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NBA Hall of Famer Paul “The Truth” Pierce agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission over a cryptocurrency he promoted on Twitter. The SEC charged Pierce with making false and misleading promotional statements about EthereumMax (EMAX) and failing to disclose the $244,000 payment in tokens he received for plugging it on social media.

The SEC said Pierce also posted a misleading screenshot of an account showing much more in EMAX holdings and profits than his account had. Pierce also tweeted a link to the currency’s website, including instructions on purchasing EMAX tokens. The government agency found that Pierce violated anti-touting and antifraud provisions of federal securities laws.

The retired NBA legend and former ESPN studio analyst didn’t admit or deny the SEC’s findings as part of the settlement. However, he did agree not to promote crypto for three years. Pierce’s case echoes Kim Kardashian’s $1.26 million settlement in October for plugging the same currency. Pierce and Kardashian were also sued last year for their involvement in the scheme.

“This case is yet another reminder to celebrities: The law requires you to disclose to the public from whom and how much you are getting paid to promote investment in securities, and you can’t lie to investors when you tout a security,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler in a statement today. “When celebrities endorse investment opportunities, including crypto asset securities, investors should be careful to research if the investments are right for them, and they should know why celebrities are making those endorsements.”

Microsoft is reportedly in talks with advertising agencies on how to slot ads into the juiced-up Bing, particularly when it comes to the generative AI-powered chatbot. The company is already testing ads there, according to Reuters, including by slotting in traditional search ads.

The ad agency talks are still said to be in the early stages. Only a small number of users have access to the chatbot, and millions more are on the waitlist. As such, Microsoft may not feel like there's a rush to incorporate ads right away.

Microsoft reportedly anticipates that the chatbot's more conversational approach to delivering information will bring in more users and, in turn, advertisers. Ads in the chatbot might also be featured more prominently than conventional search ads. One place where you might see ads is in the links that the chatbot uses for citations in its responses. Microsoft told Reuters that it will work with partners and advertisers as it starts exploring the potential of the tech for ads.

It's not an enormous surprise that ads are likely on the way to Bing's chatbot and, presumably, Google's Bard. While they've already had some hiccups, generative AI chatbots have the potential to reshape how people find information. Given how important search revenue currently is (more than half of Alphabet's $282.8 billion revenue for 2022 came from search), the companies have little choice but to monetize the chatbots. The most obvious path is figuring out how to stuff ads inside them.

The FBI is dealing with another attack on its digital infrastructure, although the severity isn't yet clear. The law enforcement agency tellsCNN it has "contained" a recent cybersecurity incident on its network. The bureau isn't commenting on the perpetrator, scope or damage, but says it's gathering "additional information."

Sources speaking to CNN claim the intruders targeted a system used to investigate child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The incident involved the high-profile New York Field Office, according to the insiders. Investigators are said to still be investigating the origins of the breach.

This isn't the first such incident in recent memory. In November 2021, an attacker compromised FBI email servers and sent thousands of messages falsely claiming recipients were victims of data breaches. The campaign tried to blame the imaginary attacks on dark web security firm operator Vinny Troia. The FBI never named a culprit, but did patch the flaw that allowed the intrusion.

This may not necessarily be a serious violation. Other campaigns, such as the 2020 Treasury breach and the SolarWinds hack, are known to have exposed sensitive email contacts for officials. Still, the data reportedly at risk makes the attack concerning, even if the impact may be relatively limited.

Tencent is reportedly bailing on its virtual reality hardware plans. Instead, it advised staff at its XR unit, launched last June to make VR hardware and software in the wake of metaverse hype, to “seek other opportunities.”

“Difficulties in achieving quick profitability,” the size of the investment required to make a competitive VR headset and a lack of compelling games and non-gaming apps were the main reasons for the course change, according to Reuters. Although the company had designed a “ring-like hand-held game controller” concept, it didn’t expect the unit to become profitable until 2027. (Despite the strategy shift, Tencent doesn’t plan to disband the unit.) “Under the company's new strategy as a whole, it no longer quite fit in,” a source said.

In addition, it pulled the plug on a planned deal to buy gaming phone maker Black Shark, which would have added 1,000 more people to the team (after hiring 300 last year). The deal had reportedly drawn scrutiny from the Chinese government.

Company sources said Tencent had “dabbled” in VR around seven years ago when consumer VR hype was arguably at its peak. It regained interest in 2021 after watching the success of the Meta Quest and learning about breakthroughs in pancake lenses and displays. However, 2022 was a challenging year for Tencent as it faced regulatory oversight and the fallout from COVID-19 preventative measures.

