Another day, another chance to cash in on Apple screwing over iPhone users with a class action suit that applies to Canadian users.

Let’s be honest, iPhone users are no stranger to issues that could’ve been avoided. Apple has been embroiled in a number of class action lawsuits that have cost the company millions, including one that could net older iPhone users up to $349 per user.

Now, Canadian users can take advantage of their nefarious business practices. Just follow the steps below to see if you’re eligible for a payout.

Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 Canadian Settlement Explained

Apple has settled a class action lawsuit to the tune of $14.4 million. Brought by the British Colombia Supreme Court in 2018 and finally settled this January, the class action states that Apple purposefully provided software updates that would throttle the performance of devices.

Unlike some class action lawsuits that only pay a few bucks, this one could actually net iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 users a solid payout, with up to $150 available to those that are eligible.

“We’re pleased with the results. It was a complex matter.” – K.S. Garcha, a lawyer for the class

Think you might be eligible? Keep scrolling to learn about whether or not you are, and how to claim the settlement.

Who Is Eligible for iPhone Settlement in Canada?

For starters, it’s important to note that this settlement is only eligible for Canadian citizens, so if you’re hoping to get a piece of the action and you live in the US, the UK, or anywhere else, you’re out of luck.

Here are the other requirements for eligibility to take advantage of the iPhone settlement:

• Canadian citizen as of June 15, 2023 (Quebec excluded)
• Owned or previously owned iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, SE, 7 and/or 7 Plus
• Device ran iOS 10.2.1 or later prior to December 21, 2017

If you’re from Quebec, have no fear. There is a separate class action lawsuit for those users, so you still have a chance to get the payout from another settlement.

How to Claim in Apple iPhone Settlement

If you think you’re eligible for this class action lawsuit settlement from Apple, you’re in luck. The process for claiming your payment is quite easy, and we’re happy to guide you along the way.

First, you’ll want to head on over to the claim website to fill out a form. You’ll have to confirm that you meet the eligibility requirements by providing personal information like your name, address, email, and phone number. You’ll also be required to provide the serial number for the device in question.

Running into issues with your claim, even though you’re sure that you’re eligible? Feel free to shoot an email over to info@smartphoneperformancesettlement.ca to get all the help you need to finish up.

Zoom is slowly completing its transformation into Microsoft Teams, with the company rebranding the platform as Zoom Workspace 6.0.

Zoom may have been the most popular video conferencing tool at the start of the pandemic. However, as the remote boom continued, more complete tools like Microsoft Teams and Google Workspace were more frequently used, thanks to their vast functionality.

Now, Zoom is attempting to follow suit, rebranding as a workspace tool rather than just a video conferencing platform.

What Is Zoom Workspace?

Zoom Workspace is the newly rebranded name for the Zoom app, with the goal of better encapsulating the platform’s functionality for businesses that goes beyond just video conferencing.

“The Zoom app for desktop and mobile is now named Zoom Workplace, in order to align the app name with Zoom’s extensive product offerings that are designed to help users reimagine the way they collaborate.” – Zoom support page

Starting now, those that update the Zoom app will see a full-on visual overhaul of the platform, with Zoom Workspace replacing the Zoom name, as well as new themes and colors throughout. But that’s not all you’ll get.

Check out our Zoom pricing guide for more information

What New Features Are Available With Zoom Workspace?

In addition to the visual overhaul and name rebrand, Zoom Workspace is also getting a slew of new features to improve the platform. Here are some of the new features you can find on Zoom Workspace:

• Late-joining participant functionality – No longer will participants who join meetings late be banned from unmuting or starting video on a meeting.
• Combined Meetings and Calendar view – Now, you’ll be able to view a fully comprehensive calendar view that features meeting details and allows for changes directly in the interface.
• Better Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive integration – You can now add documents and files from either platform quickly and effectively during meetings.

On top of all that, the Zoom Workspace 6.0 update will substantially improve the functionality of AI Companion, the platform’s AI tool for better productivity. You’ll be able to easily access the chatbot, use it to quickly access meetings, and share a meeting across multiple devices.

Can Zoom Compete With Google and Microsoft?

Zoom may be known for its video conferencing tools, but the reality is that the platform is pretty robust when it comes to overall collaboration. It offers a VoIP solution in the form of Zoom Phone, it offers webinar and events functionality, you can operate a contact center for your IT helpdesk. All that to say, there’s a lot to like about Zoom Workspace for your team collaboration needs.

