Creators of ChatGPT Push for International Regulator of Artificial Intelligence

The leaders of OpenAI, the creator of viral chatbot ChatGPT, are calling for the regulation of “superintelligence” and artificial intelligence systems, suggesting an equivalent to the world’s nuclear watchdog would help reduce the “existential risk” posed by the technology. In a statement published on the company website this week, co-founders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever, as well as CEO Sam Altman, argued that an international regulator would eventually become necessary to “inspect systems, require audits, test for compliance with safety standards, (and) place restrictions on degrees of deployment and levels of security.”

U.S. Urges Supreme Court to Reject Apple's Appeal in Caltech Patent Case

The U.S. solicitor general urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject an appeal by Apple Inc. and Broadcom Inc. stemming from their $1.1 billion trial loss to the California Institute of Technology in a patent infringement case. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was correct when it ruled last year that the companies could not seek to invalidate Caltech's patents in court after Apple failed to raise its invalidity arguments at the U.S. Patent Office.

Content Moderators for Facebook in Kenya Sue for Causing Depression, PTSD

In Kenya, content moderators are now part of a lawsuit against a contractor for Facebook-owner Meta Platforms and the social-media giant itself. The moderators accuse the company, California-based Sama, and Meta of worker exploitation and unfair termination. In legal filings, they say that reviewing graphic content has led to depression, PTSD and anxiety.

Microsoft, NSA Express Concerns Over Chinese Code Found in Guam

Around the time that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was examining the equipment recovered from the wreckage of the Chinese spy balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast in February, American intelligence agencies and Microsoft detected what they feared was a more worrisome intruder: mysterious computer code that has been popping up in telecommunications systems in Guam and elsewhere in the United States. The code, which Microsoft said was installed by a Chinese government hacking group, raised alarms because Guam, with its Pacific ports and vast American air base, would be a centerpiece of any American military response to an invasion or blockade of Taiwan.

Shutterstock to Buy Giphy from Meta After U.K. Regulator Orders Sale

Shutterstock Inc. said it would buy animated-images platform Giphy Inc from Meta Platforms Inc. for $53 million in cash, months after the Facebook owner had agreed to divest the company on competition concerns. Britain's competition regulator last year ordered Meta to sell Giphy over fears that it could deny or limit competitors such as Snapchat Inc. and Twitter access to the target's content.

Surgeon General Warns About Social Media's Mental Health Impact on Teens

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, long a proponent of mental health awareness, has issued a warning that social media use is a main contributor to depression, anxiety and other problems in the nation's teenagers. The report calls attention to growing concerns about the effects of social media use on children and adolescent's mental health and urges policymakers and the companies that make the social media platforms to share with parents the burden of managing children's and adolescents’ social media use.

TikTok Files First Amendment Lawsuit to Block App's Ban in Montana

TikTok sued to block Montana from banning the popular video app, escalating its efforts to stop a prohibition that would be the first of its kind in the nation. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, the company said Montana’s legislation violated the First Amendment and parts of the U.S. Constitution that limit state powers.

EU Fines Meta $1.3 Billion for Transferring User Data from Europe to U.S.

Meta was fined a record 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) and ordered to stop transferring data collected from Facebook users in Europe to the United States, in a major ruling against the social media company for violating European Union data protection rules. The penalty, announced by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, is potentially one of the most consequential in the five years since the European Union enacted the landmark data privacy law known as the General Data Protection Regulation.

Supreme Court Refuses to Address Section 230 Protections in YouTube Case

The Supreme Court sidestepped a ruling on the legal shield that protects Internet companies from lawsuits relating to content posted by users in a case concerning allegations that YouTube was liable for suggesting videos promoting violent militant Islam. The court in a brief unsigned opinion did not decide the legal question of whether liability protections enshrined in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act safeguard YouTube’s alleged conduct.

D.C.'s Metro Transit Network Breached by Russian Computer, Report Says

A personal computer in Russia was used to breach Metro’s computer network earlier this year after the transit agency repeatedly was warned that cybersecurity deficiencies left its systems open to information theft and national security threats, according to a report. The unauthorized January log-in into Metro’s cloud-based system from a computer belonging to a former I.T. contractor drew the attention of Metro’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

China Shuts Down 100,000 Accounts for Misrepresenting News Outlets

China has intensified efforts to clean up the Internet from false news and rumors, closing more than 100,000 online accounts over the past month that misrepresented news anchors and media agencies, its cyberspace regulator said. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) launched a special campaign to clean up online information, focusing on social media accounts that disseminate "fake news" and impersonate state-controlled media.

U.S. Announces $10 Million Reward for Arrest in Russian Ransomware Case

U.S. authorities announced criminal charges, economic sanctions and a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of a Russian man accused of participating in a global ransomware campaign called Babuk, whose victims allegedly included the D.C. police department, an airline and other American industries. The Department of the Treasury imposed an economic ban on financial dealings with Mikhail Matveev, calling him a central figure in launching cyberattacks against U.S. law enforcement, businesses and critical infrastructure in 2021.

Appeals Court Refuses to Lift Approval Requirement for Musk's Tesla Tweets

Tesla CEO Elon Musk lost an appeal to unwind parts of a consent decree that he and the automaker struck with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle civil securities fraud charges in 2018. The ruling, issued by a federal appeals court, affirms a prior decision from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which issued the initial denial.

EU to Allow Microsoft's Acquisition of Activision Blizzard After Concessions

Microsoft’s faltering $69 billion bid to buy the video game company Activision Blizzard received a glimmer of hope when European Union regulators approved what would be the largest consumer tech deal in two decades. E.U. officials said they would allow the deal after Microsoft, the maker of the Xbox console, made concessions to ensure that rival companies of new online gaming services would have continued access to titles developed by Activision, such as the hugely popular Call of Duty.

Cyberattack Prevents Philadelphia Inquirer from Printing Sunday Edition

The Philadelphia Inquirer and outside cybersecurity experts continued Sunday to scramble to restore systems after an apparent cyberattack disrupted operations over the weekend. The Inquirer had been unable to print its regular Sunday newspaper, and it was not clear until late Sunday afternoon that it would be possible to print Monday’s editions of The Inquirer and Daily News newspapers.

FBI Disables Malware Used by Russia to Steal Government Documents

U.S. authorities said they disabled a piece of malware Russia’s intelligence agency has allegedly used for two decades to steal documents from NATO-allied governments and others, in an operation that highlights the FBI’s increasing efforts to go beyond arresting hackers and find new ways to disrupt cyberattacks. The operation effectively hobbled one of Russia’s most well-known and oldest cyber espionage groups, officials and security experts said, a vaunted hacking team that has been previously linked to devastating thefts of U.S. secrets.

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