SUMMARY

NEW HOMEPOD COMING SOON? WHAT APPLE INTELLIGENCE
MEANS FOR THE SMART SPEAKER’S FUTURE

APPLE KILLS OFF ITS BUY NOW, PAY LATER SE
ARVICE BARELY A YEAR AFTER LAUNCH

NEXT GEN - IOS 18 PERSONALIZATION & INTELLIGENCE
ACROSS MULTIPLE FEATURES & APPS

NVIDIA’S STOCK MARKET VALUE TOPPED $3.3 TRILLION.
HOW IT BECAME NO. 1 IN THE S&P 500, BY THE NUMBERS

08
34
58
106

US CHIPMAKER ONSEMI WILL INVEST $2 BILLION IN A CHIP PRODUCTION FACILITY IN THE...

28

AI STARTUP PERPLEXITY WANTS TO UPEND SEARCH BUSINESS. NEWS OUTLET FORBES SAYS...

44

AI EXPERIMENTATION IS HIGH RISK, HIGH REWARD FOR LOW-PROFILE POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS

88

OPENAI APPOINTS FORMER TOP US CYBERWARRIOR PAUL NAKASONE TO ITS BOARD OF...

120

BOEING CEO DEFENDS HIS SAFETY RECORD, SPARS WITH SENATORS AND APOLOGIZES TO...

128

FISKER FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION, THE SECOND ELECTRIC VEHICLE MAKER TO DO...

142

CALIFORNIA FINES AMAZON NEARLY $6M, ALLEGING ILLEGAL WORK QUOTAS AT 2 WAREHOUSES

150

JUDGE OVERSEEING NFL ‘SUNDAY TICKET’ TRIAL VOICES FRUSTRATIONS OVER THE CASE

156

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION REFERS COMPLAINT ABOUT TIKTOK’S ADHERENCE TO CHILD...

174

CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR WANTS TO RESTRICT SMARTPHONE USAGE IN SCHOOLS

180

KEEPING CHILDREN SAFE ON SOCIAL MEDIA: WHAT PARENTS SHOULD KNOW TO PROTECT...

188

TOP 10 TV SHOWS

164

TOP 10 BOOKS

166

TOP 10 SONGS

168

TOP 10 ALBUMS

170

TOP 10 MUSIC VIDEOS

172

NEW HOMEPOD
COMING SOON?
WHAT APPLE
INTELLIGENCE
MEANS FOR THE
SMART SPEAKER’S
FUTURE

08

09

The highlight of this year’s WWDC was
undoubtedly Apple Intelligence.
Apple dedicated nearly half of its presentation
to discussing its unique take on artificial
intelligence, outlining the features it would
enable and the promising future ahead. The
focus was on three key products: the iPhone,
iPad, and Mac.
This led many to wonder about other
Apple devices like Vision Pro, Apple Watch,
and HomePod.
While the Vision Pro and Apple Watch were
excluded from the discussion, it’s likely that
Apple has future AI plans for these devices.
However, the status of the HomePod remains
uncertain. Will the HomePod support the new
Siri? Is a new model in development?

WILL CURRENT HOMEPODS SUPPORT
APPLE INTELLIGENCE?
Apple currently offers two HomePod models:
the HomePod (2nd generation) and the
HomePod mini. Both models feature chips that
seem unlikely to support Apple Intelligence. This
means no new and improved Siri, and likely no
integration with ChatGPT.
For context, Apple has specified that its new AI
features require either an A17 Pro chip, which is
currently exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro
Max, or an M1 chip or later, found in recent Macs
and iPads.
The HomePod features an S7 chip, while the
HomePod mini has an S5 chip—both comparable
to the chips used in the Apple Watch.

10

11

12

13

14

Even if the HomePod lineup included the latest
S9 chip from the Apple Watch Series 9, it still
might not be powerful enough to support
Apple Intelligence.
While it is uncertain if Apple could enable
certain Siri-related AI features on these less
powerful chips, a more likely solution may be in
the works: new, more powerful HomePods.

EXPECTED FEATURES FOR NEW
HOMEPOD HARDWARE
Although it seems unlikely that Apple would
include an M4 chip in the next-generation
HomePod, an M1 or A17 Pro chip could be a
realistic expectation. A more powerful chip
would enable the new HomePod hardware to
fully support Siri’s enhanced capabilities found
on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

15

16

17

18

These capabilities include:
• Richer Language Understanding: Allowing
users to interact more naturally with Siri, without
needing to follow a specific script.
• Context Awareness: Enabling Siri to
understand and act upon specific messages,
emails, and other communications, fully aware
of their content.
• Complex Multi-Step Requests: Permitting
users to execute multiple actions with a
single command.
• ChatGPT Support: Providing enhanced
responses for requests better handled by
OpenAI’s service.
These Apple Intelligence features could be further
enhanced by the rumored addition of a built-in
touch display on the HomePod, providing a more
interactive and versatile user experience.

19

20

FUTURE OF APPLE INTELLIGENCE
ON HOMEPOD
As of now, Apple has not announced any plans
regarding the integration of Apple Intelligence
into the HomePod.
However, if the revamped Siri proves successful
on other devices this fall, the HomePod may
quickly become outdated. The current silence
about the HomePod is understandable, as the
focus remains on Apple’s more popular platforms.
The absence of AI advancements on other Apple
devices will eventually need to be addressed.

ROOM FOR HOMEPODS IN APPLE’S
FUTURE LINEUP
Apple’s fall lineup is expected to be filled
with new hardware, including the iPhone 16,
Watch Series 10, new AirPods, and updated
Macs and iPads.
Whether there is room for new HomePods
in this packed schedule remains uncertain.
However, the potential for new and improved
HomePod models, equipped with the latest AI
features, could rejuvenate interest in Apple’s
smart speaker lineup.
The introduction of more powerful HomePod
models could ensure compatibility with the
latest Apple Intelligence features, providing
users with a more seamless and integrated
experience across their devices.

21

22

23

As Apple continues to innovate and expand
its AI capabilities, the HomePod could play a
significant role in the company’s ecosystem,
offering enhanced functionality and a richer
user experience.
While the future of Apple Intelligence on the
HomePod remains uncertain, the potential for
new hardware with advanced AI capabilities
presents an exciting possibility.
As Apple gears up for a busy fall season, the
inclusion of updated HomePods could add
another dimension to its already impressive
lineup of products.

24

25

US CHIPMAKER
ONSEMI WILL INVEST
$2 BILLION IN A
CHIP PRODUCTION
FACILITY IN THE
CZECH REPUBLIC

28

29

30

The U.S. chipmaker onsemi is planning a multiyear investment of up $2 billion in its production
facility in the Czech Republic, the company and
the Czech government said this week.
The government said the money will be
invested in the company’s existing production
facility in the eastern Czech town of Roznov
pod Radhostem. It’s the biggest single foreign
investment in the country since the split of
Czechoslovakia in 1993.
The company based in Scottsdale, Arizona,
currently produces 10 million chips a day
in Roznov. The investment would increase
production by hundreds of percent, the
government said. It said the number of jobs
created in Roznov will increase to 3,000 from the
current 1,700.
The company said the move “would solidify
advanced power semiconductor supply chain
for its European and global customer base.”
“The site would produce the company’s
intelligent power semiconductors that
are essential for improving the energy
efficiency of applications in electric vehicles,
renewable energy and AI data centers,” it
said in a statement.
The car industry is a key part of the Czech
economy. Germany’s Volkswagen that owns
Skoda Auto, the country’s biggest export
company, is a strategic partner for onsemi.
The Czech government said it will negotiate
with onsemi about incentives it can offer to
the company.

31

Simply Better Living

SUPERSTEAM+™
BUILT-IN WALL OVEN
SSC2489DS

The Sharp® SuperSteam+ Built-In Wall Oven is the start of
a cooking revolution. With Wi-Fi enabled IoT features, the
innovations within this steam oven are a perfect match
for modern cooking needs.
While regular steam only reaches 212°F, the SuperSteam+
oven can create superheated steam up to 485°F. Steam
this hot can roast meats and caramelize sugars so your
food can be brown and crispy on the outside, tender and
juicy on the inside. With the Sharp SuperSteam+ Oven,
you can grill without smoke, roast without drying, and get
the roasty-toasty, tasty results you desire.

SEE FOR
YOURSELF

Get started right away with built-in recipes and
download the Sharp SuperSteam+ Oven app* to
enable the smart features and access custom
recipes powered by SideChef.

