US Department of Justice Drops Proposal to Force Google To Sell AI Investments

Google is no longer obliged to follow an order by the American Department of Justice that called for the sale of its AI investments.

The news was shared on Friday after the DOJ dropped this order for tech giants including Google and Anthropic to enhance rivalry in the digital search market.

However, the Department of Justice and 38 different attorney generals are continues pursuing a new court order that forces Google to sell the Chrome browser and take different measures aimed to address what the judge called an unlawful search monopoly. These claims were mentioned in the documents filed in the state capital.

The prosecutors shared how the dream of Americans is to have higher values than just usual cheap goods that are offered for free online. The values would be freedom of speech, freedom of innovation, freedom of association, and freedom to compete inside the market that’s undistorted by an upper hand that serves as a monopoly in the industry.

A representative from Google shared how such sweeping proposals would continue over time and can result in serious dangers to the US economy and overall national security.

The matter is coming at a time when the US President Donald Trump shared his two cents on the issue and how crackdown against big tech giants would continue during his initial term as they were from the previous Biden administration.

Today, Android maker Google has a minor share worth billions in Anthropic. Therefore, losing out on such investments would provide a serious competitive advantage to OpenAI and its leading tech partner Microsoft, as per Anthropic’s spokesperson inside the courtroom.

Evidence attained by prosecutors since drafting out recommendations in November displayed a serious risk that barred Google from a host of AI investments. This might result in unintended consequences, included in this evolving AI space. Moreover, they asked Google to be ready to provide prior notice to government officials regarding future investments in the world of generative AI.

Google has already stated in the past that it would be appealing such a decision. It shared separate proposals about loosening agreements linked to Apple and many more that would set Google as the default option in the world of search.

Such blockbuster cases are one of the many American antitrust cases against tech giants like Apple, Amazon, and Meta. They would be facing serious allegations of keeping illegal monopolies in check through respective markets.

Since the reelection face, Google has made it clear in such cases that the DOJ’s approach would hobble the firm’s capabilities to compete in AI and put the entire US economic and tech leadership in jeopardy.

So many different measures were proposed by the prosecutors in November, and they remain still with several tweaks. For instance, a requirement that Google be more transparent about its search data now claims that it can go as far as to charge a minimal fee to get access.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: Brands and Retailers are Slowly Leaving TikTok and Reducing their Budgeting on the Platform
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Brands and Retailers are Slowly Leaving TikTok and Reducing their Budgeting on the Platform

According to a new report by DigiDay, a lot of brands dropped off TikTok in Q1 2025 probably due to uncertainty related to TikTok’s future in the US. In Q3 2024, 88% of retailers and brands were using TikTok, which reduced to only 77% in Q1 2025. 87% of the brands and retailers also said that they have some of the marketing budget for TikTok in Q3 2024. But now in Q1 2025, only 70% of brands and retailers reported having some marketing budget for TikTok.

29% of the brands reported spending a large amount of money on TikTok in Q1 2024 and now only 12% have large amounts of budget allocated for TikTok in Q1 2025. In Q1 2024, 73% of brands and retailers were using TikTok, but it increased to 88% in Q3 2024, and now it's again going towards decline.

Read next: The Real Reason AI Can’t Solve Nobel-Worthy Problems: It’s Not Creative Enough!
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

The Real Reason AI Can’t Solve Nobel-Worthy Problems: It’s Not Creative Enough!

Many of the founders of AI companions make many bold claims, which sometimes don't even make sense, but this new take by Hugging Face’s co-founder, Thomas Wolf, makes some sense. In his post recently published to X, he said that AI is just becoming a yes-man, which doesn't have any capabilities to think outside the box and be creative. It cannot do any creative problem solving, the type which wins Nobel Prizes. He added that he fears not much AI development can make it capable of creative problem solving.

He said that many people think that Einstein or Newton were geniuses because they were good students. But that was not the case because thinking outside the box was what made them a genius. If we want our AIs to behave like Einstein or Newton, it is important that we make them capable of thinking and asking questions no one has dared to raise. This claim by Thomas Wolf is quite opposite from Sam Altman and Dario Amode, who have said that super-intelligent AI can help in scientific discovery and help cure cancer.

Wolf added that AI is just filling the gaps about what humans already know and it is not generating any knowledge by connecting unrelated facts. François Chollet, ex-Google engineer, also said that AI can only memorize reasoning patterns but cannot form reasoning on its own. He said that AI labs are just creating very obedient students and not any scientific revolutionaries. AI cannot pose any questions which go beyond the data that has already been fed to it.

