The Biden administration has issued an implementation framework for its National Cybersecurity Strategy, detailing how the federal government plans to regulate digital security issues. The highly anticipated document lists more than 65 initiatives for executing the “five pillars” of the March 2023 U.S. National Cybersecurity Strategy, described as a “bold, affirmative vision for cyberspace.” The implementation takes a two-pronged approach: empowering capable actors who can bear more of the security responsibility, and the need for incentives that facilitate investment in long-term resilience. Continue reading White House Releases Plan for Cybersecurity Implementation

The European Union has agreed to a data sharing agreement with the United States, bringing to a close a years-long negotiation that saw U.S. national security concerns bump up against European privacy rights. The new EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework — which replaces a previous iteration, the Privacy Shield, invalidated by EU courts in 2020 — was a focus of Big Tech. Under the new agreement, Europeans can lodge formal objections when they feel their personal information has been improperly accessed by American intelligence agencies, with an independent judicial review body, the Data Protection Review Court, established to evaluate such claims. Continue reading U.S. and EU Formally Adopt Long-Awaited Data Sharing Deal

IATSE, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, has adopted what it is calling “Core Principles for Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Technology” in the entertainment industry. Unveiled last week, the document follows the May creation of the group’s Commission on Artificial Intelligence. The activity is meant to convey a proactive approach to the challenges and opportunities ahead. “With AI, the stakes for IATSE members in all crafts is high,” said IATSE International President Matthew Loeb. “There is much work to do, but I am pleased to report the union’s efforts are already well underway.” Continue reading IATSE Unveils Its Core Principles for AI and Machine Learning

The Federal Communications Commission proposed a rule that would require cable TV and multichannel satellite services to disclose full pricing for programming plans in consumer promotional materials and invoicing, a plan President Biden quickly endorsed. The intent is to clearly convey “all-in” costs as a prominent single line, avoiding taxes and surcharges excluded from sales pitches and sometimes difficult to decipher on bills. “Too often, these companies hide additional junk fees on customer bills disguised as ‘broadcast TV’ or ‘regional sports’ fees that in reality pay for no additional services,” Biden said. Continue reading Biden Supports FCC Plan for Multichannel Price Disclosures

The Federal Trade Commission has filed suit against Amazon, alleging the e-commerce giant surreptitiously enrolled millions of people in the $139 per year Amazon Prime program, and once subscribed made it difficult for them to cancel. “Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said, citing “deceptive user-interface designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions.” Continue reading FTC Sues Amazon Over Deceptive Practices Involving Prime

President Biden heralded the “enormous promise” of artificial intelligence while pointing out that we must manage risks to society and our economy. These include misinformation and job loss. Meeting with experts in San Francisco, Biden said AI is already fueling “change in every part of American life, often in ways we don’t notice.” Citing social media and its potential harms, Biden called for proper AI guardrails. The Bay Area visit was part of Biden’s 2024 reelection fundraising campaign, and included an event co-hosted by venture capitalist Reid Hoffman, who was integral to the launches of LinkedIn and PayPal. Continue reading Feds Escalate Urgency Around AI, Biden Meets with Experts

Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group is restructuring its C-suite. Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang announced that on September 10 he will step down to be replaced by Eddie Yongming Wu as CEO and Joe Tsai as chairman. Zhang will continue to run Alibaba’s cloud computing division for now, which the company plans to spin off in an IPO. Tsai is currently Alibaba’s executive vice chairman (and owner of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets) and Wu is chairman of Alibaba’s Taobao Tmall Commerce Group. Wu will maintain his role with the e-commerce interests along with his new duties at Alibaba, where he will also replace Zhang on the company’s board of directors. Continue reading Alibaba Announces a Major Overhaul to Its Top Management

