If it looks like a trade war, swims like a trade war, and quacks like a trade war, then it’s probably a trade war that has now broken out — this time between the US and the EU as the White House condemns Europe’s punitive fines against Apple and Meta, fines the companies intend to appeal.

Europe hit Apple and Meta with fines of €500m and €200m, respectively, yesterday, punishing both companies for noncompliance with Europe’s Digital Markets Act, a piece of legislation that pretends to be about opening up markets but seems custom-designed to impact the US tech giants.

The White House has called these fines a “novel form of economic extortion” and has warned Europe that the US will not tolerate the magnitude of these fines.

Custom-fitted penalties

The steep fines surprised most commentators, as whispers coming out of the bloc had hinted that the EU would impose minimal fines against both tech companies in order to avoid reprisals from the US administration. This doesn’t seem to be what happened, unless we assume that €700m is now seen as small change by Europe’s leaders, who appear to have given themselves the right to charge US companies even more. 

The fines come as Europe and the US attempt to forge new trading agreements in response to pressure from the US administration and its tariff threats. While the impact of tariffs will hurt US consumers most, repercussions will also be felt by manufacturers and trading partners who have fed US demand until now.

The effect will also soon be felt on a wider basis as a trade barrier-induced slump hits shipping and distribution globally in the coming weeks, reflecting the slowdown in demand around the imposition of those tariffs. 

Playing at leadership

Despite the looming risk of consequences for their own economies, both in terms of manufacturing demand and the impact on their own manufacturing businesses of an onset of low-cost consumer goods originally destined for the US market, Europe’s leaders seem to want to cosplay at playing hardball.

European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier recently said the EU “will enforce our tech legislation without any doubt, and this has nothing to do with the trade negotiations currently ongoing with the US.”

That may be how Europe’s leaders see it, but their self-perception means little to a White House that sees these fines as extortionate reprisals against some of America’s biggest and most successful firms.

The administration is far more likely to cleave to the opinion of Meta and Apple:

“The European Commission is attempting to handicap successful American businesses while allowing Chinese and European companies to operate under different standards,” Meta said.

“Today’s announcements are yet another example of the European Commission unfairly targeting Apple in a series of decisions that are bad for the privacy and security of our users, bad for products, and force us to give away our technology for free,” Apple said.

Who designed the rules, and for what purpose?

While Regnier insists the rules are being applied fairly and would be applied against any firm, no matter where they are from, critics argue that the DMA seems to have been expressly drafted to constrain the power of US firms.

The US is not blind to this conjecture. “Extraterritorial regulations that specifically target and undermine American companies, stifle innovation, and enable censorship will be recognized as barriers to trade and a direct threat to free civil society,” said a White House spokesperson.

The bellicose response emerging from within the US administration suggests it is quite willing to issue its own set of reprisals against Europe’s attempts to fine the tech firms — but that response may not be immediate, pending the result of any legal appeals to those decisions on the part of Apple and Meta.

The scenario doesn’t equate to the best mood music.

At a time when the administration is practicing a very blunt approach to making deals, European leaders seem to want to hide the true nature of their own equally self-serving responses behind unconvincing veneers of respectability (such as the DMA).

Will the future be better tomorrow?

In this kind of context, the idea that relationships may become worse before they get better isn’t just a problem waiting to happen. It appears to be a problem that’s already here.

Like a squawking duck, this particular sequence of events certainly seems to be forming up to become exactly what it sounds like as the US administration puts its own perception of national interest first, unleashing a challenging set of circumstances for businesses worldwide, including those of Apple and Facebook, the US business entities it probably sees itself as trying to protect. 

Ironically, the consequences of these combined sequences of events probably won’t unleash a great deal of benefit for anyone — except, possibly, for some wealthy individuals who want to sell apps via their own App Store.

US President George W. Bush once famously said, “The future will be better tomorrow.”

Right now, in the absence of positive dialogue, that’s not what I see coming down the pipe.

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Source:: Computer World

By Adarsh Verma Vidu, the generative video startup by ShengShu Technology, is back with a new model it calls…
The post Vidu Q1 Launches Cinematic-Grade Visual Effects and Audio Generation To Take On VFX appeared first on Fossbytes.

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By Nick Godt The Audi Q6 e-tron, Buick Enclave, and Nissan Armada earn top safety marks.

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By Hisan Kidwai The PS5 is a fantastic console, with some of the best performance and graphics. However, despite…
The post Best Local 2 Player Games on PS5 (April 2025) appeared first on Fossbytes.

