On the eve of its 25th anniversary, Mozilla, the not-for-profit behind the Firefox browser, is launching an AI-focused startup. From a report: Called Mozilla.ai, the newly forged company's mission isn't to build just any AI -- its mission is to build AI that's open source and "trustworthy," according to Mark Surman, the executive president of Mozilla and the head of Mozilla.ai. "Working on trustworthy AI for almost five years, I've constantly felt a mix of excitement and anxiety," he told TechCrunch in an email interview. "The last month or two of rapid-fire big tech AI announcements has been no different. Really exciting new tech is emerging -- new tools that have immediately sparked artists, founders ... all kinds of people to do new things. The anxiety comes when you realize almost no one is looking at the guardrails."

It's been almost one year since the European Commission unveiled the draft for what may well be one of the most influential legal frameworks in the world: the EU AI Act. According to the Mozilla Foundation, the framework is still work in progress, and now is the time to actively engage in the effort to shape its direction. Mozilla Foundation's stated mission is to work to ensure the internet remains a public resource that is open and accessible to everyone. Since 2019, Mozilla Foundation has focused a significant portion of its internet health movement-building programs on AI. We met with Mozilla Foundation's Executive Director Mark Surman and Senior Policy Researcher Maximilian Gahntz to discuss Mozilla's focus and stance on AI, key facts about the EU AI Act and how it will work in practice, as well as Mozilla's recommendations for improving it, and ways for everyone be involved in the process.

This is the result of a yearly study by the non-profit founded in 2003, which analyzed privacy policies, company websites, news reports, research whitepapers, app store listings and consumer reviews of 196 popular products from segments like wearables, connected health devices or entertainment. As our chart shows, the biggest offenders can not only be found on your phone but also next to your couch and in your children's rooms. When it comes to smart toys for children, for example, the non-profit categorized a market-and-kitchen playset by KidKraft as questionable when it comes to privacy, since its Alexa integration and corresponding skill don't have separate privacy policies. Other offenders from this segment include Amazon's smart display Echo Show for Kids and drones by DJI and Ryze. The entertainment category featuring video game consoles, tablets, streaming sticks and e-book readers contained nine products not passing the bar set by Mozilla Foundation's analysts, including Meta's Oculus Quest 2 and Amazon's range of Fire tablets.

While tech has transformed how business is conducted, especially over the past year since Covid-19 pandemic, but a business card is still considered a major part of a company's brand. Beyond just a calling card, an old-fashioned business card is a collector's item. There are many fascinating business card designs out there, and here we catalogue early business cards of tech giants like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg during the formative years of their respective business ventures. Bill Gates is an American business investor and the principal founder of Microsoft. He is one of the best-known entrepreneurs in the computer revolution and by extension one of the wealthiest individuals in the world.

Today, Mozilla and the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) have announced to join forces in the collection of open speech data in local languages, as well as the development of local innovation ecosystems for voice-enabled products and technologies. The initiative builds on the pilot project, which our Open Innovation team and the Machine Learning Group started together with the organization "Digital Umuganda" earlier this year. The Rwandan start-up collects language data in Kinyarwanda, an African language spoken by over 12 million people. Further languages in Africa and Asia are going to be added. Mozilla's projects Common Voice and Deep Speech will be the heart of the joint initiative, which aims at collecting diverse voice data and opening up a common, public database.