Reddit’s Sale of User Data for AI Training Draws FTC Inquiry

Reddit said ahead of its IPO next week that licensing user posts to Google and others for AI projects could bring in $203 million of revenue over the next few years. The community-driven platform was forced to disclose Friday that US regulators already have questions about that new line of business. In a regulatory filing, … Read more

Regulators Need AI Expertise. They Can’t Afford It

ChatGPT caught regulators by surprise when it set off a new AI race. As companies have rushed to develop and release ever more powerful models, lawmakers and regulators around the world have sought to catch up and rein in development. As governments spin up new AI programs, regulators around the world are urgently trying to … Read more

EU Competition Chief Margrethe Vestager On Digital Risks At SXSW

The Europe’s Margrethe Vestager, one of the world’s most powerful and proactive regulators, has made Europe a first mover in checking big tech for the public good and in the interest of competition. The head of the EU’s Competition Commission has developed key digital privacy laws, rules on hate speech and most recently a framework … Read more

Apple Could Be the First Target of Europe’s Tough New Tech Law

Europe changed the rules of the internet this week when the Digital Markets Act took effect, holding the biggest tech companies to tough new standards. Now the world is waiting to see which giant will be first to fall foul of the law. One of the architects of the DMA says Apple is a strong … Read more

Europe’s Digital Markets Act Is Breaking Open the Empires of Big Tech

Citizens of the European Union live in an internet built and ruled by foreign powers. Most people in the EU use an American search engine, shop on an American ecommerce site, thumb American phones, and scroll through American social media feeds. That fact has triggered increasing alarm in the corridors of Brussels, as the EU … Read more

For Bitcoin Mines in Texas, the Honeymoon Is Over

Others argue the state’s strategy of paying bitcoin miners not to mine when the grid is under heavy load is nonsensical. “The most important thing a regulator can do is match assets and liabilities—match supply and demand,” says Ed Hirs, an energy fellow at the University of Houston. With the deterioration of the state’s fleet … Read more

The US Supreme Court Holds the Future of the Internet in Its Hands

The US Supreme Court seems torn over whether to trigger a radical transformation of the internet. The nation’s highest court heard arguments Monday over state laws in Florida and Texas that restrict how platforms like Facebook and YouTube moderate speech. If the court lets them take effect, social media feeds could look very different, with … Read more

Pav Gil Helped Bring Down Wirecard. His New Startup Aims to Shield Whistleblowers From Harm

In September 2017, Singapore-based lawyer Pav Gill took a job at Wirecard, a high-flying German payments business worth tens of billions of euros. Not long after he started, he heard from a colleague that an executive at Wirecard Asia, the region Gill was responsible for, had allegedly been teaching staff how to trick auditors into … Read more

Apple Isn’t Ready to Release Its Grip on the App Store

“Especially for the big app developers with loads of downloads, who are the ones that really Apple make all their money from, that will rack up to a very high cost very quickly,” says Max von Thun, Europe director at Open Markets, a group dedicated to campaigning against monopolies. “This new cost structure, including the … Read more

China approves 105 video games, but Christmas miracle does not revive stocks after suggested spending curbs

The latest batch of approvals, released by the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) on Monday, marked the first time Beijing had approved more than 100 titles in its monthly list since July 2022, when 135 titles made the cut. On Friday, the regulator also approved 98 imported titles. The move “strongly demonstrates authorities’ clearly … Read more