6 days ago
Reddit sues AI company Anthropic for allegedly ‘scraping' user comments to train chatbot Claude
Social media platform Reddit sued the artificial intelligence company Anthropic on Wednesday, alleging that it is illegally 'scraping' the comments of Reddit users to train its chatbot Claude. Reddit claims that Anthropic has used automated bots to access Reddit's content despite being asked not to do so, and 'intentionally trained on the personal data of Reddit users without ever requesting their consent.' Anthropic said in a statement that it disagreed with Reddit's claims 'and will defend ourselves vigorously.' Reddit filed the lawsuit Wednesday in California Superior Court in San Francisco, where both companies are based. 'AI companies should not be allowed to scrape information and content from people without clear limitations on how they can use that data,' said Ben Lee, Reddit's chief legal officer, in a statement Wednesday. Reddit has previously entered licensing agreements with Google, OpenAI, and other companies to enable them to train their AI systems on Reddit commentary. Those agreements 'enable us to enforce meaningful protections for our users, including the right to delete your content, user privacy protections, and preventing users from being spammed using this content,' Lee said. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
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TECHNOLOGY
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Dutch quantum computing startup establishes base in Downtown Boston
At the Wednesday Qblox ribbon-cutting: Gregg Carman, general manager and head of North America for QBlox; Jeevan Ramapriya, executive director of the Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment; Kim Tran, attaché for Innovation, Technology & Science at Netherlands Innovation Network in Boston; Segun Idowu, chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion for the City of Boston; and Niels Bultink, CEO of Qblox.
Photo courtesy of Qblox
Dutch computing startup Qblox has picked a Financial District office tower as its launchpad into North America. The privately held company, which makes and sells hardware and software to quantum computing developers, hosted a grand-opening ceremony on Wednesday at its 99 High St. office, dubbed its North American headquarters. The 150-person company is leasing 3,000 square feet from building owner Synergy to start, and has hired 10 people in the Boston area and five others elsewhere in North America, most of them scientists. The five-year-old company has around 120 customers, including around 30 in the United States, including some in Greater Boston. The North American team is led by general manager Gregg Carman, and chief financial officer Bauke van Rhijn plans to move here from the Netherlands as well. (Quantum computing, still in its infancy, uses atomic particles instead of electronic transistors to perform much faster calculations.) Chief executive Niels Bultink, a physicist by training, said the company considered other US cities but picked Boston because of its proximity to top-notch research institutes and the wealth of computing talent here. Direct flights between Amsterdam and Boston's Logan Airport helped, too. 'It's really great to be more in the business district,' Bultink said. 'We actually see that other companies that are now looking at the area, also finding this a really attractive place.' — JON CHESTO
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ECONOMY
Inflation data threatened by government hiring freeze as tariffs loom
The US Department of Labor headquarters building in Washington, D.C.
Tierney L. Cross/Getty
The Labor Department has cut back on the inflation data it collects because of the Trump administration's government hiring freeze, raising concerns among economists about the quality of the inflation figures just as they are being closely watched for the impact of tariffs. The department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, which produces the monthly consumer price index, the most closely watched inflation measure, said Wednesday that it is 'reducing sample in areas across the country' and added that it stopped collecting price data entirely in April in Lincoln, Neb., and Provo, Utah. It also said it has stopped collecting data this month in Buffalo, N.Y. In an email that the BLS sent to economists, viewed by the Associated Press, the agency said that it 'temporarily reduced the number of outlets and quotes it attempted to collect due to a staffing shortage' in April. The reduced data collection 'will be kept in place until the hiring freeze is lifted.' President Trump froze federal hiring on his first day in office and extended the freeze in April until late July, suggesting future inflation reports will also involve less data collection. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
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CONSUMER
Ground beef sold at Whole Foods may be tainted with E. coli, USDA says
This image provided by The US Safety and Inspection Service shows a package of Organic Rancher ground beef sold at Whole Foods markets that the US agriculture officials are warning may be contaminated with potentially dangerous E. coli bacteria.
