Clinical trials may have to be scrapped, research applications will be pushed back, and unpaid researchers will quickly leave the sector—even if the Trump administration’s funding pause is only temporary.
Tech companies developing self-driving vehicle technology have tapped the brakes on testing on California’s public roads, according to new data from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. The agency reported Friday a total of 4.5 million autonomous vehicle test miles were logged in 2024, a 50% drop from the previous year. That figure covers two […]
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On January 9th, 56-year-old Peter Akemann flew his DJI Mini 3 Pro drone far beyond the legal limit of his ability to see — and into a Super Scooper water dumping plane fighting the Los Angeles Palisades wildfires, grounding it for repairs after punching a hole in its left wing. Now that authorities have traced the drone back to him, he agreed Friday to plead guilty — possibly escaping a year in jail in exchange for 150 hours of community service in support of wildfire relief and the roughly $65,000 it cost to repair the plane.
While the Firefighting Aircraft was conducting its firefighting missions, defendant drove to the area near the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California, and parked his vehicle on the top floor of a parking structure. Defendant launched the Drone and flew it toward the Pacific Palisades to observe damage caused by the Palisades Fire. At the time, the Federal Aviation Administration had issued Temporary Flight Restrictions that prohibited drone operations near the Southern California wildfires, including the Palisades Fire.
Defendant flew the Drone at least 2500 meters away from its launch point and lost visual sight of the Drone while flying it. Thereafter, the Drone collided with the Firefighting Aircraft, causing an approximately 3-inch-by-6-inch hole in the left wing of Firefighting Aircraft.
The Hollywood Reporter writes that Akemann isn’t just any old drone pilot, but rather the former president and chief technologist of video game developer Skydance Interactive and the co-founder of Treyarch, a studio known for its Call of Duty and Spider-Man games. THR writes that he “recently left his role” at Skydance, which would be news in and of itself. Both the Akemann pleading guilty and the game developer are Peter T. Akemann. A LinkedIn page for Akemann no longer exists, and an X social media page for a Peter T. Akemann has been scrubbed.
It is possible that the US District Court will not accept Akemann’s plea agreement, which his lawyers are making jointly with the US Attorney’s Office, in which case he faces a year of jail time, a year of supervised release, and either up to a $100,000 fine or “twice the gross loss resulting from the offense,” whichever is greater.
Akemann’s attorneys told ABC News he’s now “deeply sorry for the mistake he made by flying a drone near the boundary of the Palisades fire area on January 9, 2025, and for the resulting accident” and “accepts responsibility for his grave error in judgment.”
They also added that there are “mitigating factors that will come to light during the court proceedings, including Mr. Akemann’s reliance on the DJI Drone’s geo fencing safeguard feature and the failure of that feature.”
DJI recently eliminated its most restrictive forms of geofencing, potentially letting drone pilots fly over active wildfires and government buildings like the White House when it might have previously stopped them automatically. That said, DJI recently explained to us that even the earlier versions of its software would not have stopped someone from flying over a temporary no-fly-zone, like a wildfire, unless that person let their drone download the updated temporary flight restriction lists first.
YouTube is expanding the availability of its dedicated community space feature to more creators on the site, giving them more opportunities to connect with their fans without needing to lean on another platform like Discord.
Only available for access via mobile devices, Communities first launched during the Made for YouTube event last fall, letting the creators write posts with images and text while also enabling fans to start discussions. “We’ve been testing Communities with a small group of creators and have heard positive feedback, which is why we’re excited to keep expanding access, says today’s post from YouTube. Creators can monitor and moderate via a Community Hub in the YouTube Studio app that combines the activity from their channel, and can also offer suggestions for replies to fans.
YouTube is also renaming its previously existing Community tab to Posts to try to keep things clear between the two things:
The tab will work just as it does today, just with a new name. Creators can still share updates and announcements via posts and viewers can engage by commenting on those posts like they always have!
Creators will still need an invitation to access Communities, which will come in an email and as a banner on their channel pages on the YouTube app. Once received, creators will be invited to “Go to Community” to learn more and then allow them to enable the features.
