U.S. retailer Walmart is reported to be outdoing Amazon in the battle for Indian online consumers, proving its 2018 $16bn ecommerce deal to attain a 77% stake in e-commerce site Flipkart was not a costly mistake. Although neither company is making money from its online operations in India, Flipkart’s valuation increased to $38bn in 2021 after it received $4.8bn in equity, prompting Walmart to be seen as the ecommerce leader in India — with 48% market share last year according to Redseer Strategy, compared to Amazon's 26%. Abhishek Goyal of data firm Tracxn said the deal proved to "help Walmart compete with Amazon". By contrast, Walmart and Amazon have both lost market share to local conglomerates such as Reliance Industries and the Tata Group, which are active and successful in India. E-commerce sales in the country are expected to triple to $135bn from 2020 to 2025, similar to Southeast Asia.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) by students for academic purposes is growing rapidly, with schools and universities forced to rethink how they conduct tuition and academic testing. Many students are using AI tools to help with academic work, with some students using it to cheat on assignments and exams. However, educators and students are also cautiously experimenting with the use of generative AI to enhance lessons, and questioning whether it is possible to use AI in education without undercutting the most important features of human learning. One of the major challenges with generative AI is accuracy, including hallucination, the fabrication of facts and the black box effect, which produces false information and creates a vacuum for content to be reframed. There is also evidence that AI-written text can be biased and learned from internet content, including sexism, racism and political partisanship.
China's cyber regulator, The Cyberspace Administration of China, has announced that US chip maker Micron Technology poses a significant security risk to China's critical information infrastructure supply chain and has ordered critical national infrastructure operators to stop purchasing its products and banned it from China's market. The ban, viewed as retaliation against US efforts to curb China's access to technology, follows a seven-week investigation into Micron by the CAC. China is an important market for Micron, with China and Hong Kong generating 25% of its $30.8bn revenue last year.
The Chinese Cyberspace Administration has prohibited the country's operators from buying US chipmaker Micron Technology's products over concerns of “serious network security risks”. The ban is the first big measure taken against a US semiconductor group and follows a seven-week investigation into Idaho-based Micron by the CAC, seen as retaliation for US efforts to curb China’s access to key technology. Washington introduced extensive chip export controls last October and since then, the Netherlands and Japan have followed. China is a crucial market for Micron and analysts have warned that Beijing’s restrictions could even provoke Chinese firms that provide “critical information infrastructure” to eliminate Micron from their supply chains.
China has banned its largest infrastructure operators from buying memory chips from US firm Micron Technology, in what looks set to be the latest chapter in the ongoing technology war between the two nations. Beijing said Micron's products "pose significant security risks to China's critical information infrastructure". However, experts suggest the embargo may have limited impact, as Micron is more diversified in terms of income and its chips are primarily deployed in consumer electronics rather than the telecommunications and transportation sectors.
Meta (formerly Facebook) has been given a €1.2bn ($1.34bn) from the Irish Data Protection Commission over violating its rules regarding the transfer of user data to the US. Five months was given to the company to eliminate any future transfer of personal data to the US, while six months was given for the processing of previously sent European citizens’ personal information in the US to cease. Meta President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, responded to the ruling by stating it was flawed, unjustified, and praised that it is a dangerous precedent for the various companies that transfer data between the EU and US.
Facebook’s parent company Meta has been fined €1.2bn ($1.4bn) by the European Union for contravening data protection laws regarding the transfer of data to the US. The bloc ruled that Meta’s legal basis for the transfer, known as standardised contractual clauses, was insufficient. It is unlikely to engender much sympathy, due to increasing privacy concerns and a global fear of overseas institutions’ use of citizens’ data. The fine is a record for the EU, but is still only a quarter of the maximum possible financial penalty and amounts to less than 1% of Meta's market capitalisation.
TikTok is suing the state of Montana over its decision to ban the social media app on national security concerns from the start of 2022. Owned by China’s ByteDance, the app alleges the move is “unlawful” and “unconstitutional” and violates its first amendment rights to free speech and US regulations around interstate commerce. Montana would become the first US state to prohibit downloads of the app, unless the lawsuit challenging the ban prevails.
