Category: Government & Policy

backdoor, encryption, evergreens, Global IT News, Global Security News, Government & Policy, privacy, Security

What is an encryption backdoor?

February 15, 2025

Talk of backdoors in encrypted services is once again doing the rounds after reports emerged that the U.K. government is seeking to force Apple to open up iCloud’s end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) device backup offering. Officials were said to be leaning on Apple to create a “backdoor” in the service that would allow state actors to…

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng is reportedly set to meet with China’s Xi Jinping

February 14, 2025

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng is reportedly set to meet with China’s top politicians, including Chinese leader Xi Jinping, during a summit that Alibaba founder Jack Ma is also expected to attend. The summit, which could happen as soon as next week, may be intended as a signal by China’s Communist Party that…

NATO backs its first cohort of European dual-use startups

February 14, 2025

With both Vice President J.D. Vance and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth making loud noises Friday about Europe stepping up to the plate in spending more on its own defense, it might come as a surprise that Europe is already on the path toward far greater investment in defense, especially in tech. Not only has…

Europe denies dropping AI liability rules under pressure from Trump

February 14, 2025

The European Union has denied that recent moves to row back on some planned tech regulation — principally by ditching the AI Liability Directive, a 2022 draft law which had been aimed at making it easier for consumers to sue over harms caused by AI-enabled products and services — were made in response to pressure…

OpenAI removes certain content warnings from ChatGPT

February 13, 2025

OpenAI says it has removed the “warning” messages in its AI-powered chatbot platform, ChatGPT, that indicated when content might violate its terms of service. Laurentia Romaniuk, a member of OpenAI’s AI model behavior team, said in a post on X that the change was intended to cut down on “gratuitous/unexplainable denials.” Nick Turley, head of…

OpenAI scrubs diversity commitment web page from its site

February 13, 2025

OpenAI has eliminated a page on its website that used to express its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The URL “https://openai.com/commitment-to-dei/” now redirects to “https://openai.com/building-dynamic-teams/,” a page that talks about people with “different backgrounds” with no use of the word diversity. The previous page stated that the company’s “investment in diversity, equity and inclusion”…

Apple’s app tracking privacy framework could fall foul of German antitrust rules

February 13, 2025

Germany’s antitrust watchdog has been investigating Apple’s app privacy framework since 2022. On Thursday, releasing preliminary findings from this probe, the Bundeskartellamt (FCO) said it suspects the iPhone maker may not be treating third-party app developers as equally as the law requires. The antitrust watchdog said it believes Apple’s behavior could amount to self-preferencing. Apple…

VC industry reacts to Trump nominating a16z’s Brian Quintez for regulatory role

February 12, 2025

Brian Quintenz, who leads policy for Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto team, announced on Wednesday that he’s being tapped to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), according to his X post. And many in the VC industry appear to be thrilled about it. The CFTC regulates the trading of commodity futures, options, and swaps, otherwise known…

OpenAI pledges that its models won’t censor viewpoints

February 12, 2025

Possibly in response to political pressure, OpenAI is making clear that its AI models won’t shy away from sensitive topics while refraining from making assertions that might “shut out some viewpoints.” In an updated version of its Model Spec, a collection of high-level rules that indirectly govern OpenAI’s models, OpenAI says that its models “must…

Trump picks Apple exec to lead transportation safety agency

February 12, 2025

President Donald Trump has chosen Jonathan Morrison, an Apple executive, to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, per a Senate filing. The nomination will be reviewed and voted on by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation before being sent for a full Senate vote. If he’s sworn in, Morrison will oversee an…

EU abandons ePrivacy, AI liability reforms, as bloc shifts focus to competitiveness & data access for AI

February 12, 2025

A long stalled bid to beef up European Union rules around online tracking technologies — and put penalties on a similar footing to the bloc’s data protection framework, GDPR, which allows for fines of up to 4% of annual turnover for breaches — has been withdrawn by the Commission after co-legislators failed to reach agreement…

Federal workers sue Elon Musk and DOGE to cut off data access

February 11, 2025

Apple Maps plans to show ‘Gulf of America,’ following Google

February 11, 2025

Apple Maps will soon rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, following similar changes made by Google this week, in order to comply with U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order that officially changed the name. U.S.-based Apple users may see the “Gulf of America” as soon as Tuesday, according to Bloomberg, and…

