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US House Judiciary subpoenas Big Tech CEOs over free speech

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US House Judiciary subpoenas Big Tech CEOs over free speech

US House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on Wednesday subpoenaed the chief executives of Alphabet (GOOGL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O), Apple (AAPL.O), Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms (META.O), and Microsoft (MSFT.O) for documents and communications relating to free-speech issues.

Jordan and other conservatives accused the companies of suppressing conservative speech during the Trump administration, and expanded that accusation to include colluding with the Biden administration once he won the White House. The White House and major tech companies have rejected the allegation.

“These subpoenas are the first step in holding Big Tech accountable,” Jordan’s office said in a statement.

Microsoft and Meta said that they had already begun producing documents. Microsoft said it was “engaged with the Committee, and committed to working in good faith.” None of the other three companies responded to a request for comment.

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The subpoenas, sent to Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, Andy Jassy of Amazon.com, Tim Cook of Apple, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Satya Nadella of Microsoft, demand documents and communications related to alleged collusion between the government and the companies to stifle free speech.

Jordan set a March 23 deadline to turn over documents.

Republicans who took control of the House of Representatives in January after narrowly winning control in the November elections have made questions about Big Tech a top focus and created a Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

Last week, the panel held its first hearing into Republican claims that the Justice Department and FBI show anti-conservative bias, a move made following the FBI’s discovery of hundreds of classified documents at Republican former President Donald Trump’s Florida resort.

Jordan wrote related letters to the companies in December, making similar demands to big tech but this was when the House was in Democratic hands and before he became chair. Jordan’s office said that the companies did not adequately comply.

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UK competition regulator lays out AI principles

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UK competition regulator lays out AI principles

Britain’s competition regulator proposed principles to govern new artificial intelligence (AI) models on Monday, including accountability, access and transparency, as it seeks to foster competitive growth in the fast-moving technology.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) started looking at the impact of generative AI applications such as ChatGPT in May to try to ensure the technology benefited businesses and consumers.

The CMA’s chief executive Sarah Cardell said there was real potential for the technology to turbocharge productivity and make millions of everyday tasks easier – but a positive future could not be taken for granted.

“That’s why we have today proposed these new principles and launched a broad programme of engagement to help ensure the development and use of foundation models evolves in a way that promotes competition and protects consumers,” she said.

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Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has touted the UK as a global leader in AI regulation and the country will host an AI safety summit in November.

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China’s industry ministry to work on standards for the metaverse

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China's industry ministry to work on standards for the metaverse

 China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT)said on Monday that it will form a working group to establish standards for the metaverse sector as Beijing seeks to be a global standards-setter for new technology.

The ministry released a draft proposal to form a working group for the metaverse, shared virtual worlds accessible via the internet, on Monday. The proposal said that the metaverse is one of the nine emerging tech sectors which China should strive to establish standards for.

The metaverse has become one of the hottest tech trends since 2021, but there is yet to be consensus on what qualifies as a metaverse despite the hype, an issue the MIIT highlighted in the proposal.

“[The metaverse industry] faces many challenges,” the MIIT said, “It is urgent to promote healthy and orderly development of the metaverse industry through standardization and guidance.”

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It added that the metaverse industry suffers from a lack of clear definitions, which had allowed some capitalists and companies to drum up speculation in the market.

The MIIT also described the metaverse as “an integrated innovation combining various cutting-edge technologies”. It said that the metaverse will spur many innovative business models, new business opportunities and growth for the digital economy. 

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BoE official says public need reassurance on digital pound and privacy

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BoE official says public need reassurance on digital pound and privacy

 A “national conversation” is needed to assuage public fears that a digital version of the pound would allow the government to spy on them, Bank of England deputy governor designate Sarah Breeden said on Tuesday.

The BoE and Britain’s finance ministry have been consulting on whether and how to introduce a digital pound, probably in the second half of this decade.

But critics of the concept say a digital currency could be used by governments to track what people spend their money on, and make it harder to make payments and purchases using cash.

European Union policymakers have already sought to reassure the public that a digital euro is not a “Big Brother” surveillance project.

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“I think on the back of that we need to start a national conversation, actually, because while I’m supportive of that technology, as was apparent in the responses we got to the discussion paper there’s a lot of concern about privacy,” Breeden told a hearing in parliament’s Treasury Select Committee on her appointment.

A digital pound would be the anchor for all money in the digital world to ensure trust in money, she said.

“So analytically, it’s the right thing – I can see a case for it. How you manage the privacy challenges, the role of the state – I think we are at the start of the debate on that,” Breeden said.

“The privacy concerns about programmability, I recognise those as real concerns, and what we need to do … is reassure the public on how privacy is going to be delivered, terms and conditions set in legislation, we must not assume trust in practice,” she told lawmakers.

There should be equal focus on privacy in private-sector digital currencies as well, said Breeden, who is currently an executive director at the BoE.

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Eleven countries have already launched digital versions of their currencies and, like the European Central Bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve is considering doing so.

Breeden said the impact on financial stability is also a concern for her and responses to the public consultation will be published towards the end of the year.

Breeden rejected suggestions by critics of a digital currency that it would force out the availability of cash. 

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