Monzo co-founder Jonas Templestein has commenced a new journey with a fresh startup seeking to put software developers out of business.

With fundraising efforts underway and drawing support from OpenAI and Index Ventures amongst others, Nustom wants to take full advantage of artificial intelligence (AI), in return for low or no-code web development. The company has launched its website, is recruiting and has set out its vision, stating within the next decade “the majority of software will be made by people with no technical background, collaborating with an AI.”

It is presenting an end-to-end SaaS offering for “those who want software made, but don’t have experience building or running it.”

The new direction for Templestein, comes at a time when Monzo is thriving. He is joined by co-founder Oliver Beattie, formerly Monzo’s VP of architecture.

Founded in 2015, the digital bank now boasts more than nine million customers and has reached a stage where it is profitable.

The company is said to be on the cusp of selling an additional stake to one of Singapore’s sovereign wealth funds, on the back of securing a £4 billion valuation last month. The top-up to the recent funding round is expected to bring in an additional $50 million from the Singaporean entity, in exchange for the issue of new shares.

Does this mean Nustom won’t be working with software developers?

Not quite, not yet anyway.

Despite the lofty ambitions of the startup, the company will “have human engineers guarantee the quality of the software until our AI agents are reliable enough to do it without assistance.”

Maria Campbell has become the third executive at Nustom, taking up the position of COO. She joins her former colleagues and Monzo alumni, having also worked at GoCardless and banking-as-a-service fintech Griffin.

The founding team at Nustom is completed with two engineers.

Fred Jonsson is another with a background at Monzo, whilst Eugenio Marchiori is the only individual not to have such a link. He is a PhD computer scientist with over ten years of experience at Google.

Image credit: Monzo

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Humanoid Robots could soon be building your next car, as Mercedes-Benz enters into a commercial agreement with Apptronik.

In a press release shared last Friday (Mar. 15) via the Apptronik website, the details of the partnership have been shared.

The German automaker will be trying out the robots at its factories and in the manufacturing process.

The duo is working on a pilot program, with Mercedes-Benz “exploring potential use cases for Apollo humanoid robots in logistics to bring parts to the production line for workers to assemble, the so-called delivery of assembly kits, while simultaneously inspecting the components.”

Apollo, the 5’8” and 160 lb general-purpose robot, is the brainchild of Texas-based company Apptronik.

They describe it as being the ‘first commercial humanoid robot that was designed for friendly interaction, mass manufacturability, high payloads, and safety.’

The co-founder and CEO of the company, Jeff Cardenas, says: “When we set out to build Apollo, an agreement like the one we’re announcing today with Mercedes-Benz was a dream scenario.

“Mercedes plans to use robotics and Apollo for automating some low-skill, physically challenging, manual labor – a model use case which we’ll see other organizations replicate in the months and years to come.”

Why Mercedes are turning to the robots

In the press release, Jörg Burzer who is in charge of the production, quality, and supply chain management division at the Mercedes-Benz Group refers to robotics being a new area to explore for the team.

“To build the most desirable cars we continually evolve the future of automotive production.”

“Advancements in robotics and AI open up new opportunities also for us. We are exploring new possibilities with the use of robotics to support our skilled workforce in manufacturing.

“This is a new frontier and we want to understand the potential both for robotics and automotive manufacturing to fill labor gaps in areas such as low skill, repetitive and physically demanding work and to free up our highly skilled team members on the line to build the world’s most desirable cars.”

Featured Image: AI-Generated by MidJourney

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In this new age of artificial intelligence, platforms worldwide have seen a rise in AI-generated content. To help viewers better understand if what they’ve watched has been created by a human or otherwise, YouTube has outlined some new disclosures.

Shared via a blog post published yesterday (Mar. 18) on the YouTube Official Blog, a new tool has been released.

In the Creator Studio, people should now disclose to viewers when realistic content is made with altered or synthetic media, including generative AI.

These disclosures will appear as labels that will be visible in the expanded description or on the front of the video player. YouTube says this applies to “content a viewer could easily mistake for a real person, place, or event…”

The labeling won’t apply to all AI videos though, as the platform says: “We’re not requiring creators to disclose content that is clearly unrealistic, animated, includes special effects, or has used Generative AI for production assistance.”

Some examples of videos that require disclosure include:

• Using the likeness of a realistic person: Digitally altering content to replace the face of one individual with another’s or synthetically generating a person’s voice to narrate a video.
• Altering footage of real events or places: Such as making it appear as if a real building caught fire, or altering a real cityscape to make it appear different than in reality.
• Generating realistic scenes: Showing a realistic depiction of fictional major events, like a tornado moving toward a real town.

They intend for this to ‘strengthen transparency with viewers and build trust between creators and their audience.’

When will the labels be rolled out

The labels are said to be rolled out across all YouTube surfaces and formats in the week ahead. This will begin with the YouTube app and then on desktop and TV.

While creators will be the ones responsible for correctly marking their videos, the online video-sharing platform says in the future “we’ll look at enforcement measures for creators who consistently choose not to disclose this information.

