☕ A matter of trust

The DOJ and FTC eyeball AI.

June 12, 2024 PRESENTED BY It's Wednesday. How come the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice are all about AI? Tech Brew's Patrick Kulp explains. In today's edition: Why antitrust authorities are reportedly gearing up for a fight over AI Waymo, Zoox expand autonomous ride-hailing operations despite recent AV setbacks Apple unveils its AI vision at long last —Patrick Kulp, Jordyn Grzelewski, Annie Saunders AI Acquisition inquiry Anna Kim Companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Nvidia have positioned themselves as winners in the race to own the latest wave of AI. But could they perhaps be too dominant? That's what federal regulators charged with ensuring fair competition between companies will be examining in the coming months, according to recent reports in the New York Times and other outlets. The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice have reportedly come to a deal to divvy up oversight as they open a probe into the burgeoning space. What's behind the move: The antitrust investigation is just one front in how the Biden administration aims to shape control of this new technology and curb its potential worst tendencies. Biden has also staffed these agencies with leaders who have sought to reinvigorate how the government enforces antitrust laws after decades of a more hands-off approach. The FTC previously announced an inquiry into partnerships between tech giants and buzzy startups, like Microsoft and OpenAI, in January, in a likely effort to examine whether these arrangements are efforts to skirt the legal reviews required for a more traditional acquisition. FTC Chair Lina Khan, a noted critic of Big Tech before joining the administration, has said these efforts are meant to tackle problems as the tech develops and before dominance is cemented. Keep reading here.—PK PRESENTED BY ADOBE EXPRESS Creative capabilities, simplified Designing effective content for your brand doesn't have to be complicated. Actually, quite the contrary. Adobe Express is now enabling organizations with access to creative teams' assets, including generative AI features and services that are designed to be safe for business. Adobe recently hosted its first Design Made Easy event, discussing safe content creation and supercharging design production. It brought together the industry's best and brightest, including leaders from Unilever, IBM, + more. And Adobe unveiled the latest innovations in Adobe Express that are empowering everyone across teams to create any kind of content while protecting their brands. Its advanced AI is designed to be safe for businesses, so anyone across your org can produce impactful, on-brand content. Tune in to the event on demand to catch up on everything you need to know, including how to: Speed up content creation. Stay on brand. Work commercially safe AI. Watch here. FUTURE OF TRAVEL Onward Picture Alliance/Getty Images The last several months have brought negative headlines galore about robotaxis. Scrutiny of autonomous ride-hailing operations kicked into high gear after a Cruise vehicle seriously injured a pedestrian in San Francisco in October. Cruise, the self-driving vehicle startup that's majority-owned by GM, lost its operating permits in California and halted operations nationwide for months. Now, as the New York Times detailed, Cruise is gradually getting back on the road. It's testing services in Phoenix with safety operators on board, and an exec told the Times that the company wants to offer driverless ride-hailing in one city by year's end. Meanwhile, Cruise's competitors—which have faced setbacks and scrutiny of their own in recent months—continue to take incremental steps forward, including with expansions announced by Alphabet-backed Waymo and Amazon-owned Zoox last week. Keep reading here.—JG AI Envisioned Nic Coury/Getty Images Hey Siri, how is Apple using generative AI? As of this week, the company finally has an answer. After seeming to sit out much of the generative AI arms race over the past year or so, Apple announced a new flagship system called "Apple Intelligence" and a flood of new features that it powers. Those span everything from new emoji generated on the spot to writing assistance and agent-like task performance. Apple also announced a partnership with OpenAI that will tap ChatGPT to answer certain questions posed to Siri and image generation, among other integrations. Apple sought to play up some of its existing strengths in how it rolled out its big AI play—namely, that its walled-garden ecosystem is already embedded in people's lives and that it generally doesn't deal in data collection for advertisers. Personalization and privacy were thus major watchwords. "It has to be powerful enough to help with the things that matter most to you," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in the keynote. "It has to be deeply integrated into your product experiences. Most importantly, it has to understand you and be grounded in your personal context, like your routine, your relationships, your communications, and more. And of course, it has to be built with privacy from the ground up." Apple seemed to be trying to make up for lost time with the pace at which its executives dropped new AI features during the event. Keep reading here.—PK TOGETHER WITH AT&T IN-CAR WI-FI Next-level features for your ride. Picture this: With AT&T In-car Wi-Fi, you won't miss a second of that summer playlist you've so carefully curated. You'll also keep your passengers entertained while taking advantage of fancy voice activation features so you can keep your hands on the wheel. Tap in for car tech. MORNING EVENT Steep in the future Morning Brew Join us for an enlightening session with Alfonso Wright and Jamila Wright, the co-founders of Brooklyn Tea, as they dive into the revolutionary world of generative AI in business operations. We will explore the myriad ways in which generative AI is not just a buzzword but a practical toolkit for enhancing efficiency, productivity, and creativity across the board. From large-scale enterprises to nimble small businesses, discover how leaders like the Wrights leverage AI to democratize creativity, boost customer service, and overcome traditional barriers in analytics and marketing. See you in New York! Register now. BITS AND BYTES Stat: 30%–60%. That's the percentage of sunlight that is reflected by ice crystals and water droplets within clouds, according to the Washington Post. "Geoengineering researchers believe they can make clouds brighter—and increase their cooling effect—by increasing the number of droplets they contain. Since 1990, researchers have theorized they could do this by spraying clouds with sea-salt particles, which give the moisture in the air something to glom onto so they can form water droplets, or ice crystals," the Post wrote. Quote: "The technology is developed in such a way that any child who has any photo or video of themselves online is now at risk because any malicious actor could take that photo, and then use these tools to manipulate them however they want."—Hye Jung Han, children's rights and technology researcher at Human Rights Watch, to Wired in a story about how AI tools are training on images of real children Read: This is what it looks like when AI eats the world (The Atlantic) Cryptowards your goals: The simplest way to get into crypto? A platform to empower almost everyone, everywhere to build toward their financial goals? That's Kraken.* *A message from our sponsor. JOBS Stop waiting for your dream job to find you. CollabWORK puts you in front of the right opportunities in the online spaces you frequent. Get discovered by top companies and take control of your career path. Chief Technology Officer at an AI-based startup (in person) Senior Product Manager (Generative AI) at a global leader in short-form mobile video (in person) Associate Product Manager at DraftKings (in person) SHARE THE BREW Share Tech Brew with your coworkers, acquire free Brew swag, and then make new friends as a result of your fresh Brew swag. We're saying we'll give you free stuff and more friends if you share a link. One link. Your referral count: 0 Click to Share Or copy & paste your referral link to others: emergingtechbrew.com/r/?kid=b3968dba ✳︎ A Note From AT&T In-car Wi-Fi Requires eligible car and wireless service plan. Additional restrictions apply. Written by Patrick Kulp, Jordyn Grzelewski, and Annie Saunders Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.   Guide → What is AI?   Guide → What is 5G? 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