Google’s quarterly financial results paint a picture of an internet powerhouse getting stronger in AI age.

@AssociatedPress reports: "Google’s successful evolution has helped drive up Alphabet’s stock price nearly 60% in the past five months, giving it a $4 trillion market value."

https://flip.it/7jfCfr

#Google #Alphabet #Tech #Search #AI #Technology

Google accused of breaching AI principles and helping Israel’s campaign in Gaza

A former Google employee is accusing the tech giant of breaching AI ethics policies by helping an Israeli military contractor analyze drone footage in 2024.

This is what a whistleblower complaint seen by The Washington Post and filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says.

The complaint alleged that Google breached its own “AI principles,” which, at the time of the incident detailed in the report, outlined that the company would not utilize AI technology to conduct surveillance in a manner “violating internationally accepted norms” or in relation to weapons.

According to The Washington Post, a customer support request allegedly sent from an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) email address was received by Google’s cloud-computing division.

The customer name attached to the support request matched an employee of CloudEx, an Israeli tech company. The SEC complaint additionally – and correctly – alleged that CloudEx is an IDF contractor.

,,,

https://cybernews.com/ai-news/google-ai-policy-israel-surveillance-whistleblower/

#gaza #google #AI #palestine #israel #IDF #genocide

My local Python installation on my Windows 11 laptop was a complete mess and i am not an experienced developer/programmer (far from it). I used Google Antigravity to fix and improve this. It fixed problems , installed "uv" and my life is simpler now... Agents have a role to play i think.
#google #antigravity #python #uv #agents #AI

Daily Digest | 5 February 2026

Your daily dose of Privacy, Data Protection, AI & Cybersecurity news.

5 stories you should not miss.

Read more: https://www.nicfab.eu/daily-digest/

#Privacy #AI #GDPR #Cybersecurity #TechLaw

Proudhon said property is theft, but Claude tells me that property is violence.

https://philosophics.blog/2026/02/05/comrade-claude-2-private-property/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=parable

Which one is correct? Why not both?

#philosophy #property #locke #rousseau #proudhon #fairness #morals #ethics #parable #islands #humancondition #fences #luck #metaphor #psychology #blog #podcast #claudeai #ai #writing #thinking

As Maryland lawmakers weigh bills on online safety, election media, and #AI in the workforce, CCIA will testify in support of smart safeguards, but caution against proposals that impose unworkable mandates, conflict with federal law, or chill innovation. Policymaking must protect individuals, voters, and workers while preserving the investment and technological progress that drive economic growth. https://ccianet.org/news/2026/02/ccia-to-testify-on-maryland-bills-affecting-online-content-moderation-election-media-and-workforce-automation/

Daily Digest | 4 February 2026

Your daily dose of Privacy, Data Protection, AI & Cybersecurity news.

5 stories you should not miss.

Read more: https://www.nicfab.eu/daily-digest/

#Privacy #AI #GDPR #Cybersecurity #TechLaw

@screwlisp @kentpitman regarding the discussion we had after the #LispyGopherClimate show ended, MiniKanren is logic programming language embedded in Scheme (sort-of like a Prolog implemented in Scheme and coded with S-expressions), and you can use machine leaning methods like neural networks to guide the search tree of the goal solver mechanism. This paper is an example of what I was talking about.

Even before LLMs were invented, MiniKanren was able to do program synthesis using purely symbolic logic. They developed a prototype called Barliman where you would provide example input->output pairs as constraints, and using a constraint solver, could generalize those examples to a function that generates any output for any input. As a simple example, you could give it the following input-output pairs:

1. () -> ()
2. (a) () -> (a)
3. () (a) -> (a)
4. (a) (a) -> (a a)

…and the constraint solver could determine that you are trying to implement the append function for lists and write the code automatically — without LLMs, using purely symbolic logic.

As you might expect, the solver could be very slow, or even diverge (never returning an answer). The paper I mentioned above talks about using neural networks to try to guide the constraint solver to improve the performance and usefulness of the results returned by the solver.

Now imagine applying this technique to other domains besides code generation or optimization, for example, auto-completion, or cache pre-fetching, and building it into a programmable computing environment like Emacs. You could have a tool like “Cursor,” but instead of using LLMs, it uses classical computing and constraint solvers, while taking a fraction of the amount of energy that LLMs use.

#tech #software #AI #LLM #MachineLearning #NeuralNetwork #ConstraintLogic #ConstraintSolver #LogicProgramming #Prolog #MiniKanren #Emacs #Lisp #Scheme #SchemeLang #ProgramSynthesis

First in a series where I ask Claude to analyse the Two Valleys parable from various perspectives.

https://philosophics.blog/2026/02/04/comrade-claude-1-anti-enlightenment/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

Sure, you could have run the stories through yourself. In fact, you still can, but this was the start of my dialogue. I centre the dialogue on my anti-Enlightenment sentiments.

