U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has subpoenaed the CEOs of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft for documents related to their content moderation and government communications. Jordan tweeted that the queries are related to "Big Tech’s reported collusion with the federal government." The Ohio Republican and other GOP members have accused the tech companies of suppressing conservative viewpoints on their platforms. More: - Jordan initially asked the companies to voluntarily turn over documents and communications by March 23, 2023.
- On Wednesday, he escalated the effort by sending subpoena letters to Sundar Pichai of Alphabet; Andy Jassy of Amazon.com, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta Platforms, and Satya Nadella of Microsoft.
- Jordan said the House Judiciary Committee wants to understand the extent to which the U.S. executive branch "coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech" on matters such as COVID-19 policy.
- Twitter was not included in the requests, Jordan explained, because it "set a benchmark" for transparency regarding its relations with the government by releasing the so-called Twitter Files.
- At least two of the companies — Microsoft and Meta — have said they've already started producing documents in an effort to fulfill the committee's requests.
THE WASHINGTON POST 
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Tesla is accused of terminating more than 30 employees at its Buffalo, New York plant a day after some workers there announced an effort to unionize. In a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board, the Workers United union claimed Tesla illegally dismissed some employees “in retaliation for union activity and to discourage union activity.” More: - Several of the employees who were let go were involved in the union activity and discussions, including one who was on the organizing committee, according to Workers United.
- The union is seeking an injunction from a federal court to further protect employee rights. Under federal law, retaliating against union organizing is illegal.
- The roughly 800 workers, who are analysts working on Autopilot driver-assistance technology at the plant, launched a campaign earlier this week and asked Tesla to sign the Fair Election Principles.
- They are seeking higher pay, better job security, and less monitoring and production pressure. Pay in the positions reportedly starts at $19 an hour.
- The group is backed by Workers United, which also helped to unionize hundreds of Starbucks cafes in the U.S.
REUTERS
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The U.S. Department of Justice has ramped up an ongoing antitrust investigation into Apple's monopoly power, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The DOJ has reportedly assigned more litigators and submitted more document requests in the case. More: - The DOJ first launched the probe in 2019. According to the WSJ, the agency is examining Apple's App Store practices, including whether its iPhone operating system favors the company's apps over third-party apps.
- Depending on what it finds, the DOJ could choose to move forward by filing an antitrust complaint against Apple.
- The DOJ and Apple declined to comment. Apple has previously said that it supports outside developers and competition in its App Store.
Zoom Out: - The escalation in the investigation comes after the DOJ filed a second antitrust complaint against Alphabet's Google. The suit claims Google abused its dominance in the digital advertising market, violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.
- The DOJ's previous antitrust lawsuit, which remains ongoing, accuses Google of suppressing competition in the online search market.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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In an SEC filing, DocuSign announced that it will cut 10% of its workforce, impacting roughly 700 employees. While the digital e-signature software firm benefitted from the pandemic tech boom, it has experienced a major growth slowdown in the past year. More: - San Francisco-based DocuSign said the layoffs will primarily impact employees in its worldwide field organization.
- The cuts will help support its growth, profitability, and scale objectives, it said.
- The firm expects to spend $25M to $35M on severance and other costs related to the layoffs, according to the SEC filing.
- DocuSign previously reduced its workforce by 9% in September as part of another restructuring.
Related: - Also today, it was reported that Chinese VR startup Pico Interactive has started laying off some employees. The ByteDance-owned company is targeting job cuts of 20% to 30% of its 2,000-member team, or 400 to 600 people.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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 Unofficial render, by Ian Zelbo Apple is now expected to reveal its mixed reality headset at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference, which is typically held in June, according to Bloomberg. The publication said Apple chose to delay the launch from April after testing indicated that the device still has hardware and software issues. More: - Apple could announce the AR/VR headset at WWDC and release it to consumers by the end of 2023, Bloomberg reported.
- The headset, which reports said could be called "Reality Pro," is projected to cost $2,000 to $3,000.
- Recent reports suggest that its interface will look like the operating system for iPhones. It's expected to have dual 4K displays, an M2 processor, eye and hand tracking, and the ability to switch between full virtual reality and augmented reality, a mix between the digital and real worlds.
- Apple is said to be working with "high-profile developers" on apps and experiences for the high-end headset, which is geared more toward professionals than gamers.
- The company is also reportedly planning a less expensive second-generation headset that could release in 2024 or later.
BLOOMBERG
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Google executives have asked employees to internally test Bard, the company's AI-powered chatbot, to help improve its accuracy and responses. In a companywide memo this week, CEO Sundar Pichai asked workers to spend two to four hours trying out and giving feedback to the technology before Google rolls it out to the wider public. More: - Google search VP Prabhakar Raghavan has also asked staff members to rewrite the chatbot's responses on certain topics, noting that the AI "learns best by example."
- In a list of instructions, Raghavan told workers that responses should be polite, neutral, and not presumptive.
- They are asked to downvote bot responses that offer professional advice and/or are abusive or hateful.
Zoom Out: - Last week, a Google executive briefly showed off Bard, demonstrating how Google's generative AI technology could summarize web information in searches.
- Some Google employees have criticized Google's rollout of the technology, saying it was "rushed" and "botched."
- After the unveiling, it was found that Google's Bard made an error, which caused Google to lose $100B in market value last Wednesday.
- The demo came a day after Microsoft unveiled its new Bing search engine and Edge browser powered by AI.
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- Reddit, the news aggregator and social media platform, is reviving its plans to go public, with an IPO likely targeted for the second half of 2023, sources tell The Information.
- Meta is rolling out a new version of its "Why am I seeing this ad?" tool to provide users with more information about how their activities on Facebook and beyond inform the machine learning models that power its ad-matching software.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. She has written the Inside AI newsletter since 2019. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. |   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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