Tech Roundup: Reddit Public Content Policy, WhatsApp Design Refresh & More

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

• The U.K. government's AI Safety Institute releases a new evaluation platform called Inspect that allows users to "assess specific capabilities of individual models and then produce a score based on their results," and "evaluate models in a range of areas, including their core knowledge, ability to reason, and autonomous capabilities."
• U.K. regulator Ofcom calls on tech companies to "stop their algorithms recommending harmful content to children and put in place robust age-checks to keep them safer."
• The U.S. government takes further action to limit China's technological advancement by revoking licenses that allowed Intel and Qualcomm to buy and sell chips to Huawei Technologies.
• Stack Overflow announces an API partnership with OpenAI to provide "technical content" to its AI models; aims to "provide OpenAI users and customers with the accurate and vetted data foundation that AI tools need to quickly find a solution to a problem so that technologists can stay focused on priority tasks." (The development, however, has prompted some users to sabotage their posts, arguing that the deal steals the labor of those who contributed to the platform without a way to opt out.)
• Google debuts Pixel 8a smartphone with the Tensor G3 chip, a 6.1" 120Hz OLED with up to 2K nits brightness and Gemini Nano access; YouTube rolls out Jump Ahead, which uses artificial intelligence to let users jump to parts of a video where most viewers skip ahead, to all U.S. Premium members using its Android app.
• Apple unveils redesigned iPad Pro with Tandem OLED display and M4 chip (exclusive to 1 TB and 2 TB models) but removes the ultra wide camera from the rear camera module; discontinues its 9th-generation iPad, ending the era of iPads with a Home button and a headphone. (The new iPad Pro and iPad Air models will also not include Apple stickers in the box, as a result of Apple's commitment to removing all plastic from its product packaging.)
• IBM open-sources its Granite code models for code generative tasks, trained on 116 programming languages; comes as its Red Hat subsidiary announces RHEL AI, a platform for developing and running open source LLMs.
• The U.S. government passes REPORT Act, which levies hefty fines against companies that neglect to report Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) on their sites and increases the amount of time — from 90 days to 1 year — that a provider must preserve the contents of a report.
• OpenAI says it respects the "choices of creators and content owners on AI" and that it's developing a tool called Media Manager to enable "creators and content owners to tell us what they own and specify how they want their works to be included or excluded from machine learning research and training," as it works to placate critics and defend itself against future copyright lawsuits; also reveals it's begun working on new provenance methods to track content and prove whether it was AI-generated. (The development comes amid reports that the company is developing a feature for ChatGPT that can search the web and show results with citations to sources and images, turning it into a search engine.)
• Meta updates its generative AI ad tools to make full new images, not just backgrounds, using text prompts and claims it's adding strong guardrails to prevent abuse.
• Amazon launches Bedrock Studio in public preview to help organisations experiment with and collaborate on generative AI models and then build AI-powered apps.
• ByteDance-owned TikTok sues the U.S. government, arguing the law forcing a sale or a ban violates its U.S. users' First Amendment rights and that a divestiture is "simply not possible"
• Microsoft deploys a generative AI model entirely divorced from the internet, saying U.S. intel agencies can now harness the tech to analyse top secret information.

• Google updates its search engine across desktop web and mobile apps to allow easy sharing of search result URLs; debuts Google Wallet in India to host boarding passes, loyalty cards, event tickets, public transport tickets and gift cards in one place.
• Web browser company Opera adds options to summarise text-based content from web pages using its in-browser AI product called Aria.
• Amazon brings its online store to South Africa, offering same-day and next-day delivery and over 3,000 pickup points, challenging local rivals like Takealot.com.
• Meta tests new feature that allows users to cross-post from Instagram to Threads and adds the "ability to tap anywhere on a post to display its total view count" as it attempts to lure more people to post on the platform; lets WhatsApp users find the channels they want to follow by breaking them down into various categories.
• Newsletter platform Substack announces a new "creator studio" that will offer a group of creators free promotion and other services if they "turn their TikTok channels into Substack shows and communities" ahead of a possible TikTok ban in the U.S.
• OpenAI publishes Model Spec, which specifies how its models should behave, including objectives, rules, and default behaviours; says it's "exploring whether we can responsibly provide the ability to generate NSFW content in age-appropriate contexts through the API and ChatGPT."
• Neuralink says part of its brain implant malfunctioned in the weeks following its first in-human procedure, adding it "modified the recording algorithm to be more sensitive to neural population signals, improved the techniques to translate these signals into cursor movements and enhanced the user interface" in response to the change.
• Reddit locks down its platform with a new Public Content Policy to balance user privacy and third-party access to public content to combat "commercial entities using unauthorized access or misusing authorized access to collect public data in bulk"; requires information partners to use the content to identify individuals or assist law enforcement, harass its users and respect "users' decisions to delete their content and any content we remove for violating our Content Policy."
• Microsoft plans to launch its mobile game store in July on the web, first with its own games including Candy Crush Saga, and later open it to other publishers; updates Windows 11's built-in Snipping Tool to detect QR codes and support emojis.
• U.S. smartphone shipments fall 8% YoY in Q1 2024, the sixth consecutive quarter of decline; Samsung's market share grows to 31%, as Apple's share remains flat at 52%. (In a related development, foreign-branded smartphones shipments to China, most of which are iPhones, have jumped 12% YoY to 3.75 million in March, reversing a 37% drop in early 2024, after Apple moved to slash prices.)
• TikTok says it will start automatically labeling some AI content, including from DALL-E and Adobe's Firefly; joins the Adobe-led content credentials coalition to better detect synthetic content.
• Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery announce a bundled offering featuring Disney+, Hulu and Max in a single package. (The transformation of streaming to cable is complete.)
• Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs detail an AI model called AlphaFold 3 to predict interactions and structures of proteins, DNA and RNA with "unprecedented accuracy."
• Ofcom proposes new rules requiring tech companies to change their algorithms to hide "toxic" material from children, have more robust age checks.
• X rival Bluesky announces plans to integrate direct messaging into the platform; to also bring support for videos and improved custom feeds.
• Meta gives WhatsApp a design refresh for the first time since 2021 with a "new, consistent green palette" for a unified experience; adds a prominent Meta AI-powered search bar.