Category: Business

• The Justice Department is cracking down on anticompetitive uses of artificial intelligence.
• The DOJ has been investigating RealPage for using AI algorithms to set high prices since 2022.
• The investigation comes amid the Biden administration's wider antitrust crackdown on Big Tech.

AI can make many things easier for companies, including price fixing.

The Department of Justice is now cracking down on such anticompetitive uses of the buzzy new technology.

That means practices like setting prices above the market rates, colluding with rivals, and striking exclusionary deals are unlawful — whether humans or algorithms are behind them.

The Justice Department has been concerned about AI's impact on antitrust litigation for at least the past few years.

Since 2022, it has been investigating RealPage, a rental property management software company, for instance, for using AI algorithms to set prices above competitive levels.

The Justice Department says the company used sensitive and private data in an algorithm under the expectation that its competitors would do the same. That practice, it says, should be judged under the same guidelines as humans. "Automating an anticompetitive scheme does not make it less anticompetitive," the agency said in a statement from 2023.

This focus on anticompetitive uses of AI comes amid a broader spate of investigations and antitrust lawsuits the Biden Administration has launched against major tech companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft.

In the long term, algorithms will likely be even more important to litigate because they can process more information than humans.

"If your AI fixes prices, you're just as responsible," Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter told The New York Times in reference to the RealPage probe. "If anything, the use of AI or algorithmic-based technologies should concern us more because it's much easier to price-fix when you're outsourcing it to an algorithm versus when you're sharing manila envelopes in a smoke-filled room."

That means stricter regulations around the use of AI — and stricter penalties for its misuse — could be coming.

At the American Bar Association's annual gathering on white-collar crime this March, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the Justice Department's focus on AI means prosecutors will impose "stiffer sentences" on individuals and corporations that misuse AI for white-collar crime, according to the Associated Press.

And compliance officers, who ensure companies adhere to legal regulations, should "take note," she said. "When our prosecutors assess a company's compliance program — as they do in all corporate resolutions — they consider how well the program mitigates the company's most significant risks. And for a growing number of businesses, that now includes the risk of misusing AI."

• Dozens of Tesla Cybertrucks were vandalized in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, this week.
• The Cybertrucks were spray painted with a message attacking Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
• Cybertrucks have become a symbol of ire for Elon Musk's many critics.

Tesla Cybertrucks have become symbolic. But probably not in the way Tesla CEO Elon Musk hoped.

Nearly three dozen Cybertrucks were vandalized this week in Florida with disparaging messages aimed specifically at Musk.

A 35-second viral video showing the aftermath of the vandalism spree in a Fort Lauderdale parking lot first gained traction on Instagram on Friday.

The footage — shared to the Only in Broward account — showed a fleet of Cybertrucks with the phrase "Fuck Elon" spray painted across the metallic exteriors. The man filming the video said Tesla recently leased the parking lot, and Cybertrucks began arriving three days ago.

"Looks like someone doesn't like Elon…" the caption read.

Local authorities told NBC Miami that 34 vehicles had been vandalized within the parking lot, which housed Cybtertrucks and other Tesla models.

The person who called the authorities said the vehicles were in fine condition on Thursday night but were damaged by Friday morning, the outlet reported.

The vehicles were quickly cleaned or taken off the lot.

Representatives for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Tesla began delivering Cybertrucks to the general public in November 2023. Cybertrucks start at $60,990 for rear-wheel drive and increase to $79,990 for all-wheel drive. The Cyberbeast, which can reach 130 mph and tow 11,000 lbs, costs an estimated $99,990.

While Tesla Cybertrucks have received a decidedly mixed response in the United States, they have been embraced elsewhere.

The Dubai Police General Command added a Cybertruck to its fleet of patrol vehicles this month. Musk and the official Cybertruck account applauded the decision on X.

"Very cool to see — thanks for the trust!" the Cybertruck account wrote.

Tesla has faced a string of bad news in recent months. The automaker slashed 10% of its global workforce in April and laid off more workers in the weeks after. And some traders say the company's stock is overvalued. One short-seller recently called Tesla's stock was one of the "biggest stock market bubbles" in history.

• Apple went big with its reveal of Apple Intelligence, its AI offering, earlier this month.
• But Apple Intelligence is only available on the latest iPhone models.
• And it likely won't be available in some of the company's largest markets anytime soon.

At one of its splashiest product reveals in recent history, Apple unveiled its new AI push, called Apple Intelligence, with great enthusiasm earlier this month.

But the new tech's big rollout is turning out to be a lot more limited than that fanfare implied.

