When Donald Trump is inaugurated as president for the second time in January 2025, he will assume power over the regulation of a tech industry that’s changed significantly since his first term began in 2017. The tech industry’s honeymoon period with the US government has fizzled, and both Trump and his successor, President Joe Biden, took a skeptical stance toward tech CEOs, albeit for different reasons. Their antitrust enforcers initiated some of the first major anti-tech monopoly actions in decades.
Technology
The Best Android Smartphones to Buy in 2024
In 2024, we’ve seen plenty of incredible smartphones launch this year. It is tough to decide which phone you should spend your money on. And that’s what we’re here for. This year, we’ve reviewed over 50 different smartphones (and the year’s not over!), so we are more than qualified to recommend smartphones for all types of price ranges and users.
In this article, we are rounding up the best overall Android phone, as well as the best budget phone, the best camera phone, and so much more.
Best Overall Android Phone
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra was announced in January 2024, and so far, it’s the best phone you can buy. Samsung definitely checked all of the boxes with this one, but that also means a price increase this year. The Galaxy S24 Ultra is now $1,299, that’s a $100 increase over the Galaxy S23 Ultra from 2023.
With the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Samsung has included the very best specs that are available, as you might expect. This includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. There are 512GB and 1TB models also available. Additionally, it now has a 6.8-inch QHD+ display, which is flat. Previously, the Ultra models were sporting curved displays. One of the reasons for going flat this time around is the S Pen. With the curved display, it makes it tougher to use the S Pen, particularly on the edges. I personally like the flat display because it’s less likely to get scratches on the sides and just feels better in the hand.
Speaking of the display, Samsung is using a new Corning glass called Gorilla Armor. This reduces the reflections on the Galaxy S24 Ultra quite considerably. Comparing this side-by-side with other phones, you can really notice the difference. It’s a small thing on the spec sheet, but in real life, it’s a huge deal.
One of my favorite features of this phone is actually the battery life. We’re looking at 12 hours of on screen time easily with the Galaxy S24 Ultra. We recently completed the battery test and found that it lasted for 25 hours on video streaming. That’s nearly four hours longer than the next group of phones (iQOO 12 and iPhone 15 Pro Max). That is rather incredible and hard to imagine at the same time since it still has a 5,000mAh capacity battery. Don’t worry; this one won’t run out anytime soon.
Finally, the camera. There was a lot of talk about Samsung ditching the 10x telephoto for a 5x telephoto camera, and well they did it. However, it’s not quite that simple. They went from a 10-megapixel 10x telephoto camera to a 50-megapixel 5x telephoto camera. Thanks to that added resolution, you’re still getting the same 10x optical zoom here, as Samsung is cropping in on that 50-megapixel sensor. And in our testing, it does seem to work just as well as the 10x dedicated telephoto lens from the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Best Foldable Android Phone
OnePlus Open
The OnePlus Open isn’t the latest foldable Android smartphone to hit the market, and it blew everyone else out of the water. Not only does the OnePlus Open destroy the competition on the spec sheet, but also in price. It has a price of $1,699, that’s $100 less than the competitors, and it also offers some really great trade-in deals – like $200 off any phone in any condition, including one that was on fire.
With the OnePlus Open, the company was looking to stick to its schtick while also making foldables better. And this being OnePlus, that means the latest and greatest specs across the board. It has a 6.31-inch 20:9 aspect ratio front display and a 7.8-inch main display, both of which are 2K resolution, with adaptive 120Hz refresh rates and a peak brightness of 2,800 nits. So it’s not hard to believe that these are the best displays on a foldable. Inside, you’ll find the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. It also has a 4,805mAh capacity battery. These are killer specs for a foldable, with more RAM, double the storage and a larger battery than the competition.
But OnePlus didn’t stop there. Not only is this a larger battery, but it’s also one of the fastest charging ones, with 67W charging included. Not to mention, the charger is included in the box. So you can charge up in under an hour. The battery life on the OnePlus Open is quite nice. Actually, I’ve been using it for quite some time, and I really enjoy the battery life here. It can sometimes get me through two days of usage.
But the big thing for OnePlus is the software. This is running OxygenOS 13.2 with Android 13 and will get Android 14 pretty soon. But that’s still not the software story; Open Canvas is. With Open Canvas, OnePlus has literally opened the screen to allow you to do virtually anything. Basically, think of this as having screen real estate that’s larger than the actual screen. Open Canvas lets you open multiple apps on the screen at once, and you can even push apps off-screen and keep them open. Check out this Instagram Reel I put together to see more of what I mean here.
The Open checks a lot of boxes for people about foldables. And that includes the display crease. With the OnePlus Open, the display crease is almost non-existent. Sure, you can see it in the right light if you’re looking for it. But for the most part, you’re not going to notice the crease here, and that is rather impressive. I’ve been using the phone for a little over a month so far and never even thought about the crease. I can’t say the same thing about the competition, though.
Best Android Flip Phone
Motorola Razr Plus (2024)
The Motorola Razr Plus (2024) had some pretty big shoes to fill, after the 2023 model captured a lot of hearts. But, Motorola did it again. This year, Motorola provided the Razr Plus with an even larger cover display, a pretty big upgrade in processor, and swapped out the ultrawide camera for a telephoto camera. All of which makes this an incredible flip phone, even better than Samsung’s latest offerings.
With the Motorola Razr Plus (2024), we really liked that larger cover display. This display is able to run full apps, unlike the Galaxy Z Flip 6, and basically any Android app out there. This means you can use X, Google Maps, Facebook, or anything on that front display without opening up the phone, which is a really nice feature. Honestly, I end up using that outer display way more than the internal display because I can do doomscrolling on X without opening the phone.
