UK government announces objectives for November AI Summit

Our top story today is that the UK government has announced the objectives of its November AI Summit. The summit is scheduled for the 1st and 2nd of November with the announcement coming in late August that the event will take place at Bletchley Park. The five objectives of the summit announced today include developing a shared understanding of AI risks, charting a process for collaborative regulation, identifying risk-management steps for organisations, exploring collaborative AI research opportunities and establishing that safe development can help ensure positive AI deployment globally. The government press release cited potential growth of $7tn in the sector over the next decade. The growth of the sector and the nature of the risks were both highlighted as key motivators behind the summit which is intended to build on similar initiatives throughout the international community to agree on “practical next steps to address risks from frontier AI”.

Read more below for a round-up of the other major policy stories currently shaping the tech sector.

Canada published draft rules to accompany the Online News Act on Friday, outlining the ways in which big tech companies will pay news outlets for content published on their platforms. The draft rules were intended to address concerns by social media companies relating to the act which was passed by the Senate in June. These concerns led to both Google and Meta withdrawing their news services in Canada with a spokesperson for Google stating that the act exposes the company to “uncapped financial liability”. However, supporters of the legislation stated that it addressed an imbalance between big tech companies and news outlets providing a pathway for organisations to receive fair compensation. This would include mandatory bargaining overseen by the Canadian government if payment thresholds are not reached in voluntary negotiations. In response to the proposed regulations, Meta stated that it did not change the company’s position on not offering news services in Canada whilst Google stated that it was reviewing the draft rules.

A US Court has ruled in the FTC’s favour in an administrative hearing in a misleading advertising case against TurboTax. The case relates to adverts by TurboTax that described its products as “free” despite charges later being introduced for many customers. A case brought by all 50 US states resulted in a $141mn settlement against TurboTax’s developer Intuit after it was found that over 4mn customers paid to use TurboTax’s services when free electronic filing options are available through the IRS. After stating that customers were eligible for TurboTax Free Edition if their returns were simple, customers were later met with charges of $59.99 to continue using the software after being informed that their returns did not meet the criteria for the company's free services. The FTC’s case relates to the same issue and Intuit has challenged the fact that it has already reached a settlement with customers in relation to these complaints.

A Bitkom survey found that cybercrime will cost Germany $223bn in 2023. The survey, which received responses from over 1,000 companies found that around 75% of companies were hit with cyber attacks over the last year, a drop of roughly 10% from previous years. Over 70% of these cyber attacks led to the loss of sensitive information and over 50% of the companies surveyed described cyber crime as a threat to their business’s existence. Discussing the survey’s results Bitkom’s President Ralf Wintergerst stated "The German economy is a highly attractive target for criminals and hostile states. The boundaries between organised crime and state-controlled actors are blurred".

Reporting by Nick Scott. For a longer read:

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Cover photo by Mike McBey licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.