Rise in litigations and fines over AI and data privacy

Welcome to The Bastion View where we dive into the latest trends and insights at the crossroads of AI, security, and privacy, helping you to unravel emerging threats, leverage opportunities, and empowering you to navigate the AI space with confidence.

Last week was Data Privacy Week, where AI's role in our everyday lives and its impact on data privacy were major points of discussion.

Year 2023 and early 2024 saw businesses cautious about AI and its adoption. But that might have changed significantly as businesses realize the potential of integrating AI for productivity and transformational gains. Many firms are integrating bespoke AI models into their internal workflows or products to manage risks and comply with the myriads of regulations spinning up. This no doubts adds further complexity to growing global privacy and data protection laws.

In this week’s edition, we discuss the steady rise in law suits and regulatory fines arising from the impact of AI on data privacy and Meta’s unveiling of a new, smarter, and more personalized assistant following OpenAI’s Operator and Perplexity Assistant. The past few days have seen a lot about DeepSeek. But the Chinese company is forging on with the introduction of its open-source AI image generator and we highlight the first independent international AI safety report. And more!

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

⚖️Steady rise in litigation and regulatory fines over AI and data privacy

As AI continues its neck breaking speed advancements, a corresponding rise in litigation over data privacy issues is emerging. Firms are increasingly being held accountable for using personal data to train AI systems without explicit consent, leading to high-stakes legal battles and hefty fines.

One notable example is the recent lawsuit against LinkedIn, where the platform faces legal action over allegations that it used customer data to train its AI models without proper authorization. Similarly, authors have taken legal action against Meta after reports surfaced that the company used pirated books to train its AI systems.

These cases are just the tip of the iceberg. Other ongoing legal battles include disputes involving companies accused of harvesting user data from social media and search engines, often without adequate disclosure. In Europe, regulators have imposed multimillion-euro fines under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on firms found to have misused personal data for AI development. Additionally, firms like Clearview AI have faced significant scrutiny and financial penalties over alleged breaches of biometric data privacy.

Why it matters:

The mounting legal challenges highlight the urgent need for robust responsible AI and AI governance. Governments are trying to keep up with the momentum of AI advancement. As difficult as this is, AI companies have a duty to priotise ethics over profit and balance innovation with the responsibility to build AI responsibly, or risk facing costly litigation and regulatory sanctions.

🤖Meta unveil a new, smarter, and more personalized assistant following OpenAI’s Operator and Perplexity Assistant

Meta has unveiled a new, smarter, and more personalized assistant designed to enhance user experience by leveraging advanced AI capabilities. The new AI personalization features let its assistant remember conversations and tap into user data across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Initially rolling out the launch in the US and Canada with no opt-out option, Meta AI will be able to remember key details from one-on-one chats, like dietary preferences and interests, to provide more tailored responses. The assistant will also tap into users’ Facebook location data, Instagram viewing history, and additional profile information to tailor its recommendations.

Why it matters:

Given Meta’s history with user data, the absence of an opt-out option is troubling. Its massive access to social media data raises serious concerns for security and privacy. With deeper access into personal information, the potential risks of data breaches and misuse become more pronounced.

Independent report

📜International AI Safety Report 2025

The "International AI Safety Report 2025" has been released ahead of an international summit. This is clearly a part of global efforts to ensure the safe and ethical development of AI. The report, featured by the UK Government, outlines the growing risks associated with increasingly powerful AI systems - from potential security vulnerabilities to ethical development and calls for coordinated international action.

Written by 100 AI experts including representatives nominated by 33 countries and intergovernmental organisations, it summarises the scientific evidence on the safety of general-purpose AI to help create a shared international understanding of risks from advanced AI and how they can be mitigated. The report emphasizes that as AI technologies become more integrated into our daily lives, safeguarding against misuse and unintended consequences is important. Its findings provide a critical framework for policymakers, industry leaders, and stakeholders, urging them to prioritize AI safety to prevent potential crises.

This comprehensive document sets the stage for discussions at the upcoming summit taken place in France, as a first comprehensive, shared scientific understanding of advanced AI systems and their risks.

MORE NEWS

👻GhostGPT AI Chatbot Facilitates Malware Creation & Phishing

Cybercriminals are selling access to a new malicious generative AI chatbot called GhostGPT. The AI tool is designed to assist with malicious activities such as malware creation and phishing emails.

🛡️Quantum Computers Are Coming for Crypto Keys, But Not Yet

Quantum computing could break the encryption that keeps our digital information private and concerns that its commercial capabilities could allow threat actors to break the encryption that guards many digital interactions appears real

🖼️DeepSeek Releases Open-Source AI Image Generator

DeepSeek has released its AI image generator as open source, raising both excitement in the developer community and concerns about potential misuse.

📊DeepSeek Surpasses ChatGPT as App Store's Top App

DeepSeek has become the most downloaded app on the App Store, reflecting growing user interest in its newly introduced LLM.

🚀AI2's New Model Surpasses DeepSeek V3

AI2's Tulu-3, a 405-billion parameter open-weight language model, outperforms both DeepSeek V3 and OpenAI's GPT-4o on key benchmarks.

📱Google has released two experimental features that handle phone calls on a user's behalf

Google is testing a new “Ask for Me” feature that uses AI to call local businesses on your behalf, for information about availability and pricing. The feature is available on desktop and mobile for users who have opted into the company’s Search Labs experiments.

⚠️If Even 0.001 Percent of an AI's Training Data Is Misinformation, the Whole Thing Becomes Compromised, Scientists Find

A study by NYU researchers, published in Nature Medicine, revealed that introducing misinformation into just 0.001% of a large language model's (LLM) training data can cause widespread errors, posing significant risks in medical systems. The research also highlighted that corrupted LLMs perform comparably to uncorrupted ones on standard benchmarks, making these vulnerabilities difficult to identify.

💻US tightens its grip on AI chip flows across the globe

The U.S. introduced new AI export controls, capping chip exports to most countries while exempting 18 allied nations, to maintain AI leadership and restrict China's access. Major cloud providers like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon can seek global authorizations under these rules. Industry players like Nvidia have criticized the regulations as overreaching.

🔄Perplexity AI revises Tiktok merger proposal

Perplexity AI just revised its merger proposal for TikTok's U.S. operations, introducing a new structure that would give the US government a significant ownership stake in the social media giant.

⏳Anthropic CEO Believes A.I. Could Double Human Lifespans in 5 Years

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted that AI could enable humans to live 2x longer by 2030, with the tech compressing a century of research progress into 5-10 years.

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And that’s a wrap!

Hope you enjoyed it. See you in the next edition.