Motorola also improved battery life by upgrading to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (from the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1), and upping the battery capacity to 4,000mAh. You’ll be able to get through the day with no issues on this battery. Additionally, Motorola has fast charging, unlike other flip phones. So you can do a quick top-up whenever you need it.
Motorola is really making flip phones fun again with the new Razr Plus this year, and it’s by far one of my favorite flip phones on the market today.
Best Budget Android Flip Phone
Motorola Razr (2024)
Much like the Razr Plus last year, the regular Razr also turned a lot of heads. It was the cheapest folding flip phone on the market. And it actually received some pretty major upgrades this year, while keeping the same price. It’s still $699 (though at the time of writing this, it’s been $399 for a few weeks, which is a killer deal), and offers quite a few upgrades.
First off, the cover display is much larger now. Almost the entire front of the phone, making it much easier to run Android apps on the outside display, including the Weather, Spotify, X, Instagram and more. A lot like the Razr Plus. However, there is a downgrade here, as Motorola went from Qualcomm to MediaTek for the processor. So we’re looking at a Dimensity 7300X. While on paper, it looks like this is a downgrade, in our usage, we haven’t noticed a huge difference between it and last year’s Razr which sported a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1.
Motorola has stuck with the same 4,200mAh capacity battery in the Razr this year, which should provide some pretty good battery life, especially with the more efficient Dimensity 7300X inside. The camera has also been “upgraded” I put that in quotes because, to some, it won’t look like an upgrade. Last year, Motorola included a 64-megapixel primary camera, and this year it’s a 50-megapixel camera. However, this year’s camera has much larger pixels. Making it a much better camera.
Best Budget Android Phone
Google Pixel 8a
The Google Pixel 8a is the new Best Budget Android Phone, and that should come as no surprise. At $499 (though it is discounted quite often), the Piel 8a packs a whole lot of phones at that low price. Google has kept it to the same 6.1-inch display, which is now much brighter – peak brightness is 2,000 nits. It also has the Tensor G3 processor inside, 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of storage.
In my Google Pixel 8a review, I said that Google hit another home run with this phone. And I firmly believe that. There’s almost no reason to upgrade to the Pixel 8, which is $200 more. You’re getting an incredible set of cameras on the Pixel 8a, along with Google’s computational photography. You are also getting a compact phone with pretty high-end specs, something we don’t see a whole lot in the smartphone world these days. And Google also fixed one of my biggest issues, and that is the backside is now matte. Before, it was glossy, which could get pretty ugly pretty quickly.
It’s not all puppy dogs and rainbows for the Pixel 8a, however. Google is still providing pretty slow charging here, both wired and wireless. There’s also no reverse wireless charging, which seems like a big omission with the Pixel Buds Pro.
If you’re in the market for a good phone that doesn’t cost a ton, this is the one to get.
Best Gaming Android Phone
ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro
With the ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro, the company was able to keep its place as the best gaming phone available. In fact, in our review back in January, we called it the “gold standard of gaming phones.”
This is not a cheap phone, starting at $1,199 and going up to over $1,500, but the specs inside this phone are nothing to sneeze at. The ROG Phone 8 Pro sports a 6.78-inch 165Hz adaptive display, powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, with up to 24GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage. It also has a pretty massive 5,500mAh capacity battery inside. ASUS has also included fast charging at 65W for wired and 15W for wireless.
What really makes the ROG Phone 8 Pro stand out for us is the more streamlined design, so it no longer screams “gaming phone”. Those who just want a sleek black phone can grab the ROG Phone 8 Pro and be perfectly fine with it. Of course the impressive battery life alone is a great reason to grab this one.
Best Compact Android Phone
Google Pixel 9
Google is keeping their compact option around for another year with the Google Pixel 9. There’s also the Pixel 9 Pro, which we recommend if you want a phone with a telephoto camera. Otherwise, the Pixel 9 is a really good option and it starts at $799 for the 128GB model.
The Pixel 9 comes in four colors: Obsidian, Porcelain, Wintergreen and Peony. This year, Google made the entire phone flat, including the camera bump. Which looks much different from earlier Pixel devices, but it also looks and feels a lot like the iPhone.
In our Google Pixel 9 Review, we called it Google’s “Answer to the iPhone” and also praised the battery life and updates. Google is promising 7 years of updates for the Pixel 9 series, much like the Pixel 8 has. Battery life on the Pixel 9 is also quite good, thanks to the changes Google made to the modem and for thermals this year. Speaking of the modem, it is insanely good. I’ve achieved much better signal on both mobile and WiFi on the Pixel 9 versus almost any other phone.
If you are looking for a stock-ish Android experience, on a smaller phone, then the Pixel 9 is a great option.
Best Camera Android Phone
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL
Surprisingly, the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL has the best camera on a phone sold in the US. Of course, if you look at phones sold outside of the US, there are plenty of better camera phones. But, we’re focused on the United States here, so Pixel 9 Pro XL it is. We can also recommend the Pixel 9 Pro with this one since those cameras are exactly the same, aside from the size. Google now lets you choose whether you want a 6.3-inch display or a 6.8-inch display.
Inside the Pixel 9 Pro XL is the Tensor G4 chipset, with 16GB of RAM and it starts at 128GB of storage, going up to 1TB. The Tensor G4, while not the most powerful processor on the market, is much improved over the Tensor G3. This includes much better thermals and a much-improved modem. Two major issues that affected the Pixel 8 series last year.
The Pixel 9 Pro is so good that it’s actually my smartphone of choice and is what my daily driver has been for the past few months. Not only is the camera pretty good, but so is the battery life and the software. It also feels great in the hand.
