• The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority will block Microsoft Corp.’s $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard Inc. over concerns that the planned largest-ever acquisition in gaming would hurt competition in the cloud gaming space, despite Microsoft making agreements with a number of competitors to ensure access to the “Call of Duty” franchise across gaming platforms. Microsoft said it remains committed to the deal but additional hurdles remain, with the European Union and Federal Trade Commission still reviewing the proposed acquisition. (Reuters)
• Alphabet Inc.’s Google saw its search advertising business beat revenue forecasts in the first quarter of 2023 while Microsoft’s growth was carried by a 16% increase in revenue from its cloud computing division. Both companies, which are currently battling for supremacy in the artificial intelligence space, hinted to investors that the technology is not yet driving revenue but is in high demand from clients. (Financial Times)
• Regulators including the FTC and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission unveiled a plan to enforce civil rights laws against artificial intelligence systems, including generative AI tools like ChatGPT, that could perpetuate bias and discrimination. The regulators, speaking at a joint news conference, raised concerns about “digital redlining,” in which AI systems could perpetuate existing racial disparities through bad data or poor design. (The Washington Post)
  • Nearly 2 in 3 U.S. adults say they are concerned about bias or discrimination in AI systems, according to Morning Consult data.
• In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Meta Platforms Inc. Head of Global Affairs Nick Clegg said that TikTok benefits from a “lack of a level playing field” because it is allowed to operate in the United States despite being owned by a Chinese company, while Meta is not able to operate in China. “And in the end, there’s always an underlying issue of values: What values are the underpinning of new technologies?” Clegg said, echoing the sentiments of some lawmakers who have pushed for a potential ban of the app. (Bloomberg)

Happening today: 

• Meta and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will report earnings.
• The ninth annual Berkeley Spring Forum will be held on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. This year’s event will feature conversations with FTC Chair Lina Khan; Erik Gerding, director of the division of corporation finance at the Securities and Exchange Commission; and Andrew Fair, staff chair and director of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
• The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation will host its World Intellectual Property Day event, “Women and IP: Accelerating Innovation and Creativity,” featuring Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Kelly Anderson, executive director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center.
• Georgetown University’s Center for Business and Public Policy will host the latest installment of its “Little Nuggets of Tech and Telecom” series, which will focus on 2023 regulatory and policy hot topics. Speakers include Georgetown economics professor John Mayo and Glenn Woroch, the former chief economist at the Federal Communications Commission.

Most Americans Oppose Bans on Social Media Apps — Unless They’re Operated in Hostile Foreign Countries

Morning Consult

LG Energy Solution Profit Beats Estimates on US Tax Credit

Heejin Kim, Bloomberg

Battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd. posted first-quarter net income that beat analyst estimates, boosted by tax credits from US President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

Biden should sanction Huawei Cloud, other Chinese firms -senators

David Shepardson, Reuters

A group of nine Republican senators on Tuesday urged the Biden administration to impose sanctions on Huawei Cloud and other Chinese cloud service providers, citing national security concerns, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

TikTok, Twitter, Meta Face Countdown to Comply With West’s Toughest Content Law

Sam Schechner and Kim Mackrael, The Wall Street Journal

Rules to cover 19 platforms and search engines deemed ‘very large’ by the EU’s new Digital Services Act.

UK regulator holding up Microsoft’s Activision deal set to get new powers to rein in Big Tech

Ryan Browne, CNBC

The U.K. government on Tuesday published a draft bill that would give a newly created division within the independent competition regulator powers to levy huge fines against Big Tech firms for competition abuses, and investigate and block acquisitions with greater speed. 

Nokia says draft EU patent rules one-sided, will undermine Europe

Foo Yun Chee, Reuters

EU draft rules aimed at staving off spats over patents essential to key technologies for telecoms equipment and connected cars appear to put the onus and cost on patent owners, which could undermine Europe’s leadership in such areas, Nokia said.

Commerce Dept. Outlines Plans to Fund Cutting-Edge Chip Research

Ana Swanson and Don Clark, The New York Times

The Biden administration announced its strategy for the National Semiconductor Technology Center, a string of facilities aimed at propelling U.S. innovation.

There’s a new AI unicorn that will make coders faster

Reed Albergotti, Semafor

Replit, the fast-growing service that combines artificial intelligence with software development, closed a $97.4 million fundraising round that valued the startup at $1.2 billion, a 50% jump from its last investment cycle.

Tech CEOs wax poetic on AI, big adds to sales will take time

Noel Randewich and Akash Sriram, Reuters

Microsoft Corp and Google-parent Alphabet Inc talked up investments in artificial intelligence (AI) for the second quarter in a row but their results on Tuesday suggested that any substantial additions to sales will be slow.

Spotify CEO Calls AI ‘Cool and Scary’ as It Hits Music Industry

Anne Steele, The Wall Street Journal

Audiostreaming company adds more listeners but cooling ad spending hurts revenue.

OpenAI rolls out ‘incognito mode’ on ChatGPT

Jeffrey Dastin and Anna Tong, Reuters

OpenAI is introducing what one employee called an “incognito mode” for its hit chatbot ChatGPT that does not save users’ conversation history or use it to improve its artificial intelligence, the company said Tuesday.

