EU AI LAW
With concerns about misinformation spreading online, European Union officials want to more closely regulate artificial intelligence, and they're asking the world's biggest tech companies for help. In mid-May, the EU passed a law that would regulate how companies create and train their artificial intelligence tools, but those laws won't go into effect for years. In the meantime, officials are asking companies like Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft to immediately begin labeling all AI-generated content, and for services that already incorporate AI, like Google's Bard, to safeguard against "malicious actors" who could attempt to spread harmful or false information.
MICROSOFT OUTAGES
Thousands of users on Monday reported not being able to access their emails through Microsoft Outlook on both the web and Outlook app. Other Microsoft 365 services, such as Teams, SharePoint, and One Drive, were also affected. By mid-afternoon on the East Coast, Microsoft confirmed on its customer service Twitter account that the issue should be resolved. The company did not explain what was behind the outage.
Cruise, the autonomous-vehicle company backed by General Motors and Honda, unveiled the Origin on Tuesday which it says is the first self-driving vehicle designed from the ground-up to get from here to there without a driver.
Investors were eager to see how the company fared following the launch of Disney+ and AppleTV+ in November and in light of the upcoming launch of NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service.
CoinTracker, a startup that helps people calculate their taxes on crypto holdings, is introducing a free tier of service for users with less than 200 crypto transactions in a tax year as the IRS makes turns its attention to investors in “virtual currencies.”
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
Greg Marsh, CEO of key duplication service KeyMe, wants his company to become the most trusted name in locksmithing and just got a boost from a $35 million round of fundraising.
The tech industry in the City of Angels is booming and Dot.La, a new digital media startup, wants to tell its story.
Atom Finance is challenging Bloomberg — whose eponymous terminal continues to dominate trading floors — by trying to develop a simpler product offering the depth of information that an institutional product might offer, but without a price tag that would break the bank for retail investors.
Here are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, January 17, 2020.
Comcast announced more details about its upcoming service Peacock at a special investor presentation Thursday.
The UK-based startup Arrival, which is building small- and medium-sized electric vans for deliveries and other commercial roles, announced this week that it’s attracted a $110 million investment from Hyundai and Kia. The company says the partnership bumps Arrival’s valuation to more than $3 billion dollars.
