EU opens antitrust investigation into Google's AI practices The European Commission is looking into Google's lack of compensation for publishers and YouTube creators. Google is no stranger to scrutiny from government bodies such as the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), and the European Commission . Now it can add another probe to its list: The European Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into the company surrounding the content used for its AI tools. Namely, the Commission is looking into two things, starting with whether Google used web publisher's content for its AI Overview and AI Mode services -- without appropriate compensation or the option to refuse the use of their materials. The Commission will investigate to what extent the generation of AI Overviews and AI Mode by Google is based on web publishers' content without appropriate compensation for that, and without the possibility for publishers to refuse without losing access to Google Search, the EU executive body stated in its announcement.

Taipei, Taiwan – China has launched an antitrust investigation into chip giant Nvidia in what appears to be Beijing's latest act of retaliation against Washington's sanctions on Chinese tech companies. Chinese state media said on Monday that the California-based chipmaker was being investigated by the State Administration for Market Regulation for potentially violating China's antimonopoly laws. Regulators will also review the company's 6.9bn acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, an Israeli-American supplier specialising in computer networking products, state media reports said, without providing further details. Chinese regulators approved the deal in 2020 with several restrictive conditions, including a provision that Nvidia would not discriminate against Chinese suppliers. Nvidia, which designs advanced chips used to power artificial intelligence (AI), is one of the world's most valuable companies, with a market capitalisation of more than 3.4 trillion.

Shares in the AI chip designer Nvidia have continued to slide overnight after a report said US authorities were ramping up an investigation into whether the company had breached competition laws. The company's shares fell 2.4% in after-hours trading, exacerbating a near-10% drop in the regular trading session that slashed its value by 279bn ( 212bn) to 2.6tn, marking the largest one-day drop in history for a US company. Overnight, the US Department of Justice sent subpoenas to Nvidia and other tech companies, in a move that will force recipients to provide information under law, Bloomberg reported. Officials are said to be concerned the company has made it harder for clients to switch to other semiconductor suppliers and is penalising buyers that refuse to exclusively use Nvidia's AI chips. Such a move would signal an escalation of the US antitrust investigation, and brings the government a step closer to launching a formal complaint against Nvidia. The sell-off on Tuesday came amid a wider sell-off on markets sparked by weak US manufacturing data that raised broader concerns about the outlook for the country's economy among investors.

National security and antitrust are rarely part of the same conversation. The realities of today's AI ecosystem should challenge that dynamic. American AI innovation is concentrated in the private sector--particularly within its largest, most dominant firms. As these firms face antitrust scrutiny, policymakers and lawmakers alike need to consider the AI ecosystem that they will have a hand in creating. They will need to contemplate its competitiveness, its innovativeness, its responsiveness to defense and national-security needs, and its accessibility to government.