Technology policy, data regulations, and digital governance
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced zero taxes through 2047 for cloud providers running international AI workloads from Indian data centers. The catch: revenues from domestic sales must flow through local resellers subject to Indian taxes. It's a 22-year bet on Big Tech infrastructure investment - if power and water constraints don't derail it first.
Kontigo, a Y Combinator-backed fintech that pitched USDC remittances to Venezuela, has been cut off by JPMorgan, Stripe, and other U.S. payment partners following sanctions compliance scrutiny. The startup's model—converting USD to stablecoins for spending in sanctioned markets—raised flags about potential OFAC violations.
Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs lifted its ban on xAI's Grok chatbot February 1, following commitments from X to prevent misuse. The move mirrors Malaysia and the Philippines, which lifted bans January 23. Director General Alexander Sabar confirmed the ban can be reinstated if violations are discovered.
Paolo Ardoino spent years avoiding U.S. regulators. Now he's meeting White House officials and launching USAT, a federally-regulated stablecoin targeting Circle's USDC dominance. The shift comes as Tether's $187B USDT faces renewed scrutiny over reserve transparency - the same issue that's dogged the company since 2017.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced zero taxes through 2047 for cloud providers running international AI workloads from Indian data centers. The catch: revenues from domestic sales must flow through local resellers subject to Indian taxes. It's a 22-year bet on Big Tech infrastructure investment - if power and water constraints don't derail it first.
Kontigo, a Y Combinator-backed fintech that pitched USDC remittances to Venezuela, has been cut off by JPMorgan, Stripe, and other U.S. payment partners following sanctions compliance scrutiny. The startup's model—converting USD to stablecoins for spending in sanctioned markets—raised flags about potential OFAC violations.
Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs lifted its ban on xAI's Grok chatbot February 1, following commitments from X to prevent misuse. The move mirrors Malaysia and the Philippines, which lifted bans January 23. Director General Alexander Sabar confirmed the ban can be reinstated if violations are discovered.
Paolo Ardoino spent years avoiding U.S. regulators. Now he's meeting White House officials and launching USAT, a federally-regulated stablecoin targeting Circle's USDC dominance. The shift comes as Tether's $187B USDT faces renewed scrutiny over reserve transparency - the same issue that's dogged the company since 2017.
Snapchat has blocked over 415,000 Australian accounts citing "technical limitations" as it prepares for the country's under-16 social media ban. The blocks expose the gap between policy ambition and implementation reality, with platforms facing A$49.5M fines if they can't verify age and location by December 10.
China's first pure-play AI company to go public warned investors about navigating content censorship, data security, and military-use restrictions. The prospectus offers rare insight into regulatory friction that US counterparts don't face - a trade-off APAC enterprises should understand as they evaluate Chinese AI platforms.
A former Google employee alleges the company violated its own AI ethics policies by helping an Israeli defense contractor improve object recognition in drone footage. The complaint claims Google misled investors, while the company argues the support was too limited to matter. Google revised its AI ethics policy months after the incident.
The New York Times announced Wordle will start repeating previous answers from February 2, framing it as 'exciting news.' Independent analysis suggests the original 2,309-word list could have lasted until 2036 with proper curation. The move fundamentally changes player strategy and has drawn skepticism from the community.