The new Sharp SuperSteam+ Built-In Wall Oven
features Steam Bake for superior breads, and Water
Bath for cheesecakes, custards and puddings.

www.sharpusa.com | simplybetterliving.sharpusa.com
*Mobile Application and Home Assistant Skill available upon commercial release. © 2020 Sharp Electronics Corporation. All rights reserved. Sharp, Supersteam™ Oven
and all related trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sharp Corporation and/or its affiliated entities. Product specifications and design are subject to
change without notice. Internal capacity calculated by measuring maximum width, depth and height. Actual capacity for holding food is less.

Image: Laurenz Heymann

34

APPLE KILLS OFF
ITS BUY NOW,
PAY LATER SERVICE
BARELY A YEAR
AFTER LAUNCH

35

Apple is discontinuing its buy now, pay later
service known as Apple Pay Later barely a year
after its initial launch in the U.S., and will rely on
companies who already dominate the industry
like Affirm and Klarna.
It’s an acknowledgement from a company
known for producing hit products that building
a financial services business from scratch as
Apple has been doing for several years is difficult
and highly competitive.
Apple Pay Later launched with fanfare in
March 2023 as a way for iPhone customers to
split purchases of up to $1,000 into four equal
payments with no fees or interest. The service
was Apple’s answer to the growing popularity
of buy now, pay later services globally, and
considered a sizeable threat to companies like
Klarna, Affirm and others.
36

37

38

But Apple Pay Later was only available where
Apple Pay was accepted whereas the other buy
now, pay later companies had deeply integrated
themselves into millions of merchant websites.
In an acknowledgement of how popular buy now,
pay later services had become, Apple said at its
developer’s conference this month that it would
start allowing banks to offer buy now, pay later
plans to their customers through Apple Pay and
Apple Wallet. Affirm would be integrated directly
into Apple Wallet, and Apple customers would be
able to open an Affirm account directly.
“With the introduction of this new global
installment loan offering, we will no longer
offer Apple Pay Later in the U.S.,” Apple said this
week. “Our focus continues to be on providing
our users with access to easy, secure and
private payment options with Apple Pay, and
this solution will enable us to bring flexible
payments to more users, in more places across
the globe, in collaboration with Apple Pay
enabled banks and lenders.”
39

40

Apple executives as recently as this month had
indicated that the company still had plans for
Apple Pay Later despite announcing plans to
integrate Affirm directly into Apple Wallet.
Apple Pay Later was unique because Apple
needed to create its own bank to offer the loans.
The Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs,
which means Goldman ultimately decides who
gets approved and what spending limits are for
each customer.
Apple has discontinued any new Apple Pay
Later loans, but customers who have existing
Apple Pay Later loans will be able to manage
them inside Apple Pay.

41

AI STARTUP
PERPLEXITY
WANTS TO
UPEND SEARCH
BUSINESS.
NEWS OUTLET
FORBES SAYS
IT’S RIPPING
THEM OFF

The artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI
has raised tens of millions of dollars from the
likes of Jeff Bezos and other prominent tech
investors for its mission to rival Google in the
business of searching for information.
But its AI-driven search chatbot is already facing
challenges as some news media companies
object to its business practices. It is also
competing against t ech giants Google, and now
Apple, which are increasingly fusing similar AI
features into their core products.
44

45

46

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas has spent much
of the past week defending the company after
it published a summarized news story with
information and similar wording to a Forbes
investigative story but without citing the media
outlet or asking for its permission. Forbes said it
later found similar “knock-off” stories lifted from
other publications.
The Associated Press separately found another
Perplexity product feature inventing fake quotes
from real people, including a former elected
town official from Martha’s Vineyard falsely
quoted to say he didn’t want the Massachusetts
island to become a destination for marijuana.
“I never said that,” said Bill Rossi, a former
member of the island town of Chilmark’s
select board.
Srinivas told that his company is trying to build
positive relationships with news publishers
that ensure their news content “reaches
more people.”
“We can definitely coexist and help each other,”
he said.
Asked about Forbes, he said his product “never
ripped off content from anybody. Our engine
is not training on anyone else’s content,” in part
because the company is simply aggregating
what other companies’ AI systems generate.
“We are actually more of an aggregator of
information and providing it to the people
with the right attribution,” Srinivas said. But,
he added, “It was accurately pointed out by
Forbes that they preferred a more prominent
highlighting of the source. We took that
feedback immediately and updated changes

47

that day itself. And now the sources are more
prominently highlighted.”
Perplexity also revealed this week that it has
been seeking revenue-sharing partnerships
that would pay news publishers a portion of
Perplexity’s advertising revenue each time an
outlet’s news content is referenced as a source.
Randall Lane, chief content officer of Forbes
Media, called the dispute an “inflection point” in
the conversation about AI.
“It’s a case study in where we’re heading,” Lane
told. “If the people who are leading the charge
don’t have a fundamental respect for the
hard work of doing proprietary reporting, and
keeping people informed with value-added
content, we’ve got a big problem.”
A self-described “AI bull” who believes that
the technology could help make many news
organizations more efficient, Lane said the
dispute between Perplexity and Forbes is
important because it is a “metaphor for what can
happen if the people controlling the AI don’t
respect the people doing the work.”
Perplexity bills itself as a search engine while
“acting like a media company and publishing a
story” that only Forbes had reported, Lane said.
“The whole thing was very disingenuous.
And what we didn’t hear was, ‘Oops, yeah
we messed that one up and we need to do
better,’” he said. “Instead, it was just putting out
more content, little tweaks to the model and
treating journalism like it’s just a commodity
to be manufactured.”
Srinivas, a computer scientist and former AI
researcher at OpenAI and Google, co-founded
48

49

50

Perplexity in the summer of 2022, not long
before the AI image-generator Stable Diffusion
and OpenAI’s ChatGPT began sparking the
public’s fascination with the possibilities of
generative AI.
Inspired, in part, by his childhood love of
Wikipedia, he described Perplexity as “like
a marriage of Wikipedia and ChatGPT” that
can instantly answer a person’s questions
without the “huge cluttered mess” of Google’s
conventional search results.
“You ask a question, you get an answer with
clean sources, and there’s like three or four
suggested (follow-up) questions and that’s it,” he
said of Perplexity. “That way people’s minds can
be free from distractions, and they can just focus
on learning and digging deeper.”
The company sells a subscription for premium
features and is planning to start an advertisingbased service as it grows its user base.
“We are not profitable as a company today,
but we are also more sustainably run than
foundation model companies because we do
not train our own foundation models,” which
requires huge amounts of computing power,
he said.
Perplexity relies on existing AI large language
models such as those built by OpenAI, Anthropic
and Meta Platforms, the parent company of
Facebook; and then “post-trains” them.
“We shape them to be really good summarizers,”
he said.
It’s not always clear where the summarized
information is coming from. One Perplexity
feature called Writing — which enables a user
51

to “generate text or chat without searching
the web” — produces lengthy and unsourced
commentary, often in the style of a news article.
Tests of the feature asking it to write about the
lack of marijuana on Martha’s Vineyard led it to
produce a 465-word document that resembled a
news article and included fabricated quotations
from the former town official and another
real person.
We’re not repeating the false quotes in order
to avoid perpetuating misinformation. Srinivas
said that the Writing feature of Perplexity is a
“minor use case” that was intended for helping
to compose essays or correcting grammar when
primary source information isn’t needed. He said
it’s “more prone to hallucinations” — a common
problem with AI large language models —
because it isn’t tethered to the web search
capabilities of Perplexity’s core product.
“There is no doubt that generative AI is
upending journalism, content creation, and
search,” said Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell
University’s Tech Policy Institute.
She pointed to Google’s new, Perplexity-like
approach that summarizes answers based on
information pulled from crawling the web, as
an example. That, too, led to false information
and forced Google to make adjustments to the
product after its public release.
“But their whole model of advertising is based
on sending people to websites,” she said in an
email. “Why will people go to websites if they
can have the one-stop-shop of the answer in the
AI output?”
Srinivas claimed that “a lot of people get
referrals from Perplexity, and I’m happy that
52

53

they’re getting referrals from a new player in
the internet.”
For now, much of that benefit may be
aspirational. Perplexity’s worldwide user base
has grown rapidly this year to more than
85 million web visits in May, but that barely
registers compared to the billions of users of
ChatGPT and other popular platforms from
Microsoft and Google, according to data
from Similarweb.
The debate demonstrates the “uncertain and
challenging times” for online content creators
in general and journalism in particular because
aggregators only work if publications such as
Forbes exist, said Stephen Lind, an associate
professor at the University of Southern
California’s Marshall School of Business.
Using AI as a synthesizing tool works for
widespread dissemination of information until
“you run out of originals,” he said.
“There are whole companies or whole
applications that are also doing this, where
they are rolling out new services without fully
thinking through the implications or best
practices or safeguards because they’re rolling
out applications for industries that maybe
they’re not native to,” he said.
Lind said it’s good that companies like Perplexity
are “taking at least some steps to course correct
when an industry or a user pushes back.” But
some of the changes should have been baked in
from the beginning, he added.

