American billionaire buys Ferrari Luce EV for $40m, are Microsoft’s AI plans being held back by chip shortage?

An American billionaire and inventor will become the first owner of Ferrari’s new electric supercar after bidding $40m (£29.5m) in a charity auction. Dr Herbert “Herbie” Wertheim, an optometrist who founded Brain Power Inc, bought the tailor-made Ferrari Luce at Monterey Car Week in California. The 87-year-old’s winning bid – which was initially kept anonymous by auctioneer Sotheby’s – was 36 times the original auction estimate for the car, and set a record for a new vehicle sold under the hammer. Telegraph 

Meta has been hit with successive losses in court over how its platforms have targeted and harmed young users, but a jury trial set to begin on Tuesday may pose the biggest threat yet to its operations. The trial stems from a lawsuit filed in 2023 by 30 US states, including California and New York, in which they claim numerous violations of federal and state privacy laws for children. Not only are the states seeking upwards of $1 trillion, external from Meta, they are demanding it make changes to Instagram and Facebook, including ending “like” counts and infinite scroll. BBC 

The chips are quite small and some can be held in the palm of a hand. They are fundamental to the development of artificial intelligence models – and the world’s biggest technology companies need vast numbers of them to keep ahead. Microsoft is one of them. And, on paper, it seems to have a problem. A Guardian investigation has found an apparent discrepancy between what the company has said about its AI capacity – and the number of advanced AI chips it has in operation. The Guardian 

Sainsbury’s has suspended its use of live facial recognition technology at one of its London branches after a customer was wrongly challenged as a shoplifter and asked to leave. Matt Arnold, 46, was buying items at the East Dulwich store when he was stopped by management at a self-service till. Describing the experience as a “terrifying glimpse of the future,” he has warned that retail surveillance tech risks humiliating customers and creating a system where staff feel compelled to follow automated alerts without applying human logic. BBC 

The UK government’s proposed plan to switch-off Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) signals in either 2034 or 2044 as part of a wider change to move toward broadband-based TV streaming (here), such as via the new Freely service, arguably suffered a bit of a reality check last week after that very same service experienced a major outage. Broadband-based live TV streaming service Freely, which is backed by the major UK broadcasters, is currently said to be an evolution – not yet a replacement – for the existing Freeview platform (inc. Freeview Play and Freesat). ISPreview

The Xiaomi 18 Ultra, which was rumored to debut in December this year, has reportedly been cancelled. According to a new leak, Xiaomi will launch only three smartphones as part of its upcoming 18 series. In a post on X, tipster Kartikey Singh claims that Xiaomi will not launch an 18 Ultra this year. According to the tipster, the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max will instead sit at the top of the company’s upcoming flagship lineup.

However, this does not necessarily mean Xiaomi has abandoned the Ultra model altogether and we could see a Xiaomi 17 Ultra successor next year. GSM Arena