⚖️ Legal

EU passes a draft version of its landmark AI Act. The EU's AI Act, expected to be enacted later this year, will limit the use of facial recognition and require new privacy and data disclosures from AI firms. (New York Times)

A bipartisan US bill aims to explicitly strip AI companies of their Section 230 immunity. Legal experts and lawmakers have questioned whether AI-created works would qualify for legal immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the law that largely shields platforms from lawsuits over third-party content. (Axios)

Google postpones the launch of its Bard chatbot in the EU. The Irish privacy watchdog said the tech giant has given insufficient information about how it will respect the EU’s data privacy rules. (Politico)

Stablecoins are money, according to US Fed chair. In testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that payment stablecoins are money and argued the central bank should play a role in regulating them, including approving their issuance in the US. (The Block)

🔗 Crypto

MakerDAO purchases $700 million in Treasury bonds, grows holdings to $1.2 billion. MakerDAO expanded its U.S. Treasury bond holdings to $1.2 billion with a recent purchase of over $700 million, following an initial $500 million buy in October. (The Block)

Beeple collector Metakovan is suing Twobadour, claiming his ex-Partner is falsely taking credit for buying the $69 million NFT. At one time, Vignesh Sundaresan and Anand Venkateswaran claimed to have bought the Beeple NFT together. (Artnet)

Crypto Exchange Backed by Citadel Securities, Fidelity Goes Live. EDX Markets, an institutional-only exchange announced in September 2022, will offer trading in four cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. Unlike existing crypto platforms such as Coinbase Global Inc. and Binance Holdings Ltd., it offers a “non-custodial” model, meaning that it doesn’t hold clients’ digital assets during trading. (Bloomberg)

🤖 A.I.

OpenAI plans app store for AI software. ChatGPT's creator plans to launch a marketplace that will allow developers to sell their AI models built on top of ChatGPT. (Reuters)

The creator of Stable Diffusion revealed a new AI image generator called Stable Diffusion XL. The new AI image generator claims to produce more realistic-looking images with greater detail. (Bloomberg)

Meta plans to make the next version of its open source large-language model available for free. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants other companies to freely use and profit from the new AI software Meta is developing, in a challenge to the business models of Google and other AI competitors. (The Information)

Marvel visual effects maker Method Studios used generative AI to compose the intro sequence to its new show. The decision sparked an outcry among artists and animators. The director defended the use of AI, arguing that it aligned with the show's plot, which revolves around shapeshifters. (Polygon)

AI models fall short of draft EU rules, researchers say. Companies such as ChatGPT’s OpenAI, Google and Meta come under scrutiny with copyright being a major issue. (FT)