Silicon Valley Tech News Roundup – January 28th

Politicians call for new legislation after Taylor Swift deepfakes appear online – 1/27

U. S. politicians are calling for new legislation that would criminalize the creation of deepfake images. The news comes after explicit deepfake Taylor Swift images appeared on social media platforms like X and Telegram, and millions of people viewed them.

There are no federal laws against creating or sharing deepfake images in the United States.

X confirmed it is “actively removing” the images and taking “appropriate actions” against accounts that are spreading them. Most of the images cannot be found on X anymore. However, one image was viewed 47 million times before its removal.

Joe Morelle (Democratic Representative) called for urgent action on the issue. Last year, he released the proposed Preventing Deepfakes of Intimate Images Act (it would make it illegal to share deepfake explicit images without consent). Morelle stated deepfake images and videos “can cause irrevocable emotional, financial, and reputational harm – and unfortunately, women are disproportionately impacted.“

The FTC launches an inquiry into AI partnership among the Big tech firms – 1/25

On Thursday, during the FTC’s tech summit on artificial intelligence, Lina Khan (the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission) confirmed the FTC would conduct a study on the AI’s biggest heavyweights like OpenAI, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Anthropic. Lina Khan described the study as a “market inquiry into the investments and partnerships being formed between AI developers and major cloud service providers.“

The regulator invoked the so-called 6(b) study (named after Section 6(b) of the FTC Act) that enables it to look into AI separately from its law enforcement arm. Likewise, the FTC can make civil investigative demands.

Khan stated: “At the FTC, the rapid development and deployment of AI is informing our work across the agency… There’s no AI exemption from the laws on the books, and we’re looking closely at the ways companies may be using their power to thwart competition or trick the public.“

Rima Alaily (the VP of Microsoft’s competition and regulation group) said about the news: „Partnerships between independent companies like Microsoft and OpenAI, as well as among many others, are promoting competition and accelerating innovation.“

Meanwhile, Google’s spokesperson stated: „We hope the FTC’s study will shine a bright light on companies that don’t offer the openness of Google Cloud or have a long history of locking-in customers – and who are bringing that same approach to AI services.“

Amazon and OpenAI declined to comment.

Senator Wyden reveals the NSA is buying Americans’ internet records – 1/26

According to the government documents unsealed and revealed on Friday, the National Security Agency is buying Americans’ internet records.

The documents contain letters from United States Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie. In them, Moultrie claims the NSA buys commercial data to conduct cybersecurity and intelligence missions. Because the data is commercially available and, as such, can be purchased by foreign intelligence, it should be okay to use.

Sen. Ron Wyden from Oregon wrote a letter to the Director of the NSA that claims the NSA goes through backchannels to purchase browsing records and location data from “data brokers.” Both require a search warrant to obtain. App developers sell the data to, as Wyden calls them, “shady companies” that, in turn, sell the data to the Department of Defense.

Sen. Wyden states in his letter: “The U.S. government should not be funding and legitimizing a shady industry whose flagrant violations of Americans’ privacy are not just unethical, but illegal.“ Further, he asks the NSA to obtain the data via legal means as outlined by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC declined to comment.

Musk says Chinese EV companies “will pretty much demolish” competitors – 1/25

During an earnings call on Wednesday, Elon Musk stated Chinese EV manufacturers will expand and find success outside of China.

Musk said: “The Chinese car companies are the most competitive car companies in the world. So, I think they will have significant success outside of China depending on what kind of tariffs or trade barriers are established… Frankly, I think, if there are not trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other companies in the world.” His conclusion comes after BYD (a Chinese EV manufacturer) took over Tesla as the best-selling EV manufacturer globally in the last quarter of 2023.

Meanwhile, Tesla’s annual earnings came under Wall Street expectations. The company warned its sales growth “may be notably lower.” According to the company, it has been cutting the prices of its vehicles around the globe due to tougher competition from other manufacturers. Furthermore, the higher cost of research and development of the new Cybertruck has eaten into profit margins.

Following the news, Tesla shares experienced a 12% drop on Thursday, which wiped out around $80 billion of the company’s stock market value.