Leila Abboud

Vice President JD Vance warned Europe not to adopt “overly precautionary” regulations on artificial intelligence as America and the UK refused to join dozens of other countries in signing a declaration to ensure that the technology was “safe, secure and trustworthy”.  The two countries held back from signing the communique agreed by about 60 states at the AI Action summit in Paris, dealing a setback to efforts led by French President Emmanuel Macron to build international consensus around the technology.

Multimillion-euro fines can force Big Tech companies to change their behaviour despite their deep pockets, according to French Competition Authority President Isabelle de Silva. She does not believe sanctions could be played down as merely “the cost of doing business,” breaking away from the consensus in the European Union, where competition officials have struggled for years to contain the market power of Big Tech despite levying billions of euros of penalties. Since June 2021, her office has hit Google with €720 million in fines in two separate cases.