54

55

iOS 18: PERSONALIZATION
& INTELLIGENCE ACROSS
MULTIPLE FEATURES & APPS

58

59

At this year’s WWDC, Apple introduced iOS
18, a significant update set to redefine the
user experience on iPhone. With extensive
customization features and a sophisticated
Apple Intelligence tool, our iPhones are more
personal, capable, and brighter than ever.

60

61

62

63

CUSTOMIZATION
One of the most striking things about iOS 18 is
its significant leap in customization, allowing
users unprecedented control over their devices’
appearance and functionality. The Home
Screen, Lock Screen, and Control Center have
been overhauled to offer more flexibility and
personalization. Users can now position apps
and widgets in any available space on the
Home Screen, placing them directly above
the dock for instant access or framing their
wallpaper perfectly. App icons and widgets can
adopt a new aesthetic with dark or tinted
effects and be resized for a personalized touch.
The Lock Screen also gets a makeover, enabling
users to rearrange the control buttons at the
bottom of the screen. For those with the iPhone
15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, the new Action
button can be configured to invoke various
controls, enhancing accessibility.
The Control Center has been redesigned
to offer quicker access to frequently used
controls, such as media playback and home
automation, and allows for customization
with third-party app controls. This redesign
introduces a new controls gallery where users
can adjust control sizes and create custom
groups, enhancing the user experience.

64

65

66

67

ENHANCING THE OPERATING SYSTEM
One of the standout updates in iOS 18 is the
comprehensive redesign of the Photos app.
Users will benefit from a unified view that
simplifies the browsing experience. The app
automatically organizes photos into collections
based on themes, making finding and reliving
special moments easier. Collections can be
pinned for quick access, and a new carousel view
showcases daily highlights featuring favorite
people, pets, and places. The app’s autoplay
feature breathes life into the photo library,
and users can customize their experience by
organizing and pinning collections according to
their preferences.
iOS 18 brings transformative updates to the
Messages app, including new text effects that
animate letters, words, phrases, and emojis,
making conversations more engaging. Users
can now format text with bold, underline, italics,
and strikethrough, adding a new dimension
to message composition. A significant
advancement is the introduction of satellite
messaging. This feature, powered by the same
technology that underpins existing iPhone
satellite capabilities allows users to send
and receive messages when cellular and Wi-Fi
connections are unavailable. This makes iOS
18 a vital tool for staying connected in remote
areas or during emergencies. To enhance
communication with non-Apple devices, iOS 18
supports RCS (Rich Communication Services),
which provides richer media and more reliable
group messaging compared to traditional SMS
and MMS, bridging the gap between Apple and
non-Apple users.

68

69

70

71

The Mail app in iOS 18 has received some
attention. It features advanced on-device
categorization, sorting emails into categories
such as Primary, Transactions, Updates, and
Promotions, ensuring users can easily manage
their inboxes. A new digest view aggregates
emails from businesses, making keeping track of
essential communications more straightforward.
On the other hand, Safari receives significant
updates, including a Highlights feature that
surfaces critical information about webpages.
The redesigned Reader offers an improved,
distraction-free reading experience, with
summaries and tables of contents for articles.
And there are new apps for iOS, too, with Apple
launching a standalone Passwords app,
which builds on the legacy of Keychain, making
it easier for users to manage their passwords,
passkeys, Wi-Fi passwords, and verification
codes. The app alerts users to security
weaknesses, such as easily guessed or reused
passwords, enhancing security.
iOS 18 strengthens user privacy with new
features such as locked and hidden apps,
ensuring that sensitive information remains
secure. Users can now hide apps, moving them
to a locked folder that keeps their content out
of sight. The update also allows users to share
specific contacts with apps and offers a seamless
way to connect third-party accessories without
compromising the privacy of other devices on
their network.

72

73

74

75

76

There are numerous other enhancements,
including Apple Maps updates, offering
detailed hiking information for U.S. national
parks, and supporting offline access to custom
walking routes. Game Mode, on the other hand,

journaling, such as instant equation-solving
and audio transcription. Calendar and Health
now deeply integrates tasks with reminders
and provides updated medical information
accessibility. Emergency SOS introduces live

improves gaming performance and accessory
responsiveness. Apple Pay introduces new
payment methods and features like Tap to Cash
for easy money transfers between iPhones, and
AirPods offers personalized spatial audio and
improved call quality. The Notes and Journal
apps add new features for note-taking and

video sharing with emergency dispatchers,
and the Home app offers guest access to smart
home controls and new energy management
features. Finally, there are new accessibility
features like Eye Tracking and Music Haptics for
enhanced user experiences.

77

78

79

80

APPLE INTELLIGENCE
This year’s ‘One More Thing’ was undoubtedly
one of the most significant announcements in
iOS history: Apple Intelligence. This revolutionary
personal intelligence system combines
generative models with personal context to
deliver tailored and intuitive experiences. This
system is deeply integrated into iOS 18 and
Apple’s other operating systems. It offers new
system-wide Writing Tools that enable users to
rewrite, proofread, and summarise text across
various apps. Image Playground offers a fun way
to create images using styles like Animation,
Illustration, or Sketch, integrating seamlessly into
apps like Messages.
Siri benefits from these advancements,
becoming more natural and contextually
aware. Users can now communicate with
Siri via text or voice and switch between
modes effortlessly. Apple has also set a new
benchmark for privacy in AI with Private
Cloud Compute, ensuring that data processed
for personal intelligence tasks is not stored
or accessible to Apple, maintaining user
confidentiality and trust.
81

82

83

84

The developer beta of iOS 18 is
available now, with a public beta
coming next month. The official
release will be this autumn, and
it will be free for iPhone Xs and
later models. Apple Intelligence
will initially be available in beta
on selected devices with M1
chips or newer. Make sure you’re
following AppleMagazine for the
latest news and information.

85

AI EXPERIMENTATION
IS HIGH RISK,
HIGH REWARD FOR
LOW-PROFILE POLITICAL
CAMPAIGNS

88

89

Adrian Perkins was running for reelection as the
mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, when he was
surprised by a harsh campaign hit piece.
The satirical TV commercial, paid for by a rival
political action committee, used artificial
intelligence to depict Perkins as a high school
student who had been called into the principal’s
office. Instead of giving a tongue-lashing for
cheating on a test or getting in a fight, the
principal blasted Perkins for failing to keep
communities safe and create jobs.
The video superimposed Perkins’ face onto the
body of an actor playing him. Although the
ad was labeled as being created with “deep
learning computer technology,” Perkins said it
was powerful and resonated with voters. He
didn’t have enough money or campaign staff
to counteract it, and thinks it was one of many
reasons he lost the 2022 race. A representative
for the group behind the ad did not respond to a
request for comment.
“One hundred percent the deepfake ad affected
our campaign because we were a down-ballot,
less resourced place,” said Perkins, a Democrat.
“You had to pick and choose where you put
your efforts.”
While such attacks are staples of the roughand-tumble of political campaigning, the ad
targeting Perkins was notable: It’s believed to
be one of the first examples of an AI deepfake
deployed in a political race in the U.S. It also
foreshadowed a dilemma facing candidates
in scores of state and local races this year as
generative AI has become more widespread and
easier to use.

90

91

92

The technology — which can do everything
from streamlining mundane campaign tasks to
creating fake images, video or audio — already
has been deployed in some national races
around the country and has spread far more
widely in elections across the globe. Despite its
power as a tool to mislead, efforts to regulate
it have been piecemeal or delayed, a gap that
could have the greatest impact on lower-profile
races down the ballot.
Artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword
for candidates running such campaigns.
Inexpensive, user-friendly AI models can help
them save money and time on some of their
day-to-day tasks. But they often don’t have
the staff or expertise to combat AI-generated
falsehoods, adding to fears that an eleventhhour deepfake could fool enough voters to tilt
races decided by narrow margins.
“AI-enabled threats affect close races and lowprofile contests where slight shifts matter and
where there are often fewer resources correcting
misleading stories,” said Josh Lawson, director of
AI and democracy for the Aspen Institute.

