Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 1h

Yes, it’s a crude comparison. But ‘people’ are using genAI (to a significant degree) no matter how much we’d wish to say otherwise

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 2h

ChatGPT adoption vs Internet adoption (via FT)

May be a $ bubble, but people are also really using AI

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 2h

Bubble?

Harvard economist Jason Furman says investments in data centres and software was 92% of US GDP growth in H1 2025.

Without it, US GDP growth was just 0.1%

fortune.com/2025/10/07/d...

Without data centers, GDP growth was 0.1% in the first half of 2025, Harvard economist says | Fortune

Is a U.S. without data centers a country without GDP growth?

fortune.com

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 2d

“Littered with errors including three nonexistent academic references and a made-up quote from a Federal Court judgement.”

Deloitte issues refund to (Aus) government for using AI in $440k report

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 4d

Garretstown #StormAmy

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 4d

Kinsale #StormAmy

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 8d

Visiting Dublin, Meta’s safety boss emphasises that it’s parents who should probably be the main guardians for what their kids/teens see on Insta/FB/social.

I put it to her that Meta may now be optimising for ‘free speech’ over ‘kid safety’?
She said no.
m.independent.ie/business/tec...

Meta boss says Irish parents should take charge of kids’ Instagram and Facebook usage more

Meta's global head of safety, Antigone Davis, says Irish parents should increasingly be the ones to keep young teenagers from seeing harmful things online.

m.independent.ie

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 11d

Interesting, I don’t know. It showed a bit of independence on the Azure backtracking issue this week. Worth reading Brad Smth’s blogpost on it.

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 11d

Trump requests that Microsoft fire its newly-appointed president of global affairs because she worked for Biden.
Another test run — will Microsoft cave?

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 12d

Microsoft blocks Israeli military from some AI and cloud services over use in targeting of Gazans www.independent.ie/world-news/m...

Microsoft blocks Israeli military from some AI and cloud services over use in targeting of Gazans

Microsoft disabled some use of its software by the Israeli military after an investigation spurred by news reports that the company's products were involved in the mass surveillance of civilians.

www.independent.ie

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 13d

Apple suggests European Commission is politically influenced when regulating tech firms and imposing fines — and calls for EU’s anchor DMA regulation to be scrapped

m.independent.ie/business/tec...

Apple slams European Commission tech fines as ‘political’ and calls for repeal of EU Digital Markets Act

Apple has called for the repeal of the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), claiming that the regulation is preventing it from launching new features in Europe.

m.independent.ie

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 15d

A new AI-powered feature on TikTok scans videos for products and matches images with TikTok Shop listings — even using footage from the war in Gaza.
www.theverge.com/tech/782540/...

TikTok is tagging videos from Gaza with TikTok Shop products

TikTok’s new AI feature automatically looks for products in your videos.

www.theverge.com

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Reposted by Adrian Weckler

Dave Lee @davelee.me · 15d

Fortune following Business Insider's lead and having AI write the first draft of stories....

"For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing."

fortune.com/2025/09/22/n...

Nvidia pours $100 billion into OpenAI just days after pledging $5 billion to Intel | Fortune

The companies announced a blockbuster partnership and letter of intent on Monday.

fortune.com

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 16d

The telephoto zoom is one of the two biggest upgrades on iPhone 17 Pro, I found — it’s a big jump on 16 Pro.

Once again here’s 1x, then 30x .

Taken from same spot

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 16d

iPhone 17 Pro

1x main, 30x telephoto

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 16d

This is one of the big new features that Apple says it can’t launch on iPhones or AirPods in the EU (because of DMA regs) — ‘Live Translation’

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 16d

Joswiak says “Meta alone has made more than a dozen of these requests”.
“This type of data is so sensitive that Apple itself can’t see it and we purposely engineer it that way. But under DMA rules we’re forced to hand it over to other companies no matter how they plan to use it.”

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 16d

“With this kind of access, you know which hospitals I visited, which courthouse, hotels, fertility clinics.
We’ve been asked to provide the complete contents of notifications you get on your device, even though they reveal contents of messages, emails or even medical alerts.”

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 16d

Main issue, Joswiak says, is DMA’s requirement for interoperability.
“Some of the interoperability requests we’ve gotten out of Europe are, quite honestly, just mind boggling. As an example, we’ve been asked to share a full history of every wifi network a user has ever joined.”

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 16d

“We’ve had to delay or water down features for Europe and in some cases, we won’t be able to ship them at all,” Greg Joswiak said.
“People are excited about Live Translation, but we can’t ship it in the EU. This is pissing off customers. It pisses us off.”

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 16d

Apple is “pissed off” that features like Live Translation and iPhone Mirroring can’t launch in EU because, it says, of Digital Markets Act.

“We have been singled out and it’s become a huge barrier to our ability to do business in Europe,” VP Greg Jozwiak told me.

m.independent.ie/business/tec...

Apple boss says EU is hurting innovation with anti-tech regulations that prevent it from launching features such as Live Translation

A senior Apple vice president says the company is “pissed off” at the EU for damaging innovation in the tech industry.

m.independent.ie

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 16d

iPhone 17 Pro, 8x zoom — not bad at all

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 16d

Autumn colour starting on Dublin’s Griffith Ave

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 17d

The firing of Jimmy Kimmel for wrongspeak could ease pressure on Ireland’s regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, which had faced US travel bans for the offence of moderating online speech on social media.

Apparent new zeal for content moderation in US govt
m.independent.ie/business/tec...

Adrian Weckler: Does the Jimmy Kimmel sacking mean Coimisiún na Meán can now regulate social media?

Does the firing of Jimmy Kimmel for wrongspeak mean Coimisiún na Meán is now out of the firing line of US officials set on sanctioning the Irish regulator for moderating extreme speech?

m.independent.ie

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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 17d

iPhone 17 Pro/Pro Max review.

Two outstanding upgrades, one of which (from photography point of view) isn’t mentioned nearly enough.

A couple of other good updates, too. Two fairly minor downsides.

m.independent.ie/business/tec...

Review: better battery life and a massive zoom boost make iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max worthy upgrades

While we’ve all been focused on the shiny, skinny new iPhone Air (see our in-depth review here), Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max are what most flagship upgraders may actually be ordering over the...

m.independent.ie

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