World
DMA should urgently apply to cloud and AI, lead lawmaker warns
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According to German MEP Andreas Schwab, the digital EU regulation should apply to cloud and AI services to prevent their providers from dominating the market before it’s too late.
Big tech’s cloud and AI services urgently need to be regulated by the EU’s landmark platform regulation the Digital Markets Act, otherwise American and Chinese competitors will dominate the market, German European People’s Party MEP Andreas Schwab said at an event in Brussels on Wednesday.
“We need a common European strategy on how to face the digital strength” of China and the US, the lawmaker said, adding: “We want a strong European commitment of the European Commission to make sure that cloud and AI are considered core platform services under the Digital Market Act (DMA) because there is so much potential that if we act now the choice remains for the users and not in the hands of those that can attract investment and thereby can start controlling the market.”
There are currently 24 core platform services which fall under the DMA, the EU digital antitrust regulation which entered into force in 2022. They are provided by the so-called “Gatekeepers” – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft, Booking – designated by the European Commission as big enough to be regulated by the DMA. But cloud and AI services, despite their exponential growth worldwide remain untouched.
In the United Kingdom, the market dominance of Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud sector was flagged on Tuesday by the British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in the provisional findings of an investigation into the sector launched in October 2023. “We have provisionally found that Amazon Web Services and Microsoft have been generating sustained returns from their cloud services substantially above their cost of capital in cloud services for a number of years,” it said.
The CMA also found that large investments can foreclose competitors: “There are also economies of scale, whereby larger cloud providers have lower ongoing costs. The largest cloud providers are making very large investments to expand their services in coming years, and while this investment can have procompetitive effects and benefit cloud customers, it may also deter market entry or expansion by potential rivals.”
In the cloud sector, competition among the Tech giant is fierce. Google, which is the third player, after Amazon and Microsoft, filed a complaint last September to the European Commission against alleged anti-competitive practices by Microsoft designed to lock customers into its cloud platform Azure.
At another event on Tuesday, Schwab advocated applying the DMA to cloud platform services saying that changing cloud providers “is extremely complicated” because the companies “have invested your data and have accommodated your system.”
However while cloud computing services are included among the “core platform services” monitored under the DMA, none have reached the designation thresholds.
The artificial intelligence market, in which the Trump administration has announced recently massive investments, and which has seen Deepseek, a new Chinese player, emerge in the last few days, is even less easy for legislators to define for antitrust enforcement purposes. Is it a service or a technology ?
“AI is a technology that underpins a wide range of digital applications and services – including some core platform services, such as search engines and social networks,” head of the tech lobby CCIA Europe, Daniel Friedlaender, told Euronews adding: “However, the underlying technology as such cannot be considered a core platform service under the DMA. AI is simply one of many enabling technologies behind a multitude of different services.”
Schwab conceded: “Now cloud and AI are interdependent because all AI services are run by the cloud, but at the same time AI is not yet that much part of the gatekeeper services as cloud is already.” But he added that there’s an urgency to consider dealing with AI earlier in the same way as cloud services.
American Chatgpt, owned by Microsoft-backed Open AI, leads the market of artificial intelligence. Microsoft’s Copilot and Google’s Gemini are second and third.
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World
Vatican denies rumours of possible Pope resignation
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The Vatican said in a statement on Saturday, that Pope Francis would not lead Sunday prayers again this weekend, the second week in a row he has to cancel his personal appearance.
The Vatican has said in a statement that “the Pope has rested well” in its latest update on the health condition of the pontiff who has been hospitalised for nine days at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital due to bilateral pneumonia.
But on Friday, Professor Sergio Alfieri, who is part of the Pope’s medical team, warned that he is “not out of danger” and will remain in hospital for at least another week.
“The Pope has always wanted us to tell the truth,” Alfieri told reporters at the entrance to Gemelli Hospital.
“The chronic illness remains, the Pope knows this, he said ‘I realise that the situation is serious’,” Alfieri explained and then added: “Sometimes he catches his breath, and the feeling is not pleasant for anyone.”
The Vatican said in a statement on Saturday, that Pope Francis would not lead Sunday prayers again this weekend, the second week in a row he has to cancel his personal appearance.
Parolin denies resignation rumours
As Pope Francis’ health situation becomes increasingly worrying, rumours of his imminent resignation have grown louder.
“They all seem to me to be useless speculation. Now we are thinking about the Holy Father’s health, his recovery, his return to the Vatican: these are the only things that matter,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, said in an interview with Corriere della Sera.
“Thank God, the news coming from Gemelli is encouraging, he is recovering. He has been sent paperwork and this means that he is proceeding well,” Parolin said.
88-year-old Pope Francis has been dogged by bouts of ill health for years and as a young man, had the upper lobe of his right lung removed.
But the Vatican says he remains in good spirits, has eaten breakfast every day and continued to work from his hospital room.
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TVLine Items: Hawkeye Vet Joins Daredevil, The Quiz With Balls Renewed and More
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World
Pope Francis is 'fine,' condition not life-threatening, doctors say
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Pope Francis “is fine” as his medical condition is not life-threatening, but he is expected to remain hospitalized for at least all of next week, his doctors in Italy announced Friday.
Gemelli hospital Dr. Sergio Alfieri and Francis’ personal physician, Dr. Luigi Carbone, spoke as the 88-year-old pope marked his first week in a hospital with pneumonia on top of chronic bronchitis.
“The pope is fine,” Alfieri told reporters Friday, noting that Francis instructed he and Carbone to provide an update.
Alfieri added that the pope is getting the same treatment as anyone with his condition would get.
POPE FRANCIS GOT OUT OF BED TO EAT BREAKFAST DURING HOSPITAL STAY, VATICAN SAYS
Surgeon Sergio Alfieri, right, and head physician of the Vatican’s health and hygiene office, Luigi Carbone speak on Friday, Feb. 21, in the entrance hall of Rome’s Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic where Pope Francis is being treated. (AP/Alessandra Tarantino)
The pope is receiving occasional supplements of oxygen when he needs it and is responding to the strengthened drug therapy he is receiving to fight pneumonia and a complex lung infection, according to his doctors.
Francis is dealing with a multipronged infection of bacteria and virus in the respiratory tract.
POPE FRANCIS’ MEDICAL CONDITION: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT BILATERAL PNEUMONIA
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Candles with the pictures of Pope Francis are the laid under the statue of late Pope John Paul II outside Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome on Wednesday, Feb. 19, where the pontiff has been hospitalized since Friday, Feb. 14. (AP/Gregorio Borgia)
Doctors said there was no evidence the germs had entered his bloodstream, a condition known as sepsis that they said would be the biggest concern. Sepsis is a complication of an infection that can lead to organ failure and death.
Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Feb. 14 after a case of bronchitis worsened.
The Vatican late Thursday reported a “slight improvement” in Francis’ overall clinical condition, with his heart working well.
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Priests pray for Pope Francis outside the hospital in Rome where he is being held on Friday, Feb. 21. (AP/Alessandra Tarantino)
“The night went well, this morning Pope Francis got up and had breakfast,” a bulletin added Friday.
Fox News’ Thomas Ferraro and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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