FTC Pause on Microsoft-Activision Dismissed; Temasek's Value Falls

by Grace Dillon on 12th Jul 2023 in News

In today's ExchangeWire news digest: a US judge dismisses the FTC's request for a preliminary injunction against Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard; Singapore-based investment giant Temasek sees its value decline; and OpenAI announces a new team for the safe development of "superintelligent" AI.

FTC pause on Microsoft-Activision deal rejected

Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard received a boost yesterday (11th July) after a US judge dismissed the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) attempt to block the deal. Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley concluded that the FTC had not provided sufficient evidence to suggest that the purchase would undermine competition in the video game industry to the detriment of consumers.

Judge Scott Corley denied the regulator’s request for a preliminary injunction, which would have put the deal on hold to allow the FTC to challenge it in court. The decision is a major knock back for the FTC, which has sought to crack down on alleged anticompetitive behaviour among large tech and communications companies.

Temasek sees value fall

The net portfolio value of Temasek Holdings has dropped 3%, falling USD$6bn (~£4.7bn) to USD$287bn (~£222.7bn) in the 2022-2023 financial year. The fall marks a reversal in fortune for the Singapore-based investment giant, which recorded its highest net portfolio value in 2022.

Temasek attributed the decline to unfavourable market conditions, and noted that it had “adopted a cautious approach” to investment “amidst global uncertainties.” The firm was an investor in FTX and wrote down its investment in the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange after it went bankrupt last November.

OpenAI creates new team to safeguard against “superintelligent” AI

OpenAI has announced the formation of a new team to prepare for the arrival of “superintelligent” AI technologies. In a blog post published last week, co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever and alignment lead Jan Leike warned that AI systems could evolve to become more intelligent than human beings, and that such a development could pose a risk to society.

Sutskever and Leike will lead the new “Superalignment” team in an effort to build solutions for bringing and keeping advanced AI solutions under human control. The team, which will consist of scientists and engineers from across OpenAI, will seek to build a “human-level automated alignment researcher” to train AI that can take over alignment work without going rogue. Sutskever and Leike say they will share the team’s developments with the wider industry.