However, this is the best camera phone on our list, so let’s talk more about that camera. In our review, we tested a good number of features on the Pixel 9 Pro XL camera, including Zoom Enhance which was supposed to launch last year. It’s pretty good, but far from perfect. Google also has a bunch of AI features in Magic Editor, like adding things to your photos. But what about the non-AI edited photos? Those look really good, too. They have the usual Google Pixel look, which is a bit warmer than normal, and they also do quite well with different skin tones.
The Pixel 9 Pro starts at $999, and the Pixel 9 Pro XL at $1,099. As mentioned, these are the exact same phones, the only difference is the screen size and thus the battery size.
Best Battery Life Android Phone
OnePlus 12
The OnePlus 12 is one of my favorite phones of 2024. But that just shows how well OnePlus hit it out of the park with the 12. OnePlus nailed just about everything here, including the battery life and price. The OnePlus 12 is available in two variants, one with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $799, and the other with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for $899. That’s very competitive, and much cheaper than similarly specced phones.
Now let’s talk about battery life. OnePlus was able to increase the capacity this year, bringing it to 5,400mAh, which means you’re getting incredible battery life here. We were able to get 10+ hours of screen time pretty consistently. OnePlus says that this is a two-day phone, and that is absolutely true. I’ve gotten two days out of this with ease, and that’s something I hope to see more of in 2024.
But that’s not the only great feature of the OnePlus 12, the camera setup is pretty incredible too. OnePlus has outfitted the 12 with a 50-megapixel main sensor, a 64-megapixel 3x telephoto camera, and a 48-megapixel ultrawide camera. That telephoto camera is able to crop in and give you a 6x optical zoom too. And to be honest, the pictures from this camera look so incredible. It’s quickly become one of my favorite Android smartphone cameras.
Ready for a mindblowing spec? 4,500 nits. That’s right, the 6.82-inch display on the OnePlus 12 is able to hit 4,500 nits of peak brightness. Now, it only hits this brightness in a small portion of the screen, so some think it’s a gimmick. But let me tell you, in the winter when the sun is reflecting off of the snow, and you’re being blinded with sunglasses on (or transitions, in my case), you’re still able to see the display without any issues, it’s no longer a gimmick. This is a curved display, however, which I wish it was not. A flat display would have made this the perfect phone for 2024. Hopefully, the OnePlus 13 will be a flat display.
Did you forget about the price? Well, let me remind you. All of this is available for just $799. That’s before the $100 off OnePlus will give you for trading on any phone. It could have been run over by a tractor, and you’ll still get $100 off. That’s such an insane deal here for what is a really incredible phone.
Continue Reading
Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra is perhaps the best smartwatch available for outdoor enthusiasts who use an Android device, and right now you can pick it up for a pretty good price thanks to Samsung’s current deal on the watch. Normally the Galaxy Watch Ultra would cost you $649.99 if you were paying full price, but at the moment you can get the watch for as low as $250.
There are some caveats to this super low price though. Right off the bat you get a $50 discount as Samsung has the watch on sale for $599.99. On top of this, you can save up to another $350 with an immediate trade-in credit. So you won’t be guaranteed to get the Galaxy Watch Ultra for $250. That price is dependent on what the value for your trade-in device is. That being said, any trade-in credit is going to save you money on the Galaxy Watch Ultra purchase and that money will be deducted from the total end cost of the watch at checkout.
All-in-all, a great deal, and really the best price we’ve seen for the watch since it was launched. Samsung’s Galaxy watch Ultra has plenty of awesome features but one that really stands out from other Wear OS smartwatches is the Quick Button on the right-hand side. With this button you can assign any number of actions you can think of and quickly launch into that function with a single press. So it’s all about convenience.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra is a bigger watch with a noticeably heavier weight compared to the Galaxy Watch 7, though. So that’s worth keeping in mind. However, the Galaxy Watch Ultra was also built to be rugged, and has a titanium case. So it will stand up better to dings and such.
Black people throughout the country, in more than 20 states, have been getting racist text messages that order them to report to a plantation for slave labor, and numerous other outlets. The texts reference “slave catchers” and “picking cotton,” in addition to warning the recipients that they will be searched upon arrival.
To view this content, you’ll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the “Content and social-media partners” setting to do so.
These hate-filled messages have been received by both kids and adults. The “texts appear to be targeting Black and Brown individuals, including students,” New York’s attorney general Letitia James said. Various AG offices from other states have also issued statements.
The texts all come from unknown phone numbers and began ramping after the election on Tuesday. NAACP president Derrick Johnson said that “these messages represent an alarming increase in vile and abhorrent rhetoric from racist groups across the country, who now feel emboldened to spread hate and stoke the flames of fear that many of us are feeling after Tuesday’s election results.”
To view this content, you’ll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the “Content and social-media partners” setting to do so.
The mother of a University of Alabama student who received one of the messages said that “it’s eerie that it’s the day after the election. It’s eerie that it came to my daughter’s personal phone. It’s eerie that it’s only going to Black students.”
A spokesperson for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign wrote in a statement that it “has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages.” The FBI in a statement, noting that it’s been in “contact with the Justice Department and other federal authorities on the matter.”
To view this content, you’ll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the “Content and social-media partners” setting to do so.
It remains unclear who sent the texts and how they did it. The messages targeted people of color, suggesting that the senders had biographical information on the recipients. Many of the messages were sent through TextNow, a free app that provides phone numbers, texting and calling services.
