Witness Claimed Meta Put Profit Over Kid's Safety

Two former researchers of Facebook parent Meta Platforms testified last 9 September that the company put profit from its virtual-reality platform over safety.

Former Meta user experience researcher Cayce Savage said the company shut down internal research showing Meta knew children were using its VR products and being exposed to sexually explicit material.

"Meta cannot be trusted to tell the truth about the safety or use of its products," Savage said at the hearing before the Senate subcommittee on privacy and technology.

Meta has come under fire from members of Congress in recent weeks, after Reuters exclusively reported on an internal policy document that permitted the company’s chatbots to "engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual."

"Does it surprise you that they would allow their chatbot to engage in these conversations with children?" Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, asked former Meta Reality Labs researcher Jason Sattizahn, who also testified at the hearing.

"No, not at all," he said.

Meta has previously said the examples reported by Reuters were inconsistent with the company's policies and had been removed.

Savage and Sattizahn are part of a group of current and former Meta employees whose whistleblower claims were first reported by the Washington Post on 8 September.

Researchers were told not to investigate harms to children using its VR technology so that it could claim ignorance of the problem, Savage said. Savage encountered instances of children being bullied, sexually assaulted and asked for nude photographs in the course of her work, she said.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement that the claims are "based on selectively leaked internal documents that were picked specifically to craft a false narrative," and that "there was never any blanket prohibition on conducting research with young people."

Blackburn said at the hearing that the whistleblower accounts further underline the need for Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act, a bill she co-sponsored which the Senate passed last year but which failed in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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FCC Moving To Ban Chinese Labs From Testing U.S. Electronics

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced last 8 September that it has begun proceedings to withdraw recognition from seven test labs owned or controlled by the Chinese government, citing U.S. national security concerns.

The U.S. telecom agency in May voted to finalize rules barring Chinese labs deemed risks to U.S. national security from testing electronic devices such as smartphones, cameras and computers for use in the United States.

The FCC also said that U.S. recognition of four other Chinese labs has expired since May and will not be renewed, including two that sought extensions.

"Foreign adversary governments should not own and control the labs that test the devices the FCC certifies as safe for the U.S. market," FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said.

All electronics used in the United States must go through the FCC's equipment authorization process before they can be imported. The FCC says about 75 percent of all electronics are tested in labs located inside China.

The FCC said it was taking action against companies including the Chongqing Academy of Information and Communications; CQC Internet of Vehicles Technical Service Co; CVC Testing; TUV Rheinland-CCIC Ningbo Co; UL-CCIC; CESI (Guangzhou) Standards; China Academy of Information and Communications Technology; Shanghai Institute of Measurement and Testing Technology and CCIC Southern Testing Co.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately comment but said earlier it opposes the United States "over-stretching the concept of national security, using national apparatus and long-arm jurisdiction to bring down Chinese companies. We oppose turning trade and technological issues into political weapons."

The FCC previously found many labs appeared to have deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party, including some connected to Chinese state-owned-enterprises or the Chinese military. These labs have tested thousands of devices bound for the U.S. market over the last several years, the agency added.

The FCC in November 2022 banned approvals of new telecommunications equipment from Huawei and ZTE, as well as telecom and video surveillance equipment from Hytera Communications Corp, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology and Zhejiang Dahua Technology.

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Drones Could Become Our Flying Lifesavers

Drones have developed fast in the last 3 years and now they can even become the fastest first responders in the UK.

Researchers at the University of Warwick, in collaboration with the Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust and drone specialists SkyBound, have tested a system where drones deliver Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) directly to the scene of a cardiac emergency.

In the UK there are more than 40,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) annually, but fewer than 10 percent of people survive. Early CPR and AED use can at least double the chance of survival.

AEDs are critical because they can restart the heart when used quickly. The devices are designed for public use and are safe even without training.

But during a crisis, bystanders often struggle to find one nearby. Ambulance crews carry defibrillators, but in remote or rural areas, delays are common.

This is where drones may step in. By flying directly to the patient, they could cut response times dramatically.

Chief Investigator Dr Christopher Smith from the University of Warwick explained: "Ambulance services work as swiftly as possible to get to patients who have suffered cardiac arrests. However, it can sometimes be difficult to get there quickly. AEDs can be used by members of the public before the ambulance gets there, but this rarely happens. We’ve built a drone system to deliver defibrillators to people having cardiac arrest which could help save lives."

The team ran emergency simulations in remote countryside locations, areas where ambulances often face delays due to challenging terrain or distance.

In these trials, a DJI M300 drone carried a defibrillator in response to a simulated 999 call. The aircraft flew long distances, maintained contact with emergency services, and reached the target site without issue.

Dr Smith said: "We have successfully demonstrated that drones can safely fly long distances with a defibrillator attached and maintain real-time communications with emergency services during the 999 call. We are in a position where we could operationalise this system and use it for real emergencies across the UK soon."

The study recruited 11 participants to test how drones could be integrated into emergency response.

