This week, regulatory bodies across the globe signaled a sharp turn toward stricter oversight. In today’s MadTech Daily, we discuss a US Judge siding with Meta in an AI copyright lawsuit, authors suing Microsoft over AI training on books, and subscriptions surpassing display ads for UK digital publishers.

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has weighed in on one of the ad industry's biggest deals of the year. It intervened in Omnicom’s USD$13.5bn (£10.6bn) acquisition of Interpublic Group IPG, citing concerns over potential anticompetitive coordination in the global advertising market. 

Meanwhile, in Japan, a scandal is coming to a head. Dentsu Group Inc. and six other ad or event related firms have attracted a combined fine of ¥3.3 billion (£18m) from the Japan’s Fair Trade Commission for bid-rigging contracts related to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. According to the commission, the companies began rigging bids in April 2018 to secure contracts for major sporting event planning, including operational roles during the Games.

Apple’s AI ambitions are beginning to surface as the big tech has reportedly held internal discussions about a potential acquisition of Perplexity AI, say sources cited by Bloomberg. However, the company is simultaneously facing legal pressure from shareholders who allege the company misled investors about its progress in integrating advanced AI capabilities particularly into its Siri assistant.

In a major legal victory for AI developers, a US federal judge has ruled in favour of Anthropic in a copyright lawsuit, stating that the AI company’s use of books to train its large language model without permission qualifies as legal.