AFP

Startup Clearview AI has agreed to limit access to its controversial facial recognition database in the United States, settling a lawsuit filed by privacy advocates, a court filing showed Monday.

The deal, which needs approval by the court to become final, would resolve litigation filed two years ago by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and rights groups accusing Clearview of violating a strict biometric privacy law in the state of Illinois.

A main provision of the settlement permanently bans Clearview from making its “faceprint” database available to most businesses or other private entities in the country, according the ACLU.

“Clearview can no longer treat people’s unique biometric identifiers as an unrestricted source of profit,” said ACLU speech, privacy and technology director Nathan Freed Wessler.

“Before this agreement, Clearview ignored the fact that biometric information can be misused to create dangerous situations and threats” to lives, said Linda Xochitl Tortolero, chief executive of Chicago-based nonprofit Mujeres Latinas en Accion.

“Today that’s no longer the case.”

Clearview will also stop its practice of offering free trial accounts to police officers without the knowledge or approval of their employers, the ACLU said.

The ban does not limit Clearview from working with federal or state agencies other than those in Illinois, the lawsuit said.

Clearview admits no wrongdoing in the settlement.

Clearview AI says it has built up a database of more than 10 billion facial images taken from public websites, ranging from social media to news portals, which it touts as a tool for law enforcement.

– Still checking faces –

Clearview chief executive Hoan Ton-That said the company has told the court that it intends to make its facial recognition software available to commercial customers, without the database of images.

“Clearview AI’s posture regarding sales to private entities remains unchanged,” the chief executive said in response to an AFP inquiry.

Facial recognition is used to unlock smartphones, verify identities, board aircraft and more, he noted.

The settlement does not require any “material change” in the Clearview business model,” said Cahill Gordon, an attorney representing the company.

Campaigners have condemned Clearview’s use of images for being open to abuse, and a number of groups including Privacy International last year filed complaints with data regulators in France, Austria, Italy, Greece and Britain.

Italy’s data privacy watchdog in March fined Clearview 20 million euros (almost $22 million) over its facial recognition software.

The watchdog ordered the company to delete data relating to people in Italy and banned it from further collection and processing of information there.

France’s privacy watchdog as well in December ordered Clearview to delete data on its citizens and cease further collection.

Meanwhile in June last year, Canada’s independent parliamentary watchdog ruled that both Clearview’s database and the use of it by federal police were illegal.

World stock markets mostly sank Monday and oil prices slumped as China’s Covid lockdowns added to stubborn fears over the impact of rising US interest rates and surging inflation.

Wall Street suffered another rout, with the tech-rich Nasdaq slumping more than four percent and the S&P 500 ending below 4,000 points for the first time since March 2021.

Frankfurt, London and Paris all fell more than two percent, as did Tokyo.

Meanwhile, oil prices slid more than five percent, while bitcoin plunged below $31,000 hitting its lowest level since late 2020, as investors shunned the volatile cryptocurrency.

“The bloodletting on stock markets has continued today as we start a new week … with the biggest declines being seen in basic resources after the latest China trade data,” said market analyst Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK.

Millions of people in Beijing stayed home on Monday as China tries to fend off a Covid-19 outbreak with creeping restrictions on movement.

Residents of the capital fear they may soon find themselves in the grip of the same draconian measures that have trapped most of Shanghai’s 25 million people at home for weeks.

Lockdowns across dozens of Chinese cities — from the manufacturing hubs of Shenzhen and Shanghai to the breadbasket of Jilin — have wreaked havoc on supply chains over recent months and further stoked global inflationary pressures.

Investors were given more bad news after China reported that exports in April slumped to their lowest level in almost two years, due to the nation’s strict zero-Covid policy.

– Anxiety spreads –

US stock markets dived late last week after the Federal Reserve raised up interest rates by a half-percentage point and flagged more aggressive hikes ahead to tackle decades-high inflation, and continued sinking on Monday.

“Anxiety is stemming from the Fed’s next moves, with uncertainty creeping in about the scale and speed of interest rate hikes,” said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Sophie Lund-Yates.

Global markets also have taken a beating this year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin on Monday defended the offensive in Ukraine and blamed Kyiv and the West, as he looked to use the grand Victory Day celebrations to mobilize patriotic support for the campaign.

However, investors were relieved that Putin made no major announcements, despite reports he could use the anniversary to announce an escalation of the conflict.

“Putin has not declared a war on Ukraine to enable full mobilisation which is obviously a relief,” noted Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson.