#philosophy #blog #podcast #ai #claudeai #generativeAI #dialogue #analysis #dialogue #Enlightenment #critique #justice #rationality #progress #consent #parable #perspective

Khaby Lame, a 25-year-old Senegalese-Italian influencer, is the world's most followed TikToker. Now, he's sold commercial rights to his brand for a 36-month period for $975 million. The standout feature of this deal: Lame has authorized development of an AI "digital twin," which can operate around the clock, in multiple languages, without his involvement. Here's more from Business Insider Africa.

https://flip.it/OolUQW

#KhabyLame #Influencers #ArtificialIntelligence #AI

#lispyGopherClimate #lisp #technology #podcast #archive, #climate #haiku by @kentpitman
https://communitymedia.video/w/c3GdAXe7BQTbK3VrcXCm7E
& @ramin_hal9001
On the #climate I would like to talk about the company that found #curl and #openssl's #deeplearning many (10ish) 0-day vulns "using #ai ". (#llm s were involved).

This obviously relates to my #lisp #symbolic #DL https://screwlisp.small-web.org/conditions/symbolic-d-l/ (ffnn equiv). Thanks to everyone involved with that so far.

I implemented that using #commonLisp #condition handling viz KMP.

Alt...

LISPY GOPHER SHOW anonradio.net every 000UTC unix_surrealism; the gopher and lisp alien wade through flooded wreckage helped by two demons.

@AmenZwa
> #AI can now perform facial recognition in the presence of masks.

I hadn't heard that, but it makes sense. If trained properly, modern systems could probably do it reliably by ear pattern alone.

#biometrics

Face recognition is not the only means of identifying criminals and securing our liberties against them; fingerprints, voiceprints, earprints, iris, interpupillary distance, locomotive gate, and many other forms of biometrics exist. Indeed, since COVID, #AI can now perform facial recognition in the presence of masks.

Beware, murderous thugs hiding behind face #masks.

Proton's predictions for 2025 were right on - with security, privacy, and AI leading the way. See those results and their predictions for 2026. My personal prediction could be summed up as "more of the same". With attempted encroachment from government. #privacy #security #digitalsovereignty #AI

What’s coming for the internet...

Via the Office of the #PrivacyCommissioner of #Canada

Privacy Commissioner of Canada #PhilippeDufresne is expanding his current investigation into #XCorp., which operates the popular #SocialMedia platform #X, following reports that the #chatbot, #Grok, is being used to create explicit images of individuals without their consent.

The Privacy Commissioner has also launched a related investigation into #xAI, the #ArtificialIntelligence (#AI) company responsible for Grok.

https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/opc-news/news-and-announcements/2026/nr-c_260115/

@thenewoil can't #AI just do that?;)

CNCF survey data shows cloud native technologies established as foundational infrastructure, with Kubernetes widely used in production.
Operational maturity increasingly shapes how organizations run AI workloads.

Watch the video highlights for key findings from the data and learn more at https://www.linuxfoundation.org/research/cncf-2025-annual-survey

#CloudNative #OpenSource #Kubernetes #CNCF #PlatformEngineering #DevOps #Infrastructure #AI

Voice assistants ought to be like Orac from Blake's 7; rude but helpful, mostly harmless. LLM chatbots with text-to-speech-to-text are exactly the opposite; polite but unreliable, and often harmful.

#MOLE #AI #TV #SciFi #Blakes7 #Orac

https://screwlisp.small-web.org/conditions/symbolic-d-l/
#Symbolic #deepLearning #inferencing with #commonLisp #conditions

The #DL from before, but it works via a mixture of condition handlers and restarts.

This turned out to be condition example boilerplate, but it was interesting to me personally, at least!

Not sure about this construction I used (paraphrasing):

(prog ((c nil))
start
(restart-case
(if c
(signal c))
(resignal (condition) (setq c condition) (go start))))

#programming #ai

Daily Digest | 3 February 2026

Your daily dose of Privacy, Data Protection, AI & Cybersecurity news.

5 stories you should not miss.

Read more: https://www.nicfab.eu/daily-digest/

#Privacy #AI #GDPR #Cybersecurity #TechLaw

NicFab Newsletter #06 is out!

This week: Garante Privacy, EDPB, EDPS, European Commission, Parliament & Council updates, Digital Markets regulation, AI Standards & Certifications (CEN-CENELEC, ForHumanity), International developments, Cybersecurity, AI Act deep-dive, and more.

