Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

Have you ever wondered exactly what sorts of financial bets lawmakers and top staffers are making? Loading audio narration… If you’re talking about stock trading, that information is easy enough to find. Current ethics laws require federal politicians and other high-ranking government officials to disclose their purchases and sales of stocks within 30 to 45 days of making the trade, allowing the public to follow along.But if you’re wondering about prediction market trades, you’re out of luck: There’s no law on the books requiring government officials to disclose to the public exactly what they may be betting on.That doesn’t mean…

Maine could be the first state to successfully call a timeout on the AI race. Loading audio narration… Lawmakers in at least 12 states have tried this year to slow Big Tech’s AI infrastructure buildout with legislation that would impose temporary bans on approvals and construction of new data centers.The proposed moratoriums are a response to rising local resistance to data centers, as communities across the country raise questions about the impact of these facilities on local resources and infrastructure.The US has 4,000 data centers, and 3,000 either proposed or under construction, according to the American Edge Project, a tech…

Anthropic’s announcement about its powerful new AI model this week sparked a wave of warnings and dire predictions, but not everyone is buying into the hype.Anthropic said Tuesday it was not releasing Mythos, its next-generation AI model, due to cybersecurity concerns. The company said Mythos was so powerful that non-experts could use it to exploit vulnerabilities in major operating systems.Instead of a wide release, Anthropic said it was making Claude Mythos Preview available to 11 external organizations, including Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, JPMorganChase, and Nvidia, as part of “Project Glasswing.”Anthropic’s claims about what Mythos was capable of quickly sparked…

There’s an emerging new way to measure economies in the AI era: Gross Domestic Intelligence, or GDI. Loading audio narration… “We believe investors may begin to assess ‘Gross Domestic Intelligence’ resources at the national level, and this may well become an important investment overlay when assessing the competitiveness of entire nations and industries.” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note to investors recently.GDI measures who has the most AI resources, especially access to AI compute infrastructure including GPUs, networking gear, and data centers.Epoch AI, a research group that tracks AI and its impact, took a stab at this last year…

Thousands converged in downtown San Francisco this week for HumanX, one of the year’s biggest AI conferences, proving people still prefer interacting with humans rather than AI agents. Loading audio narration… Talking to VCs and founders inside San Francisco’s Moscone Center, the consensus was clear for most: Anthropic is the new Silicon Valley favorite. That sentiment is a sharp contrast with the first HumanX last year, held in a Las Vegas casino, where most VCs were placing their chips on OpenAI.”In Vegas last year, it felt like OpenAI was the clear winner, and now it seems like Anthropic is miles…

“Yeah folks, it’s gonna be harder in the future to ensure OpenClaw still works with Anthropic models,” OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger posted on X early Friday morning, along with a photo of a message from Anthropic saying his account had been suspended over “suspicious” activity. The ban didn’t last long. A few hours later, after the post went viral, Steinberger said his account had been reinstated. Among hundreds of comments — many of them in conspiracy theory land, given that Steinberger is now employed by Anthropic rival OpenAI — was one by an Anthropic engineer. The engineer told the famed…

San Francisco police say they have a 20-year-old male in custody after someone threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman’s mansion early Friday morning. Loading audio narration… Officers responded to a North Beach residence at approximately 4:12 a.m. local time for a fire investigation, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department, Allison Maxie, said in a statement. No one was injured and the fire was contained to an exterior gate, the spokesperson said.OpenAI later confirmed that the attack occurred at Altman’s $27 million estate in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco.The suspect fled on foot, and his description…

After months of conversations with ChatGPT,  a 53-year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneur became convinced he’d discovered a cure for sleep apnea and that powerful people were coming after him, according to a new lawsuit filed in California Superior Court in San Francisco County. He then allegedly used the tool to stalk and harass his ex-girlfriend. Now the ex-girlfriend is suing OpenAI, alleging the company’s technology enabled the acceleration of her harassment, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. She claims OpenAI ignored three separate warnings that the user posed a threat to others, including an internal flag classifying his account activity as involving mass-casualty…

TechCrunch is partnering with SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026, Asia’s largest global innovation conference, taking place April 27–29 at Tokyo Big Sight. And we’re not just showing up to cover it — our very own Startup Battlefield program manager, Isabelle Johannessen, will be on the ground as a judge for the SusHi Tech Challenge, the conference’s flagship global pitch competition. For the winner, the stakes couldn’t be higher: The SusHi Tech Challenge Grand Prix recipient will be automatically entered into the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield Top 200 — making them eligible to pitch on one of the most coveted stages in…

CHICAGO (AP) — A tangled political fight over whether Chicago’s public schools will hold classes on May Day is coming down to the wire, confusing tens of thousands of students and parents.The influential teachers union, an ally of Mayor Brandon Johnson, wants educators to participate in protests in the nation’s third-largest city on May 1, coinciding with workers’ rights rallies worldwide. But the newly named leader of Chicago Public Schools has rejected the pitch to cancel classes.The standoff has created uncertainty for the families of more than 315,000 students.Here is what to know about Chicago’s battle over having school on…