– Key figures at around 2050 GMT –

New York – Dow: DOWN 2.0 percent at 32,245.70 (close)

New York – S&P 500: DOWN 3.2 percent at 3,991.24 (close)

New York – Nasdaq: DOWN 4.3 percent at 11,623.25 (close)

London – FTSE 100: DOWN 2.3 percent at 7,216.58 (close)

Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 2.2 percent at 13,380.67 (close)

Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 2.8 percent at 6,086.02 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 2.8 percent at 3,526.86 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 3,004.14 (close)

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 2.5 percent at 26,319.34 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: Closed for a holiday  

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 5.7 percent at $105.94 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 6.1 percent at $103.09 per barrel

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0563 from $1.0551 on Friday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2331 from $1.2348

Euro/pound: UP at 85.64 pence from 85.52 pence

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 130.26 yen from 130.56 yen

burs-jmb

The New York Times, owner of the hit game Wordle, hastily changed the solution Monday from “fetus,” a term recently catapulted into the news as US abortion rights face possible restrictions by the Supreme Court.

Some of the game’s millions of players “may see an outdated answer that seems closely connected to a major recent news event,” the editorial director of the paper’s game section, Everdeen Mason, said in a statement.

Without mentioning the actual word, she said the choice was “entirely unintentional and a coincidence — today’s original answer was loaded into Wordle last year.”

That, of course, was long before a leaked Supreme Court draft decision last week revealed that if adopted, the majority of justices would overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision which enshrined a woman’s right to an abortion nationwide.

Wordle, a daily game which consists of guessing one five-letter word in just six tries, was bought by the Times in January after it skyrocketed in worldwide popularity.

“We take our role seriously as a place to entertain and escape, and we want Wordle to remain distinct from the news,” Mason said.

“When we discovered last week that this particular word would be featured today, we switched it for as many solvers as possible,” although it was too late to change it for all.

Already in February, the paper announced that it had scrubbed Wordle of many obscure as well as “insensitive or offensive words.”

On social media, some users shared the day’s two solutions, mocking the center-left paper for being overly delicate.

The NYT editorial board last week took a formal stand in favor of the right to abortion, with an op-ed titled “America Is Not Ready for the End of Roe v. Wade.”

Tobacco giant Philip Morris International is in talks to acquire Swedish Match, the companies said Monday, in a deal that would boost its smokeless offerings. 

While they confirmed the negotiations, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, both companies said there was no guarantee of a transaction. The Journal described the negotiations as “advanced talks” and said the deal could be valued at $15 billion or more.

Philip Morris, which sells cigarette brands such as Marlboro and Chesterfield in 180 markets outside the United States and has invested billions of dollars since 2008 in vapor products, oral nicotine and other “reduced-risk” products, said the talks were “in progress,” according to a statement.

“It is uncertain whether an offer will be made,” Philip Morris said. “PMI intends to make no further comment regarding the discussions unless and until it is appropriate to do so.”

Stockholm-based Swedish Match derives more than 65 percent of its revenue from smoke-free products, including chewing tobacco and nicotine pouches. 

The company’s noted “recent speculation and confirms that discussions with Philip Morris International regarding a possible public takeover offer for Swedish Match are ongoing,” the statement said 

“There can be no certainty than an offer will be made, nor as to the terms of any such potential offer.”

Shares of Swedish Match dipped 0.6 percent in Stockholm, while Philip Morris international gained 2.5 percent in afternoon trading.

As urban traffic gets more miserable, entrepreneurs are looking to a future in which commuters hop into “air taxis” that whisk them over clogged roads.

Companies such as Archer, Joby and Wisk are working on electric-powered aircraft that take off and land vertically like helicopters then propel forward like planes.

“‘The Jetsons’ is definitely a reference that people make a lot when trying to contextualize what we are doing,” Archer Vice President Louise Bristow told AFP, referring to a 1960s animated comedy about a family living in a high-tech future.

“The easiest way to think about it is a flying car, but that’s not what we’re doing.”

What Archer envisions is an age of aerial ride-sharing, an “Uber or Lyft of the skies,” Bristow said.

Neighborhood parking garage rooftops or shopping mall lots could serve as departure or arrival pads for electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

Commuters would make it the rest of the way however they wish, even synching trips with car rideshare services such as Uber which owns a stake in Santa Cruz, California-based Joby.

Joby executives said on a recent earnings call that its first production model aircraft should be in the skies later this year.

