From NVIDIA and AMD to automakers like GM, the global chip shortage has affected nearly every industry that depends on computer components, and now it’s even hurting smartphone manufacturers. According to Canalys, phone shipments dropped by six percent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2021. The firm says much of that is due to component shortages that made it impossible for those companies to meet consumer demand.

According to a preliminary estimate, Samsung shipped the most devices in Q3 2021, claiming a 23 percent share of the market. For the South Korean company, the good news is that it’s no worse off now than it was a year ago. Reclaiming the second spot, Apple managed to increase its share of the market by 3 percentage points year-over-year.

Rounding out the top five are a trio of Chinese manufacturers: Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo. Together, they claimed a 34 percent slice of the market. One thing to note about the way Canalys does things is that it includes OnePlus shipments under Oppo, but doesn’t group Oppo with sister company Vivo. All three are owned by Chinese conglomerate BBK Electronics. When you think about things that way, it’s usually only second to Samsung as the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world.

Still, Apple’s performance is impressive when you consider its Q3 numbers only include about one week of iPhone 13 sales. Canalys didn’t speak to the company’s numbers specifically, but it’s likely the strength of Apple’s supply chain helped it thrive in a challenging market. The company is one of TSMC’s most important customers, commanding a sizeable portion of its chip output.

“The chipset famine has truly arrived,” said Canalys Principal Analyst Ben Stanton. “The smartphone industry is striving to maximize production of devices as best it can.” The problem is that the supply shortage is expected to continue well into 2022.

LinkedIn will shut down the Chinese version of its service later this year. The company cited "a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China" as the reasons for closing the local edition of its social network for professionals.

"While we’ve found success in helping Chinese members find jobs and economic opportunity, we have not found that same level of success in the more social aspects of sharing and staying informed," LinkedIn said in a statement. As such, the company isn't abandoning China completely. It's working on a standalone job board app called InJobs, which won't have a social feed or any way to share posts or articles.

LinkedIn agreed to adhere to state restrictions and block certain content when it launched in China in February 2014. However, some signs of trouble bubbled up this year. In March, the company prevented new Chinese users from signing up for a spell while it made sure it was abiding by the countries' laws. A couple of months later, China said 105 apps were violating data collection laws, including LinkedIn.

The Microsoft-owned service was the last major US social network that was still officially operating in China. The country banned Signal and Clubhouse earlier this year. Facebook and Twitter have been blocked there since 2009, and China barred Instagram in 2014.

Over the next year, DoorDash has earmarked $1,000,000 to support local restaurants affected by state or federally declared natural disasters. With help from Hello Alice, it will distribute $10,000 grants to businesses that can use the funds to pay for essential expenses like rent, supplies and payroll in times of need. Starting on November 1st, the companies will process applications every three months, with funding to follow shortly thereafter.

Currently, the program is only available to restaurants in the US. Other eligibility requirements include that a business owner operate three restaurants or less. None of those locations may have generated more than $3 million in revenue over the last 12 months. Notably, a partnership with DoorDash or Caviar isn’t required to apply for the program.

The relief fund comes as food delivery apps face increasing scrutiny from local governments. The City of Chicago recently launched separate lawsuits against DoorDash and GrubHub, accusing the two companies of using bait-and-switch tactics to mislead consumers. New York City also recently passed sweeping legislation aimed at protecting workers of app-based delivery services.

Telecoms have long been accused of trying to skew politics, but a new report suggests AT&T might have gone further than most. According to The Verge, Reutersreports that AT&T is a major backer for One America News Network (OAN), a right-wing media outlet YouTube temporarily banned last November for spreading misinformation. While multiple TV providers carry the channel, an OAN accountant testified in 2020 that 90 percent of OAN parent Herring Networks' revenue, tens of millions of dollars, came through deals with AT&T-owned platforms that included DirecTV.

OAN founder Robert Herring separately testified that AT&T executives inspired him to launch the network in 2013 after looking at a media landscape with relatively few conservative outlets. Court documents also indicated that AT&T offered to buy a 5 percent equity stake in OAN and Herring's lifestyle channel AWE, although the two ended up choosing a different agreement.

OAN even claimed that one AT&T executive, Aaron Slator, offered to put the channel on DirecTV in return for help lobbying for the satellite broadcaster's 2014 merger. The Herring family also supposedly met FCC officials to talk about the merger and speak well of AT&T in news stories. AT&T has denied making the offer linked to Slator, and an OAN lawsuit alleging a breach of that deal supposedly led to AT&T adding OAN to DirecTV's selection.

