• China’s State Administration for Market, its primary antitrust regulator, has slowed down merger reviews on proposed acquisitions by U.S. companies and asked that products be made available in China in order to receive approval, according to people close to the process. The tactic, viewed in part as a response to Washington’s increased scrutiny on Chinese tech firms, has affected mergers from Intel Corp. and MaxLinear Inc. (The Wall Street Journal)
• Ofcom, the United Kingdom’s regulatory and competition authority for the communications sector, said it found evidence of anticompetitive practices from cloud computing companies and warned that large industry players like Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. may be using their market position to thwart competition. The agency said it will decide whether to refer its findings to the Competition and Markets Authority for a full investigation by Oct. 5. (Bloomberg)
• Germany’s antitrust regulator Bundeskartellamt designated Apple Inc. as a “company of paramount significance for competition across markets,” which opens the door for potential regulatory actions against any practices that are thought to pose a threat to competition. The German authority has also applied the label to Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc., but Apple said it plans to appeal the decision. (Reuters)
• Brian Hood, the mayor of Hepburn Shire, Australia, threatened to sue OpenAI over false claims made by the company’s artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT. Hood said ChatGPT falsely said that he served time in prison for a foreign bribery scandal in the early 2000s, and is now giving OpenAI 28 days to fix the error before moving forward with the lawsuit, which would be the first defamation suit against the generative AI tool. (Reuters)

Happening today: 

• Startup accelerator Y Combinator will host the first day of its Demo Day event, where startups have the opportunity to show off what they have been working on and make an elevator pitch to potential investors. Y Combinator alumni include companies like Airbnb Inc., Dropbox Inc. and DoorDash Inc.

Half a Million Job Cuts Could Be Just the Start

Bloomberg

Bob Lee, Former Square CTO and MobileCoin Executive, Has Died

Anne VanderMay, Bloomberg

Bob Lee, the chief product officer of crypto startup MobileCoin Inc., has died, the company said.

After disrupting businesses, Google Drive’s secret file cap is dead for now

Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica

Google is backtracking on its decision to put a file creation cap on Google Drive. Around two months ago, the company decided to cap all Google Drive users to 5 million files, even if they were paying for extra storage.

Google says its AI supercomputer is faster, greener than Nvidia A100 chip

Stephen Nellis, Reuters

Alphabet Inc’s Google released on Tuesday new details about the supercomputers it uses to train its artificial intelligence models, saying the systems are both faster and more power-efficient than comparable systems from Nvidia Corp.

Italy probes Meta over abuse of position in music rights case

Alessia Pé, Reuters

Italy’s antitrust authority said on Wednesday it would investigate Meta Platform over the possible abuse of its position in talks over the rights to music posted on Meta’s platforms and potentially hurting competition in the sector.

Apple’s Complex, Secretive Gamble to Move Beyond China

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

The company is laying the foundation to make phones elsewhere, from the screws on up.

Activision Proposes Settlement in DOJ Lawsuit Over Esports Pay

Denny Jacob, The Wall Street Journal

The U.S. Justice Department is reviewing a proposed settlement to its antitrust lawsuit against Activision Blizzard Inc. after accusing the company of imposing rules that limited competition and suppressed wages for players in two of its videogame franchises’ professional esports leagues.

China urges stronger WTO monitoring of US-led chip export curbs

Reuters

China has urged the World Trade Organization to scrutinise US-led technology export restrictions aimed at curbing its ability to make advanced chips, state television said on Wednesday.

EU likely to clinch deal on Chips Act on April 18

Foo Yun Chee, Reuters

EU countries and lawmakers are likely to clinch a deal on a multi-billion euro plan to boost the bloc’s semiconductor industry on April 18, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.

Amazon Hands Out ‘Small Business’ Label to Huge Sellers

Theo Wayt, The Information

What do a bottle of shampoo made by Johnson & Johnson, a lamp from a Chinese seller and an Arc’Teryx jacket all have in common? Amazon has labeled them all as coming from American small businesses.

China Strikes Back at U.S. Chip Maker Even as It Signals Openness

Chang Che and John Liu, The New York Times

Beijing’s security review of Micron Technology, which has deep roots in China, could have wide-ranging ramifications for other foreign businesses.

Arizona Fight Over Half-Cent Sales Tax Threatens Semiconductor Expansion

Eliza Collins, The Wall Street Journal

A fight in Arizona over a half-cent sales tax that funded much of the highway system is creating a rift between some Republicans and the business community and threatening to impede the operation of a major semiconductor project.