Windows Insiders will soon see a Copilot icon in one more place: Paint. Insiders in the Canary and Dev channels will see the new button thanks to an update rolling out now, putting AI tools in one location. Clicking the Copilot button in the task bar will reveal a dropdown menu with generative features like Cocreator, Image Creator, and Generative Erase. Microsoft has been on a mission to put a Copilot icon everywhere it can — from your keyboard to the taskbar — and Paint is just the latest place for it to pop up.
Microsoft has been adding AI image generation tools to Paint throughout the past year and change, bringing in the DALL-E-based Cocreator in late 2023 and generative fill options last fall. They’re all going in one place now, so if you’re looking to create some AI-generated clip art, you’ll just look for the Copilot logo. Honestly, a Copilot shortcut probably makes more sense in Paint than it does in Bing, anyway.
With today’s update, Windows 11 Insiders are also getting an update to the AI search opened up in preview earlier this month. Now, the “improved search” will allow you to find photos in the cloud with natural language; previously, AI search was limited to local files. When you perform a search, you’ll see the cloud files show up alongside the local images. This update is rolling out to Windows 11 Insiders in the Dev and Beta channels.
TikTok may be back online, but the app’s future in the United States is still far from certain. President Donald Trump’s executive order delaying enforcement of the ban was only a temporary reprieve for the company.
While ByteDance was once resistant to the idea of selling TikTok’s US business, that seems to have changed since Trump took office. A ByteDance investor said that striking a deal to keep TikTok in the US is “in everybody's interest." Officials in China have also suggested they are “open” to a deal, according toThe Wall Street Journal.
A number of people and companies have signaled some interest in TikTok. Trump himself has said he would like to see a “bidding war” for the app and that the US government should own a stake in the company. What an eventual deal may look like, though, is unclear. These are the offers we currently know about. Trump’s executive order gave the company 75 days to come to an agreement.
Oracle
NPR recently reported that Oracle was working with Trump Administration officials on “a plan to save TikTok that involves tapping software company Oracle and a group of outside investors to effectively take control of the app's global operations.” Under this arrangement, ByteDance “would retain a minority stake in the company” but Oracle would oversee “the app's algorithm, data collection and software updates.”
Headed up by Trump pal Larry Ellison, TikTok has an existing partnership with Oracle. The cloud company already hosts TikTok’s US user data and the company was a key part of TikTok’s original negotiations to remain operational in the US under a plan called Project Texas. (Those negotiations abruptly fell apart in 2022.)
Trump also previously signed off on a deal for Oracle and Walmart to acquire a 20 percent stake in TikTok in 2020, when the president tried to ban the app during his first term. That deal never materialized. Now, Trump’s position on Oracle is unclear. He told reporters that Oracle was not among the “many people” with whom he had discussed a deal for TikTok. (Ellison, notably, has been at the White House in recent days. He joined Trump and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for the announcement of the Stargate Project.)
Microsoft
Microsoft is reportedly also interested in playing a role in TikTok’s future, according to the same NPR story, which said Microsoft was among the “other potential investors” involved in the talks with Oracle. Trump seemingly confirmed this. When asked directly if Microsoft was interested in buying TikTok this week, Trump responded “I would say yes.”
As with Oracle, this isn’t the first time Microsoft has attempted to acquire the social media company. Microsoft was in talks to buy TikTok in 2020 and take over its US business, but the deal abruptly fell apart. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella later described it as “the strangest thing I’ve ever sort of worked on.”
Perplexity AI (and maybe the US government)
Just before TikTok briefly went offline, Perplexity AI threw its hat into the ring, offering a deal to ByteDance that “would “create a new entity combining Perplexity, TikTok US and New Capital Partners.”
Since then, Perplexity has reportedly tweaked its proposal. According to the Associated Press, the AI company is now floating a plan that calls for the “U.S. government to own up to half of that new structure once it makes an initial public offering of at least $300 billion.” Under this plan, ByteDance would keep a minority stake in the company and “would contribute TikTok’s U.S. business without the proprietary algorithm that fuels what users see on the app.”