U.S. senators on June 8 introduced two new bipartisan bills with implications for AI, one focused on artificial intelligence, the other more generally on emerging technologies. The first is an accountability act that would require the U.S. and its agencies inform people when AI is used in government interactions. The second bill, the Global Technology Leadership Act, seeks to establish an Office of Global Competition Analysis (OGCA) that evaluates “competitiveness in technology and innovation sectors critical to national security and economic prosperity relative to other countries,” with emphasis on “strategic competitors.” Continue reading Two New Bills Target Innovation, Transparency Regarding AI

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg received a letter this week from Senators Richard Blumenthal and Josh Hawley of the Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology & the Law that took the executive to task for an online leak of the company’s LLaMA artificial intelligence system. The 65-billion parameter language model, which is still under development, was open-sourced in February. Available on request through Meta’s GitHub portal, it wound up on 4chan and BitTorrent “making it available to anyone, anywhere in the world, without monitoring or oversight,” the senators wrote. Continue reading Senators Question Meta Platforms About Recent LLaMA Leak

As consumers increasingly cord-cut, severing the once-profitable content subscriptions that offset infrastructure costs for ISPs, governments are now looking to charge Big Tech companies for access to broadband networks, which are expensive to install and maintain. The European Commission is being lobbied by telecom firms to implement such a plan, which the Biden administration is urging EU lawmakers to reject on the basis it would be difficult to enforce and could also potentially undermine net neutrality. Direct payments to telecom operators “could reinforce the dominant market position of the largest operators,” the U.S. said in response. Continue reading White House: Big Tech Shouldn’t Be Forced to Pay ISP Fees

President Joe Biden has announced Anna Gomez, a veteran communications attorney, as his pick to fill the FCC commissioner post that has been vacant for more than two years. If the Senate confirms Gomez, Democrats will have a 3-2 majority at the agency, which has a Democratic chairwoman, Jessica Rosenworcel. This is not the first time Biden sought to fill the post. In October 2021 he nominated Gigi Sohn, co-founder of Public Knowledge and an architect of the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality rules, but the Senate refused to advance her to a vote and she withdrew from consideration in March. Continue reading Anna Gomez Is President Biden’s Nominee for Key FCC Seat

Leaders at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, are calling for discussions that could lead to global standards and regulations for generative AI, with the aim of responsible use of the technology. The chief executives of the world’s largest economies — which in addition to the host nation include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, the U.S. (and additionally the EU) — expressed the goal of forming a G7 working group to establish by the end of the year a “Hiroshima AI process” for discussion about uniform policies for dealing with AI technologies including chatbots and image generators. Continue reading G7 Leaders Call for Global AI Standards at Hiroshima Summit

The Biden administration has committed $140 million to create seven new artificial intelligence research hubs, bringing the national total to 25. The announcement coincided with Vice President Kamala Harris’ Thursday meeting with representatives from Alphabet, Anthropic, Microsoft, and OpenAI and new White House guidance on AI development. The developments are part of an effort to curtain security risks associated with AI and ensure that it is implemented responsibly. “The private sector has an ethical, moral and legal responsibility to ensure the safety and security of their products,” Harris said following the meeting, which included a drop-in by President Biden. Continue reading Biden Administration Hosts Tech Elite at White House AI Meet

The proliferation of websites spewing misinformation as a result of chatbot-powered “content farms” is creating increased concern. Misinformation tracker NewsGuard has identified 49 websites publishing falsehoods authored by generative AI. The discovery is raising questions as to the technology’s role in turbocharging existing fraud techniques. Several of the offending websites sprang up this year, just as AI tools were made widely available for use by the public. Some of the sites take the approach of masquerading as breaking news sites, while others have adopted tactics such as using generic-sounding names. Continue reading AI Content Farms Spreading Fake Stories and Misinformation

The European Union, which has been working on artificial intelligence legislation for the past two years, is playing last minute catch-up with rapidly evolving technology as it retools a final draft law that can be adopted, possibly by the end of the year. While the European Council in December thought it had completed its framework in all but the details, that version largely deferred attaching specific rules to generative AI, which having since exploded, has triggered a movement among member states to add those guardrails along with rules for general purpose AI. Continue reading EU Considers Technology Updates for Next Draft of the AI Act