TechShot: Digital Innovation Stories From the Past Seven Days

This Week's TechShot

This week’s digital innovation landscape saw major AI and hardware rollouts, regulatory shifts, and strategic pivots: Microsoft finally deployed its controversial Recall screenshot-and-search tool alongside Click to Do AI actions in Windows 11. Meta opened its Llama API and standalone AI assistant app to developers in a limited preview. Nvidia is redesigning its AI chips to comply with U.S. export bans while preserving service to Chinese tech giants. The European Commission issued strict guidelines under the upcoming AI Act to curb abusive AI uses by employers, websites, and police. And Tesla doubled down on its robotaxi timeline, affirming a June 2025 paid service launch despite investor scepticism. Under the radar, Swiss start-up LatticeFlow AI’s new LLM Checker is helping Big Tech test model compliance ahead of the EU’s AI Act enforcement.

1. Microsoft Ships “Recall” and “Click to Do” to Windows 11 PCs

Feature Launch & Privacy Safeguards

Microsoft rolled out its long-awaited Recall feature in the April 2025 non-security preview update for Copilot+ PCs, capturing encrypted local screenshots of user activity to enable deep system-wide search. 

To address earlier privacy concerns, Recall stores data encrypted via the PC’s Trusted Platform Module and restricts access through Windows Hello authentication, with user controls for data retention and exclusion of specific apps or sites 

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Click to Do” & AI-Powered Search

Alongside Recall, Microsoft introduced Click to Do, which lets users invoke AI actions—summaries, translations, image edits—via keyboard shortcuts or touch gestures, initially on Snapdragon-based Copilot+ devices, with wider processor support due soon.

An improved AI-powered Windows Search now handles natural-language queries directly in File Explorer and Settings, streamlining file and setting discovery.

2. Meta Launches Llama API and Standalone AI Assistant

At its first AI developer conference, Meta unveiled the Llama API, enabling seamless integration of its Llama models into third-party products with just one line of code, currently in limited preview for select customers .

Meta also introduced a standalone AI assistant app and plans to trial a paid chatbot subscription in Q2 2025, positioning itself against OpenAI, Google, and other AI service providers.

Meta emphasized its open approach—granting developers complete control and portability—while touting cost-efficiency gains in the latest Llama iteration 

3. Nvidia Retools AI Chips to Navigate Export Controls

In response to U.S. export restrictions on its H20 AI chips to China, Nvidia is redesigning its architecture to produce China-compliant variants—including a China-specific Blackwell chip—while serving key Chinese clients like Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent.

Samples of these adjusted chips are expected as early as June 2025, underscoring Nvidia’s strategy to balance compliance with U.S. regulations and retention of its largest AI market.

4. EU Issues Binding Guidelines on AI Misuse by Employers and Police

Under the Artificial Intelligence Act, the European Commission published detailed rules effective February 2, 2025, banning AI-driven emotional surveillance of employees, manipulative website practices, biometric predictive policing, and social scoring.

Member states must enforce these provisions by August 2, 2026, with penalties for non-compliance designed to safeguard privacy and consumer protection in contrast to more permissive regimes elsewhere.

5. Tesla Reaffirms Paid Robotaxi Service Timeline

During its latest earnings call, Tesla assured investors of a June 2025 launch for a paid robotaxi service in Austin, Texas—deploying 10–20 Model Y vehicles with Full Self-Driving software—and developing a purpose-built “Cybercab” for mass ride-hailing in 2026.

Despite past missed deadlines, CEO Elon Musk projected that regulatory and safety hurdles will be overcome, though analysts warn that pricing, scalability, and regulatory approval remain significant unknowns.

Under the Radar: LatticeFlow AI’s EU AI Act “LLM Checker”

Swiss start-up LatticeFlow AI, in collaboration with ETH Zurich and Bulgaria’s INSAIT, released an LLM Checker tool that evaluates major AI models (including Meta’s and OpenAI’s) against EU AI Act criteria—assessing cybersecurity resilience, bias, and prompt-hijacking vulnerability—with preliminary results highlighting compliance gaps. Endorsed by the European Commission as a compliance first step, the Checker awards quantitative scores to guide companies in aligning development practices before the AI Act’s full enforcement.