Tech Roundup: Neuralink Human Trials, U.K. AI Rules & More

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

• X to move toward charging all users a "small" monthly subscription as the "only way" to combat the "vast armies of bots" on the platform, as it hits 550 million monthly users.
• Apple rolls out iOS 17, iPadOS 17, tvOS 17, HomePod 17 and watchOS 10, the latest operating system versions for all its devices minus the Mac lineup; comes as it's revealed that the new iPhone 15 models support USB-C to Ethernet adapters, allowing for a wired internet connection with faster download speeds than Wi-Fi.
• Google and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) reveal an AI-powered augmented reality microscope that can be used to diagnose conditions like cancer; comes as Google DeepMind unveils its AlphaMissense AI tool, which predicts if mutations in human genes are likely to be harmful.
• Microsoft announces a unified Copilot (this is different from Microsoft 365 Copilot, which is geared towards enterprise use) built into Windows 11, launching across all of its apps and services, including Office 365, from September 26; to update Windows Paint with support for Photoshop-esque image layers and the ability to open and save transparent PNGs.
• Video game developer Unity walks back on its controversial pay-per-install program following widespread criticism from game developers; says "Unity Personal plan will remain free and there will be no Runtime Fee for games built on Unity Personal," but notes "the Runtime Fee policy will only apply beginning with the next LTS version of Unity shipping in 2024 and beyond."
• The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority sets out seven principles to help guide AI regulations and companies that develop the technology; includes Accountability, Access, Diversity, Choice, Flexibility, Fair dealing and Transparency.
• TikTok launches a tool to let creators label their AI-generated content and plans to test other ways of labeling such content automatically; tests Google and Wikipedia integration that lets users search for content on the search engine from within the app and surface snippets from the encylopedia for certain searches.
• Google updates Bard to integrate data from other services such as Gmail, Docs, Drive, Google Maps, YouTube and Google Flights and hotels to help find and summarise emails, highlight points in a document and get more helpful responses; adds a "Google it" feature that makes it possible to "double-check" answers by highlighting phrases with supporting or contradicting information found by Search
• Microsoft's plans for Xbox gets leaked as part of its ongoing legal tussle with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over its acquisition of Activision Blizzard; to release a new disc-less Xbox Series X console alongside an "immersive controller," as it envisions a "hybrid game platform capable of leveraging the combined power of the client and cloud to deliver deeper immersion and entirely new classes of game experiences."
• Web browser Opera teams up with Chess.com to integrate chess directly into the browser.
• Meta finally begins testing an iPad version of WhatsApp; announces a refreshed identity system for Facebook that's "anchored in our core blue" and begins allowing users to create as many as four additional profiles to tailor their experiences on Facebook.
• Intel unveils Core Ultra, codenamed Meteor Lake, its first chips using a new chiplet architecture built on its 7nm Intel 4 process node.
• iFixit drastically and retroactively downgrades the repairability score of iPhone 14 from a 7 to 4 owing to Apple's insistence on parts pairing; says "Most major repairs on modern iPhones require Apple approval. You have to buy parts through their system, then have the repair validated via a chat system."
• Apple adds new battery health setting in iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models that prevents the devices from charging beyond 80% at all times when enabled and check an iPhone's battery cycle count (it's also now possible to charge another iPhone using iPhone 15); to also encrypt the titles of Voice Memos stored in iCloud, in addition to the recordings themselves.
• Google launches a redesigned version of Fitbit app to "bring the health and wellness information you care about front and centre"; adds the ability for users to add Google Groups to a space in Google Chat, allows users to find, install and use third-party applications from within Google Meet, and introduces tile pairing to "pair your video tile with another meeting participant's tile" for improved accessibility as well as a new ultra-low latency viewing experience for video meetings that are streamed within an organisation.
• OpenAI launches the OpenAI Red Teaming Network to improve the safety of its models by inviting domain experts from various fields to focus on internal adversarial testing; announces DALL-E 3, the next version of its image generation tool, that can be summoned and controlled using ChatGPT. (The development comes as more authors have sued OpenAI for copyright infringement and the Polish data protection authority is investigating the company for alleged violations of E.U. privacy laws by scraping the public internet for training data, without people's knowledge or consent, landing it in regulatory hot water. A similar class-action lawsuit accusing OpenAI of privacy violations has been dismissed.)
• The U.K. formally passes the Online Safety Bill that mandates new age-checking measures to prevent underage children from seeing harmful content and ensures social media platforms are held responsible for hosting illegal content or risk being held criminally liable.
• Meta launches in-chat payments for WhatsApp in India, allowing businesses to accept payments via credit/debit cards, WhatsApp Pay or UPI at no extra cost; expands its Meta Verified program to businesses on Facebook and Instagram in select geographies, starting at US$ 21.99 per month per page or account.