That comes despite a Joby prototype crashing early this year while being tested at speeds and altitudes far greater than it would have to handle as part of an air taxi fleet.

Joby has declined to discuss details of the remotely piloted aircraft’s crash, which occurred in an uninhabited area, saying it is waiting for US aviation regulators to finish an investigation.

“We were at the end of the flight test expansion campaign at test points well above what we expect to see in normal operations,” Joby executive chairman Paul Sciarra told analysts.

“I’m really excited about where we are right now; we have demonstrated the full performance of our aircraft.”

Its eVTOL aircraft have a maximum range of 150 miles (241 kilometers), a top speed of 200 miles per hour and a “low noise profile” to avoid an annoying din, the company said.

Joby has announced partnerships with SK Telecom and the TMAP mobility platform in South Korea to provide emissions-free aerial ridesharing.

“By cooperating with Joby, TMAP will become a platform operator that can offer a seamless transportation service between the ground and the sky,” TMAP chief executive Lee Jong Ho said in a release.

Joby has also announced a partnership with Japanese airline ANA to launch air taxi service in Japan.

And Toyota has additionally joined the alliance, with an aim to explore adding ground transportation to such a service there, Joby said.

– Rethinking required –

Hurdles on the path include establishing infrastructure and adapting attitudes to make air taxis a part of everyday life.

“For mass adoption, people need to have a mindset change,” Bristow said.

“Getting people to want to travel in a different way will take some rethinking.”

The need for the change, though, is clear, she reasoned.

Roads are congested with traffic that wastes time, frays nerves and spews pollution.

“There is nowhere else for traffic to go,” Bristow said.

“You have to go up.”

Miami and Los Angeles are already exploring the potential of aerial ridesharing, and Archer is hoping to have a small air taxi service operating in at least one of those cities by the end of 2024.

“It’s a monumental task that we’re taking on,” Bristow said.

“It’s going to take a while before the infrastructure supports the mass expansion of what we’re trying to do.”

Archer last month announced that it teamed with United Airlines to create an eVTOL advisory committee.

The US airline has pre-ordered 200 Archer aircraft with an eye toward using them for “last-mile” transportation from airports, Bristow told AFP.

“Imagine flying from London to Newark, New Jersey, then getting in an Archer and being deposited somewhere in Manhattan,” Bristow said.

– More time for life –

Silicon Valley startup Xwing specializes in making standard aircraft capable of flying safely without pilots, with an aim of turning commuting by air into a cheaper and more efficient way to travel.

“We’re strong believers here that the industry is going through a pretty dramatic transformation,” Xwing chief and founder Marc Piette told AFP.

“In a few years you’ll start seeing taxi networks of electric aircrafts regionally or on long hauls and it’s going to be quite a different landscape.”

Thousands of regional airports used mostly for recreation could become part of aerial commute networks, air mobility consultant Scott Drennan told AFP.

To Drennan, the primary reason for taking to the skies is to “give people back their time.”

Saudi Arabia on Monday pitched aviation industry leaders on its plans to become a global travel hub, drawing scepticism from analysts who questioned how it could compete against regional heavyweights. 

The conservative kingdom’s aviation goals, part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s wide-ranging “Vision 2030” reforms, include more than tripling annual traffic to 330 million passengers by the end of the decade. 

It also wants to draw $100 billion in investments to the sector by 2030, establish a new national flag carrier, construct a new “mega airport” in Riyadh and move up to five million tonnes of cargo each year. 

Officials outlined how they intend to hit those targets during a global aviation forum that began Monday in Riyadh. Organisers said 2,000 delegates are trying to chart the airline industry’s post-pandemic recovery. 

“Over the next 10 years the kingdom will emerge as the Middle East’s leading aviation hub,” Transport Minister Saleh Al-Jasser told the forum’s opening session. 

The strategy hinges on tapping the large domestic market of Saudi Arabia, whose population is around 35 million, he told AFP in an interview, citing what analysts described as a major advantage for Saudi carriers over regional rivals Emirates and Qatar Airways. 

“We are very focused on building connectivity to Saudi Arabia, in helping the tourism industry to grow in Saudi Arabia and helping the Saudi people connect to the world… That’s what we are focused on,” he said. 

But steep competition raises questions about how feasible the Saudi plans are. 

“They’re fighting multiple headwinds on the aviation front,” said Robert Mogielnicki with the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. 

“You have established regional players that have great brand recognition and are already important parts of the economies of Qatar and Dubai.” 