“In some cases, YouTube may add a label even when a creator hasn’t disclosed it, especially if the altered or synthetic content has the potential to confuse or mislead people.”

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In a recent conversation between the CEOs of Microsoft and OpenAI, it was revealed by Sam Altman that ChatGPT-5 is expected to receive significant updates to its speech, images, and eventually video capabilities.

On his “Unconfuse Me” podcast, Bill Gates, along with Altman, explored the future of artificial intelligence, including its improved reasoning ability and general reliability. “Multimodality will be important,” Altman said, hinting at a future where artificial intelligence (AI) can perform increasingly complex tasks and potentially reshape various sectors, including programming, healthcare, and education.

Anticipation is building for the next iteration of ChatGPT, known as GPT-5. This advanced large language model is seen as a crucial milestone on the path to achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), enabling machines to mimic human thought processes.

Here’s what to expect with the next version of GPT.

What is ChatGPT-5?

OpenAI says ChatGPT-5 “will be a state-of-the-art language model that makes it feel like you are communicating with a person rather than a machine.”

GPT-5 marks the next generation of the company’s Generative Pre-trained Transformer language model. OpenAI claim it represents a major advancement in natural language processing capabilities. With its more human-like ability to comprehend and produce text, GPT-5 could transform how we communicate with machines and automate numerous language-related jobs.

Will there be a ChatGPT-5 and what can it do?

As Altman has suggested, ChatGPT-5 is already in development as an updated version of its predecessor, GPT-4. The OpenAI CEO stated, “Right now, GPT-4 can reason only in extremely limited ways, and its reliability is also limited,” hence the aim is to improve its current functionality.

GPT, which stands for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer,” is a deep learning-based language model designed to produce text that resembles human writing. It boasts more natural language processing skills and finds widespread use across numerous applications.

On top of being dependable, Altman stipulated that “customizability and personalization will also be very important.

“People want very different things out of GPT-4; different styles, different sets of assumptions – we’ll make all that possible,” he added.

Altman highlighted that GPT-5’s ability to utilize personal data, including understanding emails, calendar details, appointment scheduling preferences, and integrating with external data sources, will be among the key advancements.

Multi-modal AI is designed to learn from and use a variety of content types such as images, audio, video, and numerical data. OpenAI has stated that GPT-4 is a multi-modal model, capable of processing both text and image inputs, although it is restricted to generating outputs in text form only, but GPT-5 would use more data to train on.

“We launched images and audio, and it had a much stronger response than we expected. We’ll be able to push that much further, but maybe the most important areas of progress will be around reasoning ability,” Altman told Gates on his podcast.

OpenAI has already indicated that it is working on a “supersmart” assistant to run a computer for its user. It is said to rival Microsoft and Google’s own AI workplace assistant but these programs are said to be in their infancy.

When will ChatGPT-5 be released?

However, Altman has not revealed a specific date for its release. He told the Financial Times in November that teams were working on the large language model, but did not state when this would be due.

Speaking at the World Governments Summit (WGS) in Dubai in February, Altman then reiterated that ChatGPT-5 is “going to be smarter.”

“It’s not like that this model is going to get a little bit better, it’s because we’re going to make them all smarter, it’s going to be better across the board,” he continued. He also spoke to Bloomberg, saying that he expected the company to “take its time” and make sure it can launch a product that they can feel “good about and responsible about.”

On March 19 Altman gave another update on the status of GPT-5 telling Lex Fridman on a podcast, “We will release an amazing model this year. I don’t know what we’ll call it.”

The OpenAI CEO also hinted at a massive boost in capability between GPT-4 and GPT-5 saying the difference between the two models would be as large as the upgrade between GPT-3 and GPT-4.

https://twitter.com/SmokeAwayyy/status/1769788180306248066/video/1

On at least two occasions last fall, Altman affirmed that OpenAI was actively developing GPT-5.

The initial confirmation came during a speech at the alumni reunion of Y Combinator, his former venture capital firm, last September, as corroborated by two attendees. At that event, Altman stated that GPT-5 and its successor GPT-6 “were in the bag,” implying their development was assured and that they would surpass the capabilities of previous models.

Will ChatGPT-5 be free?

While there is a free version of ChatGPT, it is unclear whether ChatGPT-5 will require a subscription-like its predecessor. The ChatGPT Plus subscription plan is $20 a month, providing subscribers with exclusive benefits including priority access during high-traffic periods, enhanced response times, the ability to use plugins, and exclusive access to GPT-4. Users also have access to its in-house AI image model DALL·E.

It’s also important to note that current language models are already expensive to train and maintain. This means that when GPT-5 is eventually released, access to it will likely require a subscription to ChatGPT Plus or Copilot Pro.

Ultimately, the launch of GPT-5 could lead to GPT-4 becoming more affordable and accessible. In the past, the high cost of GPT-4 has deterred a number of users. However, once it becomes cheaper and widely available, ChatGPT’s capability to handle complex tasks such as coding, translation, and research could significantly improve.

