Government & Policy

This Week in AI: Why OpenAI’s o1 changes the AI regulation game

Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. It’s been just a few days since OpenAI revealed its latest flagship generative model, o1, to the world. Marketed as a “reasoning” model, o1 essentially takes longer to “think” about questions before answering them, breaking down

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Google nets court win against EU’s $1.7B AdSense antitrust decision

Google has succeeded in overturning a $1.7 billion antitrust penalty handed down by the European Union back in March 2019. The €1.49 billion fine, which Google appealed, was originally issued after the European Commission found the tech giant’s search ads brokering business had violated competition rules between 2006 and 2016 to cement a dominant position.

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UK’s privacy watchdog takes credit for rise of ‘consent or pay’

The UK’s data protection watchdog claims a crack down on websites that don’t ask for consent from visitors to track and profile their activity for ad targeting is bearing fruit. However it’s admitted some of the changes driven by the intervention have seen sites adopting a controversial type of paywall that demands users pay a

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Alternative app stores will be allowed on Apple iPad in the EU from September 16

It was a matter of time, but Apple is going to allow third-party app stores on the iPad starting next week, on September 16. This change will occur with the next major release of iPadOS, the operating system specifically designed for the iPad. The move is related to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA),

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Bad credits: consumer group files EU suit over ‘manipulative’ payments in games like Fortnite and Minecraft, calls for a ban

Video games are some of most lucrative apps in the world, thanks in part because of how they lure people into spending money on credits to play games and buy digital goods, to the tune of more than $50 billion annually worldwide. But a powerful consumer group in Europe believes games publishers are “purposefully tricking

Bad credits: consumer group files EU suit over ‘manipulative’ payments in games like Fortnite and Minecraft, calls for a ban Read More »

SpaceX calls out “superfluous” regulatory delays holding up Starship flights

SpaceX has put on its most public and aggressive offensive against regulators to date, with a blog post published Tuesday urging more expeditious launch licensing — lest the country lose its place as the leader in the global space race.  Orbital launch is a tightly regulated industry governed chiefly by the Federal Aviation Administration, though

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Google loses appeal against EU’s €2.4B Shopping antitrust decision, as bloc also wins Apple state aid appeal

Google has once again lost in its bid to overturn a 2017 antitrust decision by the European Commission. The bloc found its shopping comparison service had broken competition rules — hitting Alphabet, Google’s parent, with an at-the-time record-breaking €2.42 billion penalty (around $2.7 billion at current exchange rates) and ordering changes to how it operates

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U.S., China and other nations convene in Seoul for summit on AI use in military

More than 90 nations, including the U.S. and China, will convene at a two-day summit in Seoul starting Monday to attempt to establish a blueprint for the use of AI in the military. As Reuters reports, participants hope to establish minimum guardrails and suggest principles for “responsible” AI deployment aligned with NATO principles. The summit

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Telegram reportedly ‘inundated’ with illegal and extremist activity

A New York Times analysis of more than 3.2 million Telegram messages from 16,000 channels found that the messaging platform has been “inundated” with illegal and extremist activity. Specifically, The Times found 1,500 channels operated by white supremacists, two dozen channels selling weapons, and at least 22 channels where MDMA, cocaine, heroin and other drugs were

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