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Apple Fined Nearly $2 Billion by the European Union Over Music Streaming Competition 

In this Jan. 3, 2019, file photo the Apple logo is displayed at the Apple store in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP)
In this Jan. 3, 2019, file photo the Apple logo is displayed at the Apple store in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP)
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Apple Fined Nearly $2 Billion by the European Union Over Music Streaming Competition 

In this Jan. 3, 2019, file photo the Apple logo is displayed at the Apple store in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP)
In this Jan. 3, 2019, file photo the Apple logo is displayed at the Apple store in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP)

The European Union leveled its first antitrust penalty against Apple on Tuesday, fining the US tech giant nearly $2 billion for breaking the bloc's competition laws by unfairly favoring its own music streaming service over rivals.

Apple banned app developers from "fully informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services outside of the app," said the European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s executive arm and top antitrust enforcer.

That is illegal under EU antitrust rules. Apple behaved this way for almost a decade, which meant many users paid “significantly higher prices for music streaming subscriptions,” the commission said.

The 1.8 billion-euro fine follows a long-running investigation triggered by a complaint from Swedish streaming service Spotify five years ago.

The EU has led global efforts to crack down on Big Tech companies, including a series of multbillion-dollar fines for Google and charging Meta with distorting the online classified ad market. The commission also has opened a separate antitrust investigation into Apple's mobile payments service.

The commission's investigation initially centered on two concerns. One was the iPhone maker's practice of forcing app developers that are selling digital content to use its in-house payment system, which charges a 30% commission on all subscriptions.

But the EU later dropped that to focus on how Apple prevents app makers from telling their users about cheaper ways to pay for subscriptions that don’t involve going through an app.

The investigation found that Apple banned streaming services from telling users about how much subscription offers cost outside of their apps, including links in their apps to pay for alternative subscriptions or even emailing users to tell them about different pricing options.

The fine comes the same week that new EU rules are set to kick in that are aimed at preventing tech companies from dominating digital markets.

The Digital Markets Act, due to take effect Thursday, imposes a set of do's and don'ts on “gatekeeper” companies including Apple, Meta, Google parent Alphabet, and TikTok parent ByteDance — under threat of hefty fines.

The DMA's provisions are designed to prevent tech giants from the sort of behavior that's at the heart of the Apple investigation. Apple has already revealed how it will comply, including allowing iPhone users in Europe to use app stores other than its own and enabling developers to offer alternative payment systems.

The commission also has opened a separate antitrust investigation into Apple’s mobile payments service, and the company has promised to open up its tap-and-go mobile payment system to rivals in order to resolve it.

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Technology

Ping-Pong Robot Ace Makes History by Beating Top-Level Human Players

Sony AI autonomous robot Ace returns a shot back against its human opponent, table tennis player Yamato Kawamata, during a match in December 2025, as seen in this photograph released on April 22, 2026. (Sony AI/Handout via Reuters)
Sony AI autonomous robot Ace returns a shot back against its human opponent, table tennis player Yamato Kawamata, during a match in December 2025, as seen in this photograph released on April 22, 2026. (Sony AI/Handout via Reuters)
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Ping-Pong Robot Ace Makes History by Beating Top-Level Human Players

Sony AI autonomous robot Ace returns a shot back against its human opponent, table tennis player Yamato Kawamata, during a match in December 2025, as seen in this photograph released on April 22, 2026. (Sony AI/Handout via Reuters)
Sony AI autonomous robot Ace returns a shot back against its human opponent, table tennis player Yamato Kawamata, during a match in December 2025, as seen in this photograph released on April 22, 2026. (Sony AI/Handout via Reuters)

An autonomous robot ping-pong player dubbed Ace has achieved a milestone for AI and robotics in Tokyo by competing against and sometimes defeating top-level human players at table tennis, a feat that could presage an array of other applications for similarly adept robots.

Ace, created by the Japanese company Sony's AI research division, is the first robot to attain expert-level performance in a competitive physical sport, one that requires rapid decisions and precision execution, the project's leader said. Ace did so by employing high-speed perception, AI-based control and a state-of-the-art robotic system.

There have been various ping-pong-playing robots since 1983, but until now they were unable to rival highly skilled human competitors. Ace changed that with its performances against human elite-level and professional players in matches following the rules of the International Table Tennis Federation, the sport's governing body, and officiated by licensed umpires.

"Unlike computer games, where prior AI systems surpass human experts, physical and real-time sports such as table tennis remain a major open challenge due to their requirements for fast, precise and adversarial interactions near obstacles and at the edge ‌of human reaction ‌time," said Peter Dürr, director of Sony AI Zurich and leader for Sony AI's project Ace.

The ‌project's ⁠goal was not ⁠only to compete at table tennis but to develop insights into how robots can perceive, plan and act with human-like speed and precision in dynamic environments, Dürr said.

"The success of Ace, with its perception system and learning-based control algorithm, suggests that similar techniques could be applied to other areas requiring fast, real-time control and human interaction - such as manufacturing and service robotics, as well as applications across sports, entertainment and safety-critical physical domains," said Dürr, lead author of a study describing Ace's achievements published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

In matches detailed in the study, Ace in April 2025 won three out of five versus elite players and lost two matches against professional players, the top skill level in the ⁠sport. Sony AI said that since then Ace beat professional players in December 2025 and last ‌month.