Still, it’s hard for any business to seriously compete with Google Workspace and Microsoft Teams as far as these all-in-one hubs are concerned. Mostly because of how entrenched users are with these platforms. From email to cloud drives to even video conferencing, Gmail, Outlook, Google Meet, OneDrive, and all the other platforms are well-established across the business world.

Zoom has made integrations with these platforms a notable priority, though, and Zoom is considered one of the easiest to use platforms for businesses just starting out. All that to say, Zoom is at least making things interesting for businesses looking for a collaboration tool.

The AI-ification of tech is continuing strong, with Adobe adding a range of AI tools to its popular video-editing platform, Premiere Pro.

Adobe Premiere Pro will definitely be adding a generative AI video functionality to its software. Plus, it is also in early conversations with OpenAI about the possibility of adding Sora, OpenAI’s yet-to-be-released text-to-video model.

It’s another example of how AI tools are still rolling out across some of the most popular software in the world. Here’s how video AI may soon be impacting Adobe Premiere Pro, and, by extension, the entire entertainment industry.

AI Tools Coming to Adobe Premiere Pro

With the new tools for the Adobe Firefly suite, Premiere Pro users will be able to access the basics of creating generative AI video.

They’ll get the ability to generate video using prompts, and to further edit that video by adding or removing elements or by extending the length of the clip through prompts. Presumably, users will also be able to edit the final AI-generated video with all the standard Premiere Pro editing tools.

As for the possibility of adding OpenAI’s much-hyped Sora into the mix? There’s no confirmation that it will actually happen, but Sora is one entry on a short list of potential third-party integrations that Adobe is in the process of pursuing.

Two other third-party integrations are also on the table, from startups Runway and Pika Labs, according to a report from Reuters.

No News on When the Tools Are Rolling Out

Adobe has not announced any release dates for any AI video tools, either for a beta version or a public release.

It did deliver an early demo video to showcase the tools, but since Sora, Runway, and Pika Labs aren’t confirmed yet, there’s no confirmation that the actual generative AI video will live up to all these early announcements.

However, as Reuters also noted, Adobe has suffered a 20% drop in shares so far this year, a fact that may well be currently motivating Adobe’s decisions. Part of the reason behind the stock dip are fears that generative video tools may soon eat Adobe’s lunch by supplanting it as the foremost video creation software. By adding AI tools itself, Adobe can address those fears.

Rise of the AI Video Generators?

While you’re waiting to see what AI tools arrive on Adobe Premiere Pro in the near future, you can check out the currently existing options.

Descript is one such tool that converts scripts directly into videos, available on Windows and Mac with a free trial that allows you to create a limited amount of video at 720p. The Wondershare Filmora tool lets users add finishing AI touches to their pre-existing video and has a free plan that includes a watermark on all footage.

Finally, you can try out Runway‘s generative AI video creation with a limited set of 720p video credits, so you can get a feel for the process that’s (potentially) coming to Adobe.

Will generative video tools be everything that you need to create decent footage from scratch? Adobe’s stock holders sure hope so.

Like most industries, the food and beverage sector is currently in the throes of a major digital transformation. As consumer preferences shift and economic conditions squeeze profit margins tighter than ever, restaurant technology is helping service businesses to stay agile – whether it be by reducing wastage with restaurant POS systems or expanding to online orders with third-party delivery software. 

However, with frugality remaining a top priority among businesses, and so much emerging tech to choose from, knowing which solutions are worth investing in isn’t always easy. So, if you’re intent on safeguarding your business’s future, this guide rounds up the most important restaurant technology trends to be aware of in 2024.

From digital menu boards to customer loyalty software, we take a look at what solutions businesses are using to overcome adversity, as well as what roadblocks are preventing businesses from making investments.

In this guide:

• What Challenges Are Food and Beverage Businesses Facing in 2024?
• 8 Restaurant Technology Trends to Be Aware of 
• Verdict: How to Choose The Right Solutions For Your Business
• Tech.co’s Research Methodology

What Challenges Are Food and Beverage Businesses Facing in 2024?

The service sector is faced with a fresh set of challenges every few years, but the resiliency of businesses has been tested more than ever in 2024.