AT&T rejected claims of undue influence in responses to Reuters and The Verge. The carrier maintained that DirecTV "does not dictate" channel programming, and that DirecTV merger support was "never a condition of or part of" any content carriage agreement. In a Twitter statement, AT&T maintained it "never had a financial interest" in OAN and that the decision to carry the network was now in DirecTV's hands.

The concern, as you might imagine, is that AT&T may have contributed to the spread of misinformation without being held to account like online providers and other companies. On top of YouTube suspending OAN following a violation of COVID-19 misinformation rules, voting machine maker Dominion sued the network in August this year over unproven claims of election fraud. If the report is accurate, there could easily be pressure on AT&T to distance itself from OAN and focus more on its core services than politics.

Facebook is reportedly slowing down its product development so it can conduct “reputational reviews” in the wake of whistleblower Frances Haugen’s disclosures about the company.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook has “put a hold on some work on existing products” while a team of employees analyze how the work could further damage their reputation. The group is looking at potential negative effects on children, as well as criticism the company could face.

Zuckerberg alluded to the change in a statement Tuesday — his first since the whistleblower’s disclosures became public. “I believe that over the long term if we keep trying to do what's right and delivering experiences that improve people's lives, it will be better for our community and our business,” he wrote. “I've asked leaders across the company to do deep dives on our work across many areas over the next few days so you can see everything that we're doing to get there.”

The change is one of the clearest signs yet of how much Haugen’s disclosures have rocked the company in recent weeks. Facebook has already “paused” its work on an Instagram Kids app, after a WSJ report on company research showing Instagram is harmful to some teens’ mental health. Though Facebook has attempted to downplay its own research, pressure has mounted since Haugen, a former product manager, stepped forward and testified in a three-hour Senate hearing this week.

She told lawmakers Zuckerberg and other executives have prioritized the social network’s growth over users’ safety, and that the company has misled the public about its AI-based moderation technology. She’s called on Facebook to make its research more widely available, and urged Congress to impose new regulations on the platform.

The European Parliament has called on lawmakers in the European Union to ban automated facial recognition in public spaces and to enforce strict safeguards for police use of artificial intelligence. MEPs voted in favor of the non-binding resolution by 377-248, with 62 abstentions.

The MEPs said citizens should only be monitored when they're suspected of a crime. They cited concerns over algorithmic bias in AI and argued that both human supervision and legal protections are required to avoid discrimination. The politicians noted there's evidence suggesting AI-based identification systems misidentify minority ethnic groups, LGBTI+ people, seniors and women at higher rates. As a result, the MEPs say, "algorithms should be transparent, traceable and sufficiently documented," with open-source options being used wherever possible.

The resolution states that "those subject to AI-powered systems must have recourse to remedy." Under EU law, according to the document, "a person has the right not to be subjected to a decision which produces legal effects concerning them or significantly affects them and is based solely on automated data processing."

In addition, the MEPs called on EU officials to ban private facial recognition databases (some law enforcement agencies in Europe are using Clearview AI's one), as well as "predictive policing based on behavioral data." They also urged the European Commission to prohibit social scoring or social credit systems and said the iBorderCtrl virtual border agent and other border control systems that use automated recognition should be shut down.

The approval of the resolution follows similar calls by EU data protection regulators this summer. The European Data Protection Board and the European Data Protection Supervisor said the EC should ban AI systems from using biometrics to categorize people "into clusters based on ethnicity, gender, political or sexual orientation," or any other classifications that could lead to discrimination.

In April, the EC proposed a bill called the Artificial Intelligence Act, which would introduce a sweeping regulatory framework for AI. Among the measures are a ban on remote biometric identification (such as facial recognition) in public spaces unless it's being used to tackle major crimes, including terrorism and kidnappings.

Facebook is once again asking a federal judge to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust suit against the social network. In a new filing, the company argued that the government “still has no factual basis for alleging monopoly power.”

The FTC originally filed antitrust charges against the company last December. A judge dismissed that complaint in June, saying the government’s case was “legally insufficient,” but gave the FTC a chance to refile. The FTC filed a new complaint in August. The amended complaint relied on the same arguments but was more detailed than the initial suit. In it, the government argued that Facebook used its acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram to quash rivals it viewed as an “existential threat.”

