Tech Policy & Government | TechCrunch

The EU’s AI Act is now in force

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 11:33:13 +0000

The European Union's risk-based regulation for applications of artificial intelligence has come into force starting from today.

OpenAI pledges to give U.S. AI Safety Institute early access to its next model

Kyle Wiggers — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 05:48:56 +0000

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says that OpenAI is working with the U.S. AI Safety Institute, a federal government body that aims to assess and address risks in AI platforms, on an agreement to provide early access to its next major generative AI model for safety testing. The announcement, which Altman made in a post on […]

AI startups ramp up federal lobbying efforts

Kyle Wiggers — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 20:22:27 +0000

AI lobbying at the U.S. federal level is intensifying in the midst of a continued generative AI boom and an election year that could influence future AI regulation. New data from OpenSecrets, a nonprofit group that tracks and publishes metrics on campaign financing and lobbying, shows that the number of groups lobbying the federal government […]

Copyright Office tells Congress: ‘Urgent need’ to outlaw AI-powered impersonation

Devin Coldewey — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 19:35:17 +0000

The U.S. Copyright Office has issued the first part of a report on how AI may affect its domain, and its first recommendation out of the gate is: we need a new law right away to define and combat AI-powered impersonation. “It has become clear that the distribution of unauthorized digital replicas poses a serious […]

Over 100 VCs pledge support for Kamala Harris

Kyle Wiggers — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 16:44:15 +0000

More than 100 VCs, including Reid Hoffman, Vinod Khosla and Mark Cuban have pledged to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. Mobilizing under the group VCsForKamala, the VCs are also soliciting donations for Harris’ campaign. But the organizers say the effort isn’t meant to align with any one political […]

Spain’s antitrust watchdog fines Booking.com nearly $450M for unfair terms and restricting rivals

Natasha Lomas — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 18:17:30 +0000

The CNMC opened an investigation of Booking.com back in October 2022, following complaints by the Spanish Association of Hotel Managers and the Regional Hotel Association of Madrid.

Controversial internet bill KOSA passed by Senate

Amanda Silberling — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 18:14:31 +0000

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) has passed in the Senate after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pushed the internet bill to a vote. Proposed in 2022, KOSA requires that online platforms take reasonable steps to protect users from harm, and could become the most significant children’s online safety legislation to take effect since COPPA. […]

EU calls for help with shaping rules for general-purpose AIs

Natasha Lomas — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 13:18:40 +0000

The EU has kicked off a consultation on rules that will apply to providers of general purpose AI models under the bloc's AI Act.

UK antitrust body probes Google’s ties with AI rival Anthropic

Paul Sawers — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 11:23:31 +0000

The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has revealed an early-stage probe into Google’s ties with Anthropic, after the Alphabet subsidiary invested in its U.S. AI rival over several rounds. While it’s not at the stage of being an official investigation yet, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is inviting stakeholders and other “interested parties” to comment ahead […]

New U.S. Commerce Department report endorses ‘open’ AI models

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 04:01:00 +0000

The U.S. Commerce Department has issued a new report endorsing open models like Meta's Llama 3.1, which it says promote competition.

TechCrunch Minute: Doomscrolling probably isn’t great for your mental health

Anthony Ha — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 16:05:00 +0000

It turns out that maybe, just maybe, spending a lot of time staring at your phone and reading bad news isn’t great for your outlook on life or humanity. That’s the finding of a recent study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports, which linked doomscrolling to existential anxiety, despair, distrust and suspicion of others. […]

US border agents must get warrant before cell phone searches, federal court rules

Zack Whittaker — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 11:00:49 +0000

Critics have long argued that wararantless device searches at the U.S. border are unconstitutional and violate the Fourth Amendment.

MatPat, the first big YouTuber to successfully exit his company, is lobbying for creators on Capitol Hill

Amanda Silberling — Sun, 28 Jul 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Though MatPat retired from YouTube, he’s still pretty busy. In fact, he’s been spending a lot of time on Capitol Hill.

Ghostery’s CEO says regulation won’t save us from ad trackers

Anthony Ha — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 18:00:00 +0000

With Ghostery turning 15 years old this month, TechCrunch caught up with CEO Jean-Paul Schmetz to discuss the company's strategy and the state of ad tracking.

Apple reaches its first contract agreement with a US retail union

Anthony Ha — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 17:37:56 +0000

Two years ago, workers at an Apple Store in Towson, Maryland, were the first to establish a formally recognized union at an Apple retail store in the United States. Now they’re the first to reach a tentative contract agreement. According to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ Coalition of Organized Retail Employees, which […]

NIST releases a tool for testing AI model risk

Kyle Wiggers — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 15:25:16 +0000

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the U.S. Commerce Department agency that develops and tests tech for the U.S. government, companies and the broader public, has re-released a test bed designed to measure how malicious attacks — particularly attacks that “poison” AI model training data — might degrade the performance of an AI […]

Uber, Lyft, DoorDash can continue to classify drivers as contractors in California

Rebecca Bellan — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 18:15:00 +0000

The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Proposition 22 — the ballot measure that passed in November 2020 and classified app-based gig workers as independent contractors rather than employees — is here to stay. The decision is a win for app-based companies like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart, which have fought hard to maintain their […]

Singaporean e-commerce firm Qoo10’s Korean units face probe due to payment delays to merchants

Kate Park — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 12:58:50 +0000

The e-commerce market in South Korea ranks as one of the largest in the world, but it’s also proving to be a precarious one. On Thursday, South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission announced that it had launched an investigation into two major South Korean e-commerce platforms owned by Qoo10 — Ticket Monster (TMON) and WeMakePrice — […]

A new Chinese video-generating model appears to be censoring politically sensitive topics

Kyle Wiggers — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 23:07:39 +0000

A powerful new video-generating AI model became widely available today — but there’s a catch: The model appears to be censoring topics deemed too politically sensitive by the government in its country of origin, China. The model, Kling, developed by Beijing-based company Kuaishou, launched in waitlisted access earlier in the year for users with a […]

TechCrunch Minute: A UK school was reprimanded for unlawful use of facial-recognition technology

Amanda Silberling — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 16:00:00 +0000

Today’s story takes us to a high school on the outskirts of Essex, which has ended up on the wrong side of the U.K.’s GDPR laws. This may alarm you if you used to carry lunch money to school, but kids these days can do biometric facial scans to pay for their meals. But as […]