MrBeast
YouTuber MrBeast, also known as Jimmy Donaldson, joked on X about buying TikTok ahead of the initial ban. He later said that “so many billionaires” had reached out to him about making an offer that he was going to try to actually pull it off.
Okay fine, I’ll buy Tik Tok so it doesn’t get banned
At least one group has already confirmed his involvement, along with other “high-net-worth individuals” looking to make an “all-cash offer.” That group, led by employer.com founder Jesse Tinsley also reportedly includes Roblox CEO David Baszucki. According to Bloomberg, together they have put together “significantly” more than $20 billion for a bid, though it’s not clear how seriously their offer is being considered. Bloomberg notes that there’s also a possibility that MrBeast may attach himself to other bids.
Project Liberty
Another set of investors that’s proposed a bid to buy TikTok is a group known as Project Liberty. Led by investor Frank McCourt, it includes Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank fame. The group initially came forward before the ban took effect. However, it’s not clear where they stand at the moment.
This deal changes by the hour. ByteDance itself is a very successful company. It's worth about $250 billion, of which only 8.9% is TikTok USA. So while we're focused on TikTok USA, the company could abandon it, just turn it off if they wanted.
— Kevin O'Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) January 29, 2025
O’Leary previously told CNBC that deals involving a government stake may not comply with the law. “That 50/50 deal, I would love to work with Trump on, so would every other potential buyer ... But the problem with some of these ideas is they are inconsistent with the ruling of the Supreme Court,” he said. “I would love to do a deal, if the law provided for it, but I don’t have the luxury of breaching the order of Congress.”
This week, he said that the deal "changes by the hour," writing on X that iIt's clear to me now that we're going to have to do a dance between the original owners, the founders of ByteDance itself, and interpreting the law of what Congress and Supreme Court has upheld."
What’s next?
So where does all this leave TikTok? For now, the company is in the same limbo it’s been in since it was briefly taken offline. The app is still not available in Apple or Google’s app stores and it could go down again if the company is unable to reach a deal.
For now, though, it seems both the government and ByteDance are much more willing to negotiate than they have been in the past. While these are all the semi-credible plans we know about now, the situation is likely to change over the next few weeks as the various sides attempt to hammer out a viable deal. We’ll keep this post updated as new details emerge.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/what-will-happen-to-tiktok-a-look-at-the-potential-buyers-000110723.html?src=rss
Photo illustration of TikTok app logo on a smartphone screen displayed with the American flag (USA). Amsterdam, the Netherlands on January 2025 (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
OpenAI used the subreddit, r/ChangeMyView, to create a test for measuring the persuasive abilities of its AI reasoning models. The company revealed this in a system card — a document outlining how an AI system works — that was released along with its new “reasoning” model, o3-mini, on Friday. Millions of Reddit users are members […]
There’s still time to enter our giveaway of Google’s Pixel 9 and Yaber’s T2 Projector. This month we’ve teamed up with our friends at Yaber to celebrate the launch of its newest smart projector models, including the K300s, L2 Plus, and T2 Series. You can head below now to enter the giveaway and check out Yaber’s new projectors the K300s, L2 Plus.
Elon Musk’s former employees are trying to use White House credentials to access General Services Administration tech, giving them the potential to remote into laptops, read emails, and more, sources say.
Netflix announced today that The Sandman will conclude with its upcoming second season. In a statement about the show coming to an end, Sandman showrunner Allan Heinberg said that the series “has always been focused exclusively on Dream’s story, and back in 2022, when we looked at the remaining Dream material from the comics, we knew we only had enough story for one more season.”
To cap off a day of product releases, OpenAI researchers, engineers, and executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, answered questions in a wide-ranging Reddit AMA on Friday. OpenAI the company finds itself in a bit of a precarious position. It’s battling the perception that it’s ceding ground in the AI race to Chinese companies like […]
The Food and Drug Administration announced the approval of a new non-opioid pain medication this week, marking the first time in over two decades that the agency has approved a non-opioid pain drug with a novel mechanism of action.