TextNow told CNN that it believes this is a “widespread, coordinated attack.” The service lets people sign up anonymously and sends texts via randomly-generated phone numbers. It says it has been busy “rapidly disabling the related accounts.” The company is also “working alongside our industry partners to uncover more details and continue to monitor patterns to actively block any new accounts attempting to send these messages.”
If you have received one of these horrific texts, lawmakers encourage you to reach out to your state’s AG or email . It’s currently unknown how many people have received the messages.
The goal of Amazon Games, the game publishing and development arm of Amazon, is to become a world-class top publisher in the game industry, says Laura Naviaux Sturr, GM, Operations, Amazon Games. The studio has launched three chart-topping titles so far: New World, Lost Ark, and Throne and Liberty.
At GameBeat Next, Naviaux Sturr spoke with Stanley Pierre-Louis, president and CEO, Entertainment Software Association (ESA), about the studio’s future portfolio and the ways its investments will come to bear over the next three years. That includes titles like the upcoming action brawler King of Meat and a new collaboration with Maverick Games on a future narrative-led, open-world driving adventure game, and big-swing investments in IP like Tomb Raider and The Lord of the Rings — and looking for breakout opportunities.
“The industry is at an inflection point right now,” she said. “We want to take two to three big bets a year and figure out the ones we can dial up a few notches. In our portfolio strategy, we need the blue chips with the dividends, some growth opportunities and engines and then taking some fun experimental bets. If you fast forward 10 years from now, what is Gen Alpha and Gen Z expecting from their gameplay experiences?”
Generating growth through IP
Media giants like Warner, Disney, and even Netflix are seeing great success exploiting their IP across media streams, and that’s a big part of the Amazon Games’ strategy. They’re all growing IP to take to transmedia, as well as leap at opportunities to secure established IP.
“Big IP will always matter, always carry with it this extraordinary fandom,” Naviaux Sturr said. “The big ones in the video game world are trying to get that commentary out of the depths of the internet into real-life experiences or through film and television or theme parks, like what you see with some of the very biggest video game IP. That’s an interesting vector in terms of finding new growth.”
For nascent video game IP, careful planning is crucial during the creation process, such as giving secondary characters potential for their own stories, considering what a prequel might entail, making sure the story could move throughout the timeline of your world in a compelling way and more.
“It’s more of the franchise planning at the outset that I’m seeing developers be very smart and strategic about. Look at how IP is being invented from the corners of the internet,” she said. “You have the Alexa Fund as an early investment vehicle at Amazon. We invested in a company called Superplastic. Their whole thesis was, how do we take Unreal and this ubiquitous technology that presumably will become very common, a skill set that a lot of developers have, and invent IP through social media?”
Demographics, attitudes and IP
In this year’s ESA study, “Essential Facts About the U.S. Video Game Industry,” they looked at Gen Alpha’s playing dynamics for the first time, and found that 79% percent play video games, with Gen Z’s numbers not far behind at 76% — a massive addressable market of people who love games. The average age of gamers is increasing over time, suggesting that more and more folks are lifelong gamers, playing not only new titles, but the titles they grew up with. Bringing those consumers along the journey of an IP they love requires some strategy, Naviaux Sturr says, which depends on the maturity of the franchise, consumer expectations and what the fans want.
With early-stage IP, there’s a lot more flexibility in the ways that you can expand and grow. But big IP holders like Roblox and Amazon Games, which see players across generations, have hard decisions ahead of them about how much player agency you’re going to allow this generation to have with your IP.
“In these user-generated worlds, micro-communities playing with a few people, watch parties — they expect to be able to have different rule sets and modify the game and do that in a way that feels very modern, seamless and easy,” she said. “For most of them, the common denominators are that they’re online, they play highly social experiences, and typically competitive ones, and some form of PvP (player vs. player). It’s my personal belief that this will still be their expectation 10, 20, 30 years from now.”
But she points at other statistics like the 53% of gamers who want single-player experiences. Addressing those consumers will require developers to challenge conventions: does every single-player game have to be 30 hours long, or have a single ending, and so on, and what will these games look like in the future?
“Our capital is always in terms of long-term value creation,” Naviaux Sturr said. “We’re taking that long view in making these stories, characters and narratives, and allowing them to come into these various spaces, whether through transmedia or the game itself, and telling new stories that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.”
Science & Environment
Tesla was the top ‘Trump Trade’ of the week, along with some energy and financial stocks
After a career as an incident investigator with risk management firms like Kroll and FTI Consulting, Aaron Narva was working with a big international bank client at compliance software maker Exiger. He was responsible for monitoring that client’s legal compliance after it had made headlines a decade earlier for a money-laundering scandal.
“While I was at Exiger, we acquired some software businesses, including an AI software tool that helped pull risk out of unstructured public records. And we built a tool to help identify corruption and sanctions risk in business relationships for very large companies,” Narva told TechCrunch.
That work gave him the idea for Conflixis. Hospitals and other big medical practices face similar risks from corruption as banks. Drug companies and device manufacturers get so famously chummy with doctors that doctors are required to disclose conflicts of interest: junkets, consulting fees, sponsorship of research grants and the like.
Much research shows that those who get too chummy are more likely to prescribe those drugs and devices, whether they would produce better outcomes for the patient or not. The risk is so great that the government runs a database called OpenPaymentsData.com, where anyone can see conflict-of-interest disclosures.
Yet disclosing such conflicts doesn’t stop the problem, which puts hospitals at legal risk. A host of laws prohibit such behavior by doctors, everything from the Stark Law, to the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS).
At the same time, commercial interests do need to work with physicians – the medical experts – to help them research new drugs and build devices. So not every interaction is forbidden.
