Cheddar speaks with two Congresswomen about what, if anything, will move the needle on gun reform after the Parkland school shooting. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) says she's inspired to see so many young people speaking out about gun violence, but she's skeptical any meaningful legislation can pass under the current administration. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) is also skeptical about the prospects of gun reform under the Trump administration, but she's doing what she can to make it happen. Immediately after the Parkland shooting, Maloney introduced a bill in Congress that would make it harder for people with mental health issues to buy guns. Maloney says the gun laws we have in place now are "so lax and so stupid."
In tech news, Apple is reportedly working on new AirPods. The new features will include an updated chip, the ability to call for Siri without touching the earphones, and improved Bluetooth connectivity. The new model is expected out later this year. And Apple is working on another AirPod update for the following year. Those AirPods will allegedly be water resistant.
Twitter alienated conservatives by accidentally freezing their accounts. On Tuesday night, the social media company quietly locked thousands of accounts in an attempt to purge suspected bots from operating on the platform. In the process, Twitter locked accounts of right-wing commentators like Richard Spencer. Angry conservatives began calling the incident "Twitter Lockout." The company defended its actions, saying "we enforce our rules without political bias."
Plus, we're joined by Olympic luger Chris Mazdzer who recently became the first American to medal in the men's singles luge event. He tells Cheddar about what was going through his head as he won the medal at the Winter Olympics. He says he is grateful to all the athletes who came before him in luging and helped paved the way for his success. After his Olympic career is over, Mazdzer says he wants to pursue a career in financial planning. This inspiration stems from seeing how much money his friends and family spent on making their Olympic dreams come true.
Apple has taken down an app that uses crowdsourcing to flag sightings of U.S. immigration agents after coming under pressure from the Trump administration.
Former Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers learned all about technology’s volatile highs and lows as a veteran of the internet’s early boom days during the late 1990s and the ensuing meltdown that followed the mania. And now he is seeing potential signs of the cycle repeating with another transformative technology in artificial intelligence. Chambers is trying take some of the lessons he learned while riding a wave that turned Cisco into the world's most valuable company in 2000 before a crash hammered its stock price and apply them as an investor in AI startups. He recently discussed AI's promise and perils during an interview with The Associated Press.
Tesla reported a surprise increase in sales in the third quarter as the electric car maker likely benefited from a rush by consumers to take advantage of a $7,500 credit before it expired on Sept. 30. The company reported Thursday that sales in the three months through September rose 7% compared to the same period a year ago. The gain follows two quarters of steep declines as people turned off by CEO Elon Musk’s foray into right-wing politics avoided buying his company’s cars and even protested at some dealerships. Sales rose to 497,099 vehicles, compared with 462,890 in the same period last year.
OpenAI could now be the world’s most valuable startup, ahead of Elon Musk’s SpaceX and TikTok parent company ByteDance, after a secondary stock sale designed to retain employees at the ChatGPT maker. Current and former OpenAI employees sold $6.6 billion in shares to a group of investors, pushing the privately held artificial intelligence company’s valuation to $500 billion, according to a source with knowledge of the deal who was not authorized to discuss it publicly. The valuation reflects high expectations for the future of AI technology and continues OpenAI’s remarkable trajectory from its start as a nonprofit research lab in 2015.
Tom’s Guide Editor-in-Chief Mark Spoonauer breaks down Apple & Amazon's latest product drops—what's hot, what's hype, and what really matters for users.
Police in Northern California pulled over a self-driving Waymo taxi after it made an illegal U-turn. But without a driver behind the wheel, they could not issue a moving violation ticket.
