EU agrees ‘historic’ deal with world’s first laws to regulate AI

Agreement between European Parliament and member states will govern artificial intelligence, social media and search engines

The world’s first comprehensive laws to regulate artificial intelligence have been agreed in a landmark deal after a marathon 37-hour negotiation between the European Parliament and EU member states.

The agreement was described as “historic” by Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner responsible for a suite of laws in Europe that will also govern social media and search engines, covering giants such as X, TikTok and Google.

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Chinese ChatGPT rival from search engine firm Baidu fails to impress

Shares plummet after Ernie Bot AI chatbot software falls short of expectations at unveiling in Beijing

The Chinese search engine company Baidu’s shares have fallen by as much as 10% after it presented its ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence software, with investors unimpressed by the bot’s display of linguistic and maths skills.

The AI-powered ChatGPT, created by the San Francisco company OpenAI, has caused a sensation for its ability to write essays, poems and programming code on demand within seconds, prompting widespread fears over cheating or of professions becoming obsolete.

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Digital Services Act: inside the EU’s ambitious bid to clean up social media

The legislation aims to tackle problems as wide-ranging as misogyny, disinformation and consumer fraud

Nearly two decades after the birth of Facebook ushered in the social media era, the EU is introducing ambitious legislation designed to clean up the world’s biggest online forums.

Intended to tackle misogyny, protect children, stop consumer fraud, curb disinformation and protect democratic elections, the Digital Services Act (DSA) is wide-ranging. The UK is introducing its own statute, the online safety bill, but the EU’s rules are likely to have a bigger impact because they cover a bigger market, and the EU is more influential as a regulatory power.

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Hong Kong pressures Google to remove protest anthem from searches

Authorities want Glory to Hong Kong axed from top results and replaced with China’s national anthem

Google has refused to change its search results to display China’s national anthem, rather than a protest song, when users search for Hong Kong’s national anthem, the city’s security chief has said, expressing “great regret” at the decision.

Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Microsoft blocks Bing from showing image results for Tiananmen ‘tank man’

Company blames ‘human error’ after users in US, Germany, Singapore and France reported no results shown on the crackdown’s anniversary

Microsoft has blamed human error after its search engine, Bing, blocked image and video results for the phrase “tank man” – a reference to the iconic image of a lone protester facing down tanks during the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square – on the 32nd anniversary of the military crackdown.

Users reported that no results were shown for the search query in countries including the US, Germany, Singapore, France and Switzerland, according to Reuters and Vice News.

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Analysis of Covid search terms reveals Britons’ hopes and fears in 2020

Although preoccupations changed over year, Britons’ thirst for Covid-related information continued to outstrip that for all other health topics

At the peak of the pandemic, Britons were searching for coronavirus-related information six times a day on average, an analysis of search engine data reveals. And although our preoccupations have changed over the months, our thirst for Covid-related information continues to outstrip that for all other health and social care-related topics.

2020 has been an extraordinary year. Never before have we been so united in our concerns and interests as we roller-coasted through the months. To better understand what that psychological journey looked like, Kaiasm, a Somerset-based data intelligence company, crunches the searches people make on Google, Bing and other internet sites. But rather than analysing the top search terms people use, it groups these together into underlying concepts, to better understand people’s needs and interests.

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Pro-Palestine MP is quizzed by police after he brands the Israeli…

Trump slams the Dems over Kavanaugh controversy then mocks Feinstein's appearance at the committee by casting doubt on denials she leaked Dr. Ford's letter saying her body language was 'the worst I've ever seen' FBI contacts second Kavanagh accuser Deborah Ramirez - which Trump calls a 'blessing in disguise' that will exonerate his SCOTUS pick, as the White House BANS the bureau from speaking to third woman Julie Swetnick World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee unveils radical plan for the fabled 'New Internet' that will decentralize the global system and allow users to take back control of their data from sites like Google and Facebook 'Lindsey Graham needs the stabilizing influence of his dead boyfriend': Bill Maher attacks the South Carolina senator for defending Brett Kavanaugh and mocks his close friendship with the late John McCain Thousands stampede at Global Citizen concert in ... (more)

Led Zeppelin face new trial over claims they stole a guitar riff for song Stairway To Heaven