Anduril takes control of Microsoft’s $22B VR military headset program

February 11, 2025

The Army has granted upstart weapons maker Anduril control of one of its highest-profile and long-troubled projects known as the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, founder Palmer Luckey announced in a blog post Tuesday. IVAS was initially awarded to Microsoft in 2018 to develop augmented reality headsets for soldiers based on a ruggedized version of Hololens.…

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei calls the AI Action Summit a ‘missed opportunity’

February 11, 2025

In a statement on Tuesday, Dario Amodei, the CEO of AI startup Anthropic, called the AI Action Summit in Paris this week a “missed opportunity,” and urged the AI industry — and government — to “move faster and with greater clarity.” “We were pleased to attend the AI Action Summit in Paris, and we appreciate…

As US and UK refuse to sign the Paris AI Action Summit statement, other countries commit to developing ‘open, inclusive, ethical’ AI

February 11, 2025

The Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris was supposed to culminate with a joint declaration on artificial intelligence signed by dozens of world leaders. While the statement isn’t as ambitious as the Bletchley and Seoul declarations, both the U.S. and the U.K. have refused to sign it. It proves once again that it is difficult…

In Paris, JD Vance skewers EU AI rules, lauds US tech supremacy

February 11, 2025

At the AI Action Summit in Paris this week, the U.S. declined to sign the statement summarizing the resolutions. But it did make an appearance: Vice President J.D. Vance gave a speech to the audience of dignitaries, tech leaders and regulators. Amid a conference heavy on equitable AI development — specifically, beyond the outsized influence…

EU looks to the private sector to help fund ‘AI Gigafactories’, eyeing the frontier AI race

February 11, 2025

The European Union is courting the private sector as it looks to step up compute capacity for training large AI models. Giving a speech at the AI Action Summit in Paris on Monday, the EU’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, talked up the potential of homegrown AI startups but said the region’s developers must have…

Google changed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on Maps

February 10, 2025

Google Maps officially updated the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on Monday. Among many other executive orders, President Donald Trump decreed on the day of his inauguration that the Gulf of Mexico would be renamed the Gulf of America. This executive order also reverses an Obama-era move to rename…

Google changed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on Maps

February 10, 2025

Google changed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on Maps

February 10, 2025

Google changed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on Maps

February 10, 2025

OpenAI spoke to government officials about its DeepSeek probe

February 10, 2025

OpenAI says it has spoken to government officials about its ongoing investigation into DeepSeek. The ChatGPT-maker previously claimed to have evidence that DeepSeek trained its AI models using improperly obtained data from OpenAI’s API. During a Bloomberg TV interview on Monday, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer, Chris Lehane, said the company has talked with government…

TikTok wants Android users to sideload its app

February 10, 2025

With TikTok’s fate in the U.S. uncertain — its ban in the country has been paused, but only temporarily, thanks to an executive order from President Donald Trump — the ByteDance-owned company is now encouraging Android device owners to sideload its video app onto their phones and tablets. The company announced in a Friday X…

Macron urges Europe to simplify its regulations to get back into the AI race

February 10, 2025

All eyes were on French President Emmanuel Macron at the end of the first day of the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris after he annouunced a €109 billion investment package (around $112 billion at current exchange rates) in the French AI ecosystem on Sunday evening. He reiterated this financial commitment from private partners willing…

Tech giants and startups join forces to call for simpler EU rules on AI, data

February 10, 2025

As the AI Summit got underway in Paris on Monday, some 60 European companies — from incumbent industrial giants to AI startups (including France’s LLM-maker Mistral) — signed up to an initiative to help establish Europe as a leader in AI. But the fact that they felt the need to sign up at all highlights the…

Google-backed public interest AI partnership launches with $400M+ pledged for open ecosystem building

February 10, 2025

Make room for yet another partnership on AI: Current AI, which is being billed as a “public interest” initiative focused on fostering and steering development of artificial intelligence in societally beneficial directions, was announced at the French AI Action summit on Monday — with an initial $400 million in pledges from backers and a plan…

AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li warns policymakers not to let sci-fi sensationalism shape AI rules

February 10, 2025

Fei-Fei Li, the Stanford researcher who also founded World Labs, was invited to the Grand Palais in Paris on Monday to give the opening speech at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit which is taking place this week. While she shared some of her talking points over the weekend, her stance on AI regulation and the…

