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Sen. Josh Hawley launches a probe of Meta following a report on its AI policy allowing sensual chats with kids, tells Zuckerberg to produce docs by September 19 (Jonathan Vanian/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/15/meta-ai-bot-child-investigation.html

Sen. Hawley to probe Meta AI bot policies for children following damning report
Sen. Josh Hawley called on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to preserve relevant materials, including emails.

Welcome to Berlin Buzzwords 2025! 
Be sure not to miss our keynote speaker, @…, who will be giving a talk on „Unpacking Digital Sovereignty: How to avoid fueling the nationalist rise," which commences at 9:35 am at stage Kesselhaus.
 
Learn more:

Unpacking Digital Sovereignty: How to avoid fueling the nationalist rise
With the new ruling coalition of Trump, Musk and Big Tech, European digital sovereignty seems to be the widely accepted solution to break free from US companies that are used to threaten European governments. The EU is reviving industrial policy and is willing to invest a lot of money into digital sovereignty - but which problems exactly should it address, and what should be part of the solution? This talk shows that digital sovereignty is prone to open the door to a nationalist agenda which fa…

• Foundations for OT Cybersecurity: Asset Inventory Guidance for Owners and Operators
13 August 2025
site: https://www.cisa.gov/resources-tools/resources/foundations-ot-cybersecurity-asset-inventory-guidance-owners-a…

China pledges deeper support for Russia amid Trump tariff threats: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/15/china-pledges-deeper-support-for.html

US House advances a trio of cryptocurrency bills following over nine hours of private talks on Wednesday, a day after Trump intervened to save the initiative (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-house-clears-p…

Top adviser to supreme leader dies in hospital following Israeli attack
Ali Shamkhani, Iran’s top adviser to its supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei,
has died in the hospital a day after Israel launched airstrikes across the country.
Shamkhani had previously served as Iran’s top national security official for a decade and had represented Iran in the China-facilitated rapprochement talks with Saudi Arabia

Conversational AI as a Catalyst for Informal Learning: An Empirical Large-Scale Study on LLM Use in Everyday Learning
Na{\dj}a Terzimehi\'c, Babette B\"uhler, Enkelejda Kasneci
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.11789

Conversational AI as a Catalyst for Informal Learning: An Empirical Large-Scale Study on LLM Use in Everyday Learning
Large language models have not only captivated the public imagination but have also sparked a profound rethinking of how we learn. In the third year following the breakthrough launch of ChatGPT, everyday informal learning has been transformed as diverse user groups explore these novel tools. Who is embracing LLMs for self-directed learning, and who remains hesitant? What are their reasons for adoption or avoidance? What learning patterns emerge with this novel technological landscape? We presen…

Unify, which offers AI-powered tools to boost revenue pipelines, raised a $40M Series B led by Battery Ventures, valuing it at $260M, following a $12M Series A (Alex Konrad/Upstarts Media)
https://www.upstartsmedia.com/p/unify-ai-gtm-pipeline-40-million-raise

Unify, AI Startup Boosting Sales At Cursor And Perplexity, Raises $40 Million
Unify's Series B funding round values it at $260 million as revenue grows 17% month over month past $5 million. But a clash with GTM darling Clay may be coming up.

The GAO launches a probe into USAGM for potential overreach; sources say congressional staffers warned Kari Lake that she illegally used appropriated funds (Scott Nover/Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/08/14/kari-lake-voa-cuts-lawsu…

Kari Lake defends VOA cuts in court after warnings from Capitol Hill
As Trump lieutenant tells a federal judge she is following the law in dismantling the VOA, emails obtained by The Washington Post show staff on Capitol Hill warned her about overstepping.

Adobe reports Q2 revenue up 11% YoY to $5.87B, vs. $5.8B est., Digital Media revenue up 11% to $4.35B, and forecasts Q3 revenue above estimates (Brody Ford/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-12/ado…

Adobe Posts Strong Outlook, Touting Traction for AI Tools
Adobe Inc. gave a strong sales outlook for the current quarter, quieting investor anxieties that the leader in creative software is falling behind in a competition with AI-focused upstarts.