Charlie Brown 
The parent company of the adult entertainment site Pornhub admitted on Thursday to profiting from videos of sex trafficking victims and agreed to pay more than $1.8 million, according to federal prosecutors. Aylo Holdings will also make payments to the victims who appeared on its platforms and will be subject to an independent monitor for … Read more
After several years of false starts, electric bikes are finally entering the American mainstream, amid booming sales of a multiplying number of models on offer and as more states offer incentives for people to ditch their cars and shift to two, motor-assisted, wheels. This year could be considered “the year of the ebike”, according to … Read more
INDIANAPOLIS — You don’t have a choice. If you go to the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles to apply for a license or register a car, you have to supply some personal information like your name, address, and age. And the BMV can turn around and sell your information. Indiana law permits the BMV to … Read more
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25024424/marvel_spider_man_2.jpeg "Insomniac finally responds to hack that leaked ‘Wolverine’ game and more")
“We’re both saddened and angered about the recent criminal cyberattack on our studio and the emotional toll it’s taken on our team,” the statement posted on X read. “We have focused inwardly for several days to support each other.” The hack was perpetrated by the Rhysida hacker group, who ransomed the data for $2 million … Read more
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25181203/1246842106.jpg "Pornhub parent company fined .8 million over sex trafficking charge")
Pornhub’s parent company, Aylo, is facing a $1.8 million fine plus victim compensation after admitting it made money off of content showing victims of sex trafficking. The company was arraigned in a Brooklyn federal court on Thursday on a charge of “engaging in unlawful money transactions involving sex trafficking proceeds.” Aylo, formerly known as MindGeek, … Read more
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24533927/STK149_AI_Writing.jpg "Google’s ChatGPT competitor Bard is nearly as good — just slower")
Earlier this month, Google announced the release of Gemini, what it considers its most powerful AI model yet. It integrated Gemini immediately into its flagship generative AI chatbot, Bard, in hopes of steering more users away from its biggest competitor, OpenAI’s ChatGPT. ChatGPT and the new Gemini-powered Bard are similar products. Gemini Pro is most … Read more
AnitaB.org CEO Brenda Wilkerson speaks on a panel with Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland at the 2019 Grace Hopper conference. Shortly after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020, Google was among many tech companies that set up new programs aimed at supporting Black employees. The goal, CEO Sundar Pichai … Read more
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23954772/acastro_STK126_paramountPlus_01.jpg "A merging of Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount would be very bad")
This week, Axios broke the news that Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount were looking into some sort of merger. It would make sense: Warner Bros. Discovery is trying to become a content behemoth, and Paramount would give the company even more content plus a grouping of popular (as they can be in this age) broadcast … Read more
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25134581/236889_EOY_LAPTOPS_CVirginia.jpg "2024 in laptops: it’s shaping up to be a big year for Windows")
2023 has been a fairly uneventful year for laptops. Apple continues to dominate in both performance and battery life, while Microsoft only had incremental upgrades for its Surface line, and Intel has waited until the very end of the year to try to respond to Apple’s dominance. But 2024 looks set to be one of … Read more
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25135285/236889_EOY_PODCAST_CVirginia.jpg "Podcasts are in the middle of a numbers and people crisis")
In the podcasting world, the year 2019 may seem like it happened in a parallel universe. Vulture’s Nicholas Quah deemed it the beginning of the “big podcasting era,” pointing to the millions of dollars that Spotify invested in building out its podcast operation — and the expected domino effect as other companies follow suit. “There was … Read more
