• Nine states —  Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Washington and West Virginia — have joined the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Google over the company’s digital advertising business. The states join eight others that are already part of the lawsuit that will seek to force Google to sell its ad manager suite because of alleged anticompetitive behavior. (Reuters)
• In an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk said he plans to create an artificial intelligence system called “TruthGPT” that will be a “maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe.” Musk, who recently incorporated a new business called X.AI Corp., described AI as being dangerous but argued it would be less likely to destroy humanity if the system understands it. (The Associated Press)
• More than 40 Chinese security officers from the country’s Ministry of Public Security were involved in a scheme in which they created thousands of fake social media profiles used to discredit American policies and amplify pro-Beijing messages through what appeared to be American voices, according to three complaints unveiled by U.S. prosecutors. The operation allegedly targeted a number of critics of the Chinese government and developed campaigns to harass them. (The Wall Street Journal)
• Employees and contractors of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency allegedly abused access to confidential law enforcement databases and agency computers to search through sensitive information including medical, biometric and location data and used it to carry out personal schemes and vendettas, according to details from an agency disciplinary database obtained through a public records request. The records, which document at least 414 cases of potential misuse since 2016, showed agents carrying out database searches on behalf of friends and neighbors, looking up details about ex-partners and coworkers and leveraging conditional information to commit fraud. (Wired)

Happening today: 

• The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property will host a hearing titled “Foreign Competitive Threats to American Innovation and Economic Leadership.”
• The Washington Post will host a live event titled “Investing in American economic competitiveness,” part of its “Bringing it Home” series. Speakers include Chris Miller, author of “Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology,” and Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.)
• The R Street Institute will host a conversation titled “Charting the Course of Our Spectrum Future.” Speakers include Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter (R-Ga.), vice chair of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology; and Patrick Welsh, vice president of federal regulatory and legal affairs at Verizon Communications Inc.

Musk tries media blitz to win back Twitter advertisers

Axios

Apple CEO Cook to meet Indian PM Modi amid expansion – sources

Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil, Reuters

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook will meet India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its deputy IT minister as part of his visit to inaugurate the iPhone maker’s first retail store in the country this week, people familiar with the plans said.

Social-Media Account Overseen by Former Navy Noncommissioned Officer Helped Spread Secrets

Yaroslav Trofimov and Bob Mackin, The Wall Street Journal

An American administrator of the Donbas Girl blogger network uses a pro-Russian persona across online platforms.

U.S. Car Brands Will Benefit Most From Electric Car Tax Breaks

Jack Ewing, The New York Times

Rules that take effect on Tuesday will limit the $7,500 credits to electric cars made domestically with minerals from the U.S. or trade allies.

UK regulator probes Amazon’s planned purchase of iRobot

Aby Jose Koilparambil, Reuters

Britain’s competition regulator said on Tuesday it has launched a “Phase 1” probe into Amazon.com Inc’s planned $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot Corp, which makes the Roomba vacuum cleaner.

Microsoft Could Inflate Google’s Mobile Search Toll

Dan Gallagher, The Wall Street Journal

Microsoft may or may not take much internet-search market share from Google, but the cost of holding on to that lucrative business is heading higher regardless. 

Activist investor urges Getty to partner with Meta, Microsoft to grow revenue

Akash Sriram, Reuters

Activist investor Trillium Capital said on Monday stock-photo company Getty Images Holdings Inc should expand and create partnerships with technology firms and publishers to grow its revenue.

Adobe to add generative AI tools into its video editing software

Stephen Nellis, Reuters

Adobe Inc on Monday said it plans to introduce new artificial intelligence (AI) features into its video editing software used by the film and television industries.

ChatGPT and Advanced AI Face New Regulatory Push in Europe

Sam Schechner, The Wall Street Journal

European Union lawmakers want to give regulators new powers to govern the development of technologies like those behind ChatGPT, the biggest push so far in the West to curb one of the hottest areas in artificial intelligence. 

Italy to allow ChatGPT to return if OpenAI takes ‘useful steps’

Francesca Piscioneri, Reuters

Italy’s data protection watchdog is ready to allow the return of the ChatGPT chatbot at the end of April if its maker OpenAI takes “useful steps” to address the agency’s concerns, the authority’s chief Pasquale Stanzione said in an interview published on Tuesday.

Major Photography Prize Winner Reveals Image Is AI-Generated, Rejects Award

Jordan Pearson, Motherboard

The winner of a major photography prize has rejected the award after revealing that the winning image was generated by AI. 

Tesla Reports Another Fatal US Crash Involving Automated Driving

Keith Laing, Bloomberg

Tesla Inc. disclosed to US regulators another fatal crash involving automated driver-assist systems, bringing its total to 17 since June 2021 when the government required carmakers to begin submitting data on these accidents.