OpenAI has been approached for further comment.

Featured image: DALL·E / Canva

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Action has been taken by a group of cross-party US lawmakers to introduce legislation against ByteDance which would force the company to divest its dominant social media platform TikTok or risk a ban in the United States.

The move is driven by fears over national security concerns emanating from TikTok’s Chinese ownership and its links to the Beijing government. It follows previous efforts in Congress to address perceived risks from the video-hosting app with a ruling in late 2022 banning federal employees from using the platform on government-issued devices.

Now, Mike Gallagher, Republican chair of the House of Representatives China select committee has joined with leading Democrat figure, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi to face down ByteDance.

“This is my message to TikTok, break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users,” Gallagher stated.

“America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States.”

What is the response to the US action against TikTok?

If approved, the bill would instruct the Chinese tech giant to divest TikTok within 165 days, otherwise, action could be taken to make it unlawful for Apple, Google and other app store providers to offer it to the market.

The seriousness of the confrontation is underlined by the 170 million active users of the app in the US, but ByteDance has slammed the proposed legislation.

“This bill is an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it,” a company spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs.”

Conversely, a White House National Security Council spokesperson welcomed the bill as “an important and welcome step” commenting that the Biden administration would work together with Congress “to further strengthen this legislation and put it on the strongest possible legal footing.”

Whether anything meaningful comes to fruition in the coming weeks and months remains to be seen in what is election season in the states, and is further clouded by President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign joining TikTok last month.

Image credit: Ideogram

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As console fans are gearing up for the release of Sony’s PlayStation 5 Pro, the rumor mill continues to spin as further predictions and ‘leaks’ come out of the woodwork.

Last Friday (Mar. 15) Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson confirmed that ‘the leaked PS5 Pro specs leaked earlier today are real.’

This has been further determined as being real by IGN today (Mar. 18).

They cite anonymous sources who saw that the leaked documentation from the YouTube channel Moore’s Law is Dead is legit, as it’s said to be from a PlayStation developer portal that was sent out to third-party developers.

These documents suggest the PlayStation 5 Pro will feature the following:

• Rendering 45% faster than the PlayStation 5

• 2-3x Ray-tracing (4x in some cases)

• 33.5 Teraflops

• PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution Upscaling) upscaling/antialiasing solution

• Support for resolutions up to 8K is planned for future SDK version

• Custom machine learning architecture

• AI Accelerator, supporting 300 TOPS of 8-bit computation / 67 TFLOPS of 16-bit floating point

These largely point to improvements to the GPU, with the CPU also seeing an upgrade as it could have the addition of a ‘High CPU Frequency Mode.’

The standard PS5 offers 10.28 teraflops, with the Pro version expected to be considerably more.

Rumors from over the last few months point towards a focus on image quality too. Gaming insider Tom Henderson wrote on Key to Gaming that he had heard the new console would “[target] improved and consistent FPS at 4K resolution” and a “new performance mode” for 8K resolution…”

When is the PlayStation 5 Pro release date?

Sony hasn’t yet confirmed or announced a date, but that hasn’t stopped people from guessing.

Generally, the rough window for a release date is thought to be September 2024. However, the new leak could line up with the Pro version being available from the holiday season.

The second half of 2024 would make sense with the planned release of Grand Theft Auto 6 in 2025.

Featured Image: Photo by Ahmad Mohammadnejad on Unsplash

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As Reddit works on plans to go public this March, the Federal Trade Commission launches an inquiry into its AI content licensing practices.

The social media company disclosed that they received a letter from the FTC on March 14, via an amendment to their IPO filing.

The document goes on to explain the situation and the details: “For example, on March 14, 2024, we received a letter from the FTC advising us that the FTC’s staff is conducting a non-public inquiry focused on our sale, licensing, or sharing of user-generated content with third parties to train AI models.

“Given the novel nature of these technologies and commercial arrangements, we are not surprised that the FTC has expressed interest in this area.”

They go on to say that they “do not believe that we have engaged in any unfair or deceptive trade practices.”

The letter sent to Reddit indicates that Federal Trade Commission staff are interested in meeting with the team to learn more about plans. The FTC is also said to intend to request information and documents as its inquiry continues.

In a press release published on Feb 22, an agreement between Google and Reddit was announced. The data from the social media platform is to be shared with Google to train the tech giant’s AI model, with Google now having access to Reddit’s Data API.

Reddit gears up for going public this month

In the same month that the mega Google deal was announced, Reddit also shared news of an initial public offering of its stock. They are seeking a valuation of up to $6.4 billion.

As detailed in a corporate filing, the company wants to sell around 22 million shares, priced between $31 and $34 each, raising up to $748 million in the process.

According to the NASDAQ calendar showing public offerings, Reddit should be live on the New York Stock Exchange on March 21.

Featured Image: Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

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The Maryland House has passed an iGaming authorization bill which will now proceed to the Senate. If passed, Maryland could become the latest state to legalize online casinos.