NATIONAL SAFEGUARDS LACKING
Some local candidates already have faced
criticism for deploying AI in misleading ways,
from a Republican state senate candidate
in Tennessee who used an AI headshot to
make himself look slimmer and younger
to Philadelphia’s Democratic sheriff, whose
reelection campaign promoted fake news
stories generated by ChatGPT.
One challenge in separating fact from fiction is
the decline of local news outlets, which in many
93

places has meant far less coverage of candidates
running for state and local office, especially
reporting that digs into candidates’ backgrounds
and how their campaigns operate. The lack of
familiarity with candidates could make voters
more open to believing fake information, said
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia.
The Democrat, who has worked extensively
on AI-related legislation as chair of the Senate
Intelligence Committee, said AI-generated
misinformation is easier to spot and combat
in high-profile races because they are under
greater scrutiny. When an AI-generated
robocall impersonated President Joe Biden to
discourage voters from going to the polls in
the New Hampshire primary this year, it was
quickly reported in the media and investigated,
resulting in serious consequences for the players
behind it.
More than a third of states have passed laws
regulating artificial intelligence in politics,
and legislation aimed specifically at fighting
election-related deepfakes has received
bipartisan support in each state where it has
passed, according to the nonprofit consumer
advocacy group Public Citizen.
But Congress has yet to act, despite several
bipartisan groups of lawmakers proposing
such legislation.
“Congress is pathetic,” said Warner, who said
he was pessimistic about Congress passing
any legislation protecting elections from AI
interference this year.
Travis Brimm, executive director of the
Democratic Association of Secretaries of State,
called the specter of AI misinformation in
94

95

96

down-ballot races an evolving issue in which
people are “still working to figure out the best
way forward.”
“This is a real challenge, and that’s why you’ve
seen Democratic secretaries jump to address
it and pass real legislation with real penalties
around the abuse of AI,” Brimm said.
A spokesperson for the Republican Secretaries
of State Committee did not respond the request
for comment.

HOW DO YOU REGULATE INTEGRITY?
While experts and lawmakers worry about how
generative AI attacks could skew an election,
some candidates for state or local office said AI
tools have proven invaluable to their campaigns.
The powerful computer systems, software or
processes can emulate aspects of human work
and cognition.
Glenn Cook, a Republican running for a state
legislative seat in southeastern Georgia, is
less well-known and has much less campaign
cash than the incumbent he is facing in a
runoff election. So, he has invested in a digital
consultant who creates much of his campaign’s
content using inexpensive, publicly available
generative AI models.
On his website, AI-generated articles are
peppered with AI-generated images of
community members smiling and chatting,
none of whom actually exist. AI-generated
podcast episodes use a cloned version of his
voice to narrate his policy positions.
Cook said he reviews everything before it is
made public. The savings — in both time and

97

money — have let him knock on more doors
in the district and attend more in-person
campaign events.
“My wife and I did 4,500 doors down here,” he
said. “It frees you up to do a lot.”
Cook’s opponent, Republican state Rep. Steven
Sainz, said he thinks Cook “hides behind what
amounts to a robot instead of authentically
communicating his opinions to voters.”
“I’m not running on artificially generated
promises, but real-world results,” Sainz
said, adding that he isn’t using AI in his
own campaign.
Republican voters in the district weren’t sure
what to make of the use of AI in the race, but
said they cared most about the candidates’
values and outreach on the campaign trail.
Patricia Rowell, a retired Cook voter, said she
likes that he’s been in her community three or
four times while campaigning, while Mike Perry,
a self-employed Sainz voter, said he’s felt more
personal contact from Sainz.
He said the expanded use of AI in politics is
inevitable, but wondered how voters would be
able to differentiate between what’s true and
what’s not.
“It’s free speech, you know, and I don’t want
to discourage free speech, but it comes down
to the integrity of the people putting it out,”
he said. “And I don’t know how you regulate
integrity. It’s pretty tough.”

LOCAL CAMPAIGNS ARE VULNERABLE
Digital firms that market AI models for political
campaigns told the most of the AI use in local
98

99

campaigns so far is minimal and designed
to boost efficiency for tedious tasks, such as
analyzing survey data or drafting social media
copy that meets a certain word limit.
Political consultants are increasingly dabbling
with AI tools to see what works, according to
a new report from a team led by researchers
at the University of Texas at Austin. More
than 20 political operatives from across the
ideological spectrum told researchers they were
experimenting with generative AI models in this
year’s campaigns, even though they also feared
that less scrupulous actors might be doing
the same.
“Local-level elections will be so much more
challenging because people will be attacking,”
said Zelly Martin, the report’s lead author and a
senior research fellow at the university’s Center
for Media Engagement. “And what recourse do
they have to fight back, as opposed to Biden and
Trump who have many more resources to fend
off attacks?”
There are immense differences in staffing,
money and expertise between down-ballot
campaigns — for state legislator, mayor, school
board or any other local position —- and races
for federal office. Where a local campaign might
have just a handful of staffers, competitive U.S.
House and Senate campaigns may have dozens
and presidential operations can balloon to the
thousands by the end of the campaign.
The campaigns for Biden and former President
Donald Trump are both experimenting with
AI to enhance fundraising and voter outreach
efforts. Mia Ehrenberg, a spokesperson for the
Biden campaign, said they also have a plan to
100

101

102

debunk AI-generated misinformation. A Trump
campaign spokesperson did not respond to the
questions about their plans for handling AIgenerated misinformation.
Perkins, the former Shreveport mayor, had a
small team that decided to ignore the attack and
keep campaigning when the deepfake of him
being hauled into the principal’s office hit local
TV. He said he viewed the deepfake ad against
him as a typical dirty trick at the time, but the
rise of AI in just two years since his campaign has
made him realize the technology’s power as a
tool to mislead voters.
“In politics, people are always going to push the
envelope a bit to be effective,” he said. “We had
no idea how significant it would be.”
103

NVIDIA’S STOCK
MARKET VALUE
TOPPED $3.3
TRILLION. HOW IT
BECAME NO. 1 IN
THE S&P 500, BY
THE NUMBERS

106

107

Nvidia’s startling ascent in the stock market
reached another milestone this week as the
chipmaker rose to become the most valuable
company in the S&P 500. Investors now say the
company is worth over $3.3 trillion.
Over the past three years, Nvidia has
experienced significant growth and
innovation, particularly in the realm of artificial
intelligence (AI).
The company’s most notable achievements
include the release of the H100 AI GPU, which
is critical for AI model training and has become
a cornerstone in data centers globally. Nvidia’s
data center division, primarily driven by AI, has
witnessed explosive growth, with quarterly
revenue reaching $22.1 billion by early 2024—a
265% increase from the previous year.
This shift underscores Nvidia’s transition from
its historical focus on GPUs for gaming to
becoming a leader in AI hardware.
In terms of product development, Nvidia has
consistently pushed the envelope with new
releases. The introduction of the GeForce RTX
40 SUPER Series GPUs in late 2023 exemplified
their commitment to high-performance gaming,
integrating advanced AI capabilities such as
DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction and NVIDIA Reflex.
Beyond gaming, Nvidia’s professional
visualization sector also saw growth, with
the adoption of Omniverse, a platform for
collaborative 3D content creation, and the
release of the RTX 2000 Ada Generation GPU,
which enhances AI and graphics performance
for professional workstations.
Nvidia’s financial performance has mirrored its
technological advancements. The company’s
108

109

110

annual revenue for the fiscal year 2024 was
reported at $60.9 billion, more than doubling
from the previous year, driven largely by the
demand for AI hardware.
This growth has solidified Nvidia’s position
as an industrial leader in AI, with strategic
partnerships and deployments across various
sectors including cloud computing, automotive,
and healthcare. These achievements highlight
Nvidia’s pivotal role in the ongoing AI revolution,
positioning it at the forefront of technological
innovation and market leadership.
Nvidia’s hardware has also played a
significant role in the cryptocurrency mining
boom, particularly for Bitcoin and other
cryptocurrencies like Ethereum. The company’s
GPUs, known for their parallel processing
capabilities, are highly efficient at the complex
calculations required for mining.
During the cryptocurrency bull markets
of recent years, demand for Nvidia’s GPUs
surged as miners sought to maximize their
mining capabilities.
This demand was so pronounced that Nvidia
introduced specific mining processors, such as
the CMP (Cryptocurrency Mining Processor)
series, to cater to this market while attempting
to alleviate the impact on GPU availability for
gamers and other traditional users.
Despite Nvidia’s attempts to separate gaming
and mining markets, the popularity of their
gaming GPUs for mining continued to influence
sales and market dynamics.
At the peak of the cryptocurrency boom,
GPUs like the GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090

111

were highly sought after by miners, leading to
widespread shortages and inflated prices.
This situation highlighted the dual-use nature of
Nvidia’s products and the challenge of balancing
supply between different high-demand sectors.
The company’s revenue from cryptocurrency
mining, although not as publicly emphasized
as its other sectors, contributed significantly
to its overall financial performance during
these periods.
However, the volatility of the cryptocurrency
market also posed challenges. Fluctuations
in cryptocurrency prices often led to
corresponding swings in demand for mining
hardware. For instance, the downturn in
cryptocurrency prices in late 2022 and 2023
saw a reduction in mining activity, which in turn
affected Nvidia’s sales in this segment.
To address these challenges, Nvidia has
continued to innovate and adapt its strategies,
including implementing hash rate limiters on
gaming GPUs to discourage their use for mining,
thereby attempting to maintain a steady supply
for their core gaming and professional markets.
This dynamic interaction between Nvidia’s
hardware and the cryptocurrency mining
industry underscores the broader impact
of emerging technologies on traditional
hardware markets.
Nvidia has seen soaring demand for its
semiconductors, which are used to power
artificial intelligence applications. Revenue more
than tripled in the latest quarter from the same
period a year earlier.

