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1.	U.S. Imposes Export Restrictions on Advanced Memory Chips to China By Qianer Liu Source: The Information

The U.S. is restricting the sale to China of advanced memory chips that are crucial for artificial intelligence development, as part of its annual updates to export controls designed to prevent China from accessing cutting-edge semiconductor technology for military use.

This year's updates cover the sale of high bandwidth memory chips, which are key to training generative AI and which enable faster data processing than traditional memory. In addition to the advanced memories, the new regulation will also bar U.S. companies and citizens from selling two dozen kinds of chipmaking equipment and three software tools to China, the Department of Commerce said on Monday.

"They're the strongest controls ever enacted by the U.S. to degrade the PRC's ability to make the most advanced chips that they're using in their military modernization," Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a call with reporters, referring to the People's Republic of China. The new rules will "set the next administration up to continue the important momentum necessary to preserve American tech security and leadership," Raimondo added.

The Commerce Department is also adding 140 companies to the Entity List, including chipmaking factories, equipment makers, and investment companies. U.S. citizens and companies are prohibited from doing business with those on the list without permission from the Commerce Department.

2.	Musk Asks for Injunction to Block OpenAI For-Profit Move By Nick Wingfield Source: The Information

Elon Musk asked a court to stop OpenAI from converting to a for profit enterprise and engaging in other behavior that could hurt its rivals, including Musk's own artificial intelligence startup, xAI.

In a filing late Friday, Musk said that the court should halt the for-profit conversion because it violated the terms of Musk's funding of OpenAI. Unwinding OpenAI after such a conversion would be "grievously costly, complex, and burdensome," Musk's complaint said.

Musk also asked the court to prevent OpenAI from interfering with fundraising efforts by xAI and other startups. His filing accused OpenAI of telling investors in its October funding round not to also put money into rivals. "Musk has further verified that at least one major investor in OpenAI's October 2024 funding round has subsequently declined to invest in xAI," the filing said.

In a statement to TechCrunch, OpenAI said Musk's latest court filing "recycles the same baseless complaints" he has previously made against the company.

3.	Black Friday Sales Jump Over 10% By Nick Wingfield Source: The Information

U.S. shoppers spent 10.2% more on Black Friday compared to the same day a year earlier, according to one tracker of real time online spending.

Adobe Analytics said in a report on holiday shopping that U.S. shoppers spent $10.8 billion online the day after Thanksgiving, when many retailers offer steep discounts on goods, up from $9.8 billion. That increase was better than Adobe's estimate of a 7.5% increase in Black Friday spending last year compared to the prior year.

On Thanksgiving itself, U.S. shoppers spent $6.1 billion, nearly 9% more than they spent on that day in 2023, according to Adobe.

4.	Australia Passes Law Banning Social Media for Under 16s By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan Source: The Information

Australia's Parliament has approved a law banning children under 16 years old from having social media accounts, drawing a strict line under a global debate about how to protect young people online.

The ban, approved in Australia's senate Thursday, requires social media companies to take "reasonable steps" to block under 16s from setting up accounts. But the law, which won't come into effect for another 12 months, also mandates social media companies determine the age of users without requiring people to upload government IDs. A breach of the law could result in fines of up to $33 million.

In a statement posted online, Australia's prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the platforms the ban will apply to include Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X and others.

But questions remain about how the law will be enforced. Age-verification is a polarizing issue among U.S. tech companies: Meta Platforms has argued that app store providers like Apple and Google should be responsible for determining how old app users are, while Apple has argued that platforms and websites are better positioned to shoulder such responsibility.

5.	Canadian Publishers Sue OpenAI By Catherine Perloff Source: The Information

A group of leading Canadian publishers including the Global and Mail and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp sued OpenAI for copyright infringement, adding to a growing list of companies seeking damages from the tech company for allegedly scraping their work.

The Canadian media firms' suit follows similar lawsuits filed by the New York Times, The Intercept and authors such as Jonathan Franzen, all alleging that OpenAI breached their copyright when it used their articles in training its large language models.

"OpenAI's public statements that it is somehow fair or in the public interest for them to use other companies' intellectual property for their own commercial gain is wrong. Journalism is in the public interest," the publishers said in a joint statement. "OpenAI using other companies' journalism for their own commercial gain is not. It's illegal."

The Canadian firms are asking for a share of the revenues OpenAI has made from allegedly infringing on their work or over billions of dollars in damages. OpenAI said in a statement to The Information on Friday that "our models are trained on publicly available data, grounded in fair use and related international copyright principles that are fair for creators and support innovation."

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