The House voted 92-43 to pass the HB 1319 ‘Internet Gaming – Authorization and Implementation’ bill, two days before the deadline.

Now, the Senate has less than a month to pass the bill with the general assembly set to adjourn on April 8.

The HB 1319 plans would allow for up to 30 wagering licenses to be issued across the state, with each license lasting for five years and an initial application fee of $1 million.

Three types of licenses could be available for operators, including licenses by right for brick-and-mortar casinos, Class B wagering facility licenses, and competitively-awarded licenses.

This comes after House leaders at the Maryland General Assembly shared a $1.3 billion plan on Friday (Mar. 15) for new state revenues to pay future education and transportation costs.

The Old Line State is expected to have the best shot at passing an online casino bill this year. Maine is the only other state that is currently considering legalizing it.

Reactions to possible online casino bill in Maryland

There are concerns about the potential loss of jobs and a decline in retail casino revenue.

In February, SBC Americas reported that Sage Policy Group CEO Anirban Basu expressed his opinion to the committee: “There’s cannibalization with respect to casinos, but that’s where the issue starts…

“Because when you’re spending money on iGaming that’s when you do not have to spend elsewhere in the economy.”

Studies have been carried out to see how this could impact on the state and its residents.

One study suggests that retail casino revenue could take a drastic hit if iGaming is to be implemented. While another, by Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, dismisses these claims and suggests iGaming could boost revenue for brick-and-mortar operators.

Featured Image: Photo by Terry Granger on Unsplash

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Sony Group Corporation has allegedly put a stop to production of its PSVR2 headset, due to a backlog of unsold units.

The news came from an article by Bloomberg journalist Takashi Mochizuki who claims that sales of the product have slowed ‘progressively since its launch and stocks of the device are building up.’

Citing unnamed sources who are ‘familiar with its [the firm’s] plans,’ Sony has apparently produced ‘well over two million units of the product launched in February of last year.’

This comes just over a year after the PlayStation VR2 was officially launched, catapulting Sony as one of the front runners in the virtual reality gear market. The device, priced at $549.99, allows users to explore reality gaming with PlayStation VR2 Sense technology.

In the Bloomberg article, Macquarie analyst Yijia Zhai offers a reason for the potential lack of take-up: “The high price of VR hardware acts as the main hurdle for its expansion,”

“Currently, there are limited games that support VR devices, and that will also lead to lack of motivation for players to purchase VR hardware. This limited content also has a reason – the development cost for VR games is substantially higher than normal titles.”

Sony has not yet confirmed or denied the halting of production and it is expected that they’re continuing to work on expanding the PSVR2 headset range.

Reality of the video game industry

The Tokyo-based technology giant has faced some challenges recently, as it announced plans to cut around 900 jobs within its PlayStation unit and shut down a London-based studio in late February 2024.

These layoffs affected in-house studios like Guerrilla Games which worked on creating an exclusive game for the headset from its popular Horizon series.

Sony is not alone, as both Microsoft and Tencent-owned Riot Games also underwent significant layoffs in recent months due to a slow recovery in the gaming industry.

PlayStation 5 Pro expected launch in September

Although the PSVR2 headset may not be performing as well as the company hoped, that isn’t stopping them from gearing up ahead of the PlayStation 5 Pro release.

An exact date isn’t yet known, but console fans are trading rumors about a possible date in September of this year. Several gaming tech insiders seem to agree about this rough window which would line up logically with the planned release of Grand Theft Auto 6 in 2025.

It’s reported by industry sources via the YouTube channel RedGamingTech that the PlayStation 5 Pro will feature eight-core Zen 2 CPUs (clocking in at 4GHz), an RDNA 3 GPU at 2.8 GHZ, and 16GB of 18,000 MT/s GDDR6 memory with a bandwidth of 587 GB/s.

Much like everything else, the price isn’t yet known either. In 2016, when Sony released a Pro console after a Slim version, the Pro version cost $100 more. By that logic, the PlayStation 5 Pro could potentially be in the region of $599.99.

Featured Image: Photo by Triyansh Gill on Unsplash

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Super Bowl winning team the Kansas City Chiefs would consider the impact that gambling legalization would have on the team’s assets and branding options.

Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Chiefs, has been the source of much renovation and planning discussions since Chiefs Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt and President Mark Donovan presented the club’s vision, “Taking an icon into the future.”

Kansas City Chiefs and gambling legislation

Kansas City in Missouri is often confused with the state of Kansas. Kansas the state has some form of legalized gambling, as do most of the states that border the state of Missouri, which the Chiefs call home. Oklahoma is the only other state with no recognized sports wagering legislation.

The Chief’s home state does not allow sports wagering, but the early lobbying and bills that have progressed flew through the Missouri State House but were shut down by the Senate. This is despite the Supreme Court giving states a choice over gambling and sportsbooks being legal after a 1992 ruling known as the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was struck down in 2018.