112

113

114

NUMBERS
The company’s journey to be one of the most
prominent players in AI has produced some eyepopping numbers. Here’s a look:

$3.334 TRILLION
Nvidia’s total market value this week. It edged
past Microsoft ($3.317 trillion). Apple is the third
most-valuable company ($3.286 trillion). One
year ago, the company had just crossed the $1
trillion threshold.

$113 BILLION
The one-day increase in Nvidia’s market value
on Tuesday.

$135.58
Nvidia’s closing stock price Tuesday. Two weeks
ago the stock traded at more than $1,200, but
the company completed a 10-for-1 stock split
after trading closed on June 7. That gave each
investor nine additional shares for every share
they already owned. Companies with a high
stock price often conduct stock splits to make
the stock more affordable for investors.

$119.9 BILLION
Analysts’ estimate for Nvidia’s revenue for the
fiscal year that ends in January 2025. That would
be about double its revenue for fiscal 2024
and more than four times its receipts the year
before that.

115

53.4%
Nvidia’s estimated net margin, or the percentage
of revenue that gets turned into profit. Looked
at another way, about 53 cents of every $1 in
revenue Nvidia took in last year went to its
bottom line. By comparison, Apple’s net margin
was 26.3% in its most recent quarter and
Microsoft’s was 36.4%. Both those companies
have significantly higher revenue than
Nvidia, however.

32%
How much of the S&P 500’s gain for the year
through May came only from Nvidia.

ELEVEN
The number of companies other than Nvidia
that were once the most valuable in the S&P
500, going back to 1926, according to S&P
Dow Jones Indices. Among them: AT&T, IBM
and Walmart.

116

117

Image: Mariam Zuhaib

120

OPENAI APPOINTS
FORMER TOP US
CYBERWARRIOR
PAUL NAKASONE
TO ITS BOARD
OF DIRECTORS

121

OpenAI has appointed a former top U.S.
cyberwarrior and intelligence official to its board
of directors, saying he will help protect the
ChatGPT maker from “increasingly sophisticated
bad actors.”
Retired Army Gen. Paul Nakasone was the
commander of U.S. Cyber Command and the
director of the National Security Agency before
stepping down earlier this year.
He joins an OpenAI board of directors that’s still
picking up new members after upheaval at the
San Francisco artificial intelligence company
forced a reset of the board’s leadership last year.
The previous board had abruptly fired CEO
Sam Altman and then was itself replaced as he
returned to his CEO role days later.
OpenAI reinstated Altman to its board
of directors in March and said it had “full
confidence” in his leadership after the conclusion
of an outside investigation into the company’s
turmoil. OpenAI’s board is technically a nonprofit
but also governs its rapidly growing business.

122

Image: Sgt. Alexandre Montes

123

124

125

Image: Andrew Harnik

126

Nakasone is also joining OpenAI’s new safety
and security committee — a group that’s
supposed to advise the full board on “critical
safety and security decisions” for its projects and
operations. The safety group replaced an earlier
safety team that was disbanded after several of
its leaders quit.
Nakasone was already leading the Army branch
of U.S. Cyber Command when then-President
Donald Trump in 2018 picked him to be director
of the NSA, one of the nation’s top intelligence
posts, and head of U.S. Cyber Command. He
maintained the dual roles when President Joe
Biden took office in 2021. He retired in February.

127

128

BOEING CEO
DEFENDS HIS SAFETY
RECORD, SPARS
WITH SENATORS
AND APOLOGIZES
TO CRASH VICTIMS’
RELATIVES

129

Boeing CEO David Calhoun defended the
company’s safety record during a contentious
Senate hearing this week, while lawmakers
accused him of placing profits over safety, failing
to protect whistleblowers, and even getting paid
too much.
Relatives of people who died in two crashes of
Boeing 737 Max jetliners were in the room, some
holding photos of their loved ones, to remind the
CEO of the stakes. Calhoun began his remarks
by standing, turning to face the families, and
apologizing “for the grief that we have caused,”
and vowing to focus on safety.
Calhoun’s appearance was the first before
Congress by any high-ranking Boeing official
since a panel blew out of a 737 Max during an
Alaska Airlines flight in January. No one was
seriously injured in the incident, but it raised
fresh concerns about the company’s bestselling commercial aircraft.
The tone of the hearing before the Senate
investigations subcommittee was set hours earlier,
when the panel released a 204-page report with
new allegations from a whistleblower who said he
worries that defective parts could be going into
737s. The whistleblower is the latest in a string
of current and former Boeing employees to raise
concerns about the company’s manufacturing
processes, which federal officials are investigating.
“This hearing is a moment of reckoning,”
the subcommittee chairman, Richard
Blumenthal, D-Conn., said. “It’s about a
company, a once iconic company, that
somehow lost its way.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., placed the blame
squarely on Calhoun, saying that the man
130

131

who became CEO in January 2020 had been
too focused on the bottom line.
“You are cutting corners, you are eliminating
safety procedures, you are sticking it to your
employees, you are cutting back jobs because you
are trying to squeeze very piece of profit you can
out of this company,” Hawley said, his voice rising.
“You are strip-mining Boeing.”
Hawley repeatedly mentioned Calhoun’s
compensation for last year, valued at $32.8 million,
and asked the CEO why he hasn’t resigned.
“Senator, I’m sticking this through. I’m proud of
having taken this job. I’m proud of our safety
record, and I’m proud of our Boeing people,”
replied Calhoun, who has announced that he will
step down by year end.
Hawley interrupted. “You’re proud of the safety
record?” he asked with incredulity.
“I am proud of every action we have taken,”
Calhoun responded.
Senators pressed Calhoun about accusations that
Boeing managers retaliated against employees
who reported safety concerns. They asked the
CEO if he ever spoke with any whistleblowers. He
replied that he had not, but agreed it would be a
good idea.
The latest whistleblower, Sam Mohawk, a quality
assurance investigator at Boeing’s 737 assembly
plant near Seattle, told the subcommittee that
“nonconforming” parts — ones that could be
defective or aren’t properly documented — could
be winding up in 737 Max jets.
Potentially more troubling for the company,
Mohawk charged that Boeing hid evidence after
the Federal Aviation Administration told the
132

133

134

company it planned to inspect the plant in
June 2023.
“Once Boeing received such a notice, it ordered
the majority of the (nonconforming) parts that
were being stored outside to be moved to another
location,” Mohawk said, according to the report.
“Approximately 80% of the parts were moved to
avoid the watchful eyes of the FAA inspectors.”
The parts were later moved back or lost, Mohawk
said. They included rudders, wing flaps and other
parts that are crucial in controlling a plane.
A Boeing spokesperson said the company got the
subcommittee report late Monday night and was
reviewing the claims.
The FAA said it would “thoroughly investigate” the
allegations. A spokesperson said the agency has
received more reports of safety concerns from
Boeing employees since the Jan. 5 blowout on the
Alaska Airlines Max.
The 737 Max has a troubled history. After Max jets
crashed in 2018 in Indonesia and 2019 in Ethiopia,
killing 346 people, the FAA and other regulators
grounded the aircraft worldwide for more than
a year and a half. The Justice Department is
considering whether to prosecute Boeing for
violating terms of a settlement it reached with the
company in 2021 over allegations that it misled
regulators who approved the plane.
Mohawk told the Senate subcommittee that the
number of unacceptable parts has exploded
since production of the Max resumed following
the crashes. He said the increase led supervisors
to tell him and other workers to “cancel” records
that indicated the parts were not suitable to be
installed on planes.

