Hello and happy hump day. A few tech things happened overnight, let’s run through them.
1. ACMA says Telstra failed to help vulnerable customers
As a condition of holding a carrier licence in Australia, telcos are required to provide priority assistance to customers who have a life-threatening medical condition. According to the ACMA, Telstra failed to comply with these obligations. According to the ACMA, Telstra failed to send priority assistance application forms, and/or required additional information from the customer to complete the process on more than 260 occasions. Telstra said it’s working to do better.
2. No one cares about Twitter Blue
The Information reported, based on a leaked internal document, that by mid-January, just 0.2 per cent of monthly users in the U.S., around 180,000 people, had signed up for Twitter Blue. The $19 a month service gives users the ability to undo and edit tweets, read threads in a long-form format, see half the ads other users do, and a few other customisation features. It also gives users that infamous blue checkmark, which after making a mess of Twitter verification has also been lapped up by some rather unsavoury folks such as neo-Nazis and known transphobes. Anyway, since the paper mentioned the 180,000 U.S. users were just 62 per cent of the platform’s global Blue users, it indicates there’s just 290,000 people around the world, including Australia, throwing $19 a month into the void, AKA Musk’s open maw.
3. Microsoft’s new ChatGPT-powered Bing goes live
For better or worse, Microsoft is all in on AI-driven searches. The company overnight launched the new AI-powered Bing and Microsoft Edge browser incorporating an AI copilot and chat feature. Last month, Microsoft announced a multi-billion dollar partnership with OpenAI, the company that created the DALL-E 2 AI image generator and the ChatGPT AI language model. The new search engine, working on what Microsoft has dubbed OpenAI’s “Prometheus Model” should allow users to input a question and receive a detailed, up-to-date, and annotated answer along with citations from relevant sites. The company claimed this new system is “more powerful than ChatGPT.”
Bing and Edge + AI: a new way to search starts today https://t.co/0y8sw7waNb
— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) February 7, 2023
4. Zoom cuts 1,300 ‘Zoomies’
After yesterday detailing computer giant Dell’s intentions to cut its workforce by 6,600 positions, citing a reduced demand for PCs — as well as the economy — for the decision, today it seems Zoom is the latest casualty. Similar to those before it, CEO Eric Yuan cited an unpredictable economy and the possibility of a recession. The company is laying off 15 per cent of its workforce, amounting to roughly 1,300 employees.
5. Zuckerberg’s passion project to target kids
Nothing has been more of a spectacle to watch than Meta’s bet on the metaverse — more specifically Horizon Worlds, a virtual reality video game platform from the company. It appears Meta isn’t ready to give up on Horizon Worlds just yet, as internal documents from the company reveal a revamping strategy of the platform that’s aimed at enticing teen users. The Wall Street Journal reported plans to open up the game to users age 13 to 17. Horizon Worlds was previously only available to those 18 or older, and the extension into teen territory could happen as soon as March
BONUS ITEM: The U.S. Navy has recovered the remains of the alleged Chinese spy balloon.
Have a fabulous day.