At that time, Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court, “The legalization of sports gambling requires an important policy choice, but the choice is not ours to make.” The court’s “job is to interpret the law Congress has enacted and decide whether it is consistent with the Constitution,” he wrote. “PASPA is not.”

The Missouri Senate’s block has forced the state’s sports teams to go on the offensive and petition for sports wagering to appear on the November election ballot. This will bypass the Senate’s ruling and give the people of Missouri the power to make the decision. The Chiefs, Royals, Sporting Kansas City, Blues, and Cardinals have all been lobbying for this possible form of lucrative revenue from gambling partnerships that other state teams utilize.

“We think it makes sense,” Donovan said. “The states around us have proven that. If you look at what Kansas is doing and the amount of revenue they’re generating, that’s just revenue that we, as a state, are not getting.”

The NFL team’s current $800-million renovation plans depend on voters in the state deciding on a sales-tax extension on April 2. However, if the narrative of sports betting were changed in the state, the Super Bowl holders would have no end of suitors wanting to back the national champions.

The Chiefs and the other sports sides in the state hope their lobbying attempts will get on the November election ballot and that voters will follow the yellow brick road to the legalization of sports betting in Missouri.

Image: KSC

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Pornhub has decided to pack up and host its popular pornographic offerings away from the Lone Star State.

The move comes from the sex-work site after being forced to restrict users residing in Texas unless they can prove their age via a range of documents. Pornhub decided not to enforce this and rather block access entirely to accounts in the confines of the state.

“Since age verification software requires users to hand over extremely sensitive information, it opens the door for the risk of data breaches,” Pornhub wrote on its blog.

Pornhub blocks Texans

The porn site owned by parent company Aylo, formerly MindGeek, decided after it felt the move to force users to produce age identification could also bring with it a Pandora’s box of data security issues.

The world-renowned adult material producer would say via a blog post that they “had to make the difficult decision to block user access in numerous American states due to newly passed Age Verification laws (Texas, Utah, Arkansas, Virginia, Montana, North Carolina). While these new laws claim to protect children from accessing harmful material online — something we fully support — they not only fail to do this but also jeopardize user safety and privacy.”

US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that Texan lawmakers would now be able to enforce age verification on adult websites. This was opposed by Pornhub and a number of other websites in the state as the Free Speech Coalition, who would robustly disagree with the ruling stating that the decision by a 2-1 majority and the “dissenting opinion by Judge [Patrick] Higginbotham makes clear, this ruling violates decades of precedent from the Supreme Court.”

As we reported in January, Montana and North Carolina have also restricted Pornhub due to similar age-verification laws. To which the sites controlled by Aylo would reply, saying, “As you may know, your elected officials in your state are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website. While safety and compliance are at the forefront of our mission, giving your ID card every time you want to visit an adult platform is not the most effective solution for protecting our users and in fact, will put children and your privacy at risk.”

With Texans unable to access the popular adult sites, there has comically been an upsurge in the search terms coming out of the state tracked by Google. With “VPN” at the top of the pile, followed by related searches like “how to change VPN location” and “Texas porn law.” This shows that the oldest industry in the world still has fans in Lone Star State who are looking for ways around the block.

“We know that normalizing sex work and sexual expression is an uphill battle, but it can be done. We must be vocal about it. Change begins with raising our voices, educating others, and engaging in important social conversations to spread the message.

For more information, visit the Free Speech Coalition,” the blog post would conclude.

It seems that the collection of adult sites Aylo has in its menagerie will never grace Texan screens again unless, of course, a viable VPN can be found to assist those who reside in the state.

Image: Pornhub Blog.

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Apple has agreed to pay $490 million to settle a class-action lawsuit. The suit alleges that Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, defrauded shareholders by hiding the fact that iPhone demand was falling in China.

The preliminary settlement was filed on Friday, March 15, 2024, with the US District Court in Oakland, California. According to Reuters, this lawsuit came about following Apple’s announcement on Jan 2, 2019, that the company would cut its quarterly revenue forecast by up to $9 billion due to tensions between the US and China.

In an analyst call on November 1, 2018, Cook told investors that while Apple faced sales pressure in other markets, including Turkey, Russia, India, and Brazil, he would “not put China in that category.” Then, some days later, Apple told suppliers to cease production on iPhones in China.

Despite settling, Apple denies liability

Following this, Apple’s shares fell by 10% the next day, wiping out $74 billion of market value. Legal papers viewed by Reuters found that while Apple denied liability, the company settled to avoid a full legal case.

According to Reuters, this settlement will cover investors who bought shares in Apple following Cook’s comments. US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Roger refused to dismiss the lawsuit when it was filed last June because she deemed it “plausible” that Cook could have been discussing Apple’s sales outlook in relation to China rather than currency changes. She also claimed that Apple already knew that China’s economy was slowing down.

Reuters also reported that lawyers for the shareholders will be able to seek fees of up to 25% of the settlement’s amount.

This isn’t the only legal crisis Apple has been facing recently. After a lengthy legal battle in the past, Epic Games has filed another lawsuit against Apple over App Store commission.

