EU tells Meta to allow rival AI chatbots, BYD threatens to sue US government

The EU has told Meta that it must allow AI chatbots operated by rival firms to use WhatsApp for free. The European Commission said the firm would need to maintain that access while it concluded an antitrust investigation into the tech giant’s decision to bar access for AI providers, other than Meta AI, on the messaging platform. It said the intervention was needed to prevent “serious and irreparable harm to competition in this growing market by Meta’s conduct”, which it said appeared to infringe EU competition rules. BBC 

Prediction market company Kalshi has announced a series of measures to prevent insider trading following allegations of market manipulation on the platform and rival sites, including a requirement that some users disclose their employment details. Kalshi, which allows users to bet on future events ranging from sports fixtures to elections and wars, said on Tuesday that it had started collecting job information for markets deemed to be at heightened risk of manipulation to screen out users with non-public knowledge. Al Jazeera 

I come here to celebrate Apple delivering. It’s not overshooting the mark with the new Siri AI, which it unveiled at WWDC 2026, but it is finally delivering on the promises it made at WWDC 2024. Sure, it’s beta (again), and there’s a wait list (again), but I’ve now seen it at work, in person, in live and potentially unpredictable demos. Siri AI, as it’s now called, works across platforms, and it has the potential to change how you use your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Tech Radar 

BYD has threatened to sue the US government after the Pentagon accused the Chinese carmaker of aiding Beijing’s military. Stella Li, BYD’s executive vice-president, said the company would use every legal “weapon” at its disposal to fight the claims as she accused the Trump administration of seeking to hobble the Chinese firm because of its growing success internationally. The carmaker recently overtook American rival Tesla to become the world’s biggest manufacturer of electric vehicles and has rapidly grown sales in Britain and Europe over the past three years. Telegraph 

White House displeasure over the prospect of an under-16 social media ban will not deter the UK from cracking down on tech platforms, the British government has said. The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, told the Guardian she was not concerned “in the slightest” by the Trump administration’s intervention in the debate over restrictions, after the US embassy in London posted a notice warning against a ban. Kendall added that nine out of 10 respondents to a government poll supported an under-16 ban. The Guardian 

Reform leader Nigel Farage has called on X to act over a series of fake, AI-generated adverts which depict him fighting Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey. The ads – showing the Reform leader and Bank of England governor in a number of fake scenarios, on a set resembling BBC Question Time – have been repeatedly shown to X users in the UK in recent days. Farage told reporters on Tuesday that Reform UK contacted X on Monday “to the highest level” – adding he hoped it would take action to remove the ads “incredibly quickly.” BBC 

The Amazfit Helio Strap ($94 on Amazon) last received a major feature update in December, and now Amazfit is announcing another patch that will introduce a number of improvements. The release notes once again advertise new training modes, including basketball and swimming in the pool, as well as the ability to save favorite workouts in a list in the associated smartphone app. After the update, it is possible to connect the Amazfit Helio Strap to a compatible Amazfit smartwatch, allowing the Amazfit Helio Strap’s heart rate data to be stored offline on the smartwatch while swimming. NotebookCheck