Greg Guenthner:

New York Sues Prediction Market Polymarket, Calling It an Unlicensed Gambling Operation

New York sued the prediction market Polymarket on Thursday, arguing the platform is an unlicensed gambling operation and calling for a judge to block the company from operating in the state.

The lawsuit is the latest legal challenge from a state moving to rein in popular and now-ubiquitous betting apps that allow people to place wagers on most anything, including sports, weather, elections, and technology.

Prediction market platforms have argued states do not have the authority to govern them because they are regulated at the federal level by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

New York officials filed Thursday’s lawsuit against Polymarket in state court and want the company to face fines and be forced to pay restitution to users because the platform did not get a gaming license from the state. The state has previously sued other platforms such as Kalshi, Coinbase and Gemini using a similar argument.

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Ari Goldschmidt:

Flock Is Finally Requiring Police To Have a Real Reason Before Searching Its Camera Database

Flock Safety is changing how police search its license plate camera database as the company faces growing questions in Washington over privacy, accuracy, and misuse. The company told Senator Josh Hawley that it has added more controls to its search system, which scans about 20 billion license plates a month.

Until recently, users were required to explain why they were conducting a search by typing into an open text field. Flock said those entries were not always specific enough. The company has replaced the field with a drop-down menu of standardized categories based on the FBI's crime-reporting system.

By the end of the year, law enforcement users will also need to enter a case number before running a search. Flock said that requirement can be waived in emergencies.

The changes were outlined in a letter from Flock's chief legal officer to Hawley, the Missouri Republican who opened an investigation into the company last month. Hawley led a Senate hearing on Wednesday examining Flock and three other companies that provide similar surveillance technology.

Flock says its automated license plate recognition system has about 120,000 cameras nationwide.

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Ray Blanco:

SpaceX Launching Prototype Google AI Satellite Next Week

The age of the orbital data center may be about to dawn. Google announced today that a prototype satellite for its planned Project Suncatcher AI constellation will fly on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission, which is currently scheduled to launch on Oct. 1.

The main goal is to see how core Suncatcher hardware – Google chips known as tensor processing units (TPUs) – perform in the final frontier.

The prototype spacecraft carries four TPUs and will operate in Earth orbit for a year, if all goes to plan. During that time, Google will keep close tabs on the TPUs, noting, among other things, how they're affected by space radiation and how effectively the heat they generate is dissipated.

Indeed, cooling is regarded as one of the major challengers for operators of orbital data centers, as there is no airflow in space to carry away heat.

It's unclear if off-Earth AI plans will come to pass. But the Transporter-18 launch could be a hinge point, teaching Google a lot more about its own prospects.

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