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A former food delivery driver has admitted to participating in a scheme to defraud DoorDash out of more than $2.5 million by arranging for the company to pay for fake deliveries, according to federal prosecutors. Sayee Chaitanya Reddy Devagiri, 30, of Newport Beach, California, pleaded guilty on Tuesday in federal court in San Jose to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced. Prosecutors said Devagiri collaborated with three others during 2020 and 2021 to carry out the scam, which targeted the San Francisco-based food delivery platform. Prosecutors said Devagiri used customer accounts to place high-value orders and then used an employee’s credential to gain access to DoorDash software and manually reassign the orders to driver accounts that he and others controlled. Devagiri then caused the fraudulent driver accounts to report that the orders had been delivered when they had not, and manipulated DoorDash’s computer systems to pay the fraudulent driver accounts for the nonexistent deliveries, officials said. Xiaomi Redmi Turbo 4 Pro Review: Can It Survive the Competition? Devagiri would then use DoorDash software to change the orders from “delivered” status to “in process” status and manually reassign the orders to driver accounts he and others controlled, beginning the process again, prosecutors said. The now-former employee in the scam pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in November 2023 and admitted to being involved in the scheme, prosecutors said. Devagiri is the third defendant to be convicted of his role in this conspiracy. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. He is scheduled to return to court on Sept. 16.        

U.S. chip maker Nvidia will partner with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund-owned AI startup Humain and will ship 18,000 chips to the Middle Eastern nation to help power a new data center project. The partnership was revealed Tuesday as part of a White House trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia has been working to develop its artificial intelligence capacity and strengthen its cloud computing infrastructure with the help of foreign investment. “AI, like electricity and internet, is essential infrastructure for every nation,” said Jensen Huang, founder of Nvidia. “Together with Humain, we are building AI infrastructure for the people and companies of Saudi Arabia to realize the bold vision of the Kingdom.” Microsoft to lay off about 3% of workforce The cutting-edge Blackwell chips will be used in a 500 megawatt data center in Saudi Arabia, according to remarks at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh on Tuesday. The California company said its first deployment will use its GB300 Blackwell chips, which are among Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips at the moment, and which were only officially announced earlier this year.

US chip maker Nvidia will partner with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund-owned AI startup Humain and will ship 18,000 chips to the Middle Eastern nation to help power a new data center project. The partnership was revealed Tuesday as part of a White House trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia has been working to develop its artificial intelligence capacity and strengthen its cloud computing infrastructure with the help of foreign investment. “AI, like electricity and internet, is essential infrastructure for every nation,” said Jensen Huang, founder of Nvidia. “Together with Humain, we are building AI infrastructure for the people and companies of Saudi Arabia to realize the bold vision of the Kingdom.” US, Saudi sign $142bn weapons deal during Trump visit The cutting-edge Blackwell chips will be used in a 500 megawatt data center in Saudi Arabia, according to remarks at the Saudi-US Investment Forum in Riyadh on Tuesday. The California company said its first deployment will use its GB300 Blackwell chips, which are among Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips at the moment, and which were only officially announced earlier this year.

Microsoft says it is laying off nearly 3% of its entire workforce. The tech giant didn't disclose the total amount of lost jobs but it will amount to about 6,000 people. Microsoft employed 228,000 full-time workers as of last June, the last time it reported its annual headcount. About 55% of those workers were in the US, reports AP. Microsoft said the layoffs will be across all levels and geographies but will focus on reducing management levels. Notices went out on Tuesday. OpenAI reverses course and says its nonprofit will continue to control its business Microsoft announced a smaller round of performance-based layoffs in January. But the 3% cuts will be Microsoft's biggest reported layoffs since early 2023, when the company cut 10,000 workers, almost 5% of its workforce, joining other tech companies that were scaling back their pandemic-era expansions. The latest layoffs come just weeks after Microsoft reported strong sales and profits that beat Wall Street expectations for the January-March quarter, which investors took as a dose of relief during a turbulent time for the tech sector and US economy.

