Connected newsletter: Apple fined as Elon Musk’s spat with OpenAI worsens
Connected at the Business Post is your source for the news that matters in technology and innovation, all told from an Irish perspective
This was the week when the European Commission finally caught up with Apple, which prior to then had always evaded its Big Tech clampdown. The commission may have previously scored a famous victory over Apple in the €13 billion Irish tax case but the €1.8 billion fine levied on it on Tuesday marked the first time it has levied an anti-trust penalty on the iPhone maker.
As my analysis makes clear, it is unlikely to be the last time. Apple and its rivals are now firmly in the spotlight with the Digital Markets Act, which came into force on Thursday, putting even more pressure on them to change their ways.
As it is, just two days after fining Apple for “abusing its dominant position” for distributing music streaming apps such as Spotify, it was revealed the tech company will face questions from EU regulators over accusations it barred Epic Games from opening its own app store for iPhone customers in Europe.
Our reliance on social media was never so obvious as earlier this week when Instagram, Facebook and Threads all went down in a worldwide outage, which has yet to be explained. Cue a rush of users onto X, the platform which many had sworn they would never go near again.
It need hardly be said that social media isn’t necessarily our friend, nor are video-sharing platforms such as YouTube. An Oireachtas committee was told on Tuesday that videos made by the far right on YouTube have been viewed over 13.5 million times in Ireland.
The fallout between OpenAI co-founders Elon Musk and Sam Altman was all over the news with the company using the billionaire’s own emails to show he backed its plans to become a for-profit business, and that he insisted it raise “billions” of dollars to be relevant compared with Google. As if that weren’t enough, Musk has been dethroned as the world’s richest person this week. Musk currently has a net worth of ‘just’ $197.7 billion compared to Jeff Bezos’ $200.3 billion nest egg.
Talking of declining fortunes and funding for women entrepreneurs in Ireland slumped last year with new Tech Ireland figures showing €93 million was raised by 77 businesses in 2023, as against €234 million by 72 firms in 2022.
Business founders often get in the way of their company achieving success because they won’t accept that it is the right time for other people to take control, Jeff Hoffman, a leading entrepreneur told me recently. “In my experience, not ceding control is the biggest error that company founders make,” the Booking.com co-founder said.
Zero Day Con, the annual cybersecurity conference, returned to Dublin this week. One of the key speakers, Richard Browne, director of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), told delegates that cybersecurity threats are ‘like an ongoing bar fight in a western’.
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In other news:
• Revolut launched eSIM in Ireland, allowing customers to access data plans abroad without unexpected roaming charges.
• Bitcoin surged to a record high as demand from new US exchange-traded funds and a looming reduction in the token’s supply growth fuelled a rebound
• Cellnex, the Spanish-headquartered mobile phone tower operator, sold its Irish assets in a near €1 billion deal
• OpenAI, Salesforce and other tech companies signed (yet another) open letter highlighting a “collective responsibility” to “maximise AI’s benefits and mitigate the risks” to society
• Google Ireland’s head honcho didn’t rule out further job cuts locally but said he expects that any redundancies that happen will be “minimal.”
• Ireland has “lagged behind” European peers on the “depth and breadth” of payment services, the Central Bank admitted.
All the best,
Charlie
Under new management: Inside the Irish data regulator’s critical reboot
Features from elsewhere
How the bromance between Elon Musk and Sam Altman turned toxic (Wall Street Journal)
How femtech is closing the gender gap in health data (The NextWeb)
