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TikTok CEO to Testify Before House Panel in March

The CEO is set to discuss a range of topics, like TikTok’s ties to the Chinese government.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has agreed to testify before a House panel on March 23. The House Energy and Commerce Committee announced Monday that it will discuss the app’s consumer privacy and data security, the app’s influence on children and the app’s relationship with the Chinese government through parent company ByteDance.

«ByteDance-owned TikTok has knowingly allowed the ability for the Chinese Communist Party to access American user data,» the committee wrote. «Americans deserve to know how these actions impact their privacy and data security…»

However, TikTok pushed back against these accusations.

«There is no truth to [the] claim that TikTok has made U.S. user data available to the Chinese Communist Party,» a TikTok spokesperson told CNET in an email. «We welcome the opportunity to set the record straight about TikTok, ByteDance, and the commitments we are making to address concerns about U.S. national security…»

The meeting comes as more government offices have scrutinized TikTok.

Earlier in January, Ohio and New Jersey became the latest states to ban TikTok from being downloaded onto government owned devices. Other states to take similar action against the social media app include Virginia, Georgia and Texas.

In December, the Senate passed a bill that would ban TikTok from all government owned devices, and that same month the Biden administration pushed for ByteDance to sell its US operations.

Officials from both the FBI and FCC have voiced concerns about the app, too.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in November the app poses a potential threat to national security, according to Bloomberg. That same month, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr told Axios that he supports a government ban on TikTok.

If the US did ban TikTok, it would join India as one of the only countries to have an outright ban on the app. Other countries have restricted or censored the app.

For more, check out why US states are banning TikTok and what to know about TikTok’s national security concerns.

Technologies

Little Caesars Wants ChatGPT to Order Your Pizza for You

You can personalize your pie and place your order without leaving the chatbot.

When it comes to building the perfect pizza, you need perfectly structured crust, quality cheese, well-seasoned sauce and fresh, delicious toppings. Oh, and artificial intelligence, naturally. 

Or at least that’s what Little Caesars is saying. 

Starting today, you can order Little Caesars through a new app inside ChatGPT. OpenAI’s chatbot can customize and order pizzas, or you can use ChatGPT to receive recommendations based on your budget, preferences, dietary restrictions or the number of people you need to serve. 

«Today’s consumers are turning to Gen AI as part of how they search for everything, including where to get their next meal,» Greg Hamilton, chief marketing officer at Little Caesars, said in a statement. «We recognize this shift and want to meet our customers where they already are and be the go-to for their pizza occasions. The process is as natural and intuitive as having a conversation. It’s not just about technology for technology’s sake — it’s about making life a little easier for people who love great pizza.»

Read also: I Had ChatGPT Order Me a Pizza. This Could Change Everything

How ordering a pizza with ChatGPT works

To get started, you’ll need to launch ChatGPT on your desktop or mobile device. On the ChatGPT interface, go to the Apps menu and select Little Caesars. You will need to connect your accounts by signing into your Little Caesars account or creating one. From there, you can get started with ordering. 

You can simply type in something like, «Pizzas for five people with no meat,» and you’ll get personalized recommendations for pizzas and sides that match your preferences. From there, you can tailor your order further by swapping toppings, adjusting amounts or adding an order of cookie dough brownies. 

Once you review your order, you can checkout through the Little Caesars app and then your order will go to the nearest location for you to pick up when ready. You can also schedule an order ahead of time and track your order in real-time through the app. 

The new ordering function is now available across all Little Caesars locations in the US, and many locations in Mexico and Canada.

Not interested in using AI? The Little Caesars app and website are still available, or you can always pick up the phone and call. 

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Technologies

Don’t Lose Your Texts: How to Move Away From Samsung Messages Before It Shuts Down

Samsung is deactivating its long-standing Messages app in July. Here’s what to do next.

Samsung is closing the book on its proprietary texting platform this summer. After years of slowly phasing out the software in favor of a more unified experience, the company is finally pulling the plug on its Messages app this July. While many Galaxy owners have already been using Google’s version for years, those holding onto the legacy interface now have a firm deadline to migrate their conversations before the service goes dark.