135

The FAA briefly grounded some Max planes again
after January’s mid-air blowout of a plug covering
an emergency exit on the Alaska Airlines plane.
The agency and the National Transportation
Safety Board opened separate investigations of
Boeing that are continuing.
Calhoun said Boeing has responded to the
Alaska accident by slowing production,
encouraging employees to report safety
concerns, stopping assembly lines for a day to
let workers talk about safety, and appointing
a retired Navy admiral to lead a quality
review. Late last month, Boeing delivered an
improvement plan ordered by the FAA.
Calhoun defended the company’s safety culture
while acknowledging that it “is far from perfect.”
The drumbeat of bad news for Boeing has
continued in the past week. The FAA said it was
investigating how falsely documented titanium
parts got into Boeing’s supply chain, the company
disclosed that fasteners were incorrectly installed
on the fuselages of some jets, and federal officials
examined “substantial” damage to a Southwest
Airlines 737 Max after an unusual mid-flight
control issue.
Howard McKenzie, Boeing’s chief engineer, said
during the hearing that the issue affecting the
Southwest plane — which he did not describe in
detail — was limited to that plane.
Blumenthal first asked Calhoun to appear before the
Senate subcommittee after another whistleblower, a
Boeing quality engineer, claimed that manufacturing
mistakes were raising safety risks on two of the
biggest Boeing planes, the 787 Dreamliner and the
777. He said the company needed to explain why the
public should be confident about Boeing’s work.
136

137

138

Boeing pushed back against the whistleblower’s
claims, saying that extensive testing and
inspections showed none of the problems that
the engineer had predicted.
The Justice Department determined last month
that Boeing violated a 2021 settlement that
shielded the company from prosecution for
fraud for allegedly misleading regulators who
approved the 737 Max. A top department official
said Boeing failed to make changes to detect and
prevent future violations of anti-fraud laws.
Prosecutors have until July 7 to decide
what to do next. Blumenthal said there is
“mounting evidence” that the company
should be prosecuted.
Families of the victims of the Max crashes have
pushed the Justice Department repeatedly to
charge the company and individual executives.
They want a federal judge in Texas to throw out
the 2021 deferred-prosecution agreement or DPA
— essentially a plea deal — that allowed Boeing
to avoid being tried for fraud in connection with
the Max.
“They had gotten away with murder because
they had that DPA and they had three years to
progress ... to improve their safety process, and
actually they did nothing,” Catherine Berthet,
whose daughter Camille died in the second
crash, said outside the Capitol. “Now they have
to be made accountable.”

139

FISKER FILES FOR
BANKRUPTCY
PROTECTION, THE
SECOND ELECTRIC
VEHICLE MAKER
TO DO SO IN THE
PAST YEAR

142

143

144

Electric vehicle maker Fisker filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection, the second electric startup
to do so in the last year as even industry leaders
struggle to lure more buyers beyond the early
adapters of the technology.
Fisker Group Inc. said in a filing with the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court in Delaware that its estimated
assets are between $500 million and $1 billion. It
estimated liabilities are between $100 million and
$500 million, with between 200 and 999 creditors.
“Like other companies in the electric vehicle
industry, we have faced various market and
macroeconomic headwinds that have impacted
our ability to operate efficiently,” the company
said in a prepared statement this week. “After
evaluating all options for our business, we
determined that proceeding with a sale of our
assets under Chapter 11 is the most viable path
forward for the company.”
The 7-year-old electric car company was founded
by designer Henrik Fisker, who has been its
chairman and CEO. He designed the company’s
2022 Ocean all electric SUV as well as the luxury
plug-in hybrid Karma that was launched in 2011.
Fisker is also known for leading the development
of the BMW Z8 sports car.
Fisker, based in Manhattan Beach, California,
and other startups like Lordstown Motors
Corp., sought to take on industry leaders like
Tesla, and big automakers in Detroit, which
have entered the market aggressively.
However, EV sales have slowed as manufacturers
have attempted to push electric vehicles into the
mainstream. Those sales have been curbed both by
a lack of infrastructure, as well as rising inflation that
have made taking on car loans more expensive.
145

146

Electric vehicles grew only 3.3% to nearly 270,000
during the first three months of this year, far
below the 47% growth that fueled record sales
and a 7.6% market share last year, according to
J.D. Power. The slowdown, led by Tesla, confirms
automakers’ fears that they moved too quickly to
pursue EV buyers. The EV share of total U.S. sales
fell to 7.15% in the first quarter.
That has led to huge price cuts and job cuts at
leading companies like Tesla.
Another electric startup, Rivian, said this year
that it was pausing construction of its $5 billion
manufacturing plant in Georgia to speed
production and save money.
Lordstown sought bankruptcy protection last
summer, as it dealt with funding difficulties.
Early this year Fisker received a warning from
the New York Stock Exchange after its stock
dipped below $1. The company’s shares were
not immediately delisted and Fisker said at the
time that it planned to remain listed on the
NYSE and was looking at all available options
to regain compliance with NYSE’s continued
listing standards.
Fisker Inc. and other U.S. subsidiaries, along with
subsidiaries outside the U.S., are not currently
included in the bankruptcy filing. Fisker says that
it’s in advanced talks with financial stakeholders
about debtor-in-possession financing and selling
its assets.

147

CALIFORNIA FINES
AMAZON NEARLY
$6M, ALLEGING
ILLEGAL WORK
QUOTAS AT 2
WAREHOUSES

150

151

California has fined Amazon a total of $5.9
million, alleging the e-commerce giant worked
warehouse employees so hard that it put their
safety at risk, officials said this week.
The two citations issued in May by the California
Labor Commissioner’s Office said Amazon.com
Services LLC ran afoul of the state’s Warehouse
Quota Law at facilities in Riverside and San
Bernardino counties, east of Los Angeles.
The law, which took effect in 2022, “requires
warehouse employers to provide employees
written notice of any quotas they must follow,
including the number of tasks they need to
perform per hour and any discipline that could
come” from not meeting the requirements, the
labor commissioner’s office said in a statement.
Amazon was fined $1.2 million at a warehouse in
Redlands and $4.7 million at another in nearby
Moreno Valley.
The company said that it disagrees with the
allegations and has appealed the citations.
“The truth is, we don’t have fixed quotas. At
Amazon, individual performance is evaluated
over a long period of time, in relation to how
the entire site’s team is performing,” company
spokesperson Maureen Lynch Vogel said
in a statement. “Employees can — and are
encouraged to — review their performance
whenever they wish. They can always talk to
a manager if they’re having trouble finding
the information.”
The citations allege that Amazon failed to
provide written notice of quotas.

152

153

154

Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said
Amazon engaged in “exactly the kind of system”
that the quotas law was put in place to prevent.
“Undisclosed quotas expose workers to
increased pressure to work faster and can lead
to higher injury rates and other violations
by forcing workers to skip breaks,” she
said in a statement.
The agency began investigating in 2022 after
employees at the two Southern California
facilities reported that they were subject to
unfair quota practices, said the Warehouse
Worker Resource Center, a nonprofit that
advocates for improving working conditions.
Similar legislation has been enacted
in Minnesota, New York, Oregon and
Washington, the resource center said. In
May, U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, a Democrat
from Massachusetts, introduced a federal
version of the warehouse worker protection
act in Congress.

155

JUDGE OVERSEEING
NFL ‘SUNDAY
TICKET’
TRIAL VOICES
FRUSTRATIONS
OVER THE CASE

156

157

158

The federal judge presiding over the class-action
lawsuit filed by “Sunday Ticket” subscribers
against the NFL voiced frustrations Tuesday with
the way the plaintiffs’ attorneys have handled
their side of the case.
Before Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones took
the stand Tuesday for a second day of testimony,
U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez said the
premise of the case was simple — who wouldn’t
see the frustration of a Seattle Seahawks fan
living in Los Angeles not being able to see their
favorite team without buying a subscription for
all the Sunday afternoon out-of-market games.
“The way you have tried this case is far from
simple,” Gutierrez told attorneys representing
the subscribers. “This case has turned into 25
hours of depositions and gobbledygook. ...
This case has gone in a direction it shouldn’t
have gone.”
The class-action, which covers 2.4 million
residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses
who paid for the package of out-of-market
games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons,
claims the league broke antitrust laws by selling
its package of Sunday games aired on CBS and
Fox at an inflated price. The subscribers also say
the league restricted competition by offering
“Sunday Ticket” only on a satellite provider.
The NFL maintains it has the right to sell
“Sunday Ticket” under its antitrust exemption for
broadcasting. The plaintiffs say that only covers
over-the-air broadcasts and not pay TV.
If the NFL is found liable, a jury could award
$7 billion in damages, but that number could
balloon to $21 billion because antitrust cases
can triple damages.
159

