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LONDON — The U.K. officially brought its sweeping online safety law into force on Monday, paving the way for stricter supervision of harmful content online and potentially massive fines for technology giants like Meta, Google and TikTok.

Ofcom, the British media and telecommunications watchdog, published its first-edition codes of practice and guidance for tech firms laying out what they should be doing to tackle illegal harms such as terror, hate, fraud and child sexual abuse on their platforms.

The measures form the first set of duties imposed by the regulator under the Online Safety Act, a sweeping law requiring tech platforms to do more to combat illegal content online.

The Online Safety Act imposes certain so-called “duties of care” on these tech firms to ensure they take responsibility for harmful content uploaded and spread on their platforms.

Though the act passed into law in October 2023, it was not yet fully in force — but Monday’s development effectively marks the official entry into force of the safety duties.

Ofcom said that tech platforms will have until March 16, 2025 to complete illegal harms risk assessments, effectively giving them three months to bring their platforms into compliance with the rules.

Once that deadline passes, platforms must start implementing measures to prevent illegal harms risks, including better moderation, easier reporting and built-in safety tests, Ofcom said.

“We’ll be watching the industry closely to ensure firms match up to the strict safety standards set for them under our first codes and guidance, with further requirements to follow swiftly in the first half of next year,” Ofcom Chief Executive Melanie Dawes said in a statement Monday.

Risk of huge fines, service suspensions

Under the first-edition code, reporting and complaint functions must be easier to find and use. For high-risk platforms, firms will be required to use a technology called hash-matching to detect and remove child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

Hash-matching tools link known images of CSAM from police databases to encrypted digital fingerprints known as “hashes” for each piece of content to help social media sites’ automated filtering systems recognize and remove them.

Ofcom stressed that the codes published Monday were only the first set of codes and that the regulator would look to consult on additional codes in spring 2025, including blocking accounts found to have shared CSAM content and enabling the use of AI to tackle illegal harms.

“Ofcom’s illegal content codes are a material step change in online safety meaning that from March, platforms will have to proactively take down terrorist material, child and intimate image abuse, and a host of other illegal content, bridging the gap between the laws which protect us in the offline and the online world,” British Technology Minister Peter Kyle said in a statement Monday.

“If platforms fail to step up the regulator has my backing to use its full powers, including issuing fines and asking the courts to block access to sites,” Kyle added.

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Amazon extends Prime Day to four days, starting July 8

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Amazon extends Prime Day to four days, starting July 8

An Amazon worker moves boxes on Amazon Prime Day in the East Village of New York City, July 11, 2023.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Amazon is extending its Prime Day discount bonanza, announcing that the annual sale will run four days this year.

The 96-hour event will start at 12:01 a.m. PT on July 8, and continue through July 11, Amazon said in a release.

For the first time, the company will roll out themed “deal drops” that change daily and are available “while supplies last.” Amazon has in recent years toyed with adding more limited-run and invite-only deals during Prime Day events to create a feeling of urgency or scarcity.

Amazon launched Prime Day in 2015 as a way to secure new members for its $139-a-year loyalty program, and to promote its own products and services while providing a sales boost in the middle of the year. In 2019, the company made Prime Day a 48-hour event, and it’s since added a second Prime Day-like event in the fall.

Prime Day is also a significant revenue driver for other retailers, which often host competing discount events.

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SK Hynix shares extend gains to over 2-decade highs as parent group reportedly plans AI data center

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SK Hynix shares extend gains to over 2-decade highs as parent group reportedly plans AI data center

Illustration of the SK Hynix company logo seen displayed on a smartphone screen.

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Shares in South Korea’s SK Hynix extended gains to hit a more than 2-decade high on Tuesday, following reports over the weekend that SK Group plans to build the country’s largest AI data center.

SK Hynix shares, which have surged almost 50% so far this year on the back of an AI boom, were up nearly 3%, following gains on Monday. 

The company’s parent, SK Group, plans to build the AI data center in partnership with Amazon Web Services in Ulsan, according to domestic media. SK Telecom and SK Broadband are reportedly leading the initiative, with support from other affiliates, including SK Hynix. 

SK Hynix is a leading supplier of dynamic random access memory or DRAM — a type of semiconductor memory found in PCs, workstations and servers that is used to store data and program code.

The company’s DRAM rival, Samsung, was also trading up 4% on Tuesday. However, it’s growth has fallen behind that of SK Hynix.

On Friday, Samsung Electronics’ market cap reportedly slid to a 9-year low of 345.1 trillion won ($252 billion) as the chipmaker struggles to capitalize on AI-led demand. 

SK Hynix, on the other hand, has become a leader in high bandwidth memory — a type of DRAM used in artificial intelligence servers — supplying to clients such as AI behemoth Nvidia. 

A report from Counterpoint Research in April said that SK Hynix had captured 70% of the HBM market by revenue share in the first quarter.

This HBM strength helped it overtake Samsung in the overall DRAM market for the first time ever, with a 36% global market share as compared to Samsung’s 34%. 

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OpenAI wins $200 million U.S. defense contract

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OpenAI wins 0 million U.S. defense contract

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the Snowflake Summit in San Francisco on June 2, 2025.

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OpenAI has been awarded a $200 million contract to provide the U.S. Defense Department with artificial intelligence tools.

The department announced the one-year contract on Monday, months after OpenAI said it would collaborate with defense technology startup Anduril to deploy advanced AI systems for “national security missions.”

“Under this award, the performer will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains,” the Defense Department said. It’s the first contract with OpenAI listed on the Department of Defense’s website.

Anduril received a $100 million defense contract in December. Weeks earlier, OpenAI rival Anthropic said it would work with Palantir and Amazon to supply its AI models to U.S. defense and intelligence agencies.

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO, said in a discussion with OpenAI board member and former National Security Agency leader Paul Nakasone at a Vanderbilt University event in April that “we have to and are proud to and really want to engage in national security areas.”

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Defense Department specified that the contract is with OpenAI Public Sector LLC, and that the work will mostly occur in the National Capital Region, which encompasses Washington, D.C., and several nearby counties in Maryland and Virginia.

Meanwhile, OpenAI is working to build additional computing power in the U.S. In January, Altman appeared alongside President Donald Trump at the White House to announce the $500 billion Stargate project to build AI infrastructure in the U.S.

The new contract will represent a small portion of revenue at OpenAI, which is generating over $10 billion in annualized sales. In March, the company announced a $40 billion financing round at a $300 billion valuation.

In April, Microsoft, which supplies cloud infrastructure to OpenAI, said the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency has authorized the use of the Azure OpenAI service with secret classified information. 

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OpenAI hits $10 billion in annual recurring revenue

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