Robot demonstrations can distort public perceptions of robotic capabilities.

Microsoft's CEO seems unaware of what's going on at his own company.

Jennifer Valentino-DeVries / New York Times: Internal docs from lawsuits by 1,400 school districts show how social media companies targeted kids: Meta paid “teen ambassadors”, Snap sent school-hour alerts  —  Internal documents show how tech giants grabbed children's attention throughout the day, a strategy that schools say has undermined education.

Like Shai-Hulud, the campaign targets developers to steal credentials and reuses them to propagate across the software supply channel.

This popular ad blocker app for iPhones, iPads, and Macs can now block ads from loading inside apps, including web browsers, thanks to a new feature in the latest Apple software.

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On Thursday, June 18, at The Aerospace Corporation Campus, investors, founders, and tech leaders will gather for an evening of conversation exploring some of the most consequential shifts taking place across venture capital, defense technology, artificial intelligence, and advanced industry. Secure your spot today.

FCC did not violate carriers' right to jury trial, court says in 8-1 ruling.

One of the world's most diverse, least-focused cybercrime groups is enlarging its footprint beyond East Asia.

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Nick Bilton hadn't worked in TV news before getting the "60 Minutes" gig. Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images New "60 Minutes" executive producer Nick Bilton had a drama-filled start to his tenure. Former correspondent Scott Pelley questioned Bilton's qualifications in front of "60 Minutes" staff. Read Bilton's latest memo to "60 Minutes" employees that tries to reassure them about the future. The new top producer at "60 Minutes" is thanking staffers for their work after what he said was "a hell of a first week." "It has been a trying and difficult few days," said Nick Bilton, who recently became the executive producer at "60 Minutes," in a memo viewed by Business Insider. Bilton was grilled by longtime correspondent Scott Pelley about his qualifications and those of his boss, CBS News top editor Bari Weiss. While both Bilton and Weiss worked at news organizations like The New York Times, neither had a background in TV news. Pelley confronted Bilton on Monday during his inaugural all-hands meeting after CBS let go of "60 Minutes" correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. Pelley also said Weiss was "murdering" the "60 Minutes" program, according to audio obtained by Status and The New York Times. CBS then fired Pelley on Tuesday, with Bilton telling the network veteran his "antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear." Weiss told CBS News staffers in an editorial meeting Wednesday morning that the broadcast network "had to part ways" with Pelley, saying that she was "only interested in working in a newsroom that is built on trust and mutual respect." Bilton said in his Thursday memo that "the foundation of 60 Minutes is its journalistic independence" and said the new program "will always pursue stories without fear or favor." "It should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway: We will never be instructed by the ownership of the company on those stories," Bilton wrote. In statements following their exits, Pelley, Alfonsi, and Vega all described clashes with CBS News leadership over issues of editorial integrity and the network's direction. Critics of Weiss have said she is trying to make the network more politically palatable to President Donald Trump, whose administration will need to grant regulatory approval for CBS News' parent company, Paramount, to merge with Warner Bros. Discovery. Weiss and Paramount have broadly denied that the changes to CBS News were intended to curry favor with Trump. Weiss has framed the changes as necessary to overhaul the century-old news organization for the digital era. Bilton also broke some news in his memo, naming Maria Gavrilovic as senior producer for "60 Minutes." Following the departures of Pelley, Alfonsi, and Vega — plus Anderson Cooper's recent exit — only three full-time "60 Minutes" correspondents remain: Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim. In the memo, Bilton said that "Lesley, Bill and Jon are core to this show's success." There has been widespread speculation in the media industry about whether the remaining correspondents will stick around. Read Bilton's full memo here: SUBJECT LINE: Looking forward Team, It has been a trying and difficult few days. I know that. I've spent a lot of time in conversation with many of you, and especially in consultation with Lesley, Bill and Jon. We talked about what makes 60 Minutes exceptional, about the traditions and legacy of the past, about how you do the work that produces such momentous pieces. We also talked about change: About new audiences, new platforms, and new ways of storytelling that these new audiences need. We'll speak more about that in the weeks to come. There are a few things I want to emphasize now. 60 Minutes is an extraordinary show. It's beloved by audiences and is part of the American fabric. That's because of your ambition for the most daring and revelatory stories. Your commitment to accuracy and care. Your standards of excellence in presentation, reporting and production. The foundation of 60 Minutes is its journalistic independence. We will always pursue stories without fear or favor. We will always make the story the North Star—not relationships nor politics nor anything else. We will be guided solely and always by what makes the best piece for our viewers. And it should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway: We will never be instructed by the ownership of the company on those stories. Sunday night works. It's the best hour of television journalism anywhere. We're going to continue to do the things we do that make it so great-the scheduled screenings, the detailed script work, the editing, the long format of the pieces. I am a curious person and I love stories, and as executive producer I will shape the show writ large. I'll bat around ideas with you, I'll dive into scripts and edits with you, and I will sign off on pieces. The fearless correspondents and the intrepid producers will continue to be the core of each piece we broadcast. Discussion, debate and disagreement are essential to the making of good journalism. All will be done in good faith, and always with respect and trust-and with fidelity to the practices that have served us well for 58 years. Right now, I want to turn to the hard work of Season 59. I want to learn from you, and people who know this show intimately will be by my side. Indeed, I'm thrilled to announce that Maria Gavrilovic has just been named Senior Producer. She will be one of those people. Lesley, Bill and Jon are core to this show's success. They have sat across from the most powerful people in the world and refused to blink. Audiences trust them because they have proved it, story by story, for decades. Working with them is a privilege and every journalist's dream. Over the past few days, I have thanked each of you for your work, and I will say it again here: thank you. It's been a hell of a first week. Let's get to work. Until then, Nick Read the original article on Business Insider