Uncredited/Associated Press
US agriculture officials are warning that ground beef sold at Whole Foods markets nationwide may be contaminated with potentially dangerous E. coli bacteria. Officials issued a public health alert for 1-pound, vacuum-packed packages of Organic Rancher beef, produced on May 22 and May 23, by NPC Processing Inc., of Shelburne, Vt. The products have use-by dates of June 19 and June 20. The US Food Safety and Inspection Service did not request a recall because the products are no longer available for purchase. However, they may still be in consumers' refrigerators or freezers. The meat was produced in Australia or Uruguay and processed in the United States. It was sent to distributors in Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, and Maryland and then to Whole Foods stores nationwide. The problem was discovered when company officials notified FSIS that they had shipped beef products that tested positive for E. coli O157:H7, a type of bacteria that can cause serious illness. To date, no illnesses linked to the product have been reported, officials said. Consumers who have the product should throw it away or return it to the store. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Circle IPO is said to price above range to raise $1.1 billion
The Circle logo on a smartphone.
Gabby Jones/Bloomberg
Circle Internet Group Inc. and some of its shareholders raised nearly $1.1 billion in an upsized initial public offering, according to a person familiar with the matter, pricing its shares above a marketed range in a sign that stablecoin issuers are winning greater acceptance. The stablecoin firm and some of its backers including co-founder and chief executive Jeremy Allaire sold shares Wednesday for $31 each, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information wasn't public yet. The number of shares in the base offering was increased to 34 million shares, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing Wednesday. The offering was marketed at $27 to $28 per share after being upsized once before, an earlier filing showed. At that price, Circle would have a market value of $6.9 billion based on the outstanding shares listed in the filing. Accounting for employee stock options, restricted share units, and warrants, the company would have a fully diluted valuation of about $8.1 billion. A representative for Circle declined to comment. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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RETAIL
Walmart fires workers in two states over immigration ruling
A Walmart store in Cromwell, Conn.
Joe Buglewicz/Bloomberg
Walmart Inc. is informing stores across the country to begin identifying workers whose work authorization may be expiring after the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could revoke protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants. The company is also terminating some workers in Florida and Texas who are losing temporary legal residency in the United States after the ruling. Following the Supreme Court's decision, employee authorization documents issued to nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela with a notation identifying their parole status are no longer valid for work authorization, according to a document viewed by Bloomberg News. Therefore, employment authorization for certain employees is ending sooner than what company's internal system shows, the document says. Employees are required to reverify their authorization documents this month. A company spokeswoman declined to comment. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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GOVERNMENT
Elon Musk urges Americans act to 'kill' Trump tax cut bill
Elon Musk spoke during a news conference with President Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on May 30.
Evan Vucci/Associated Press
Tech titan Elon Musk ratcheted up his offensive against Donald Trump's signature tax bill on Wednesday, urging that Americans contact their lawmakers to 'KILL' the legislation. 'Call your Senator, Call your Congressman,' Musk wrote in a social media post. 'Bankrupting America is NOT ok!' The post came one day after Musk lashed out at the tax bill, describing it as a budget-busting 'disgusting abomination' as Republican fiscal hawks stepped up criticism of the massive fiscal package. Trump hasn't publicly responded to Musk's comments, but the White House put out a statement Wednesday saying the legislation 'unleashes an era of unprecedented economic growth.' And House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that Musk is 'dead wrong' about the bill and that the tax cuts will pay for themselves through economic growth. Musk's public condemnation pits him against the president at a critical time as Trump is personally lobbying holdouts on the bill. His campaign against the legislation threatens to stiffen resistance and delay enactment of the tax cuts and debt ceiling increase. Musk has attacked the legislation days after leaving a temporary assignment leading the administration's Department of Government Efficiency initiative to cut federal spending. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
