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UK Regulator Closes Apple, Google Probes; Readies New Powers for Tech Giants
5-minute daily tech updeate.
Kristoffer Lindström
August 22, 2024
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TECH BRIEF
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has terminated its investigations into Apple and Google over potential anti-competitive practices in their respective app distribution platforms, citing administrative priorities. However, the CMA is gathering power under incoming regulations to address concerns with strategic market power, potentially imposing special abuse controls. Alpha and Google might expect a reprieve, but developments indicate the CMA's intent to crackdown on Big Tech leveraging its regulatory capabilities.
Google's Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL flagships have been praised for their solidity, bright screens, and high hardware quality. Despite having inconsistencies, the products are a major approach towards an AI phone with AI features scattered throughout their software. Both phones have varying sizes but share the same camera hardware, including a 5x telephoto lens. Google's maiden mobile AI features include the Gemini Assistant and AI-driven weather updates. However, the inconsistencies and the chaotic presence of AI features in the phones have raised concerns.
Meta has released new AI-based web crawling bots to collect data and train its AI models. The bots, Meta-ExternalAgent and Meta-ExternalFetcher, have been designed to evade automated content scraping blockers such as robots.txt. These bots have drawn criticism for their potential to undermine web scraping rules. However, Meta argues that this approach provides flexibility for web publishers. Despite concerns, only 1.5% and less than 1% of the top websites block Meta-ExternalAgent and Meta-ExternalFetcher, respectively.
Alibaba Cloud has reported a 6% YoY increase in its cloud business revenue, attributed to the rapid adoption of its AI technologies. Despite a competitive market, Alibaba Cloud's AI offerings displayed triple-digit growth, with user base expanding by over 200% quarter-over-quarter. Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu is confident that AI will play a central role in future growth, even amidst regulatory scrutiny and competition from major players like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
Programmable IP Labs has raised $80 million for its blockchain-based intellectual property-tracking network, Story Protocol, led by a16z crypto. The protocol aims to manage IP rights and enable royalty payments, potentially unlocking new revenue streams for creators. The move represents burgeoning interest in linking blockchain and AI technologies to manage intellectual property in the face of increasing AI adoption.
OpenAI's chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, has voiced opposition to California's AI safety bill SB 1047, suggesting it could hinder AI progression and provoke businesses to abandon the state. Kwon advocates for federally-led AI policies to promote innovation. Despite criticism, including from companies like Anthropic, the proposed legislation awaits a final vote before reaching Governor Gavin Newsom.
Snowflake, a data cloud analytics firm, raised its annual product revenue projection to $3.36 billion for 2025 amidst growing client demand due to AI advancements. Despite this, company shares drop 8% due to unchanged margins. While increasing pursuit in AI with Snowflake Arctic and partnering with Meta, the company also plans to buyback $2.5 billion in shares by 2027.
Grafana Labs raised $270 million, driving its valuation to $6 billion. The funding also boosted their annual recurring revenue past $250 million with over 5,000 paying customers.
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