Natasha Lomas
Senior Reporter
The Latest from Natasha Lomas
Meta warned it faces ‘heavy sanctions’ in EU if it fails to fix child protection issues on Instagram
The European Union has fired a blunt warning at Meta, saying it must quickly clean up its act on child protection or face the risk of “heavy sanctions”. The warning follows a report by the
UK’s AI safety summit gets thumbs up from tech giants
Make way for another forum on AI safety. The U.K. government has announced it will convene a “global” AI summit this fall with the aim of agreeing “safety measures to evaluate and mo
Meta to let users refuse its cross-site tracking following German antitrust intervention
Meta has been dragged kicking and screaming into another notable privacy concession in Europe: The German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) has announced a new account center incoming which will see the tec
Europe wants platforms to label AI-generated content to fight disinformation
The European Union is leaning on signatories to its Code of Practice on Online Disinformation to label deepfakes and other AI-generated content. In remarks yesterday following a meeting with the 40+ s
Germany’s antitrust watchdog questions the future of behavioral advertising
Germany’s antitrust watchdog made some interesting comments vis-à-vis the programmatic advertising market yesterday — which question the appropriateness and sustainability of the (still d
EU and US lawmakers move to draft AI Code of Conduct fast
The European Union has used a transatlantic trade and technology talking shop to commit to moving fast and producing a draft Code of Conduct for artificial intelligence, working with US counterparts a
OpenAI’s Altman and other AI giants back warning of advanced AI as ‘extinction’ risk
Make way for yet another headline-grabbing AI policy intervention: Hundreds of AI scientists, academics, tech CEOs and public figures — from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis
Elon Musk takes Twitter out of the EU’s Disinformation Code of Practice
Twitter has withdrawn from the European Union’s Code of Practice on online disinformation, per the bloc’s internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton. In a tweet last night — which
Sam Altman’s big European tour
Fresh from telling US lawmakers he’s a fan of regulation and laws are needed to mitigate the risks around artificial intelligence — and, indeed, calling for an international regulatory bod
Google to work with Europe on stop-gap ‘AI Pact’
Google’s Sundar Pichai has agreed to work with lawmakers in Europe on what’s being referred to as an “AI Pact” — seemingly a stop-gap set of voluntary rules or standards
Meet the tiny, wireless sleep apnea diagnostic wearable headed for the US
U.K. medtech startup Acurable has gained FDA clearance for a novel wireless diagnostic device for remote detection of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). A formal launch into the U.S. market is slated to f
TikTok’s lead privacy regulator in Europe takes heat from MEPs
MEPs in the European Parliament had the opportunity of a rare in-person appearance by Ireland’s data protection commissioner, Helen Dixon, to criticize the bloc’s lead privacy regulator fo
Wellen taps OpenAI’s GPT for a chatbot that dishes advice on bone health
What are AI chatbots good for? Lovers of sci-fi novels may recall the “librarian,” a character in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 classic “Snow Crash” — not a person but an AI p
Meta ordered to suspend Facebook EU data flows as it’s hit with record €1.2BN privacy fine under GDPR
It’s finally happened: Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has been hit with a formal suspension order requiring it to stop exporting European Union user data to the U.S. for processin
UK court tosses class-action style health data misuse claim against Google DeepMind
Google has prevailed against another U.K. class-action style privacy lawsuit after a London court dismissed a lawsuit filed last year against the tech giant and its AI division, DeepMind, which had so
Climate risk startup Mitiga gets $14.4M to help businesses face an uncertain future
One pretty obvious aspect of the climate emergency which may have flown under your radar is that human-driven global heating is disrupting traditional approaches to risk modelling around natural disas
France’s privacy watchdog eyes protection against data scraping in AI action plan
France’s privacy watchdog, the CNIL, has published an action plan for artificial intelligence which gives a snapshot of where it will be focusing its attention, including on generative AI techno
Major decision on the legality of Facebook’s EU-US data transfers is due to be adopted today
Reminder: Today is the deadline for the Meta’s lead privacy regulator in Europe to adopt a final decision on a nearly decade-long complaint against Facebook’s transfers of personal data fr
Apple’s ATT faces competition probe in Italy
Apple is facing another antitrust investigation in Europe over privacy rules it applies to third-party apps running on its mobile platform which affect their ability to track iOS users in order to tar
EU lawmakers back transparency and safety rules for generative AI
In a series of votes in the European Parliament this morning MEPs have backed a raft of amendments to the bloc’s draft AI legislation — including agreeing a set of requirements for so call