Tesco doubles down on robots, La-Z-Boy expands 3D use: the week's biggest retail technology stories — Retail Technology Innovation Hub

• Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Palantir's Alex Karp have warned enterprises that AI labs are covertly mining customer data and proprietary know-how to develop competing products. • In a separate development, AI safety researcher Alex Turner resigned from Google DeepMind, alleging the company signed a military deal with the Pentagon that violates its 2018 pledge against lethal autonomous weapons.

• Meta’s Oversight Board released a report revealing that leading AI models from OpenAI, Google, Meta, Anthropic, and DeepSeek are significantly less likely to criticize governments and leaders who restrict free speech. • The study found that these LLMs frequently refuse to generate critical content regarding specific regimes, though the justifications provided for these refusals are often inconsistent or confusing.

• Reddit has implemented new moderation tools powered by large language models (LLMs) to combat AI-generated spam. • These advanced systems are designed to detect coordinated engagement patterns and subtle spam that traditional detection methods previously missed.

• The European Commission issued two binding orders under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) on Wednesday, requiring Google to modify its Android and Search services. • These orders aim to curb Google's market dominance by forcing the company to ensure fair competition and prevent the preferential treatment of its own services.

• Munich-based startup Microagi has raised $55 million in a seed funding round, marking the largest seed round ever recorded in Germany. • The company intends to use the capital to scale the deployment of humanoid robots by integrating its proprietary software with Chinese hardware and training data from New York.

• The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that a critical governance gap is emerging in Europe as AI adoption in healthcare outpaces regulation. • While nearly two-thirds of countries in the WHO European Region have deployed AI diagnostics, only one in 12 has a formal strategy to govern the technology.

• The European Commission has ruled against Google, requiring the company to share specific data with competitors to foster fair competition in the AI search engine market. • In a separate but related regulatory action, the Commission accused Apple of restricting app developers from informing iOS users about cheaper music subscription alternatives for over a decade.

• Asian technology stocks experienced a significant decline, with Japan's Nikkei index hitting its lowest level since June. • In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index dropped over 2%, led by steep 6% losses for tech giants Meituan and Kuaishou.

• Asian stocks, including the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, declined by 0.3% following a selloff of semiconductor chips on Wall Street. • The downturn was primarily driven by investor concerns regarding the valuations of artificial intelligence (AI) stocks, leading to losses in markets across Japan and Australia.

• Asian stock markets experienced a significant downturn, with Japan’s Nikkei plunging 4.9% and Taiwan’s Taiex sinking 5.1%. • The sell-off was primarily driven by growing investor concerns regarding the sustainability and valuation of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

• Global stock markets declined as shares of computer chipmakers and other AI-driven companies experienced a significant slump. • Major indexes saw notable losses, including a 1.8% drop in Shanghai and a 2.8% decrease in Tokyo.