• Newsletter platform Substack overhauls its mobile apps with a redesigned Home experience to boost discovery and engagement.
• Microsoft's GitHub expands Copilot Chat beta in Visual Studio and VS Code to individual subscribers, after launching the tool for business users in July 2023.
• Amazon unveils new generative AI features aimed at making Alexa more conversational and personalised; debuts Echo Hub, a wall-mountable smart home controller, new Echo Show and Fire TV Stick, and refreshes its Alexa-powered Echo Frames glasses with enhanced speech processing and better noise isolation.
• Microsoft Windows 11, Password manager 1Password, GitHub and Nintendo formally launch support for passkeys for passwordless log-ins by relying on the device screen-lock PIN or biometrics to authenticate users, essentially combining the security benefits of passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA) into a single step.
• Uber confirms plans to launch a chatbot function later this year to Uber Easts customers in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada to help find restaurant deals and easily reorder favorites on the app.
• Gaming company Roblox acquires voice tech startup Speechly, which offers voice chat moderation, real-time transcription and Voice API for other companies to incorporate AI voice technology and voice interfaces to their products and experiences.
• Cisco to buy software company Splunk in a deal valued at about US$ 28 billion, marking the computer networking equipment maker's biggest acquisition.
• X plans to deprecate Circles, a feature that lets users share posts with a limited group of people, on October 31, 2023.
• Google expands Studio Bot, its AI chatbot for Android Studio launched in May 2023 for US users, to over 170 regions globally, with the exception of Europe and the U.K.
• Amazon limits authors to self-publishing three books per day on its website, after an influx of suspected AI-generated material listed for sale in recent months.
• Snap says Snapchat+ now has more than 5 million subscribers, up from 3 million in April 2023.
• Microsoft plans to release Microsoft 365 Copilot on November 1 for Microsoft 365 customers on certain business and enterprise plans for US$ 30 per month per user; announces the Surface Hub 3, 10.5" Surface Go 4, 12.4" Surface Laptop Go 3 and 14.4" Surface Laptop Studio 2.
• Mastodon releases Mastodon 4.2 with an overhauled search feature and improved cross-server interactions.
• Google's YouTube debuts YouTube Create, an app that lets creators edit videos and add effects, GIFs and royalty-free tracks; brings its Aloud AI-powered dubbing tool to YouTube, and adds a generative AI feature called Dream Screen to YouTube Shorts to allow users to create an AI-generated video or image background via a text prompt, as the short video format racks up over 70 billion daily views.
• Privacy-focused Swiss company Proton unveils Proton CAPTCHA as a first line of defense against bots and spammers on the internet.
• Crowd-sourced restaurant business review site Yelp begins publicly naming and shaming businesses that pay or offer incentives and discounts for five-star reviews; comes as Amazon announced that two China-based review brokers were sentenced to 2.5 years after facilitating fake reviews in the store between March 2021 and March 2022.
• The U.K. and the U.S. finalise transatlantic data transfer deal that allows the information of U.K. citizens to be transmitted to data centers in the U.S.
• Microsoft's proposed deal to acquire Activision gets closer to approval after the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) noted that the comany's proposal to sell the cloud gaming rights hled by Activision to Ubisoft "substantially" addresses competition concerns.
• Amazon plans to introduce limited ads in Prime Video in the U.S., the U.K., Germany and Canada early in 2024, requiring customers to pay an additional US$ 2.99/month for an ad-free tier.
• E.U. regulators fine Intel €376.36 million for abusing its dominant position in the market for computer chips, over a year after the General Court overturned a €1.06 billion fine in January 2022.
• Microsoft adds AI-powered features to its SwiftKey keyboard app for iOS and Android, including Snapchat camera lenses, stickers and an AI-powered editor.
• Apple announces the launch of Tap to Pay on iPhone in Brazil, allowing independent sellers, small merchants, and large retailers in the country to use ‌iPhones‌ as a payment terminal.
• Neuralink, a brain-chip startup founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, faces new scrutiny after as many as a dozen test primates had to be euthanised after contracting health issues such as partial paralysis, swelling of the brain and bloody diarrhea; comes as the company secure permission to kick off its first human trial.
• Dating platform Tinder rolls out an elite pay-to-date tier subscription, Tinder Select, that costs love seekers US$ 500 per month for access to unique features like exclusive search and matching.
• The number of active smartphone brands declines gloabally from a high of more than 700 in 2017 to almost 250 in 2023 due to a "maturing user base, improving device quality, longer replacement cycles, economic headwinds, supply-chain bottlenecks and major technological transitions such as 4G to 5G."
• Walmart-backed PhonePe, which leads India's UPI-based payments market, launches the Indus Appstore on Android with zero platform fees and no commission on in-app purchases to woo Android developers in the country.
• The Indian government plans to defer an import licence requirement for laptops and tablets that aims to reduce dependence on imports and boost local manufacturing.