Apple Intelligence is only available on the company's newest and most expensive phones. And it might not even make it to some of Apple's biggest markets.

Apple Intelligence will be "built into your iPhone, iPad, and Mac to help you write, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly," Apple boasts.

But the tech, which will arrive in beta form this fall, will debut only on the "iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with M1 and later" versions.

It also faces hurdles in China, one of the iPhone maker's most important markets. Apple Intelligence uses ChatGPT, a product of OpenAI that isn't allowed in China as Beijing regulators prioritize Chinese AI developers. Apple is negotiating with local Chinese companies to try and find another way into the market, Business Insider previously reported.

Apple is also postponing its release of Apple Intelligence in the European Union amid regulatory scrutiny. The EU put Apple on notice earlier this year to ensure the company's products comply with the Digital Markets Act, which is the bloc's attempt to hold major tech "gatekeepers" accountable and promote healthy competition. Apple said it is working to "find a solution that would enable us to deliver these features to our EU customers without compromising their safety," CNBC reported.

Beyond regulations, tech companies are also navigating what users do and don't want from AI. Companies like Meta and Google have faced user backlash over the intrusiveness — and usefulness — of their new AI features.

Some Facebook and Instagram users have grown frustrated by Meta AI, for instance, a feature shoehorned into the search bar and impossible to opt out of. Similarly, Google rolled out and then scaled back its AI-generated answers in search after its bot suggested users consume glue.

So maybe Apple's limited rollout is for the best, for now.

• Sen. Ted Cruz has an issue with signage touting projects funded by the 2021 infrastructure law.
• Construction sites across the US note that projects were made possible by the Biden-signed law.
• "These displays are nothing more than campaign yard signs," Cruz argues.

Across the United States, scores of construction sites are emblazoned with signs that read: "Project Funded By President Joe Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law."

For many people, it's an innocuous notation of the thousands of projects financed by the sweeping $1.2 trillion infrastructure law Biden signed into law in 2021 and was backed by both Democrats and a sizable contingent of Republicans.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was not one of them.

Cruz is now pushing for a government probe into whether the Biden administration has run afoul of the Hatch Act by using taxpayer funds to promote the law's impact, according to Politico.

In a letter obtained by Politico, Cruz argues that the Biden administration has "highly politicized" the infrastructure law, pointing to the signs that explicitly state that projects were made possible by the legislation and include the president's name.

Cruz, in the letter, then argues that Biden "unilaterally rebranded" the bipartisan infrastructure law as "President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law," which passed the House by 228-206 votes and the Senate by 69-30 votes.

"I write to refer this to you for investigation as a possible violation of the Hatch Act, federal law that broadly prohibits using taxpayer dollars for campaign activity," Cruz said in the letter addressed to the Office of the Special Counsel's Hampton Dellinger. "Congress, not President Biden, wrote [the infrastructure law], and it did not do so to aid the President's reelection campaign."

"These displays are nothing more than campaign yard signs courtesy of the American taxpayer," the senator added, according to Politico.

Cruz vociferously opposed the law and voted against its passage.

White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson told Politico in a statement that the project signs "promote transparency and inform taxpayers how federal dollars are being spent."

"If Senator Cruz were half as concerned about Texas kids getting safe drinking water as he is about signs, he might have voted for the Infrastructure Law and to send $31 billion to tackle essential infrastructure needs across Texas," the statement added.

According to Politico, Cruz also said the "Investing in America" logo was "purposefully designed to look like the Biden-Harris campaign logo."

The infrastructure law — by far Biden's signature domestic accomplishment — is being touted by the president himself and Democratic candidates on the campaign trail as one of their biggest legislative wins.

The law provided federal funding for long-awaited upgrades for bridges and tunnels, highways, and rail infrastructure, among other projects.

Biden aims to set himself apart from former President Donald Trump on the issue. In 2016, Trump ran on enacting a broad infrastructure plan, but during his term in the White House, he never proposed a workable bil for lawmakers.

Still, Biden has hit a wall on the issue ahead of the November election, as some voters remain skeptical of the law's effectiveness — while a significant slice isn't giving him much credit for it at all.

A Politico-Morning Consult Poll conducted in April showed that 40% of registered voters gave Biden the edge on infrastructure upgrades and job creation, while 37% of respondents gave Trump the advantage. And in the seven battleground states, Biden's edge over Trump on the issue was just six points (42% to 36%).

• Russia launched a "massive" attack on Ukraine's power grid overnight.
• Russia has increasingly targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure as the war has progressed.
• This latest attack marks the eighth since March, Ukraine's energy ministry said.

