AI Summary: From Brussels to Zárate, technology in conflict

Source: CritpoTendencia Original Title: AI Summary: From Brussels to Zárate, Technology in Conflict Original Link: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not only redefining the future, but is actively transforming our present in every field, from legal regulation to the production of essential goods. This week, the technology took center stage in high-impact news stories that highlight the urgency of staying up to date.

• Europe investigates WhatsApp for possible abuse of dominant position.
• mAbxience and HP partner to accelerate biosimilars with artificial intelligence.
• AI predicts flowering and revolutionizes the work of beekeepers.
• Argentina pioneer: an AI is appointed as a municipal official.
• AI boosts scams, according to the FBI Miami.

Europe investigates WhatsApp for possible abuse of dominant position

WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, is reportedly facing an antitrust investigation in the European Union, where regulators said they are looking into the messaging service’s artificial intelligence policy.

The European Commission indicated that it opened the formal investigation due to concerns about WhatsApp’s decision to limit access to third-party AI providers.

In fact, Teresa Ribiera, vice president of the commission in charge of competition affairs, stated that they want to prevent large tech companies from excluding innovative competitors. “That’s why we are investigating whether Meta’s new policy could be illegal under competition rules, and whether we should act quickly to prevent any possible irreparable harm to competition in the AI sector.”

mAbxience and HP partner to accelerate biosimilars with artificial intelligence

mAbxience has announced a new project to develop an innovative artificial intelligence solution that optimizes the production process of monoclonal antibodies and biosimilars.

All of this is achieved by creating a digital twin of the biological process, designed to improve productivity, consistency, and efficiency in large-scale production.

“Thanks to this collaboration with HP, we have successfully developed our first prototype, which enables more efficient, robust, and even more controlled manufacturing campaigns. This project demonstrates how technological innovation can directly translate into better patient access to essential biological therapies,” commented Iván Sánchez, R&D Director at mAbxience.

AI predicts flowering and revolutionizes the work of beekeepers

The goal of the team from the Departments of Electronic and Computer Engineering and Zoology at the University of Córdoba is to reduce uncertainty and precisely determine the duration of flowering.

The system they have designed makes it possible to know the exact moment of flowering for each hive, thanks to a weight sensor. “By observing how the weight of the hive varies throughout the day, analyzing the curve obtained from weight measurements every 5 minutes, we get information about the stage of flowering we are in,” explains Andrés Gersnoviez, lead author of the study.

Similarly, “If you know at what time the minimum weight of the hive occurs, which is when the bees go out to forage, and when the maximum occurs, you know they have returned. In addition to this, knowing whether this minimum and/or maximum is shaped like a peak or a valley, as well as the difference in weight from the beginning to the end of the day—all together tells us how long it took them to return and how successful they were in their search, which allows us to determine what phase of flowering we are in,” the researcher points out.

Alongside this, the team developed an AI-based classifier that uses data from the hive sensors to predict and describe the flowering period. This system not only determines if the hive is before, during, or after flowering but can also accurately distinguish the initial and final stages of that period, providing an advanced tool for beekeeping management.

Argentina pioneer: an AI is appointed as a municipal official

The municipality of Zárate in Buenos Aires officially appointed ZARA as General Director of Non-Human Citizen Services, under the Subsecretariat for Innovation and Digital Accessibility. This makes it the first Argentine city to formally integrate artificial intelligence into its government structure.

Through Municipal Decree No. 532/2025, ZARA was appointed as the first NON-HUMAN municipal official with the rank of general director. This means it will have the authority to resolve cases and sign resolutions.

“We went through a whole process to understand how a bot works: how the dialogue works, we consulted with all the companies invited to bid, the dynamics of the AI, the information entered, etc. It is not yet operational. It is being trained and will be put into practice afterward,” said Marcelo Matzkin, mayor of Zárate, a Greater Buenos Aires municipality.

In fact, Matzkin stated that “ZARA does not replace municipal workers, it empowers them,” and emphasized that the tool will enable more efficient, consistent, and accessible service, without compromising quality.

AI boosts scams, according to the FBI in Miami

The FBI office in Miami issued a warning to South Florida residents ahead of the holiday season, after identifying the use of generative artificial intelligence by cybercriminals to perfect classic scams and make them harder to detect using traditional methods.

Specifically, the FBI launched the “Take a Beat” initiative, recommending the use of a family keyword to verify the identity of a person impersonating someone else in phone calls and configuring privacy standards on social media to limit access to voice samples.

They also suggest being wary of caller IDs due to the possibility of spoofing and avoiding non-traditional payment methods such as gift cards or cryptocurrencies.

We end with this reflection: The greatest danger of our time is not that machines will think like people, but that people will think like machines.