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By Siôn Geschwindt German biotech startup Ovo Labs has developed new technologies to “rejuvenate” human eggs during in vitro fertilisation (IVF), potentially boosting the chances of conception.  The first baby was born via IVF more than 40 years ago. Since then, the technology has helped millions of women get pregnant.  However, IVF can put significant emotional, psychological, and financial strain on patients. It is often unsuccessful on the first attempt. Some try multiple times without success, leaving many couples unable to have children at all.  Ovo Labs wants to improve the odds. Based on 20 years of fertility research, the startup has developed…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Nick Godt Cadillac releases teaser images of the 2026 Optiq-V, the brand’s second all-electric model.

Source:: Digital Trends

A broad coalition of AI experts, economists, legal scholars, and former OpenAI employees is urging state regulators to keep OpenAI’s nonprofit foundation in control of the company.

Their concern: that the company’s planned restructuring would abandon its legally mandated nonprofit purpose and place control of artificial general intelligence (AGI) in the hands of private investors.

“We write in opposition to OpenAI’s proposed restructuring that would transfer control of the development and deployment of artificial general intelligence (AGI) from a nonprofit charity to a for-profit enterprise.” the coalition wrote in an open letter addressed to the Attorneys General of California and Delaware, who together are the company’s primary regulators.

The letter’s signatories include Nobel laureates Daniel Kahneman and Joseph Stiglitz and AI pioneers Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio. They argue that the proposed restructuring would violate OpenAI’s Articles of Incorporation, which explicitly state the organization is “not organized for the private gain of any person.”

The coalition is urging California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings to exercise their oversight authority to prevent OpenAI’s proposed restructuring, which they argue would undermine the organization’s original charitable mission.

The coalition’s appeal is supported by a separate amicus curiae brief filed by twelve former OpenAI employees in an ongoing federal lawsuit. Together, the letter and brief present a rare, coordinated public challenge to the internal governance of one of the world’s leading AI companies.

A legally binding mission

OpenAI was created in 2015 as a nonprofit with a single, far-reaching goal: to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity. Its 2018 Charter outlines principles such as broadly distributed benefits, long-term safety, cooperative development, and technical leadership. These values were designed to steer OpenAI’s work even as it began raising external investment.

In 2019, OpenAI adopted a capped-profit model, establishing a limited partnership structure under full control of the nonprofit board. This arrangement, the letter notes, was meant to ensure that AGI development would always remain aligned with the public interest.

According to the open letter, the company is now seeking to restructure in a way that would eliminate this charitable governance by allowing private shareholders to assume control of AGI development and deployment.

The authors argued that this shift is inconsistent with OpenAI’s charitable purpose and violates both California and Delaware nonprofit law.

“As the primary regulators of OpenAI, you currently have the power to protect OpenAI’s charitable purpose on behalf of its beneficiaries, safeguarding the public interest at a potentially pivotal moment in the development of this technology,” the letter said. “Under OpenAI’s proposed restructuring, that would no longer be the case.”

Former employees validate governance concerns

The amicus brief, filed in April 2025, supports claims made in the open letter by offering firsthand accounts from within OpenAI’s leadership and research teams. The twelve former employees worked at the company from 2018 to 2024 and held roles ranging from research scientists to policy leads.

According to the brief, internal operations at OpenAI were built around the Charter. Employee performance reviews included assessments of how individuals advanced the mission, and senior leadership—including CEO Sam Altman—frequently referenced the Charter in strategic decisions.

But the brief also reveals a gradual shift in internal dynamics. The former employees claim that key governance principles began to erode as commercial interests grew, culminating in efforts to restructure in ways that would sever nonprofit control.

“Without control, the Nonprofit cannot credibly fulfill its Mission and Charter commitments, particularly those relating to broadly distributed benefits and long-term safety,” the brief stated.

Transparency and legal accountability urged

The coalition’s letter closed with a call for legal action. It urged the Attorneys General to demand full transparency about OpenAI’s current and proposed structures. If OpenAI is no longer operating in line with its nonprofit obligations, the authors argue, the state must act to preserve the public mission.

“You currently have the power to protect OpenAI’s charitable purpose on behalf of its beneficiaries, safeguarding the public interest at a potentially pivotal moment in the development of this technology,” the letter said.

With AGI development accelerating, the outcome of this governance battle may shape not just OpenAI’s future but the trajectory of AI oversight worldwide. At stake is the principle that technologies capable of reshaping economies, labor, and societies should remain accountable to the public—and not be controlled solely by shareholder interests.