Companies worldwide are making advances with robots. On Sunday, for instance, robots outran human ‌runners in a half-marathon race in Beijing.

'A BLUR TO THE HUMAN EYE'

AI systems already have excelled in digital domains in strategy games such as ‌chess and Go and at complex video games.

While video games take place in simulated environments, table tennis requires rapid decision-making, precise ‌physical execution and continuous adaptation to an unpredictable opponent, Dürr said. The ball moves at high speeds with complex spins and trajectories, pushing humans and robots to operate at the limits of sensing, prediction and motor control, Dürr said.

Ace's architecture integrates nine synchronized cameras and three vision systems to track a spinning ball with exceptional accuracy and speedy processing time.

"This is fast enough to capture motion that would be a blur to the human eye," Dürr ‌said.

The researchers developed a custom robot platform featuring eight joints. This was, Dürr said, the minimum number necessary to execute competitive shots: three for the racket's position, two for its orientation ⁠and three for the shot's speed ⁠and strength.

Mayuka Taira, a professional table tennis player who lost a match to Ace last December, said in comments provided by Sony AI that the robot's strengths "are that it is very hard to predict, and it shows no emotion."

"Because you can't read its reactions, it's impossible to sense what kind of shots it dislikes or struggles with, and that makes it even more difficult to play against," Taira said.

Rui Takenaka, an elite-level player who has won and lost matches against Ace, said in comments provided by Sony AI: "When it came to my serve, if I used a serve with complex spin, Ace also returned the ball with complex spin, which made it difficult for me. But when I used a simple serve - what we call a knuckle serve - Ace returned a simpler ball. That made it easier for me to attack on the third shot, and I think that was the key reason why I was able to win."

Ace has room for improvement, Dürr said.

"Ace has a superhuman ability to read the spin of incoming balls, and superhuman reaction time. As it learns to play not from watching humans play, but is trained by itself in simulation, it also reacts differently from human players and creates surprising situations," Dürr said. "At the same time, professional human athletes are very good at adapting to their opponent and finding weaknesses, which is an area that we are working on."

Technology

ICAIRE Launches Global ‘AI Glossary Challenge’ to Promote Responsible Innovation

The initiative aims to promote the ethical use of modern technologies across international contexts
The initiative aims to promote the ethical use of modern technologies across international contexts
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ICAIRE Launches Global ‘AI Glossary Challenge’ to Promote Responsible Innovation

The initiative aims to promote the ethical use of modern technologies across international contexts
The initiative aims to promote the ethical use of modern technologies across international contexts

The International Center for AI Research and Ethics (ICAIRE), a Riyadh-based UNESCO affiliate, has launched the AI Glossary Challenge, inviting researchers, students, and practitioners to develop knowledge tools that support a responsible AI ecosystem.

By standardizing concepts and establishing a shared knowledge base, the initiative aims to promote the ethical use of modern technologies across international contexts.

The challenge comprises three specialized tracks: AI Glossary Tools for developing digital applications such as APIs and governance dashboards; Dataset Creation for building high-quality, bias-free cultural datasets; and Cultural Hallucinations Tools to detect and interpret contextual errors in large language models, enhancing their global adaptability.

Hosted on the Kaggle platform, the competition offers prizes to winning teams to foster a specialized community dedicated to AI ethics.

Technology

Florida Launches Criminal Probe into OpenAI and ChatGPT Over Deadly Shooting

This illustration photograph taken in Mulhouse, eastern France on February 11, 2025, shows the logo of OpenAI's artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT. (AFP)
This illustration photograph taken in Mulhouse, eastern France on February 11, 2025, shows the logo of OpenAI's artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT. (AFP)
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Florida Launches Criminal Probe into OpenAI and ChatGPT Over Deadly Shooting

This illustration photograph taken in Mulhouse, eastern France on February 11, 2025, shows the logo of OpenAI's artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT. (AFP)
This illustration photograph taken in Mulhouse, eastern France on February 11, 2025, shows the logo of OpenAI's artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT. (AFP)

Florida ‌Attorney General James Uthmeier said on Tuesday the state was launching a criminal probe into OpenAI and its artificial intelligence app ChatGPT over a deadly shooting last year that killed two people at Florida State University.

A gunman killed two people and wounded six others at Florida State University in April last year before he was shot by officers and hospitalized. The suspect was charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted ‌murder.

"The chatbot advised ‌the shooter on what type ‌of ⁠gun to use, on ⁠which ammo went with which gun, on whether or not a gun would be useful at short range," Uthmeier said in a press briefing.

"If it was a person on the other end of that screen, we would be charging them with murder."

Uthmeier's ⁠office said the investigation will determine whether "OpenAI ‌bears criminal responsibility for ‌ChatGPT's actions in the shooting."

The Office of Statewide Prosecution subpoenaed OpenAI ‌for some information and records, it added.

The rise ‌of AI has fed a host of concerns ranging from worries that electricity demand by data centers could raise power prices for consumers, to fears that the technology could cost ‌workers their jobs or be used to disrupt the democratic process, turbocharge fraud ⁠or help ⁠people plan criminal activities.

An OpenAI spokeswoman told US media that the shooting was a tragedy, but the company had no responsibility. The spokeswoman said that after learning of the incident, OpenAI identified a ChatGPT account believed to be associated with the suspect and "proactively shared this information with law enforcement."

"In this case, ChatGPT provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity," the OpenAI spokeswoman said.