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| Fri 25 October 2024 | View online
Estimated reading time: 8-9 minutes |
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Thank you for joining us for our daily Tech Pro briefing. Today we are bringing you a roundup of the most important tech news from the EU and around the world.
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| | | | | Commissioner-designate for Democracy, Justice, and the Rule of Law Michael McGrath laid out his vision for safeguarding EU values and promoting competitiveness in tech policy, including the "major priority" of the Democracy Shield and a Digital Fairness Act, in his written responses ahead of the hearings published on Wednesday (23 October). (Read more) |
| | Tech startups called on EU policymakers on Wednesday for a new pan-European corporate entity status that they say is key to unlocking the EU's potential for innovation and competitiveness. The new type of entity – coined the 28th regime – should “not [be] limited just to startups,” Digital SME Alliance Secretary-General Sebastiano Toffaletti told Euractiv. A Buy European Tech Act, to direct public procurement to EU-made products, would be complementary to the corporate structure, he said. (Read More) |
| | 🟡 Artificial intelligence |
| | National security and AI. The White House issued its first memo on national security and AI on Tuesday. Security services must not use AI in ways that do not align with democratic values. The memo “makes collection on our competitors operations against our AI sector a top-tier intelligence priority, and directs relevant U.S. government entities to provide AI developers with the timely cybersecurity and counterintelligence information necessary to keep their inventions secure.” Parliament archives chatbot. The European Parliament has set up a chatbot dubbed ‘Archibot’ to improve accessibility for its archives, Perplexity, whose model Claude is used for the bot, it said in a Wednesday blog post.
Perplexity copyright case. The parent companies of The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, are suing AI search engine company Perplexity over copyright infringement. “In Perplexity’s own words, [the platform] allows users to ‘Skip the Links’ to original publishers’ websites [...] by engaging in a massive amount of illegal copying of publishers’ copyrighted works and diverting customers and critical revenues away from those copyright holders,” their complaint reads. In a blog post on Thursday, Perplexity responded that these complaints show how publishers “do not want this [AI] technology to exist.” Perplexity is seeking to raise $500 million in an $8 billion valuation, people familiar with the matter toldThe Wall Street Journal.
Qualcomm-Mistral Partnership. US chip designer Quallcomm and French AI firm Mistral AI announced a partnership on Wednesday. Under the deal, Mistral will optimise their models to be run Qualcomm chips, used in devices like smartphones, vehicles, and PCs. Microsoft-OpenAI tensions. OpenAI has two years to become a for-profit company, and has hired investment banks to help translating Microsoft’s $14 billion investment into equity, The Wall Street Journal reported.The New York Times previously reportedthat the partnership is strained over employees disagreements and financial pressure and stability concerns. Lawsuit over teen suicide. In the US, the mother of a teenager who committed suicide filed a lawsuit against Character.AI, accusing the company’s chatbot of being responsible for his death, reported the New York Times on Wednesday. Anthropic’s computer control. Anthropic introduced a model on Tuesday that can operate the mouse and buttons of a computer, and tops benchmarks, according to their press release. Google rolls out watermarking. Google published a tool for watermarking AI-generated text, that the company said does not compromise quality and has been integrated in Gemini since spring. |
| | | | Intel fine holds up. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) struck down part of a 2009 decision by the European Commission that Intel abused its dominant position in the computer chip market. Thursday's decision is the latest development in a 15-year battle after the Commission imposed a fine in 2009 over abuses between 2002 and 2007. (Read more)
Google buys time. After Judge James Donato extended the 1 November deadline from the Epic v Google case in the US, Google may not have to open up its Play Store for years, if at all, while it appeals the verdict, The Vergereported.
