big tech

Germany wants Big Tech companies Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta Platforms and Microsoft to contribute towards the compliance costs of new European Union rules aimed at curbing their power, a senior German economy ministry official said on Thursday. Sven Giegold, state secretary in charge of competition policy at Germany's economy ministry, said such a move would help EU antitrust regulators better enforce the Digital Markets Act (DMA) which the six companies have to comply with on March 7.Elevate Your Tech…

On Monday, the Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments in two cases that have the potential to remake online speech in America by weighing how the First Amendment applies to social media platforms.In Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton, the justices will decide the constitutionality of a pair of laws that effectively strip tech companies’ agency to determine whose content they can restrict. Legal experts on both sides are calling them the two most important free-speech cases of this generation.Both involve a duo…

The internet could look vastly different depending on how the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the question of whether tech companies’ curation of posts and users can be protected under the First Amendment.  The court heard oral arguments Monday for a pair of lawsuits challenging laws passed in Texas and Florida that barred social media sites from curating political speech. Both laws were inspired by conservative backlash claiming Big Tech platforms censored posts and users with right-wing viewpoints.  The…

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has led a public crusade to demand that the Biden administration push Big Tech’s anti-regulation agenda worldwide — despite the fact his wife owns up to $3 million worth of stock in major tech companies that could benefit from the effort, according to financial disclosure records.  Wyden has long been an ally of the tech industry, and his wife is quite wealthy. Ethics experts tell Rolling Stone that the situation does not violate any laws or congressional ethics rules, but could pose a…

Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu (Getty Images), Suzanne Cordeiro (Getty Images), Siegfried Layda (Getty Images), David Paul Morris/Bloomberg (Getty Images), Vladimir Vladimirov (Getty Images), Justin Sullivan / Staff (Getty Images), Mike Coppola (Getty Images), Image: OpenAIThe world seemingly, at the same time, held its breath with the reveal of OpenAI’s video generator, Sora, It’s as if everyone watching these marvelous fake videos realized that maybe technology had gone too far. Apple Vision Pro was supposed to be that…

Major tech companies announced a new pact at the Munich Security Conference on Friday pledging to fight AI-generated fakes that are intended to deceive the public and influence elections. The press conference, which was livestreamed online, featured leaders from Big Tech firms who’ve been under immense pressure in recent years to address the misinformation that’s proliferated online as it becomes easier to literally put words in someone else’s mouth.Like It or Not, Your Doctor Will Use AI | AI UnlockedThe signatories of…

Elon Musk uses drugs. So do some of the people he works with — including directors on the Tesla board — sometimes allegedly partaking with Musk. These revelations have been a minor point of scandal in the media lately, particularly after a Wall Street Journal article last year discussed how popular microdosing drugs like ketamine, LSD, and shrooms are in Silicon Valley, including among some of the most famous executives in the industry. It has become, the piece noted, “a routine part of doing business” for many. Musk…

The Great Rollback is here. The phrase refers to Big Tech starting to slash some of the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs that were implemented shortly after the murder of George Floyd. Most recently, Zoom announced that it laid off its DEI team. Google and Meta have started to defund their DEI programs, and funding to Black founders continues to dip. Lawsuits have been filed targeting DEI programs, forcing companies to now hide their inclusion efforts while billionaires are arguing on X about whether…

French competition watchdog probes big tech's AI dominance; US AI giants collaborate on federal safety standards; Microsoft teams up with Sarvam AI for voice-based GenAI tools; government says AI will have jobs impact, but will create opportunities too- this and more in our daily roundup. Let us take a look. 1. French Competition Watchdog probes big tech's AI dominanceFrance's competition authority has initiated a public consultation on the AI sector, aiming to assess big tech firms' strategies. With a focus on companies…

Facebook owner Meta announced on Wednesday it would challenge in court an EU demand for fees under a content moderation law.The European Commission last year put Meta's Facebook and Instagram on a list of "very large" online platforms that face tougher rules under the new Digital Services Act (DSA). Companies on the list must pay fees to the commission, the EU's executive arm, to bankroll enforcement of the DSA. Meta supported the DSA's aims and had introduced measures to comply, "but we disagree with the methodology…