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Paul Graham expressed sustained opposition to AI regulation efforts, warning Biden's October 2023 Executive Order means 'government regulating private individuals' computing at an exponential rate.' He mocked UK AI regulation efforts and advocated for the UK to become a regulatory haven from EU AI Act restrictions.

In October 2023, Sundar Pichai testified in the largest tech antitrust trial since the Microsoft case. The DOJ proved Google paid Apple over $10 billion annually (and $26.3 billion total in 2021) to be the default search engine on devices. The court found Google had illegally monopolized the online search market. In April 2025, Pichai testified against DOJ remedies proposals, arguing that forced data sharing would be a 'de facto divestiture' of the search engine.

In October 2023, mechanics who are members of the Swedish trade union IF Metall began striking against Tesla, making it the longest strike in Sweden since 1938. The strike was triggered by Tesla's refusal to sign a collective bargaining agreement, standard practice in Sweden's labor market. Multiple other Swedish unions joined in solidarity actions, blocking Tesla deliveries and services. Tesla is the only major automaker operating in Sweden without a collective agreement.

Internal documents obtained by Corporate Europe Observatory October 2023 showed Bolt's EU lobbyist Aurélien Pozzana drafted letter as if written by Estonian government asking Spanish EU Presidency to stick to weaker worker protections. Email to Estonian Deputy General showed meetings with Minister of Economy and Minister of Finance 'went well' and shared draft letter hoping 'Estonian Government could sign and encourage other allied Member States.' Letter written as if drafted by Estonian government, not by Bolt. Reporting caused public outcry in Estonia. Bolt has almost 50 employees working on regulations in lobbying capacity.

Manhattan jury found Google guilty of gender discrimination and retaliation against Ulku Rowe, a Google Cloud executive who alleged she was hired at a lower level and pay than less experienced male colleagues, and was denied promotions and demoted in retaliation.

Bipartisan coalition of attorneys general filed federal lawsuit alleging Meta knowingly designed Instagram and Facebook features to addict children, and violated COPPA by collecting data from users under 13 without parental consent.

On October 24, 2023, forty-one states and D.C. sued Meta Platforms alleging the company knowingly designed and deployed harmful features on Instagram and Facebook that purposefully addict children and teens. The lawsuit alleged Meta violated COPPA by collecting personal data of users under 13 without parental consent, and that the company marketed its platforms to children despite knowing the harm. The suit cited internal research showing Meta was aware of the negative mental health effects on young users.

On October 24, 2023, the California DMV suspended Cruise's permit to test and operate autonomous vehicles without a safety driver. The suspension cited both the pedestrian dragging incident and Cruise's withholding of video evidence and information about the crash from regulators.

Nokia announced it would slash up to 14,000 jobs from its 86,000 workforce, reducing headcount to 72,000-77,000 by 2026. The cuts aim to save €1.2 billion cumulatively, with €400 million in 2024 alone. CEO Pekka Lundmark said: 'The most difficult business decisions to make are the ones that impact our people.' By October 2024, workforce stood at 78,500.

In October 2023, Frontier announced layoffs affecting 50-200 of ~800 employees. A GLHF investigation revealed the layoff process was 'three months of hell': the Bradford Factor subtracted up to -200 points from performance scores for absences including hospital stays for pneumonia or PTSD treatment. Employees had to provide therapist letters to justify sick days. A senior community manager called it 'humiliating, dehumanizing, and cruel.' Those who criticized management or used sad face/clown emojis in Slack were labeled 'hostile' and allegedly targeted. Only minimum legal severance was provided.

In October 2023, Marc Andreessen published a 5,200-word manifesto calling social responsibility, sustainability, tech ethics, and trust and safety measures 'the enemies of techno-optimism.' He attacked universal basic income, claiming it would 'turn people into zoo animals farmed by the state,' and argued Earth is 'dramatically underpopulated.'

Throughout 2023-2024, Marc Andreessen consistently attacked AI safety and regulation efforts. In his October 2023 Techno-Optimist Manifesto, he called AI safety critics part of a 'cult' and wrote that 'regulation of AI (math) is the foundation of a new totalitarianism.' He stated that 'any deceleration of AI will cost lives' and framed deaths prevented by AI that was prevented from existing as 'a form of murder.' Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei publicly rebuked Andreessen's argument that AI is 'just math' and should not be regulated.

Microsoft completed the acquisition of Activision Blizzard on October 13, 2023, for $75.4 billion — the largest acquisition in gaming history. The FTC challenged the deal in December 2022 alleging it would suppress competition, but a federal judge rejected the FTC's preliminary injunction in July 2023, finding more consumer access to Call of Duty was likely. Microsoft secured approvals from 40+ countries, offering 10-year commitments to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation and licensing cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft for the UK CMA. The FTC dropped its challenge in May 2025.

In October 2023, LY Corporation suffered a data breach when hackers accessed systems through affiliate NAVER Cloud. The breach leaked 440,000+ items of personal data including users' age group, gender, and service histories. The incident stemmed from shared Active Directory authentication with former parent company Naver. Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs issued administrative guidance twice in 2024, calling for system separation from Naver.

At a Deliveroo-sponsored Labour conference event in October 2023 titled 'Distinguishing between good and bad work in the gig economy', the panel again featured no actual gig workers. When asked why, Shu said 'I don't know why there's not a representative.' He argued riders chose Deliveroo 'because of the flexibility' rather than working at 'an Amazon warehouse' or 'Nando's'. Critics noted the panel included Shu, a GMB rep, and a Tony Blair Institute representative but no riders.

