Amazon and iRobot, maker of the Roomba vacuum line, just announced that they would be dropping their proposed merger. The potential acquisition was announced back in August of 2022 and was immediately the target of antitrust watchdogs, particularly in the EU. The European Commission (the EU's executive branch) officially announced it was looking into the 1.4 billion dollar deal last July and it raised formal concerns over the potential impact on competition in November. The company says it is laying off about 350 employees, which represents 31 percent of iRobot's workforce. Colin Angle, founder, chairman of the iRobot board of directors and CEO is also stepping down as chairman and CEO, effective today. While the companies didn't mention the pressure from the EU specifically, Bloomberg notes that a veto looked likely.

The White House says "developers of the most powerful AI systems" will now have to report AI safety test results to the Department of Commerce in the wake of an executive order issued by President Biden aimed at "managing the risks" of the technology. The news comes as Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed is convening the White House AI Council on Monday, consisting of "top officials from a wide range of federal departments and agencies" who have reported completing 90-day actions and advancing other directives tasked by the order Biden signed last October, according to the White House. Among those actions was that they "[u]sed Defense Production Act authorities to compel developers of the most powerful AI systems to report vital information, especially AI safety test results, to the Department of Commerce," the White House said. "These companies now must share this information on the most powerful AI systems, and they must likewise report large computing clusters able to train these systems," the White House added. The White House announced Monday that companies that are working on the "most powerful AI systems" must now report "AI safety test results" to the Department of Commerce.

The United States military announced on Sunday that three US soldiers were killed and at least 34 were wounded in a drone attack targeting Tower 22, a remote logistics outpost near the Jordan-Syrian border. The attack has elicited a strong reaction from Washington with President Joe Biden pledging to hold the attackers to account. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed groups in the region, claimed the attacks, saying it was in response to US support to Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed more than 26,000 people. Tower 22, which houses a small US logistics outpost, is located in Jordan's northeast close to the borders with Iraq and Syria. Public information about the outpost is limited.

Three American soldiers were killed in a drone attack in Jordan at a US military base known as Tower 22, near the Syrian and Iraqi borders. Here's what we know about the attack.

Iran is claiming that accusations of its involvement in an attack that left three U.S. service members dead in Jordan over the weekend are "baseless." Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani also claimed that "resistance groups" in the region do not take orders from Iran, according to Reuters. The remarks come after three American service members were killed and other were wounded in a drone attack near the Syrian border over the weekend. "While we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq," President Biden said in response to the strike. Some Republicans have pressed Biden to authorize stronger action against Iran, with members of both parties concerned about the safety of U.S. troops overseas.

Many people have long feared that A.I. would kill jobs. But a boom in the technology has instead spurred law firms, hospitals, insurance companies, government agencies and universities to create what has become the hottest new role in corporate America and beyond: the senior executive in charge of A.I. The Equifax credit bureau, the manufacturer Ashley Furniture and law firms such as Eversheds Sutherland have appointed A.I. executives over the past year. In December, The New York Times named an editorial director of A.I. initiatives. And more than 400 federal departments and agencies looked for chief A.I. officers last year to comply with an executive order by President Biden that created safeguards for the technology.

A top House Republican lawmaker is eyeing the opportunities and risks of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) technology into the day-to-day operations of the U.S. Congress. "I think of this as a tool in a toolkit that's made Congress more efficient and more responsive. And with any new technology, there are great benefits and there are risks. And we're managing between both of those," House Committee on Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital. "Our hearing is going to give us that opportunity to both demonstrate that in a transparent way to the American public, but also to gain insights and information about how not only Congress, but all legislative branch entities such as the Library of Congress or [Government Accountability Office] can be utilizing AI to do the same," he said.

Iran has denied involvement in a drone attack in Jordan that killed three US military personnel and injured dozens of others, state media has reported. US President Joe Biden and UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron have blamed Iran-backed groups for Sunday's attack near the border with Syria. "As we have clearly stated before, the resistance groups in the region are responding [to] the war crimes and genocide of the child-killing Zionist regime and… they do not take orders from the Islamic Republic of Iran," Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Nasser Kanaani was quoted saying by IRNA on Monday. "These groups decide and act based on their own principles and priorities as well as the interests of their country and people." Kanaani said claims of Iranian involvement were motivated by "specific political goals to reverse the realities of the region" and were "influenced by third parties, including the child-killing Zionist regime".

This was the day that President Biden and his team had feared for more than three months, the day that relatively low-level attacks by Iranian proxy groups on American troops in the Middle East turned deadly and intensified the pressure on the president to respond in kind. With three American service members killed and two dozen more injured by a drone in Jordan, Mr. Biden must decide how far he is willing to go in terms of retaliation at the risk of a wider war that he has sought to avoid ever since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas touched off the current Middle East crisis. Until now, the president had carefully calibrated his responses to the more than 150 attacks by Iranian-backed militias on American forces in the region since Oct. 7. He essentially ignored the majority that were successfully intercepted or did little to no damage while authorizing limited U.S. strikes focused mainly on buildings, weapons and infrastructure after attacks that were more brazen, most notably against the Houthis in Yemen who have targeted shipping in the Red Sea. The first deaths of American troops under fire, however, will require a different level of response, American officials said, and the president's advisers were in consensus about that as they consulted with him by secure videoconference on Sunday.

Three U.S. service members were killed and dozens may be wounded after an unmanned aerial drone attack on U.S. forces stationed in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border, U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. officials said on Sunday. Biden blamed Iran-backed groups for the attack, the first deadly strike against U.S. forces since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October and sent shock waves throughout the Middle East. "While we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq," Biden said in a statement.