Macron unveils a $112B AI investment package, France’s answer to Stargate

February 10, 2025

French President Emmanuel Macron announced a total of €109 billion in private investments in the AI ecosystem (around $112 billion at current exchange rates) on Sunday evening. This week, Paris is hosting the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit — the third international summit focused on AI after the one in Bletchley Park in the U.K., and…

AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li says AI policy must be based on ‘science, not science fiction’

February 8, 2025

Fei-Fei Li, the Stanford computer scientist and startup founder sometimes known as “the Godmother of AI,” has outlined “three fundamental principles for the future of AI policymaking” ahead of next week’s AI Action Summit in Paris. First, Li said policy must be based on “science, not science fiction.” In other words, policymakers should focus on…

Shopify pushes for ‘open trade’ as Trump delays import exemption

February 7, 2025

On the same day that President Donald Trump delayed ending a trade exemption targeting certain Chinese imports, ecommerce company Shopify published a blog post making its stance on U.S. trade policy clear. In the post, Shopify endorsed “open trade,” calling for regulators to give online merchants the “freedom to expand without constraints imposed by geopolitical…

One of Elon Musk’s young DOGE engineers explains how he won the $700K Vesuvius Challenge

February 7, 2025

Elon Musk has reportedly picked fresh-faced six engineers to run DOGE. I spoke to one of them in 2023, when his life looked very, very different. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Andrew Ng is ‘very glad’ Google dropped its AI weapons pledge

February 7, 2025

Andrew Ng, the founder and former leader of Google Brain, supports Google’s recent decision to drop its pledge not to build AI systems for weapons. “I’m very glad that Google has changed its stance,” Ng said during an onstage interview Thursday evening with TechCrunch at the Military Veteran Startup Conference in San Francisco. Earlier this…

Coalition ‘concerned’ over UK appointing ex-Amazon exec as antitrust regulator chair

February 7, 2025

A coalition of organizations and individuals have signed an open letter expressing concern at the U.K. government’s decision to appoint a former Amazon executive as chair of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The group, which includes U.S. tech outfits such as Yelp, DuckDuckGo, and Mozilla, say that the CMA must be “free from political…

Amazon deletes ‘inclusion and diversity’ language in latest filing

February 7, 2025

Amazon is the latest tech company to remove references to “inclusion and diversity” from its 10-K report. The filing has removed reference to diversity and inclusion as it pertains to the workplace. In its 2023 10-K form, the company had a sentence that read “As we strive to be Earth’s best employer, we focus on investment and…

Pinterest lists DEI attacks as possible business risk in latest filing

February 7, 2025

Pinterest listed the latest attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion as a possible business risk in its latest 10-K filing. The company wrote in its filing to investors that if its efforts around DEI “are perceived as insufficient or overdone,” then it “may not be able to attract and retain talent” and that the company…

UAE to invest billions to build AI data center in France

February 7, 2025

A few days ahead of the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, the French presidency has announced the first of several expected financial initiatives related to AI. France’s Emmanuel Macron and the United Arab Emirates’ Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan have signed an agreement for a significant investment to build a massive data center dedicated…

India to launch new domain name for banks to fight digital fraud

February 7, 2025

India’s central bank is introducing an exclusive “.bank.in” domain for banks from April 2025 as part of efforts to combat rising digital payment frauds and bolster trust in online banking services. The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) will serve as the exclusive registrar for the new domain, the Reserve Bank of…

Carried interest repeal could stifle investments in startups, NVCA says

February 6, 2025

On Thursday, President Trump asked Republican lawmakers to end tax breaks on carried interest. The tax break allows private equity and venture fund managers to treat their earnings from investments at a lower capital gains rate, rather than as ordinary income. The removal of the tax break would be a big hit to the VC…

Orgs demand action to mitigate AI’s environmental harm

February 6, 2025

A group of more than 100 organizations has published an open letter calling on the AI industry and regulators to mitigate the tech’s harmful environmental impacts just days before leading industry CEOs, heads of state, academics, and nonprofits descend on Paris for a major AI conference. The letter, which bears the signatures of prominent advocacy…

Government agency removes spoon emoji from work platform amid protests

February 6, 2025

According to a New York Times report, on Thursday, the U.S. government’s General Services Administration (GSA) removed the spoon emoji as an option that users of its videoconferencing platform can select to express themselves. The move comes a day after workers embraced the digital cutlery to protest the Trump administration’s “Fork in the Road” resignation…