Narva envisioned an AI-powered software-as-a-service that would identify for hospitals and big medical practices the actual situations that put the hospital – if not the patient – at risk.
“A big health system might have 200,000 relationships between its doctors and vendors and suppliers,” Narva said. “Which of those 200,000 relationships is impacting you from any one of like six risks?”
Risks range from running afoul of laws to unfavorable medical outcomes. The federal government also provides a database that publishes hospital quality-of-care information.
Narva called a friend he’d known since the eighth grade, Joseph Bergen, director of engineering at Buzzfeed at the time, to ask Bergen’s opinion of the idea. Bergen liked it so much, he quit his job and became a cofounder.
Conflixis works by ingesting data from OpenPaymentsData.com, the hospital’s procurement data, claims data, patient outcomes records, conflict-of-interest forms, other sources. It analyzes all conflict points to identify the ones that a hospital should investigate.
“Ok, we looked at all 5,000 or 10,000 relationships [and] here are the seven that you need to actually look at,” Narva describes as an example. “Like, we boiled the ocean and here are the seven.”
Conflixis takes it a step further and can also predict a hospital’s spending and suggest ways to reduce it. For instance, is the hospital buying a more expensive piece of equipment based on a recommendation from a doctor that has a relationship with that vendor, instead of a less expensive one?
“We can make it so that hospitals are reducing their regulatory risk significantly, increasing their trust and transparency with their patients, yes, but also making better operational decisions about what they’re buying,” he says.
Founded in 2023, the company already has a handful of clients with just under $5 million in revenue, Narva said. It just announced a $4.2 million seed round co-led by Lerer Hippeau (the fund founded by BuzzFeed’s former chairman Kenneth Lerer) and Origin Ventures, with mark vc, Springtime Ventures, and pre-seed investor Cretiv Capital participating.
Conflixis joins a crowded field of health industry compliance software companies like Compliatric and Symplr, alhough some are more focused on protecting patient data than on corruption and procurement.
Narva says what sets Conflixis apart is the way it has married its employees’ careers in investigative work with LLMs. It modified off-the-shelf models to look for patterns in the data based on “our backgrounds in transaction monitoring and corruption in big data investigations,” he says.
Now, the tech industry has wised up. Most CEOs have looked back at the last eight years of techlash and seemed to conclude that they should be as visibly apolitical as possible — though they’re happy to lobby behind the scenes. At the same time, some have gambled that being in Trump’s good graces would be beneficial — and that risk seems to have paid off. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who Trump has literally threatened to send to prison, praised the president-elect’s fist pump after the attempted assassination and has made nice with Republicans about Meta’s content moderation choices. Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos killed an endorsement of Kamala Harris in the paper. And, of course, Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk has made himself one of Trump’s chief allies, securing a promise that he could run a “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE).
Trump, meanwhile, will have more power than ever — he’s rooted out former supporters who encouraged restraint during his first term, and key allies have sprawling plans for overhauling the administrative state.
All this to say, the next four years of tech policy will be unpredictable and erratic. But even as Trump tries to expand his authority, he’ll need support from the courts and Congress. These are the policies we’ll be tracking as Trump reassumes the presidency and what he could realistically do.
AI
A Trump presidency likely means a less constrained AI industry. Trump has promised to repeal the Biden administration’s AI executive order, which instructed agencies to create testing standards and guardrails to prevent AI from being used in discriminatory ways, like in allocating housing or determining legal outcomes in the criminal justice system. Trump previously signed his own executive order covering AI safety and standards, but it did not touch on discrimination. The second Trump administration will likely deprioritize AI discrimination safeguards and discourage the use of the Defense Production Act to require more transparency, something conservatives have characterized as government overreach.
AI policy is an area where Elon Musk will likely seek to exert his influence, assuming he and Trump remain on good terms. Musk runs xAI and has been critical of incumbent players like OpenAI — a firm he cofounded but later distanced himself from and sued. Musk has supported AI safety measures like California’s controversial and ultimately vetoed SB 1047, and he previously signed a call for a moratorium on major AI developments for safety reasons. But his focus on existential risks has been criticized by some AI researchers as a distraction from more immediate risks like discrimination.
AI policy is an area where Musk will likely seek to exert his influence
It’s also not yet clear how Trump will handle thorny copyright issues surrounding generative AI, including what information large language models are allowed to train on. AI executives, including Musk, could seek to shape how Trump views the issue in a way that’s favorable to them.
Antitrust
Trump’s approach to antitrust enforcement could be based mainly on personal grievances. Bloomberg Intelligence senior litigation analyst Jennifer Rie writes that “enforcement could be idiosyncratic based on president-elect Donald Trump’s view of the companies or industries involved.” Adam Kovacevich, CEO of the left-of-center tech industry group Chamber of Progress, bluntly said we’ll see a “‘Trump Welfare Standard’: is this company nice to Trump?”
Though Trump’s VP pick, JD Vance, has publicly praised Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, it’s not clear how committed Vance is to this stance or how much sway he will have. If he does get a say here, we could expect a continued crackdown on big tech firms to benefit “little tech” or startups that VCs like Andreessen Horowitz (another Trump supporter) want to see rocket with growth.
“Republicans no longer uniformly lean more business-friendly than Democrats.”
While business leaders may be relieved if Khan leaves the FTC, Rie says we shouldn’t expect “a return to the relaxed antitrust climate of 10 years ago … some aspects of the current aggressive approach will stick. Republicans no longer uniformly lean more business-friendly than Democrats.” Still, while she says it largely depends on Trump’s appointments, merger approvals could become swifter and recently revised merger guidelines could be unraveled.