Sam Altman talked about budgeting concerns from enterprise customers. AI skeptics trolled him on X. Bloomberg/Getty Images Sam Altman talked about the new importance of budgets — and it brought out the AI skeptics on X. Altman said that people had been "totally happy" with their AI spending, but that it recently became a "huge issue." Some online commentators warned of a bubble. Others said it was a sign of token misuse. Sam Altman said AI budgeting had recently become a "huge issue" for some companies — and it sent AI bubble watchers and doomers into a frenzy. During a Tuesday enterprise event, Altman referenced memes like, "My company spent my entire 2026 budget in Q1." "That went from, at the beginning of this year, an issue that never came up — people were totally happy with the amount they were spending — to all of a sudden, a huge issue," Altman said. The reader response was loud. Some said that it was a warning of dark times or a failure in AI business model. The word "bubble" came up often. Others said it was par for the course, a normal stage as people learn what to actually spend their tokens on after a period of experimentation. Commentators from Gary Marcus to Michael Burry got involved. Here are some of the most interesting reactions. Some say it's a dark warning Ed Zitron, one of the internet's foremost AI bubble warners, wrote on X that OpenAI was "absolutely cooked." "This is loser language," Zitron wrote. "You can't be four years into the bubble saying 'yeah our customers have a huge issue with how expensive our business is.' You just raised $122 billion!" https://t.co/36zWkjoBrv pic.twitter.com/9R118TN34S — Anton Vuljaj (@anton) June 4, 2026 Programmer Eric S. Raymond (often referred to as ESR) agreed that the "bubble is popping." "Make no mistake, it's a hugely useful technology and uptake will continue, even accelerate," Raymond wrote. "But the overinvestment in datacenters that we've been seeing is not sustainable; the business model of the big providers doesn't work, and is floating on VC money." Academic and author Vivek Wadhwa wrote that it seemed like AI researcher Gary Marcus was right: "the AI revenue models are imploding." Marcus himself commented that the death of tokenmaxxing was "potentially a very serious issue for all three big IPOs." Michael Burry, the "Big Short" investor who's taken an AI-skeptical turn, also referenced the story on X. Others say it's token misuse As the tokenmaxxing frenzy dies down, some engineers are wondering: are we spending in the right ways? Altman's comments may be less of a dark warning and more of a rational cost-benefit analysis. Google software engineer Patrick Toulme commented that "getting value out of agents is still too difficult for most engineers, so they end up just burning tokens." "80% of the economic value of LLMs come from 20% of the tokens," BCA Research's chief strategist Peter Berezin wrote. "There is a long tail of dubious token usage that can be greatly curtailed without much negative impact on productivity." Token leaderboards are an epically bad idea https://t.co/SdsovAmbmU pic.twitter.com/g3diMQvd2n — Randy Little (@randytlittle) June 3, 2026 Kun Chen worked at Meta, Microsoft, and Atlassian. He wrote that AI spending was "driven by FOMO," so some cutback was "inevitable." Still, he remained optimistic. "I'm bullish that real demand will slowly build up again," Chen wrote. Duckbill chief cloud economist Corey Quinn took a more ironic approach. He wrote that Altman was starting to realize that OpenAI's tokens — the tokens he sells — can be expensive. "Truly the Copernicus of his generation," Quinn wrote. Read the original article on Business Insider

Gartner analysts issued a call to action to bolster defenses against several emerging critical threats, such as deepfakes and prompt injections.