Zero-click attacks, which can install malware onto a device without the user clicking or tapping on anything, have been on the rise in recent years. To help fend them off, Samsung has developed a feature called Message Guard. It currently works on the Samsung Messages app and Google Messages on Galaxy S23 series devices, which just became available today.

Message Guard runs in the background. It isolates PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF, ICO, WEBP, BMP and WBMP files that you receive in messages from the rest of your device. The tool checks images bit-by-bit and processes them to make sure they can't infect your device with malicious code, Samsung says.

The company plans to gradually roll out Message Guard to other Galaxy smartphones and tablets running One UI 5.1 or higher. Samsung says it will release an update that brings the protections to third-party messaging apps too.

Zero-click attacks can remain undetected by users even as the malicious code siphons their data off to hackers. According to reports, a zero-click attack installed NSO Group spyware like Pegasus onto iPhones used by activists, journalists, government officials and politicians via an exploit.

Samsung's Smart Monitor M8 is one of the more versatile monitors you can buy: More than simply being a display for your computer, it can also function as a sort of tuner-less smart TV and smart home hub. We've seen the device go on sale a handful of times since it arrived last year, but right now the 32-inch display is available for $350 at Amazon, which marks a new all-time low. That beats the previous low by $50 and comes in about $155 below this SKU's average street price in recent months. The discount only appears to apply to the monitor's white finish, however.

As a computer display, the Smart Monitor M8 is decent, but not perfect. It uses a VA panel, so it should deliver solid contrast with deep blacks. It can also get bright enough, reaching up to about 400 nits. Its viewing angles won't be as wide as you'd get from a good IPS screen, however, and its basic 60Hz refresh rate isn't ideal for gaming. It also lacks local dimming for improving that contrast further. The built-in stand isn't especially adjustable, and connection-wise, you only get 2 USB-C ports and a micro-HDMI port. That said, the overall design has a clean, Apple-esque aesthetic, and the panel should look particularly nice in a darker room.

The main appeal of the Smart Monitor M8 is that extra functionality. Samsung's Tizen platform doesn't have the cleanest UI, but here it allows you to stream apps like Netflix, HBO Max, YouTube and the like even when the monitor isn't connected to a PC. A remote is included for navigating the OS, and you can beam content directly from an iPhone via AirPlay. The device can also serve as a SmartThings hub, letting you control a range of smart home gear. There are two built-in speakers, and Samsung includes a detachable webcam in the box — those don't perform particularly great, but they should work in a pinch. 

You should specifically want the Smart Monitor M8's TV features before you take the plunge, but if so, this deal should provide decent value for an all-in-one display. And if you'd like this idea in a smaller size, note that Samsung recently announced a 27-inch version of the Smart Monitor M8 as well.

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Microsoft has spent years teaching AI to play Minecraft, but it's apparently making enough progress that the game needs very little human involvement. Semaforsources claim Microsoft has produced an internal demo that lets you control Minecraft simply by telling AI what to do. You may only have to ask the computer to build a structure and watch as it completes the task by itself.

The developer doesn't have any known plans to release the AI control as part of an official Minecraft release, the insiders say. Microsoft declined to comment. It's not clear what AI model the company is using, though the demo reportedly isn't running on the Prometheus AI technology used in Bing. While the company's frequent partner OpenAI trained a model to play Minecraft using videos last year, that technology isn't necessarily involved here.

Past public demos have been relatively limited. At last year's Build conference, Microsoft showed off a Minecraft assistant that used OpenAI's Codex model to perform relatively straightforward tasks, like having a character approach the player or craft items. Based on the description, the private demo may be considerably more sophisticated.

Don't count on Microsoft and other developers using AI to largely replace conventional gameplay. Minecraft is appealing precisely because you put in much of the construction work yourself, after all. However, the reported demo hints at a future where games might offer bots to handle mundane tasks, or even titles where the challenge revolves around finding the right instructions.

The Federal Trade Commission is opening a dedicated technology office that will place Silicon Valley under more scrutiny and help it stay on top of emerging tech and trends in a fast-moving market. Commissioners voted 4-0 on Thursday to create the office.

Under the direction of chair Lina Khan, the FTC has trained its focus on tech companies. Last year, Epic Games agreed to a record $520 million settlement following FTC allegations that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The agency has also attempted to block Microsoft's proposed takeover of Activision Blizzard and sued to stop NVIDIA from buying ARM (NVIDIA backed out of the deal).

