Tech 24

The chips are down. In the biggest antitrust trial of this century, US federal prosecutors have filed their demands for Google, including for the tech giant to sell its ubiquitous Chrome browser. It comes after the judge Amit Mehta ruled in August that Google had maintained an illegal monopoly in online search. Why would selling Chrome be a big deal, what other demands is the Department of Justice making, and how might all this change the internet? Find out in this edition of Tech 24.

Tech giant Meta is feeling the heat, no matter how relaxed its leader Mark Zuckerberg might appear. Despite the waves of bad news buffeting his company, CEO Zuckerberg is surfing ahead with a new relaxed persona. We tell you more in this edition of Tech 24.

Tech executives have lined up to congratulate Donald Trump on his US presidential election win. But behind the scenes, they’re frantically trying to work out what a second Trump term means for their business. We take a closer look in this week's Tech 24.

As we approach the US presidential election, the safety of the candidates, their families and their running mates is paramount, particularly as Republican candidate Donald Trump has already survived two assassination attempts during this election campaign. According to an investigation published by French daily Le Monde, that safety has been compromised, along with the safety of other world leaders. The culprit? The running app Strava, used by bodyguards and members of the Secret Service.

With the public demo of Anthropic's "computer use" feature for its Claude chatbot, this was the week that AI "agents" – which can carry out many tasks rather than just answer questions – became viable. FRANCE 24's Tech Editor Peter O'Brien tells us more. 

"Assassin's Creed" played a starring role in the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony, with a masked figure dressed like the protagonist running across the rooftops of Paris with the Olympic flame. Now, the game's developer Ubisoft is rumoured to be in talks to be taken private, in a possible acquisition by Chinese gaming giant Tencent.

Two Harvard students, Caine Ardayfio and AnhPhu Nguyen, say they have hacked a pair of Meta Ray-Ban Smart Glasses and installed facial recognition software, so that merely looking at someone's face will bring up their name, address, age, biography and any other information available on online databases.

OpenAI, the world's most valuable AI startup, has just lost another executive. Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati is one of more than 20 key staff who have departed this year, leaving CEO Sam Altman with just one of his fellow co-founders.

This week’s attacks on Hezbollah pagers and radios have spread anxiety among Lebanese people, and a sense that no electronic device is safe. Amid some confusion over how the explosions were triggered, you might be wondering whether you can trust the phone in your pocket, or the headphones on your ears. On this week's Tech 24, we break down how the attacks were done, how they compare to other massive hardware hacks like Stuxnet and An0m, and whether you should be worried about your own device. 

The most ambitious mission yet in the billionaire space race saw Jared Isaacman become the first non-professional astronaut to walk in space on Thursday, in partnership with Elon Musk's SpaceX. The Polaris Dawn mission has been welcomed by the aerospace community for pushing the boundaries of 21st-century spaceflight, but dismissed by some in the general public as just another vanity project for the rich. On this week's Tech 24, we discuss what the mission has achieved, and its lofty hopes for the future.