FTI Consulting News Bytes – 14 February 2025

FTI Consulting News Bytes

Today is Valentine’s Day, but it wasn’t exactly a love-in at this week’s AI Action Summit, hosted in Paris. Global leaders convened with the aim of working together to build a trusted AI ecosystem. The problem? There’s little consensus on how best to achieve this. Meanwhile, two organisations warned of risks related to AI: Airbnb highlighted that AI is making holiday scams more convincing while the BBC published research that found major AI chatbots are inaccurately summarising news, raising concerns about disinformation. Moving on from AI to another high growth industry, the NATO Innovation Fund this week reported that funding in European defence and security tech jumped 24% to a record $5.2 billion in 2024. Finally, we turn to reports that an Italian spyware maker has been accused of distributing malicious Android apps to collect private data.

This week’s news

AI Action Summit: global leaders divided on future of AI

A busy week in tech as policymakers and business leaders across the globe gathered in Paris for the AI Action Summit. US Vice President JD Vance criticised Europe’s “excessive regulation” warning it could “kill” AI, while vowing that the US would remain a dominant force in the technology. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told the Financial Times that western countries should focus on building open-source AI models or risk falling behind China. In a surprising move, the UK joined the US in refusing to sign a political declaration on “inclusive and sustainable” AI, which was backed by 60 other signatories including France, China, India and Japan, according to The Guardian. So in the end, as Sky News put it, the Summit brought together the world’s most powerful people, only to find “they want different things”.

Airbnb warns of AI holiday scams

With January in the rear view mirror, many of us are looking ahead to the Easter holidays. However, Airbnb this week warned holidaymakers to stay alert to scams as AI and social media are exploited by fraudsters, reports The Independent. An Airbnb study with Get Safe Online found that nearly two-thirds of people struggle to identify AI-generated images of holiday properties. Young people are the most vulnerable to scams with over 40% using social media to book trips and many trusting influencer promotions. With the average victim losing almost £2000 to scams – a number that is steadily rising – Airbnb and Get Safe Online advised people to book through trusted platforms like Airbnb, avoid suspicious links or unusually cheap deals, and use secure payment methods.

Funding for European defence tech surges

Funding for European defence and security tech surged to $5.2 billion in 2024, according to figures published by the NATO Innovation Fund. Companies like dronemaker Tekever, which raised €70 million in November, are leading the charge, helping push the defence sector’s funding up by 24% compared to 2023, reports The Wall Street Journal. The news comes ahead of the Munich Security Conference, where government leaders are expected to discuss the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. With geopolitical tensions rising across the globe, the defence tech sector is set to remain a key area for investment in the coming years.

BBC spots AI slip-ups

According to research conducted by the BBC, four leading AI chatbots are unable to accurately summarise news stories, prompting concerns of misinformation.  The BBC gave OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini and Perplexity AI content from its website and asked questions about the news, reporting that the resulting answers contained “significant inaccuracies” and distortions. The CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, Deborah Turness, subsequently argued in blog post that whilst AI brought “endless opportunities”, the companies developing the tools were “playing with fire”. She added: “We live in troubled times, and how long will it be before an AI-distorted headline causes significant real world harm?”.

Spyware makers make WhatsApp their next target

TechCrunch reports that Italian spyware maker SIO has been blamed for a series of malicious Android apps that disguise themselves as WhatsApp and other popular apps, but actually collect private data from a user’s device. In late 2024, a security researcher shared three Android apps with the publication, suggesting they were likely government spyware used in Italy. TechCrunch subsequently asked Google and mobile security firm Lookout to analyse the apps, with both companies confirming that the apps were indeed spyware. In response, a Google spokesperson Ed Fernandez said that, “based on our current detection, no apps containing this malware are found on Google Play,” adding that Android has enabled protection for this malware since 2022.

Top Tweets of the Week

• Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet: Delighted to meet with PM @narendramodi today while in Paris for the AI Action Summit. We discussed the incredible opportunities AI will bring to India and ways we can work closely together on India’s digital transformation. 
• Mark Gurman, Chief Correspondent at Bloomberg: The UK government has ordered Apple Inc. to build a backdoor to give it access to global user data, in a move that could spark one of the biggest privacy fights in the iPhone maker’s history. 
• Zoe Kleinman, Tech Editor, BBC News: Watching China’s Fu Ying throw shade at Yoshua Bengio yesterday was an interesting glimpse at the global tensions which continue to surround AI safety, despite everyone’s attempts to be collaborative.

Number of the week

$9.74bn The amount Sam Altman claimed he would bid for X in response to Elon Musk tabling a $97 billion bid for OpenAI, according to Business Insider.