Tech Roundup: Google Jigsaw Altitude, Humane Ai Pin & More

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

• Elon Musk's xAI releases Grok, an AI model that the startup says surpasses rivals in its compute class, including OpenAI's ChatGPT-3.5, to a "limited number" of U.S. users.
• The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says it has secured commitments from Amazon and Meta to help protect fair competition on their retail platforms; says competitors of Facebook Marketplace that advertise on Meta platforms can "opt out" of their data being used to improve Facebook Marketplace and that it will prevent Amazon from using Marketplace data it obtains from third-party sellers to give itself an unfair competitive advantage.
• OpenAI says ChatGPT has 100 million weekly users; launches DALL-E 3 API, GPT-4 Turbo with a 128K-token context window, and GPTs, custom versions of ChatGPT that ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise users can create without any coding and monetize in its upcoming GPT Store. (The company has also unveiled Copyright Shield, promising to defend ChatGPT Enterprise users and OpenAI customers facing copyright infringement claims related to its services, and an Assistants API, which lets developers add "assistants" to their apps that can call OpenAI generative AI models and tools to perform tasks.)
• Meta bars political advertisers from using its new generative AI advertising products in a bid to prevent the spread of election misinformation and plans to require advertisers to disclose running political ads with media altered by AI or other software, starting in early 2024. (Google is also planning to update its policty to require that election-related ads must include a disclosure if they contain "synthetic content that inauthentically depicts real or realistic-looking people or events."); surpasses 1 million active Instagram subscriptions for creators, as it debuts new promotional tools.
• Google teases new generative AI features in YouTube that allows paying subscribers to summarise comments and chat with a conversational AI tool that "lets you get answers to questions about the video you're watching, recommendations for related content, and more, all without interrupting playback"; tests a "Play something" button on its mobile app as a way to discover videos when users "can't decide what to watch."
• Meta tests the ability to search for messages by date in WhatsApp Web.
• Google pushes a Pixel update with security fixes and to address an Android 14 storage bug that locked some owners who use multiple profiles out of their devices; to enforce new checks in its Google Photos' Magic Editor to preventing editing photos of ID cards, human faces and body parts, receipts and other images of personally identifiable information.
• Reddit starts testing its own add-ons, including those that make posts with live scoreboards and help moderators ban spammers.
• The Tech Coalition, which includes Discord, Google, MEGA, Meta, Roblox, Snap and Amazon, unveil Lantern to share "signals" about child sexual exploitation and abuse.
• Google-owned Waze adds new feature that will now warn users about roads prone to car accidents.
• The E.U. approves new regulation that will require Big Tech firms to "clearly label political advertising on their platforms, who paid for it and how much and which elections are being targeted" in a bid to prohibit foreign actors from spreading disinformation.
• Adobe faces criticism after it's found selling AI-generated and photorealistic images of the Israel-Hamas War via its Adobe Stock service; says it's committed to fighting misinformation, and via the Content Authenticity Initiative.
• Meta's Instagram tests a feature to lets users turn off read receipts for direct messages, nearly a decade after WhatsApp launched the feature in 2014; comes as the company faces renewed criticism for not doing enough to protect teens from sexual harassment and other online harms.

• Google-owned YouTube's crackdown on ad blockers faces a new challenge after privacy experts call the move a violation of privacy and illegal under E.U. law; comes as the European Commission says "scripts used to detect ad blockers also fall under Article 5.3 of the ePrivacy Directive, a rule that requires websites to ask for user consent before storing or accessing information on a user’s device, such as cookies."
• Google and European telecom groups urge E.U. regulators to designate iMessage a "core" service that would force Apple to make the communications platform interoperable with competing chat services.
• Privacy-focused messaging app tests a long-overdue change that allows users to set up public usernames and conceal the phone numbers linked to their accounts while communicating with others. (Meta's WhatsApp has also joined the bandwagon with a similar test for channels. The welcome move comes as phone numbers are increasingly being used to protect or identify users, a problem that gets exacerbated when the numbers are recycled and assigned to other subscribers.)
• Google expands its Search Generative Experience to over 120 new countries and territories and adds support for Spanish, Portuguese, Korean and Indonesian languages; rolls out a new deals destination on Search and track discounts and price insights in Chrome browser.
• Music streamer Spotify offers U.S. paid subscribers 15 hours of free access to more than 200,000 audiobooks per month, after launching the service in the U.K. and Australia early last month.
• Amazon cuts the price of an annual One Medical membership from US$ 199 to US$ 99 for Prime users, part of its plans to significantly expand its health care footprint; no longer requires an Amazon Prime membership to use its online grocery delivery or free pickup service, starting with Amazon Fresh customers in the U.S.
• Samsung unveils a generative AI model called Gauss to summarise text, translate content, write code and generate images via text prompts; also debuts Galaxy AI, a "comprehensive mobile AI experience" that aims to offer live translation of phone calls, among other features.
• Microsoft pulls OneDrive update for Windows after attracting backlash for forcing users to fill out a survey when quitting the application; comes as its desktop operating system turns 40.
• The E.U. launches the European Crowdfunding Service Provider Regulation, uniform rules that all business-focused crowdfunding platforms in the bloc must adhere to.
• Qualcomm ends its partnership with Iridium to bring satellite connectivity to Android phones, after launching the Snapdragon Satellite platform in January 2023.
• Omegle, a popular online chat service founded in 2009, plans to shut down; blames it on rising misuse, including in committing "heinous crimes."
• Google stops selling Fitbit products in 29 countries, including those where the company doesn't offer Pixel alternatives, to "align" its hardware portfolio; tightens Play Store rules for Android, requiring developers to test apps with more than 20 users for at least two weeks before release.
• Humane, start-up founded by ex-Apple employees, launches Microsoft-backed wearable Ai Pin for US$ 699 amid a broader quest by tech companies to find the next wave of consumer gadgets; features Android-based "Cosmos" OS, ChatGPT-powered AI integration, a laser projector that shows info on the user's palm, a 13MP ultrawide camera, and a US$24-a-month subscription plan that comes with its own phone number and does not need to be paired with a phone. (There is also a companion Humane.center that can accessed via a web browser to access users' photos, notes, lists and other personal information.)
• Apple, Google and Samsung partner with Schlage, Yale, Qualcomm and NXP to build Aliro, an open standard for smart locks and digital keys, targeting early 2025.
• Snap releases Lens Studio 5.0 Beta, a new version of its AR development tool offering a ChatGPT Remote API that lets developers leverage ChatGPT in their Lenses.
• Amazon and Meta test a new feature that shows U.S. shoppers real-time prices and lets them buy products on Amazon directly from ads on Instagram and Facebook.
• OpenAI announces Data Partnerships to collaborate with organisations to build public and private datasets that "reflect human society" for AI model training.
• Amazon is reportedly working on Vega, a new operating system to replace Android on Fire TVs, smart displays and other smart home devices.
• Google's Jigsaw unit and Tech Against Terrorism launch Altitude, a free tool that helps smaller platforms detect and remove terrorist content on their networks.
• Tencent partners with China's three biggest telecommunications operators, allowing users of digital wallets from China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom to make payments by scanning WeChat QR codes; comes amid Beijing's calls to dismantle the "walled gardens" operated by China's Big Tech firms, which have long built barriers around their ecosystems and blocked links to rival services.
• Figma integrates generative AI capabilities into FigJam, enabling users to create meeting templates, summarise contents of a group brainstorm, and organise stickies based on common themes.