Meta launches subscription service priced at $11.99 a month

Meta Platforms on Sunday announced that it is testing a monthly subscription service, called Meta Verified, which will let users verify their accounts using a government ID and get a blue badge, as it looks to help content creators grow and build communities. The subscription bundle for Instagram and Facebook, to be launched later this … Read more

Sundar Pichai pushes Googlers to spend more time improving its Bard AI

Google CEO, Sundar Pichai has asked employees to spend 2 to 4 hours on improving Bard, Google’s recently-released AI chatbot, reported Business Insider (BI) citing a leaked company-wide email. Bard is the company’s AI chatbot that Google intends to integrate into search. The email indicates urgency in Google’s approach in order to win the next … Read more

Microsoft fusing ChatGPT-like tech into search engine Bing

The revamping of Microsoft’s second-place search engine could give the software giant a head start against other tech companies in capitalizing on the worldwide excitement surrounding ChatGPT, a tool that’s awakened millions of people to the possibilities of the latest AI technology. Along with adding it to Bing, Microsoft is also integrating the chatbot technology … Read more

Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet Exits Will Cost up to $4.7 Billion

Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet’s severance packages will cost up to $4.7 billion. The tech giants have collectively laid off tens of thousands of workers over the past few months. Google parent company Alphabet will have the highest severance cost, at a maximum of $2.3 billion. Big tech firms are accruing billions in costs from … Read more

Baidu may soon launch its ChatGPT-style bot

Baidu Inc. is planning to roll out an artificial intelligence chatbot service similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, according to a person familiar with the matter, potentially China’s most prominent entry in a race touched off by the tech phenomenon. China’s largest search engine company plans to debut a ChatGPT-style application in March, initially embedding it into … Read more

Layoffs at Google, Microsoft, Salesforce Teaching Tech Employees a Harsh Lesson

Dehumanizing. Gut-wrenching. Slap in the face. Betrayed. Tech workers are using all sorts of emotional phrases to describe the layoff wave that has gripped the industry and become the talk of the business world. “I’m shocked and hurt and still processing,” Katie Olaskiewicz, a former human-truths strategist at Google, wrote on LinkedIn last week shortly … Read more

WhatsApp unveils new ‘Switch Camera’ feature for video calls

WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging app, has just released a new feature that’s sure to make video calls even more convenient. The new “Switch Camera” mode allows users to easily switch between the front and back cameras while on a video call. This feature is now available for both iOS and Android devices and … Read more

Twitter Staff Can Tweet From Any Account in ‘GodMode’ Says Ex-Engineer

Twitter staff can tweet from any account, according to an FTC complaint seen by The Washington Post. The ex-Twitter engineer behind the complaint said it was called “GodMode,” and the company didn’t close it after a hack. In 2020, hackers tweeted a Bitcoin scam from several high-profile accounts after accessing internal systems. Twitter staff can … Read more

China to allow Didi apps back online, in latest sign of regulatory thaw

Chinese authorities are set to allow Didi Global’s ride-hailing and other apps back on domestic app stores as soon as next week, five sources told Reuters, in yet another signal that their two-year regulatory crackdown on the technology sector is ending. Didi has been awaiting authorities’ approval to resume new user registrations and downloads of … Read more