This week, AI’s rapid commercial growth collided with mounting regulatory scrutiny, as governments, platforms, and investors raced to shape the next phase of the industry. On today’s MadTech Daily we cover Meta preparing AI agents to perform tasks for users, the EU easing AI restrictions, and Meta asking a judge to throw out the verdict for its social media addiction case. 

The US government appears to be reconsidering its approach to AI safety, with the Trump administration exploring a framework that would place the Pentagon at the centre of testing advanced AI systems before they are deployed across public-sector networks. Discussions led by the White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director suggest growing concern over the security implications of increasingly powerful AI models.

Meanwhile, the AI app economy is shifting in a more visual direction. New data from Appfigures shows that image-generation models are now driving significantly more app downloads than updates to traditional chatbot systems. According to the report, releases tied to visual AI features generate roughly six-and-a-half times more installs.

OpenAI also continued its push into advertising, expanding access to its self-serve ads manager for all US advertisers in beta. By removing the previous USD$50,000 (£39,500) minimum spend threshold, the company is opening ChatGPT advertising to smaller brands, startups, and agencies, a major step toward building a scalable ad business around its AI products.

Legal and regulatory battles surrounding AI intensified. Meta is facing a new copyright lawsuit in Manhattan federal court, where major publishers including Elsevier, Cengage, Hachette, Macmillan, and McGraw Hill have accused the company of using millions of copyrighted books and journal articles without permission to train its Llama AI models. 

Elon Musk also reached a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations tied to his 2022 Twitter share purchases. Under the agreement, a trust in Musk’s name will pay a USD$1.5m civil penalty without admitting wrongdoing.