As soaring inflation rates put pressure on suppliers, 97% of businesses have reported rising food costs according to recent data from the National Restaurant Association (NRA). While many restaurants are responding by hiking up the cost of items, this isn’t a viable option for all – with almost half of consumers cutting back on luxuries like meals, in favor of affordable home cooking options.

The pandemic-induced ‘great reshuffle’ has also resulted in a labor crisis for the food and beverage industry. As an unprecedented number of workers resign from hospitality positions, the NRA also reveals that 45% of restaurant operators claim they need more employees to meet consumer demand, despite the growing popularity of self-serve technology.

What’s more, while off-premise ordering options are helping businesses unlock new revenue streams, third-party commission fees continue to bite into business profits, with a quarter of businesses paying more than 20% commission on each online order.

Despite these challenges, business owners remain optimistic – thanks in part to the increased adoption of smart restaurant technology.

Here are eight of the key restaurant technology trends to know about in 2024:

1. POS Systems Are Now Virtually Ubiquitous
2. Waste Will Be Cut Using Software
3. Food Delivery Tech Is More Popular Than Ever
4. Digital Menu Kiosks Are Replacing Staff
5. Loyalty Software Is On the Rise
6. Cash is No Longer King
7. QR Payments Are Here to Stay
8. Restaurants Are Reluctant to Spend Big on Technology

1. POS Systems Are Now Virtually Ubiquitous

POS systems have been growing in popularity for decades, providing businesses with a streamlined way to make orders, take payments, and streamline a range of other business processes. So, it should come as little surprise that they’re now the most common technology used by service businesses, according to our survey of 552 food and beverage professionals.

Specifically, we found that 75% of hospitality businesses currently use a POS system, with a further 27% planning to upgrade their service or switch to a different provider in the next 12 months. This was closely followed by surveillance and security systems, which are used by 59% of businesses.

As businesses seek to streamline processes with cost-effective technology, using solutions like Square POS that let you manage orders, payments, check stock, and more through one unified dashboard is a no-brainer. The technology’s growing popularity also indicates a shift towards a unified approach to business management.

Businesses see POS systems as an order and payment device first

It’s worth noting that while POS systems are versatile pieces of business technology, their in-house payment processing features continue to be the #1 draw. According to our data, the majority (54%) of food and beverage businesses cite efficient order and payment processing as the primary benefit of using a POS system, with ordering processing features being the second most desirable feature (16%).

With an increasing number of solutions seamlessly integrating their payment terminals into fully-fledged POS systems, it’s no surprise so many businesses are using POS technology as a payment tool first. 

This trend is also evidenced in search data. When analyzing search queries, we found that “POS” is increasingly being searched alongside terms like “Payment terminal”, “payment gateway” and “mobile payment”, representing a blurring of distinctions between payment devices and traditional POS systems.   

This all said, for restaurants looking to get the most out of this technology, we’d recommend making use of the full range of POS features, including restock alerts, customer loyalty tools, and table and staff planning.

2. Waste Will Be Cut Using Software

One way business owners plan to shave down costs without compromising on standards is by adopting technology to track and reduce wasted stock.

Our study found that more than 1 in 5 restaurants (21%) are planning to purchase food cost management software within the next 12 months. This makes it the most common technology businesses are looking to add to their roster, closely followed by digital menu kiosks and loyalty program software. 

Food cost management software provides users with real-time reports on stock wastage levels,  so you can see clearly just how many meals are only feeding the rats and raccoons. The software is already being used by 40% of hospitality businesses, but its growing adoption is a clear indication of how rising interest rates and a challenging macroeconomic environment are influencing buyer intent.

3. Food Delivery Tech Is More Popular Than Ever

While consumer preferences were shifting at a gradual pace before 2020, the pandemic forced restaurants and quick-service businesses to pivot to take-out and delivery to remain afloat – resulting in the rapid growth of third-party delivery apps like DoorDash, GrubHub, and Uber Eats.

Now, even with in-person dining options on the table, food delivery apps remain more popular than ever, with research from Statista revealing that the apps collectively attracted 53.9 million US users in 2023, compared to 45.6 million users in 2020.

Out of all the third-party software that businesses are using, DoorDash is proving to be the most widely used, with the food ordering and delivery platform currently making up 66% of the market share, compared to Uber Eats in second position (23%).