On August 19, Startup Battlefield is returning to Sydney in partnership with Stripe, one of the world's most iconic technology companies. We're taking over Stripe Tour Sydney for a night that the Australian startup ecosystem won't forget.

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Poke, which lets users access AI agents via text message, becomes the first AI agent approved for Apple's Messages for Business platform  —  Poke, a startup that turns using AI agents into something as simple as sending a text message, has become the first AI agent approved to run on Apple's Messages for Business platform.

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Estonian government benchmark shows how dozens of models combat Russia's "strategic narratives."

Michael McCready has been to four World Cups around the world. Courtesy of Michael McCready Michael McCready has attended World Cups in the US, South Africa, Russia, and Qatar. He says this year's tournament is the most expensive he's encountered. He recommends fan zones, public transportation, and arriving early on match days. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Michael McCready, 57, who has attended four World Cups around the world. It has been edited for length and clarity. I remember being as young as 5 and loving soccer. I'd go on to become a longtime fan of international football. In 1994, I had just moved to Chicago, and the city was one of the host cities for the World Cup. As it was essentially in my backyard, I got the chance to go — my first experience seeing what happens when people from all around the world who loved football as I did gather in one place. Everyone supported their team with so much passion. The atmosphere was full of patriotism and excitement. I went to 3 more World Cups I remember watching Germany play in a friendly game, one of the early-stage games, but it was Germany, one of the best teams in the world. Once I got married and had children, my World Cup adventures came to a pause. The next one I attended was in South Africa in 2010. I flew from Chicago to Atlanta and then took a 17-hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg. On this trip, I did everything I could to learn about the culture I was immersed in. I visited townships, a savanna, and a forest reserve, went to Port Elizabeth, and walked where Nelson Mandela had walked. I met people from so many countries, who spoke so many languages. Then I saw a semi-final match and was gifted a ticket to the final between Spain and the Netherlands. In the stadiums, everyone was blowing into vuvuzelas, which filled the stadiums with a loud, bee-like hum I had never heard before and haven't heard since. The next World Cup I went to was in 2018, in Russia. I flew to Helsinki and then took the train to St. Petersburg. This is the same train that Vladimir Lenin took when he came and took over St. Petersburg. I walked down the same streets where the Russian Revolution took place. I went into the Winter Palace. As a history buff, these experiences were incredible. I explored the deepest subway system in the world, ate out in restaurants where hardly any English was spoken, and walked around St. Petersburg before seeing two semi-final matches. And then there was Qatar in 2022. Stadiums were built specifically for the World Cup, positioning the country as a sports destination. There wasn't any alcohol available, air conditioning was blowing up from sidewalks, and there were markets with spices, rugs, hunting falcons, and even a camel for sale. I'm worried about the high prices for the World Cup in the US This year, the World Cup is back in the United States, and prices are absurd. From what I've seen, the starting price for the final this year is $4,500, and tickets for the final are currently on sale in the secondary market for up to $73,000. That's just the price of a ticket. You add in a domestic flight for $500 (triple that if international), $400 a night in a hotel (for however many nights you stay), and then any food — it's a trip that costs thousands. I think the World Cup this year will have a disappointing turnout. But if you do manage to get a ticket and can afford the experience, here are my top tips. Give yourself plenty of time to get where you need to go You cannot be in a hurry on game days, so make sure you build in lots of time to get wherever you need to go. If you're not rushed, you can soak in the atmosphere, not missing anything or anyone around you. Visit a fan zone Every World Cup has fan zones. You can show up here without tickets and watch the game on a big screen. Say you only have a ticket to one game — you can watch all the other games in these zones. It's a fun way to experience all the World Cup excitement, and it's arguably more convenient to watch because you've got the big screen and can see everything happening in the game, without having to navigate a stadium. If you can afford it, bring your kids Children know and love the teams and players. They get really excited about the matches. By bringing them along, we're getting the next generation of soccer fans excited about the sport and keeping the love of the game alive. Use public transportation Absolutely take public transportation. Not being a local, you won't know where to park if you rent a car. And you're looking at tens of thousands of people parking near the stadium at the same time. And Uber and taxi prices will be through the roof and hard to coordinate. When using public transportation, plan your route just as you would if you were driving somewhere new. Buy the World Cup mementos World Cups only come around every four years, so I would encourage you, if you go, to get one of the T-shirts they are selling. In the future, if you see someone wearing the same, it's a conversation starter about how you were both there. Read the original article on Business Insider