Trump’s administration will likely continue the existing legal fights against Meta, Google, Apple, and Amazon (including two cases filed during Trump’s first term). But it could pursue more modest remedies, depending on who he appoints — and how Trump feels about a company like Google on any given day. “A slight increase in settlement prospects is possible down the road, especially if the cases don’t seem to be going well for the agencies,” Rie writes. “Trump doesn’t believe Google should be broken up, though we didn’t expect this to happen anyway.” Kovacevich also says Trump could use the cases “as leverage over the companies to get favorable treatment on speech and content concerns.”
TikTok
Perhaps Trump’s greatest flip-flop issue has been his stance on TikTok. Trump championed the original TikTok ban effort, which was shot down by the courts. But he’s more recently said he opposes a ban because it would just benefit Meta. Trump’s turnaround reportedly came after he met with Republican donor Jeff Yass, who has a major stake in ByteDance.
Under the Biden administration, Congress overwhelmingly passed a bill that could ban the social video app unless ByteDance divests it by mid-January, and Biden signed it into law. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals is currently deliberating about whether that law can be upheld and will likely release a decision by the end of the year. But TikTok’s chances of dodging a ban only “slightly” improve under a Trump presidency, according to Bloomberg Intelligence litigation analyst Matt Schettenhelm.
The law doesn’t give Trump “much room” to play with
If the DC Circuit decides to uphold the law and the Supreme Court declines to take it up or upholds that ruling, what Trump can do is somewhat limited. He could grant an extension of up to 90 days for ByteDance to complete its divestiture of TikTok, but under the law, he would need to certify to Congress that there’s an actual plan underway. The law does leave the president some discretion to determine whether more apps besides TikTok fall under the divestiture law’s purview and what represents an adequate separation. But TikTok is written into the statute, so Trump can’t just decide it no longer applies.
The law doesn’t give Trump “much room” to play with, Schettenhelm tells The Verge in an email, though he could exercise some judgment in approving TikTok’s divestiture proposal. Even if Trump took the “unusual” step of announcing his Justice Department wouldn’t enforce the law, Schettenhelm writes in a note to clients, “companies that carry the app would be undertaking enormous risk that Trump wouldn’t change his mind and seek crippling penalties. We doubt they’d do so.”
If the court strikes down the law — perhaps because it finds it violates the First Amendment or because Congress didn’t develop a strong enough record in the relatively quick lead-up to its passage — then the legislature would need to do the process over. While the bill had very strong bipartisan support the first time around, now that Trump has said he opposes a TikTok ban, it seems less likely Congress would spend valuable time on a bill that the president may not sign.
Tariffs and China
Trump famously started a trade war with China in his first term in office, and if his campaign rhetoric is to be believed, we’ll see a continuation of such economic policies this time. While Biden has implemented some protectionist economic policies, including export controls on advanced semiconductors, Trump has floated tariffs on goods imported from China at a rate of 60 to 100 percent.
That could have big implications for the many tech companies that use components made in China and for any companies that rely on China for a significant part of their business strategy (like Apple and Tesla). But because of that connection, this is another area where Elon Musk’s influence could be a wild card.
Alongside his promises of mass deportations, Trump’s China tariffs could dramatically change day-to-day life in America, as severe price hikes for imported goods would throw countless people’s lives and livelihoods into chaos. How far the administration will go is an open question, and one that makes predicting the future with any certainty — inside and outside the tech industry — difficult to do.
Net neutrality and telecom policy
Net neutrality — which already faces an uphill battle in the courts after SCOTUS rolled back Chevron deference — is likely dead under a Trump administration. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Nathan Dean predicts a 90 percent chance Trump’s Federal Communications Commission abandons the effort to reclassify broadband providers as common carriers and subject them to greater regulatory scrutiny.
A Republican-led FCC will also likely allow more concentrated control of TV stations, Dean writes, and loosen broadcast merger and acquisition rules. Republican FCC commissioner Brendan Carr, who served during the first Trump administration, has called for big tech companies to pay into the Universal Service Fund — currently funded by telecommunications providers — and suggested punishing TV networks under broadcasting rules.
Musk could seek to limit programs that help Starlink’s competitors
It’s not totally clear yet how Trump’s FCC will handle other key broadband policy issues, including the rollout of the government’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) infrastructure investment program. But once again, Elon Musk’s influence could become important here. Musk runs the satellite internet company Starlink, which has been passed over for some government contracts, but could lobby for more favorable policies under Trump. For example, the BEAD program currently favors fiber broadband, and Musk has critiqued the program as an “outrageous waste of taxpayer money.”
In his government efficiency role or in a more informal way, Musk could seek to limit programs that help Starlink’s competitors, like the Universal Service Fund, according to CNET. That program helps service rural communities with broadband — places where Starlink is well positioned to move in.
Content moderation
Conservatives including Trump have long complained about social media platforms suppressing conservative speech and accused them of bowing to Democratic government pressure to remove things like election or vaccine misinformation. Even before his reelection, platforms like Meta had heeded Republican pushback and loosened their moderation standards.
A Trump administration and Republican legislature could rework the Section 230 liability shield to let them actually punish companies for moderation decisions. In addition to the option of passing actual laws changing Section 230, Brendan Carr suggested in his Project 2025 chapter that the FCC could narrow its protections for a broad range of content moderation decisions. Ultimately, any executive or legislative changes to online speech rules could face the Supreme Court, which has so far upheld the right to conduct content moderation, although it signaled openness to potential legal changes in the future.