Trump slams the Dems over Kavanaugh controversy then mocks Feinstein's appearance at the committee by casting doubt on denials she leaked Dr. Ford's letter saying her body language was 'the worst I've ever seen' FBI contacts second Kavanagh accuser Deborah Ramirez - which Trump calls a 'blessing in disguise' that will exonerate his SCOTUS pick, as the White House BANS the bureau from speaking to third woman Julie Swetnick World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee unveils radical plan for the fabled 'New Internet' that will decentralize the global system and allow users to take back control of their data from sites like Google and Facebook 'Lindsey Graham needs the stabilizing influence of his dead boyfriend': Bill Maher attacks the South Carolina senator for defending Brett Kavanaugh and mocks his close friendship with the late John McCain Thousands stampede at Global Citizen concert in ... (more)

Thousands stampede at Global Citizen concert in Central Park after…

Trump slams the Dems over Kavanaugh controversy then mocks Feinstein's appearance at the committee by casting doubt on denials she leaked Dr. Ford's letter saying her body language was 'the worst I've ever seen' FBI contacts second Kavanagh accuser Deborah Ramirez - which Trump calls a 'blessing in disguise' that will exonerate his SCOTUS pick, as the White House BANS the bureau from speaking to third woman Julie Swetnick World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee unveils radical plan for the fabled 'New Internet' that will decentralize the global system and allow users to take back control of their data from sites like Google and Facebook 'Lindsey Graham needs the stabilizing influence of his dead boyfriend': Bill Maher attacks the South Carolina senator for defending Brett Kavanaugh and mocks his close friendship with the late John McCain Thousands stampede at Global Citizen concert in ... (more)

Lawmakers question Google over kids’ privacy on YouTube

Google says YouTube isn't for children under 13, which is why it created a separate app for them, YouTube Kids. Rep. David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat, and Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a Nebraska Republican, sent a letter this week to Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai asking for more details about how the service collects data.

Molly Roberts:

If you don't have a seat at the table, you're probably on the menu - and if you have a seat but don't sit in it, you may be in just as much trouble. That's the lesson Google may have learned when legislators, dissatisfied with the company's offer to send its lawyer instead of a top executive to congressional hearings last week, theatrically answered by installing an empty chair instead.

Responding to leaks, Google denies political bias

Breitbart on Wednesday published leaked video of a town-hall-style meeting with employees shortly after the 2016 election, in which Google executives appeared dismayed at President Trump's win. Google co-founder and Alphabet President Sergey Brin described the results as "pretty upsetting," while Google Senior Vice President of Global Affairs Kent Walker described a global political environment of "tribalism."

Trump accuses Google of RIGGING search results to only show ‘fake news’

Paul Manafort held days of talks with Mueller's team about flipping while jury mulled his fate in first trial Google uses a complex algorithm to decide what a user sees in their search results, though its exact workings are a corporate secret The President unloaded on the tech firm in a pair of tweets on Tuesday morning which promised to 'address' the 'very serious situation'. Donald Trump launched into an attack on Google on Tuesday morning, accusing the web giant of rigging its search results to make him look bad Trump threatened to address what he called 'a very serious situation', though it is not clear how he intends to do this 'In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD.

Senators Want To Question Google About Their Plans To Relaunch In China

For almost a decade, Google has been conspicuously absent from China. This includes all of Google's products and services such as search, Gmail, and so on, and to a certain extent even Android where Android devices in China are essentially forked versions of Android with Google's services stripped from it.

Senators grill Google over rumored China search engine

Google refused to confirm if it's truly been developing a censored search engine for China after reports about the project's existence came out , but it might soon have no choice but to come clean. A group of six Democratic and Republican Senators led by Marco Rubio has penned a letter addressed to Google chief Sundar Pichai demanding concrete answers.

Lawmakers Call On Amazon and Google To Reconsider Ban On Domain Fronting

An anonymous reader quotes CyberScoop: Amazon and Google face sharp questions from a bipartisan pair of U.S. senators over the tech giants' decisions to ban domain fronting, a technique used to circumvent censorship and surveillance around the world. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sent a letter on Tuesday to Google CEO Larry Page and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos over decisions by both companies in April to ban domain fronting .

How Comcast is moving beyond the set top box as it rolls out its…

WhatsApp to test limiting the forwarding of messages to 20 chats globally and 5 chats in India in a bid to stop the spread of fake news - The social messaging service has been blamed for its role in spreading dangerous and inaccurate information. - Facebook-owned WhatsApp is making changes Facebook executives struggle to describe a coherent strategy to deal with misinformation on the site; it's a hodgepodge of "exceptions to the exceptions" - Facebook was once the most nimble company of its generation.