Russia launched a "massive" attack on Ukraine's power grid overnight as it continues to target the country's energy infrastructure, Ukraine's energy ministry announced on Telegram.

The latest attack marks the eighth time Russian forces have targeted Ukraine's power grid since March, the ministry added.

Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 16 missiles and 13 drones in the attack, which targeted a number of different regions.

While the air force said Ukraine's air defense systems were able to take down 12 of the missiles and all of the drones, two workers were injured in strikes in Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine, and some equipment was damaged.

Russian targeting of Ukrainian energy infrastructure has also caused mass blackouts across Ukraine this year.

Russia has switched up its tactics from previous attempts to attack the power grid, aiming to strike energy generation infrastructure instead of electricity substations.

"We urgently need to close our skies or Ukraine faces a serious crisis this winter," Maxim Timchenko, the CEO of DTEK, a Ukrainian energy company, said following the latest attacks, per the BBC. "My plea to allies is to help us defend our energy system and rebuild in time."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Ukraine's allies to provide more air defense systems as his forces attempt to repel such attacks, saying they required at least "seven more 'Patriots' or similar air defense systems."

Ivan Fedorov, the governor of Zaporizhzhia, echoed this in a post on Telegram following the latest attack.

"At night, Russians attacked Zaporizhzhia region again," he wrote. "The enemy will not stop. Ukraine needs air defense systems."

In April, Business Insider reported that Ukraine's low stocks of air defense missiles were leaving even the country's best-protected cities increasingly vulnerable to attack after Russia was able to strike a major power plant near Kyiv.

The Associated Press reported earlier this month that the US had agreed to send a second Patriot air defense system to Ukraine, citing two US officials.

Business Insider contacted Ukraine's energy ministry for comment.

• Prince William attended The Eras Tour with Prince George and Princess Charlotte in London.
• The British royals posed for photos with Swift and her boyfriend, Travis Kelce.
• Footage showed William, who celebrated his 42nd birthday, dancing to "Shake It Off."

The Prince of Wales is a certified Swiftie.

William rang in his 42nd birthday on Friday at Taylor Swift's concert in London with his two eldest children, 10-year-old Prince George and 9-year-old Princess Charlotte.

The British royals were among the massive crowd that arrived at Wembley Stadium, where Swift, 34, kicked off the European leg of The Eras Tour.

The trio commemorated the night by posing for a selfie with Swift, whom they thanked in an Instagram post on the Prince and Princess of Wales' official account.

"Thank you @taylorswift for a great evening!" the caption read on Saturday.

Swift also shared an Instagram photo on Saturday featuring royal family members and her boyfriend, Travis Kelce. The group was all smiles in the picture.

"Happy Bday M8! London shows are off to a splendid start," Swift's caption read.

William's attendance at The Eras Tour didn't go unnoticed by Swifties, including one who shared a TikTok video of him dancing to "Shake It Off."

Neither Catherine, Princess of Wales, nor six-year-old Prince Louis appeared at the concert. Kate, 42, made her first public appearance since her cancer diagnosis earlier this month at the Trooping the Colour Parade.

Kate shared details about her recovery in an Instagram post one day before the parade, saying she's making "good progress" with her chemotherapy treatment.

"I'm looking forward to attending The King's Birthday Parade this weekend with my family and hope to join a few public engagements over the summer, but equally knowing I am not out of the woods yet," the caption read. "I am learning how to be patient, especially with uncertainty. Taking each day as it comes, listening to my body, and allowing myself to take this much needed time to heal."

Representatives for Kensington Palace, Swift, and Kelce did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• A Swiss court convicted four members of the UK's richest family of exploiting staff at their Geneva villa.
• The family was given sentences ranging from four to four-and-a-half years.
• More serious charges of human trafficking were dismissed.

A Swiss court has convicted four members of the UK's richest family of exploiting staff at their Geneva mansion.

The court found Prakash Hinduja, his wife Kamal, their son Ajay, and Ajay's wife Namrata guilty of exploitation and illegal employment, the BBC reported.

They were given sentences ranging from four to four-and-a-half years, the report said.

More serious charges of human trafficking were dismissed.

The ruling followed claims by three workers at the villa that the family had taken their passports, paid them as little as $8 to work 18-hour days, and barred them from leaving the house, which is located in Geneva's wealthy Cologny neighborhood — a hot spot for wealthy buyers that has attracted the heirs to several fortunes, including Chanel and Peugeot, per Mansion Global.

The workers, who were brought to Switzerland from India, also received little or no vacation time and slept in the basement, sometimes on a mattress on the floor, the Associated Press reported.

Lawyers representing the family said they would appeal the decision, per the BBC.