Moreover, the FTC has looked into Amazon's purchases of One Medical and MGM, according to reports. However, the agency failed in an attempt to block Meta's takeover of Within.

“For more than a century, the FTC has worked to keep pace with new markets and ever-changing technologies by building internal expertise," Khan said in a statement. "Our office of technology is a natural next step in ensuring we have the in-house skills needed to fully grasp evolving technologies and market trends as we continue to tackle unlawful business practices and protect Americans.”

The Office of Technology will support FTC’s investigations by the antitrust and consumer protection divisions into business practices and the tech behind them. It will advise FTC staff and commissioners on policy and research. Additionally, it will shine a spotlight on emerging tech and market trends that affect the FTC's work.

“Actually being able to have staff internally to approach these matters and help with subject matter expertise is critical," FTC chief technology officer Stephanie Nguyen, who will lead the department, told The Washington Post. The agency aims to more than double its number of technology-focused staff from 10 to around 22.

“The areas ... we will focus on is to work on cases,” Ngyuen said. “This means understanding the specific market and business models. This means articulating the platform’s technologies and services. And this means analyzing the competition and key market players.”

With more expertise and a deeper understanding of how tech companies operate, the office could help the agency fine-tune subpoenas and the details of settlements to make them more impactful. The team will help fellow FTC bureaus with other cases (most companies use tech, after all), but its core mandate is to keep a close eye on the tech sector.

The move to create the office and expand the agency's roster of tech experts comes at a time of great upheaval in the industry. Microsoft and Google recently detailed plans to embed AI chatbots into their search engines and other services.

It's not just international police trying to hold Terraform Labs accountable for a collapse that took $40 billion from investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Terraform and its CEO Do Kwon with securities fraud for allegedly running a "multi-billion dollar" crypto asset scheme. The blockchain startup purportedly misled investors by falsely claiming that its TerraUSD asset was a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, with high yields (up to 20 percent). The firm also fooled people by claiming its Luna token would gain value thanks to a Korean mobile payment app that used the Terra blockchain to settle transactions.

Terraform and Do Kwon didn't provide "full, fair and truthful disclosure" for their crypto asset securities, SEC chair Gary Gensler says. The charges include registration and anti-fraud violations of the Securities Act and Exchange Act.  

TerraUSD and Luna lost their peg to the US dollar in May 2022, with the prices of both plunging to near-zero. Investors lodged complaints accusing Terraform and Kwon of running a Ponzi scheme, and the freefall contributed to the collapse of the crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. The crypto exchange Binance quickly faced a lawsuit over claims it incorrectly marketed TerraUSD as a safe asset. While Kwon insisted that he wasn't evading capture, he left his native South Korea, refused to face investigators' questions and was put on Interpol's "red notice" list.

The SEC's charges join a string of efforts to crack down on reported fraud among some of the crypto industry's biggest names. Authorities have most notably pursued FTX and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried over that exchange's downfall, while former Celsius Network chief Alex Mashinsky is also accused of defrauding investors. While crypto may still have a future, it's clear government bodies want stricter enforcement of financial laws in this arena.

Fitbit says it's working on enhancing the app experience to focus on providing its users with the best fitness tools, and its efforts to do so apparently include sunsetting a handful of features. Starting on March 27th, open groups, as well as all Fitbit challenges and adventures, will no longer be available on the Google-owned fitness company's app. The company said these features "have limited use," which likely means people haven't been using them enough to warrant their continued development and update. 

Unlike closed groups that are invite-only, open groups allow anybody in the community to join by sending in a request. Users can find them by going to Groups in the Community tab within the app and then finding ones that seem like a good match. People were asking the company to make open groups easier to create when the pandemic lockdowns started — apparently, groups created through the app are automatically made private — and the Fitbit team said they'd consider adding the functionality. But it looks like they chose to remove open groups altogether instead. 

Meanwhile, Fitbit challenges are events users can participate in, such as races to determine who can get the most steps within a day. Adventures incentivize people to walk by unlocking virtual trails like the Valley Loop in Yosemite Park and 180-degree views of landmarks that can be found along them based on their step count. Users will lose any trophy or award they earned from these challenges when they leave the app, but they can download their data before March 27th. Finally, the company will also be killing Fitbit Studio, its tool for creating apps and watchfaces, and will only continue supporting its command-line interface tools for app creation in the near future.