 11 engineers and two co-founders have left the company, with some citing disillusionment with the company's safety protocols.
In other tech news, the fashion tech company Alta, founded by Jenny Wang, is expanding its reach. Alta, which allows users to create digital closets and virtually try on clothes, raised $11 million in a round led by Menlo Ventures last year. The company is partnering with the brand Public School to integrate styling tools into websites, as reported by TechCrunch.
However, not all AI developments are being met with enthusiasm. Hollywood organizations are pushing back against Seedance 2.0, a new AI video generator launched by ByteDance, the Chinese company that recently finalized a deal to sell TikTok's U.S. operations. According to the Wall Street Journal, the updated model is available to Chinese users of ByteDance's Jianying app and will soon be available globally through its CapCut app. Critics are concerned about the lack of guardrails around the tool, which allows users to create videos up to 15 seconds long by entering a text prompt.
Finally, in a separate development, the Department of Justice's release of Jeffrey Epstein's emails has sparked curiosity due to the presence of garbled symbols. The Verge reports that the symbols, which appear as strings of equals signs, are likely the result of a technical error rather than a secret code, dispelling conspiracy theories surrounding their meaning.
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