More than 12 million U.S. households have canceled home broadband, using only mobile, reported Parks Associates Tuesday. More than 3 million additional households never had a home internet subscription. Cost is the leading reason for cutting this cord, but consumers also reported slow speeds and poor customer service, said analyst Kristen Hanich. Smart Wi-Fi or mesh networking products can stem churn: 75% of households likely to switch providers would stay if offered such a solution, Hanich said. Some 94% of U.S. broadband households use Wi-Fi at home; more than half report problems with their experience, she said. As of September, 41% of households were engaged in remote work or schooling, renewing customers’ focus on their broadband speeds, she said. The COVID-19 pandemic drove 9% of households to upgrade broadband service.

The federal government should commit $35 billion over five years for semiconductor R&D, manufacturing and other artificial intelligence-related investments, the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence urged Monday. It recommended $15 billion for federal microelectronics manufacturing grants, $12 billion for microelectronics R&D, $7 billion for microelectronics infrastructure and $500 million for DOD trusted and assured microelectronics. The Semiconductor Industry Association welcomed the report, noting its call for “a national microelectronics strategy, revitalizing domestic microelectronics fabrication, and ramping up microelectronics research.” President Joe Biden should follow the report’s recommendation to create a national AI strategy, said Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Center for Data Innovation policy analyst Hodan Omaar.

Rivada Networks withdrew an application at the FCC to be a spectrum access system administrator and environmental sensing capability operator in the citizens broadband radio service band, said a filing posted Friday in docket 15-319.

Facebook will address 11 of 17 of the company’s oversight board recommendation areas, taking action on such things as Instagram policy updates and improving automated detection, Facebook announced Thursday. The company is “committed to action” on 11 items, “assessing feasibility” of five items and not taking action on one item, “since it relates to softening our enforcement of COVID-19 misinformation,” Facebook said. The board recommended the company adopt “less intrusive measures” in cases where “users post information about COVID-19 treatments that contradicts the specific advice of health authorities and where a potential for physical harm is identified but is not imminent.” The company disagreed “the content implicated in this case does not rise to the level of imminent harm.” Facebook is assessing feasibility of how users can appeal moderation decisions, information about automation in cases of enforcement action, expansion of transparency reporting, community standard specifics and the recommendation to provide a public list of “dangerous” organizations.

Consumers are becoming “increasingly digitized” during COVID-19 stay-at-home protocols, and consumer awareness about the need for online security “continues to increase,” said McAfee CEO Peter Leav on a quarterly call Tuesday. “These trends will continue to fuel the growth of an already large addressable market.” A McAfee-commissioned survey of 11,000 internet-connected adults globally found “high levels of concern around cyber risks and online crime,” said Leav. “Proliferation of devices within the household, increased internet connectivity, the explosive growth in online transactions, the use of personal information in those transactions and more work-from-home policies” drove higher security software purchases among consumers, he said. “The study also showed a broad increase in the usage of online banking, online financial planning, online doctor visits and personal shopping, with the expectations that post-pandemic, these activities will remain at high levels.” McAfee's consumer revenue grew 23% in fiscal Q4, ended Dec. 26, and it added 668,000 “net new core direct-to-consumer subscribers,” similar to its net adds in Q3, said Leav.

The FTC scheduled an April 29 virtual workshop on dark patterns, the agency announced Wednesday. Dark patterns “describe a range of potentially manipulative user interface designs used on websites and mobile apps,” it said (see 1904090084). The agency is accepting public comment through June 29.

Qualcomm introduced an augmented reality reference design Tuesday for immersive experiences. It requires less power than previous-generation models and is designed for AR viewers that connect to a smartphone, Windows PC or processing puck powered by a Snapdragon platform.

Global artificial intelligence revenue in 2021, including software, hardware and services, is forecast to grow 16.4% year over year to $327.5 billion, reported IDC Tuesday. It projects the market will surpass $500 billion by 2024. Software generated 88% of 2020 AI revenue, though its projected 17.3% five-year annual growth rate makes it the lowest growth category in this sector, said IDC. "The global pandemic has pushed AI to the top of the corporate agenda," said analyst Ritu Jyoti. “AI is becoming ubiquitous across all the functional areas of a business.”

Companies including Adobe, Arm, BBC, Intel and Microsoft will develop standards to certify provenance of media content, to address disinformation and online content fraud. The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity plans an end-to-end, open standard for tracing the origin and evolution of digital content, C2PA said Monday. Member organizations will partner to develop content provenance specifications for common asset types and formats to enable publishers, creators and consumers to trace images, videos, audio and documents, said C2PA. Specs will include defining what information is associated with each type of asset, how that information is presented and stored, and how evidence of tampering can be identified, it said: Collaboration with chipmakers, news organizations, and software and platform companies will enable a “comprehensive provenance standard and drive broad adoption across the content ecosystem.” This builds on recent advances in content provenance, including Project Origin; the Content Authenticity Initiative; and C2PA member Truepic's development of the first native integration of hardware-secured photo capture smartphone technology, C2PA said. "There's a critical need to address widespread deception in online content -- now supercharged by advances” in artificial intelligence and graphics “and diffused rapidly via the internet,” said Eric Horvitz, Microsoft chief scientific officer and Project Origin executive sponsor. Organizations interested in joining can apply at membership@c2pa.org.

Quebec is investing $317.3 million in Telesat's planned Lightspeed low earth orbit satellite constellation, Telesat said Thursday. It said the investment will be half preferred equity and half loan. Telesat said Lightspeed operations will be in Quebec, as will manufacture of its phased array antennas.