Dua Lipa, Sir Elton John, Sir Ian McKellen and Florence Welch are among a list of stars calling on the prime minister to update copyright laws in a way that protects them from artificial intelligence. A letter signed by more than 400 British musicians, writers and artists, addressed to Sir Keir Starmer, says failing to give that protection would mean them "giving away" their work to tech firms. Also at risk, they write, is "the UK's position as a creative powerhouse". They want the PM to back an amendment to the Data (Use and Access) Bill that would require developers to be transparent with copyright owners about using their material to train AI models.   A government spokesperson said: "We want our creative industries and AI companies to flourish, which is why we're consulting on a package of measures that we hope will work for both sectors. "We're clear that no changes will be considered unless we are completely satisfied they work for creators," they added. Other signatories include author Kazuo Ishiguro, playwright David Hare, singers Kate Bush and Robbie Williams, as well as Coldplay, Tom Stoppard and Richard Curtis. Sir Paul McCartney, who told the BBC in January he was concerned about AI ripping off artists, has also signed the letter. "We are wealth creators, we reflect and promote the national stories, we are the innovators of the future, and AI needs us as much as it needs energy and computer skills," it states. They say their concerns can be met if the government backs an amendment proposed by Baroness Beeban Kidron ahead of a key vote in the House of Lords on Monday. Baroness Kidron's amendment, it says, would "allow both AI developers and creators to develop licensing regimes that will allow for human-created content well into the future." Advertisement Not everyone agrees with the artists' approach. Julia Willemyns, co-founder of the Centre for British Progress think tank, said such proposals could hamper the UK and its bid for growth. The measures would "do nothing to stop foreign firms from using content from the British creative industries," she told the BBC. "A restrictive copyright regime would offshore AI development, chill domestic innovation, and directly harm the UK economy," she said. However, the letter comes amid mounting concern from artists over the inclusion of their works, and material protected by copyright, in the data used to develop generative AI systems. These tools, which can produce new content in response to simple text prompts, have become increasingly popular and available to consumers. But their capabilities have been accompanied by concerns and criticism over their data use and energy demand. ·         What is AI, how does it work and what are the concerns about it? In February, artists including Annie Lennox and Damon Albarn released a silent album to protest about the government's proposed changes to copyright law. The government carried out a consultation around its proposal to allow developers to be able to use creators' content on the internet to help develop their models, unless the rights holders elect to "opt out". According to The Guardian, ministers were reconsidering the proposal following creator backlash. Mr Ishiguro pointed the BBC to an earlier statement in which he wrote, "why is it just and fair - why is it sensible - to alter our time-honoured copyright laws to advantage mammoth corporations at the expense of individual writers, musicians, film-makers and artists?" The Nobel Prize-winning author added that since then the only limited advance was that it now appeared the government had accepted the opt-out proposals were not likely to be workable, He thought a new consultation to find a fairer scheme was possible, though it remained to be seen how meaningful any consultation would be. "It's essential that they get this right," he wrote. MPs recently rejected a separate amendment tabled by Baroness Kidron that aimed to make AI developers accountable to UK copyright law. Now, she says transparency obligations for tech firms under the new proposed amendment could support the development of licensing agreements between creators and companies. "The UK is in a unique position to take its place as a global player in the international AI supply chain, but to grasp that opportunity requires the transparency provided for in my amendments, which are essential to create a vibrant licencing market," Baroness Kidron said. In their statement the government said: "It's vital we take the time to work through the range of responses to our consultation, but equally important that we put in the groundwork now as we consider the next steps. "That is why we have committed to publishing a report and economic impact assessment – exploring the broad range of issues and options on all sides of the debate." Advertisement  

