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    Microsoft’s OpenAI investment could trigger EU merger review

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1107 Views
    OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, left, appears onstage with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at OpenAI's first developer conference, on Nov. 6, 2023, in San Francisco. The European Union says Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI could trigger a merger investigation. The EU's executive branch said Tuesday, JAN. 9, 2024, it’s “checking whether Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI might be reviewable” under regulations covering mergers and acquisitions that would harm competition in the 27-nation bloc. (AP Photo/Barbara Ortutay, File)
    LONDON (AP) --

    Microsoft's multibillion-dollar investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI could trigger a European Union merger investigation, the bloc's executive branch said Tuesday.

    The European Commission said it's "checking whether Microsoft's investment in OpenAI might be reviewable" under regulations covering mergers and acquisitions that would harm competition in the 27-nation EU.

    The review could lead to a formal investigation into whether the deal should be unconditionally cleared, allowed with concessions from the companies or blocked. Britain's antitrust watchdog opened a similar review last month.

    Antitrust enforcers in the U.S. also have signaled concerns about competition in the AI industry. The Federal Trade Commission in November approved new measures enabling it to more easily investigate AI products and services, noting that "AI can raise competition issues in a variety of ways, including if one or just a few companies control the essential inputs or technologies that underpin AI."

    OpenAI has received several rounds of funding from Microsoft, including an initial $1 billion in 2019 and a multibillion-dollar investment last year.

    OpenAI's generative AI chatbot ChatGPT has captured world attention with its advanced capabilities, catapulting the San Francisco-based startup to the top ranks of AI companies. Generative AI systems like ChatGPT can spit out new text, images, videos or audio recordings based on prompts from users.

    The European Commission, the bloc's top antitrust enforcer, is asking businesses and experts for input on any competition issues that they see in generative AI and has asked "several large digital players" — which it didn't identify — for information.

    The commission is "also closely monitoring AI partnerships to ensure they do not unduly distort market dynamics," the EU's antitrust enforcer, Margrethe Vestager, said in a press release.

    Vestager is due to meet with OpenAI executives on a trip this week to the U.S., as well as Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

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    Tags:European UnionMicrosoftOpenAI



    William Dafoe, Jonathan Bailey and Peter Dinklage join the voice cast for Starburn Industries’ “Lincoln in the Bardo”

    Friday, August 28, 2026
    Peter Dinklage (photo by Whitney Matewe)

    Actors Willem Dafoe, Jonathan Bailey and Peter Dinklage have joined the voice cast of Starburns Industries’ “Lincoln in the Bardo,” based on acclaimed author George Saunders’ New York Times bestseller and 2017 Booker Prize-winner.  Saunders adapted the screenplay, with Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Duke Johnson directing.  It was announced earlier that Tom Hanks stars as the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, in the live action portion of the film.  CAA Media Finance and WME Independent are handling sales at the upcoming TIFF: The Market.

    The film employs a unique blend of stop-motion animation and live action to explore one of the most intimate moments of Lincoln’s life, centering on his relationship with his recently deceased eleven-year-old son.  Blending history and imagination, the story unfolds through an unforgettable ensemble of characters – living and dead, historical and invented – to explore themes of love, empathy, and the human capacity for connection in the face of unimaginable grief.

    Reverend Everly Thomas – the ghost of a minister who died believing he would go to heaven, but, to his dismay, found out otherwise – is voiced by Dafoe.  Bailey is voicing Roger Bevins, the ghost of a young gay man who took his own life over a failed love affair and instantly regretted it.  Dinklage is voicing Hans Vollman, a ghost obsessed with his dream of being reunited with his much-younger wife.

    Four-time Academy Award nominee Dafoe’s credits include animated films “Finding Nemo,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “The Boy and the Heron,” as well as “At Eternity’s Gate,” “The Florida Project,” “Shadow of the Vampire” and seminal Vietnam movie... Read More

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