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Chinese and U.S. flags flutter outside the building of an American company in Beijing, China, January 21, 2021.
American and Chinese companies set new standards
It’s not every day that companies from the United States and China work together. But on Sept. 6, a new coalition of big tech companies representing both global powers announced that they have joined forces to develop new security standards for large language models.
The companies include China’s Ant Group, Tencent, and Baidu along with US firms Microsoft, Google, and Meta. The effort is part of the World Digital Technology Academy, a Geneva-based group established in 2023 under a United Nations framework. The efforts aim to reduce risks throughout the AI supply chain, such as protecting against data leaks and model tampering.
The collaboration represents a rare collaboration between American and Chinese companies at a time when their respective governments are battling over AI dominance and control while systematically blocking one another’s companies from accessing key technologies. While it’s unlikely that this partnership will ease tensions between the American and Chinese governments, perhaps it’ll help forge a way for future collaboration between their industries.
Lightning and USB-C cables are seen with European Union flag reflected on Apple iPhone in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on September 25, 2021.
How the EU designed the new iPhone
Earlier this week, Apple unveiled the iPhone 15. The camera is better. The design is sleeker. The glass is less breakable. It comes in pink.
But the detail that caught our eye was down at the bottom: the charging port has changed from a lightning port to a USB-C port (that’s the one that looks, to us at least, like an M-dash).
The story of why Apple made that change takes us not to Cupertino, but to Brussels. Last October, the EU passed a law that required most kinds of portable electronics sold in Europe to have the same charging port – the USB-C.
The move will reduce the Babel of incompatible chargers to one single standard. Smartphones and tablets have to make the change by 2024, other devices by 2026.
Tech companies grumbled about it – they had refused to agree on a standard voluntarily – but ultimately they went along with it. Why?
Because they didn’t want to get shut out of a market of 450 million consumers (the largest among advanced economies) and it made little sense to make different phones for different regions.
The USB-C story is a nice example of how the EU, lacking tech juggernauts of its own, is nevertheless trying to shape the global technology industry as a “consumer first” regulator.
While the US and China duke it out for supremacy in both hardware and software, Europe has developed some of the strictest laws in the world governing online privacy, content moderation, and competition.
Just last week the EU unveiled another set of regulations targeting the six biggest tech companies with new competition rules.
This is the same approach that Europe is taking when it comes to AI — seeking to jump out in front with smart regulation rather than the most advanced AI modules as such.
For it to continue to work, Brussels has to bet that the allure of its market is greater than the bother of adapting to strict rules. So far it’s working.
US summer travel may be easier than you think, says Pete Buttigieg
Memorial Day weekend signals that the unofficial start of the summer travel season is upon us. And if last year’s travel woes were any indication (paging: Southwest Airlines), we can expect long lines at TSA, full planes stranded on the tarmac, and lots and lots of cancellations. But, according to US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, things are not as dire as they may seem.
“The good news is that after a very disruptive year last year in terms of the struggles that the airlines had, things are catching up this year. In 2023, the preliminary data show cancellation rates under 2%.” In an extensive interview with Ian Bremmer for this week’s GZERO World. Secretary Buttigieg pointed the finger at airline companies for many of the travel hiccups that made news last year. Issues like staffing and air traffic control are not the main cause, not even close to being the main cause, of flight cancellations and delays. We've been working with the airlines, pressing the airlines, and they have delivered a lot of improvements with what's under their control.”
And, it turns out, quite a bit is under airlines’ control, including that the law requires they reimburse passengers for canceled flights. If that’s news to you, you’re not alone.