PayPal plans advertising business; OpenAI Forms Safety and Security Committee; Google is investing in the Indian e-commerce giant

In today’s news roundup: PayPal plans advertising activities; OpenAI Forms Safety and Security Committee; Google is investing in the Indian e-commerce giant

PayPal plans to accelerate its development by launching an advertising network. Its advertising business will be built on the data it generates by tracking user purchases, as well as the broader spending behavior of people using its services. The digital payments company is in a strong position, already having a large amount of data collected on millions of its users. PayPal has hired former Uber advertising chief Mark Grether to lead the company’s advertising division as senior vice president and general manager.

As OpenAI begins training the new model, the company has formed a Safety and Security Committee. In the company’s words, the committee will be “responsible for making recommendations on key safety and security decisions” for all of its projects. The committee will be headed by CEO Sam Altman, as well as directors Bret Taylor, Adam D’Angelo and Nicole Seligman. OpenAI explains that the committee will evaluate and further develop processes and safeguards over the next 90 days, after which it will share recommendations with the company’s Board of Directors. Following the Council’s review, the updated recommendations will be made available to the public.

In the APAC region, Google is increasing investment in e-commerce. The tech giant will invest $350m (£274.87m) in Flipkart, the Indian e-commerce startup owned by Walmart. The investment is part of a nearly $1 billion (£782.650 million) funding round that launched in 2023. Walmart led the financing, having already invested $600 million (£469.57 million) in the startup last year. Currently, the startup is the leader of the e-commerce market in India.

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