DOGE staffer steps down after racist posts emerge

February 6, 2025

Tracking the EV battery factory construction boom across North America

February 6, 2025

EU details which systems fall within AI Act’s scope

February 6, 2025

The European Union has published guidance on what constitutes an AI system under its new AI Act. The risk-based framework for regulating applications of artificial intelligence came into force last summer — with the first compliance deadline (on banned use cases) kicking in last weekend. Determining whether a particular software system falls within the act’s…

Keyboard maker suspends U.S. shipments over Trump tariffs on Chinese goods

February 6, 2025

The mechanical keyboard maker Qwertykeys announced Wednesday that it has suspended all U.S. product shipments owing to new tariffs levied by the Trump administration. The Guangdong-based outfit cites a February 1 announcement of 10% tariffs on imported Chinese goods as the motivating factor. “This new policy replaces all previous tariff exemptions, including the exemption for…

a16z stands by decision to hire Daniel Penny

February 6, 2025

Andreessen Horowitz is defending its decision to hire Daniel Penny, according to an investor memo seen by The New York Times. The venture capital firm caused a stir earlier this week after it announced it would hire Penny, who was acquitted last year of choking a homeless man to death in the New York City…

OpenAI launches data residency in Europe

February 6, 2025

OpenAI on Thursday launched data residency in Europe, allowing European organizations to meet local data sovereignty requirements while using the AI company’s products. Data residency refers to the physical location of an organization’s data, as well as the local laws and policy requirements imposed on that data. Most tech giants and cloud providers offer European…

Shein gets more questions from EU about DSA compliance

February 6, 2025

After consumer protection scrutiny dialled up on fast-fashion giant Shein in the European Union on Wednesday, the bloc’s executive announced Thursday that it’s sent a fresh request for information (RFI) to the ecommerce platform under the Digital Services Act (DSA), a pan-EU online governance framework. The Commission oversees larger platforms’ compliance with a subset of…

The Elon Musk Act aims to ban ‘special government employees’ from having federal contracts

February 5, 2025

U.S. Democratic Representative Mark Pocan plans to introduce a bill designed to ban “special government employees” like Elon Musk from having federal contracts so they can’t steer spending towards their own self-interest. The proposed bill is called the ELON MUSK Act, which stands for Eliminate Looting of Our Nation by Mitigating Unethical State Kleptocracy. “No…

Shein hit with consumer protection action in EU as bloc unboxes strategy to tackle low-cost ecommerce risks

February 5, 2025

Chinese ecommerce and fast fashion giant Shein is facing fresh scrutiny in the European Union in relation to consumer protection rules following the launch of a coordinated action by the bloc’s Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPCN). The action is being conducted with reference to the EU’s Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Consumer Rights Directive, Unfair Contracts…

Google removes pledge to not use AI for weapons from website

February 4, 2025

Google removed a pledge to not build AI for weapons or surveillance from its website this week. The change was first spotted by Bloomberg. The company appears to have updated its public AI principles page, erasing a section titled “applications we will not pursue,” which was still included as recently as last week. Asked for…

China may probe Intel for antitrust: report

February 4, 2025

Amid China’s retaliation to recently-announced U.S. tariffs, Intel may find itself in the hot seat with China’s regulators. China is apparently considering an antitrust probe into semiconductor giant Intel, according to reporting from the Financial Times. This would be in addition to the set of tariffs against the U.S. that China announced on Monday. Per…

EU puts out guidance on uses of AI that are banned under its AI Act

February 4, 2025

The first compliance deadline kicked in a couple of days ago for the European Union’s AI Act, a risk-based framework for regulating uses of artificial intelligence — banning a narrow selection of so called “unacceptable risk” use-cases of AI, such as social scoring that could lead to detrimental or unfavourable treatment; or harmful manipulation using…

Former Tesla engineer heading government agency reportedly outlines ‘AI-first strategy’

February 4, 2025

Thomas Shedd, the former Tesla engineer now serving as the director of Technology Transformation Services, reportedly outlined an “AI-first strategy” for the U.S. government department. According to a report from Wired citing multiple sources, the Musk ally described the plan to run the office like a “startup software company” during a Monday meeting. The New…

China hits back at Trump tariffs with Google antitrust investigation

February 4, 2025

China said Tuesday it has launched an antitrust investigation into Google, part of a swift retaliation after the U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese goods. The probe by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation will examine alleged monopolistic practices by the U.S. tech giant, which has had its search and internet…

