FTI Consulting News Bytes – 10 November 2023

FTI Consulting News Bytes

Worries around online disinformation are rife in countries that are due to have a national election in the next year, a new survey reveals. With the US being one of them, Meta is cracking down on disclosures around digital alterations of political adverts. In the first King’s Speech in 72 years, proposals were made for new powers for the CMA, the delivery of autonomous vehicles and better Government access to digital information. As Ofcom shares its first guidance around the Online Safety Act, chat website Omegle is closing down due to child harassment claims. Lastly, we look at how Google and prominent telcos are seeking to make Apple’s iMessage fully compatible with its rivals. 

There is still time to sign up for our panel and breakfast event – The path to safe AI: Where do we go from here? – where speakers from Graphcore, UST, The Cantellus Group and Evident AI will discuss the outcomes from the UK AI Safety Summit and next steps. Join us in person on Tuesday 14 November, 8am – 9.30am, at our London office!

This week’s news

Online disinformation worries rife ahead of national elections 

A Unesco commissioned survey of 8,000 respondents in 16 countries, all due to have an election in the next year, found that 87% believed fake news had already harmed their nation’s politics. The Guardian reported that 56% of respondents used social media as their main source of news and that 88% thought their governments needed to do more to tackle the issues of hate speech and disinformation online. Audrey Azoulay, Director General of Unesco, said that false information and hate speech posed “major risks to social cohesion, peace and stability.”

Political adverts on Meta must disclose digital alterations

In the run-up to the American Presidential election, Meta has announced that advertisers will have to disclose when they digitally create or alter political adverts. This follows President Biden’s executive order on AI, issued last week, which directed the commerce department to craft guidance on labelling AI-generated content in a bid to tackle “fraud and deception.” Forbes noted that social media platforms have been investing large sums into generative AI in a bid to capitalise on the hype around OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

King’s Speech includes new powers for CMA

King Charles III’s speech on Tuesday, marking the start of the Parliamentary year, contained several important bills for the tech sector, reports CityAM. First, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer bill proposes to give the Competition Markets Authority (CMA) new powers to designate powerful tech firms as having “strategic market status”, meaning they’d have to abide by stricter rules around their conduct and mergers. Second, the Automated Vehicles Bill pledges to create a legal framework to test and deliver autonomous vehicles. Lastly, an Investigatory Powers (Reform) Bill aims to increase the power of the Government to access digital information focused on tackling terrorism, hostile states and serious organised crime such as child sexual abuse. 

Omegle shuts down following slew of abuse claims

The chat website, which randomly placed users in online chats with strangers, announced it was shutting down yesterday following 14 years of service. According to the BBC, the website had been mentioned in more than 50 cases of harassment of minors. Omegle’s founder, Leif Brooks, said that operating the website was “no longer sustainable, financially nor psychologically.” Two people within the company claim there was no human moderation on the sight, despite Mr Brooks claiming otherwise. This comes as Ofcom shared its first guidance for tech companies on how to tackle illegal content.

Google turns to regulators to make Apple open up iMessage

In an open letter to the European Commission, Google and other European telcos asked that the Commission designate iMessage a “core platform service” making it interoperable with other messaging services. Google’s senior vice-president Hiroshi Lockheimer tweeted: “Using peer pressure and bullying as a way to sell products is disingenuous for a company that has humanity and equity as a core part of its marketing. The standards exist today to fix this.” Financial Times reported that Apple having the “blue bubble” texts is a key factor in retaining iPhone owners’ loyalty, especially among younger customers. Experts estimate iMessage has as many as one billion users globally.

Top Tweets of the Week

• Amy Lewin, Editor, Sifted: 10x more money goes to VC funds owned by all-male vs all-female teams. And just 23 (!) women have a significant stake (ie. own 25%+) of a VC fund in the UK.
• Alexandr Wang, CEO, ScaleAI: More has happened in the last year of AI than the prior 10. We are unmistakeably in the fiery takeoff of the most important technology of the rest of our lives. Everybody – governments, citizens, technologists – is awaiting w/bated breath (some helplessly) the next version of humanity.
• Charlie Conchie, Chief City Reporter, CityAM: Klarna’s global chief @klarnaseb tells  @CityAM his “three tick boxes” for an IPO have now been met after the firm posted profits over the summer. But, for the time being, he’s still staying shtum on where.

Number of the Week

59bn – The amount in USD new forecasts predict the generative AI market will reach by 2028.