A new software update prevented a third radar outage in the last two weeks at New Jersey's busy Newark airport when a telecommunications line failed again over the weekend, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday. At a news conference, Duffy also said the recent problems that have led to hundreds of cancellations and delays in Newark could have been avoided had action been taken by President Joe Biden's administration to better equip the air traffic control facility in Philadelphia — particularly after issues with the hardware in October and November that should have set off alarms. The delays continued at Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday evening with average backups of more than 1 1/2 hours. This time it wasn't caused by technical failures, but a shortage of air traffic controllers that has been made worse because several of them went on leave due after the first radar outage under a 45-day trauma leave, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Kristen Alsop. The FAA had already restricted traffic into Newark after the first incident due to the staffing shortages. Those limits, designed to keep flights safe, combined with an ongoing runway construction project in Newark, has created lingering cancellations and delays. Later this week, the FAA will meet with all the airlines to discuss making those limits last into the summer. Trump administration fires top copyright official days after firing Librarian of Congress Duffy said the update the Federal Aviation Administration installed Friday night helped ensure the backup system worked on Sunday when there was another problem with the primary line coming into the air traffic control facility in Philadelphia. When a similar issue happened Friday and on April 28, the radar and communications systems went offline briefly, leaving controllers unable to see or talk to the planes. Even though the radar system stayed online Sunday, controllers were worried because of the two previous outages, so Duffy said they stopped all traffic at Newark airport for about 45 minutes as a precaution. Duffy said he will request an investigation into last year's move of Newark air traffic controllers from New York to Philadelphia to determine why more wasn't done to ensure there wouldn't be problems. Philadelphia is about 85 miles (137 kilometers) southwest of Newark. “The Biden-Buttigieg FAA bungled this move without properly hardening the telecom lines feeding the data, which was already well-known to be error-prone,” Duffy said. “Without addressing the underlying infrastructure, they added more risk to the system.” Duffy also said the FAA should have set up a new radar system for Newark in Philadelphia instead of piping the signal in from New York for controllers. Duffy and President Donald Trump have said that the problems in Newark are a prime example of why they developed a multibillion-dollar plan to overhaul that nation's air traffic control system, unveiled last week. Duffy blames the Biden administration for failing to do that, but those problems go back decades, even before the first Trump administration. An adviser to former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Duffy should spend more time trying to deal with the nation's problems, and he defended the Biden administration's efforts to bolster air traffic controller hiring and make a down payment on dealing with some of the infrastructure problems. Google to pay $1.4 billion to settle Texas lawsuit over unauthorised data collection “Secretary Duffy has a tough job. But he needs to spend more time doing what the American people are paying him to do — fix problems — and less time blaming others," said Chris Meagher. Duffy laid out an extensive plan to replace the nation's outdated air traffic control system last week, including installing 4,600 new high-speed data connections and replacing 618 radars, but didn't put a price tag on the plan other than to say it will cost billions. The FAA has installed new fiber optic lines at Newark airport and New York's Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports to replace old copper wires since the first outage, but plans to spend the next two weeks testing those new lines out before switching over to them.

The Trump administration has fired the nation’s top copyright official, Shira Perlmutter, days after abruptly terminating the head of the Library of Congress, which oversees the U.S. Copyright Office. The office said in a statement Sunday that Perlmutter received an email from the White House a day earlier with the notification that “your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately.” On Thursday, President Donald Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to be librarian of Congress, as part of the administration’s ongoing purge of government officials perceived to oppose the president and his agenda. Hayden named Perlmutter to lead the Copyright Office in October 2020. Perlmutter’s office recently released a report examining whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted materials to “train” their AI systems and then compete in the same market as the human-made works they were trained on. The report, the third part of a lengthy AI study, follows a review that Perlmutter began in 2023 with opinions from thousands of people including AI developers, actors and country singers. In January, the office clarified its approach as one based on the “centrality of human creativity” in authoring a work that warrants copyright protections. The office receives about half a million copyright applications per year covering millions of creative works. Woman seeks divorce after ChatGPT interprets coffee grounds, suggests husband’s affair “Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection,” Perlmutter said in January. “Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine ... would undermine rather than further the constitutional goals of copyright.” The White House didn’t return a message seeking comment Sunday. Democrats were quick to blast Perlmutter’s firing. “Donald Trump’s termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis,” said Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee. Perlmutter, who holds a law degree, was previously a policy director at the Patent and Trademark Office and worked on copyright and other areas of intellectual property. She also previously worked at the Copyright Office in the late 1990s. She did not return messages left Sunday.    

A Greek woman has filed for divorce, claiming that ChatGPT revealed her husband's alleged affair through an AI-driven interpretation of coffee cup patterns. According to Greek City Times, the woman turned to the AI chatbot for a modern spin on tasseography, the traditional art of interpreting coffee grounds to foresee the future. Married for over 12 years and mother to two children, she reportedly submitted images of coffee residue from both her and her husband's cups, asking ChatGPT to read them. The AI's interpretation left her stunned: it allegedly pointed to her husband being romantically involved with a younger woman determined to split their family. It even suggested that his “destined partner” had a name beginning with the letter "E," while her own reading indicated betrayal and household turmoil. Her husband, speaking to a local TV channel, dismissed the claim as baseless and said, “I laughed it off as nonsense. But she took it seriously. She asked me to leave, told our kids we were getting divorced, and then I got a call from a lawyer. That's when I realised this wasn't just a phase.” Refusing any attempt at mutual separation, the woman served formal divorce papers within three days. The man also claimed his wife has a history of embracing mystical beliefs, recalling a prior incident where she followed an astrologer’s guidance for nearly a year. His lawyer emphasized that AI interpretations hold no legal weight. “He is innocent until proven otherwise,” the lawyer said. While the unusual case has sparked widespread discussion across Greek social media, legal professionals have reiterated that AI-generated predictions cannot be used as evidence in court. Source: NDTV  

