Back in the tech-friendly US, major AI companies have formed the Frontier Model Forum to self-regulate the industry. Beyond the stated purpose of promoting safe model development, unstated goals include staving off formal government regulation and blocking competition from small firms. This is different from the voluntary agreement many of the same companies recently announced with the Biden Administration.
European anti-trust authorities are increasing their pressure on Big Tech. Last week, the European Commission opened a formal investigation into Microsoft’s practice of bundling Teams with its Office productivity suite, while the French Competition Authority announced an inquiry into whether Apple is using customer data for ad tracking without following the same rules it imposes on competitors via App Tracking Transparency.
Big Tech companies cooperate in some ways but compete in others. Meta, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Tom Tom have just released a set of data that could be used to build maps without relying on services from Google and Apple. As location data becomes more precious, other firms have more reason to build their own services.
CX management platform Sprinklr is introducing “digital twins.” Not your average chatbot, a Sprinklr digital twin is more like an AI-powered employee, able to plan actions, create workflows and make decisions, but at speed and at scale. They are said to be more easily trained than chatbots and can operate within brand policies and guardrails.