23andMe fined £2.31m fined by UK watchdog over 2023 data breach, Amazon boss admits AI will cost jobs

23andMe

The genetic testing company 23andMe is being fined £2.31m by the UK’s privacy watchdog over their 2023 data breach that saw the personal information of seven million people stolen. More than 150,000 Britons had their personal information taken by hackers. Family trees, health reports, race and ethnicity information may all have been stolen, along with addresses, dates of birth and profile pictures. A database shared on dark web forums and viewed by Sky News’ US partner network, NBC News, contained a list of 999,999 people who allegedly had Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, according to 23andMe’s genetic profiling. Sky News

Amazon boss Andy Jassy has told staff to embrace artificial intelligence (AI) and warned the technology will lead to a smaller corporate workforce in the next few years. He shared the prediction in a memo to staff on Tuesday, which urged employees to “be curious about AI”. The tech giant is the latest firm to set out its plans for using AI amid concerns the technology will lead to rapid job losses across the world. Mr Jassy said he expected AI to lead to “efficiency gains” that would allow the firm to reduce its corporate workforce. BBC

Up to seven out of 10 streams of artificial intelligence-generated music on the Deezer platform are fraudulent, according to the French streaming platform. The company said AI-made music accounts for just 0.5% of streams on the music streaming platform but its analysis shows that fraudsters are behind up to 70% of those streams. AI-generated music is a growing problem on streaming platforms. Fraudsters typically generate revenue on platforms such as Deezer by using bots to “listen” to AI-generated songs – and take the subsequent royalty payments, which become sizeable once spread across multiple tracks. The Guardian

The boss of OpenAI, Sam Altman, says members of his team have been getting “giant offers” from rival tech firm Meta, including $100m (£74.3m) “signing bonuses.” Meta – which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – is attempting to boost the artificial intelligence (AI) side of its business, including recently spending $14bn (£10.4bn) to buy 49% of the startup, Scale AI. However Mr Altman said “at least so far” none of his “best people” had been persuaded to jump ship. BBC

In the world’s biggest market for electric cars, a sales miracle is turning into a “Darwinian battle” for survival. The number of electric vehicles (EVs) sold in China rocketed to 6.4m last year, accounting for more than half of all cars sold. Despite this roaring success, growth is now slowing and the market has become oversaturated with companies fighting to win over drivers. It has prompted a vicious price war that has caused alarm in Beijing. Last week, the government issued a stern warning to 16 brands including BYD, urging them not to destroy each other by merciless undercutting on price. Telegraph

After Apple’s unveiling of iOS 26, Samsung was quick to poke fun at some of the features that are coming to iPhones this fall after having been available on Samsung devices already, and today Google has joined the fun – better late than never? Google’s exceptionally cringy “#BestPhonesForever” campaign has released a new video, and like all the other ones it’s set up as a conversation between a Pixel and an iPhone. Only this time, it’s all about how iOS 26 has been ‘inspired’ by Pixel features. Take a look below. GSM Arena