Silicon Valley Tech News Roundup – October 29th

Biden administration to issue an executive order on AI – 10/27

Politico obtained a draft of an executive order on artificial intelligence created by the Biden administration. According to the sources, the executive order will be deployed as early as Monday this week.

The Biden administration aims to deploy several federal agencies to monitor the potential risks of the technology while also attempting to protect workers.

The executive order also wants to create extensive checks on the technology. The Biden administration will task federal agencies with creating standards to prevent potential discrimination and ensure fairness, data privacy, and cybersecurity. Federal agencies will also have to monitor the competitive landscape of the industry. The draft also includes directives to over a dozen agencies and how they handle artificial intelligence systems. The agencies will have between 90 and 240 days to comply with the requirements.

Furthermore, the executive order will appoint a White House AI Council to coordinate the federal government’s AI activities. The Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy will chair the council, and it will include representatives from various federal agencies. The executive order deals with numerous issues, and many of those impacted by the federal government. It covers topics like education, health, housing, and labor, as well as immigration, microchip manufacturing, and competition.

The White House did not reply to requests to confirm if the draft is authentic.

Biggest antitrust trial in decades reveals Google paid $26.3 billion to become a default search engine – 10/27

On Tuesday, the biggest tech antitrust trial in decades started in Washington D. C. The first trial week revealed Google paid $26.3 billion to become the default search engine on web browsers and mobile phones in 2021.

$26.3 billion represents how much Google paid its partners, and experts believe Apple is the largest recipient. According to the Department of Justice and the coalition of state attorney generals, Google maintained its monopoly in general search illegally. The company achieved it by locking its rivals out of key distribution channels like Apple’s Safari.

The Department of Justice’s complaint states: “Google pays billions of dollars each year to distributors – including popular-device manufacturers such as Apple, LG, Motorola, and Samsung; major U.S. wireless carriers such as AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon; and browser developers such as Mozilla, Opera, and UCWeb – to secure default status for its general search engine and, in many cases, to specifically prohibit Google’s counterparties from dealing with Google’s competitors.”

According to the slide leaked on Friday, the Google search division had a revenue of more than $146 billion in 2021. Meanwhile, the traffic acquisition cost was $26 billion. Likewise, the search division’s revenue roughly tripled between 2014 and 2021.

A representative for Google declined to comment, while a representative for Apple did not respond to the request for comment.

Elon Musk plans to roll out X’s financial services by the end of 2024 – 10/27

In an all-hands internal call with X employees on Thursday, Elon Musk revealed he wants X (former Twitter) users to use the platform for their entire financial lives. He expects the financial service features to roll out by the end of 2024.

In a call with employees, Musk said: “When I say payments, I actually mean someone’s entire financial life… If it involves money. It’ll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever. So, it’s not just like send $20 to my friend. I’m talking about, like, you won’t need a bank account.” The company is working on obtaining the necessary money transmission licenses for the United States.

In 2022, Musk said he wants to turn X into a financial hub with the platform offering debit cards, checks, loan services, and high-yield money market accounts. He renamed Twitter X after his online bank X.com (which became a part of PayPal).

In a call with his employees, Musk said: “The X/PayPal product roadmap was written by myself and David Sacks actually in July of 2000… And for some reason PayPal, once it became eBay, not only did they not implement the rest of the list, but they actually rolled back a bunch of key features, which is crazy. So PayPal is actually a less complete product than what we came up with in July of 2000, so 23 years ago.”

Telegram restricts several accounts associated with Hamas – 10/26

On Thursday, Telegram (the messaging app) restricted access to a number of channels either operated by or closely associated with Hamas.

One account known to be operated by the al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas’ military wing) with 700,000 followers is no longer accessible to Telegram users via Google Play Store apps and through Telegram’s iOS. Likewise, another account with more than 500,000 followers and known to represent Hamas is restricted via the Telegram app, but still accessible on the Google Play Store version of the app.

Telegram was a major source of pro-Hamas propaganda and faced criticism for allowing Hamas to operate on the platform even though other major platforms like Google, Meta, and X banned the group. In the United States, the government designated Hamas as a foreign terror organization. Following the attack on Israel, some Hamas-connected accounts saw their following triple in some cases.

When asked for a comment on whether Google forced Telegram to restrict Hamas’ channels, the Google representative stated the company’s app policies require developers to moderate content. That includes speech that glorifies terrorism. Likewise, the representative confirmed Google takes appropriate action when apps are in violation of these policies.