On a page with information about the switch, Samsung points to instructions on how to swap over to Google’s Messages app, including for phones that are still on Android 12 and Android 13. Samsung has historically preinstalled its own Messages app on Galaxy phones, but began transitioning toward Google Messages as early as 2021.

To encourage people to switch to Google Messages, Samsung’s instructions list new features offered by Google Messages, like RCS-enabled texting for features like typing indicators, easier group chats and sending higher-quality images. Google’s Messages app also has AI-powered spam detection and spam filters, multi-device access to messages and some built-in Gemini AI features. It’s also the app that most Android phones use as their default texting app, including Samsung’s more recent Galaxy S26. There are other SMS texting app alternatives in the Google Play Store if you don’t want to use the one made by Google.

Samsung has not said when exactly in July messaging will no longer work in the app. A Samsung representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Once the app is deactivated, only messaging to emergency services will work on Samsung Messages. 

While Samsung did stop including it as the default texting app in 2021, it wasn’t until 2024 that Samsung stopped preinstalling the texting app alongside Google Messages. The Galaxy S26 can’t download the Samsung Messages app, and other phones won’t be able to download it after the app’s July sunset.

Samsung said users of Android 11 or lower aren’t affected by the end of service, but would also likely benefit from switching to a supported texting app like Google Messages. To switch to Google Messages, the company asks users to download the app if it’s not already installed and to set it as the default SMS app when prompted after launching it. 

The post also notes that anyone using an older Galaxy Watch that runs on Samsung’s Tizen operating system will no longer have access to their full conversation history since these watches cannot use Google Messages. Samsung said that they will still be able to read and send text messages, but the company’s newer watches (Galaxy Watch 4 and later) that run WearOS will still have access to full conversations.

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Technologies

New AT&T Elite 2.0 Phone Plan Boosts Wireless Hotspot and Data Performance

For customers willing to pay for it, the new top plan offers more high-speed data and performance than the former one.

Only a few weeks after overhauling its unlimited phone plans, AT&T has added a new plan to the top of the lineup that offers more data and performance — for a higher price. The AT&T Elite 2.0 plan is available now.

For a single line, Elite 2.0 costs $110 (plus taxes and fees). As more lines are added, the per-line price goes down. AT&T customers can mix and match plans on an account, but if we assume everyone is signing up for the Elite 2.0 plan, the costs break down like this:

• One line: $110
• Two lines: $100 per line, $200 total
• Three lines: $85 per line, $255 total
• Four lines: $75 per line, $300 total
• Five lines: $75 per line, $375 total

To compare it with AT&T’s next-priciest option, the Premium 2.0 plan costs $90 for a single line, or $55 per line on an account with four lines.

What’s included in the AT&T Elite 2.0 plan

For those amounts, the plan includes unlimited high-speed 5G data, prioritized even during network congestion, just like the Premium 2.0 plan, and 250GB of hotspot data (up from 100GB for the other plan). It also includes cellular access for one smartwatch and one tablet per line.

For travelers, Elite 2.0 has unlimited international talk, text and 20GB of high-speed data per month in 210 countries. The Premium 2.0 plan has unlimited talk, text and high-speed data, but only for 20 Latin American countries.

Aside from the data amounts, the Elite 2.0 plan includes AT&T Turbo, a feature normally offered as an add-on that increases data performance for video calling, gaming and streaming on 5G-capable devices. For other plans, AT&T Turbo costs $7 per line per month.

(AT&T Turbo is a separate feature from AT&T Turbo Live, which is designed to boost performance in certain crowded venues such as concerts or sporting events.)

AT&T Elite 2.0 vs Premium 2.0

Price for 1 line, per month Price for 4 lines, per month High-speed data Mobile hotspot International Call/Data AT&T Turbo
AT&T Premium 2.0 $90 $220 ($55 per line) Unlimited 100GB Unlimited talk, text and high-speed data in 20 Latin American countries; unlimited texting from US to 200+ countries Not included
AT&T Elite 2.0 $110 $300 ($75 per line) Unlimited 250GB Unlimited talk, text and 20GB high-speed data in 210 countries Included

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