Kids online safety
Trump hasn’t said much about where he stands on this topic or on the leading congressional bill on the subject, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). That bill remains stalled in the House after passing through the Senate (in combination with an update to children’s data privacy law), and it’s not yet clear what could happen in future congressional sessions. Current Republican House leadership has expressed concerns that KOSA could unduly limit speech, so a Democratic House might be more open to giving it floor time, but ultimately, the concerns with the bill don’t fall entirely down partisan lines.
Adam Kovacevich, whose group has opposed KOSA, suggests Democrats should be wary of passing the bill under a Trump presidency — pointing to lead cosponsor Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s (R-TN) comments about protecting kids from transgender content online. “Democrats will have to decide whether they want to hand Trump & MAGA state law enforcers a powerful new censorship tool,” he writes.
Electric vehicles
Electric vehicle tax credits and other climate-focused policies will likely be in jeopardy under Trump, though that might be somewhat complicated by his connection with Musk, with Tesla standing to gain from EV-friendly policies. Still, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives previously said that Tesla’s “scale and scope … could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment.”
Tesla’s “scale and scope … could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment”
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Nathan Dean sees just a 30 percent chance of continued EV tax credits under Trump. He predicts continued rhetoric that EVs are “a boon to China’s economy,” alongside efforts to replace the tax credits with consumer incentives that could benefit traditional carmakers like General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis.
Semiconductor policy
Under the Biden administration, Congress passed the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which injected funds into creating a domestic semiconductor production industry — something experts say is a national security necessity and critical to maintaining control over the supply chain for important technologies including medical tech. But Trump called the bill “so bad” during his appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, and soon after, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he was open to repealing the law (though he later walked back those comments). Trump can’t undo a law on his own, but he could perhaps instruct his Commerce Department to slow-walk aspects of its rollout.
Crypto
Trump has made significant overtures to the cryptocurrency industry, headlining a major Bitcoin conference this summer and picking up significant support from prominent crypto investors like Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. With Trump’s election, the industry is likely to get its top wish: the ouster of Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, whom the industry views as its chief antagonist. Expect more permissive and hands-off regulation of this industry, as Trump has called for making the US a “Bitcoin superpower.”
-
Science & Environment2 months agoHow to unsnarl a tangle of threads, according to physics
-
Technology1 month agoIs sharing your smartphone PIN part of a healthy relationship?
-
Science & Environment2 months agoHyperelastic gel is one of the stretchiest materials known to science
-
Science & Environment2 months ago‘Running of the bulls’ festival crowds move like charged particles
-
Technology2 months agoWould-be reality TV contestants ‘not looking real’
-
Science & Environment1 month agoX-rays reveal half-billion-year-old insect ancestor
-
Sport1 month agoAaron Ramsdale: Southampton goalkeeper left Arsenal for more game time
-
Money1 month agoWetherspoons issues update on closures – see the full list of five still at risk and 26 gone for good
-
Science & Environment2 months agoPhysicists have worked out how to melt any material
-
MMA1 month ago‘Dirt decision’: Conor McGregor, pros react to Jose Aldo’s razor-thin loss at UFC 307
-
Science & Environment2 months agoMaxwell’s demon charges quantum batteries inside of a quantum computer
-
Science & Environment2 months agoSunlight-trapping device can generate temperatures over 1000°C
-
Football1 month agoRangers & Celtic ready for first SWPL derby showdown
-
News1 month agoWoman who died of cancer ‘was misdiagnosed on phone call with GP’
-
News1 month ago‘Blacks for Trump’ and Pennsylvania progressives play for undecided voters
-
Science & Environment2 months agoLaser helps turn an electron into a coil of mass and charge
-
Business1 month ago
how UniCredit built its Commerzbank stake
-
Technology1 month agoUkraine is using AI to manage the removal of Russian landmines
-
Science & Environment2 months agoA new kind of experiment at the Large Hadron Collider could unravel quantum reality
-
Science & Environment2 months agoLiquid crystals could improve quantum communication devices
-
Technology1 month agoGmail gets redesigned summary cards with more data & features
-
Technology1 month agoSamsung Passkeys will work with Samsung’s smart home devices
-
Science & Environment2 months agoWhy this is a golden age for life to thrive across the universe
-
Sport1 month agoBoxing: World champion Nick Ball set for Liverpool homecoming against Ronny Rios
-
Technology1 month agoEpic Games CEO Tim Sweeney renews blast at ‘gatekeeper’ platform owners
-
Sport1 month ago2024 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup: Pakistan beat Sri Lanka
-
Science & Environment2 months agoQuantum ‘supersolid’ matter stirred using magnets
-
Technology1 month agoRussia is building ground-based kamikaze robots out of old hoverboards
-
News1 month agoMassive blasts in Beirut after renewed Israeli air strikes
-
Entertainment1 month agoBruce Springsteen endorses Harris, calls Trump “most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime”
-
MMA1 month agoDana White’s Contender Series 74 recap, analysis, winner grades
-
News1 month agoNavigating the News Void: Opportunities for Revitalization
-
Business1 month ago
Top shale boss says US ‘unusually vulnerable’ to Middle East oil shock
-
Technology1 month agoMicrosoft just dropped Drasi, and it could change how we handle big data
-
MMA1 month agoPereira vs. Rountree prediction: Champ chases legend status
-
MMA1 month ago‘Uncrowned queen’ Kayla Harrison tastes blood, wants UFC title run
-
Technology1 month agoMicrophone made of atom-thick graphene could be used in smartphones
-
Technology1 month agoSingleStore’s BryteFlow acquisition targets data integration
-
Technology1 month agoCheck, Remote, and Gusto discuss the future of work at Disrupt 2024
-
Sport1 month agoWXV1: Canada 21-8 Ireland – Hosts make it two wins from two
-
News1 month agoRwanda restricts funeral sizes following outbreak
-
Business1 month agoWater companies ‘failing to address customers’ concerns’
-
Science & Environment2 months agoQuantum forces used to automatically assemble tiny device
-
Technology2 months agoMeta has a major opportunity to win the AI hardware race
-
Technology1 month agoWhy Machines Learn: A clever primer makes sense of what makes AI possible
-
TV1 month agoসারাদেশে দিনব্যাপী বৃষ্টির পূর্বাভাস; সমুদ্রবন্দরে ৩ নম্বর সংকেত | Weather Today | Jamuna TV
-
News1 month agoCornell is about to deport a student over Palestine activism
-
Business1 month agoWhen to tip and when not to tip
-
News2 months ago▶️ Hamas in the West Bank: Rising Support and Deadly Attacks You Might Not Know About
-
Science & Environment2 months agoITER: Is the world’s biggest fusion experiment dead after new delay to 2035?