Adam Candeub, a vocal critic of Big Tech, will reportedly join the FCC

February 3, 2025

Adam Candeub, a known critic of Big Tech, looks poised to join the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Candeub will be general counsel of the FCC, reports Semafor, which cites direct confirmation from FCC chairman Brendan Carr. TechCrunch has reached out to the FCC for more information. Candeub has long been a vocal critic of Section…

Ontario cancels, then restores, $68 million Starlink contract after protesting US tariffs

February 3, 2025

On Monday, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, one of Canada’s most populous provinces, announced on X that the province’s government would be “ripping up” its $68 million ($100 million CAD) contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service. The news came soon after President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on nearly all Canadian…

Meta says it may stop development of AI systems it deems too risky

February 3, 2025

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to make artificial general intelligence (AGI) — which is roughly defined as AI that can accomplish any task a human can — openly available one day. But in a new policy document, Meta suggests that there are certain scenarios in which it may not release a highly capable AI…

DeepSeek: The countries and agencies that have banned the AI company’s tech

February 3, 2025

DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company, is raising the ire of regulators around the world. DeepSeek’s viral AI models and chatbot apps have been banned by a growing number of countries and government bodies, which have expressed concerns over DeepSeek’s ethics, privacy, and security practices. Corporations have banned DeepSeek, too — by the hundreds. The biggest…

Trump says new US sovereign wealth fund could purchase TikTok

February 3, 2025

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to create a U.S. sovereign wealth fund and suggested that it could be used to purchase TikTok. The fund is expected to be created in the next 12 months by the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments, though it’s not immediately clear how. Trump has said previously…

Ontario cancels $100 million Starlink contract in protest at U.S. tariffs

February 3, 2025

Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, one of Canada’s most populous provinces, announced on X that the province’s government would be “ripping up” its $100 million contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service. The news comes soon after President Donald Trump announced this weekend a 25% tariff on nearly all Canadian imported goods, causing…

Samsung chief Jay Y. Lee cleared of all charges in 2015 merger case

February 3, 2025

A Seoul appeals court on Monday upheld the acquittal of Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee in accounting fraud and stock manipulation in a case related to a controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates, Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T. The Seoul High Court dismissed the prosecution’s appeal in the case involving Lee, who…

India expands Aadhaar authentication for businesses, raising privacy concerns

February 2, 2025

India has expanded its Aadhaar authentication service to let businesses such as those in e-commerce, hospitality, and healthcare use the biometrics of individuals to authenticate their identity. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

AI systems with ‘unacceptable risk’ are now banned in the EU

February 2, 2025

As of Sunday in the European Union, the bloc’s regulators can ban the use of AI systems they deem to pose “unacceptable risk” or harm. February 2 is the first compliance deadline for the EU’s AI Act, the comprehensive AI regulatory framework that the European Parliament finally approved last March after years of development. The…

Senator warns of national security risks after Elon Musk’s DOGE granted ‘full access’ to sensitive Treasury systems

February 1, 2025

Elon Musk is reportedly taking control of the inner workings of US government agencies

January 31, 2025

People working for, or with, Elon Musk are reportedly taking over the inner workings of multiple government agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management and the Treasury Department. The Washington Post reported Friday that the highest-ranking career official at Treasury is leaving the department after “a clash” with people working for Musk’s so-called Department of…

Swiss tax authority forced to buy Bahamas domain name after URL typo

January 31, 2025

What do you do if a web address you printed on a physical flyer contains a typo, and you send that flyer to more than 100,000 households? Well, if you’re the Swiss canton (“state”) of Basel-Stadt, you buy the domain that contains the typo, and create a redirect to the correct URL. As Swiss news…

Pentagon scrambles to block DeepSeek after employees connect to Chinese servers

January 30, 2025

US Justice Department sues to block HPE’s $14B acquisition of Juniper Networks

January 30, 2025

How DeepSeek changed Silicon Valley’s AI landscape

January 30, 2025

Chinese AI lab DeepSeek provoked the first Silicon Valley freak-out of 2025 after releasing open versions of AI models that compete with the best technology OpenAI, Meta, and Google have to offer. DeepSeek claims to have built its models highly efficiently and quickly, and is providing these models at a fraction of the price American…

