ByteDance Owns China's Most Popular AI Chatbot; Canada’s Security Agency Advises Against TikTok Use; Microsoft Dodges UK Antitrust Scrutiny While Facing Potential EU Fine

by Aimee Newell Tarín on 21st May 2024 in News

On today’s news digest: ByteDance Owns China's Most Popular AI Chatbot; Canada’s Security Agency Advises Against TikTok Use; Microsoft Dodges UK Antitrust Scrutiny While Facing Potential EU Fine

TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is currently winning the race to provide China’s equivalent to ChatGPT. Doubao, the AI chatbot released in August, has taken the lead; it was the most downloaded AI chatbot on Apple’s iOS, gaining almost 9 million downloads in the year to April (the research does not include Android app stores.) Doubao boasts 26 million monthly active users across both mobile and PC, ByteDance revealed last week.

Meanwhile, the head of Canada’s intelligence agency is advising Canadians not to use TikTok over similar security concerns which saw the US pass the bill that will ban the video giant if ByteDance does not sell it. TikTok spokesperson Danielle Morgan maintains that the security risk assertions are unsupported by evidence. She also emphasises: “TikTok has never shared Canadian user data with the Chinese government, nor would we if asked”.

In the antitrust ambit, Microsoft has dodged further UK scrutiny over its relationship with French startup, Mistral AI. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) concluded that their partnership did “not qualify for investigation under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002.” However, the tech giant is facing new scrutiny from the EU. Microsoft could be fined up to 1% of its global annual turnover under the legislation of the Digital Services Act, following the company’s failure to respond to a request for information regarding its generative AI tools.