Whether legal authorities respond to the coalition’s plea could mark a turning point in how the world manages the power and responsibility of frontier AI development.

Source:: Computer World

Apple has been hammered with a huge €500 million ($570 million) fine by Europe’s antitrust authorities, who have demanded changes in Apple’s business practices that will deliver little significant benefit to consumers.

Europe says Apple breached its anti-steering obligation under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and is forcing changes in the company’s business practices, as well as fines.

Apple will appeal

In a statement, Apple told Computerworld: 

“Today’s announcements are yet another example of the European Commission unfairly targeting Apple in a series of decisions that are bad for the privacy and security of our users, bad for products, and force us to give away our technology for free. We have spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of changes to comply with this law, none of which our users have asked for. Despite countless meetings, the Commission continues to move the goal posts every step of the way. We will appeal and continue engaging with the Commission in service of our European customers.”

Europe’s approach has been uniquely Apple-centric, making demands of the company that are not equally made against its competitors. As part of today’s judgment, Apple is also being forced to open up to third-party app store sales, and to permit developers to let customers know of alternative offers outside Apple’s App Store, steer them to those offers and allow them to make purchases.

What Europe wants

Apple had attempted to craft an approach to these demands that tried to balance platform security and the costs of building the platforms against what Europe wanted. Under those terms, developers had been asked to agree to certain terms, including payment of a Core Technology Fee.

The Commission has rejected Apple’s approach, insisting instead that:

Apple must change the business terms through which it enables external app store sales.

The Apple Core Technology fee may need to be abolished.

Apple must make it easier to set up third-party stores.

It must make it easy for consumers to install apps from third-party stores. (I fear this also means it cannot warn customers of the risks of using external stores.)

Apple must bring itself into compliance with these demands within 60 days or risk periodic penalty payments.

It is to be noted that Meta was also fined today.

All it really means

In theory, these changes mean apps will be sold through multiple competing stores. That won’t be how things shape up, of course. Some stores will turn out to be malware-infested money traps; others will sell illegal or immoral content; others will show themselves over time to lack standards of customer, privacy, or security support; other developers will use the system to fragment the user experience. 

Over time we will see stores fail, fall foul to fraud, or go out of business, leaving no clear path for customer compensation or app longevity. Ultimately there will be one or two surviving stores, as well as Apple, and all three will be owned by corporations, rather than by any up-and-coming European tech firm.

That latter isn’t going to happen, and if it does, will only be in specific domains. Through these inevitable evolutions, it will be Apple Support that customers first call for help when things do go wrong, even if responsibility rests with the third-party store. Perhaps this is an improvement, but I don’t see it.

This fragmentation will also expose European customers to security and privacy attacks, as some of these stores will not hold the same degree of respect for privacy as Apple.

Rewarding good behavior?

There is a little good news for Apple in Europe’s judgement, which says the company worked ‘constructively’ with EU regulators on the overall antitrust inquiry. Another strand to this had been an investigation into how Apple enabled user choice on its platforms. Europe has closed that strand of the case, saying Apple has acted to regain compliance. Those actions include giving users in the EU choices of alternative apps and an easy interface through which to make such changes.

One thing that isn’t clear is the extent to which Europe is demanding that Apple makes all its new features available to third-party competitors from day one.

Ostensibly to ensure competition, Apple had complained that this restriction forced the company to develop for its competitors for free, and that the cost of delivering this would require it to develop for multiple operating systems before launch, slowing innovation and costing a lot of cash. Apple already has 500 developers working on EU compliance, which means Europe becomes an increasingly expensive place to do business.

Politically driven nonsense

One more thing to highlight is the extent to which Apple has become a punching bag for increasing tension between Europe and the US following the imposition of trade tariffs. In the prelude to today’s announcement, some industry watchers had reported that Europe intended to demand a lower fine from the companies it was about to punish. In the case of Apple, that fine still came down to more than half a billion dollars.

Perhaps that is seen as small change in Europe, which has given itself the right to demand up to 10% of a company’s global revenue for offenses against the DMA, but it is unlikely to placate the US administration, which has already warned it will act against nations that act against US tech firms.

Apple, which is already being punished by the deteriorating relationship between China and the US, may yet end up seeing further challenges if a tit-for-tat trade war between the US and the EU breaks out.

At what point do Europe’s own consumers become casualties of increasing the cost of doing business there?

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, Mastodon, and MeWe. 

Source:: Computer World

By Nick Godt Tesla says that production of an affordable EV remains on track for June.

