• The European Parliament has put forward a new draft of European Union legislation that would require artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT to disclose copyright material used to build and train the system as a way to give publishers and content creators the ability to seek payment when their work serves as source material for AI-generated content. The language around copyright, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, is expected to be inserted into an existing E.U. bill that will aim to create new regulations for AI, and a final version of the bill is expected to pass later this year. (The Wall Street Journal)
• Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) introduced a bill that would establish an AI task force that would review U.S. policy around the technology and identify ways to reduce threats to privacy, due process and civil liberties. The proposed AI Task Force, which would work for 18 months to issue a report before shutting down, would include officials from the Office of Management and Budget, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Office of Science and Technology Policy, as well as civil liberties officers from the Departments of Justice, State, Treasury and Defense, along with other executive branch agencies. (Reuters)
• Amazon.com Inc. beat expectations Thursday during its first-quarter earnings release, turning in $127.4 billion in revenue on the back of a stronger-than-expected quarter from its cloud computing segment Amazon Web Services, where sales rose by about 16%, and the company’s advertising business. Despite this, Amazon’s stock price slipped over concerns that Amazon’s cloud business growth will slow in the near term. (CNBC)
• Meta Platforms Inc. is expected to receive a fine from the Irish Data Protection Commission and a potential ban on the use of unsafe contractual clauses to carry out its data transfers between the United States and the European Union. The decision is expected to be announced next month, according to Meta’s latest quarterly earnings report, and the company will have an opportunity to appeal the decision before being required to comply. (Bloomberg)

Happening today: 

• The 2023 FCBA Annual Seminar will kick off today at the Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Va. Speakers will include FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr (R), Geoffrey Starks (D), and Nathan Simington (R); and April McClain-Delaney, deputy assistant secretary for communications and information at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. 

The New Apple Savings Account Aligns With What Consumers Want

Morning Consult

Memory-Chip Makers Say Recovery Is in Sight After Long Slump

Jiyoung Sohn, The Wall Street Journal

The world’s top memory-chip makers, struggling with the deepest industry downturn in more than a decade, say the worst may soon be over as customers come back and cuts in production and investment help counter a supply glut.

Intel reports largest quarterly loss in company history

Kif Leswing, CNBC

Intel reported first-quarter results on Wednesday that showed a staggering 133% annual reduction in earnings per share. Revenue dropped nearly 36% year over year to $11.7 billion.

Snap plunges on first-quarter revenue miss

Jonathan Vanian, CNBC

Snap shares dropped as much as 20% after hours on Thursday as the company reported first-quarter results that missed analysts’ expectations on revenue.

Huawei’s Profit Halved as It Researches Blacklist Workarounds

Edwin Chan and Yuan Gao, Bloomberg

Huawei Technologies Co.’s profit plunged 46% in the first quarter while revenue barely grew, as the Chinese telecom equipment maker spent heavily on research to try and get around US technology sanctions.

Sony posts record annual profit boosted by chips and all-time high PlayStation 5 sales

Arjun Kharpal, CNBC

Sony posted record annual operating revenue on Friday, helped by its chip division and sales of its flagship PlayStation 5 gaming console which hit a record for the financial year.

What’s Next for Microsoft, Activision After U.K. Rejects Deal

Sarah E. Needleman, The Wall Street Journal

Microsoft Corp. faces a sudden challenge to its videogaming ambitions after the U.K. rejected the Xbox maker’s proposed $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc., a regulatory blow that antitrust lawyers say will be hard to overcome.

US appeals court rejects bid by states to revive antitrust lawsuit against Facebook

Diane Bartz, Reuters

A U.S. appeals court on Thursday refused to revive a lawsuit filed by states against Meta’s Facebook that alleged the company had broken antitrust law.

Incoming EU rules force Apple to reveal App Store user numbers in Europe

Jess Weatherbed, The Verge

Apple says only the iOS App Store falls under new DSA regulations — which only apply to platforms with a certain number of users — but has supplied figures for other App Store products anyway.

As Regulators Block Tech Deals, They Increasingly Look to the Future

David McCabe and Kellen Browning, The New York Times

British regulators cited the newness of the cloud gaming field to block Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision, a shift in antitrust strategy.

‘Double Tax’ Hinders Taiwan’s Investment in American Factories

Yuka Hayashi, The Wall Street Journal

Taiwan businesses are rushing to produce semiconductor chips in the U.S., but the lack of a formal tax treaty gives investors pause.

FTC chair met UK antitrust officials last week but did not talk deals

Diane Bartz, Reuters

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan met with the heads of other antitrust enforcers, including Britain’s, last week but no mergers were discussed, according to an FTC official who spoke amid allegations the FTC and UK are working together to block Microsoft’s bid for Activision.

