Sardor Qodirov — tafs uz coverage of technology. News, key facts and context in English, Uzbek and Russian.
Publisher · tafs uz →158 stories
Anthropic announced the creation of a Public Benefit Fund: the company will allocate 5% of its shares, with the option to add another 2% for every 50% increase in value. The fund will support non-profit organizations and the study of AI's impact on the labor market. The announcement was made as the company prepares for a possible IPO with a valuation of over $1 trillion.
Sardor QodirovAfter Character.AI's bankruptcy, Disney agreed to make job offers to at least 60 of the startup's employees with total annual compensation of about $60 million. Disney previously agreed to buy part of the company's assets for $20 million, and former Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand became Disney's first CTO. The deal is a 'stalking horse' bid, so a higher offer from another company is possible.
Sardor QodirovRJ Scaringe is turning Rivian into a technology supplier: in-house AI models, autonomous driving with Uber, a custom chip with Arm and TSMC, a $5.8 billion JV with VW, and robotics. Also: deals of the week, Waymo's expansion into Canada, Tesla Roadster's stunt, and a Porsche Macan EV review.
Sardor QodirovThe partnership of Uber, Croatian startup Verne and China's Pony.ai has been operating in Zagreb since April: the cars have driven 200,000 km, and on 10 September Europe's first trips without a human at the wheel began — for invited users along a 22-kilometre route. The next city is Manchester; Uber is considering more than 30 European cities in total.
Sardor QodirovAmid rising oil and gas prices caused by the war and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, demand for solar panels in Europe has grown, and companies like PLATIO and SolarPave offer solar paving for yards, parking lots and terraces. According to Solar Power Europe, solar energy saved the EU €40 billion on gas imports since the start of the conflict.
Sardor QodirovAfter the success of Starship, SpaceX's IPO, and the return of Trump's favor, Elon Musk is once again in the spotlight, yet his right-wing politics and election spending are changing public perception.
Sardor QodirovMeta updated its commercial terms of use, adding a clause granting the right to use content from business account domains to train and develop its products. Lawyers interviewed by Nieman Lab called it an 'outstanding provision' that could have allowed Meta to collect data from publishers' websites. After criticism, the company removed the wording, stating that the terms applied only to advertising and business products and did not change how its crawlers operate.
Sardor QodirovTikTok has permanently suspended the ad account of distributor Bleecker Street promoting Alex Gibney's documentary 'Musk' about Elon Musk, citing violations of political content policies. The company is appealing the decision. Earlier, trailer ads were rejected by Meta and YouTube, while X refused to run them.
Sardor QodirovAn Anthropic report dated October 17, 2026 states that the share of junior technical staff fell from 21% to 14% since the beginning of 2025, while the share of technical teams fell from 61% to 56%. Meeting time rose by 20%, and some employees described their work as 'babysitting Claudes'.
Sardor QodirovNobel Prize in Economics laureate Daron Acemoglu stated that if artificial intelligence development continues at its current pace and superhigh intelligence is created within the next ten years, the labor market may disappear, and with it, democracy. He called for changing the direction of AI technology development, orienting it toward the needs of workers.
Sardor QodirovEmber has released the third generation of its temperature-controlled mug, the Mug 3, featuring a button on the base, five presets from 125 to 145 °F, up to three hours of heat retention, and dishwasher compatibility. Prices are $129 for the 10-ounce and $149 for the 14-ounce versions. The $179 Tumbler 2 travel mug was also unveiled.
Sardor QodirovSpecialists from the Institute of Information Security at the University of Graz and the Center for Secure Information Technologies tested data transfer apps from seven brands for wirelessly moving data to a new phone. In experiments, the researchers managed to intercept SMS messages, contacts, photos, health data, passwords and Wi-Fi keys, and in some cases to substitute installation files and inject malware. The results were presented at the ESORICS 2026 symposium; the vulnerabilities were fixed after notification of compa
Sardor QodirovAccording to Similarweb data cited by Visual Capitalist, in September 2026 the Gemini website was visited 2.6 billion times, and Claude about 1 billion. From October 2025 to September 2026, only Gemini and Claude increased their share among major chatbots, while the combined share of DeepSeek, Grok, Copilot and Perplexity fell from 11.4% to 8.1%.
Sardor QodirovRepresentatives of Uzbekistan's Ministry of Investments, Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Digital Technologies held an online meeting with Ericsson's leadership. The company called Uzbekistan a strategically important market and outlined possible areas of cooperation: 5G networks, radio systems, and upgrading telecom infrastructure. A visit by an Ericsson delegation to the country is planned by the end of 2026.
Sardor QodirovThe 'sponge city' concept, developed in China in the early 2000s, involves absorbing, retaining and reusing rainwater through green spaces and permeable surfaces. European cities including Malmö, Rotterdam and Copenhagen are already applying similar solutions, and the European Commission is promoting them in the 2025 Water Resilience Strategy. Experts warn: sponge cities are a powerful but not universal tool for protection against floods and drought.
Sardor QodirovMehdi Paryavi, a UN adviser and founder of IDCA, believes that strikes on data centers in Ukraine, Russia and the Middle East should prompt Europe to reconsider its plans for placing AI infrastructure. Meanwhile, the European Commission is running a tender to create up to seven AI gigafactories, with applications closing on 12 November.
Sardor QodirovThe Australian government has introduced the Digital Duty of Care bill to parliament, which would require social media platforms to let users turn off recommended content and see only posts from accounts they follow. The initiative was backed by the 'Fix Our Feeds' campaign; critics, including the Trump administration, fear censorship, while implementation raises doubts given difficulties with the already existing social media ban for children.
Sardor QodirovThe Czech National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NUKIB) reported 26 cyber incidents in September — the third-highest monthly figure of the past year after January (32) and August (28). Only one incident was classified as significant; user accounts, websites, mail and cloud servers were targeted.
Sardor Qodirov
