Everyone knows Spotify, and their cultural impact is massive, but how big are they and what does their future look like?

This week we've got a newsbag looking into ads on WhatsApp, early research from MIT on how using ChatGPT seems to make you dumb, a new fast fashion ban, and new anti-deepfake laws in Denmark. 

Under the US CLOUD Act the American government has the right to force access to cloud servers and other data that is stored in other regions, including the EU. This, combined with geopolitical turmoil is causing business and governments to look for "sovereign" cloud services. What is it, how does it work, who are the main players, and why does it matter?

An unexpected consequence of AI search tools turning into the preferred answer engine is that AI companies are favoring high quality journalistic sources over influencers. This is resetting the PR dynamic and forcing companies to deal with pesky journalists rather than placating podcast bros. 

Google has been found to have not one, but two illegal monopolies in the US, and Meta is facing it's own antitrust lawsuit. What's happening and what does it mean both globally and here in Europe?

Rather than do a deep dive into one topic, this week we're doing a "newsbag" and quickly reviewing several bits of news from the past couple of weeks. 

We're looking at the latest wave of social media challengers and debating if they actually stand a chance against incumbents like Meta and TikTok

Sources used for this episode:
- https://www.wired.com/story/this-platform-wants-to-return-civil-discourse-to-social-media-by-scoring-users/
- https://www.theverge.com/24063290/fediverse-explained-activitypub-social-media-open-protocol
- https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/31/custom-feed-builder-graze-is-building-a-business-on-bluesky-and-investors-are-paying-attention/
- https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-statistics/
- https://www.theverge.com/news/637668/facebook-friends-only-feed-algorithm
- https://www.newsweek.com/bluesky-anti-toxicity-features-twitter-x-rival-1946192
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/esatdedezade/2025/01/25/open-source-and-ethical-tiktok-whatsapp-and-instagram-alternatives-could-transform-social-media/
- https://www.mixbloom.com/resources/average-time-spent-on-social-media-2022
- https://backlinko.com/reddit-users
- https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/21/technology/reddit-ipo-public-content-moderation.html
- https://finance.yahoo.com/news/onlyfans-reveals-record-breaking-revenue-175230410.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAB8C1AhVRqO6lA4jpYImMyqCoo7eDMbq7vCJRjmakXc5cNI5fQV5HCs2cRtDZGcZPmoSMWzhrjSFgCme47b2aT8SPWy82kf9Co3gcs865LDCvtaMcr1nImL26j5wAimTfdbDFB22f_C9IaBz-4DnGu7-jv5z2s-jQXpjQEIOb7Tz

The US is trying to discourage DEI, including with AI tools. The EU is taking the opposite approach. It's a big clash on a topic that is as important as it can be tricky to navigate. Who decides what the rules are? How do you manage hard dilemmas? We don't have most of the answers, but we sure have a lot of questions. 

The main sources for this episode:

- https://www.wired.com/story/ai-safety-institute-new-directive-america-first/

- https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/07/us/trump-federal-agencies-websites-words-dei.html

- https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/631352/ai-search-adobe-analytics-google-perplexity-openai

- https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/regulatory-framework-ai

More people are turning to AI for their search. Does this mean Google is in trouble? What does the future of search look like and how will this shape the internet?

Articles used to research for this episode:

https://blog.google/products/search/ai-mode-search/

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/24/chegg-sues-google-for-hurting-traffic-as-it-considers-alternatives.html

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/23/24162896/google-ai-overview-hallucinations-glue-in-pizza

https://sparktoro.com/blog/2024-zero-click-search-study-for-every-1000-us-google-searches-only-374-clicks-go-to-the-open-web-in-the-eu-its-360/

https://searchengineland.com/google-search-market-share-drops-2024-450497

https://mistral.ai/news/mistral-afp

https://sparktoro.com/blog/traffic-is-down-revenue-is-up/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1093781/distribution-of-googles-revenues-by-segment/

Deep dives into the European AI Summit and the EU AI Act, plus some best practices on how to best use AI in your work. 

Sources used for this episode:
- https://www.techpolicy.press/at-paris-ai-summit-us-eu-other-nations-lay-out-divergent-goals/
- https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/paris-ai-summit-draws-world-leaders-ceos-eager-technology-wave-2025-02-10/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/technology/ai-summit-paris-technology.html
- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/11/us-uk-paris-ai-summit-artificial-intelligence-declaration
- https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/02/11/ook-in-europa-gaat-het-ai-debat-nu-over-investeren-investeren-investeren-a4882715
- https://www.techpolicy.press/paris-just-hosted-a-major-ai-summit-it-biggest-debate-was-a-trap/
- https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/time-to-place-our-bets-europes-ai-opportunity
- https://aichampions.eu/
- https://www.currentai.org/
- https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/high-level-summary/
- https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/mistral-ai
- https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2024/760392/EPRS_ATA(2024)760392_EN.pdf