Britain’s antitrust authority opened an investigation into Alphabet, the parent company of Google, and Anthropic, an artificial intelligence firm, on Thursday.
TakeAway Points:
- Britain’s antitrust watchdog launched a probe into Google parent Alphabet’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic over competition concerns.
- Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been scrutinising Alphabet’s relationship with Anthropic since July, when it began seeking views on whether the deal could undermine competition in the UK.
- The regulator has set Dec. 19 as the deadline for its Phase 1 decision, at which point it will decide whether to carry the investigation forward.
- Microsoft’s professional networking site LinkedIn was fined 310 million euros ($335 million) by the senior European Union privacy authority on Thursday for its targeted advertising tactics.
UK watchdog investigates Alphabet
Almost two years after Microsoft-backed OpenAI triggered an AI boom with the release of ChatGPT, regulators around the world have been increasingly concerned by deals struck between big tech companies and smaller startups.
Anthropic, which was co-founded by former OpenAI executives and siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, last year said it had secured a $500 million investment from Alphabet, which promised to invest another $1.5 billion over time.
The startup also uses Alphabet’s Google Cloud services as part of its operations.
Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been scrutinising Alphabet’s relationship with Anthropic since July, when it began seeking views on whether the deal could undermine competition in the UK.
The regulator has set Dec. 19 as the deadline for its Phase 1 decision, at which point it will decide whether to carry the investigation forward.
A spokesperson for Anthropic said the company would cooperate with the CMA’s investigation and provide a “complete picture” of its partnership with Google.
“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” the spokesperson said.
An Alphabet spokesperson said it was committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does; we don’t demand exclusive tech rights,” the person added.
EU privacy regulator fines LinkedIn 310 mln euro
The lead European Union privacy regulator on Thursday said it had imposed a 310 million euro ($335 million) fine on Microsoft’s professional networking platform LinkedIn over its targeted advertising practices.
The Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) is the European Union’s lead privacy regulator for most of the top U.S. internet firms due to the location of their EU operations in the country.
“The processing of personal data without an appropriate legal basis is a clear and serious violation of a data subject’s fundamental right to data protection,” DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a statement.
Microsoft last year said it expected to take a charge of about $425 million for a potential fine from the Irish regulator for its LinkedIn unit.
LinkedIn, in a statement, said: “While we believe we have been in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we are working to ensure our ad practices meet this decision by the IDPC’s deadline.”
