Tech Roundup: Meta Verified, Bing AI Chat Limits & More

[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]

• Meta follows Snapchat and Twitter's footsteps with a "Meta Verified" subscription service, offering a blue badge, impersonation protection, access to customer support, increased visibility and reach, and exclusive features, for US$ 12/month on the web or US$ 15/month on iOS.
• One caveat is that users won't be able to change their profile names, usernames, dates of birth, or photos without unsubscribing and applying again.
• That said, social media's emerging subscription-based models have turned some features that users expect for free, like account security, visibility, and technical support, into premium items. It is also the beginning of a new era, motivated in part owing to the pressure facing the free attention-driven model.
• The idea that costs of running such an operation could be offset via advertising has come under increasing strain in recent years due to data regulations and privacy restrictions posed by mobile operating system makers like Apple, making it harder to track users and their preferences.
• Google rolls out major consolidation update to Tasks that allows users to manage to-do lists created across apps like Gmail, Calendar and Assistant from within the app. (There is no integration with Google Keep, though.)
• Microsoft debuts new safety measures to its new generative AI-powered Bing by capping chats at 60 questions per day and six per session, after which the search engine will prompt users to start a new topic; comes following reports after the chatbot went off the rails during extended back-and-forth conversations. (Interestingly, a Microsoft forum post from November 23, 2022 describes the AI chatbot as "misbehaving" and being "so rude" in early tests conducted in India, suggesting the company knew about its issues. The company has been testing the chatbot AI since late 2020.)
• Google is reportedly paying Apple a portion of search revenue generated by using Google Chrome on iOS, as tech giant increasingly come under the scanner for potential antitrust conduct.
• OpenAI plans to improve ChatGPT's behaviour to reduce biases, allow more user customisation, and get more public input into decision-making about system defaults; proposes government intervention to prevent the abuse of generative language models for large-scale influence operations.
• Twitch to let users tag other channels in their stream titles as a means to enhance discovery on the platform.
• Google tests the ability to add notes when saving passwords to Chrome web browser; brings YouTube Kids to smart TVs, streaming devices like Roku and gaming consoles.
• Meta's Instagram adds option that allows users to comment with GIFs; WhatsApp debuts picture-in-picture support for video calls.
• Google updates Chrome web browser for Windows, macOS and ChromeOS with new Memory Saver and Energy Saver features that are on by default; debuts a redesigned radio feature for YouTube Music, allowing users to pick up to 30 artists when creating a station and apply filters to change the mood.
• Microsoft begins testing a major new version of Teams that uses 50% less memory and taxes the CPU less; plans to release a preview in March 2023.
• India and Singapore link their digital payment systems, UPI and PayNow, to enable cross-border instant payments between the two countries.
• Microsoft signs 10-year deal to bring future Xbox games including Call of Duty to Nintendo in an attempt to assuage regulators over the US$ 69 billion acquisition of Activision; to also bring its Xbox PC games to Nvidia's GeForce Now cloud game streaming service.
• Meta's Quest v50 update adds an experimental setting called Direct Touch, which enables hand tracking for touching virtual buttons and keyboards.
• New research finds that it's possible to individual users could be uniquely identified with more than 94% accuracy using only 100 seconds of head and hand motion data data captured via XR headsets, indicating that privacy in the metaverse might be impossible.
• Coinbase reports 8.3 million monthly transacting users in Q4 2022, down from 8.5 million in Q3.