EU investigating Google’s use of online content for AI purposes; problems with Microsoft’s Copilot – business live

Newsflash: The European Commission has opened an antitrust probe into whether Google is breaching EU competition rules by using online content from web publishers and its YouTube service for artificial intelligence purposes.The EC says:The investigation will notably examine whether Google is distorting competition by imposing unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators, or by granting itself privileged access to such content, thereby placing developers of rival AI models at a disadvantage.The Commission is concerned that Google has used web publishers’ content without permission or compensation, both to create AI-powered services and to train its AI models.It explains:The content of web publishers to provide generative AI-powered services (‘AI Overviews’ and ‘AI Mode’) on its search results pages without appropriate compensation to publishers and without offering them the possibility to refuse such use of their content. AI Overviews shows AI-generated summaries responsive to a user’s search query above organic results, while AI Mode is a search tab similar to a chatbot answering users’ queries in a conversational style

Britons face higher chocolate prices but average cost of Christmas dinner falls

The festive season may be less merry for those with a sweet tooth this year, as the price of chocolate has risen by nearly a fifth, according to research.Chocolate prices in Great Britain rose 18.4% on a year earlier in November, analysts at the market research firm Worldpanel found.However, the study showed the average cost of a Christmas dinner for four people has fallen by a penny to £32.46

EU opens investigation into Google’s use of online content for AI models

The EU has opened an investigation to assess whether Google is breaching European competition rules in its use of online content from publishers and YouTube creators for artificial intelligence.The European Commission said on Tuesday it will examine whether the US tech company, which runs the Gemini AI model and is owned by Alphabet, is putting rival AI owners at a “disadvantage”.“The investigation will notably examine whether Google is distorting competition by imposing unfair terms and conditions on publishers and content creators, or by granting itself privileged access to such content, thereby placing developers of rival AI models at a disadvantage,” the commission said.It said it was concerned that Google may have used content from web publishers to generate AI-powered services on its search results pages without appropriate compensation to publishers and without offering them the possibility to refuse such use of their content.The commission said it was also concerned as to whether Google has used content uploaded to YouTube to train its own generative AI models without offering creators compensation or the possibility to refuse

Trump clears way for Nvidia to sell powerful AI chips to China

Donald Trump has cleared the way for Nvidia to begin selling its powerful AI computer chips to China, marking a win for the chip maker and its CEO, Jensen Huang, who has spent months lobbying the White House to open up sales in the country.Before Monday’s announcement, the US had prohibited sales of Nvidia’s most advanced chips to China over national security concerns.Trump posted to Truth Social on Monday: “I have informed President Xi, of China, that the United States will allow NVIDIA to ship its H200 products to approved customers in China, and other Countries, under conditions that allow for continued strong National Security. President Xi responded positively!”Trump said the Department of Commerce was finalising the details and that he was planning to make the same offer to other chip companies, including Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel. Nvidia’s H200 chips are the company’s second most powerful, and far more advanced than the H20, which was originally designed as a lower-powered model for the Chinese market that would not breach restrictions, but which the US banned anyway in April

The Breakdown | Pirates hope lure of Cornish Camelot will tempt franchise bargain hunters

Champ club have a plan to reach the top flight and hope investors will recognise their untapped potentialIt is too early to declare it the feelgood British sports story of the decade. There remains much work to do and a lot more money to raise. But to be in the tented clubhouse at the Mennaye Field in Penzance is to feel a flicker of something genuinely interesting. While the flame may be faint, the dream of a top-level Cornwall-based professional rugby team is still alive.Regular readers may recall embarking down this coastal path before

Sabastian Sawe: the marathon star on a mission to be drug tested as much as possible | Sean Ingle

Last week the world’s best marathon runner, Sabastian Sawe, looked me straight in the eye and told me “doping is a cancer”. Then he insisted he was clean. You hear such oaths and affirmations all the time. But, uniquely, Sawe recently backed up those words by asking the Athletics Integrity Unit to test him as much as possible.You see, Sawe believed he could break the world record in Berlin in September