'Creepy' Listening Tool for Targeted Ads Didn't Actually Work, FTC Says Three firms will pay nearly $1 million for selling "Active Listening" technology that they claimed tapped people's phones for advertising. The FTC alleges the "tech" was just pricey email lists. The Federal Trade Commission announced on Thursday that Cox Media Group and two other marketing companies, MindSift LLC and 1010 Digital Works, have agreed to collectively pay nearly $1 million to settle allegations that they deceived their customers--other businesses--by claiming that they could help target ads based on audio recordings collected from consumers' smart devices via a marketing service called Active Listening. In a statement to WIRED, a spokesperson for CMG says, "We are pleased to have this matter resolved. Our local marketing team relied on marketing materials provided to us by a third-party vendor about their product. We withdrew the materials expeditiously and stopped further use of the product."

A top Google scientist warned EU antitrust regulators that its proposal requiring the company to share search engine data with rivals risked exposing users' private information. BRUSSELS - A top Google scientist sent a warning to EU antitrust regulators on Tuesday that its proposal requiring the company to share search engine data with rivals such as OpenAI risked exposing users' private information, the sternest rebuke yet in a tussle over Google's lucrative business model. The European Commission, which acts as the EU competition enforcer, has in recent years cracked down on Big Tech via a slew of legislation to ensure that users have more choices and that smaller rivals have room to compete. However, that has triggered the ire of the U.S. government. Sergei Vassilvitskii, with the title of distinguished scientist at Google since 2012 and regarded a leader in his field, will meet EU antitrust officials on Wednesday to voice his concerns and propose a broader approach with better guardrails.

Their novel solutions outperformed GPT -4, showcasing FinBen's potential to drive innovations in financial LLMs.

Valve's Steam Machine: Everything we know MetaAI is essentially the only AI assistant now available on WhatsApp. The EU could take interim measures against WhatsApp as it investigates AI providers' access to the app. On Monday, the EU's regulatory arm announced its preliminary view that Meta, WhatsApp's parent company, violated antitrust laws by blocking third-party AI assistants from operating on WhatsApp. The European Commission's is concerned that Meta's actions will limit competitors from entering the AI assistant market. We must protect effective competition in this vibrant field, which means we cannot allow dominant tech companies to illegally leverage their dominance to give themselves an unfair advantage, Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition said in a statement. Ribera continued: AI markets are developing at rapid pace, so we also need to be swift in our action.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Biden FTC Chair Lina Khan are facing backlash after regulatory opposition helped derail Amazon’s bid for iRobot, resulting in the Roomba maker falling into Chinese ownership.

Instacart settles Federal Trade Commission's claim it deceived US shoppers Instacart has agreed to pay $60m in refunds to settle allegations brought by the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that the online grocery delivery platform deceived consumers about its membership programme and free delivery offers. According to court documents filed in San Francisco on Thursday, Instacart's offer of "free delivery" for first orders was illusory because shoppers were charged other fees, the FTC alleged. "The FTC is focused on monitoring online delivery services to ensure that competitors are transparently competing on price and delivery terms," said Christopher Mufarrige, who leads the FTC's consumer protection work. An Instacart spokesperson said the company flatly denies any allegations of wrongdoing, but that the settlement allows the company to focus on shoppers and retailers. "We provide straightforward marketing, transparent pricing and fees, clear terms, easy cancellation, and generous refund policies -- all in full compliance with the law and exceeding industry norms," the spokesperson said.