The EU charged Apple with violating Europe's new digital competition laws.
US closer to curbing investments in China's AI, tech sector: Reuters reports the United States on Friday issued draft rules for banning or requiring notification of certain investments in artificial intelligence and other technology sectors in China that could threaten US national security.
UK’s AI ambitions at risk from poor mobile network, says Vodafone boss: The Times reports Margherita Della Valle says Britain will be less quick to take advantage of the technology than its rivals.
AI companies are racing to produce chatbots that can talk in India’s many languages: Hindi is the most common of India’s 22 officially recognized languages, but there are thousands of other tongues and dialects, presenting a challenge for large-language models. Google, Microsoft, and others are increasingly offering Indian AI voice assistants — Google’s Gemini launched in nine Indian languages last week, while Microsoft’s Copilot is available in 12.
Still trying to sound smart about AI? The boss is, too: Many executives talk a visionary game about AI’s promise—while trying to learn exactly what it can do. WSJ
+ 87% of firms surveyed by Bain & Co have a genAI program.
Generative AI is still a solution in search of a problem: Axios reports the gigantic and costly industry Silicon Valley is building around generative AI is still struggling to explain the technology's utility.
+ The most common rationale is a kind of circular reasoning: Everyone's going to be using these tools, the argument goes, so you might as well get ahead of the parade.
+ "I consistently sort of wander up to the AI, ask it a question, find myself somewhat impressed or unimpressed at the answer. But it doesn't stick for me. It is not a sticky habit ... it's not really clear how to make AI part of your life." -- Ezra Klein
Is artificial intelligence making big tech too big? Previous scares have been overblown. This one might not be. Economist
Music labels take on AI startups with new lawsuits: Universal, Sony, and Warner allege that the two companies generate sound-a-likes of popular recordings using copyrighted works. WSJ
Google is turning into a libel machine: Another reason not to trust the search engine in the generative-AI era. Matteo Wong
Before smartphones, an army of real people helped you find stuff on Google: Not too long ago, services like GOOG-411, 118 118 and AQA used actual humans to answer questions with witty responses and encyclopedic knowledge. Today’s search engines could learn something. Wired
Snapchat has introduced an on-device AI model that enables users to create custom AR lenses from text prompts.
Reuters: Amazon mulls $5 to $10 monthly price tag for unprofitable Alexa service, AI revamp
Mashable: OpenAI's GPT-5 pushed back to late 2025, but promises PhD-level abilities
Apple rejected overtures by Meta to integrate the social networking company’s AI chatbot into the iPhone months ago, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
ByteDance is working with US chip designer Broadcom on developing an advanced AI processor.
TikTok in denial as US ‘ban’ approaches: Semafor reports from the advertising conference in Cannes last week, TikTok occupied its customary, lavish space in the back of the Carlton — a space that felt infinitely distant from the heated Washington conversation over the future of the Chinese-owned social app.
+ Blake Chandlee, the president of global business solutions at ByteDance, spoke about TikTok for nearly 45 minutes without mentioning the fact that President Joe Biden had signed a law in April threatening to ban it. It came up only when he was asked about it point blank.
Blaze at South Korea lithium battery plant kills 22 workers: Reuters reports the fire and a series of explosions ripped through the factory run by primary battery manufacturer Aricell in Hwaseong, an industrial cluster southwest of the capital Seoul.
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