EU lawmakers call for summit to control ‘very powerful’ AI

Martin Coulter and Supantha Mukherjee, Reuters

EU lawmakers urged world leaders on Monday to hold a summit to find ways to control the development of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems such as ChatGPT, saying they were developing faster than expected.

WTO panel rules against India in IT tariffs dispute with EU, others

Emma Farge and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, Reuters

A World Trade Organization panel said on Monday that India had violated global trading rules in a dispute with the European Union, Japan and Taiwan over import duties on IT products.

OpenAI Wraps Up Tender as AI Talent War Heats Up

Jon Victor and Erin Woo, The Information

OpenAI has told employees it has finalized a tender offer that allowed some staff to cash out their holdings, one person with direct knowledge of the situation said. The move caps a process that began last fall alongside talks to raise billions of dollars from Microsoft.

Superchat’s new AI chatbot lets you message historical and fictional characters via ChatGPT

Sarah Perez, TechCrunch

The company behind the popular iPhone customization app Brass, sticker maker StickerHub and others is out today with a new AI chat app called Superchat, which allows iOS users to chat with virtual characters powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Cable dominates Ookla Q1 download speed rankings but lags on uplink

Diana Goovaerts, Fierce Telecom

The cable companies – including Cox Communications – beat out the likes of AT&T, Verizon and Frontier Communications in the download speed and consistency categories in the recent quarter, but were significantly behind when it came to upload rates.

Apple Makes the iPhone a Home for Savings Accounts

Julia Carpenter and Will Feuer, The Wall Street Journal

Apple Inc. joined the competition for bank deposits on Monday with the launch of a high-yield savings account that pays an annual percentage yield of 4.15%.

Offensive cyber company QuaDream shutting down amidst spyware accusations

Omer Kabir and Meir Orbach, CTech

It was reported last week that the Israeli firm’s hacking tools have been used against journalists, opposition figures and advocacy organizations across at least 10 countries.

Hackers publish sensitive employee data stolen during CommScope ransomware attack

Carly Page and Zack Whittaker, TechCrunch

Hackers published a trove of data stolen from U.S. network infrastructure giant CommScope, including thousands of employees’ Social Security numbers and bank account details.

When is social media stalking illegal? The Supreme Court is about to decide

Issie Laposwky, Fast Company

‘Counterman v. Colorado’ could have sweeping consequences not just for victims of cyberstalking but for online speech writ large.

How Mexico Became the Biggest User of the World’s Most Notorious Spy Tool

Natalie Kitroeff and Ronen Bergman, The New York Times

A Times investigation reveals the story behind how Mexico became the first and most prolific user of Pegasus. It’s still using it, despite promising to stop.

NSO hacked iPhones without user clicks in 3 new ways, researchers say

Joseph Menn, The Washington Post

Israeli spyware maker NSO Group deployed at least three new “zero-click” hacks against iPhones last year, finding ways to penetrate some of Apple’s latest software, researchers at Citizen Lab have discovered.

WhatsApp and other messaging apps oppose ‘surveillance’

Shiona McCallum and Chris Vallance, BBC News

WhatsApp, Signal and other messaging services have urged the government to rethink the Online Safety Bill (OSB). They are concerned that the bill could undermine end-to-end encryption – which means the message can only be read on the sender and the recipient’s app and nowhere else.

Twitter will label ‘hateful’ tweets when it restricts them

Jay Peters, The Verge

If Twitter limits the visibility of a tweet that violates its hateful conduct policy, you’ll see a new label.

GOP lawmakers put new pressure on colleagues to quit TikTok

Katherine Tully-McManus, Politico

Sen. Thom Tillis and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, joined by 15 other Republicans, are calling on committee leaders to rein in use of the app over security concerns.

CBC ‘pausing’ Twitter after ‘government-funded media’ label

Rob Gillies, The Associated Press

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation paused its use of Twitter on Monday after the social media platform owned by Elon Musk stamped CBC’s account with a label the public broadcaster says is intended to undermine its credibility.

Bluesky’s CEO wants to build a Musk-proof, decentralized version of Twitter

Alex Health, The Verge

In an interview, CEO Jay Graber talks about the vision behind Bluesky, the decentralized social media service incubated by Twitter that is gearing up for a wider release.

Porn on Amazon’s Kindle app prompts warnings from Apple, Alphabet

Greg Bensinger, Reuters

Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc have raised concerns with Amazon.com Inc after learning that sexually explicit photographs could be accessed by children on the popular Kindle app and called on Amazon to strengthen its content moderation.

Spotify is losing its audiobooks chief

Ariel Shapiro, The Verge

Nir Zicherman came to Spotify in 2019 as one of the co-founders of Anchor. He will leave the company in October.

Tim Cook Officially Opens India’s First Apple Store

Sankalp Phartiyal and Menaka Doshi, Bloomberg

Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook officially opened Apple Inc.’s first company-owned store in India, betting the iPhone maker’s retail outlets will help accelerate sales growth.