In Saudi Arabia, by contrast, “the air transport sector is not as central to the economy so that urgency is not there, though the Saudis do have big ambitions for the sector. It’s a new entity, so they’re going to have to play catch-up.” 

– ‘Not going to be easy’ –

The kingdom is currently served by flag carrier Saudia and its budget subsidiary flyadeal, both based in the coastal city of Jeddah, as well as other budget carriers including the Riyadh-based flynas. 

Even without the kingdom’s planned new airline, Saudi carriers are fighting for space not just with Emirates and Qatar Airways but also regional budget airlines like flydubai and Air Arabia.

“It is a rather saturated market,” Henrik Hololei, the European Commission’s Director-General for Mobility and Transport, told AFP. 

“It’s clear that it’s not going to be easy for any airline that wants to have a global reach to enter that market.” 

Multiple analysts highlighted the need for Saudi Arabia to improve its airports.

Last weekend the head of the company that operates the airport in Jeddah, gateway to the holy sites in Mecca and Medina, was fired after what state media described as “a crisis of overcrowding and flight delays”. 

Hololei said “the vision and very ambitious announcements” need to be complemented by details. 

“How they are going to play the cards, this remains to be seen.”

World stock markets mostly sank Monday and oil prices slumped as China’s Covid lockdowns added to stubborn fears over the impact of rising US interest rates and surging inflation.

Frankfurt, London and Paris all fell more than two percent, as did Tokyo.

On Wall Street, the Dow was down nearly two percent in late morning trading, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq continuing a steep decline with a 3.7 percent drop.

Meanwhile, bitcoin plunged to a 2022 low below $33,000 as investors shunned the volatile cryptocurrency.

“The bloodletting on stock markets has continued today as we start a new week … with the biggest declines being seen in basic resources after the latest China trade data showed that imports ground to a halt in April,” said market analyst Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK.

Millions of people in Beijing stayed home on Monday as China’s capital tries to fend off a Covid-19 outbreak with creeping restrictions on movement.

Beijing residents fear they may soon find themselves in the grip of the same draconian measures that have trapped most of Shanghai’s 25 million people at home for weeks.

Lockdowns across dozens of Chinese cities — from the manufacturing hubs of Shenzhen and Shanghai to the breadbasket of Jilin — have wreaked havoc on supply chains over recent months and further stoked global inflationary pressures.

Investors were given more bad news on Monday as China’s April exports slumped to their lowest level in almost two years, due to the nation’s strict zero-Covid policy.

Exports plunged to 3.9 percent on-year, while imports were stagnant for April.

Data also showed the lockdowns have already hit oil demand in China, prompting a five percent drop in oil prices. 

“Oil is offside too as China confirmed its oil imports in the first four months of the year fell by 4.8 percent,” said David Madden at Equiti Capital.

– Anxiety spreads –

Stock markets had dived last week after the Federal Reserve ramped up interest rates by a half-percentage point and flagged more hikes to tackle decades-high inflation.

“Anxiety is stemming from the Fed’s next moves, with uncertainty creeping in about the scale and speed of interest rate hikes,” said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Sophie Lund-Yates.

Analysts at Charles Schwab brokerage said that “elevated inflation pressures continue to cloud conviction, with the Fed and other central banks beginning to tighten monetary policy. 

“Meanwhile, inflation concerns continue to be exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and ongoing supply chain challenges,” they added.

Global markets have also taken a beating this year from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin on Monday defended Russia’s offensive in Ukraine and blamed Kyiv and the West, as he looked to use grand Victory Day celebrations to mobilise patriotic support for the campaign.

However, investors were relieved that Putin made no major announcements, despite reports he could use the anniversary to announce an escalation of the conflict or a general mobilisation.

“Putin has not declared a war on Ukraine to enable full mobilisation which is obviously a relief,” noted Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson.

– Key figures at around 1530 GMT –

New York – Dow: DOWN 1.9 percent at 32,266.84 points

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 2.5 percent at 3,486.21

London – FTSE 100: DOWN 2.3 percent at 7,216.58 

Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 2.2 percent at 13,380.67

Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 2.8 percent at 6,086.02

Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.09 percent at 3,004.14 (close)

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 2.5 percent at 26,319.34 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: Closed for a holiday  

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 5.0 percent at $106.77 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 5.4 percent at $103.87 per barrel

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0536 from $1.0551 on Friday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2311 from $1.2348

Euro/pound: UP at 85.55 pence from 85.45 pence

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 130.23 yen from 130.56 yen

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