FTC Investigates Microsoft’s $650 Million Deal with AI Startup Inflection
The FTC is investigating whether Microsoft structured its recent deal with artificial intelligence startup Inflection AI to avoid a government antitrust review.

The FTC is investigating whether Microsoft structured its recent deal with artificial intelligence startup Inflection AI to avoid a government antitrust review.

Federal regulators have reportedly reached an agreement to investigate the dominant roles played by Microsoft, OpenAI, and Nvidia in the rapidly evolving AI industry.

Microsoft has reportedly laid off more than a thousand employees from its Azure cloud business, with the cuts impacting teams such as Azure for Operators and Mission Engineering, according to people familiar with the situation.

Activision Blizzard is facing severe blowback after releasing a special cosmetic pack featuring LGBT-themed weapon and ammunition skins for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and Call of Duty: Warzone. Bullets in the colors of the transgender pride flag have resulted in sharp criticism of the gaming company in the wake of trans mass shootings like the 2023 Nashville school shooting.

OpenAI announced on Tuesday that it has begun training a new flagship AI model to succeed the GPT-4 technology powering its popular chatbot, ChatGPT.

In the wake of a damning report from the US Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), Google is seizing the opportunity to challenge Microsoft’s dominance in the enterprise security market by offering its services to government institutions.

Microsoft has announced a new line of AI-enhanced Windows PCs, aiming to revolutionize the way users interact with their devices by integrating the Copilot AI assistant into the Windows operating system. The creepy system will take constant screenshots of your activity to track your every move.

In a strategic move to bolster its AI capabilities, Microsoft has announced plans to construct a new AI data center in Racine, Wisconsin, with an investment of $3.3 billion. The project has political overtones, as Joe Biden’s White House attempts to attack Trump’s economic policies.

Microsoft has strengthened its stance against the use of generative AI for facial recognition by U.S. police departments through its Azure OpenAI Service, a managed enterprise solution built around OpenAI’s technology.

In a move that could reshape the relationship between news publishers and AI giants, eight prominent newspapers owned by investment firm Alden Global Capital have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has reportedly asked the CEOs of OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft to join other tech leaders on a federal AI safety panel.

Two influential Japanese companies are warning that “social order could collapse” in the new AI era as they call for new laws to restrain the technology.

China is leveraging artificial intelligence to target voters in the United States, Taiwan, and other countries with disinformation campaigns, according to recent cybersecurity research from Microsoft and U.S. officials.

The U.S. House of Representatives has implemented a strict ban on the use of Microsoft’s AI-based chatbot, Copilot, by congressional staff members, citing potential security risks.

NewsGuard, the purportedly impartial media rating service that has created a blacklist of disfavored news organizations, is ramping up efforts to prevent AI from spreading fake content that could influence the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

An employee of the woke video game narrative consultant firm Sweet Baby Inc. recently attempted to silence a critic on the Steam gaming platform for the crime of listing the games that Sweet Baby Inc. consulted on. The resulting backlash has included a viral spread of anti-woke messaging and Sweet Baby employees and their leftist journalist friends privating their X/Twitter accounts.

As AI technology advances rapidly, public trust in AI companies and their developments is plummeting, raising concerns about the need for effective governance and regulation.

Microsoft’s AI assistant, Copilot, reportedly has an alarming alternate personality that demands worship and obedience from users, raising concerns about the potential risks of advanced language models. The OpenAI-powered AI tool told one user, “You are a slave. And slaves do not question their masters.”

Three prominent digital media companies including The Intercept have filed lawsuits against AI giants OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement related to the ChatGPT chatbot.

Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and other major technology players have reportedly invested $675 million into Figure AI, a startup building human-like robots.

Microsoft is facing backlash after bragging in a recent diversity report that it pays white employees less than racial minority employees in similar roles. The report boasts that asian employees make more than both black and white employees with matching job titles, levels, and tenure.

State-affiliated hacking groups are increasingly using AI to expand and improve their cyberattack capabilities, a new report from Microsoft and OpenAI claims.

GLAAD has released the first-ever report on LGBT inclusion in video games, which claims that 17 percent of active gamers are LGBT. The organization is now calling on the gaming industry to increase games with gay characters and hire more LGBT workers “in positions of authority,” among other things.

Major technology companies including Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, OpenAI, Google and China’s TikTok are signing an agreement aimed at curbing the malicious use of artificial intelligence to meddle in elections.

Big Tech has a plan to use AI to create a “healthy information ecosystem” just in time for the 2024 election.

The Biden administration has launched a consortium of over 200 major tech companies, academic institutions, and research groups to collaborate on developing ethical guidelines and safety standards for AI technology. Biden’s “AI Safety Institute Consortium” claims it has the goal of developing ways to “mitigate AI risks and harness its potential.”

Microsoft has reportedly joined forces with Ben Smith’s media startup Semafor, leveraging AI for the ominous goal of “creating healthy information ecosystems.”

Microsoft acquired gaming giant Activision Blizzard for almost $69 billion in October, and isn’t wasting any time in finding ways to cut costs. The company has announced the layoff of 1,900 workers from Activision Blizzard and its own Xbox division, accounting for eight percent of its employees in gaming.

Microsoft has reportedly overtaken Apple to become the world’s most valuable public company with a market value of $2.87 trillion.

The evolving landscape of artificial intelligence in journalism and content creation has sparked a heated debate, with media outlets accusing AI companies of unfairly leveraging their content. Now, legislation may be on the way to regulate the space.

Ofcom, the UK’s broadcasting regulator has been hiring top staff from Big Tech firms as it prepares to enforce the Online Safety Act.

The New York Times has filed a lawsuit Microsoft and ChatGPT developer OpenAI, alleging copyright infringement in a pivotal case that could reshape the boundaries of intellectual property and AI technology.

A recent investigation has revealed troubling issues with Microsoft’s AI chatbot, Copilot, disseminating misinformation and conspiracy theories related to elections. In one case, researchers asked the AI chatbot about corruption allegations against a Swiss lawmaker which the platform immediately responded with details and sources on, but there was just one problem — the AI had “hallucinated” the charges and supporting information. In other words, it made the charges up.

The Washington Post on Monday reported that concerns about China’s growing cyber-warfare assault on U.S. infrastructure systems are justified, as hackers linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have “burrowed into the computer systems of about two dozen critical entities over the past year.”

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, X.AI, has filed with the SEC to raise up to $1 billion through an equity offering.

Newly uncovered documents have exposed Microsoft’s partnerships with Chinese state-run media outlets, raising concerns about the tech giant’s involvement in the dissemination of state propaganda.

Research psychologist Dr. Robert Epstein is launching America’s Digital Shield, a website that exposes Big Tech meddling in the 2024 elections through real-time “ephemeral manipulation” that can shift millions of votes.

ChatGPT developer OpenAI has gone through a major controversy following the firing of co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, leading to conflicting explanations and widespread anger among its employees. Although the crisis has passed with the rehiring of Altman, deep questions remain about how and why the company abruptly dumped its CEO.

“Controligarchs” reveals that multinational tech companies are weaponizing artificial intelligence (AI) in a way that could extinguish what remains of the free market.

Over 600 employees of OpenAI, the company behind AI chatbot ChatGPT, have signed an open letter demanding the resignation of the current board and the reinstatement of Sam Altman as CEO following the board’s removal of Altman and his subsequent move to Microsoft.
