UK startup accuses Google of ‘predatory conduct’ over withdrawal of Gmail API

Aug01
by on August 1, 2024 at 6:44 pm
Posted In: Insider


Google has been accused of exploiting a regulatory gap to terminate a startup’s access to the Gmail API. London-based Gener8 said the API is “critical” to its business. The company offers people control of the data that the likes of Gmail harvest. Users can then monetise their information. Thousands of firms already harvest and sell this data. That’s how Google became the fourth most valuable company in the world. Gener8 promises to take the power back. The startup has built an app that shows users the data that businesses have about them. They are then offered two options. One prevents tracking from third-party companies.…

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Google DeepMind launches 2B parameter Gemma 2 model

Jul31
by on July 31, 2024 at 4:00 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized


Google DeepMind announced today the release of the 2 billion (2B) parameter version of Gemma 2, the second generation of its Gemma AI models. First launched in February this year, Gemma is a family of lightweight, text-to-text open models designed for developers and researchers — and built on the technology that powers Google Gemini. DeepMind released Gemma 2 in June, in two different sizes: 9 billion (9B) and 27 billion (27) parameters. The new 2B model learns from larger models through distillation and produces outsized results, DeepMind says. The company also claims that it outperforms all GPT-3.5 models on the…

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Google-Anthropic partnership raises AI competition fears in the UK

Jul30
by on July 30, 2024 at 7:12 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized


Google’s partnership with GenAI startup Anthropic is raising eyebrows in the UK as the trend of big tech giants backing young AI companies continues. The Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) said on Tuesday that it’s collecting information on whether the partnership qualifies as a merger and negatively impacts UK competition. In October, Google-parent company Alphabet reportedly committed $2bn to the San-Francisco based startup, which has developed ChatGPT rival Claude. This followed a prior $300 investment in return for a what was said to be a 10% stake. The CMA is now asking “interested parties” to provide comments on the deal…

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Internet cables cut as Paris Olympics cat-and-mouse continues

Jul29
by on July 29, 2024 at 3:22 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized


Several long-distance fibre-optic cables in France were “sabotaged” overnight, according to local police, causing widespread disruptions to internet services across the country.  The perpetrators remain at large, as the cat-and-mouse between police and criminals at the Olympics continues on the sidelines of sprints, swims, and shot puts.  The internet cables were severed early on Monday morning, said network provider Netalis on X. Junior Minister for Digital Affairs Marina Ferrari condemned the attacks, calling them “cowardly and irresponsible.”   Paris, where most of the Olympic events are taking place, has not been affected. Whether the attacks were intended to disrupt the Games…

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Grok chatbot trains on X user data in ‘very likely’ breach of EU law

Jul26
by on July 26, 2024 at 3:37 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized


Elon Musk could have yet another problem with the European Union. Musk’s X has enabled the Grok chatbot to be trained on data from any user. This feature is now on by default, which may breach EU rules. Deep within the settings of X, users unearthed evidence of the data harvesting. Besides a check box that was already ticked, they spotted the following text: “Allow your posts as well as your interactions, inputs, and results with Grok to be used for training and fine-tuning.” This approach could violate the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The law restricts companies from…

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