Delivery services are now so popular that any restaurant technology provider worth its Himalayan sea salt will support and integrate with these apps. One good example is Square’s restaurant POS package, which makes it easy for hospitality businesses to accept and fulfil delivery orders online, as well as good old fashioned takeouts.

4. Digital Menu Kiosks Are Replacing Staff

Ever since the pandemic, hospitality businesses have been dealing with a labor crisis, as service workers increasingly opt to find jobs in other industries. As a result, an increasing number of quick-service and fast-casual restaurants have been utilizing digital kiosks to overcome staffing challenges – and their use is only expected to rise going forward.

According to Tech.co’s survey, 36% of restaurants have purchased digital menu kiosks in the last 12 months, and a further 20% plan on purchasing the tech in the next year. This makes them one of the most popular new restaurant investments of 2024, second only to food cost management software.

With many self-order kiosks being built into affordable POS systems, it’s no surprise they’re being adopted by businesses looking to keep orders ticking while freeing up staff time. Still, the US is rolling them out at a much slower rate than other economies, with Asia Pacific currently holding the majority of the market share.

5. Loyalty Software Is On the Rise

As surging inflation rates put a damper on consumer spending, customer retention continues to be a major struggle for small food businesses. To fortify these problems, the food and beverage industry has been leaning on customer loyalty software – a service that encourages repeat buying through rewards and follow-up offers.

The results from our survey found that while only a quarter of businesses use the software, 65% of them purchased it within the last 12 months. These figures reveal how the technology is on the rise, as businesses continue to contend with fluctuating customer footfall, made worse by cost of living increases.

With many POS systems now offering customer loyalty features in-house, syncing customer loyalty information with your wider business data is quick and straightforward too. Read our full guide to POS features to learn more about customer loyalty features, as well as other useful point-of-sale capabilities that could benefit your restaurant.

6. Cash Is No Longer King

In the US, 80% of payments are now being made digitally, and this reality is no different for service businesses. With digital payments proving to be more convenient, safe, and secure than cash-based methods, it’s no surprise that they’re being adopted so readily by restaurants, quick-service businesses, and bars.

Contactless methods like mobile payments have witnessed the biggest spike recently, with 76% of restaurants adopting the digital payment method in 2022 according to findings from TouchBistro. However, while the trend towards digital payments is undeniable, most businesses aren’t planning to ditch the cash draw anytime soon.

Amid concerns about a cashless future, several major cities including New York, Philidelphia, and San Francisco have rolled out legislation to ban fully cashless payment policies. What’s more, 56% of Americans prefer to pay with cash on occasion, so there’s still a clear business incentive to accept the physical tender.

Learn more about the pros and cons of a cashless society.

7. QR Payments Are Here to Stay

Another trend accelerated by the pandemic is the move towards Quick Response (QR) restaurant technology. The digital payment method lets customers order from menus using their mobile devices to scan a QR code, completely bypassing the need for staff intervention.

By enabling contactless dining experiences, the technology provided a lifeline to businesses throughout Covid-19. Yet, as food and beverage businesses continue to grapple with staffing shortages, the payment software is still being relied on heavily to take the pressure off servers, with research from PYMNT finding that use of the software has increased by 150% in the last two years.

QR tech has also been found to help restaurants save 30-50% on labor costs according to the payment service provider Cheqout, so it’s likely they’ll continue to be adopted by businesses keen on scaling back costs.

8. Restaurants Are Reluctant to Spend Big on Technology

While restaurant technology continues to be instrumental in helping food and beverage businesses overcome major challenges, a number of purchasing roadblocks remain. Our survey found that high initial costs are the number one barrier preventing business owners from investing in new solutions, with 41% of respondents clamping down on spending for this reason.

Escalating concerns over spending have also resulted in sluggish software upgrades. Specifically, our findings reveal that food and beverage organizations are upgrading software 50% slower than businesses in other industries.

As hospitality businesses continue to get stung by growing wholesale costs and evolving consumer preferences, this reluctance to invest in new and existing technology is a clear reflection of industry-specific challenges. It also highlights the importance of making targeted, strategic purchases, that facilitate long-term success.

Tech.co’s Research Methodology

Tech.co is a trusted news and review site that aims to help business owners know more about technology, and find the best solutions to work smarter and grow securely.  As part of this mission, we compiled a survey of food and beverage professionals, to get their opinions and feedback on restaurant technology. 

We obtained original data from a total of 552 restaurant owners, bar owners, business managers, and food service managers across the US.