Robert Assael, a lawyer for the family, said outside the court: "I'm shocked. We're going to fight it to the bitter end."

The Hinduja family

The family has a net worth of £37.196 billion, which is just over $47 billion, making them the UK's wealthiest family, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2024.

Prakash and his three brothers lead a family conglomerate that has interests in finance, healthcare, real estate, media, energy, and information technology, among other areas. Their companies operate across 48 countries, per the report.

The family owns the five-star luxury Raffles Hotel in London, where the cheapest room usually costs more than £1,000 (around $1,200) a night, and the most expensive, the Haldane suite, can cost £25,000 (roughly $31,600) a night.

The family also owns a 25-bedroom mansion on Carlton House Terrace, an exclusive street overlooking St James's Park in central London.

In 2015, Gopichand Hinduja, Prakash's brother, told the Times of London that the family did not spend more than one in five nights at the 67,000-square-foot home due to fears that it may bring them bad luck.

"Indians are very sentimental, emotional and they believe in omens and good luck," Gopichand Hinduja said.

"Although this has been built for the whole family, my wife and the family don't want to move here because they say that [our old house] has good luck . . . I can tell you the occupancy [here] is not more than 20 per cent," he added.

• Generative AI is a major focus at top consulting firms like McKinsey & Company.
• McKinsey's AI arm QuantumBlack employs 2,000 data scientists and has five global R&D centers.
• McKinsey's revenue hit $16 billion in 2023, driven by generative AI and strategic partnerships.

Generative AI has become the leading conversation topic at the world's premiere consulting firms.

"It's become a huge part of what the firm does, and I actually think it's going to be most of what we do in the future," Ben Ellencweig, a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, told Business Insider. "How do we actually inject gen AI and AI thinking into ways of doing business?"

Ellencweig leads McKinsey's AI arm, QuantumBlack, which launched in 2015. It now employs some 2,000 data scientists, accounting for over 4% of its 45,000 employees. It also has research and development centers in five locations worldwide — India, Brazil, the UK, the United States, and Israel.

The launch of ChatGPT marked an inflection point for McKinsey's work on generative AI. "Today, roughly, about 40% of the work we do is analytics-related, AI-related, and a lot of it is moving to Gen AI," Ellencweig said. He added that McKinsey has worked on roughly 400 generative AI projects in the last six months.

Despite a broader cooldown in the consulting industry, McKinsey pulled in a record $16 billion in revenue in 2023 thanks to the promise of generative AI. While clients last year were caught up in experimenting with the new technology, this year, they're focused on building a larger ecosystem for it to thrive. But the technology itself is just a fraction of that, Ellencweig said. "You need to think about the change management. You need to talk about safe AI and responsible AI. You need to think about, 'How do you change workflows in the business?'"

Last June, the firm also announced a partnership with AI startup Cohere, which focuses on building AI models for enterprises. And it's been a win for both. McKinsey's work helps the young startup "build trust" among more organizations, Cohere's founder and CEO Aidan Gomez told Business Insider. While McKinsey benefits from Cohere's commitment to innovation — and responsible development.

It's not clear how the world will change amid the rapid advances in AI. But the firm's thesis is that the technology will be ubiquitous. "Gen AI is going to become part of every product," Ellencweig said. "It's going to be injected in everything we do in life way beyond a smart bot that helps navigate a website or a product."

• I cooked frozen meatballs using my air fryer, microwave, oven, and stovetop to see which is best.
• The microwaved meatballs were too rubbery and overly hot, but they were ready in one minute
• My classic stovetop approach was predictably good, but the oven was the clear winner

If there's a more comforting meal than pasta and meatballs, I'm not sure what it is. Give me a good homemade marinara sauce, a fistful of linguini, and seven or eight meatballs, and I'm a happy man.

And with grocery prices still high due to years of rising inflation, it's also an affordable meal that helps my family stick to our budget.

I've traditionally prepared premade frozen meatballs by plopping them into a pot of pasta sauce and letting it simmer on the stove while I boil the noodles.

But I wanted to see once and for all if that's really the best method. As an experiment, I made frozen meatballs with my stovetop, oven, air fryer, and microwave.

Here's how the appliances stacked up.

Microwaving the meatballs was incredibly quick.

If you're in a rush and only have a few minutes to spare, you can still make meatballs in a microwave.

I placed six frozen, precooked meatballs on a small plate, making sure none of them were touching. Then I put the plate in the microwave for one minute.

That was that. The meatballs were heated through — in fact, they were so hot I had to wait a minute before taking a bite.

