Good morning and welcome to Thursday, hope things are well. Let’s dive straight in.
1. Former MP fined over Facebook posts
Starting over at The Guardian for our first item today and it’s about former Liberal MP Andrew Laming. He’s has been fined $20,000 for Facebook posts that, per the report, did not declare his political links, after the federal court found he had breached the authorisation requirement of electoral law. It’s understood Justice Darryl Rangiah found that Laming had failed to put his name and city or town of residence to three Facebook posts containing electoral matters on a page titled “Redland Hospital: Let’s fight for fair funding”.
2. Home Affairs can’t remember what it told ChatGPT
Staying with The Guardian and it’s reporting that staff at the Department of Home Affairs cannot recall what prompts they had entered into ChatGPT during experiments with the AI chatbot, and documents suggest no real-time records were kept. It follows admission in May during Senate Estimates that the department was using the AI tool for “experimentation and learning purposes”, noting such activity was “coordinated and monitored”. So coordinated and monitored that they can’t remember what they entered, eh?
3. Journalists rise against AI
Staying on ChatGPT now and the Associated Press is reporting that several news organisations, writers, and photographers groups are pushing to be involved in creating standards for the use of AI, particularly as it concerns intellectual property rights and the potential spread of misinformation. In an open letter, signed by Agence France-Presse, Getty Images, The Associated Press, and others, the group outlined priorities for setting rules on the technology, which, as we know, is developing faster than regulators can keep up with.
4. Supreme Court denies Epic Games’ appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Epic Games’ appeal against Apple, which would have required the iPhone maker change its App Store’s payment options. Fortnite maker Epic Games filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple in 2020 accusing the company of holding a monopoly over apps by requiring consumers to purchase through its app store. A judge dismissed the antitrust claims in 2021 but ruled that Apple could not prevent developers from “steering” customers to links to make purchases because of California anti-competitive laws. Apple takes a 30 per cent cut of any App Store or in-app purchases. Epic is fighting to be able to establish its own app store and circumvent the so-called “App Store tax”. Read more here.
5. Order to ban certain tech investments in China
Ending with a new directive from U.S. President Joe Biden and he’s signed an executive order that will narrowly prohibit certain U.S. investments in sensitive technology in China and require government notification of funding in other tech sectors. The order, per Reuters, authorises the U.S. Treasury secretary to prohibit or restrict certain U.S. investments in Chinese entities in: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies, and certain artificial intelligence systems.
BONUS ITEM: : )
See you tomorrow!