Tuesday was not the first time Gutierrez has
expressed frustration with the plaintiffs’ side.
On Monday, he admonished their attorneys for
repeatedly describing past testimony, which he
considered a waste of time.
Before Jones resumed his testimony, Gutierrez
expressed doubts about plaintiffs’ attorneys
citing Jerry Jones’ lawsuit against the NFL in
1995, which challenged the league’s licensing
and sponsorship procedures.
“I don’t know what you are doing, but marketing
is not media,” Gutierrez said.
Later in his testimony, Jones said he sued the
NFL because the league sued him. Both sides
eventually settled out of court.
Jones’ filing against the NFL in 1994 said he
supported the league’s model for negotiating
television contracts and the revenue-sharing
agreements in place.
When asked Tuesday if teams should be able to
sell their out-of-market television rights, Jones
said no because “it would undermine the free TV
model we have now.”
Retired CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus also
testified, reiterating during his testimony that he
was a not fan of “Sunday Ticket” or the NFL’s Red
Zone channel because he believes it infringes on
the exclusivity CBS has in local markets.
CBS and Fox both requested in negotiations that
“Sunday Ticket” be sold as a premium package.
DirecTV, and not the NFL, set the prices during
the class-action period.
The league has language in television contracts
with CBS and Fox that the “resale packages
(Sunday Ticket) are to be marketed as premium
160

161

162

products for avid league fans that satisfy
complementary demand to the offering of inmarket games.”
There is additional language that prohibits
the selling of individual games on a
pay-per-view basis.
The NFL received a rights fee from DirecTV for
the package from 1994 through 2022. Google’s
YouTube TV acquired “Sunday Ticket” rights for
seven seasons, beginning last year.
Jamie Dyckes, a DirecTV marketing official, said
during a deposition that MLB, the NBA and
the NHL had a suggested retail price for their
out-of-market packages and that there was
revenue sharing between the leagues and the
carriers, since their packages were distributed on
multiple platforms.
Testimony will continue, with closing statements
scheduled early next week. Gutierrez said he
would consider invoking a rule where the court
can find that a jury does not have sufficient
evidence to rule for a party in a case.
“I’m struggling with the plaintiffs’ case,” he said.

163

The Real Housewives of New Jersey

164

GIFTS & RECEIPTS
THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NEW JERSEY

MILK DUDS, A RING, AND A BABY
TEEN MOM: THE NEXT CHAPTER

REUNION, PT. 2
SUMMER HOUSE

THE HEIRS OF THE DRAGON
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON

MOST ELIGIBLE SUPERMAN
MY ADVENTURES WITH SUPERMAN

ENTER THE CIRCLE
ALONE

THE MAGICAL RED JEWEL (AKA TYLER...)
SMILING FRIENDS

ALL FOR THE D
TYLER PERRY’S SISTAS

RUN TO YOU
WHEN CALLS THE HEART

ECW
BIOGRAPHY: WWE LEGENDS

165

JENEVA ROSE

166

SWAN SONG
ELIN HILDERBRAND

ERUPTION
MICHAEL CRICHTON & JAMES PATTERSON

TELL NO ONE
HARLAN COBEN

THE WOMAN
KRISTIN HANNAH

THE PERFECT MARRIAGE
JENEVA ROSE

CAMINO GHOSTS
JOHN GRISHAM

BRIDGERTON
JULIA QUINN

PRESUMED INNOCENT
SCOTT TUROW

NOT IN LOVE
ALI HAZELWOOD

ROMANCING MISTER BRIDGERTO
JULIA QUINN

167

Zach Bryan

168

A BAR SONG (TIPSY)
SHABOOZEY

I AM NOT OKAY
JELLY ROLL

I HAD SOME HELP (FEAT. MORGAN WALLEN)
POST MALONE

HOUDINI
EMINEM

ME VS. YOU
TOM MACDONALD

WHISKEY WHISKEY (FEAT. MORGAN...)
MONEYBAGG YO

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
SABRINA CARPENTER

TOO SWEET
HOZIER

BEAUTIFUL THINGS
BENSON BOONE

PINK SKIES
ZACH BRYAN

169

CHAPPELL ROA

170

FATHERS & SONS
LUKE COMBS

THE RISE AND FALL OF A MIDWEST ...
CHAPPELL ROA

BRIDGERTON SEASON THREE...
VARIOUS ARTISTS

HARDSTONE PSYCHO
DON TOLIVER

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT ...
TAYLOR SWIFT

DOPAMINE
NORMANI

SPEAK NOW
MONEYBAGG YO

WHERE I’VE BEEN, ISN’T WHERE I’M...
SHABOOZEY

STEP
LAY

FOREVER
BON JOVI

171

Coldplay

172

AFILMFORTHEFUTURE - TRAILER
COLDPLAY

HOUDINI
EMINEM

THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER (LIVE...)
CHRIS STAPLETON

PRAISE (FEAT. BRANDON LAKE...)
ELEVATION WORSHIP

THE BOY IS MINE
ARIANA GRANDE

ESPRESSO
SABRINA CARPENTER

AIN’T NO LOVE IN OKLAHOMA (FROM...)
LUKE COMBS

RIGHT NOW
NEWJEANS

IT’S FIVE O’ CLOCK SOMEWHERE
ALAN JACKSON & JIMMY BUFFETT

VALERIE
AMY WINEHOUSE & MARK RONSON

173

FEDERAL TRADE
COMMISSION
REFERS
COMPLAINT
ABOUT TIKTOK’S
ADHERENCE TO
CHILD PRIVACY
LAW TO THE DOJ

The Federal Trade Commission has referred a
complaint against TikTok and its parent company,
ByteDance, to the Department of Justice.
The FTC said in a statement this week that
it investigated the two companies and
“uncovered reason to believe” they are
“violating or are about to violate” the Children’s
Online Privacy Protection Act, a federal law
which requires kid-oriented apps and websites
to get parental consent before collecting
personal information of children under 13.

174

175

176

177

The agency also cited potential violations
of the FTC Act, the law that outlines its
enforcement responsibilities.
A person familiar with the matter told in March
that the agency was looking into whether
TikTok violated a prohibition against “unfair and
deceptive” business practices by denying that
individuals in China had access to U.S. user data.
TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek said the
company has been working with the FTC for
more than a year to address its concerns and was
“disappointed the agency is pursuing litigation
instead of continuing to work with us on a
reasonable solution.”
“We strongly disagree with the FTC’s allegations,
many of which relate to past events and practices
that are factually inaccurate or have been
addressed,” Haurek said in a statement.
The FTC said its investigation began in connection
with a compliance review of a 2019 settlement
between the agency and Musical.y, the TikTok
predecessor that was acquired by ByteDance in
2017. Under the settlement, Musical.y agreed to
pay $5.7 million to resolve allegations that the
company violated the children’s privacy law.
The agency said that while it does not typically
publicize complaints that are referred to the
DOJ, it determined doing so this time was “in
the public interest.”
Citing national security concerns, U.S.
lawmakers passed a law in April that requires
TikTok to be sold to an approved buyer or face
a nationwide ban. TikTok and Beijing-based
ByteDance have sued to overturn the law,
which President Joe Biden signed.

178

179

CALIFORNIA
GOVERNOR WANTS
TO RESTRICT
SMARTPHONE
USAGE IN
SCHOOLS

180

181

182

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced this
week that he wants to restrict students’ usage of
smartphones during the school day, citing the
mental health risks of social media.
The announcement, which was first reported by
Politico, comes a day after U.S. Surgeon General
Vivek Murthy called on Congress to require
warning labels on social media platforms and
their effects on young people. Newsom said he
plans to build on a law he signed in 2019 that
authorized school districts to limit or ban the use
of smartphones by students while at school or
under the supervision of a school employee.
“As the Surgeon General affirmed, social media
is harming the mental health of our youth,” the
Democratic governor said in a statement. “I
look forward to working with the Legislature
to restrict the use of smartphones during the
school day. When children and teens are in
school, they should be focused on their studies
— not their screens.”
Newsom’s office did not provide further details
on the proposal. But the California School Boards
Association said any regulations over student
smartphone use should be left up to school
districts, not the state.
“We support legislation which empowers school
leaders to make policy decisions at a local level
that reflect their community’s concerns and
what’s necessary to support their students,”
spokesperson Troy Flint said.
Newsom’s announcement comes amid growing
debate across the country over how to address
the impacts of social media and smartphone
usage, particularly on young people. Some teens