Featured Image: Photo by Torsten Dettlaff; Pexels

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The United States is set to award Samsung over $6 billion to expand the company’s presence in the country.

The Korean technology firm already has a burgeoning presence in Austin, Texas with projected plans for a new plant in Taylor to the tune of $17 million. The funding will be announced before the end of March and these awards will be drawn from the funding agreed in the 2022 Chips and Science Act.

What is the Chips and Science Act?

The act signed into law in August of 2022 was designed to boost the chip-making and semiconductor industry of America. Over $280 billion was allocated to boost U.S. competitiveness, innovation and national security over the next 10 years.

A total of $52.7 billion of this funding will be set aside for semiconductor manufacturing, R&D, and workforce development, with another $24 billion worth of tax credits for chip production on U.S. soil.

Despite being the world’s leading economy and the center of the global tech industry, the U.S. only produces 10% of its entire global supply of semiconductors. So the U.S. government has made it a priority to invest in companies that can produce them while creating jobs and contributing to local and national economy.

Samsung published a report last month detailing the company’s economic impact in the State of Texas to be $26.8 billion. The Austin and Taylor campuses supported 38,144 jobs in the area along with $1.7 billion in workers’ salaries

Greg Abbott, Governor of the State of Texas would said: “Texas is the No. 1 state for semiconductor manufacturing in the nation, thanks to partners like Samsung who contribute so much to our economy and communities in Central Texas and beyond.”

The Korean tech giant’s ties with the region go back to 1996, where “Samsung Austin Semiconductor has been an integral part of the Central Texas community by being drivers of job generation, economic impact and engagement within the community,” according to Jon Taylor, corporate vice president, Samsung Austin Semiconductor.

Samsung’s major rivals are Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker. Both are set to receive investment from the U.S. Government in a bid to make the bulk of their chips in America, but the announcements have not been made official yet.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo delivered a speech Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Raimondo reiterated the importance semiconductors will play in the future of U.S. technology: “We all know our modern world is powered by semiconductors. From windshield wipers to cell phones to pacemakers to rocket ships, chips are fundamental to every aspect of our lives and our economy.”

The Biden Administration last month announced that the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) would be backed by $5 billion in investment to natively research and develop more of the integral technology in America. This entity won’t be able to directly rival the corporate chipmakers operating in America, but it shows that there will be a public-private partnership presence in the research and development of U.S chips.

It remains to be seen which chipmaker will come out on top in the battle for the mantle of the biggest domestic producer of chips in the United States, but Intel, Samsung and TSMC are all in the frame to be heavily backed by the Chips Act for their investment in key states and their infrastructure.

Image: Samsung news.

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The third test launch of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship saw the massive craft successfully reach a suborbital coast before plunging down harmlessly into the Indian Ocean.

Starship is coasting in space pic.twitter.com/ZFUXMUkufW

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 14, 2024

Starship is a behemoth with 33 engines, weighing over 5000 tons. According to Elon Musk, this makes it the heaviest flying object ever made. For context, that’s around half the weight of the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris.

The first two test launches resulted in the ship exploding shortly after launch, but this time, the rocket successfully made it into orbit. The test, this time, was designed to show the opening and closing of the payload doors and to reignite its engines in space.

“This flight pretty much just started, but we’re farther than we’ve ever been before,” SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said in a livestream. “We’ve got a starship, not just in space, but on its coast phase into space.”

Even though the rocket was ultimately not recovered and the test wasn’t perfect, it was still a much more successful test than the previous two.

What went wrong, and what went right?

The Super Heavy booster correctly separated from the main ship around 2 minutes 45 seconds after liftoff but did not manage to reignite, resulting in the loss of the booster.

“It didn’t light all the engines that we expected and we did lose the booster,” Huot said. “We’ll have to go through the data to figure out exactly what happened, obviously.”

Starship, however, completed its systems test with the engine reignition and the payload doors. Unfortunately, SpaceX lost contact with the ship before reentry, resulting in them declaring Ship 28 lost.

“We are making the call now that we have lost Ship 28,” Huot said sometime after they lost contact, “We haven’t heard from the ship up until this point, and so the team has made the call that Ship has been lost. So, no splashdown today.”

Although there are still clearly kinks to be worked out, successfully reaching sub-orbit and completing vital systems tests shows that progress is being made towards the eventual goal of Starship being a reusable craft ready to fly passengers to the moon and beyond. This builds on their success with satellite launches earlier this year and paves the way for further testing.

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Fans are slamming Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection on the very first day of its launch because of bugs, glitches, and server issues on multiplayer.

Following its launch on March 14, Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection faces negative responses from players, thanks to numerous bugs and evidence of a severe lack of preparation for its online multiplayer services. Available to play on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, the game includes both the original Star Wars: Battlefront and its sequel, Star Wars: Battlefront 2, from 2004 and 2005, respectively, as well as all bonus content released for each. The combined efforts of two popular classics drew much attention– and quickly turned to criticism.

