Welcome to Tech Beat, your daily briefing on the stories shaping our digital world.
Meta is drawing sharp criticism after quietly updating its commercial terms to allow the company to harvest content from business accounts on Instagram and Facebook for AI training. Artists, journalists, and small business owners are pushing back hard, and if you're based in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you do have the right to formally object and opt out of that data use.
On a very different frontier, two companies are teaming up to push solar technology into orbit. Flexell Space and Satoro have agreed to demonstrate next-generation space solar cells aboard SpaceX Falcon Nine rockets, with missions planned for two thousand twenty seven and two thousand twenty eight. Satoro brings the satellite platform, Flexell brings the cells, and the results could reshape how spacecraft generate power.
And back here on Earth, Microsoft is facing pressure from its own shareholders over a question that cuts to the heart of the AI boom's environmental cost. Investment firm Trillium Asset Management is backing a proposal demanding Microsoft explain how it actually plans to hit its two thousand thirty carbon-negative target, given that its emissions have been climbing alongside its AI infrastructure.
Three very different stories, one common thread: accountability. Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.
