DeepSeek, a Chinese AI chatbot, is prioritizing research over profit.
TakeAway Points:
- Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek is choosing to focus on research over revenue.
- British officials hold private talks with their U.S. counterparts to resolve concerns that the UK is trying to force Apple to build a backdoor into Americans’ encrypted data.
- SoftBank plans to transform a former Sharp LCD panel plant in Japan into a data centre in collaboration with OpenAI.
- Samsung SDI said it would issue new shares worth 2 trillion won ($1.38 billion) in a regulatory filing.
- Google’s algorithm modifications have resulted in a sharp decline in reader traffic, putting several independent media outlets in Turkey at risk of closing.
- The U.S. tech giant Meta is being sued by France’s top publishing and authors’ unions for allegedly utilizing copyright-protected information extensively and without permission to train its artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek is choosing to focus on research over revenue, as its billionaire founder has decided not to follow Silicon Valley rivals by taking advantage of a sudden jump in sales, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
Last month, revenues were enough to cover ongoing costs for the first time, the report said, citing two people with knowledge of its development.
UK, US hold private talks to resolve Apple encryption order
British officials held private talks with their U.S. counterparts to resolve concerns that UK is trying to force Apple to build a backdoor into Americans’ encrypted data, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The report about private discussions comes after Apple removed its most-advanced security encryption for cloud data, known as Advanced Data Protection, in Britain last month.
SoftBank, OpenAI to build AI data centre in Japan
SoftBank plans to transform a former Sharp LCD panel plant in Japan into a data centre for operating artificial intelligence agents developed in collaboration with U.S.-based ChatGPT creator, OpenAI, according to a Nikkei report on Friday.
The Japanese telecom giant intends to purchase the facility and part of the land at Sharp’s closed TV LCD factory in Osaka for about 100 billion yen ($677.05 million).
Samsung SDI to issue new shares and invest in U.S. joint venture with GM
Samsung SDI said it would issue new shares worth 2 trillion won ($1.38 billion) in a regulatory filing on Friday and use the proceeds to invest in a U.S. joint venture with General Motors and expand its factory capacity in Hungary among others.
Turkey’s independent news websites face closure risk after Google changes
Several independent media outlets in Turkey face a potential risk of closure after algorithm changes made by Google led to a significant reduction in reader traffic, a joint statement from the outlets said on Thursday.
They said Google’s algorithm changes since the end of January had wiped out the vast majority of reader traffic to their websites, previously directed through Google’s “Discover” and “News” tools, and had harmed their finances.
French publishers and authors file lawsuit against Meta in AI case
France’s leading publishing and authors’ associations have filed a lawsuit against U.S. tech giant Meta for allegedly using copyright-protected content on a massive scale without authorisation to train its artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
The National Publishing Union (SNE), the leading professional publishing association, the National Union of Authors and Composers (SNAC) and the Society of Men of Letters (SGDL), which defend the interests of authors, told a press conference on Wednesday they had filed a complaint against Meta earlier this week in a Paris court for alleged copyright infringement and economic “parasitism”.
The three associations believe that Meta, which owns the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp social networks, was illegally using copyrighted content to train its AI models.
“We are witnessing monumental looting,” said Maia Bensimon, general delegate of SNAC.
“It’s a bit of a David versus Goliath battle,” SNE Director General Renaud Lefebvre said. “It’s a procedure that serves as an example,” he added.
This is the first such action against an AI giant in France but there is a wave of lawsuits notably in the United States against Meta and other tech companies by authors, visual artists, music publishers and other copyright owners over the data used to train their generative AI systems.
In the United States, Meta is notably the target of a lawsuit filed in 2023 by American actress and author Sarah Silverman and other authors. The plaintiffs argue that Meta misused their books to train its large language model Llama.
American novelist Christopher Farnsworth filed a similar lawsuit against Meta in October 2024.
OpenAI, the company behind the AI tool ChatGPT, also faces a series of similar lawsuits in the United States, Canada, and India.