Our survey combined both qualitative and quantitative data, to gain a holistic understanding of the trends and challenges shaping the food and beverage industry. 

For a long time, securing a role at a major technology firm was considered the pinnacle of career success – no more so than at Google. The chance to work with and learn from the world’s top minds inside stunning, new-age office buildings has been wooing ambitious tech workers for almost two decades.

However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working has become a much more desirable option for employees with children, as well as digital nomads and other workers who simply want more control over when and where they work.

In this guide, you will explore some of the vacant remote roles currently available at Google, what it is like to work at the company, and how remote roles differ from in-office work.

Fully Remote Jobs at Google for 2024

Google currently has 63 open jobs with the “remote eligible” tag available on their careers page – this is slightly more than the number available the last time we did a roundup.

Here are the most intriguing open roles available at Google, none of which necessarily require you to come into the office in person:

• Staff Software Engineer, Machine Learning, Core (Texas, US)
• Customer Engineer, Infrastructure Modernization, Google Cloud (Washington, US)
• Head of Customer Growth Insights, Customer Growth Engine (Ireland)
• Strategic Services Function Manager, Cyber Security (Singapore)
• Senior Intelligence Manager (Dubai, UAE)
• Senior Information Security Engineer (Washington, US)
• Technical Program Manager III, Cybersecurity, Google Cloud
• Security Consultant, Mandiant, Google Cloud (California/Arizona, US)
• Field Sales Manager, State Local, and Education (California, US)
• Government Affairs and Public Policy Manager (Ukraine)
• Senior Analyst, Strategic Intelligence and Government (Virginia, US)
• Regional Leader, Cyber Crisis Communications (United Kingdom)

Google lists the headquarters of the role in each listing. But since all of these jobs are tied to an office somewhere in the world, (as they’re all advertised as remote roles) you won’t be expected to travel to the location.

What’s Working at Google Like?

In the early 2000s, Google became known worldwide for its new-age attitude to working, and in 2024, they still offer a range of perks and benefits that most other companies don’t.

Along with hybrid and flexible working arrangements, Google will let employees “work from anywhere” for an entire month every year. There’s also a huge range of childcare support options, including generous caregiver leave, for people with children or elderly relatives.

If you head into one of Google’s offices, you’ll get access to the company’s fitness centers and massage programs. Perks like these go some way to explaining the company’s impressive 4.4 Glassdoor rating – a higher score than Microsoft and Apple have.

Other perks include the ability to request time off to volunteer – and Google will even match the time you put in, and you’ll be able to acquire educational reimbursements for courses and workshops.

Remote vs In-Office Work

If you’ve never worked from home before, there are some key advantages and disadvantages to be aware of before you start applying to remote roles.

For people with young children, working from home naturally affords you some additional flexibility during the day. This added control for employees seems to have a generally positive impact on productivity and employee well-being.

However, there are some downsides – there’s some evidence that remote employees are overlooked for promotions, while the negative impact it may have on young people’s social skills and professional development is being given closer attention in the media as of late.

Remote work, at times, can feel lonely and isolating – but most companies know this, and now schedule in catchups, meetings, and virtual socials to ensure everyone feels included, no matter what their working arrangement is.

A lot of people find a happy medium is the best of both worlds – an office to go into on one or two days a week, but the freedom to work at home the rest of the time. This is often called “hybrid” working.

What Other Companies Offer Remote Jobs?

If you’re set on getting a remote job, then you’re in luck – in 2024, most large tech companies offer remote and hybrid working arrangements, and some have hundreds of open vacancies.

Microsoft is another company with a range of remote jobs currently open. There are currently more than 1300 vacancies for fully remote roles on Microsoft’s website, and there are another 3200 positions that will involve at least some remote work.

Apple also has several open remote roles, although there aren’t quite as many positions available as there are available at Microsoft. Last time we looked, there were less than 30 vacant remote roles available at Apple. This isn’t surprising considering most big tech companies don’t seem to be as on board with remote working as Microsoft.

A significant upgrade to GPT-4 – OpenAI’s most advanced publicly available model – has made ChatGPT more conversational and concise, the startup has revealed.

A more conversational approach brings ChatGPT into line with competitors Gemini and Claude, which produce more human-like responses than OpenAI’s trailblazing creation – at least according to our tests.