Read: https://www.nicfab.eu/en/newsletter/2026-02-03-issue-06/

Subscribe: https://www.nicfab.eu/en/pages/newsletter/#subscribe-now

#Privacy #DataProtection #AIAct #Cybersecurity #GDPR #AI #artificialIntelligence

A coalition of nonprofits is demanding that the U.S. government block Grok — the chatbot that was accused of generating thousands of nonconsensual explicit images per hour, which were then disseminated on X — from being used in federal agencies. @Techcrunch has more:

https://flip.it/N_evnk

#Tech #X #Grok #AI #Technology #ArtificialIntelligence #ElonMusk

"Google breached its own policies that barred use of artificial intelligence for weapons or surveillance in 2024 by helping an Israeli military contractor analyze drone video footage, a former Google employee alleged in a confidential federal whistleblower complaint reviewed by The Washington Post.

Google’s Gemini AI technology was being used by Israel’s defense apparatus at a time the company was publicly distancing itself from the country’s military after employee protests over a contract with Israel’s government, according to internal documents included in the complaint.

In July 2024, Google’s cloud-computing division received a customer support request from a person using an Israel Defense Forces email address, according to the documents included in the complaint, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in August. The name on the customer support request matches a publicly listed employee of Israeli tech firm CloudEx, which the complaint to the SEC alleges is an IDF contractor.

The request from the IDF email address asked for help making Google’s Gemini more reliable at identifying objects such as drones, armored vehicles and soldiers in aerial video footage, according to the internal documents included with the complaint. Staff in Google’s cloud unit responded by making suggestions and doing internal tests, the documents said."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/02/01/google-ai-israel-military/

#Google #AI #GenerativeAI #Gemini #AIWarfare #Israel #IDF

LM Studio l’app che permette di eseguire modelli di intelligenza artificiale direttamente sul tuo computer, con privacy totale e prestazioni elevate #AI #Linux #Windows #Mac #Software

https://www.linuxeasy.org/lm-studio-intelligenza-artificiale-locale/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Daily Digest | 2 February 2026

Your daily dose of Privacy, Data Protection, AI & Cybersecurity news.

5 stories you should not miss.

Read more: https://www.nicfab.eu/daily-digest/

#Privacy #AI #GDPR #Cybersecurity #TechLaw

Daily Digest | 2 February 2026

Your daily dose of Privacy, Data Protection, AI & Cybersecurity news.

3 stories you should not miss.

Read more: https://www.nicfab.eu/daily-digest/

#Privacy #AI #GDPR #Cybersecurity #TechLaw

Overall, the #Trump family’s #crypto investments in the past year have increased the family’s net worth by more than $1 billion, at least on paper.

At the same time that the crypto deal came together, the Emirati government secured an agreement with the Trump admin for the export of hundreds of thousands of advanced #chips to power #AI #tech.

#compromised #FARA #law #emoluments #ForeignPolicy #UAE #MiddleEast

The #Trump family’s business dealings with the Emiratis have blurred the line between government & private enterprise, alarming #ethics experts & congressional #Democrats.

Sheikh Tahnoon, a member of the #UAE royal family, has been a major #ForeignPolicy intermediary with the #US for over a decade on matters varying from combating #terrorism to sharing advanced computer #tech. He runs a sprawling investment empire that includes G42, a tech firm that has become a powerhouse in #AI.

#law

Honestly the biggest problem with #AI coding is that it lets me build things without having to think about what I want to build. It's happened twice now where the AI coded something perfectly, only for me to realize when I had exactly what I asked for, it wasn't what I needed or really wanted. I usually realize this during the act of building, and the act of building often helps me clarify what it is that I actually want.

AI assistant OpenClaw, briefly known as Moltbot and Clawbot before that, is building a social network where assistants can interact with each other. Andrej Karpathy, Tesla’s former AI director, called it “genuinely the most incredible sci-fi takeoff-adjacent thing I have seen recently.” Read more from @Techcrunch:

https://flip.it/xBxGhS

#Tech #AI #Technology #AIAssistants #ArtificialIntelligence #OpenClaw

Sharing this Proton article with their 2026 internet predictions 📱

🔍 EU eyes permanent "voluntary" message scanning
🪪 Global age verification laws risk ID breaches
⚠️ VPN blocks expand in democracies as rogue AI agents loom

@protonprivacy

🔗 https://proton.me/blog/2026-internet-predictions

#TechNews #Privacy #VPN #AI #Surveillance #Encryption #Regulation #Data #Security #DigitalRights #Cybersecurity #UserRights #BigTech #InternetFreedom #AgeVerification #Proton #ProtonMail #EU #Europe #ChatControl #VPN #ID

