Tech Roundup: Manus AI Agent, TikTok Wind Down & More

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

• A new report from The Washington Post alleges that Meta built a content censorship system to meet Chinese government demands as part of its unsuccessful to enter the country in 2015.
• Sonos abandons its far-along plans to release a streaming video player this year, as the company reprioritises its future roadmap following a botched redesign of its namesake app last year.
• Meta's WhatsApp tests a new feature that allows users to answer video calls with their camera off, addressing a long-standing privacy concern and aligning the platform with features available on other video conferencing services like Zoom and Google Meet.
• Cloudflare gets accused of blocking niche browsers like Pale Moon, LibreWolf, and SeaMonkey, among others and their users for over six weeks from accessing web sites that are protected by the web security company.
• Reddit says it will let users hide ads from a given advertiser account from their feeds for "at least a year," as users report seeing a daily limit for hiding ads; adds new tools, including Post Insights and Rules Check, which lets users see if what they are posting potentially goes against a subreddit's rules.
• Chinese startup Butterfly Effect debuts a "general AI agent" named Manus that it says "turns your thoughts into actions," allowing the tool to independently carry out complex real-world tasks such as generating reports by pulling data from varied sources or running social media accounts without direct or continuous human guidance.
• Google announces plans to replace Google Assistant with Gemini on Android phones later this year, except on phones with Android 9 or earlier and that don't have at least 2GB of RAM; updates Find My Device app with a new People tab showing contacts who have shared their location for Android users.
• Amazon says Echo users won't be able to set their devices to process Alexa requests locally but stresses that it will delete recordings of users' Alexa requests after processing, as new generative AI features need processing in the cloud; comes shortly after the tech giant unveiled an upgraded Alexa+ experience.
• Swedish fintech company Klarna files for a U.S. IPO, with plans to list on the NYSE under KLAR, seeking to raise at least US$ 1 billion and reportedly targeting a valuation of more than US$ 15 billion.
• China announces new rules requiring companies to label AI-generated material, either explicitly or via metadata, from September 1, 2025, following similar moves by the E.U. and the U.S.
• The GSM Association announces an updated RCS standard that supports interoperable E2EE between platforms; Apple says it will add support for the standard in future OS updates.
• Skich, a platform for discovering mobile games, debuts a new app marketplace for iOS users in the E.U. to put it in closer competition with alternative game stores like Aptoide and Epic Games.
• Music streamer Spotify launches a new publishing program for authors that allows them to submit short-form stories they'd like to see turned into audiobooks; says it paid over US$ 10 billion in royalties in 2024, "the largest in music history," making up more than 60% of its US$ 17.13 billion 2024 revenue, with about 1,500 artists earning US$ 1 million.
• French publishers and authors sue Meta for allegedly training AI on their books without consent, saying they have evidence of "massive" copyright breaches.
• Meta gives Messenger a Facebook-blue logo an an attempt to "enhance the look and feel of our products" and update its colour palette; adds new incentive that allows creators in Facebook's Content Monetisation program to earn money off people viewing their Facebook Stories, and tests a WhatsApp feature that puts all replies to the same message in one thread.
• Amazon announces an "AI-aided dubbing" pilot program on Prime Video, starting with dubbing in English and Latin American Spanish on 12 movies and series.
• DuckDuckGo updates AI-assisted to include information from across the web, not just Wikipedia, and answer English-language queries outside the U.S.; adds customisation that lets users choose how often they want answers to appear: often, sometimes (default), on-demand, or never.
• Google makes it possible for Gemini and Gemini Advanced subscribers on the web to personalise answers based on users' search history; makes Gems, its personalised Gemini chatbots, free for all users and offers a few premade Gems, like "Brainstormer", "Career guide", and "Coding partner," updates Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental to be more personal by connecting more Google apps and services, and says Gemini users can try Deep Research for free in over 45 languages and the tool is now powered by Gemini 2.0 Flash
• Xiaomi plans to preinstall PhonePe's Indus Appstore on all new smartphones sold in India and replace its GetApps app store with Indus Appstore on existing devices.
• Meta plans to test Community Notes on Facebook, Instagram and Threads in the U.S. from March 18, allowing contributors to submit on posts by politicians and public figures; says the feature will use the same open-source algorithm that powers X's Community Notes, but that it will be modified to better serve its apps, and points out that contributors will not be able to submit Community Notes on ads "to start with."
• Alibaba debuts New Quark, an re-tooled app using its flagship Qwen reasoning model, as it seeks to keep up with DeepSeek and Chinese rivals, and demos R1-Omni, an open-source model that its Tongyi Lab researchers say can read emotions, building on HumanOmni; Baidu releases Ernie X1, an AI model that articulates its reasoning similar to DeepSeek R1, and upgrades its flagship foundation model to Ernie 4.5.