Yelp rolls out AI-powered search updates and the ability to add videos to reviews

Aisha Malik, TechCrunch

Yelp announced today that it’s introducing a series of new updates, including an enhanced AI-powered search experience and the ability to add videos to reviews.

Nvidia has a new way to prevent A.I. chatbots from ‘hallucinating’ wrong facts

Kif Leswing, CNBC

Nvidia announced new software on Tuesday that will help software makers prevent AI models from saying incorrect facts, talking about harmful subjects, or opening up security holes.

RNC slams Biden in AI-generated ad

Alex Thompson, Axios

The Republican National Committee responded to President Biden’s re-election announcement Tuesday with an AI-generated video depicting a dystopian version of the future if he is re-elected.

Verizon adds 67K Fios customers in Q1 but FWA trips

Diana Goovaerts, Fierce Telecom

A healthy dose of fixed wireless access (FWA) and Fios gains helped Verizon achieve its best broadband net additions in a decade. But that headline disguised a sequential slowdown in consumer FWA subscriber growth as well as a year-on-year uptick in DSL losses.

CCA members will hash out spectrum issues at Mobile Carriers Show 2023

Linda Hardesty, Fierce Wireless

Next week, CCA hosts its Mobile Carriers Show in Pittsburgh, where smaller wireless carriers (along with T-Mobile) will convene for the annual trade show. After T-Mobile’s acquisition of Sprint, it’s now the largest member of CCA, by far, but it’s still loyal to the association and always sponsors the Fierce Wireless opening keynote at the event.

5G Not Enough? Telecom Companies Look to 5.5G

Dan Strumpf, The Wall Street Journal

Mobile companies say an upgrade is coming in a couple of years that will boost connection speeds amid flagging consumer interest.

Apple Plans AI-Powered Health Coaching Service, Mood Tracker and iPad Health App

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

Apple Inc. is working on an artificial intelligence-powered health coaching service and new technology for tracking emotions, its latest attempt to lock in users with health and wellness features.

Zero trust for Zoom calls: ChromeOS getting universal microphone/camera toggles

Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica

Chromebooks will become a better place to take a video call or audio huddle soon, as Google is giving all users the ability to universally control access to their video cameras and microphones.

A 13-year-old boy was groomed publicly on Twitter and kidnapped, despite numerous chances to stop it

Ben Goggin, NBC News

It came after a series of missed opportunities over the span of nearly a month, where, they said, Twitter and law enforcement failed to effectively intervene despite an abundance of information posted online.

Meta just suffered a major Facebook ad glitch that has advertisers asking about refunds

Jonathan Vanian, CNBC

Meta suffered one of the biggest Facebook advertising glitches in over a decade, ad experts said. The glitch caused many companies to fund Facebook ad campaigns that were essentially ineffective. The main issue for advertisers will be whether they get refunds from Meta because of the glitch, industry experts said.

TikTok Ban in Montana Faces Speed Bump as Governor Seeks Changes

Meghan Bobrowsky, The Wall Street Journal

Montana’s governor is asking legislators to make changes to a bill that would be the first in the U.S. to ban TikTok outright, according to a draft of the amended bill language viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The changes would broaden the ban from applying specifically to TikTok, which is owned by China-based ByteDance Ltd., and cover social-media applications that provide certain data to foreign adversaries, according to the proposed bill language. 

Twitter says removed more content in first half of 2022 than in previous six months

Sheila Dang, Reuters

Twitter on Tuesday said it required users to take down over 6.5 million pieces of content in the first half of 2022, before the social media platform was taken over by billionaire Elon Musk, a 29% increase from the second half of 2021.

Leak: TikTok is launching generative AI avatars and here’s what they look like

Jay Peters, The Verge

TikTok is working on a feature that will create AI-generated profile pictures, according to social media consultant Matt Navarra, who shared images and video of the tool with The Verge.

Lawmakers Want to Ban TikTok. Here’s What Users Say Is at Stake.

Kalley Huang et al., The New York Times

Even as officials are focused on the dangers of the platform, many young Americans disagree with those concerns. Rather than a threat to national security, they view the app as a central platform for finding information, community and entertainment.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy Picks Fulfillment Veteran as New ‘Shadow Adviser’

Theo Wayt, The Information

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has picked Eric Rimling, a 14-year veteran of the company’s fulfillment operation, as his new technical adviser, according to two people with knowledge of the appointment. 

Salesforce Loses Longtime Executive Ebony Beckwith

Brody Ford, Bloomberg

Salesforce Inc. Chief Business Officer Ebony Beckwith is leaving the company, the latest top executive to depart the software giant, which is increasingly focused on profit.

Meta to Bring In Microsoft Exec to Lead Chips Effort as It Evaluates Strategy

Sylvia Varnham O’Regan, The Information

Meta Platforms had hired a chip executive from Microsoft to oversee its work developing custom chips for hardware devices, according to two people familiar with the matter. The hire comes as Meta is evaluating the company’s silicon strategy, a move that could spell more layoffs.