Who Owns SpongeBob? AI Shakes Hollywood’s Creative Foundation

Jessica Toonkel and Sarah Krouse, The Wall Street Journal

Artificial-intelligence tools raise questions about intellectual-property rights that are under scrutiny by courts and entertainment executives.

Federal privacy watchdog probing OpenAI, ChatGPT after complaint about popular bot

David Fraser, CTV News

The federal privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into the company behind ChatGPT, an explosively popular artificial intelligence-powered chatbot.

ChatGPT Opens Door to Four-Day Week, Says Nobel Prize Winner

Tom Rees, Bloomberg

The ChatGPT revolution opens the door to a four-day week by providing a major productivity boost for swathes of jobs, according to a Nobel Prize-wining labor economist.

OpenAI and Italy’s Data Protection Authority to hold meeting on Wednesday

Elisa Anzolin, Reuters

Italy’s Data Protection Authority said on Tuesday that it would hold a meeting with representatives of OpenAI on Wednesday evening, after the authority temporarily banned the ChatGPT chatbot.

Google’s Bard Writes Convincingly About Known Conspiracy Theories

Davey Alba, Bloomberg

Google’s Bard, the much-hyped artificial intelligence chatbot from the world’s largest internet search engine, readily churns out content that supports well-known conspiracy theories, despite the company’s efforts on user safety, according to news-rating group NewsGuard.

Expedia Wants ChatGPT to Be Your Travel Adviser

Jacob Passy, The Wall Street Journal

The travel industry has served as an early test case for how customers interact with and benefit from artificial intelligence.

AT&T, Verizon reach agreement for full-power C-band deployments

Monica Alleven, Fierce Telecom

AT&T, T-Mobile, UScellular and Verizon sent a letter to the FCC saying that they agreed to voluntary commitments related to air traffic safety and the deployment of C-band spectrum.

Apple’s iOS 17 may drop support for iPhone X, original iPad Pro

William Gallagher, AppleInsider

A new rumor claims that the forthcoming iOS 17 will specifically drop support for 2017’s A11 Bionic processor, and all the devices using 2015’s A9 or A9X — but there’s a curious gap of devices that will keep support.

Apple Weather App Data Not Loading for Many Users

Tim Hardwick, MacRumors

Apple is currently experiencing issues with its weather data provider, leaving many users unable to see live weather information and forecasts for regions in the Weather app.

Genesis Market, one of world’s largest platforms for cyber fraud, seized by police

Alexander Martin, The Record

Genesis Market was seized on Tuesday in an FBI-led operation involving more than a dozen international partners, scuttling one of the most significant online criminal platforms.

Tesla to warn of data privacy risk from car security cameras in Germany

Victoria Waldersee, Reuters

Tesla will warn that its ‘sentry mode’, which records a car’s surroundings, risks infringing data privacy laws in Germany after consumer group vzbv sued the manufacturer for failing to mention this in advertising.

IRS-authorized eFile.com tax return software caught serving JS malware

Ax Sharma, Bleeping Computer

eFile.com, an IRS-authorized e-file software service provider used by many for filing their tax returns, has been caught serving JavaScript malware.

Hackers Can Remotely Open Smart Garage Doors Across the World

Joseph Cox, Motherboard

A security researcher found a series of vulnerabilities with the Nexx brand of smart garage openers. He says he could remotely find garages to target, and then open them across the internet.

Germany accuses Twitter of failing to remove illegal hate speech

Natasha Lomas, TechCrunch

In an early FAFO test for Elon Musk, Germany could be set to fine Twitter for repeatedly failing to comply with a social media hate speech takedowns law, aka the NetzDG, which requires swift removal of illegal content like hate speech.

NPR Labeled ‘State-Affiliated Media’ on Twitter as Musk Steps Up Press Feud

Dan Ladden-Hall, The Daily Beast

A label was added to NPR’s Twitter account Tuesday calling the company “U.S. state-affiliated media.” Twitter CEO Elon Musk later quoted a passage from Twitter’s Help Center reading: “State-affiliated media is defined as outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution.”

Musk’s Month Pushing Twitter Blue Failed To Win Many Subscribers

Aisha Counts, Bloomberg

Twitter Inc. is struggling to sell users on its new subscription product, Twitter Blue, according to a new report. Only 116,000 people signed up for the service of 2.6 million people who visited the Twitter Blue sales page on the web in March, according to estimates by SimiliarWeb, which analyzes internet traffic.

For Lower-Income Students, Big Tech Internships Can Be Hard to Get

Natasha Singer, The New York Times

Critics say the intern selection process often favors wealthier students, just like the admission process at some elite colleges.