• Apple adds the ability for users in the E.U. to select a default navigation app in the latest version of iOS.</li>
• India's largest telecom carriers Jio Platforms and Bharti Airtel partner with SpaceX to bring Starlink service to the country.
• Google updates Chrome's extension rules to ban affiliate link injection without user action or benefit; add new "Delete all data" option to its Password Manager tool to erase all saved passwords at once.
• Bluesky adds support for three-minute videos, up from the previous one-minute limit, and a new "Chat Requests" feature to screen messages from unknown users; raises concerns after it proposes letting users indicate if their data can be used for AI training and web archiving.
• Microsoft announces Copilot for Gaming, available through the Xbox mobile app initially for Xbox Insiders and designed to work as a companion or gaming coach; unveils Dragon Copilot, a voice-activated AI assistant for doctors combining Dragon dictation tool Medical One and ambient listening tool DAX Copilot.
• OpenAI calls DeepSeek "state-controlled" and recommends that the U.S. ban "PRC-produced equipment and models that violate user privacy and create security risks"; comes as the company and Google call on U.S. government to let them use copyrighted material freely for AI training, stating copyright, privacy and patents policies "can impede appropriate access to data necessary for training leading models."
• The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) finds that Apple and Google's mobile browser duopoly is "holding back innovation," but offers no enforcement action.
• Google open-sources an AI model named SpeciesNet that's designed to identify animal species by analyzing photos from camera traps.
• Snapchat introduces AI video Lenses, powered by Snap's in-house generative video model, to subscribers of the US$ 16/month Snapchat Platinum tier.
• Amazon, Google and Meta join a World Nuclear Association statement, alongside Occidental, Dow, and others, to triple capacity by 2050.
• Google unveils Gemma 3, the "world's best single-accelerator model," running on a single GPU, in 1B, 4B, 12B, and 27B parameter sizes; DeepMind launches two AI models, Gemini 2.0-based Robotics and Robotics-ER, to help robots "perform a wider range of real-world tasks than ever before."
• Google renames Gemini Extensions to Apps and expands Meet's AI meeting notes feature to seven new languages French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish; calls the passage of Utah's app store age-verification bill "concerning" and part of an effort by Meta and others to "offload" kids' safety to app stores.
• TikTok rolls out a new feature to show users under 16 a "wind down" reminder after 10 p.m,, interrupting the feed and playing "calming music to help teens relax."
• Global smartwatch shipments fall 7% YoY in 2024, the market's first ever decline; Apple drops 19% while Huawei grows 35%, Xiaomi jumps 135%, and Samsung increases 3%.
• AI company Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei suggests that advanced AI models might someday be provided with the ability to push a "button" to quit tasks they might find unpleasant; acknowledges it as a "crazy" idea.
• Google lays the groundwork for a new "join via link" feature in the Messages app for Android that allows users join group chats with a URL; confirms its plans to support Auracast, a "new Bluetooth technology that uses your phone to enable a direct connection from hearing aids to audio broadcasts from crowded and public venues," with Android 16.
• Uber terminates Foodpanda Taiwan acquisition, citing regulatory hurdles; Deliveroo exits Hong Kong after tough competition from Foodpanda and Meituan's Keeta.
• Spain's government approves a bill that imposes fines of up to €35 million or 7% of annual turnover on firms not labelling AI-generated content.
• Mozilla warns that a proposed remedy that bans Google from paying other developers like Apple and itself to set Google Search as the default search engine as part of an ongoing antitrust case can harm independent browsers and reduce competition in the browser market; says the company relies primarily on search revenue to fund browser development.
• Stability AI partners with Arm to bring Stability's Stable Audio Open, an AI model that can generate audio including sound effects, to Arm-based mobile devices.
• Samsung announces the Galaxy A56, A36, and A26 smartphones with new AI image editing features and support for up to six years of Android OS and security updates; Xiaomi launches the 6.36" Xiaomi 15 and 6.73" Xiaomi 15 Ultra in the E.U. and the U.K. with Snapdragon 8 Elite chips and 120Hz displays.
• Google updates Google Play Games with support for thousands of Android games on Windows PCs; makes "Play Points easier to use on PC with up to 10 times points boosters" and improves gameplay experience.
• Google introduces a Debian Linux terminal app for Android in its ongoing effort to add support for desktop features to the mobile operating system.
• Browser maker Opera showcases AI agent called Browser Operator to complete tasks on behalf of users; integrates Slack, Discord, and Bluesky into the sidebar of its Opera One desktop browser.