He added that AI needs new patterns so it can ask non-obvious questions and make bold approaches. Evaluation crisis in AI is one of the biggest reasons why it cannot achieve out-of-the-box reasoning. AI needs to be developed in a way that doesn't only strive for general knowledge, but ask questions no one has thought about before.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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• AI Tools Revolutionize Markets, Driving Growth in Development and Design While Freelance Platforms Struggle

by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

AI Tools Revolutionize Markets, Driving Growth in Development and Design While Freelance Platforms Struggle

A new report by SimilarWeb titled the Global AI Tracker report looks at different traffic patterns among AI tool categories, and highlights a 72% YoY growth seen in DevOps and code completion tools. On the other hand, traditional educational tech platforms declined by 20% because of an increase in usage of AI alternatives. The report says that AI-powered developer tools are doing the best right now and have strong market fit. Replit grew by 67% YoY while Cursor grew by 97% YoY, which shows that AI is quickly impacting software development.

On the other hand, the digital freelance market is shrinking and the traffic to major platforms has dropped by 20%. Some of the major platforms which saw the decrease in traffic are Freelancer (-15%), Fiverr (-22%) and Upwork (-18%). This shows that many businesses are preferring AI tools over human freelancers for tasks like basic design and content creation. Even though there is a rise seen in AI-generated art, the traditional design platforms are still doing well. AI image generation tools have grown 8%, but traditional graphic design creation platforms have seen a significant increase. There was an 18% growth on Canva, 19% on Adobe Express and 8% on Figma. These platforms are also using AI in a lot of features, but they aren't going to get replaced anytime soon.

Traditional EdTech platforms are seeing a huge decline, with Chegg and Course Hero seeing -58% and -59% decline respectively. There are a lot of AI-powered alternatives available now, so now no one relies on crowdsourced study materials and human tutors. The biggest growths are seen by newcomers and not tech giants. 8658% growth was seen by DeepSeek, which absolutely outperformed 9% growth of OpenAI in the same time period. Lovable also had good growth and this shows that niche challengers in the AI market are rapidly growing.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Microsoft Spots ‘Malvertising Campaign’ Targeting User and Enterprise Devices

Software giant Microsoft just shared alarming news about a malvertising campaign that attacked both user and enterprise devices.

The tech giant shared how two different websites were offering pirated means for video streaming that would redirect the users to malware, using ads. The number of users impacted was outlined to be in the thousands.

The dangerous advertising campaign affected up to million devices around the globe, in what was called out as an opportunistic attack to steal data, the head of Microsoft’s safety decision mentioned in its latest report.

The firm was also able to trace infections to two different video stream domains and how ads were redirecting people to scam sites showing tech support. This would forward the users to other pages like Dropbox, GitHub, and Discord that were seen hosting this malware.

The company failed to go into the details on what such scam pages looked like, but they were motivating people to install programs that were looting the system and disguised as malware. They could attain user data or even take over their phones or computers, the report shared.

The attack also made efforts to disguise how malicious it was by utilizing signed software certificates when delivering some real files via the starting payload. The first stage of this campaign was outlined to be the middle of January this year. They were digitally signed and featured newly designed certificates. Total of 12 such certificates were outlined, all of which were revoked.

Such attacks were created to deliver another stage of payload that can collect the data from the PC and return it back to the server belonging to the hacker. It would also have the ability to successfully download more malware onto a device that enables hackers to spy on various browsing actions and even communication with active browsers such as Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.

The tech giant also mentioned how they saw the attack first unfold starting early December. The campaign reportedly affected a wide number of companies and industries, alongside user devices. This highlighted different attacks, it shared.

GitHub that is under the ownership of Microsoft seems to now have deleted the pages hosting the malicious campaign. As per Microsoft, it's built-in Defender for Windows can highlight and flag malware that is used for attacks.

Read next: Apple Given Three Month Deadline to Enable Sideloading on iOS Devices in Brazil
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Apple Given Three Month Deadline to Enable Sideloading on iOS Devices in Brazil

Brazil is making it clear to Apple that it needs the tech giant to follow the right anti-trust measures for it to work effectively in the country.

This is why the Cupertino firm was given a 90-day deadline to enable sideloading on iOS devices. The news comes after the EU made the iPhone maker implement serious changes to how the App Store can work for users in the region.

As shared by the Brazilian media outlet called Valor Economico, the country’s federal judge issued a statement on this matter yesterday. They want Apple to open up the entire iOS ecosystem for third-party applications in the country, similar to how it’s functioning across the European Union.