Players are reporting numerous bugs across all platforms, prompting many to seek refunds, reports Eurogamer on March 14. Limited servers have also posed issues to many players, once again across multiple platforms.

Server issues impacted Star Wars Battlefront gameplay from the off

Early reports from users indicated that there were only three servers for Battlefront 2 on PC, each able to support 64 players, meaning a total of 192 players could join at one time. Given that Steam reported 9,232 players at a given moment, joining the dots suggests that hundreds, if not thousands, of players could not join servers.

Players on other platforms reported similar issues of being unable to join multiplayer matches or create their own servers.

Other bugs outside the server included the game crashing entirely or missing cutscenes. After less than one day on Steam, the reviews as of March 14 are deemed ‘Mostly Negative,’ with 1,972 reviews listed already.

This isn’t the first time that game developer Aspyr has had similar snags. When re-releasing Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered, players on the Epic Games Store got to play with a “development build with incomplete assets.” At the same time, Aspyr ended up getting hit with a class-action lawsuit after canceling the Restored Content DLC for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 on Switch.

Star Wars gamers are not having the best time of it at the moment, between this and the fact that a first-person shooter based on The Mandalorian was canceled at the end of last month.

Featured image: StarWars.com

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CrowdTangle has confirmed that, despite its widespread use by academic researchers, journalists, and others, Meta will be phasing out the data tool.

The public insights tool from the social media giant made it easy to follow, analyze, and report on what’s happening with public content on online networking platforms.

However, Meta has said it would decommission it by August 14, 2024, instead replacing it with a system called the Meta Content Library.

The firm confirmed to ReadWrite that the five-month notice period “should give people time to complete any current projects they are using it for and, if eligible, to get up to speed with our new research tools, Meta Content Library and API, or others that serve their needs.”

The company added that researchers will be able to apply for access to the tools with the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan. It aims to provide near real-time public content from Facebook and Instagram. However, it did not elaborate on whether news outlets will get access to the feature.

According to CrowdTangle’s website, news organizations can only continue to use Insights within Meta’s Business Suite, and they may choose to partner with third-parties who have social listening capabilities built on top of Meta’s APIs.

The platform explained that it was originally created to help organize social causes on Facebook, while showcasing what social content overperformed on Facebook Pages.

In 2019, CrowdTangle then added research, academic and fact-checking partners, and built tools to help these partners study how public content spreads across Facebook and Instagram.

Citing the company, the Wall Street Journal said that Meta has already started taking applications for its new content library and that it would be an upgrade over its previous version.

Meta facing backlash from news outlets

Meta announced that the Facebook News tab will be removed for U.S. and Australian users earlier this month. The section was already shut down last year in the UK, France, and Germany as the company shifted its focus towards providing content that people “want to see more of on the platform.”

However, the Australian government threatened action against Meta, after the California-based social media company said it would stop paying local media companies this year for using their content.

It is also set to stop promoting political content across the company’s social apps, adding that AI would play their part in considering “personalized signals, like survey responses, that help us understand what is informative, meaningful, or worth your time” on Facebook.

In a statement made of Thurday (March 14), the company pledged that it would “continue to gather feedback from researchers and add new features and data sets over time.”

Featured image: Canva

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After Apple Vision Pro’s initial release in the United States, Apple now appears to be preparing to launch in nine other countries.

Apple Vision Pro currently only supports English (US) and Emoji as languages but a closer look at the code that underpins the technology by MacRumors suggests that preparations are underway for 12 new languages coming soon.

Apple plans for a wider Vision Pro launch

This is a vital step to bringing the Vision Pro to new countries. The code appears to demonstrate that Apple is planning to add support for the following languages:

• Cantonese, Traditional
• Chinese, Simplified
• English (Australia)
• English (Canada)
• English (Japan)
• English (Singapore)
• English (UK)
• French (Canada)
• French (France)
• German (Germany)
• Japanese
• Korean

Judging from these languages, the code seems to hint that Apple will launch the Vision Pro in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, as well as possibly Hong Kong and Taiwan.

However, it’s worth noting that this is speculation for now and Apple hasn’t confirmed where it plans to launch the VR headset next. It could easily be that support for wider languages is planned but the device will still only be sold in the United States – although this seems less likely with the inclusion of regional dialects like English (Australia), English (Canada), English (Japan), English (Singapore), and English (UK).

Apple has openly stated that it plans to bring the Vision Pro to more countries later in 2024 but without defining exactly when or where. This comes after the VR product got largely glowing reviews from critics, despite an admittedly slow start during the pre-order phase.

Despite being an impressive product for people who get their hands on it, the high price might be getting in the way of people wanting to try it out, especially considering the steep production cost for the headset.

Featured image: Apple

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Elon Musk has abruptly pulled the plug on Don Lemon’s upcoming talk show on the X platform, after a tense inaugural interview between the former CNN anchor and the billionaire.

