The Show Me State of Missouri is now the first in the US to censor content moderation. Pushing the limits of free speech, and despite Supreme Court rulings to the contrary, Missouri under its Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, will no longer allow Big Tech to regulate screen content. Instead, it will allow users to pick who they want to moderate content, alleviating the need to be shown anything they don’t already think.
Really, what’s ten years give or take, holding off legislation to control AI? And, why would we want to? Trump’s trumpeted and, to many, alarming, “One Big Beautiful Bill” is now headed to the Senate. Bundled inside is language saying no state or local government may enforce regulatory control over AI for a decade. If AI isn’t able to laugh yet, this might push it over the edge.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Fairplay have written to CEO Sundar Picihai requesting Google immediately suspend rollout of its Gemini AI chatbot to young children. Concerns are the product can be very addictive and that it may violate the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
Let’s catch up today on news that went unmentioned while we obsessed about TikTok, Google, Microsoft, and the rest. First, some CX acquisitions: Stockholm-based experience analytics vendor Netigate bought Netherlands-based digital feedback collector Mopinion while Colorado-based survey platform Alchemer bought San Diego-based review and comment collector Chatmeter. We also have “AI-native operating system for advertising” Veylan buying media sales platform Advisr and, far from least, investment firm Thoma Bravo spending $1.4 billion to buy SaaS pricing and sales solution PROS Holdings, Inc.