Bloomberg: Unsealed 2020 lawsuit: ex-IBM VP of threat intelligence alleges that IBM and AT&T concealed foreign cyber breaches to maintain eligibility for federal contracts  —  International Business Machines Corp. and AT&T Inc.'s computer systems were repeatedly breached by foreign hackers …

Grimes County residents crowd a public meeting to discuss SpaceX's proposed Terafab chipmaking factory. Courtesy/Marie Egyed SpaceX wants to build a massive $55 billion semiconductor facility in Grimes County, Texas. Concerned Grimes County residents crowded a public hearing on Tuesday to discuss the factory. The opposition resembled the backlash against AI data centers across the country. It's not just data centers. Residents in a small Texas county are also now protesting SpaceX's proposed Terafab semiconductor facility in another sign of growing backlash against AI across the country. Elon Musk's rocket company has submitted proposals to build the first phase of its chipmaking moonshot, which will cost at least $55 billion, in Grimes County. It could reach $119 billion if additional phases are built. About 30,000 people live in Grimes, which is about an hour outside Houston. SpaceX's Terafab project is a joint venture with Tesla and Intel. Musk has said that, once online, it could vastly increase the global supply of semiconductor chips, which are crucial for both SpaceX's plans for AI data centers and Tesla's rollout of autonomous robotaxis and humanoid robots. Musk said in March that the factory could be as large as 100 million square feet, which would make it one of the largest factories in the world. On Tuesday, Terafab took a step toward breaking ground when the Grimes County Commissioner Court voted to award SpaceX a critical tax abatement and a reinvestment zone designation during a public meeting. The decision disappointed a notable swath of Grimes County residents who publicly criticized the project during the meeting. They opposed the project's size, potential impact on the rural community, and environmental fallout, echoing a nationwide backlash against AI data center developments. "Your people don't want this. The turnout today is highly indicative that if this were put to a vote, the vast majority of people would vote it down," one man said during the meeting. "I think it's incompatible with the region." Some residents took issue with what they described as a lack of transparency about the project's parameters and the delayed public notice of the meeting and relevant materials. Some Grimes County residents said there hasn't been enough transparency around Elon Musk's terafab project. Courtesy/Marie Egyed Marie Egyed, a member of Grimes County Citizens for Responsible Development, was among them. "This is disrespectful to the people living in that zone and in this entire county," Egyed said during the meeting. Egyed told Business Insider that Grimes County residents had to gather information from open records requests, media reports, public meeting agendas, limited maps, and "very limited public statements." "Many important questions remain unanswered, including the exact project scope, water needs, wastewater plans, chemical use, power requirements, traffic impacts, emergency response planning, environmental protections, and long-term expansion plans," Egyed said. "When a project this large is being discussed with public tax incentives, citizens should not have to fight to understand what is being proposed in their own county." Egyed said that families moved to Grimes County for "peace, land, agriculture, wildlife, and open space." "A large industrial complex near homes, farms, and rural roads could affect daily life for nearby residents, not just during construction, but for decades," she said. Commissioner David Tullos, the only one to vote against the tax exemption and reinvestment zone designation, said he didn't receive adequate information about the project to approve it. "As a commissioner for precinct 2, at a minimum, I should have been afforded the dialogue with SpaceX, so that I could make an informed and educated decision that best represents the interests of the folks who put me into office," Tullos said. "I do not feel I've been afforded that opportunity." Big AI infrastructure projects, particularly the large data centers that power products from companies like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic, are meeting resistance across the country. Some cities and towns have passed or proposed moratoriums on data center construction, fearing they will drain resources, impact the environment, raise electricity rates, and have complained about a lack of transparency. John Federspiel, the senior director of Starlink Product Engineering who was representing SpaceX at the meeting, tried to alleviate concerns. He said SpaceX is committed to sustainability measures and highlighted its potential to stimulate economic growth. He said SpaceX intends to hire 1,800 local residents. "This project presents significant opportunities in skilled trades, construction employment, suppliers and contractors, long-term technical workforce development, and, really, impacts that will affect every current and future business in Grimes County," he said. Despite the negative reactions, some Grimes County residents sided with SpaceX, saying they supported industrial growth. "This shouldn't be a political conversation or a referendum on one person or one company. This is about American exceptionalism. We're living through the industrial revolution of our time, and this is a literal race," one man said. "If America doesn't win, it won't just change Grimes County. It will change the country." Read the original article on Business Insider