Musk met with Schumer and other lawmakers to discuss A.I. regulation

Lauren Feiner, CNBC

After being spotted on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Elon Musk tweeted that he’d met with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other lawmakers about artificial intelligence regulation.

Google’s DeepMind-Brain merger: tech giant regroups for AI battle

Madhumita Murgia, Financial Times

Start-up founder Demis Hassabis trades independence for greater influence over the future of artificial intelligence.

Norway’s $1.4tn wealth fund calls for state regulation of AI

Richard Milne and Katie Martin, Financial Times

CEO Nicolai Tangen says fund will set guidelines for companies it invests in on ‘ethical’ use of artificial intelligence.

Apple’s Siri Chief Struggles With Turf Wars as New AI Era Begins

Wayne Ma, The Information

Late last year, a trio of engineers who had just helped Apple modernize its search technology began working on the type of technology underlying ChatGPT, the chatbot from OpenAI that has captivated the public since it launched last November. For Apple, there was only one problem: The engineers no longer worked there. They had left the company to work on the technology, known as large-language models, at Google.

Comcast beats estimates despite slowing broadband growth, higher Peacock losses

Lillian Rizzo, CNBC

Comcast topped analyst expectations with its first quarter earnings report Thursday, despite the cable and media giant’s residential broadband business’s slowing growth and mounting Peacock losses.

T-Mobile misses estimates for quarterly revenue, wireless subscriber additions

Yuvraj Malik, Reuters

Wireless carrier T-Mobile US Inc missed Wall Street estimates for first-quarter revenue and monthly bill-paying phone subscriber additions on Thursday, weighed down by intense competition and consumers postponing upgrades to their plans.

Apple is producing USB-C EarPods for the iPhone 15

Andrew Orr, AppleInsider

Apple is reportedly working on wired EarPods with a USB-C cable ahead of the iPhone 15 lineup as an AirPods alternative, covered under the “Made for i” program.

Hackers Are Finding Ways to Evade Latest Cybersecurity Tools

Jordan Robertson, Bloomberg

EDR software has grown in popularity as a way to defend against destructive attacks such as ransomware. Breaches involving the technology are small but growing, researchers say.

Prosecutors call Pentagon leak suspect an ongoing national security risk

Rebecca Falconer, Axios

Jack Teixeira, the Air National Guardsman charged in connection with the leaking of sensitive Pentagon documents, “may still have access to a trove of classified information,” prosecutors said late Wednesday.

Washington Shields Abortion Data in First-in-Nation Privacy Law

Andrea Vittorio, Bloomberg Law

Washington has adopted a first-of-its-kind state law with sweeping safeguards for consumer health data collected by companies from telehealth platforms to period-tracking apps, as well as location records that could reveal visits to abortion clinics and other health-care facilities.

Tweets Become Harder to Believe as Labels Change Meaning

Steven Lee Myers et al., The New York Times

The elimination of check marks that helped authenticate accounts has convulsed a platform that once seemed indispensable for following breaking news.

Twitter is complying with more government demands under Elon Musk

Russell Brandom, Rest of World

Since Musk took ownership, the company has received 971 government demands, and fully complied with 808 of them. Before Musk, Twitter’s full compliance rate hovered around 50 percent; since the takeover, it is over 80 percent.

New York City Subway Ends Twitter Service Alerts After Musk Raises Price

Skylar Woodhouse and Michelle Kaske, Bloomberg

New York City’s mass-transit system is ending its real-time service alerts on Twitter for subway, train and bus riders as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority curbs its relationship with the platform owned by Elon Musk.

Dril and AOC are now on Bluesky

Jay Peters, The Verge

Two Twitter icons joined Bluesky on Thursday. Dril was first, with AOC joining shortly after.

Lyft to cut 1,072 employees, or 26% of its workforce

Rohan Goswami, CNBC

Ride-sharing app Lyft confirmed it would lay off 1,072 employees, roughly 26% of its corporate workforce, and not hire for an additional 250 positions.

Once-Hot Chat Startup Clubhouse Is Cutting Half of Staff

Ellen Huet, Bloomberg

Clubhouse, the pandemic-era social media sensation, is cutting more than half of its employees, the company said in a blog post on Thursday. Clubhouse attracted attention from an elite stable of venture capitalists, but saw usership drop precipitously not long after its buzzy launch. 

Dropbox to lay off 500 employees, or about 16% of its workforce

Annie Palmer, CNBC

Dropbox on Thursday announced plans to cut 500 employees, or about 16% of its workforce, according to a blog post on the company’s website.

Push to unionize tech industry makes advances

Ina Fried, Axios

A pair of developments this week shows how the push to unionize tech workers has expanded beyond warehouse and retail staff to employees who sit closer to the tech industry’s product and engineering hearts.