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Friyayyy, Today, we're tracking a trio of critical updates. First, a massive data breach has exposed countless Social Security numbers and other sensitive information, now circulating on the dark web—stay vigilant against scams and suspicious emails. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris's campaign finances are booming, fueling a major digital advertising push. Lastly, California's AI regulation bill continues to lose its teeth with each amendment as it nears the governor's desk. Here's what you need to know.

• 📰 News and Trends.

• California’s AI Bill is Trying To Balance AI Safety and Innovation.

• Massive Data Breach Exposes Millions of SSNs

• 🧰 AI Tools (Education and Learning)

• Kamala Outspends her Rival ~Tenfold in Digital Advertising.

📰 AI News and Trends

• A California bill, proposed by State Senator Scott Wiener, seeks to regulate AI by mandating safety tests and enabling lawsuits against harmful technologies. Major AI companies like Google and Meta oppose the bill, citing concerns over stifling innovation and open-source development (NYT)

• Video game actors are officially on strike over AI, disagreements over worker protections regarding AI technology led to the strike (TheVerge)

• A study published in the Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management in June found that describing a product as using AI lowers a customer’s intention to buy it (CNN)

• How the U.S. and China Compare in the Race to Build AI Combat Drones (WSJ)

• San Francisco City Attorney sues websites creating AI-generated deepfake pornography (CBS)

• Texas Instruments Wins $4.6 Billion in Chips Act Grants, Loans (Yahoo)

🌐 Other Tech news

• Elon Musk said he’d eliminate bots from X. Instead, election influence campaigns are running wild. In a year of global elections, X is making it easy to meddle (ROTW)

• Another Apple smart ring patent has today been granted, which includes both health monitoring and the ability to control other Apple devices (9to5)\

• Californians' driver's licenses are going digital as people will soon be able to carry them in their Apple or Google wallets (Axios)

• Once a Cash Cow, Cable TV Is Now Roadkill. Is there a Fire Sale Next? (THR)

• US lawmakers press Meta over illicit drug ads (Yahoo)

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California’s AI Bill is Trying To Balance AI Safety and Innovation.

California's AI regulation bill, SB 1047, has been amended to address concerns from the tech industry, including reducing the preemptive legal powers of the state's attorney general and easing the legal liabilities for AI developers. The bill now moves to the California Assembly for a final vote. If approved, it will head back to the Senate due to the amendments, before potentially reaching Governor Newsom for approval or veto. Critics, however, argue that the amendments are insufficient and fail to address core issues with the bill.

Massive Data Breach Exposes Most SSNs.

The “~2.8 Billion People" National Public Data (NPD) breach involved a data aggregator most people had never heard of, where a threat actor published partial datasets. This amount of records equals almost everyone in the US. The breach included a large amount of personal information, such as first and last names, addresses, and Social Security Numbers (SSNs). However, the actual number of unique individuals affected may be lower than the headline figures suggest due to duplicate entries.

The specific data exposed in the breach includes Personal identifiers like first and last names, addresses, and SSNs.

1. Be Skeptical of Unsolicited Contacts: If you receive unexpected communications asking for personal information or money, verify the identity of the sender through independent means.

2. Monitor Your Accounts: Regularly check your financial and social accounts for unauthorized activity. Consider setting up alerts.

3. Use Identity Protection Services: These services can alert you to the use of your personal information and help mitigate the impact of identity theft.

4. Secure Your Personal Information: Strengthen your passwords, use two-factor authentication, and limit the amount of personal information you share online.

5. Stay Informed: Services like Have I Been Pwned can notify you if your information appears in data breaches, helping you take timely protective action.

🧰 AI Tools

Education and Learning.

• Wilco Sierra - Generate quests for your learning objectives, create quizzes to test, get help with your homework, and more.

• Yip - Transform text into multiple choice, true/false, or fill-in-the-blank quizzes automatically with our AI-powered question generator.

• Caktus - Essay writer, math help, AI questions solver, and Content detector.

• MindSmith - an eLearning authoring tool that makes it easy (and extremely fast) to create and share learning content.

• Scholarcy - Summarize, analyze and organize your research

  • FRENZ Brainband by Earable - Silence your thoughts and drift into a deeper sleep. —AI-powered, scientifically-backed sleep tech transforming restless nights into restful slumber. Exclusive savings with code 'celis'!*

Kamala Outspends her Rival ~Tenfold in Digital Advertising.

Since Kamala Harris became the Democratic presidential candidate, she has significantly outspent Donald Trump in digital advertising. Harris has invested $57 million on Google and Meta ads, compared to Trump's $5.6 million.

This surge in digital spending is part of a broader $139 million expenditure by the Biden-Harris campaign on tech platforms this year, contrasting sharply with the $22.5 million spent by Trump and his supporting groups. This strategy reflects a shift from Trump's 2020 campaign, where he had already spent $91 million on online ads by this time. The reduction in Trump's digital ad spending has corresponded with a decrease in small-dollar donations, which comprised 61% of his fundraising in 2020 but only 40% in 2024. Additionally, Harris is also outspending Trump on traditional media and digital streaming platforms.

Despite these expenditures, traditional broadcast TV and radio ads still dominate the campaign's spending, with significant ad buys planned for October as early voting starts in some states.