Tech Roundup: ChatGPT Scrutiny in Europe, Substack Notes & More

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

• Twitter briefly blocks links to Substack as "spammy or unsafe" and prevents embedding of tweets in Substack posts days after the email newsletter platform announced its own Twitter-like Notes feature to "discover content."
• The European Data Protection Board sets up a ChatGPT task force, a potentially important first step toward a common EU policy on setting privacy rules for AI. (The development comes as a new study finds that assigning ChatGPT a persona using its API, like "a bad person" or a "a horrible person", increases the chatbot's toxicity sixfold. Italy, in the meanwhile, has outlined a raft of compliance demands that OpenAI will have to satisfy by April 30 for lifting its temporary ban on ChatGPT, requiring the company to publish info about its data processing, adopt age gating, and allow both users and non-users to opt out of using their personal data for training purposes.)
• Meta comes under fire for requiring Verified subscribers to use their legal name as their profile display name without an option to change it (which it says is to deter impersonation), raising concerns that it may violate users' privacy/anonymity.
• Dropbox to end support for Dropbox Shop, a suite of features creators can use sell digital content online, following its open beta launch almost exactly a year ago.
• OpenAI's ChatGPT courts legal troubles after it's sued for defamation over spreading false claims about individuals and making up articles from reputed media outlets that doesn't exist.
• Microsoft agrees to pay over US$ 3 million in fines for selling software to sanctioned entities and individuals in Cuba, Iran, Syria and Russia from 2012 to 2019.
• Google begins rolling out real-time song lyrics to YouTube Music, as it works to reach feature parity with the bigger players in music streaming like Spotify and Apple Music.
• Google adds Premium features to YouTube, including enhanced bitrate 1080p support on iOS and the web for "extra crisp and clear" videos, Apple SharePlay integration and video queuing.
• Raspberry Pi launches its browser-based Raspberry Pi Code Editor in beta with Python support to help users learn to code.
• Google drops software updates for third-party Smart Displays Lenovo Smart Display, JBL Link View and LG Xboom AI ThinQ WK9 Smart Display; implements a new app auto-archive feature that allows infrequently used apps to be partly removed Android devices to save space.
• PC shipments continue to drop in Q1 2023 due to weak demand, excess inventory, and a worsening macroeconomic climate, hitting 56.9 million, down about 30% YoY; Apple Mac sales drop by more than 40%.
• Google gets fined US$ 32 million in South Korea for using its market power to squeeze out a local rival app store named One Store by forcing Korean and Chinese firms to release games exclusively in the Play Store.
• Quora's AI-powered chatbot Poe allows uers to create their own chatbot using prompts combined with an existing bot, like ChatGPT.
• Meta's Instagram gives brands access to parts of its creator marketplace via two APIs and expands access to the marketplace for brand agencies; WhatsApp introduces the ability for users to directly pay businesses through chat in Brazil.
• Artifact, the news aggregator service from Instagram co-founders, adds a social discussions feature, as it takes on Reddit and Twitter; says it plans to give every user a "reputation score" to combat bad actors.
• Google expands its free streaming lineup for Google TV to include over 800 live TV channels from from Tubi, Plex and Haystack News; introduces a redesigned location picker for Google Drive on the web to quickly and efficiently select a location to organise files and folders.
• ByteDance's TikTok launches animated video stickers for direct messages; runs a pilot that swaps out its Friends tab with a new experience that's more akin to Instagram's Explore page.
• Microsoft tests a new feature that changes the default function of the Print Screen key in Windows 11 to open the Snipping Tool; expands support for Bing AI chatbot to its SwiftKey keyboard app for iOS, a week after bringing it to Android.
• An Amsterdam court orders one of the largest adult entertainment websites, xHamster, to remove all amateur footage showing recognisable people in the Netherlands who did not consent to be featured on the site.
• Google to officially shut down Currents, which was introduced in 2019 as a replacement for Google Plus, on July 5, 2023, as it migrates some of the features to Google Chat (which has also received a Material You design refresh); releases Android 14 Beta 1 for Pixel devices, with sharesheet custom actions, a more prominent back arrow and per-app language preferences.
• The U.S. state of Arkansas follows Utah's footsteps as it passes law requiring that social media companies verify new users' ages and get a parent's consent for users under 18; goes into effect in September 2023. (That said, the law incorporates caveats that exempts companies offering subscription content, short-form video, video gaming-focused social networking features, as well as LinkedIn and YouTube.)
• Record label Universal Music Group asks Spotify, Apple, and other music streaming services to block developers training AI services from scraping melodies and lyrics from their copyrighted songs.
• Web browser developer Opera updates its iOS app to support a free VPN service; says it doesn't collect any personal information or data relating to the user's browsing habits or their originating IP address.
• Microsoft's LinkedIn rolls out new ways for users to verify their identity and where they work; says it doesn't plan to gate the feature behind subscription barriers, as is the case with Meta and Twitter.
• Warner Bros. Discovery merges HBO Max and Discovery Plus to create a combined streaming service called Max; to launch on May 23, 2023.
• Spotify brings its "broadcast-to-podcast" tech, which it acquired from Whooshkaa in 2021, to Megaphone, letting publishers convert radio shows into podcasts.
• Meta open sources Animated Drawings, an AI project that turns doodles into animations; WhatsApp announces new verification and account protection features to prevent account takeover attacks.
• Apple reportedly made US$ 7 billion worth of iPhones in India in the fiscal year ending March 2023, exporting US$ 5 billion worth; India accounts for about 7% of iPhones made, up from ~1% in 2021.
• Adobe rolls out support for images and PDFs in cloud-based video collaboration service Frame.io and plans to add text-based editing features to Premiere Pro in May 2023.
• Amazon announces Bedrock to help AWS customers build and scale generative AI applications with foundation models such as AI21's Jurassic-2, Anthropic's Claude, Stability AI's Stable Diffusion and Amazon Titan.
• Twitter rebrands Super Follows with Subscriptions and adds support for tweets up to 10,000 characters in length, with italic and bold text formatting, for Blue subscribers, as the company teams up with eToro, a social trading network, to expand financial information available on the site and make it easier for users to buy stocks and crypto. (Twitter has also officially merged with Elon Musk's X Corporation as part of a broader plan to turn the platform into an "everything app.")