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By Siôn Geschwindt UK startup Aquark Technologies has used Boaty McBoatface — the internet’s best-loved submarine — to test its quantum sensing technology underwater for the first time. The NATO-backed company put its so-called “cold atom” system inside the autonomous submarine. Boaty McBoatface then descended to the bottom of a giant indoor tank at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton. The idea was to test how Aquark’s quantum tech — which must be completely isolated from external disturbances to function — would fare in the temperatures and pressures of an underwater environment.  Boaty Mcboatface with its quantum payload being lowered into the…This story continues at The Next Web

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By Deepti Pathak If you’re new to Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) and you’re looking to figure out the ranking and…
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By Siôn Geschwindt Europe can dramatically cut its dependence on imported fossil fuels by adopting electricity-based technologies, according to a new report. Electric vehicles, heat pumps, and renewables could cut global reliance on imported fossil fuels by 70% when used to replaced them in transport, heating, and power, according to energy think tank Ember. They would also save importers an estimated $1.3 trillion (€1.14 trillion) globally each year, Ember found. The think tank refers to this trio of technologies as “electrotech.” Cutting reliance on US, Russian fossil fuels Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 exposed one of Europe’s greatest vulnerabilities — its reliance…This story continues at The Next Web

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One of the biggest problems with today’s AI models is that they tend to simply make up answers when they don’t know what’s going on, something called hallucinations.

You would think that the number of hallucinations would decrease over time, but according to internal tests from Open AI, the opposite is true. The o3 and o4-mini reasoning AI models produce more hallucinations than their predecessors o1, o1-mini, and o3-mini, Techcrunch reports.

In one of the tests, the o3 model hallucinated in 33% of responses, compared to 16% for the o1 and 14.8% for the 03-mini.

Open AI has no idea why this is the case, but the company’s developers are looking into it and hopefully it will get better in the long run.

Source:: Computer World

The United Arab Emirates is planning to use AI to review and adjust existing legislation as well as write entirely new laws, reports the Financial Times. The Middle Eastern country is the first in the world to do so. Other countries are currently using AI to streamline various types of work, but not to create entirely new laws.

The UAE plans, for example, to use AI to see how laws affect the country’s population and economy by creating a database of laws with public sector data. The expectation is that AI will make local laws 70% faster and ensure they can be updated regularly. It is currently unknown what kind of AI system the country’s authorities will use.

“This new legislative system, powered by artificial intelligence, will change the way we create laws and make the process faster and more accurate,” said Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Emir of Dubai and Prime Minister and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates, according to the country’s state media.

Source:: Computer World

By Siôn Geschwindt Highly dependent on imported fossil fuels and renewable energy technologies from foreign powers such as the US, China, and Russia, Europe’s energy security is in a precarious state. One potential fix? Harnessing nuclear fusion — the same atom-colliding reaction that powers the Sun and stars. While not yet proven commercially, fusion energy could provide Europe with a vital source of safe, locally produced, always-on clean power. Another plus is that future fusion power plants will likely run on abundant fuels like deuterium and tritium, which aren’t confined to specific geographies. Francesco Sciortino, co-founder and CEO of German startup Proxima Fusion,…This story continues at The Next WebOr just read more coverage about: Security

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By Nick Godt Slate Auto is teasing a $25,000 EV set to be unveiled on April 24.

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By Hisan Kidwai Inspired by the super popular anime and manga series Attack on Titan, Attack on Titan Revolution…
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By Thomas Macaulay Europe’s housing crisis is deepening. High building costs, tight regulations, and labour shortages have choked the supply of affordable homes. As cities swell with new arrivals and construction workers retire en masse, the gap between supply and demand is only widening. Endless solutions have been proposed. Mass housing projects, revamping the planning system, modular buildings, pre-fabricated materials, rent controls, and restrictions on corporate acquisitions of homes have all been explored with mixed success. But the shortage of affordable housing has only grown. Dutch startup Monumental has pitched another fix: automation. The company is developing a suite of autonomous, electric robots…This story continues at The Next Web

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By Siôn Geschwindt IBM and the European Space Agency (ESA) today launched TerraMind, a new open-source AI model with an “intuitive” understanding of Earth. According to the research team, the system is the best-performing AI model for Earth observation. In an ESA-led evaluation, TerraMind beat 12 leading AI models on the PANGAEA benchmark — a community standard for Earth observation. The model excelled at various real-world tasks, including land cover classification, change detection, and multi-sensor analysis. On average, it outperformed other models by 8% or more. “To me, what sets TerraMind apart is its ability to go beyond simply processing earth observations with…This story continues at The Next Web

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