Technology

Buried in the story was a deceptively simple question: does your AI agent count as an employee?

At a recent conference, Microsoft executive Rajesh Jha floated a provocative idea. In a future where companies deploy fleets of AI agents, those agents may need their own identities — logins, inboxes, and even seats inside software systems. If so, AI wouldn't shrink software revenue. It could expand it.

The U.S. restricted data transfers abroad. Cast as an assertion of sovereignty, the new posture signals weakness in great-power competition.

...When a great power restricts its data exports, the move suggests not only diminished control over platforms and infrastructure but also a lack of confidence in technological dominance and a posture defined by perceived strategic vulnerability...

...the EU’s approach to protecting individuals’ privacy was never just an expression of sovereignty. Protecting Europeans’ privacy by reining in data exports became necessary because of Europe’s infrastructural dependence, geopolitical frailty, and military irrelevance...

The United States did not feel the need to emulate Europe. For decades, the free flow of data served U.S. interests perfectly well. It allowed Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft to scale globally and crush local competitors...the U.S. championed free data flows because it was winning.

...the policy shift crystallizes the U.S.’s anxieties about its position in global competition.

Launched internationally in 2017, TikTok became the most downloaded app in the world by 2020...and the U.S. found itself on the receiving end of potential mass surveillance.

...TikTok’s success shattered conventional assumptions about U.S. technological supremacy. U.S. consumers voluntarily chose a Chinese-owned app over homegrown alternatives...

Regulatory actions reveal more about a country’s self-assessment than speeches or polls. They show what governments are willing to spend political capital on, what economic costs they are prepared to absorb, and what trade-offs they consider acceptable. The TikTok legislation—passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in a Congress that struggles to agree on almost anything else—alone reveals the depth of concern.

Countries also send messages through regulation, whether they intend to or not. When the United States builds data walls, it signals to allies and adversaries alike that it no longer feels confident enough to rely on the openness it once championed.

Europe turned to data export controls because it lacked technological power. Now the U.S. has joined the defensive club. Beijing will notice.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/45587578

Does the world need more billionaires? Guess we will soon find out, as they multiplying now, and not even naturally!

In short, a kid made a Discord account at age 12, lied about her age and said she was 18. The kid at age 13 clicked a scam link claiming to be Discord support and lost access to her account. Scammer asked for parents bank account details which is how the dad became aware. Dad tried to report the issue to Discord, but had to go through an AI support bot that kept closing the ticket. Dad spoke with someone named “Molly” that was possibly a human and explained that his daughter’s account had a lot of underage friends tied to the account that could be at risk. “Molly” said they’d have to open a ticket from within the app, which they no longer had access to because his daughter never set up 2FA.

Discord didn’t actually do anything about this until Ars stepped in. After regaining access to the account the daughter found 2 friends fell for the scam. Discord later banned the account for violating the TOS when lying about her age and stated they would only restore the account if they shared a photo of the kid along with a copy of her birth certificate or passport. The father gave in and complied so she didn’t lose access to her friends.

https://archive.ph/ckM2Z

cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/63528654

The digital directorate in France will switch from Windows to Linux and the state is embarking on a major project to reduce the “outer European digital dependency”

The subject of digital sovereignty has been imposed in the public debate since the beginning of 2026 in the face of a hypothesis: and if the United States cut off access to some of its technologies in Europe.

In France, the Prime Minister commissioned the Inter-Ministerial Directorate of Digital Affairs (DINUM) to “reduce the state’s extra-European digital dependencies”. It is this body that supervises the computer equipment and the deployment of services to the various government administrations.

The first target is now known: it is Windows.

Reason number 5,386 to delete your Reddit account and encourage your friends & loved ones to do the same.

They will no will no longer throttle mobile internet to unusable speeds after data allowances are exhausted, so it is kind of a "minimum universal connection" via mobile.