At Davos, tech CEOs laid out their vision for AI’s world domination

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. This week’s edition is a team effort: my colleague Heather Stewart reports on the plans for AI’s world domination at Davos; I examine how huge investments have followed AI companies with little to their names but drama and dreams; and Nick Robins-Early spotlights how lax regulation of autonomous driving in Texas allowed Tesla to thrive.When they weren’t discussing Donald Trump, delegates at the World Economic Forum last week were being dazzled by the prospects for artificial intelligence.Up and down the main street of the Swiss Alps town, almost every shopfront was temporarily emblazoned with the neon slogan of a tech firm – or a consultancy promising to tell executives how to incorporate AI into their business. Cloudflare’s wood-panelled HQ urged delegates to “connect, protect and build together”, and Wipro’s shouted: “Dream Solve Prove Repeat

‘Wake up to the risks of AI, they are almost here,’ Anthropic boss warns

Humanity is entering a phase of artificial intelligence development that will “test who we are as a species”, the boss of the AI startup Anthropic has said, arguing that the world needs to “wake up” to the risks.Dario Amodei, a co-founder and the chief executive of the company behind the hit chatbot Claude, voiced his fears in a 19,000-word essay titled “The adolescence of technology”.Describing the arrival of highly powerful AI systems as potentially imminent, he wrote: “I believe we are entering a rite of passage, both turbulent and inevitable, which will test who we are as a species.”Amodei added: “Humanity is about to be handed almost unimaginable power, and it is deeply unclear whether our social, political, and technological systems possess the maturity to wield it.”The tech entrepreneur, whose company is reportedly worth $350bn (£255bn), said his essay was an attempt to “jolt people awake” because the world needed to “wake up” to the need for action on AI safety

Tech giants head to landmark US trial over social media addiction claims

For the first time, a huge group of parents, teens and school districts is taking on the world’s most powerful social media companies in open court, accusing the tech giants of intentionally designing their products to be addictive. The blockbuster legal proceedings may see multiple CEOs, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, face harsh questioning.A long-awaited series of trials kicks off in Los Angeles superior court on Tuesday, in which hundreds of US families will allege that Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube’s platforms harm children. Once young people are hooked, the plaintiffs allege, they fall prey to depression, eating disorders, self-harm and other mental health issues. Approximately 1,600 plaintiffs are included in the proceedings, involving more than 350 families and 250 school districts

California governor Gavin Newsom accuses TikTok of suppressing content critical of Trump

California governor Gavin Newsom has accused TikTok of suppressing content critical of president Donald Trump, as he launched a review of the platform’s content moderation practices to determine if they violated state law, even as the platform blamed a systems failure for the issues.The step comes after TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, said last week it had finalised a deal to set up a majority US-owned joint venture that will secure US data, to avoid a US ban on the short video app used by more than 200 million Americans.“Following TikTok’s sale to a Trump-aligned business group, our office has received reports, and independently confirmed instances, of suppressed content critical of President Trump,” Newsom’s office said on X on Monday, without elaborating.“Gavin Newsom is launching a review of this conduct and is calling on the California Department of Justice to determine whether it violates California law,” it added.In response, a representative for the the joint venture for TikTok in the US pointed to a prior statement that blamed a data centre power outage, adding, “It would be inaccurate to report that this is anything but the technical issues we’ve transparently confirmed

Georgia leads push to ban datacenters used to power America’s AI boom

Lawmakers in several states are exploring passing laws that would put statewide bans in place on building new datacenters as the issue of the power-hungry facilities has moved to the center of economic and environmental concerns in the US.In Georgia a state lawmaker has introduced a bill proposing what could become the first statewide moratorium on new datacenters in America. The bill is one of at least three statewide moratoriums on datacenters introduced in state legislatures in the last week as Maryland and Oklahoma lawmakers are also considering similar measures.But it is Georgia that is quickly becoming ground zero in the fight against untrammelled growth of datacenters – which are notorious for using huge amounts of energy and water – as they power the emerging industry of artificial intelligence.The Georgia bill seeks to halt all such projects until March of next year “to allow state, county and municipal-level officials time to set necessary policies for regulating datacenters … which permanently alter the landscape of our state”, said bill sponsor and state Democratic legislator Ruwa Romman

EU launches inquiry into X over sexually explicit images made by Grok AI

The European Commission has launched an investigation into Elon Musk’s X over the production of sexually explicit images and the spreading of possible child sexual abuse material by the platform’s AI chatbot, Grok.The formal inquiry, launched on Monday, also extends an investigation into X’s recommender systems, algorithms that help users discover new content.Grok has sparked international outrage by allowing users to digitally strip women and children and put them into provocative poses. Grok AI generated about 3m sexualised images in less than two weeks, including 23,000 that appeared to depict children, according to researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate.The commission said its investigation would “assess whether the company properly assessed and mitigated risks” stemming from Grok’s functionalities in the EU, including risks on the sharing of illegal content such as manipulated sexually explicit images and “content that may amount to” child sexual abuse material