Regardless of the results, it was so efficient that I’m sure I’ll do it again.

Frankly, the microwaved meatballs weren't all that good.

They had a slightly rubbery, springy texture. But I also ate them with no sauce or other accouterments — they probably would've been much more pleasant drenched in marinara.

Regardless, going from frozen solid to ready-to-eat in one minute was pretty impressive. I'd do it again in a pinch.

I had high hopes for my air fryer.

I'm a fan of air fryers and often use ours for fries, sliced sweet potatoes, veggie burgers, and more. Naturally, I thought meatballs would be great, too.

I set the air fryer to 375 degrees and cooked the meatballs for about four minutes. Then, I shook the shelves a little before cooking them for another four minutes.

The air fryer dried the meatballs out too much.

The resulting meatballs had a pleasantly browned exterior. But the interiors were a bit too dried out for my liking.

I don't think I'll make meatballs in the air fryer again. But if I did, I'd coat them in olive oil first and maybe shave a minute off the cooking time.

The stovetop meatballs had a bit of a leg up because they simmered in sauce.

Simmering frozen meatballs in red sauce has long been my go-to; it's arguably the most classic cooking method.

After only 10 minutes of simmering the meatballs in my wife's homemade marinara sauce (a family recipe passed down from three generations), they were cooked through.

The stovetop meatballs were the most flavorful.

Before this experiment, I would've said the stovetop is the best way to cook meatballs.

These were so flavorful that I'm still tempted to say that. But I'm now realizing that the texture could be better.

I knew cooking meatballs in the oven would take the longest.

For the final cooking method, I preheated our oven to 375 degrees. Then I spread nine meatballs out on a baking sheet — I probably could've cooked three dozen at the same time had I needed to.

The package recommended cooking the meatballs for 20 or 25 minutes. I baked them for about 22 minutes before pulling them from the oven.

The oven-cooked meatballs were definitely my favorite.

The meatballs glistened, clearly still moist, but they were also slightly browned and crispy. Inside, they were moist and flavorful.

In other words, the texture was perfect.

I ate several oven-baked meatballs right off the baking sheet, but I saved a few to coat in marinara sauce for dinner.

The oven may have been the slowest method, but the results were well worth the patience.

• The Seine River is too polluted for swimming events at the Paris Olympics, city officials said.
• Paris invested $1.5 billion to clean the Seine, but heavy rainfall increased pollution levels.
• The Seine has been off-limits for swimming since 1923 due to severe pollution.

Despite a massive cleanup effort, Paris' Seine River remains too polluted to host swimming events for the upcoming Olympic Games, city officials have said.

Samples taken from the river showed that E. Coli levels were above the recommended limit at four different sites for nearly the entire week of June 10 to June 16, per Le Monde with AFP.

"Samples from the Seine do not meet the standards we will have this summer," Paris region official Marc Guillaume added on Friday.

The Seine was poised to be a centerpiece of the Paris Olympics, featuring prominently in both the opening ceremony and various swimming events.

The city of Paris invested $1.5 billion in cleaning the river ahead of the games, with regular testing of bacterial levels to ensure athletes' safety.

But officials say heavy rainfall has scuppered those plans thus far, leading to high rates of two kinds of fecal bacteria, including E. Coli — which is "the species of coliform bacteria that is the best indicator of fecal pollution," according to the New York State Department of Health.

"Water quality remains degraded due to… rain, high flow, little sunshine (and) temperatures below seasonal norms," a weekly report published by the Paris region and mayor's office said, per Le Monde with AFP.

Paris' 19th-century sewage system can be overwhelmed by bad weather, leading to urban runoff, which carries pollutants to streams and rivers.

The Seine has been off-limits for swimming since 1923 due to high pollution levels.

Last year, triathletes took part in a test event in the Seine, with some airing concerns about their safety.

Norwegian Olympic gold medallist Kristian Blummenfelt said: "I always dive with open mouth. It's not going to be funny if I wake up tomorrow morning with … whatever," per ESPN.

A number of other test events in the river have been canceled due to pollution levels and bad weather.

Nevertheless, Guillaume said he was "confident" that swimming events would go ahead as planned.

"At one point or another, the weather will change, it's going to stop raining and we're going to have sunshine … It is in summer conditions that we must be able to examine swimmability," he said, Axios reported.

The 2024 Olympic Games is set to kick off on July 26.

The overall economic impact of the Olympic Games on the Paris region could range from 6.7 billion euros to 11.1 billion euros, or around $7.1 billion to $11.8 billion, according to a study published by Center for Law and Economics of Sport.

Business Insider contacted the Olympic Games Paris 2024 for comment.