The 2024 election in the US is finally here and the contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is so close that we will all be glued to our screens and watch what happens. As AppleInsider reports, Apple is making sure you follow the developments immediately (and don’t take a break from it) through Live Activity. Starting Tuesday night, Apple News will display the ongoing US election results as Live Activity.
The Live Activity tracker will appear on your lock screen and give you the latest election updates. It is available on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. If your device has Dynamic Island, you will also be able to track the Electoral College results there.
If you are interested in receiving Live Activity updates about the election, you can turn it on through Apple News. Click on the “Follow 2024 Elections Live” banner or open the “Elections 2024” tab and you will see a notification about enabling it.
The Biden administration has unveiled its “AI proliferation rule”, which aims to restrict the export of GPUs that are most coveted for AI applications. Although it doesn’t name the country, it is broadly seen as a means of preventing China from overtaking the US in AI development.
The rule proposes three licensing tiers. The first tier is unrestricted and includes the domestic market as well as 18 strategic allies. Most countries fall into the second tier, which will have limits on how much computing power they can import from the US via top GPUs. The third tier includes China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, and effectively prevents US companies from selling their most powerful GPUs there.
US-based companies would also be prevented from sharing many details of their AI software models with countries outside the first tier, and would have to get permission from the federal government before building large data centers in any second-tier country.
Several parties, including the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), issued statements condemning the decision, saying they believe the restrictions will push nations to work with China. “The new rule risks causing unintended and lasting harm to the U.S. economy and global competitiveness in semiconductors and AI by ceding strategic markets to our competitors,” the SIA wrote.
NVIDIA also objected, with the company’s vice president of government affairs Ned Finkel saying the Biden administration “seeks to undermine America’s leadership with a 200+ page regulatory morass, crafted in secret and without proper legislative review.” The rule has a 120-day comment period, so whether or not it will remain in the incoming Trump administration is an open question.