But will this new update give ChatGPT the edge over its rivals? At present, that remains unclear – but as more and more users are granted access in the coming weeks, we’ll soon find out.

ChatGPT Gets Better at… Chatting

An updated version of GPT-4 Turbo – the Large Language Model (LLM) that powers the paid version of ChatGPT – has been released. According to OpenAI, it’s much more conversational and performed better than the previous GPT-4 model on several tests.

The Microsoft-backed AI startup says they’ve improved the chatbot’s capabilities “in writing, math, logical reasoning, and coding” – so just about everything, then.

Aside from that, they haven’t given much away – announcing the update through Twitter rather than an explanatory post on their blog – although the company did add that ChatGPT will be “more direct, less verbose, and use more conversational language.”

This is sorely needed, too – out of the three major chatbots that have captured the world’s attention, ChatGPT is known for sounding the least “human” in its answers.

Claude Sonnet and Opus – the two most advanced language models created by Anthropic – tend to respond with much more emotion compared to ChatGPT.

Who Can Access the New Version of GPT-4 Turbo?

Unfortunately, the new version of GPT-4 Turbo is only available to paying ChatGPT customers at the moment. This includes ChatGPT Plus users and businesses using the enterprise API.

However, if you’re a free user of ChatGPT, you’ll probably have to wait until GPT-5 is released to get your hands on GPT-4. Currently, GPT-3.5 – a less sophisticated LLM from the same family – powers the free version of ChatGPT.

In fact, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said himself that GPT-4 “sucks” – which you’d hope signals something much better isn’t far around the corner.

How Does GPT-4 Compare to Other Language Models?

There’s no doubt that GPT-4 is a highly capable language model, but according to Anthropic, Claude 3 Opus – its most advanced language model – comes up trumps on several benchmark tests.

It’s hard to split ChatGPT and Gemini, as they both perform well on different tasks – but Gemini was the one that edged it when we tested both of their free and paid services. However, this GPT-4 upgrade could easily flip the results – after all, the margins were fine.

Whatever chatbot you’re using at work, make sure to follow your company’s AI guidelines, be transparent about your usage, and check what these AI companies can do with the data users input into their products.

Whether you lack the time or resources required to sit through multiple stages of interviews, or you don’t want to deal with stress or performance anxiety, interviews remain a sticking point for many eligible job-seekers.

Yet, while most jobs do include a formal interview process, a growing number of companies are deciding to skip in-person or virtual discussions altogether – providing a lifeline to candidates who would rather have their skills tested through alternative means.

If you want to get working right away, in a job that plays to your strengths, we list some common positions that don’t involve an interview process. Whether you’re after a full-time role or a lucrative side hustle, read on to discover some top no-interview jobs to apply to in 2024.

What is a No-Interview Job?

As the term suggests, a no-interview job is a job that doesn’t require candidates to take in-person or remote interviews. Instead, no-interview jobs typically involve skills-based assessments to evaluate job seekers’ eligibility for a role.

The style of vetting lends itself well to independent workers. For this reason, a lot of no-interview jobs will be remote or independent contractor jobs – making them ideal for workers after a flexible work schedule. While it’s possible to earn big without sitting through interviews, lots of no-interview roles will have a low barrier to entry too, which caters well to individuals in the early stages of their careers, career switchers, and workers who want to earn extra money on the side.

Common No Interview Jobs to Apply For in 2024

An interview isn’t a prerequisite to every great job. Here’s a list of professions that are easier to secure without interviewing:

1. Online tutoring

• Previous experience needed? No
• Earning potential: ~ $10-60 per hour

If you’re a student or have a depth of knowledge in a particular field, online tutoring can be a flexible way to supplement your main source of income. Tutoring companies connect quality tutors with students worldwide, which enables eligible workers to get earing anywhere a stable internet connection. Since lots of online tutoring openings hire students, most openings don’t require tons of previous tutoring experience too.

Many online tutoring companies will require you to interview. However, websites like Studypool and Camply bypass the process and require candidates to fill out an online application,  take a short test, and submit a video application instead.

2. Writing and proofreading

• Previous experience needed? Yes
• Earning potential: ~ $12-50 per hour

If you’re a skilled writer, becoming a freelance writer of proof-reader could be a great way to start earning without taking an interview. Lots of content platforms like Study.com accept submissions from writers without putting them through a formal application process. Hiring agents will likely ask for a portfolio of your written work to assess your eligibility for the role though, so its important to have this on hand before applying.

