British Antitrust Regulators Block Microsoft's Acquisition of Activision Blizzard

British antitrust regulators dealt a major setback to Microsoft’s plans to acquire the video game giant Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, blocking the proposed deal and handing a notable win to government enforcers around the world who want to rein in Big Tech. In deciding that Microsoft’s proposals to ensure the acquisition did not harm competition “failed to effectively address the concerns in the cloud gaming sector,” a nascent part of the gaming industry, the Competition and Markets Authority inflicted a possibly fatal blow to what would be the largest consumer tech acquisition since AOL bought Time Warner two decades ago.

Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Case Involving Inventions Created by AI

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge by computer scientist Stephen Thaler to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's refusal to issue patents for inventions his artificial intelligence system created. The justices turned away Thaler's appeal of a lower court's ruling that patents can be issued only to human inventors and that his AI system could not be considered the legal creator of two inventions that he has said it generated.

Ireland's Data Protection Chief Warns Against Rush to Ban AI Tools

Generative AI, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, needs to be regulated, but governing bodies must figure out how to do so properly before rushing into prohibitions that "really aren't going to stand up", Ireland's data protection chief said. "It needs to be regulated and it's about figuring out how to regulate it properly," Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) Helen Dixon told a Bloomberg conference, saying the debate extended to thousands of ChatGPT equivalents.

EU Parliament Approves World's First Rules to Regulate Cryptocurrency

Lawmakers in the European Parliament have approved the world’s first comprehensive package of rules aimed at regulating the cryptocurrency industry. In a vote, the EU Parliament voted 517 in favor and 38 against to pass the Markets in Crypto Act, or MiCA. The legislation, which seeks to reduce risks for consumers buying crypto assets, will mean providers can become liable if they lose investors’ crypto-assets.

  • Read the article: CNBC

Musk Says U.S. Government Has 'Full Access' to Private Twitter Messages

Twitter CEO Elon Musk claimed in an interview that the U.S. government has “full access” to users’ private direct messages, saying knowing that information blew his mind. In an excerpt of his Fox News interview with host Tucker Carlson, Musk told Carlson that he was shocked to find out about the government’s ability to read users’ direct messages on his platform.

Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Case About 'True Threats' Made Online

The Supreme Court wrestled with what prosecutors need to prove to convict someone of making “true threats” in a case brought by a Colorado man who repeatedly sent abusive messages to a local musician. The appeal brought by Billy Counterman says his conviction for sending Facebook messages to singer-songwriter Coles Whalen is invalid because the jury was not required to make any finding about whether he intended his comments to be genuine threats.

German Associations, Unions Urge EU to Create Copyright Rules for AI Tools

Forty-two German associations and trade unions representing more than 140,000 authors and performers urged the European Union to beef up draft artificial intelligence rules as they singled out the threat to their copyright from ChatGPT. Trade unions for the creative sector Verdi and DGB and associations for photographers, designers, journalists and illustrators set out their concerns in a letter to the European Commission, European Council and EU lawmakers.

Mexico Using Pegasus Spyware Against Human Rights Defenders, Report Says

A New York Times investigation based on interviews, documents and forensic tests of hacked phones shows the secret dealings that led Mexico to become Pegasus’ first client, and reveals that the country grew into the most prolific user of the world’s most infamous spyware. Mexico went on to wield the surveillance tool against civilians who stand up to the state — abuses the country insists it has stopped. But The Times found that Mexico has continued to use Pegasus to spy on people who defend human rights, even in recent months.

AI Companies Ask Court to Dismiss Copyright Lawsuit from Artists

Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt fired back at a group of artists who accused them of committing mass copyright infringement by using the artists' work in generative AI systems. The companies asked a San Francisco federal court to dismiss the artists' proposed class action lawsuit, arguing that the AI-created images are not similar to the artists' work and that the lawsuit did not note specific images that were allegedly misused.

South Korea Fines Google $32 Million for Anticompetitive App Store Practices

South Korea fined Alphabet Inc.’s Google the equivalent of about $32 million for abusing its global market dominance to thwart a local rival, in the latest regulatory challenge to the U.S. technology giant’s control over the mobile app ecosystem. Google’s tactics to block the growth of rival app marketplace One Store Co. amounted to anticompetitive practices, South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission said.

Justice Department Investigating Twitter, According to Suit from Former Executives

A lawsuit filed by several former Twitter executives said they had personally spent more than $1 million on legal expenses related to shareholder lawsuits and several government investigations, including an inquiry by the Justice Department. The nature of the Justice Department inquiry, and whether it is active, was unclear.

Commerce Department Seeks Public Comments on Regulating AI Tools

Agencies across the federal government are taking steps to regulate artificial intelligence, seeking to promote safety and minimize the technology’s harms, as the overnight explosion of AI tools such as ChatGPT spurs scrutiny from policymakers around the globe. The Commerce Department took its most significant action to address the emerging technology, when it asked the public to weigh in on how it could create regulations that would ensure AI systems work as advertised.

Hacking Tools from Israeli Vendor QuaDream Cited in Spying on Journalists

Hacking tools sold by a little-known Israeli vendor have been used to break into the iPhones of journalists and political opposition figures by silently exploiting Apple Inc.’s iPhone software, cybersecurity researchers said. The intrusions are linked to QuaDream Ltd., which markets spyware under the name “Reign,” according to new research published Tuesday by Citizen Lab, a research group at the University of Toronto, and Microsoft Corp.

Vitamin Maker Agrees to FTC Payment for 'Review Hijacking' on Amazon

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has approved a final consent order in its first-ever enforcement action over a case involving “review hijacking,” or when a marketer steals consumer reviews of another product to boost the sales of its own. In this case, the FTC has ordered supplements retailer The Bountiful Company, the maker of Nature’s Bounty vitamins and other brands, to pay $600,000 for deceiving customers on Amazon where it used a feature to merge the reviews of different products to make some appear to have better ratings and reviews than they otherwise would have had if marketed under their own listings.

FBI Says Free Public Charging Stations Can Be Used to Spread Malware

The FBI recently warned consumers against using free public charging stations, saying crooks have managed to hijack public chargers that can infect devices with malware, or software that can give hackers access to your phone, tablet or computer. “Bad actors have figured out ways to use public USB ports to introduce malware and monitoring software onto devices. Carry your own charger and USB cord and use an electrical outlet instead,” a tweet from the FBI’s Denver field office said.

  • Read the article: CNBC

Italy's Antitrust Authority Investigating Meta Over Music Licensing

Italy's antitrust authority said it would investigate Meta Platform over the possible abuse of its position in talks over the rights to music posted on Meta's platforms and potentially hurting competition in the sector. The dispute involved the Italian society of authors and publishers, SIAE. According to the antitrust regulator, Mark Zuckerberg's company may have "unduly interrupted the negotiations for the stipulation of the licence for the use on its platforms" of SIAE's music rights, it said in a statement.

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