Lemon said Musk texted him to say “contract terminated”. He then shared a post and a video on X discussing the interview and the outcome. “Elon Musk is mad at me,” he said. “His commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared seems not to include questions of him from people like me,” he elaborated.

Elon Musk canceled #TheDonLemonShow

Watch on YouTube and listen everywhere on Monday March 18. pic.twitter.com/AAhnvcY0ny

— Don Lemon (@donlemon) March 13, 2024

“Throughout our conversation, I kept reiterating to him that although it was tense at times, I thought it was good for people to see and hear our exchange, and that they would learn from our conversation,” he said in the video.

Why did Elon Musk cancel the Don Lemon show on X?

Musk, who owns X, posted on the site about the decision, and the company’s official account stated: “after careful consideration, X decided not to enter into a commercial partnership with the show.”

When pressed for a specific reason, the 52-year-old himself stated that he believed Lemon was taking the wrong approach.

“His approach was basically just ‘CNN, but on social media’, which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying. And, instead of it being the real Don Lemon, it was really just Jeff Zucker talking through Don, so lacked authenticity. All this said, Lemon/Zucker are of course welcome to build their viewership on this platform along with everyone else,” said his post.

He clarified that Don Lemon is welcome to share and host the show on X, but there will be no commercial agreement between the entities.

is welcome to monetize on this platform, just like everyone else.

What we aren’t going to do is guarantee minimum payments to him, as he was demanding, which would be going beyond everyone else!

Unfortunately, all wants to do is rehash the dying CNN business model “but…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2024

The talk show was announced in January as part of a way to encourage advertising revenue back to X after significant ad revenue losses. The interview with Elon was intended to be the first episode of the new venture. Don Lemon has stated that the show will be available across platforms including YouTube and X on Monday, March 18, and will include the interview with Musk, despite the dissolution of the partnership.

With news that X is coming to TVs, this seems like a serious blow to Musk’s plans to expand the platform.

Featured Image: midjourney

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Spotify has announced adding full music videos to its platforms, amid a flurry of new features. The music streaming giant, however, clarified that the beta phase would only be rolled out to a handful of countries for Premium subscribers.

U.K., Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Brazil, Colombia, Philippines, Indonesia, and Kenya are among the markets which will get access to this new feature.

The beta version of music videos on Spotify was released on Wednesday (March 13) with a limited catalog of music videos, including hits from global artists like Ed Sheeran, Doja Cat, and Ice Spice, or local favorites like Aluna and Asake.

Listeners can head to their iOS, Android, desktop, or TV devices and select the “Switch to Video” toggle for supported music tracks. Then, the music video will start playing from the beginning within the Now Playing view.

It will also allow users to watch videos in full screen by turning their mobile device to watch in landscape mode.

In a statement posted on Spotify’s website, Vice President and Head of Music Product Charlie Hellman said: “So many times in my own experience and for countless others, music videos play a key role in hooking you: taking you from being a listener to leaning in and becoming a fan.

“They’re an important part of so many artists’ tool kits, and it’s a natural fit for them to live in the same place that more than half a billion people choose to listen to music,” he added.

It comes as Spotify revealed that it would cut 17% of its workforce in December 2023.

A potentially positive year ahead for Spotify

Despite the job losses, Spotify stock went up around 11% after the announcement. CEO Daniel Ek stated at the time, “Over the last two years, we’ve put significant emphasis on building Spotify into a truly great and sustainable business – one designed to achieve our goal of being the world’s leading audio company and one that will consistently drive profitability and growth into the future.”

It aims to cut operating costs at a time when capital costs are increasing, undoing several investments made during 2020 and 2021. Ek continued: “We now find ourselves in a very different environment. And despite our efforts to reduce costs this past year, our cost structure for where we need to be is still too big.”

Featured image: Canva

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As US lawmakers approve a bill that could see TikTok banned, China warns that such a ban would “come back to bite” America.

March 13 saw the House of Representatives voting on a bill that could result in TikTok being banned in the US within six months, unless the Chinese-owned app severs its ties with China. The US is the country with the largest TikTok audience by far as it stands, with almost 150 million users engaging with the popular social video platform – a substantial audience that the company, Bytedance, will not want to lose.

Concern around TikTok from US officials has been a long-standing issue, with fears around data protection and child safety on the app at the forefront. However, Bytedance has always defended the app’s safety regulations.

What happens next with the TikTok bill?

The bill, under the official name of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support. It will now head to the Senate and, if it has enough support there, go on to President Joe Biden in the White House to sign it into law.

Before the House of Representatives vote, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin maintains that the US has “never found evidence that TikTok threatens national security.”

“This kind of bullying behavior that cannot win in fair competition disrupts companies’ normal business activity, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and damages the normal international economic and trade order,” Mr Wang stated.

“In the end, this will inevitably come back to bite the United States itself.”

Ironically, as with other global social media platforms, TikTok is banned in China. Chinese users can access a similar app called Douyin, however, only available in China and subject to monitoring and censorship by the government.

Featured image: Ideogram

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