If you prefer to review articles, lots of content platforms hire proof-readers without subjecting them to an interview too. While proofreading experience is often preferred for these roles, a decent writing portfolio will often be enough to help you get your foot in the door.

3. Transcribing

• Previous experience needed? No
• Earning potential: ~ $10-$22 per hour

If you don’t have lots of work experience or are looking for a super flexible way to make money, transcribing could be a great fit for you. Transcribing jobs involve workers converting audio or video recordings into written form. Due to the independent nature of the job, it’s uncommon for transcribing companies to conduct interviews. Transcribing jobs tend to be remote and beginner-friendly too, making them accessible to a wide pool of candidates.

The low-skilled nature of the job means that it doesn’t have as much earning potential as some other roles on this list. However, if you’re interested in applying for a transcribing job, we’d recommend companies like Rev and Transcribe me as they both have a test-based application process and offer rates that are above the industry standard.

4. Virtual assistant

• Previous experience needed? No
• Earning potential: ~ $20-30 per hour

Virtual assistants are independent contractors who provide administrative support to clients. In contrast to regular personal assistant jobs, virtual assistants conduct all of their tasks online and work remotely 100% of the time. The career path can be a great option for people with high levels of tech literacy, that enjoy flexible working arrangements and being their own boss.

There’s no shortage of platforms that connect candidates to clients that need assistance. Most of the time, these roles don’t require tons of experience, and look for relevant skills like research, organization, and time-keeping instead.

5. Data entry

• Previous experience needed? No
• Earning potential: $15-$40 per hour

Data entry is another profession that doesn’t require lots of previous experience. The job involves inputting information into computers and data processing programs and requires candidates to have a strong attention to detail. However, whether you’re looking for a part-time or full-time position, it’s fairly easy to land a job in data entry, especially if you apply to an entry-level role. If you want to have a stab at data entry, we’d recommend platforms like Sigtrack and CALSTART as they both post regular openings and don’t require candidates to take a formal interview.

6. Customer support

• Previous experience needed? No
• Earning potential: $15-$22 per hour

If you’re personable and have good social skills, a job in customer support could fit you well. A wide range of industries – from ecommerce to telecommunications – depend heavily on remote customer service workers, and it’s typically quite easy to land a job in the field without an interview, especially if you’re willing to take an entry-level position.

If responding to queries over the phone isn’t your thing, lots of companies employ workers to communicate with customers via email and chatbots too. Because of their virtual nature, most customer support jobs are remote-friendly. So if you aren’t willing to commute into a physical office, this could be a great option for you.

Secure Your Dream Role, No Matter the Recruitment Process

The lure of no-interview jobs is hardly a mystery. With 93% of us having experienced interview anxiety, being vetted in real-time can be sweat-inducing even for seasoned job seekers. Sitting through interviews can be expensive too. Data compiled by Moneypenny found that the average in-person job interview costs US job seekers $72.29 due to losses incurred from missed wages, and expenses like transport and lunch.

This being said, while many recruiters are warming to alternative hiring processes, the majority of companies still prefer to assess a candidate’s competency face-to-face. So, if your dream job requires you to be interviewed, or if none of the jobs on this list spoke to you, preparing for an interview may be inevitable.

If you’ve settled on this course of action, remain rest assured. An arsenal of tips and tricks is available to help calm your nerves and make you feel as prepared as possible. What’s more, lots of interviewers rely on similar questions. So, if you read our guide to common interview questions and answers you’ll be much more sure of what to expect on the day.

After first teasing the function back in October, Quora’s chatbot aggregator Poe has finally launched its new ‘price-per-message’ revenue model, which lets creators profit every time a user messages their custom chatbot.

This recent release is the latest iteration of Quora’s creator monetization program, which lets creators earn through several channels, including by paying them up to $20 for each new subscriber they attract to the app.

And the best part? Users can create prompt bots with Poe with zero coding experience, making it easier than ever for regular people to cash in from artificial intelligence. If you’re interested in making money on Poe, read on to learn more about the platform’s new revenue models, and to find out how to make a chatbot on the app in simple steps.

What is Poe?

Poe is an AI chatbot aggregator platform launched by the popular online knowledge platform, Quora. Aside from letting users access leading chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and its own bot Assistant, the app also lets users create their own custom chatbots.