OpenAI will offer its tech to US national labs for nuclear weapons research

January 30, 2025

OpenAI says it plans to let U.S. National Laboratories, the Department of Energy’s network of R&D labs, use its AI models for nuclear weapons security and other scientific projects. Per CNBC, OpenAI will work with Microsoft, its lead investor, to deploy a model on the supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The model will be a…

Mexican president pushes back against Google’s renaming of Gulf of Mexico

January 30, 2025

Google Maps is planning to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename several American landmarks, including the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. However, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a press conference on Wednesday that Mexico will send a letter to Google questioning its choice to update the body of water’s name.…

AI creations edited by humans can likely be copyrighted in US, agency says

January 30, 2025

In the U.S., AI-generated creations — books, movies, and so forth— that have been edited by a human can likely be copyrighted, but those without any human modifications or additions cannot. That’s according to a report published by the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) on Wednesday, which outlined scenarios in which AI-generated content might be eligible…

What DeepSeek, China, and Trump mean for Apple ahead of its Q1 earnings

January 29, 2025

These days, nothing is certain about the tech market or the world at large. Even NVIDIA’s seemingly bulletproof stock took a hammering on Monday, enduring a $589 billion market cap decline after China-based DeepSeek raised questions for investors about more efficient AI models. But Apple’s stock has remained steady ahead of its first quarter earnings…

Anthropic’s CEO says DeepSeek shows that U.S. export rules are working as intended

January 29, 2025

In an essay on Wednesday, Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, weighed in on the debate over whether Chinese AI company DeepSeek’s success implies that U.S. export controls on AI chips aren’t working. Amodei, who recently made the case for stronger export controls in an op-ed co-written with former U.S. deputy national security advisor Matt…

Ireland and Italy send data watchdog requests to DeepSeek: ‘The data of millions of Italians is at risk’

January 29, 2025

The jury is still out on whether the Chinese AI upstart DeepSeek is a game changer or part of an elaborate plan by its hedge fund parent company to short Nvidia and other tech stocks. Whichever it might be (maybe both?), DeepSeek and its large language model have made some major waves. And now, it’s…

Italy sends first data watchdog request to DeepSeek: ‘The data of millions of Italians is at risk’

January 28, 2025

The jury is still out on whether the Chinese AI upstart DeepSeek is a game changer or possibly part of an elaborate plan by its hedge fund parent company to short Nvidia and other tech stocks. Whichever it might be (maybe both?), DeepSeek and its large language model has made some major waves. Now, it’s…

David Sacks claims there’s ‘substantial evidence’ that DeepSeek used OpenAI’s models to train its own

January 28, 2025

David Sacks, Trump’s AI and crypto “czar,” said in an interview on Fox on Tuesday that there’s “substantial evidence” that Chinese AI company DeepSeek “distilled” knowledge from OpenAI’s AI models, a process that Sacks compared to theft. Sacks, who didn’t cite the source of this “evidence,” suggested that DeepSeek used responses from OpenAI models to…

Eric Schmidt says DeepSeek marks a ‘turning point’ for the global AI race

January 28, 2025

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt called for the United States to ramp up open-source AI efforts to address the rise of DeepSeek in a Washington Post op-ed published Tuesday. Just last year, Schmidt said America was two or three years ahead of China. But DeepSeek’s rise marks “a turning point” for the global AI race,…

OpenAI launches ChatGPT plan for U.S. government agencies

January 28, 2025

In a week dominated by headlines about China’s growing AI competitiveness, OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Gov. The new version of the AI-powered chatbot platform is designed to provide U.S. government agencies an additional way to access the tech. ChatGPT Gov includes many of the capabilities found in OpenAI’s corporate-focused tier, ChatGPT Enterprise. Using the platform, agencies…

Google Maps will soon rename Gulf of Mexico to ‘Gulf of America’

January 27, 2025

Google will rename the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Denali mountain in Google Maps once a federal mapping database reflects changes ordered by the Trump Administration, the company announced Monday. Google is complying with an executive order issued last week by President Donald Trump that changed the names of several American landmarks. The executive order…

Perplexity submits a new bid for TikTok

January 26, 2025

Perplexity AI has submitted a revised proposal to merge with TikTok, in an arrangement that would give the U.S. government up to 50 percent ownership of the new entity. The Associated Press first reported on the new proposal. A source with knowledge of the bid confirmed to TechCrunch that the AP’s reporting is accurate. The…

Trump administration reportedly negotiating an Oracle takeover of TikTok

January 25, 2025

The Trump administration is negotiating a deal that would see Oracle take over TikTok alongside new U.S. investors, according to a report in NPR. Lawmakers passed a bill last year forcing Chinese parent company ByteDance to either sell TikTok or see it banned in the U.S. The app briefly went dark before the law took…

Will states lead the way on AI regulation?