Candy Crush Saga players navigating the game’s more than 18,700 levels may not realize that artificial intelligence is quietly helping shape their puzzle-solving experience. The wildly popular mobile game, developed by Swedish studio King, uses AI tools to assist in designing and tweaking levels to keep players engaged — whether they’re first-timers or seasoned veterans looking for fresh challenges. Developers also rely on AI to revise older levels, helping to prevent users from getting stuck or losing interest. According to Todd Green, general manager of the Candy Crush franchise, AI helps relieve some of the burden on developers. “It would be extremely difficult,” he said, to update and manage so many levels manually. With AI doing an initial pass, designers are free to focus on building new puzzle boards. In the broader gaming world, the role of AI in development is still being debated. Some see it as a way to streamline repetitive tasks and enhance games with smarter non-player characters. Others view it as a potential job threat — a concern serious enough that game performers with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists went on strike last July over AI-related issues. “We’re not putting chatbots into the game. We’re not putting AI-powered design experiences into the game for players directly to play with,” Green clarified. “Instead, we’re trying to deploy AI on existing problems that we have in order to make the work of the teams faster or more accurate, and more accurate more quickly.” Data from the Entertainment Software Association shows that U.S. consumer spending on video game content rose to $51.3 billion in 2024, up from $49.8 billion the year before. Mobile games, including Candy Crush, make up about half of that figure and are now the top gaming choice for players aged 8 and up. Candy Crush, which debuted on Facebook in 2012, has undergone constant evolution. King has now released 300 different client versions of the game. Activision Blizzard acquired King in 2016 for $5.9 billion. Joost Van Dreunen, author of One Up: Creativity, Competition, and the Global Business of Video Games, said the game’s longevity and massive user base create a constant demand for new content. In that context, using AI makes sense. “To supply that at scale, you absolutely can rely on a sort of artificial intelligence or generative AI to create the next set of forms,” he said. “The thing about Candy Crush is that every level is technically a single board that you have to solve or clear before you can advance. With AI and the existing library of human-made boards, it makes total sense to then accelerate and expand the efforts to just create more inventory. People play more levels.” King applies AI in two primary ways: to generate new puzzles and to revisit and revise older ones — even levels released years ago — to ensure they remain enjoyable. For high-level players, the aim is to make new puzzles engaging right from the start. “That’s hard for us to do, because we don’t get the benefit of having many players test or play through the levels and give us feedback. We have to sort of try and pitch it right at first,” Green explained. He said it’s also crucial to cater to returning players who may have taken a break and are curious about what’s new. Instead of directly introducing AI-generated content into the game, King uses the technology behind the scenes, helping improve level design more efficiently. “Doing that for 1,000 levels all at once is very difficult by hand,” Green said. “So the most important thing to understand here is that we are using AI as like a custom design.” Green noted that level difficulty is intentionally varied to keep players engaged — easier puzzles may follow more difficult ones and vice versa. With AI, the team can now potentially enhance thousands of levels each week instead of just hundreds, by automating the early stages of redesign. “We talk to players all the time,” Green said. “We also get the quantitative feedback. We can see how players respond to the levels... How easy are the levels? Do they get sort of stuck, or are they progressing in the way that we hope?” To evaluate how players are interacting with levels, King tracks metrics such as pass rate — how often a level is beaten within 100 tries — and how frequently a level is “reshuffled,” meaning all the candies are rearranged. However, some elements are harder to quantify. “It’s also, to some extent, obviously subjective,” Green said. “It’s different for different people.”

Google has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to the state of Texas to resolve allegations that it collected users’ personal data without proper consent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Friday. Paxton said the settlement sends a strong warning to tech giants that profiting from the misuse of personal data will not be tolerated. “Big Tech is not above the law in Texas,” he stated. “For years, Google secretly monitored users' locations, search histories, and even captured biometric data like voiceprints and facial geometry. We fought back—and we won.” The lawsuit, originally filed in 2022, accused Google of violating user privacy by tracking their geolocation, collecting data during "incognito" browsing, and harvesting biometric identifiers through services like Google Photos and Google Assistant. Google invests in nuclear power with Elementl Power to fuel AI energy needs Google spokesperson José Castañeda responded by saying the settlement addresses “long-standing issues” and noted that many of the relevant product policies have already been updated. He added that the agreement doesn’t require any further changes to Google’s products and that the company remains committed to improving its privacy controls. According to Paxton, this is the largest state-level settlement ever reached with Google over privacy violations involving user data. The state has reached previous settlements with Google, including a $700 million agreement in December 2023 tied to antitrust allegations surrounding the company’s Android app store. Texas also recently finalized a separate $1.4 billion privacy settlement with Meta over similar claims involving unauthorized use of biometric data.