Lawsuit Filed by Magnite Against Google; Google Plans £5 Billion Investment in UK AI; Australia Rejects Age-Check Accuracy Threshold for Social Media Ban Technology Implementation
Google has announced plans to invest £5bn in the UK over the next two years, with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI) services. As part of this investment, the tech giant will open a new datacentre in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, marking Google's first datacentre in the UK.
The investment is expected to support thousands of jobs and fund capital expenditure, research and development, and engineering. Google DeepMind will lead new AI research projects in science and healthcare, aiming to strengthen Google's presence and capabilities in the UK's AI sector.
In addition, Google has confirmed a partnership with Shell to manage its renewable energy supply in the UK. The new datacentre is estimated to emit 570,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, but the partnership with Shell is expected to help reduce this environmental impact.
Meanwhile, the tech giant is facing a lawsuit in the US District Court. Magnite, a company in the ad tech industry, has sued Google, alleging anticompetitive practices that undermined competition and harmed publishers, advertisers, and independent players like Magnite. The lawsuit alleges that Google ran an exclusionary scheme favoring its own ad exchange. However, the specific anticompetitive practices that Google is alleged to have engaged in are not detailed in the available information.
In another development, the Australian government has issued fresh guidance to digital platforms on enforcing the under-16 social media ban. The guidance outlines potential methods for verifying users' ages, including checking the age of accounts, analyzing activity patterns that align with school schedules, flagging accounts linked to younger users, and using visual or audio analysis to estimate age from photos, videos, or voice files.
The guidance document stresses that compliance must be kind, careful, and clear, avoiding burdening older Australians with unnecessary age checks. However, the article does not provide any information about the specific details of the guidance or the ban itself. Furthermore, the Australian government has not publicly appointed a single responsible body or individual for developing the policy guidelines for implementing the social media ban for children under 16.
Lastly, the regulatory guidance released in the UK confirms that the eSafety Commissioner will not mandate a minimum accuracy threshold for age-verification tools when the law takes effect on 10th December. Platforms including Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, X, and YouTube will be expected to 'define acceptable error thresholds' based on their risk profile, service type, and user base. The ban will permit platforms to make some errors when checking users' ages, raising concerns about enforcement.
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