Big tech companies prospered because of openness but now champion exclusionary policies as AI grows in importance, former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a Brookings commentary published Wednesday. AI is app-based and depends on openness in data, computing power and the models themselves, Wheeler wrote.
AI chatbot companies should expect increased scrutiny and could see subpoenas or civil investigative demands from federal or state regulators seeking information about their business practices, Kelley Drye lawyers wrote Monday. AI chatbots are now fixtures in social media, search engines and educational tools, but they're increasingly the subject of investigations as legislators and advocacy groups question their impact on mental health, they said.
Attorneys at Hagens Berman announced Monday that they filed a lawsuit last week against the OpenAI Foundation on behalf of the estate of Stein-Erik Soelberg “for wrongful death and negligence due to the design of its popular artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT,” which, they said, “encouraged and convinced a man to murder his mother and commit suicide.” The complaint alleges that “the chatbot’s design and response patterns intensified the user’s mental health crisis, failing to guide him toward professional assistance,” the law firm said. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern California.
The White House's executive order barring state regulation of AI (see 2512110068) isn't likely to stop states, Goodwin AI and data lawyers wrote last week. The order directs federal agencies to condition access to discretionary grants on a state's commitment not to enforce "onerous" AI laws, but it gives scant guidance on which state laws are onerous and conflict with the administration's policy principles, the lawyers argued.
The global AI market is expected to grow from $273.6 billion this year to an estimated $5.26 trillion by 2035, an annual growth rate of 30.84% over that period, ResearchAndMarkets.com said Wednesday. “As industries increasingly recognize the potential of AI, there is a significant surge in demand, spurred by industrial automation and IoT proliferation,” it said.
AT&T is starting to use “agentic” AI across its business, Chief Data Officer Andy Markus blogged Thursday. The use of AI autonomous assistants will be important “to the next wave of AI innovation,” which is beginning now, Markus wrote. AT&T is already testing how AI agents “can bring value directly to our customers. Now, we’re expanding how we build agentic AI tools for our employees, putting more power directly in the hands of our teams to build custom AI agents with an update to our internal Ask AT&T tool.”
Improving the U.S. internet infrastructure is vital to beating China for AI dominance, NCTA President Cory Gardner wrote Monday in an op-ed for Fox News. While the U.S. focuses on innovation and debates regulation, the Chinese Communist Party "is building internet infrastructure to leapfrog the U.S." He pointed to China increasingly challenging the U.S. with advances in Wi-Fi, which is the primary technology used to access AI.
As the demands that AI will place on wireless networks become a growing concern (see 2510070039), 75% of U.S. adults reported using an AI system in the past six months, “signaling a major shift in how consumers interact with technology,” according to a new survey by Dallas-based Joe Youngblood SEO & Digital Marketing Consulting. A third of those surveyed said they are heavy users of AI. “AI adoption now mirrors the classic technology diffusion curve,” the firm said. “What started as experimentation is now a habit. Americans are using AI to cook dinner, fix grammar, entertain themselves, and even get fitness advice. Businesses need to recognize that AI isn’t a novelty anymore -- it’s mainstream.”
Security company Palo Alto Networks announced Wednesday an agreement to buy Israeli identity security provider CyberArk for $25 billion in cash and stock. Palo Alto Chairman and CEO Nikesh Arora said on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street that the deal will strengthen his company's ability to prevent AI-based identity theft, noting that about 88% of ransomware attacks are driven by credential theft, and “identity is an unsolved problem.” Palo Alto viewed CyberArk as the “strongest player” in the space, he said.
Motorola Solutions announced Thursday it’s introducing “AI nutrition labels” to provide “clear, concise information” about how AI is used by safety and security technologies it offers customers. “The initiative is a first for public safety and enterprise security products, helping people understand a product’s core AI ‘ingredients,’ just as food nutrition labels were born from a desire to understand dietary intake,” the company said.