Good morning. The Federal Trade Commission’s investigation into the ChatGPT app points to an emerging conflict over how Washington should regulate artificial intelligence, one that could pit some of America’s biggest businesses against labor unions and progressive advocacy groups.

• Use cases: Businesses want to use systems like ChatGPT, which can instantly generate media and imitate human conversation, to cut the number of employees needed to write documents or answer calls. AI-driven bots could also open up new markets by creating individually customized ads or even pitching customers in live conversation.
   
• Growing worries: Labor unions, privacy advocates and consumer groups fear that AI will eliminate jobs and downgrade working conditions.
   
• Balancing act: How businesses and consumers can harness the benefits while avoiding abuses of the powerful technology is at the heart of the regulatory debate.

U.S. venture firms’ deals in China tech investigated by Congress panel.

A clutch of American venture-capital firms are being investigated by a congressional committee over their funding of Chinese tech companies—part of a push in Washington to scrutinize and potentially ban such deals.

The House’s select committee on the China threat this week notified GGV Capital, GSR Ventures, Walden International and Qualcomm Ventures—the investment arm of chip company Qualcomm—that the panel is examining many of their investments in Chinese companies involved in semiconductors, artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

Deutsche Bank hit with $186 million fine.

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it has fined Deutsche Bank $186 million for falling short in its efforts to prevent money laundering and has reached an agreement with the bank to improve its oversight.

The enforcement action was the latest in a string of regulatory penalties against Deutsche Bank in recent years related to money laundering and sanctions compliance.

• U.S. antitrust authorities on Wednesday issued new guidelines spelling out how they will police proposed mergers, in a move that could provide fresh legal support for the government’s efforts to block deals.
   
• The U.S. has barred 14 Iraqi banks from conducting dollar transactions, U.S. officials said, part of a sweeping crackdown on the siphoning of U.S. currency to Iran and other sanctioned Middle East countries.
   
• More than 8,000 authors have signed a letter asking the leaders of companies including Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Alphabet to not use their work to train AI systems without permission or compensation.
   
• Microsoft and Activision Blizzard said they have agreed to extend the deadline for their $75 billion merger until mid-October, a step that will allow them to continue with efforts to gain regulatory approval in the U.K.

Russia puts Chechen official, local businessman in charge of seized Western assets.

Russia has appointed Chechnya’s agriculture minister as the new head of Danone’s business in the country and tapped a Russian businessman to run Carlsberg’s operations there, cementing control of the Western multinationals’ Russian assets days after they were seized.

President Vladimir Putin on Sunday signed a decree that effectively placed the local operations of the French food company and Danish brewing giant under government management. Russia’s unexpected seizure of assets belonging to two of the world’s largest consumer-goods companies marked an escalation in economic hostilities with the West amid the war in Ukraine. The recent moves also highlight the risks to Western companies still operating in Russia, or looking to leave.

• Putin Has Been Humiliated, Put Under Pressure, U.K. Spy Chief Says

• Microsoft said it plans to offer free some tools that can spot cyberattacks following last week’s disclosure of a major security breach linked to Chinese hackers that was undetectable for some customers.
   
• A Thai political star has been blocked from power, thwarting the country's democracy movement. His challenges show the persistent obstacles that democracy faces in Southeast Asia.

• Two U.S. senators are set this week to introduce bipartisan legislation to bar members of the federal executive branch and lawmakers from owning stock in individual companies, as new polling shows broad public support for such a measure.
   
• Wesleyan University, a liberal-arts college, said it would end legacy preference in its admissions practices, after the Supreme Court struck down race-based affirmative action earlier this summer.
   
• Two IRS employees described what they said were efforts by the Justice Department to impede the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes in testimony Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee.
   
• Netflix’s global password-sharing crackdown delivered robust subscriber growth in the second quarter, a boon for the company as its rivals struggle with flagging TV businesses and costly pivots to streaming.
   
• The 2022 climate law unleashed a torrent of government subsidies to help the U.S. build clean-energy industries. The biggest beneficiaries so far are foreign companies.

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