Megan Specia / New York Times:
How some UK parents created a “Smartphone Free Childhood” pledge, signed by 124K+ people, after the UK government watered down a bill banning phones in schools — In Britain, amid growing evidence of harm to young people from extreme content online, a “Smartphone Free Childhood” campaign is going viral.
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
Lightmatter, which uses silicon photonics to move data in chips via light, unveils an interposer and chiplet for AI chips; the startup has raised $850M so far — Lightmatter, a startup valued at $4.4 billion, on Monday released two pieces of technology aimed at speeding up the connections between artificial intelligence chips.
Financial Times:
The Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s flagship AI agency, plans to focus on defense, environment, and health, after staff criticized its leadership in December — Chief of Britain’s flagship AI agency says ‘big strategic’ shift is needed — Britain’s flagship artificial intelligence agency …
Lam Le / Rest of World:
A look at Shanghai municipal government-backed SpaceSail, a satellite internet company that has launched ~90 satellites so far and plans to have 15,000 by 2030 — The Shanghai satellite company is launching deals in countries where Starlink, X or Tesla are creating friction.
Washington Post:
Uncertainty around high-skilled visas is unsettling Silicon Valley’s immigrant tech community, as tech companies tell employees on visas not to leave the US — Uncertainty around high-skilled visas is rattling the immigrant tech community in Silicon Valley long viewed as one of the key pillars of U.S. innovation.
John Xavier / The Hindu:
A survey of 1,450 verified Indian IT professionals by Blind: 83% reported experiencing burnout, with 72% saying they routinely exceed the 48-hour workweek limit — Organisations like Confluent, Intuit, UiPath, Adobe, Uber, InMobi, Salesforce, Walmart, Oracle, Amazon, and Microsoft lead the list …
Marcus Hutchins / MalwareTech:
The US needs a new cybersecurity strategy, but offensive cyber operations are unlikely to deter Chinese state-sponsored hacking and come with significant risk — Ever since China’s ‘Salt Typhoon’ hacking operations against US telecom networks was uncovered, there’s been a lot of discussion about “hacking back”.
Bloomberg:
With Switch 2, Nintendo must do what it has rarely done before: follow one hit console with another; Nintendo has sold 150M+ Switch units since launch in 2017 — The Japanese gaming giant is about to release its latest console. The stakes have never been higher to end the boom-bust cycle that’s plagued the company for years.
The Economic Times:
Industry executives say Rapido has a 20% share in India’s four-wheeler ride-hailing segment; Uber has a ~50% share, while Ola holds most of the remaining 30% — Happy Tuesday! India’s ride-hailing sector is experiencing significant disruption, with newer challengers entering the fray.
Zoë Schiffer / Wired:
USPTO suspended xAI’s Grok trademark application, saying the name could be confused with companies Groq and Grokstream; startup Bizly claims rights to “Grok” — Elon Musk said he borrowed the name from a 1960s science fiction novel, but another AI startup applied to trademark it before xAI launched its chatbot.