The drug, Journavx (suzetrigine), is an oral pill that treats acute pain, such as from surgery or injuries. Unlike opioids, which work by latching onto receptor proteins on nerves in the central nervous system, suzetrigine works only in peripheral nerves—that is, those outside the brain and spinal cord. Specifically, the drug inhibits a voltage-gated sodium ion channel called 1.8 (NaV1.8) that is known to relay pain signals, but only in peripheral nerves.
Because it works outside the brain by a different mechanism than opioids, the new medication offers a safe alternative to opioids, which can be highly addictive.
BioWare now has fewer than 100 employees after laying off “around two dozen” staffers and shifting others to different projects at EA, Bloomberg reports.
The changes follow BioWare’s own “Studio Update” published this week where GM Gary McKay said the studio had “worked diligently over the past few months to match many of our colleagues with other teams at EA that had open roles.” According to Bloomberg, “dozens” of staffers that had been “loaned out” to other teams at EA after the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard apparently learned this week that those shifts would be permanent.
McKay said that as a “core team” at the studio is developing the next Mass Effect game – which got a teaser trailer more than four years ago – and that the changes will help BioWare “become a more agile, focused studio.”
McKay’s post didn’t mention layoffs. Bloomberg reports that BioWare had “more than 200 people two years ago.”
Last week, EA said that The Veilguardsignificantly missed expectations. EA Sports FC hasn’t done as well as expected during EA’s 2025 fiscal year, either.
EA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. IGN also reported this week on layoffs at BioWare.
Key resources for environmental data and public health have already been taken down from federal websites, and more could soon vanish as the Trump administration works to scrap anything that has to do with climate change, racial equity, or gender identity.
Warnings floated on social media today about an impendingpurge at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), spurring calls to save as much data as soon as possible. The CDC shares data on a wide range of topics, from chronic diseases to traffic injuries, tobacco use, vaccinations, and pregnancies in the US — and it’s just one of the agencies in the crosshairs.
Researchers have been archiving government websites for months
The CDC’s social vulnerability index and environmental justice index — tools that could show whether particular populations might face disproportionate health risks — have both been taken offline within the past week. In 2007, during the Bush administration, social scientists, geographers, and statisticians started developing the social vulnerability index (SVI), which incorporated demographic and socioeconomic factors including poverty, race, and ethnicity over the years.
The Biden administration launched the environmental justice index (EJI) in 2022. “Too many communities across our nation, particularly low-income communities and communities of color, continue to bear the brunt of pollution. Meeting the needs of these communities requires our focused attention and we will use the Environmental Justice Index to do just that,” then Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a press release at the time.
Since stepping into office, Trump has tried to undo previous administrations’ work to address health disparities when it comes to race and gender. In an executive order Trump signed to undo Biden-era policies, the president wrote that “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) has “corrupted” government institutions.
He also claimed that “climate extremism has exploded inflation and overburdened businesses with regulation.” During his first term in office, there was a near 40 percent decline in the term “climate change” across websites for federal environmental agencies. It’s too soon to know what the damage might be this time around, but some webpages have already vanished. The US Department of Transportation’s “priorities” website has removed pages on both “climate and sustainability” and “equity.” It follows an internal memo sent this week instructing USDOT operating administrations to identify and ultimately “terminate” Biden-era activities relating to climate change and DEI.
Donald Trump’s efforts to limit foreign aid seem to have also led to information being taken down on HIV and AIDS. The data webpage for the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) was taken down this week. PEPFAR has been around since 2003 and helped more than 20.6 million people get access to antiretroviral therapy in 2024 alone, according to a snapshot of the website taken by the Wayback Machine on January 26th, before it was taken down.
The End of Term Web Archive project has saved content on federal government websites during every presidential transition since 2008. The Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI) that formed after Trump was first elected also documents changes to government websites and works to make archived datasets available elsewhere. It has backed up data from the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index and Environmental Justice Index and shared it on a webpage for The Public Environmental Data Project.
Yet even if these datasets have been archived, they aren’t as helpful when they aren’t updated. “Any dataset has a lifespan of utility,” says Dan Pisut, senior principal engineer at GIS software company Esri.
Aging datasets might not fully represent what’s actually happening on the ground, so people have to be careful about how they use them, Pisut points out. It could be risky, he says, but “better than nothing.”