January 25, 2025

2024 was a busy year for lawmakers (and lobbyists) concerned about AI — most notably in California, where Gavin Newsom signed 18 new AI laws while also vetoing high-profile AI legislation. And 2025 could see just as much activity, especially on the state level, according to Mark Weatherford. Weatherford has, in his words, seen the…

Paul McCartney calls on UK government to protect artists from AI

January 25, 2025

Legendary musician Paul McCartney is warning against proposed changes to UK copyright law that would allow tech companies to freely train their models on online content unless the copyright holders actively opt out. In excerpts of an interview with the BBC, McCartney said the government needs to do more to protect musicians and other artists.…

AI companies upped their federal lobbying spend in 2024 amid regulatory uncertainty

January 24, 2025

Companies spent significantly more lobbying AI issues at the U.S. federal level last year compared to 2023 amid regulatory uncertainty. According to data compiled by OpenSecrets, 648 companies spent on AI lobbying in 2024 versus 458 in 2023, representing a 141% year-over-year increase. Companies like Microsoft supported legislation such as the CREATE AI Act, which…

The EU wants to talk to US tech companies ahead of Germany’s upcoming election

January 24, 2025

The European Union will give tech and social media companies a “stress test” to see how they handle misinformation ahead of Germany’s election next month. European Commission officials have invited tech companies, including: X, Meta, Snap, TikTok, Google, Microsoft, and LinkedIn, to a meeting on January 31, according to multiple news outlets. During this meeting,…

OpenAI’s Stargate project reportedly doesn’t have the money it needs

January 24, 2025

Stargate — the massive infrastructure project to build data centers for OpenAI in the U.S. — lacks a fully developed plan and hasn’t secured funding yet, according to a report from the Financial Times. Backed by OpenAI, SoftBank, Middle East AI fund MGX, and others, Stargate would funnel around $100 billion — and upward of…

Google commits to combatting fake reviews in the UK after 5-year probe

January 24, 2025

The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has reached an agreement with Google to counter the scourge of fake online reviews. The internet giant has committed to several remedies. Bogus endorsements have blighted the web since the creation of user reviews, which is why regulators around the world have been upping the ante on tech companies to put…

Trump orders formation of working group to evaluate crypto stockpile

January 23, 2025

President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the formation of a working group to propose federal regulations for “digital assets” — including cryptocurrencies, digital tokens, and stablecoins — and evaluate a national crypto stockpile. Ex-PayPal COO and founder of VC firm Craft Ventures David Sacks, Trump’s pick for crypto an AI ‘czar,’ will lead the working…

Fitbit fined $12M over Ionic smartwatch burns

January 23, 2025

Fitbit has settled with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) over a longstanding defeat that caused some wearers to sustain burns. The deal finds the Google-owned fitness company paying a $12.25 million penalty for the issues surround its Ionic smartwatch. The issue dates back to 2018, continuing on into 2020. Fitbit agreed to recall…

Trump’s not happy with how EU regulators have treated US tech giants

January 23, 2025

President Donald Trump isn’t happy with how European Union regulators have treated U.S.-based tech companies including: Google, Meta, and Apple. On stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump put EU regulators on blast. He said that the EU’s cases against these U.S. tech companies are “a form of taxation,” according to Bloomberg reporting.…

Canoo craters and Trump comes for EVs

January 23, 2025

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! We’re just a few days into a new Trump administration, and it’s already a firehose of executive orders, declarations, and even pardons. A few have crossed into…

Quantum VC QDNL hits €25M first-close on new fund

January 23, 2025

VC investment into Quantum computing declined by 50% last year according to the ‘State of Quantum 2024’ report, dropping from $2.2bn in 2022 to $1.2bn, with funds switching in favour of Generative AI. However, government spending on quantum was predicted to hit $40 billion over the next decade. Now a new VC European fund hopes…

UK probes Apple and Google over ‘mobile ecosystem’ market power

January 23, 2025

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is launching so-called “strategic market status” (SMS) investigations into the mobile ecosystems of Apple and Google. The investigations constitute part of the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA) which passed last year and came into effect in January. The Act includes provisions for digital markets regulation…

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