In October 2023, Canva announced a $200 million commitment to pay content creators over three years for AI training royalties. Creators can opt in to have their content used to train proprietary AI models, with opt-out as the default. The Creator Compensation Program ensures creators receive payment when their work contributes to AI development.

Cruise filed documents with NHTSA that omitted the fact that its robotaxi had dragged the pedestrian 20 feet. During an October 3, 2023 meeting with the California DMV, Cruise showed video only up to the first stop, concealing the subsequent dragging. The company did not correct the report for 10 days. Cruise agreed to a deferred prosecution agreement and $500,000 criminal fine, plus $1.5 million NHTSA fine and $112,500 CPUC settlement.

On October 2, 2023, a woman was struck by a human-driven vehicle and thrown into the path of a Cruise autonomous vehicle, which ran over her. The robotaxi's system failed to detect the person underneath and attempted to pull over, dragging the victim 20 feet at 7 mph. The woman was hospitalized with serious injuries. Cruise later settled with the victim for $8-12 million.

In October 2023, Team17 laid off ~50 employees (11% of 438 workforce) from QA, usability, programming, and marketing, just two weeks after reporting 31% revenue growth to £70M and gross profit of £30.2M. Staff had been told after March 2023 layoffs that there would be no further cuts. Reports indicated up to one-third of the workforce could eventually be affected. CEO Michael Pattison also departed during the restructuring.

Bolt drafted a letter in Estonia's name to push back against the EU Platform Work Directive, sent via Sandra Särav, a ministry official who failed to disclose owning €30,000+ in Bolt stock options. The lobbying helped mobilize Estonia and other countries against worker protections. Transparency International Estonia said Bolt 'crosses a line' by representing the government's position.

A data breach at 23andMe exposed the personal and genetic ancestry data of approximately 6.9 million users through credential stuffing attacks on the DNA Relatives feature. The company initially failed to detect the breach for months.

In 2023, ahead of its landmark DOJ antitrust trial, Google increased federal lobbying spending to a record $17.4 million. Analysis by OpenSecrets found that 87% of Google's registered lobbyists were former government employees, creating extensive revolving-door connections between the tech giant and the agencies regulating it. Google's lobbying army included former officials from DOJ, FTC, FCC, and congressional staff.

Discord launched Teen Safety Assist in 2023, introducing safety alerts for first-time DMs, content filters to blur sensitive media, and a warning system designed to educate rather than punish teen users. The features were developed in collaboration with child safety organization Thorn. In 2025, Discord announced its founding role in ROOST (Robust Open Online Safety Tools), a cross-industry nonprofit offering free open-source tools to detect, review, and report CSAM. Discord's Chief Legal Officer serves as ROOST board chair, and the company contributed funding, technology, and employee expertise.

Three major investor board members from Prosus, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India) resigned from BYJU's board over governance concerns and disagreements with Raveendran on internal controls. CFO Ajay Goel left in October 2023, India CEO Arjun Mohan departed in April 2024, and advisory council members Rajnish Kumar and TV Mohandas Pai also resigned. Prosus subsequently wrote off its 9.6% stake to zero, citing inadequate information on the company's financial health.

At SpaceX's Redmond Starlink lab, workers were exposed to lead dust and toxic fumes from inadequate ventilation. Internal safety managers flagged concerns in October 2023 but ventilation was not improved for over a year. Workers reported serious health issues including one hospitalization and a miscarriage. Washington state cited SpaceX for three violations and fined the company $6,000 after a worker went on medical leave and reported the company.

Nevada OSHA found serious safety violations at Boring Company's Las Vegas Loop tunnels in 2023 and fined the company $112,000. 42 workers reported injuries including cuts, sprains, and chemical burns from hazardous chemicals (bentonite, fly ash, Portland cement). Workers waded through chemical sludge up to two feet high in 100°F+ temperatures without adequate PPE. The company's safety manager filed a whistleblower complaint after being fired, alleging 'complete disregard' for safety. Boring was named to the 'Dirty Dozen' worst workplace safety offenders list in April 2024.

iFixit has been the leading corporate advocate for right-to-repair legislation in the United States, providing testimony, technical analysis, and public education. By 2023, right-to-repair bills had been introduced in all 50 states, with laws passed in California, Minnesota, New York, Colorado, and Oregon, largely due to iFixit's sustained advocacy efforts.

While serving as an OpenAI board member and claiming to have no financial interest in the company, Sam Altman was listed as the legal owner of the OpenAI Startup Fund. Former board member Helen Toner stated he 'constantly was claiming to be an independent board member with no financial interest in the company' while concealing this ownership. The arrangement was described by OpenAI as temporary, but Altman did not inform the board. This undisclosed conflict was among the factors that led to his firing in November 2023.

Mistral AI consistently released major models under the permissive Apache 2.0 license, including Mistral 7B (September 2023), the entire Mistral 3 family (December 2025), Magistral Small reasoning model (June 2025), and Devstral Small 2 (December 2025). The company stated this approach is 'about empowering the developer community and putting AI in people's hands,' promoting transparency and allowing users to examine algorithms to ensure ethical practices and minimize bias.

In September 2023, the FTC under Khan filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, alleging the company illegally maintained monopoly power by punishing sellers who offered lower prices elsewhere, degrading search results to favor its own products, and forcing sellers to use its fulfillment and advertising services. The case, joined by 17 state attorneys general, was the most significant federal antitrust challenge to Amazon.