Google & Anthropic. On Thursday, the UK Competition and Markets Authority announced a formal merger inquiry into Google’s parent company Alphabet’s partnership with Anthropic, after previously inviting for comments on this partnership on 30 July. |
| | | | The new proposal. EU countries should set a 4% of EU GDP target for research and innovation by 2030, the Council of the EU's draft Competitiveness Deal, seen by Euractiv, reads. In the first draft of the Council's Budapest Declaration on the New European Competitiveness Deal (ECD), which has been seen by Euractiv, member states "urgently" call for increased investments and better integration of capital, telecoms, and energy markets. |
| | | | LinkedIn fine. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has imposed a €310 million fine on LinkedIn due to its data practices concerning users' behavioural analysis and targeted advertising, according to a Thursday press release shared with Euractiv. (Read more)
EU-UK adequacy. A UK House of Lords committee urged the government to engage with the European Commission and stakeholders in order to ensure that the UK’s adequacy decision with the EU is renewed in a Tuesday letter. The decision allows for EU-UK data transfers and is set to expire in 2025. The biggest risk to EU-UK transfers is actually the CJEU, the letter says. The new UK government is mulling data protection reforms which could also affect the decision. NHS on WhatsApp. Meanwhile, the FTreported on Friday that UK National Health Service staff are constantly using WhatsApp to exchange sensitive patient data. Pinterest complaint. Digital rights organisation Noyb filed a complaint against Pinterest in with the French data privacy authority on Tuesday over alleged GDPR infringements. Pinterest processes users' personal data, without asking for their consent, the complaint said. |
| | | | Musk & Putin. Elon Musk has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin for two years, The Wall Street Journalreported citing “US, European and Russian officials.” Their conversations “touch on personal topics, business and geopolitical tensions,” including a request on behalf of China’s Xi Jinping for Musk not to launch Starlink in Taiwan. Georgia Elections. Ahead of Georgia’s parliamentary elections on Sunday, Bloombergreported on Monday that Russia has been engaging in an extensive espionage and hacking campaign for years. “I can say that Russia is not influential in Georgia,” the country’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said in an interview with Euronews. US sensitive data protection. On Monday, the US Department of Justice issued a Notice of proposed rulemaking, suggesting rules for blocking the transfer of Americans’ sensitive personal data like financial or health information to foreign adversaries which would include China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela. |
| | | | Virkkunen keeps cards close to her chest. Executive Vice President-Designate for Tech Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy Henna Virkkunen (EPP) chose to withhold her opinions on major debates but said she would not shy away from retaliatory actions against Big Tech, in her written responses to MEPs questions. (Read more)
The future of research. Commissioner-designate Ekaterina Zaharieva committed to protecting European Research Council (ERC) autonomy and hinted at which programs could survive the Commission's simplification plan in response to the European Parliament's written questions. (Read more)
Parliament’s science foresight. The European Parliament’s foresight panel for the future of science and technology (STOA) re-elected Chair Christian Ehler (EPP, Germany) on Thursday. Ehler and three other MEPs, Vice-chairs Lina Gálvez Muñoz (S&D, Spain), Ivars Ijabs (Renew, Latvia) and Vice-President of the European Parliament Victor Negrescu (S&D, Romania), will work with STOA officials on studies on scientific and technological developments, including academic freedom, quantum, biotech and nuclear energy, Ijabs and Ehler told Euractiv. |
| | | | Scaling up. The Spanish operator of securities markets and financial systems BME, part of Swiss stock-exchange SIX, announced on Wednesday it joined the Spanish organisation EsTech representing the country’s national tech scaleups, aiming to “bring investment closer to these high-growth companies” and promote technological champions. The most European. Cloud providers lobby organisation CISPE announced on Friday that its general assembly adopted a strategy aimed at reinforcing its European focus. CISPE’s largest member is Amazon, whose total contribution to the lobby’s activities is limited to €30,000 per year, as per CISPE’s membership application page. Amazon’s total contribution remains unknown as CISPE members are allowed to make additional voluntary contributions to specific campaigns. Huawei cloud for French tech start-ups. French start-up Mecca Station F, owned by telecom billionaire Xavier Neil, announced a program for sustainable tech companies using Huawei cloud. TSMC under the microscope. Last week, The Informationreported that the US Commerce department is investigating if TSMC is making chips for Huawei. On Monday, Chipmaking giant TSMC said it had alerted US authorities a couple of weeks ago that one of their chips was found in a Huawei device, Reutersreported. On Tuesday Bloombergreported that TSMC cut off a client mid-October after over the Huawei links. Arizona wins. TSMC’s chip yield in its Arizona factories is 4% higher than Taiwan facilities, meaning more of them are usable, Bloombergreported on Thursday. India to erect barriers. India is expected to limit imports of laptops, tablets and personal computers after January to increase domestic manufacturing, two government sources with direct knowledge of the matter toldReuters. “Pure blood.” Huawei released the latest version of its HarmonyOS for smartphones, which does not support Android applications, SCMP reported on Tuesday. It has been dubbed “pure blood” in the Chinese market. |
| | | | Norway’s limits. The Norwegian government wants to introduce a 15-year minimum age threshold for using social media to protect children from harmful content and "big tech giants.” (Read more)
Ireland’s code. The Coimisiún na Meán released its long-awaited Online Safety Code on Monday, setting out rules for video-sharing platform services Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Udemy, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Reddit. The code is binding and infringements will be considered violations of the 2022 Online Safety and Media Regulation Act. Schools v social media. A US district judge gave the green light to lawsuits brought by school districts against Meta, Google, and TikTok over their apps’ addictiveness and negative mental health consequences on kids, Bloombergreported on Thursday. Pay-to-win. Musk’s plan to give money to registered voters in Pennsylvania is “deeply concerning” and “it is something that law enforcement could take a look at,” said Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro on Sunday to NBC News. |
| | | | Simple switching of providers. According to an IPSOS, ConnectEurope study on telecoms published on Thursday, 58% of European believe it is simple and quick to switch from providers for fixed internet. A mere 39% of them switched providers in the last five years. At the same time, 67% of Europeans believe that there is enough choice and variety in the offers provided by telecom providers. For ConnectEurope, consumers are “generally satisfied with their telecom providers.” |
| | | | | | | | | Today’s brief was brought to you by Euractiv’s Tech team |
| | | | Today’s briefing was prepared by the Tech team: Eliza Gkritsi, Théophane Hartmann, and Jacob Wulff Wold. Share your feedback or information with us at [email protected]. |
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