Researchers observed real-time communication between the drone pilot, the 999 call handler, and a public bystander. They monitored how participants interacted and timed how quickly the simulated cardiac arrest patient received help.

The prospect is significant. As per the studies, early CPR and access to an AED can double a person’s chance of survival.

But in many emergencies, minutes are lost waiting for ambulances to arrive. Drones could deliver the vital equipment before paramedics are even on scene, buying precious time.

But once the drone arrived, delays were noted. It took a further 4.35 minutes before a shock was delivered to the simulated patient. Hands-off CPR time reached 2.32 minutes, although only 0.16 minutes of this was spent retrieving the AED itself.

Researchers concluded that while bystanders engaged well with the drone delivery, they struggled to use the AED.

This highlights the need for more support from call handlers and clearer guidance for the public. The next step will be securing funding for larger studies to confirm these findings and assess whether the system can be rolled out across the NHS.

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EU Imposes Big Fine Against Google, President Trump Disagrees

Alphabet’s Google was just hit with a €2.95 billion (US$ 3.45 billion) European Union antitrust fine ast 5 September for anti-competitive practices in its adtech business. This is the fourth major penalty Google has faced in its decade-long fight with EU regulators.

The European Commission said Google favored its own online display services, giving its ad exchange, AdX, a central role in the adtech supply chain.

This self-preferencing allowed Google to charge higher fees while disadvantaging competitors and online publishers.

The Commission said Google’s market power has been abused since 2014.

The Commission ordered Google to halt self-preferencing practices and resolve inherent conflicts of interest. The company has 60 days to report compliance plans and another 30 days to implement them.

The EU also signaled that divestiture could be required if Google fails to propose effective remedies.

"Digital markets exist to serve people and must be grounded in trust and fairness," said EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. "When markets fail, public institutions must act to prevent dominant players from abusing their power."

U.S. President Donald Trump called the fine "unfair" and "discriminatory" on Truth Social.

He warned he might launch a Section 301 trade investigation to nullify the penalties. Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 allows the U.S. to penalize foreign countries engaging in acts deemed "unjustifiable" or burdensome to American commerce.

"We cannot let this happen to brilliant and unprecedented American ingenuity," Trump said. "If it does, I will be forced to start a Section 301 proceeding to nullify the unfair penalties being charged to these taxpaying American companies."

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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy Reshapes The Company

In the past year, Amazon has slashed layers of management, increasing worker-to-manager ratios by 15 percent. CEO Andy Jassy enforced strict cost discipline, down to monitoring how employees' company-issued phone use is work-related.

Jassy also updated performance metrics and pay structures. He's sent the vast majority of corporate employees back to the office five days a week. He's created a "bureaucracy mailbox," to which employees are encouraged to flag unnecessary processes or rules that could be streamlined or eliminated; Amazon says the initiative has already led to 375 changes.

For Jassy, who took over from Jeff Bezos four years ago, the goal has been to restore the urgency and discipline that once defined Amazon's DNA and had begun to atrophy, following a period of stratospheric growth and then massive losses as the bottom fell out of the pandemic-era boom.

It's about getting Amazon back to what made it so successful in the first place.

As Jassy explained at an internal all-hands earlier this year, a record of which was obtained by Business Insider: "We want to operate the world's largest startup at our size — that has not been done before. It is hard to do, but it is doable."

By many measures, the reset is working. Amazon's stock is up more than 30 percent over the past year, outperforming the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Amazon's profit per employee rose to US$ 44,100 last year — more than five times the 2022 figure.

"During the pandemic, I think creativity suffered to some extent, and for sure the cohesive culture that was peculiar to Amazon also suffered," Babak Parviz, a former Amazon vice president who is now running his own AI healthcare startup NewDays, told Business Insider. "Andy is rightfully focusing on making sure that the Amazon culture is maintained and thriving, and it doesn't dissipate away."

And under Jassy's leadership, Amazon has been at the forefront of corporate America's cultural shift. Meta, Google, and Microsoft have all tightened their performance expectations, though their return to the office mandates are still less strict than Amazon's. Old guard companies like AT&T have similarly taken a stricter stance on office culture.

As Jassy enters his fifth year leading Amazon, his leadership has been defined less by any single product or splashy hire, but rather by his revamp of Amazon's culture as he tries to recapture Bezos' "always Day 1" mindset and position the tech giant to thrive.

A close reading of that effort — Jassy's hardline approach to employee management and of his laser focus on a more nimble, do-more-with-less culture — has created a playbook that leaders of companies large and small could study, even if not everyone would embrace his approach.

Amazon's return to a hardcore mindset was born out of a growing concern among Jassy and his top brass that the tech giant's famously scrappy, ruthlessly efficient culture had taken a hit during the company's years of explosive growth, according to people familiar with their thinking.

Layers of bureaucracy, which had settled like sediment as the company continued to grow, were slowing things down, struggling initiatives needed to be streamlined, and a flexible work-from-home policy meant that a lot of employees who'd joined during and after the pandemic had never been properly integrated into Amazon's way of doing things.

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