Tesla to turn to humanoid robots and Meta slapped down by Oversight board

Musk unveils Tesla’s humanoid robot roadmap

Elon Musk has revealed plans to start using humanoid robots to build Tesla’s electric cars from next year.

The Tesla boss took to social media to announce that the EV car maker will be the first manufacturer to leverage its own Optimus humanoid robots in production lines.

The Optimus bot has been in the works since 2021, with a prototype unveiled the following year. Musk said that the vehicle maker hopes to expand production next year, and then to sell the robots to other firms from 2026 onward.

“Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use next year and, hopefully, high production for other companies in 2026,” Musk said in his post on X.

Ofcom slaps TikTok with £1.9m fine over child safety

UK regulator Ofcom has fined social media giant TikTok to the tune of £1.9 million for failing to respond to a request for information on its parent controls safety feature.

The watchdog, which was given additional powers in 2022 to punish firms that fail to remove child sexual abuse content, said TikTok had failed to provide complete information on the uptake of its “Family Pairing” control.

The new powers, handed as part of the Online Safety Bill, allow Ofcom to fine companies who fail to respond to statutory information requests in a complete and timely fashion.

Ofcom said it had requested information about the Family Pairing parental control last summer, to assess the effectiveness of TikTok’s protections for teenage users.

TikTok provided a response to the request in September 2023, but retracted the information a few months later, Ofcom revealed in a blog post, leading to the fine.

Read Ofcom’s blog here

Oversight Board criticises Meta over AI generated images

Meta has been criticised by its own oversight board of its rules on adult images generated using artificial intelligence.

The Meta Oversight Board claimed Facebook’s parent company needs to be clearer about banning sexually explicit images made of real people. It also demanded the company introduce rules to stop these images spreading across its platforms.

The board issued the ruling after reviewing two pornographic fakes of famous women which were created using AI. These were then posted on Facebook and Instagram.

Meta has confirmed it plans to review the board’s recommendation, although it has no obligation to follow its advice.

The Oversight Board was established by Meta to assess any controversial decisions it might make. While it is funded by Meta, the board has operational independence, while the social media giant can choose whether to accept its suggestions.

Read more

India scraps “Google Tax” on digital services

The Indian government has scrapped a controversial levy on digital services rendered to Indian businesses by foreign firms after pressure from the US.

India introduced the expanded “Google Tax” in 2020, widening the scope of its 2016 equalization levy – which charged offshore firms hosting advertisements targeted at Indian consumers – to include other e-commerce services.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has now introduced the Finance Bill 2024 that will scrap the equalization levy on a wide array of services, including cloud and e-commerce offerings, form August 1.

The move will be welcomed by the US who had claimed in 2021 that the expanded levy was discriminatory against US businesses due to the high number of digital services firms who were offering services in India.

The Biden administration hit back by imposing its own tariff of up to 25% for up to $2 billion of goods from nations that implement digital services taxes, though this was suspended almost immediately.

Read more