183

have pledged to stay off social media to improve
their mental health and to help them focus on
schoolwork and extracurricular activities.
In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier
this year signed one of the most restrictive bans
in the nation on children’s use of social media. The
New York state Legislature passed a bill earlier this
month that would allow parents to block their
kids from getting social media posts suggested to
them by the platform’s algorithm.
In California, a proposal to fine social media
platforms for addicting children has failed to
become law in recent years. But a bill by state Sen.
Nancy Skinner, a Democrat representing Berkeley,
that would ban online platforms from providing
addictive feeds to minors passed the state Senate
in May and is set for a committee hearing in the
Assembly next month.
The Los Angeles Unified School District
board voted for the district to develop
policies banning students’ use of cell phones
throughout the school day, with some
exceptions. Board Member Nick Melvoin, who
was a teacher and visits school campuses
regularly, said he’s been “struck” by how
“students are glued to their cell phones, not
unlike adults.”
“When I talk to teachers and students and parents
and principals, I also hear the same, which is that
more and more time is being spent on policing
student phone use,” he said at the meeting.
“There’s not coherent enforcement, and they’re
looking for some support from the board and
from the district.”
State Sen. Henry Stern, a Democrat representing
part of the Los Angeles area, introduced a bill this
184

185

year to expand school districts’ authority to
limit students’ social media usage at schools.
Stern said he’d be willing to pull his bill, which
already passed the Senate, if lawmakers and
Newsom can come up with a better solution.
Stern said he texted Newsom to thank him
after the governor’s announcement.
“It’s just too hard for every teacher, every school,
or every parent to have to figure this out on
their own,” Stern said. “There’s some times where
government just has to step in and make some
bigger rules of the road.”

186

187

KEEPING
CHILDREN SAFE
ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
WHAT PARENTS
SHOULD KNOW
TO PROTECT
THEIR KIDS

At what age should kids be on social media?
Should they be on it at all? If they aren’t, will they
be social pariahs? Should parents monitor their
conversations? Do parental controls work?
Navigating social media as a parent — not to
mention a child — is not easy. Using social media
platforms is still the default for most American
teenagers, with the Pew Research Center
reporting that 58% of teens are daily users of
TikTok, including 17% who describe their TikTok
use as almost constant. About half of teens use
Snapchat and Instagram daily, with near-constant
use at 14% and 8% for each, respectively.
188

189

190

But parents — and even some teens themselves
— are growing increasingly concerned about
the effects of social media use on young people.
Lawmakers have taken notice and have held
multiple congressional hearings on child online
safety. But even with apparent bipartisan unity,
making laws and regulating companies takes
time. So far, no regulation has passed.
What are parents — and teens — supposed to do
in the meantime? Here are some tips on staying
safe, communicating and setting limits on social
media — for kids as well as their parents.

IS 13 THE MAGIC AGE FOR
SOCIAL MEDIA?
There’s already, technically, a rule that prohibits
kids under 13 from using platforms that
advertise to them without parental consent:
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
that went into effect in 2000, before today’s
teenagers were even born.

191

The goal was to protect kids’ online privacy
by requiring websites and online services to
disclose clear privacy policies and get parents’
consent before gathering personal information
on their kids, among other things. To comply,
social media companies have generally banned
kids under 13 from signing up for their services.
But times have changed, and online privacy is
no longer the only concern when it comes to
kids being online. There’s bullying, harassment,
the risk of developing eating disorders, suicidal
thoughts or worse.
For years, there has been a push among
parents, educators and tech experts to wait to
give children phones — and access to social
media — until they are older, such as the “Wait
Until 8th” pledge that has parents sign a pledge
not to give their kids a smartphone until the
8th grade, or about age 13 or 14. Some wait
even later, like 16 or 17.
But neither social media companies nor the
government have done anything concrete to
increase the age limit.
192

193

194

IF THE LAW WON’T BAN KIDS,
SHOULD PARENTS?
“There is not necessarily a magical age,” said
Christine Elgersma, a social media expert at
the nonprofit Common Sense Media. But, she
added, “13 is probably not the best age for kids
to get on social media.”
The laws currently being proposed include
blanket bans on the under-13 set when it comes
to social media. The problem? There’s no easy
way to verify a person’s age when they sign
up for apps and online services. And the apps
popular with teens today were created for adults
first. Companies have added some safeguards
over the years, Elgersma noted, but these are
piecemeal changes, not fundamental rethinks of
the services.
“Developers need to start building apps with
kids in mind,” she said.
Some tech executives, celebrities such as
Jennifer Garner and parents from all walks of
life have resorted to banning their kids from
social media altogether. While the decision is a
personal one that depends on each child and
parent, some experts say this could lead to
isolating kids, who could be left out of activities
and discussions with friends that take place on
social media or chat services.
Another hurdle — kids who have never been on
social media may find themselves ill-equipped
to navigate the platforms when they are
suddenly allowed free rein the day they turn 18.

195

TALK, TALK, TALK
A more realistic and effective approach to
social media, experts say, is a slow, deliberate
onboarding that gives children the tools and
information they need to navigate a world
in which places like TikTok, Instagram and
Snapchat are almost impossible to escape.
“You cannot just expect that the kids will jump
into the world of social media, learn how to
swim on their own,” said Natalie Bazarova, a
professor of communications and director of
the Cornell Social Media Lab. “They need to
have instruction.”
Start early, earlier than you think. Elgersma
suggests that parents go through their own
social media feeds with their children before
they are old enough to be online and have
open discussions on what they see. How would
your child handle a situation where a friend of a
friend asks them to send a photo? Or if they see
an article that makes them so angry they just
want to share it right away?
For older kids, Elgersma says to approach
them with curiosity and interest, “asking about
what their friends are doing or just not asking
direct questions like, ‘What are you doing
on Instagram?’ but rather, ‘Hey, I heard this
influencer is really popular.’” And even if your kid
rolled their eyes it could be a window.”
Don’t say things like “Turn that thing off!” when
your kid has been scrolling for a long time,
says Jean Rogers, the director of the nonprofit
Fairplay’s Screen Time Action Network.
“That’s not respectful,” Rogers said. “It doesn’t
respect that they have a whole life and a whole
world in that device.”
196

197

198

Instead, Rogers suggests asking them questions
about what they do on their phone, and see
what your child is willing to share.
Kids are also likely to respond to parents and
educators “pulling back the curtains” on social
media and the sometimes insidious tools
companies use to keep people online and
engaged, Elgersma said. Watch a documentary
like “The Social Dilemma” that explores
algorithms, dark patterns and dopamine
feedback cycles of social media. Or read up with
them how Facebook and TikTok make money.
“Kids love to be in the know about these things,
and it will give them a sense of power,” she said.
199

200

201

202

SETTING LIMITS
Rogers says most parents have success with
taking their kids’ phones overnight to limit their
scrolling. Occasionally kids might try to sneak
the phone back, but it’s a strategy that tends to
work because kids need a break from the screen.
“They need to an excuse with their peers to not
be on their phone at night,” Rogers said. “They
can blame their parents.”
Parents may need their own limits on phone
use. Rogers said it’s helpful to explain what
you are doing when you do have a phone in
hand around your child so they understand
you are not aimlessly scrolling through sites like
Instagram. Tell your child that you’re checking
work email, looking up a recipe for dinner or
paying a bill so they understand you’re not on
there just for fun. Then tell them when you plan
to put the phone down.

203

204

WHAT ABOUT PARENTAL CONTROLS?
Social media platforms that cater to children
have added an ever-growing array of parental
controls as they face increasing scrutiny over
child safety. For instance, Meta unveiled parental
supervision tools last year that lets parents
set time limits, see who their kid follows or is
followed by, and allows them to track how much
time the minor spends on Instagram. It does not
let parents see message content.
But as with similar tools on other platforms such
as TikTok, the feature is optional, and both kids
and parents have to agree to use it. In order
to nudge kids toward agreeing to set up the
controls, Instagram sends a notice to teens after
they block someone, encouraging them to let
their parents “supervise” their account. The idea
is to grab kids’ attention when they might be
more open to parental guidance.
By making the feature optional, Meta says it is
trying to “balance teen safety and autonomy” as
well as prompt conversations between parents
and their children.

205

206

Such features can be useful for families in which
parents are already involved in their child’s
online life and activities. Experts say that’s not
the reality for many people.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said last
year it’s unfair to expect parents to manage
what their children do with rapidly evolving
technology that “fundamentally changes how
their kids think about themselves, how they
build friendships, how they experience the
world — and technology, by the way, that prior
generations never had to manage.”
Putting all of that on the shoulders of parents, he
said, “is just simply not fair.”

207