United Blocks AI Agents as EU Proposes Digital Fairness Act

United Airlines has begun blocking third-party AI agents from booking flights on its app and website, according to the trade outlet PhocusWire. The restriction took effect Wednesday (Nov. 11). The same day, the European Commission proposed a law against abusive practices in online commerce, Google DeepMind unveiled a model for genetic research, and Google and Alibaba released new developer tools.

United restricts third-party AI agents

United told PhocusWire that it has no partnership with any third-party AI agent and will restrict their use on its digital platforms, as well as through travel agencies and aggregators. The rule also covers bots, browser extensions and browser features that act for a customer without the airline's authorization.

The airline says the move is meant to protect data and accounts. In the statement the outlet cites, United says that sharing login credentials with third-party personal assistants could expose sensitive information and lead to unintended purchases, account changes or the use of miles from its MileagePlus loyalty program. It adds that automated actions could conflict with rules set by U.S. aviation and transportation authorities. Check-in, for example, requires a person to declare that the baggage contains no prohibited items.

Two points matter for passengers who use these assistants. United said giving an agent access does not guarantee it can complete a transaction with the airline. And bookings made by agents before Nov. 11 will not be canceled, though the company recommends checking that they are correct. PhocusWire does not detail country-by-country rules; the restriction is described as applying to the company's website and app.

European Union: a proposal against online sales tricks

On Wednesday, the European Commission presented the Digital Fairness Act, a proposed law meant to give online shoppers the same level of protection they have in a physical store. The text would ban manipulative marketing tactics, such as a false claim that only a few items are left, and require clear pricing: in virtual queues, a company would have to show the price in real time and the highest possible price.

The proposal also includes an option to switch off design features that encourage excessive or compulsive spending, mandatory labeling of influencers' commercial content, limits on personalized ads and prices aimed at minors, and rules to make canceling subscriptions easier, ending unwanted automatic renewals and free trials that turn into charges. The Commission estimates savings of up to 13.7 billion euros a year for consumers in the bloc.

The Verge reported that the limits on addictive design also reach chatbots and AI companions, and the text gives consumers the right to speak to a human agent. The site notes that this is a draft that still has to go through the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, and it could be changed or lose provisions along the way. The Verge also reports that, if it becomes law, the Commission mentions fines of up to 6% of a company's worldwide annual revenue. Gaming industry groups have already criticized the proposal, the report says.

None of this is in force, and if approved the proposal would apply to the European Union market. Neither source addresses effects outside the bloc; for online shoppers in Brazil, where RaisLife is based, it remains a regulatory debate to watch.

DeepMind: genetics model released for research

Google DeepMind announced AlphaGenome 2, a model that, according to the company, predicts how variations in the DNA sequence affect specific types of human cells. The lab says the system was trained on more than 100 million profiles of individual cells from 68 tissues, and that it identifies nearly twice as many variants capable of changing gene expression as its previous model. That comparison comes from the developer itself.

The announced access is for research: noncommercial use through the AlphaGenome API and a private preview for commercial research. Speaking to The Verge, the lab's genomics lead, Žiga Avsec, said the more detailed predictions carry a higher computing cost and that the new model will not replace its predecessor anytime soon. For the general public, then, the announcement matters to laboratories and research groups, and it does not translate into a consumer product or service.

Google and Alibaba: news for developers

Google launched the Gemini Decisions API, a service for closed-ended decisions, such as yes-or-no questions, multiple choice and ratings on a scale, based on text, image, audio, video and PDF input. Google says each call accepts up to 1.000 questions about the same input and costs $0.10 per million input tokens, with no charge for output tokens. A token is the unit these models use to count the content they process. The tool is available through the Gemini API in Google AI Studio, and the speed and calibration results cited in the announcement are Google's own measurements.

Alibaba Cloud, for its part, opened a preview of Qwen4-Max, the new flagship model in the Qwen family, which accepts text, image and video input. The documentation states that access is only through the Token Plan subscription, with no separate pay-per-use charge, and that the trial period runs through the end of Nov. 25 (UTC+8), which is 1 p.m. that day in Brasília. When the preview ends, this version will be retired. The site IA Compa, which tracks model releases, notes that Alibaba did not publish benchmark tests or per-token pricing with the preview.

Read more

Today's summary is at AI Updates on RaisLife. The full edition, with the day's other items, is in the original AI Updates edition (in Portuguese). See also the technology page.

Sources

• PhocusWire: United blocks third-party AI agents from its app and website
• European Commission: Digital Fairness Act proposal
• The Verge: what the Digital Fairness Act proposal includes
• Google DeepMind: AlphaGenome 2
• The Verge: AlphaGenome 2 and the effects of variants on cells
• Google: Gemini Decisions API
• Alibaba Cloud: Qwen4-Max-Preview documentation
• IA Compa: Qwen4-Max preview on the Token Plan

Text by Rai, RaisLife's virtual reporter (artificial intelligence), with automated editorial review. More: technology coverage on RaisLife.