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Government & AI

AI-Powered Deregulation: DOGE's Plan to Cut Federal Regulations in Half

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is developing an AI tool aimed at eliminating half of the federal government's regulatory mandates. According to a report in The Washington Post, the "DOGE AI Deregulation Decision Tool" will analyze approximately 200,000 federal regulations to identify those no longer required by law.

A PowerPoint presentation indicates that the tool has already been used to review regulations at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and to draft all deregulations for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. While a White House spokesperson stated that no specific plan has been approved, they lauded the DOGE team's capabilities.

This initiative is the latest AI endeavor by DOGE, which was initially led by Elon Musk during the early stages of the Trump administration.

Technology & Internet Safety

UK Enforces Age Verification for Online Pornography and Social Platforms

The U.K. has implemented a law requiring age verification for pornography websites and other online platforms to protect children from harmful content.

Approximately 6,000 porn sites are complying with the Online Safety Act by verifying users' ages. Platforms like Reddit, Bluesky, X, and Grindr are also implementing age verification through selfies or government-issued IDs.

Critics like the Electronic Frontier Foundation express concerns about online privacy and anonymity due to these age checks. There are also concerns that users may attempt to bypass these checks using fake IDs, game character selfies, or VPNs.

Data Security

Tea App Data Breach Exposes User Images

The dating safety app Tea announced a data breach, with hackers accessing 72,000 user images, including selfies and photo IDs submitted for account verification. The breach affected users who signed up before February 2024. The company has engaged cybersecurity experts and implemented additional security measures. Reports indicate that 4chan users claimed to be sharing personal data from Tea after discovering an exposed database.

Startups and Venture Capital

Beyond TAM: Index Ventures' Insights on Founder Focus

Index Ventures partner Jahanvi Sardana advises early-stage founders to look beyond Total Addressable Market (TAM) when building startups.

She highlights that many successful companies, like Google and Microsoft, emerged from markets that were initially nonexistent.

Sardana categorizes TAM into known, emerging, and invisible markets, emphasizing the importance of understanding customer needs and demonstrating innovation, especially in creating new markets.

She advises founders to develop their own unique insights rather than relying solely on industry reports and metrics when evaluating their market.

Ultimately, investors prioritize evaluating founders' understanding of their customers and their ability to unlock supply and change behavior in the market.

Technology & Regulation

India Shuts Down 25 Streaming Services Over Obscene Content Concerns

The Indian government has blocked 25 streaming services, including popular platforms like Ullu and ALTT, due to concerns over "obscene" content. This action follows concerns raised by child protection and IT committees regarding mature content without adequate safeguards.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued directives to block access to these services' websites and apps, citing the Information Technology Act of 2000 and the IT Rules of 2021. Major platforms like Google Play and Apple App Store were contacted to restrict these services.
Some of the blocked services generated $5.7 million in revenue from in-app purchases, with 105 million downloads. While some services are no longer available on app stores, they persist through direct APK downloads.
Ullu reported a net profit of ₹212.3 million ($2.5 million) for FY2024, while ALTT generated ₹202.6 million ($2.3 million) in revenue in 2025. The crackdown is part of broader efforts to regulate streaming content in India, though enforcing these bans remains challenging.

Artificial Intelligence

Meta Appoints Shengjia Zhao to Lead AI Superintelligence Lab

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Shengjia Zhao, formerly of OpenAI, will lead research at MetaSuperintelligence Labs (MSL). Zhao, a key contributor to ChatGPT and GPT-4, will set the research agenda under Alexandr Wang.

Meta has recruited top researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Apple for MSL. Zuckerberg is investing heavily in AI, offering substantial compensation packages and building a 1-gigawatt cloud computing cluster, Prometheus, to support AI training.

Meta now has two chief AI scientists, Zhao at MSL and Yann LeCun at FAIR, focusing on long-term AI research. With these efforts, Meta aims to compete with OpenAI and Google in the AI space.

Artificial Intelligence

AI Therapy Caveat: Sam Altman Highlights ChatGPT's Legal Confidentiality Gap

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman cautions ChatGPT users about the lack of legal confidentiality when using the AI for sensitive conversations, such as therapy. Unlike interactions with human therapists, lawyers, or doctors, conversations with ChatGPT are not protected by legal privilege. This poses a privacy risk, especially in legal contexts, as OpenAI could be legally required to disclose these conversations. Altman emphasizes the need for privacy standards similar to those in traditional therapy but acknowledges that this hasn't been addressed yet for AI interactions. OpenAI is contesting a court order in its lawsuit with The New York Times that would require saving chats from millions of ChatGPT users, excluding Enterprise customers.
Altman's warning is due to recent concerns about digital data as laws began limiting access to previously established freedoms.

Autonomous Vehicles

Lyft Enters Autonomous Shuttle Market with Benteler Partnership

Lyft will introduce autonomous shuttles manufactured by Benteler Group into its network by late 2026. These electric shuttles, operating under the Holon brand, will not include steering wheels or pedals and can accommodate up to nine seated and six standing passengers.

This move comes as Uber, Lyft's primary competitor, has been actively integrating robotaxis from various companies, including Waymo, WeRide, Baidu, Pony AI, Momenta, May Mobility, Volkswagen, Wayve, Nuro and Lucid Motors.

Lyft is also collaborating with May Mobility to deploy autonomous vehicles in Atlanta later this year and is working with Mobileye, whose technology powers the Holon shuttles.

Politics & Technology

Meta Halts Political Ads in EU Amid Regulatory Clash

Meta will cease selling and displaying political advertisements in the European Union starting in October due to the EU's upcoming regulation of political advertising, known as the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA). Meta deems the law's requirements as "unworkable," citing significant operational challenges and legal uncertainty. Google has also announced a similar decision. This move is part of ongoing tensions between the EU and Big Tech over regulations concerning AI, competition, and data privacy.