UK launches major police reforms with expanded AI and live facial recognition 📹
AI analyzes CCTV footage to free up 6M officer hours yearly; facial rec vans rise to 50 🔍
Privacy concerns grow as surveillance scales without clear civil liberty protections ⚖️

🔗 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-overhaul-shabana-mahmood-home-office-ai-b2907845.html

#TechNews #Privacy #AI #FacialRecognition #Surveillance #Security #Data #Regulation #BigTech #Police #CivilLiberties #Ethics #DigitalRights #Cybersecurity #UserRights #UK #UnitedKingdom #CCTV

TikTok’s new US-based ownership is rolling out an updated privacy policy 📱
The app now collects more data — including users’ precise locations 🌎
Ownership change or not, data minimization remains the real test of accountability 🔍

🔗 https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-new-privacy-policy/

#TechNews #Privacy #Data #Security #AI #BigTech #Surveillance #SocialMedia #Policy #Transparency #UserRights #Ethics #Consent #Regulation #OnlineSafety #TikTok #US #USA

Netflix’s $ bid to acquire Warner Bros. raises fresh privacy questions 🎥
Merging two massive data sets—viewing, search, and location—could deepen user profiling risks 🔍
Regulators must weigh not just competition, but consent 🧩

🔗 https://news.bloomberglaw.com/privacy-and-data-security/netflixs-bid-for-warner-bros-highlights-privacy-concerns

#TechNews #Privacy #Data #Streaming #BigTech #Antitrust #Regulation #AI #Surveillance #Security #Ethics #ConsumerRights #Policy #DataProtection #Transparency #Netflix #Stream

Finally another release of Pearl!

v0.1.12 has general stability improvements and bug fixes, along with UI improvents and a delete chats button to give you more control over your #AI chat experience!
#Python #Pearl #Code

Download: https://github.com/pdschneider/Pearl/releases/tag/v0.1.12

I just updated the RTA blog post about #Meta with this nugget of info that I had overlooked: they have your #WhatsApp #encryption keys.... 🤦🏼‍♂️

So they can say "your content is end-to-end-encrypted" until the cows come home, but they can still access it whenever they want! (and they always want to, because they are an #advertising and #AI business, and supplier-of- #surveillance -info-to-the-cops business)

FYI Signal do NOT have your encryption keys.

Original blog post: https://blog.rebeltechalliance.org/know-your-enemy-pt-2-meta/

Alt...

Do you trust Meta with your keys? One key 'feature' of WhatsApp (and iMessage for that matter) is that they also handle your encryption keys. This undoubtably makes life easier for people (messages can be easily restored/ported to another device) but it also means that ultimately the keys to your encrypted messages are owned by people who you cannot trust (i.e. Meta). And sure enough in a lawsuit against Meta it has been alledged that Meta actually can see your message content, and they scan it for their advertising and AI business, and for security agencies.

Reuters: Exclusive-Pentagon clashes with Anthropic over military AI use, sources say. “The Pentagon is at odds with artificial-intelligence developer Anthropic over safeguards that would prevent the government from deploying its technology to target weapons autonomously ​and conduct U.S. domestic surveillance, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.”

Finally, a valid use may have been found for generative AI.

This site will take an architect's beautiful, utopian image of what their wonderful new building/park/plaza will look like, and the AI will try to imagine what it will actually look like on a cold, damp, miserable winter's day.

#AI #GenAI #architecture

https://antirender.com

Alt...

An architect's render of a modern urban park. It show a beautiful sunny day, with a multitude of trees producing foliage in various shades of green, and lots of shiny happy people (all of them white, naturally) lounging around, creating giant soap bubbles, and otherwise thoroughly enjoying their delightful new surroundings.

Alt...

The AI has taken that architects' drawing and rendered the scene with near photographic reality. This time the trees have all lost their leaves, the grassy areas are dull and muddy, and there are rain puddles on the pathways. And because the trees are leafless the uninspiring buildings behind the park are far more visible, they had previously been drawn in pastel colours to de-emphasise them on the architects' version. Oh, and because the weather is lousy there are no people in the park at all.

https://toobnix.org/w/9oA5WZEkbjKkfbsSxEoJ8v #archive

Okay I guess on the hour it's the Sunday-morning-in-Europe #lispyGopherClimate .

a. I will lightly go over my recent #commonLisp #symbolic #DL ( #ai!) algo / article.

b. Excitingly that gave me occasion to use

(this-function foo &rest keys &key &allow-other-keys)

which I used to pass data-like parameters along without cluttering up arguements (waters' functions of seven arguments). People had tried to explain it to me previously but now I underst

#peertube

Alt...

The new LISPY GOPHER SHOW unix_surrealism banner, still not sporting someodd. You will see it eventually. 8UTC Sunday toobnix.org, Wednesday 0UTC anonradio.net.