Governments should lead frameworks for “responsible” artificial intelligence, Microsoft said Thursday. Recommendations were in a report by Government Affairs Director Owen Larter, Aspen Institute International Partners Director Jonathan Price and Aspen’s International Partners Program Manager Calli Obern. Countries should “drive greater international co-operation on AI and create an international framework for responsible AI use.” Organizations must “put a set of values at the center of how AI is deployed to ensure its use is human-centered, accountable and transparent.”
Advocates sued President Donald Trump’s administration Tuesday, seeking records about his social media executive order and federal spending on digital advertising (see 2007230072). The Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking documents the EO ordered to be gathered to examine how federal agencies spend such money. The EO directs agencies report to OMB and directs DOJ determine whether there’s viewpoint discrimination on platforms. This opens doors for the administration “to block government spending on online platforms it dislikes,” CDT said. The public has a right to know “if there’s evidence that the president is retaliating against platforms by reducing ad spending,” said EFF Staff Attorney Aaron Mackey. Justice didn’t comment.
The FTC is watching data portability issues closely, as they tie into consumer and antitrust, Consumer Protection Bureau Director Andrew Smith told the agency’s virtual workshop Tuesday. The FTC is following the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s recent announcement of a potential rulemaking under the Dodd-Frank Act Section 1033, which “authorizes the CFPB to create rules enhancing consumers’ access to their financial data,” Smith said. Data portability can increase consumer choice and control and foster competition by lowering barriers to entry, he said. increased data flows raise questions about how to properly ensure data is secured, he added. Data portability could eventually help balance network effects of platforms, said Karolina Mojzesowicz, European Commission deputy head-Unit for Data Protection, Directorate General for Justice and Consumers. Consumers are more sensitive about their data and more proactive about looking for services offering data portability, she said.
Forty-nine percent of iPhone owners who are heads of U.S. broadband households own at least one connected health product, versus 34% of Android owners, Parks Associates reported Monday. The most commonly adopted connected health wearables are smartwatches, fitness trackers and GPS sports watches. Consumers also report high demand for connected blood pressure cuffs, Wi-Fi weight scales and connected thermometers. COVID-19 has had a “dramatic impact” on consumer health and fitness markets, said analyst Kristen Hanich.
NCTA disputed Alliance for Automotive Innovation comments on risk to 5.9 GHz safety applications from unlicensed use (see 2009170033). “The substantial technical record -- based on testing, risk-informed interference analysis, and a city-scale simulation -- decisively concludes that unlicensed use in 5.9 GHz will not cause [such] harmful interference,” a cable spokesperson emailed. “In-home wireless connectivity is more important to more Americans than ever before. The FCC should move forward and unleash the 5.9 GHz band, which will deliver gigabit Wi-Fi and much-needed unlicensed capacity to consumers by the end of this year.”
Sumo Logic priced its initial public offering at $22 a share and closed 22.2% higher at $26.88 on its first trading day Thursday. The IPO pricing was a dollar above the high end of Sumo’s estimated $17-$21 range in a Sept. 8 registration statement. Sumo’s "continuous intelligence" software platform “scans an average of 873 petabytes of data per day and an average of 18.6 billion events per second,” said the statement. Its data analytics “provide actionable intelligence around what happened, why it happened, and how to resolve business, technology, or cybersecurity issues,” it said. Its 2,100 customers include Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, Major League Baseball and Netflix, it said.
The first venture capital investments in green companies from Amazon’s $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund, announced Thursday, are “our first round” of cash infusions, Head-Worldwide Sustainability Kara Hurst told an Axios webinar Thursday. “We’re going to continue to look at what kinds of companies and technologies will have a direct impact on Amazon." Amazon and green group Global Optimism co-founded the fund to support sustainable businesses and technologies that will help meet the company's commitment of becoming “net-zero carbon” by 2040. AT&T, meanwhile, targets carbon neutrality by 2035 (see 2009170025). Amazon recently revised its forecast of becoming 100% reliant on renewable energy by 2025, five years earlier than the previous projection, because “where we can go faster, we can accelerate,” said Hurst. “We’re going very big in wind and solar. We’ve done over 91 projects to date. We’ll just continue to ramp up." The e-tailer also has studied ways of making packaging more climate-friendly for more than a decade, she said.
The Economics Bureau is expanding its merger retrospective program, the FTC announced Thursday. The bureau will address antitrust questions not “extensively studied in previous retrospective merger analyses” and will expand to analyze industries “not already studied,” it said. Initiatives include an annual report on lessons from retrospective studies, the agency said. It will evaluate price pressure “measures that have been proposed for evaluating horizontal mergers, vertical mergers, and full-fledged merger simulation.” It plans to devote major conference sessions to the topic.
Monoprice recalled Category 6 Ethernet bulk CMR communications cable used in home and office networks for not meeting UL 1666 voluntary safety standards, posing a fire hazard when exposed to a flame, said the Consumer Product Safety Commission Wednesday. Consumers should stop using the recalled cables and contact Monoprice to schedule a free visit to inspect and replace the cable. It was sold at the Monoprice website, Amazon and through installation companies December 2018-February 2020 for $20-$130.
COVID-19 is vastly accelerating the growth of e-commerce, said Brie Carere, FedEx chief marketing and communications officer, on a fiscal Q1 investor call Tuesday evening. Pre-pandemic, FedEx projected the U.S. would surpass 100 million daily packages by 2026, she said. “We now project that the U.S. domestic parcel market will hit this mark by calendar year 2023, pulling volume projections forward by three years.” E-commerce activity “remains elevated,” though it has declined as a share of total retail from its “apex” in April, said Carere. FedEx is “working hard to set expectations with our e-commerce merchants” for the holiday selling season, she said. “I think they are very well aware that this is going to be a peak like no other.” The stock closed 5.8% higher Wednesday at $250.30.