“The complaint alleges that after repeated failed attempts to develop innovative mobile features for its network, Facebook instead resorted to an illegal buy-or-bury scheme to maintain its dominance,” the FTC wrote in a statement at the time. “Lacking serious competition, Facebook has been able to hone a surveillance-based advertising model and impose ever-increasing burdens on its users.”

The judge has until November 17th to respond. Even if Facebook is successful in getting the new FTC suit dismissed, the company is still facing numerous other investigations into its policies and practices. European regulators have also opened an antitrust probe into the social network, and the UK’s competition watchdog is also reportedly investigating the company.Meanwhile, in the US, Facebook is still reeling from the fallout of a whistleblower who has provided thousands of documents to Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission, which she says prove the company “chooses profit over safety.” The whistleblower, former product manager Frances Haugen, is scheduled to testify at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday morning.

Disney and Scarlett Johansson are no longer on the outs. The parties have reached a settlement for the lawsuit Johansson filed over the hybrid release strategy used for Black Widow. If you'll recall, the actor sued Disney over the company's decision to release her movie in theaters and on Disney+ at the same time, accusing the entertainment giant of breach of contract. 

Johansson's camp argued that Black Widow was supposed to be released in theaters exclusively under her deal with Marvel. According to the lawsuit she filed, she could lose as much as $50 million due to the hybrid release, seeing as her compensation is tied directly with the movie's box office success and doesn't include a cut from what Disney would make from streaming. People have had to pay $30 for a Premier Access pass to watch the movie on Disney+, and the company said Black Widow earned $60 million from streaming during its opening weekend. 

Her lawsuit also said that her camp tried to contact Disney and Marvel to re-negotiate their deal, but they were allegedly unresponsive. Neither party disclosed the terms of their agreement, but both issued a statement mentioning future collaborations. Alan Bergman, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, said he looks "forward to working together on a number of upcoming projects, including Disney's Tower of Terror."

Meanwhile, entertainment workers are gearing up for a strike because studios like Disney are rapidly producing content after pandemic-related restrictions had lifted. The situation led to poor working conditions with long hours and no breaks for production crew. Entertainment unions are hoping to convince studios to make changes, including ending the lower pay scale for smaller streaming services. Under the current rules, streaming services with fewer than 20 million subscribers like Apple TV+ does can pay their workers lower wages.

Another major automaker has revealed plans to move entirely to electric vehicles within the next decade. Rolls-Royce is the latest one to make the pledge, following other luxury brands such as Jaguar, Lincoln and Bentley.

Spectre, Rolls-Royce's first EV (and one that sounds like it's rolling off the set of a James Bond film), will arrive in the last quarter of 2023. The BMW brand plans to start testing the vehicle soon, according to Reuters. Rolls-Royce teased the EV in some images, but it literally kept the Spectre's design under wraps.

Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos said that by 2030, the automaker "will no longer be in the business of producing or selling any internal combustion engine products." Sibling brand Mini has made a similar pledge. Parent company BMW has not set a date for making a full switch to EVs, though it aims to move half of production to electric models by the end of this decade.

Add the United Kingdom to the list of countries that says an artificial intelligence can’t be legally credited as an inventor. Per the BBC, the UK Court of Appeal recently ruled against Dr Stephen Thaler in a case involving the country’s Intellectual Property Office. In 2018, Thaler filed two patent applications in which he didn’t list himself as the creator of the inventions mentioned in the documents. Instead, he put down his AI DABUS and said the patent should go to him “by ownership of the creativity machine.”

The Intellectual Property Office told Thaler he had to list a real person on the application. When he didn’t do that, the agency decided he had withdrawn from the process. Thaler took the case to the UK’s High Court. The body ruled against him, leading to the eventual appeal. "Only a person can have rights. A machine cannot," Lady Justice Elisabeth Laing of the Appeal Court wrote in her judgment. "A patent is a statutory right and it can only be granted to a person."

Thaler has filed similar legal challenges in other countries, and the results so far have been mixed. In August, a judge in Australia ruled inventions created by an AI can qualify for a patent. However, only earlier this month, US District Judge Leonie M Brinkema upheld a decision by the US Patent and Trademark Office that said “only natural persons may be named as an inventor in a patent application." Judge Brinkema said there may eventually be a time when AI becomes sophisticated enough to satisfy the accepted definitions of inventorship, but noted, “that time has not yet arrived, and, if it does, it will be up to Congress to decide how, if at all, it wants to expand the scope of patent law.”