The judge shared how the limitations imposed by the firm on different developers might jeopardize the arrival of new competition in this domain. In November of 2024, we saw another local antitrust regulator in the country rule that Apple could not stop developers from selling material and distributing apps outside the App Store.

The company has just a 20-day deadline to comply with the rules, or else it would get a fine of more than $40K a day. It’s not shocking that Apple chose to appeal the ruling as that gave the tech giant more time to discuss this case. During that moment, Apple shared that such requests to roll out changes at the App Store were not urgent and how it would negatively impact the company’s business model. Meanwhile, in February this year, Apple also had to witness a public hearing in the country regarding the case.

For now, Judge Pablo Zuniga wants Apple to implement the outlined changes by three months. He says that despite what the company has to say, they’ve already complied in other countries in the same way. Therefore, there should be no reason why it cannot do the same in Brazil.

The entire scrutiny against the iPhone maker started after Latin American-based e-commerce firm Mercado Libre blasted the company for making developers provide digital products in apps to their respective apps to utilize Apple’s customized payment means. Other firms like Match, which also has Tinder and Epic Games under its belt, were seen filing a similar complaint against the firm with the regulator from Brazil.

Meanwhile, one spokesperson from Apple explained to the Brazilian media outlet that it only believes in celebrating competition and vibrancy in the market. It is facing competition with different companies wherever it functions. So it’s always reinforcing the commitment it has to users. Moreover, Apple mentioned how such changes will affect the privacy and security of users with iOS devices, so it will be rolling out another appeal against the decision.

Sideloading on iOS is a controversial subject for Apple, and it makes sense why Brazil wants the company to work like how it is now in the EU.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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• Terrorism Affects 68 Countries in 2024, With Sahel and Pakistan Among the Hardest Hit

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Terrorism Affects 68 Countries in 2024, With Sahel and Pakistan Among the Hardest Hit

Terrorism is one of the biggest problems in the world right now and is a threat to a lot of countries around the world. The number of countries that experienced terrorism attacks in 2024 rose to 68 as compared to 58 in the previous year. In 2024, 34 countries started going towards better conditions but 45 countries started going towards worse conditions. This is the highest number of countries deteriorating because of terrorism since 2018.

According to the data from the Global Terrorism Index, Sahel (a biogeographical region in Africa) is the top epicenter for terrorism in 2024 as well as in 2023. 3,885 deaths were reported due to terrorism in the region, which is almost tenfold since 2019. There was a 94% increase in terrorism-related deaths in Niger, with 930 people being dead because of terrorism.

Data also shows that Pakistan (a South Asian country) is the second most affected country by terrorism, experiencing a 45% increase in terrorism-related deaths over the past year, totaling 1,081 fatalities. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has emerged as the fastest-growing extremist organization globally, responsible for 52% of these deaths in Pakistan during 2024.

Terrorist attacks have also increased in Western democracies, with 67 total incidents recorded in Europe in 2024. The most common type of terrorism right now in Europe is lone actor terrorism by teenagers who do not have any ties with terrorist groups. These teenagers consume problematic and terrorism-related content and become radicalized. Gaming environments, the dark web, fringe forums and encrypted messaging apps also play a role in giving rise to teenagers who perform terrorist attacks.

From a broader perspective, terrorism is not just an isolated issue but a consequence of deeper political and economic manipulations. Governments and power players hold a moral responsibility to genuinely combat terrorism, yet history shows that many exploit it for their own agendas. Countries in Africa and Asia, including Pakistan, often find themselves trapped in a cycle of dependency, where their governments and stakeholders serve the interests of global powers rather than their own people.

Many of these nations remain under the influence of economic giants like the United States and other dominant countries. Instead of addressing terrorism at its roots, global stakeholders shape policies that maintain control over weaker states. These governments, in turn, follow orders, often prioritizing external interests over national stability. This dynamic ensures that terrorism remains an ongoing issue rather than a problem to be solved.

The link between corruption and terrorism runs deep. Corrupt political systems create frustration and instability, which in turn fuel extremism. At the same time, terrorism justifies tighter government control and foreign interventions that benefit those in power. The cycle continues because it serves the interests of both local elites and global players. If there were real intentions to eliminate terrorism, efforts would focus on strengthening independent governance, fair economic policies, and reducing foreign exploitation. Instead, terrorism remains a convenient excuse to sustain influence and control over affected regions.

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