Katina Alford

Anthropic has launched a new research initiative called Anthropic Institute and has revealed that its Public Policy team is opening its first office in Washington, DC this spring. The company has made the announcement just a couple of days after it sued the US government to challenge the supply chain risk designation it received from the Defense Department. As Axios notes, Anthropic is tripling its Public Policy team at a time when AI companies are establishing a presence in Washington, so that they can influence future policies around artificial intelligence. In Anthropic’s case, it might have to find a way to be re-accepted by the US government first after President Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using its technology. Sarah Heck, who joined the company as Head of External Affairs, will take over from co-founder Jack Clark as Head of Policy. Meanwhile, Clark has taken the role as Head of Public Benefit and will lead the Anthropic Institute. The company explains that the institute’s role is to “tell the world” what it learns about the challenges that arise as AI firms develop more advanced AI systems. Examples include how powerful AI technologies will reshape jobs and economies and what kinds of threats they’ll magnify or introduce. The institute will bring together and expand Anthropic’s current research teams: The Frontier Red Team that stress-tests AI systems, the Societal Impacts team that looks at how AI is used in the real world, and the Economic Research team that tracks AI’s impact on jobs and the larger economy. Anthropic has hired Matt Botvinick, a former Senior Director of Research at Google DeepMind, and Zoë Hitzig, who studied AI’s social and economic impacts at OpenAI, to be founding members of the Institute. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/anthropic-is-opening-an-office-in-dc-while-battling-pentagon-in-court-115700127.html?src=rss

Meta announced new features today aimed at cracking down on scams perpetrated via its platforms. First, Meta is launching AI tools for identifying impersonator of brands and celebrities, as well as for detecting deceptive links, which should help it to quickly take down frauds. Second, it is adding new alerts to caution against interacting with a potentially fraudulent account. Facebook will roll out alerts for suspicious friend requests, WhatsApp is getting warnings for device linking requests, and Messenger will also issue warnings if an account seems suspect.Finally, Meta is also continuing to expand its processes for advertiser verification. The company said it aims to have verified advertisers account for 90 percent of its ads revenue by the end of the year, up from the current share of 70 percent. Last year, Meta estimated that marketing for scams and banned products could have been responsible for 10 percent of its 2024 revenue. The social media company has been ramping up its actions against scams, particularly those known as celeb bait. Last month, it sued three entities from Brazil and China that were behind scams that leveraged images and deepfakes of popular people to promote dubious products and investment schemes. Meta said today that over the course of 2025, it removed 159 million scam ads as well as 10.9 million Facebook and Instagram accounts tied to criminal scam centers.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-rolls-out-new-features-for-scam-protection-110000173.html?src=rss

TikTok doesn’t have to close its offices in Canada after all. The country will allow TikTok to keep its business operational after a national security review, Minister of Industry Mélanie Joly has announced. This is a complete 180 of the country’s decision back in 2024 to order TikTok to shut down its operations, citing unspecified “national security risks” posed by the company and its China-based parent ByteDance. Canadian authorities said back then that their decision was based on evidence collected by the country’s security and intelligence community.As Bloomberg notes, the order was paused shortly after Mark Carney replaced Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister in early 2025. Carney was the first Canadian PM to visit China in years and had a discussion with President Xi Jinping about tariffs. Joly said TikTok will be allowed to operate in Canada with new enhancements in data security and regulatory oversight. To start with, it will have to implement privacy-enhancing technologies to reduce the risk of unauthorized access that compromise Canadians’ personal information. It will also have to add enhanced protections for minors and ensure transparency by letting an independent third party “audit and continuously verify data access controls.” “…this decision will protect Canadian jobs, ensuring that TikTok Canada maintains a physical presence in Canada, with commitments to invest in its cultural sector,” Joly said in a statement. “TikTok Canada will support the growth of Canadian creators, artists and cultural organizations, while strengthening the production and accessibility of Canadian cultural content in both official and Indigenous languages across the country.”This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/tiktok-can-continue-its-operations-in-canada-after-agreeing-to-enhanced-security-measures-095239399.html?src=rss

Uzum now reaches 20 million users and processes $11B in payments as it expands its e-commerce and fintech ecosystem across Uzbekistan.

Apple reportedly produced 55 million units in India last year, a shift accelerated as Apple faced growing uncertainty in China.