White House Issues Draft AI Rules; Disney About to Own 100% of Hulu; Upcoming Apple Watch to Monitor Blood Pressure; Ford Picks Up EV Power Startup

Shortly after an Executive Order moving the government to start putting up guardrails to protect the public from artificial intelligence abuses, the Biden administration has issued draft rules that would require federal agencies to evaluate and constantly monitor algorithms used in health care, law enforcement, and housing for potential discrimination or other harmful effects on human rights. Wired.com reports that the rules could force changes in US government activity dependent on AI, such as the FBI’s use of face recognition technology, which has been criticized for not taking steps called for by Congress to protect civil liberties. The new rules would require government agencies to assess existing algorithms by August 2024 and stop using any that don’t comply. The proposed OMB rules would add testing and independent evaluation of algorithms bought from private companies as a requirement of federal contracts, which the office can do in its role of coordinating departments with presidential priorities. 

Disney is buying out Comcast’s stake in Hulu. The House of Mouse has announced that it “expects it will pay” $8.61 billion to acquire Comcast’s 33 percent stake, giving Disney full ownership of Hulu. According to theverge.com, Disney expects the deal to close sometime next year. With Hulu barely seeing a shift in subscribers last quarter, Disney announced a price hike across all of its streaming services and hinted at a password-sharing crackdown. Password sharing crackdowns have threatened to cause big drops in subscribers, but after Netflix found that not to be the case, actually increasing subscribers after an initial dip, it looks like Disney and others are on board with whacking all of us with higher fees. 

It still looks like the holy grail feature of smart watches…blood sugar monitoring…is a ways off yet, but Apple is apparently planning to build blood pressure monitoring and a sleep apnea tracker into the next Apple Watch. CNBC says they also will introduce a paid health service. Apple is keen on getting more people on monthly services. Last quarter, Cupertino’s services business raked in $9.6 billion, a 12% increase year over year. Apple’s blood pressure sensor will reportedly detect when a user’s blood pressure is elevated, though it won’t show their exact measurements. Apple is working on introducing specific diastolic and systolic metrics in a future watch. Samsung already offers blood pressure monitoring in some markets. Next year’s Apple Watch will also reportedly monitor breathing and sleeping habits to predict if a person has sleep apnea, a condition where breathing stops and starts during the night.

Ford is picking up a startup charging tech company. Techcrunch.com reports that the Blue Oval company is getting Auto Motive Power…or AMP, and will fold the company, and roll up its tech and talent into Ford. They will keep the Santa Fe Springs, CA facility. AMP has designed power management  for everything from autonomous rideshare vehicles to drones and hyperloop-style transport. Top employees previously worked at Virgin Hyperloop and on Tesla’s engineering team. Ford says they are “focused on accelerating EV adoption and improving charging experiences,” and this particular deal is about “accelerating that effort.” Faster and easier charging is one of the key factors as car makers move on from early adaptors and try to woo more mainstream car buyers who aren’t as savvy about electric vehicles. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.