Meta Platforms Inc. said it agreed to pay up to $18 billion in landmark settlements to resolve allegations from multiple U.S. states that the company deliberately designed Facebook and Instagram to encourage compulsive use among young users.

Key parts of the deal, disclosed in a court filing Wednesday, require the company to put new guardrails ...Read more

General Mills has met its own deadline to remove artificial colors from all its cereals, including Trix and Lucky Charms, sold in the United States.

The company said Wednesday it met its deadline to remove these colors by the end of the summer and will strive to remove them from all U.S. grocery store products by the end of 2027.

Opponents of ...Read more

Parents and guardians can now access live video of their teens as they take an Uber.

The San Francisco ride-hailing company has added the new feature to its teen accounts program, designed to ensure safety and transparency when younger riders are traveling alone.

"Live video is the latest way we're updating teen accounts to meet the needs of ...Read more

Bill Gates wants to tax robots.

Specifically, Gates is calling for a tax on artificial intelligence automated systems, like tokens and robots, that employers may use to slowly replace human workers as the technology evolves.

The idea might sound absurd on its face, which the Microsoft co-founder acknowledges in a memo released Wednesday on his...Read more

You might not know it from looking at the cost of everything from burritos to berries, but the U.S. is on the cusp of a supermarket price war.

Walmart Inc. said last week that it would use most of its $2.9 billion in tariff refunds to slash the cost of household essentials. Just a few months ago, Kroger Co. said it would cut prices on thousands...Read more

When the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, or Eniac, was first built by the University of Pennsylvania for the U.S. Army in 1946, it weighed about 30 tons and had 18,000 vacuum tubes that filled an expansive room. The speed of that first programmable, general-purpose digital computer was about 5,000 hertz, which means it could ...Read more

A new nonprofit founded by former Google researchers wants to keep humans at the center of AI development to ensure that the powerful technology is safe and less likely to escape its creators.

It’s a kind of riposte to what tech companies are currently doing in many cases: using artificial intelligence to oversee artificial intelligence. ...Read more

California Attorney General Rob Bonta made it clear Tuesday he holds the power to extract major concessions in the battle over the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. merger.

A day after canceling settlement talks, Bonta said he remains open to meeting with Paramount Skydance executives to find remedies to resolve the antitrust lawsuit stalling ...Read more

DETROIT -- U.S. regulators have opened an investigation into a petition concerning a 2024 Ford Maverick Hybrid compact pickup that experienced intermittent loss of braking.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened the probe on whether to grant or deny the petition filed on July 7. Granting the petition ultimately could result ...Read more

SpaceX plans to build a new $100 billion launch site for its Starship rocket on the southern coast of Louisiana, allowing the company to expand operations of the behemoth vehicle that’s critical to its future.

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and SpaceX executives announced the plans on Tuesday, authorizing the company to build a facility ...Read more

A former data scientist at Meta Platforms Inc. testified that less than 1% of teenagers were early adopters of a feature designed to get them to take a break from scrolling on Instagram.

George Volichenko — who worked on the platform’s mental well-being team from April 2022 to February 2023 — told a jury that the tool’s initial impact ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The United States' top automotive union leader has condemned President Donald Trump's threat to issue 50% tariffs on Canadian automotive goods beginning Jan. 1, 2027.

"The UAW rejects any escalation on Canada, a country with strong unions and labor standards," United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain said in a statement shared ...Read more

Kevin Warsh’s first major speech as chairman of the Federal Reserve has become an unexpected trial of his slimmed-down communications style.

The challenge facing Warsh is to counter criticism that he hasn’t been forthright with his views on the economy, without capitulating on his determination not to spoon feed investors with clues on ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- H.B. Fuller is accelerating a dispute with an activist investor by rejecting its bid to buy one of the Minnesota-based adhesive company’s business units for more than $1 billion.

Ancora Group Holdings quickly responded, reaffirming its intention to buy the building adhesive solutions business in a letter sharply critical of ...Read more

Apple Inc. is gearing up to launch a new version of its Mac mini desktop computer for the first time in almost two years, according to people familiar with the matter.

The new desktop will debut as soon as the coming days, potentially putting the unveiling ahead of a September event to introduce the next iPhones, said the people, who asked not ...Read more

It was a television show tailor-made for Los Angeles: a highly anticipated Netflix crime drama about a team of ex-special forces operators who outsource their skills to criminals in the city.

The production was backed by a prominent indie studio and had a critically acclaimed lead actor attached. And with a budget of more than $100 million and ...Read more

Executives with Dunlop and Falken tires on Monday critiqued a first-of-its-kind standard the California Energy Commission adopted last week for replacement tires on passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks that goes into effect across the state in three years.

While the companies said they will work with the state, an official for the two ...Read more

Zillow settled with the Federal Trade Commission just hours before trial on Monday, agreeing to unwind part of a controversial deal with Redfin.

The FTC sued the two Seattle-based companies months after they struck a $100 million deal last February requiring Redfin to exclusively repost apartment listings provided by Zillow, transition its ...Read more

Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government is still working on options for retaliating against U.S. President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on Canadian goods, but added that he’s willing to continue trade talks if the U.S. adopts the “right attitude.”

The discussions with U.S. negotiators revealed that Trump wants to destroy Canada’...Read more