Plus, Amazon’s $4 billion investment in AI startup Anthropic comes under scrutiny in the U.K. And Delta Air Lines ratchets up efforts to seek compensation from CrowdStrike following the global tech outage. Zoe Thomas hosts.
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[00:00:00] Here's your TNB Tech Minute for Thursday, August 8. I'm Zoe Thomas for The Wall Street Journal. An advertising industry initiative called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media is halting work following a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk's social media platform X.
[00:00:18] The lawsuit claims companies including CVS Health, Mars and Unilever had conspired to withhold billions of dollars in a quote massive advertising boycott to force the platform to maintain certain safety standards. The suit also named the World Federation of Advertisers, which along with major marketers,
[00:00:37] social media companies and ad agency groups, formed the Global Alliance for Responsible Media in 2019 to safeguard marketers from harmful content. At least 18 brands associated with the coalition stopped advertising on Twitter, now called X, towards the end of 2022, either in the U.S. or worldwide, according to the lawsuit.
[00:00:57] Dozens more of the members cut back ad spending through 2023. The World Federation of Advertisers declined to immediately comment. X CEO Linda Iaccarino hailed the shutdown. UK antitrust officials are probing whether Amazon's investment in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic should be considered a de facto merger that might threaten competition.
[00:01:20] This is the latest foray by European regulators into ties between U.S. tech giants and AI startups. Amazon poured about $4 billion into Anthropic, gaining a minority ownership position in the company. An Amazon spokesperson said its ties to Anthropic didn't raise any competition concerns or meet
[00:01:39] the UK antitrust officials' own threshold for a review, and it was disappointed by the decision. A spokesperson for Anthropic said the startup remained independent since Amazon doesn't have a seat on the board or any board observer rights.
[00:01:53] And Delta Airlines ratcheted up efforts to seek compensation from CrowdStrike following the global IT outage that began July 19. Delta blasted what it called the cybersecurity company's blame-the-victim defense for a disruption that cost the airline at least $500 million.
[00:02:11] Delta, CrowdStrike and Microsoft have become embroiled in a dispute over who bears responsibility for the cascade of flight cancellations and delays during the five-day period following the outage. Delta said it canceled roughly 7,000 flights-far more than rivals. CrowdStrike and Microsoft had no immediate comment.
[00:02:30] The tech companies have said they offered assistance that Delta ignored or rejected. For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Friday's Tech News Briefing podcast.