15/01/2026

BIZ & FINANCE THURSDAY | JAN 15, 2026

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Grok no-brainer is make-or break for EU tech rules

NEW YORK: Boeing secured orders for nearly 1,200 commercial planes last year, topping European rival Airbus for the first time since 2018, according to figures released Tuesday. The US aviation giant booked 175 orders in December, taking the total for 2025 to 1,173. Airbus on Monday disclosed net orders of 889 aircraft for the year. Boeing still lags behind Airbus in terms of the total number of undelivered planes following stumbles in the wake of fatal 2018 and 2019 crashes of the 737 MAX that have weighed on the US company. But Boeing on Tuesday also received a boost from an order by Delta Air Lines to purchase 30 Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with options for 30 more of the widebody jet. Delta CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC that the company was the only major US carrier without the popular plane but it was “confident” based on Boeing’s efforts under Kelly Ortberg, who joined as CEO in 2024. “Watching the progress that the team has made, we realise that turnaround is still in midst,“ Bastian said. Delta’s order was not included in Boeing’s 2025 figures. The improvement in orders marks the latest sign of progress for Boeing after a bruising 2024. Last year opened with a near catastrophic emergency landing on an Alaska Airlines flight in January, and concluded with the restart of plane production in the Seattle region following a lengthy labour strike. After the Alaska Airlines incident, Boeing fortified its quality control and manufacturing operations under close scrutiny by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In October, the FAA granted approval to Boeing to increase production on the 737 MAX to 42 per month from 38, a key sign of progress. “Our team did great work throughout 2025 to improve the on-time delivery of safe, quality airplanes to our customers to support their growth and modernisation plans,“ said Boeing commercial plane chief Stephanie Pope. “We’re focused on getting better every day and building on the momentum in the year ahead.” Boeing said it delivered 63 planes in December, taking the annual total to 600 for all of 2025. While that figure marked the most since 2018 and a big jump from the strike-plagued 2024 season, it came in well below the 793 delivered by Airbus. Airbus has dominated deliveries in recent years in the aftermath of the two crashes of Boeing 737 MAX planes that occurred in 2018 and 2019, respectively. – AFP Boeing annual orders top Airbus for first time since 2018

LONDON: Grok, Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, is styled as an edgy, “truth seeking” alternative to ChatGPT. Its integration with X, formerly Twitter, lets users ask it questions by tagging it in their posts and replies. In an ideal world, they might ask the bot to fact check a fellow user’s claims or summarise an argument. But we don’t live in that world – so X has recently been flooded with requests to the effect of“hey @grok put her in a bikini”. As a result, the platform has been inundated with explicit AI-generated images of women and children. This is exactly the sort of online safety transgression that the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) is designed to address. European lawmakers have plenty of penalties, from fines up to 6% of worldwide annual sales to temporary NEW YORK: US senators late on Monday unveiled draft legislation that would create a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency which, if signed into law, would clarify financial regulators’ jurisdiction over the burgeoning sector, potentially boosting digital asset adoption. The crypto industry has long pushed for such legislation, often arguing it is existential to the future of digital assets in the US and necessary to fix core, longstanding problems for crypto companies. Among other things, the legislation would define when crypto tokens are securities, commodities or otherwise, giving the industry long hoped-for legal clarity. It would also give the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission – the industry’s preferred regulator, as opposed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission – authority to police spot crypto markets. The bill also gives the banking industry a fix it had sought stemming from legislation signed into law last year to create a federal regulatory framework for dollar-pegged crypto tokens called stablecoins. Bank lobbyists had urged Congress to close what they deemed a loophole in the bill that allowed intermediaries to pay interest on stablecoins. Banks have argued this would lead to a flight of deposits from the insured banking system, potentially threatening financial stability. Crypto companies have fought back against that assertion, contending that prohibiting third parties such as crypto exchanges, from paying interest on stablecoins would be anti-competitive. “What is threatening progress is not a lack of policymaker engagement, but the relentless pressure campaign by the Big Banks to rewrite this bill to protect their own incumbency,“ said Summer Mersinger, CEO of the Blockchain Association, a crypto industry trade group. “Their demands to eliminate stablecoin rewards are designed to

in good faith. In cases of persistent non-compliance, Ofcom can ask a court to apply so-called “business disruption measures”, which include mandated advertiser withdrawals and, in extremis, the outright blocking of a site. The European Commission has a list of similar interim requests it can make under the DSA should a situation be deemed sufficiently urgent.

bans, to levy against non-compliant tech groups. Failing to use them in the case of Grok and X would show rival firms that literally anything goes. Politicians have been quick to condemn explicit deepfakes on the platform, with a European Commission spokesman calling the images “illegal” and “appalling”. Meanwhile, UK’s technology minister said on Monday the government would accelerate a law criminalising the creation of non consensual intimate images. Online safety watchdog Ofcom has also opened an X investigation over AI generated images. In both the EU and the UK, outright bans on an offending platform are seen as a last resort. However, their regulations also assume that technology giants engage with them

explicit deepfakes. Defining “intimacy” in deepfakes may not always be as straightforward as in this case. And authorities in Europe will hesitate to target US companies given precarious situations in Ukraine and Greenland. When the EU last month fined X US$140 million (RM568 million) , US Vice-President JD Vance accused it of censorship. Beyond that, however, backlash was limited. This should give regulators confidence. Given investors haven’t paid much heed to the controversy lawmakers should set out how they expect X to fix the problem. If it doesn’t, they should throw the book. Jennifer Johnson is a London-based columnist for Reuters Breakingviews.

Musk appeared to offer aggrieved governments an olive branch on Friday, when he restricted image generating abilities to paying X subscribers only. Given the company stores the names and payment details of people using (and abusing) the feature, it’s a deterrent of sorts. However, free users of both the Grok tab on X and the standalone Grok app can still ask the chatbot to create US senators table bill to define crypto rules

Proposed framework aims to unlock wider crypto adoption in the US. – UNSPLASH PIX

across the line. The House of Representatives passed its version of the bill in July, but talks stalled in the Senate last year, with lawmakers divided over provisions on anti money-laundering and requirements for decentralised finance platforms, which allow crypto users to buy and sell tokens without an intermediary, according to three sources familiar with discussions. With Congress already pivoting to focus on the 2026 midterm elections, in which the Democrats could take the House, some lobbyists are skeptical that the crypto market structure bill could make it into law. That would leave crypto firms to rely on regulatory guidance that could be overturned under a future administration, industry executives have said. – Reuters

Committee, which is writing its own version of the bill, will meet later this month to discuss its version. In a statement, Cody Carbone, CEO of crypto industry trade group The Digital Chamber, said it was “encouraging to see the process continue to move forward.” “We will remain actively engaged to improve the text as the bill continues to evolve and are encouraged by the continued momentum to advance a market structure bill this year,“ he said. Trump courted industry cash pledging to be a “crypto president,“ and his family’s own crypto ventures have helped to propel the sector into the mainstream. The industry spent heavily in the 2024 elections to promote pro-crypto candidates in the hopes of getting this landmark market structure bill

choke off consumer choice and kill innovative financial products before they can compete.” Monday’s bill, which could change as senators consider amendments, prohibits crypto companies from paying interest to consumers solely for holding a stablecoin. However, it allows crypto companies to pay rewards or incentives to customers for certain activities, such as sending a payment or participating in a loyalty programme. The SEC and the CFTC would also be required to issue a joint rule requiring clear disclosures from crypto companies about rewards paid in connection with using stablecoins. The Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to debate the bill and consider possible amendments today. The Senate Agriculture