-
MMA1 month agoKayla Harrison gets involved in nasty war of words with Julianna Pena and Ketlen Vieira
-
News1 month agoHull KR 10-8 Warrington Wolves – Robins reach first Super League Grand Final
-
Football1 month ago'Rangers outclassed and outplayed as Hearts stop rot'
-
MMA1 month agoPennington vs. Peña pick: Can ex-champ recapture title?
-
Technology1 month agoLG C4 OLED smart TVs hit record-low prices ahead of Prime Day
-
Science & Environment2 months agoNuclear fusion experiment overcomes two key operating hurdles
-
Science & Environment2 months agoA slight curve helps rocks make the biggest splash
-
Technology1 month agoUniversity examiners fail to spot ChatGPT answers in real-world test
-
Travel1 month ago
World of Hyatt welcomes iconic lifestyle brand in latest partnership
-
Sport1 month agoShanghai Masters: Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz win openers
-
Sport1 month agoPremiership Women’s Rugby: Exeter Chiefs boss unhappy with WXV clash
-
News1 month ago▶ Hamas Spent $1B on Tunnels Instead of Investing in a Future for Gaza’s People
-
Sport1 month agoChina Open: Carlos Alcaraz recovers to beat Jannik Sinner in dramatic final
-
Football1 month agoWhy does Prince William support Aston Villa?
-
Money1 month agoTiny clue on edge of £1 coin that makes it worth 2500 times its face value – do you have one lurking in your change?
-
Science & Environment2 months agoNerve fibres in the brain could generate quantum entanglement
-
Womens Workouts2 months ago3 Day Full Body Women’s Dumbbell Only Workout
-
Technology1 month agoMusk faces SEC questions over X takeover
-
Sport1 month agoSturm Graz: How Austrians ended Red Bull’s title dominance
-
Sport1 month agoURC: Munster 23-0 Ospreys – hosts enjoy second win of season
-
Sport1 month agoCoco Gauff stages superb comeback to reach China Open final
-
Business1 month ago
Bank of England warns of ‘future stress’ from hedge fund bets against US Treasuries
-
Technology1 month agoQuoroom acquires Investory to scale up its capital-raising platform for startups
-
Business1 month ago
Italy seeks to raise more windfall taxes from companies
-
MMA1 month ago‘I was fighting on automatic pilot’ at UFC 306
-
MMA1 month agoHow to watch Salt Lake City title fights, lineup, odds, more
-
TV1 month agoTV Patrol Express September 26, 2024
-
News1 month agoGerman Car Company Declares Bankruptcy – 200 Employees Lose Their Jobs
-
News1 month agoHarry vs Sun publisher: ‘Two obdurate but well-resourced armies’
-
Sport1 month agoNew Zealand v England in WXV: Black Ferns not ‘invincible’ before game
-
Sport1 month agoWales fall to second loss of WXV against Italy
-
Science & Environment2 months agoTime travel sci-fi novel is a rip-roaringly good thought experiment
-
Science & Environment2 months agoHow to wrap your mind around the real multiverse
-
News2 months ago▶️ Media Bias: How They Spin Attack on Hezbollah and Ignore the Reality
-
Business1 month ago
DoJ accuses Donald Trump of ‘private criminal effort’ to overturn 2020 election
-
Technology1 month agoJ.B. Hunt and UP.Labs launch venture lab to build logistics startups
-
Technology1 month agoAmazon’s Ring just doubled the price of its alarm monitoring service for grandfathered customers
-
Business1 month ago
Sterling slides after Bailey says BoE could be ‘a bit more aggressive’ on rates
-
Business1 month ago
‘Let’s be more normal’ — and rival Tory strategies
-
Technology1 month agoThe best shows on Max (formerly HBO Max) right now
-
Politics1 month ago
‘The night of the living dead’: denial-fuelled Tory conference ends without direction | Conservative conference
-
Technology4 weeks agoNintendo’s latest hardware is not the Switch 2
-
Football1 month agoFifa to investigate alleged rule breaches by Israel Football Association
-
Business1 month ago
The search for Japan’s ‘lost’ art
-
MMA1 month agoKetlen Vieira vs. Kayla Harrison pick, start time, odds: UFC 307
-
Technology1 month agoIf you’ve ever considered smart glasses, this Amazon deal is for you
-
News1 month agoTrump returns to Pennsylvania for rally at site of assassination attempt
-
MMA1 month agoKevin Holland suffers injury vs. Roman Dolidze
-
Sport1 month agoAmerica’s Cup: Great Britain qualify for first time since 1964
-
Sport1 month agoFans say ‘Moyes is joking, right?’ after his bizarre interview about under-fire Man Utd manager Erik ten Hag goes viral
You must be logged in to post a comment Login