TikTok already shapes user opinions, so you always knew it would be sold to Trump-friendly oligarchs at a steep discount from its true value. The next step is equally predictable: evolution into a right-wing propaganda outlet and pressure on advertisers to support it regardless. For models, check out YouTube welcoming back formerly banned accounts (which isn’t going as quickly as the rightists would like) and the FTC requiring Omnicom/IPG to buy media without considering “the veracity of news reporting or other politically or ideologically contested facts.”

The oligarch life is pretty sweet, except when it depends on other oligarchs. That largely explains why Microsoft is pulling away from its previous dependence on OpenAI. The latest move is addition of Anthropic AI models as an alternative to OpenAI models in Copilot Studio. The company had already moved to embed Anthropic AI within Office 365.

Amazon agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit charging it tricked customers into signing up for Amazon Prime and then made it difficult for them to quit. A jury trial in the suit had already begun. We can only assume that Amazon didn’t like its chances.