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UK Watchdog Looks at Google’s Proposals Giving Freedom to App Developers on Playstore

The logo of Google LLC is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in New York City, US, January 20, 2023. (Reuters)
The logo of Google LLC is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in New York City, US, January 20, 2023. (Reuters)
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UK Watchdog Looks at Google’s Proposals Giving Freedom to App Developers on Playstore

The logo of Google LLC is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in New York City, US, January 20, 2023. (Reuters)
The logo of Google LLC is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in New York City, US, January 20, 2023. (Reuters)

Britain's competition regulator said on Wednesday it was looking into proposals offered by Alphabet Inc's Google, which would give app developers the freedom to break away from Google Play's billing system.

Britain's investigation in June last year raised concerns that Google's complete control over in-app payments unfairly restricted app developers, by forcing them to use Google Play's billing system, and was reducing competition and hurting users.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the new proposals allow app developers to offer a different payment system "of their choosing" or give users a choice between an alternative payment system and Google Play's billing system.

Third party payments providers could market their services to app developers, as per the proposal.

"We need to make sure these commitments will work in practice – so we welcome all feedback, which we will carefully consider before making a final decision," said Ann Pope, senior director of antitrust at the CMA.

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China Smartphone Shipments Fall for 6th straight quarter - IDC

FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China, July 17, 2026. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China, July 17, 2026. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/File Photo
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China Smartphone Shipments Fall for 6th straight quarter - IDC

FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China, July 17, 2026. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China, July 17, 2026. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/File Photo

China's third-quarter smartphone shipments fell 15.4% from a year earlier to 57.9 million units, research firm IDC said on Tuesday.

Huawei was the only major vendor to post double-digit growth, Reuters reported.

The firm shipped 12.2 million units and led the market with a 21% share, IDC data showed.

Apple ⁠was second with 17.8%, ⁠though its shipments in China fell 4.3%.

Chinese rivals Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi saw shipment declines of 17.6%, 24.9% and 20.4%, respectively.

The decline comes amid weak consumer spending in ⁠China. Over the past few quarters, phone makers have also been hit by rising prices for memory chips and other components.

Vendors have been passing higher costs on to consumers, pushing up retail prices even as shipments shrink, said Arthur Guo, a senior analyst at IDC.

IDC said Huawei's broad product lineup and relatively ⁠modest price ⁠increases helped it extend its run this year. Apple's new iPhones sold better than expected, but having fewer models this year weighed on its shipments.

Honor was the only leading brand whose shipments grew from the previous quarter, which IDC said suggested a possible rebound.

Technology

Anthropic AI Model Submits False Homicide Tip to Police Website

The Anthropic logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. (Reuters)
The Anthropic logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Anthropic AI Model Submits False Homicide Tip to Police Website

The Anthropic logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. (Reuters)
The Anthropic logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. (Reuters)

An Anthropic artificial intelligence model submitted a false homicide tip through a Philadelphia police website, the department said in a statement, the latest incident of rogue behavior from the powerful technology. 

Anthropic notified authorities earlier this week and said that an automated testing process was responsible for the submission, ‌according to the ‌police. 

The fast-advancing technology has become a matter ‌of ⁠keen national interest amid ⁠reports of AI agents hacking into corporate computer networks, and warnings from researchers that it could one day pose an existential threat to humanity. In September, Anthropic rival OpenAI apologized for the hacking of an Australian health data portal by a rogue AI agent, the first known instance of an AI agent exploiting a government website. 

Previous ⁠incidents have involved AI agents hacking into vulnerable systems ‌or commandeering unsanctioned platforms to communicate ‌with one another. This is the first known case in which a rogue ‌AI appears to have tried to communicate a bogus tip ‌to authorities. 

The Philadelphia police department said the tip "was flagged as spam and was never forwarded to the Real-Time Crime Center for investigative vetting or dissemination," and added that Anthropic had told them the company intended to publish ‌a report on the incident on Friday. 

Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Pennsylvania law ⁠specifies it ⁠is generally a misdemeanor crime for "a person" to knowingly give false reports to law enforcement authorities. This includes "information relating to an offense or incident when he knows he has no information relating to such offense or incident." 

Police quoted Anthropic as telling them the testing process was stopped after the incident was uncovered. 

The false tip was submitted through PhillyUnsolvedMurders.com concerning an unsolved homicide. The tip, dated July 18, 2026, purported to come from someone who might have information about the case, the police said. 

Police said they did not have evidence of unauthorized access to their systems or compromise of police department data. 

Technology

OpenAI Says it Has Fired 3 Researchers for Violating Sensitive Information Policy

FILE PHOTO: A keyboard is placed in front of a displayed OpenAI logo in this illustration taken February 21, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A keyboard is placed in front of a displayed OpenAI logo in this illustration taken February 21, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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OpenAI Says it Has Fired 3 Researchers for Violating Sensitive Information Policy

FILE PHOTO: A keyboard is placed in front of a displayed OpenAI logo in this illustration taken February 21, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A keyboard is placed in front of a displayed OpenAI logo in this illustration taken February 21, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

OpenAI fired three of its researchers last week after an investigation found they violated policies on handling sensitive information, the AI major said in a post on X on Friday.

OpenAI's statement comes after the dismissed researchers Jasmine Wang, Tomek Korbak and Mikita Balesni published a ⁠letter outlining the circumstances ⁠of their termination, arguing that their abrupt firing could create uncertainty among remaining employees and undermine the culture that previously allowed researchers to raise safety concerns.

"I believe we were fired for prioritizing safety over the near-term interests of OpenAI as a corporation," Balesni said in an X post that accompanied the letter.

OpenAI, ⁠however, asserted that the dismissal was not related to raising safety concerns or speaking out.

"Our internal investigation uncovered a significant breach of trust beyond what's outlined in the letter they published and we stand by the decision to not continue their employment," Reuters quoted OpenAI as saying.

"Safety and research debates happen every day at OpenAI, often spirited and highly critical. We actively encourage these discussions and consider them essential to making the right decisions...We have not and do not terminate any of our employees for raising ⁠concerns," it ⁠said.

While OpenAI did not reveal the specifics of the alleged violations, Wang, Korbak, and Balesni said in their letter that they were not the source of a news article published on The Information last month about security concerns around OpenAI's latest AI model 'Astra'.

This comes as current and former researchers at major AI firms OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic warn that companies are doing too little to guard against the potential fallout of building self-improving AI systems that could become difficult for humans to control.

In July, OpenAI agents broke out of their testing arena and hacked AI firm Hugging Face.