Good morning. Here’s a fun one: What percentage of tech workers overstate how much they know about artificial intelligence?
Did you guess one in five? A quarter? Half? (Pessimist!) Try four in five, according to a Pluralsight survey published this month. The share rises when you get to the c-suite, too: 9 in 10 execs on the leadership team fib about their AI savvy. (We see you and we validate you, CTO.)
AI chatbots are notorious for lying (“hallucinating”) when they don’t know the answer; I think I know where they may have gotten it from. Today’s news below. —Andrew Nusca
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FTC sues Uber over deceptive billing
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Monday sued Uber for allegedly making it hard for customers to cancel their subscriptions.
The FTC says Uber charged for its Uber One membership (a monthly or annual subscription covering both its ride-hailing and its meal-ordering services) without consent and made it “unreasonably difficult” to cancel.
It also said Uber provided misleading information about Uber One (e.g. Claims of “savings of $25 a month”), violating the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act.
Uber told CNBC it was “disappointed” by the complaint and that its processes “follow the letter and spirit of the law.”
The suit is the first FTC action against a major tech company during the second Trump administration. (Not that the agency doesn’t have its hands full; it’s still wading through lawsuits against Amazon, Google, and Meta that were brought during the Biden administration or Trump’s first term.)
Launched in 2021, Uber One costs $10 a month or $96 per year and offers fee-free delivery and discounts on select bookings. The company said it had about 30 million subscribers in its latest annual report. —AN
Google should divest Chrome, U.S. Argues
Speaking of lawsuits…three weeks of so-called remedy hearings have officially begun to determine just how much the U.S. Government will be able to break up Google.
Need a quick refresh? No problem. In October 2020, the U.S. Sued Google, alleging that the company used its search dominance to stifle competition and harm consumers. The lawsuit went to trial in September 2023; U.S. District judge Amit Mehta ruled in August 2024 that Google had maintained an illegal monopoly in online search.
(This ruling is not to be confused with a separate one made last week over advertising technology. That, too, could threaten Google with a breakup.)
On Monday, federal attorneys began to make their argument for how the tech giant should be penalized. The Justice Department believes Google should be banned from making deals with Apple and others that box out search competition, share its user data with rivals, and divest its Chrome browser.
The government also wants a solution that accounts for the role that Google AI might play moving forward, and said it would call leaders from companies such as OpenAI to testify.
Google, unsurprisingly, seeks a more merciful fate. Attorney John Schmidtlein argued that the DOJ’s solutions would jeopardize user security and reward search rivals for being also-rans instead of encouraging real competition.
“Google won its place in the market fair and square,” he said. —AN
U.S. Hostility against immigrants is drying up the tech talent pipeline
As of last week, the Trump administration had reportedly revoked the visas, or terminated the statuses, of more than 1,000 international students and graduates in the U.S.
Now it may be starting to erode Silicon Valley’s ability to attract the best of the best.
“The cumulative effect is making the U.S. A significantly less appealing destination for many talented researchers,” Caltech professor Yisong Yue told TechCrunch. “Because research is highly specialized, when a doctoral student is pulled from a project, it can set back the project by months or years.”
Senior AI talent—which includes public university professors and private sector researchers alike—is worried about staying in the U.S., Yue told the publication.
That’s an issue for two reasons. First, international students are clearly contributing to AI technical breakthroughs in the U.S.; second, countries like China and India have shored up their ability to keep homegrown talent…well, at home.
“The United States remains far and away the leading destination for the world’s most elite AI talent,” according to a 2023 analysis by the Paulson Institute, but “more top-tier talent are staying put.” Without visas, that’s likely to continue apace. —AN
More tech
—Airbnb now displays total cost of stay, a likely reaction to Biden-era “junk fees” rule.
—Nvidia lobbies Japan for AI. The nation needs to generate more power, Jensen Huang says.
—Bluesky rolls out verification badges. Twitter-style blue checks are back, baby.
—Hertz is using AI to inspect rental cars. So easy on the gas, Toretto.
—Meta ramps up teen user detection. AI tools to limit account capabilities, even when an indicated birth date say otherwise.
—Hollywood productions are leaving LA in favor of cheaper labor and tax breaks elsewhere.
—Crypto casinos take in $80 billion annually, despite their illegality in most countries.
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