This capability isn’t reserved for expert programmers either. Users with no coding experience can bring a chatbot to life with the platform, all they need to do is provide Poe with a series of simple prompts or instructions.

Poe Introduces a New Way For Creators to Make Money

This week, Poe launched price-per-message – a new way for model developers and bot creators to profit from the platform. The new function, which marks the app’s next step in its AI chatbot economy, allows creators to name their per message price, before gaining passively every time a user messages them.

Today we’re introducing a new way for model developers and bot creators to generate revenue on @poe_platform: price per message! Creators can now set a per-message price for their bots and generate revenue every time a user messages them. Thread 👇 pic.twitter.com/yx5mKgGoSQ

— Adam D'Angelo (@adamdangelo) April 8, 2024

Poe’s new price per message feature runs on a point system that’s determined by the users subscription model, but creators will be paid in dollars, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo explained on social media site X. In addition to the new revenue model, Poe also released a new analytics dashboard that updates daily and tracks average earnings across paywalls, subscriptions, and messages, to give creators greater insights into their earning potential.

According to D’Angelo, these updates represent the next phase of Quora’s creator monetization program and a major step forward in their goal of “enabling a thriving economy with a wide diversity of AI products”. But this isn’t the first money-making strategy native to the platform.

“Our goal is to enable a thriving ecosystem of model developers and bot creators who build on top of models, and covering these operational costs is a key part of that.” – Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo on X

Last October, Poe began paying chatbot creators who made prompt bots on the app, as well as developers who made server bots that integrate with the platform itself. By compensating them every time they encouraged a user to upgrade to Quora’s paid service, the trailblazing model opened up a new way for creators to profit from bot-creation. Poe’s latest release expands the platform’s revenue-making potential for seasoned coders and first-time creators alike.

For individuals interested in cashing in on Poe’s news revenue model, we explain how this can be done, in simple terms, next.

How to Make Money With Poe

As it currently stands, there are two main ways to make money on Poe. By getting a share of profit when your bot leads to a new Poe subscription, or by setting a ‘per-message fee’ on your chatbot creation

Both of these paths depend on users creating either prompt bots – chatbots built over the top of other bots using simple instructions – or server bots – chatbots that require more specialist know-how to create. Unless you’re a computer programmer, we’d recommend creating a prompt bot, as the process is simple and doesn’t require you to fuss about with lines of code.

Here’s how to create a prompt bot on Poe in six simple steps:

1. Open Poe and sign up for an account using your name, email address, and telephone number.
2. Come up with a unique idea for your bot (tip: the more the niche its concept is, the more likely it is to do well) before coming up with a name, entering a description, and uploading a picture for your bot.
3. Enter prompts describing the primary purpose of your bot. These instructions should explain how the chatbot should act, and how it should respond to user-generated queries. By as specific as possible during this step.
4. Provide your chatbot with a knowledge base, to give the bot as much additional context in how it should answer queries. This input could involve one or more knowledge sources, and could be in the form of articles, documents, or anything else that will help your bot to give informed answers. While this step is optional, we highly recommend it as the knowledge base will act as the brains behind your chatbot.
5. Once you’re happy with your prompt instructions, it’s time to create your bot. Publishing your bot will open it up to public use, and will enable you to start sharing it with friends and other Quora users.
6. After your bot is live, we recommend testing it by asking it a series of sample questions. Aside from the obvious prompts, try and come up with more targeted questions to test its capabilities. If it doesn’t meet your standards, go back to step three and edit its foundational instructions.

While Poe’s revenue model is unique, the platform isn’t the only way users can profit by making their own chatbot. If you’ve caught the bot-creating bug, you can also check out our guide on how to make money using OpenAI’s GPT store.

As the tech industry’s seemingly never-ending rounds of layoffs continue on and on, we’re all getting a lot more interested in acing job interviews.

In a way, interviewing well is the most in-demand skill of them all: If you don’t know someone who knows someone, it’s practically a prerequisite for getting any job at all. And, since we’re all too busy doing our jobs, it’s a rarely practiced skill to boot.

Luckily, job interviewers tend to stick to the same types of questions, so preparing for an interview might be easier than you expect. They’ll ask about your past job experience, and they’ll try to figure out if you’re a culture fit. Here, we’ve rounded up all the top questions that a job interviewer is likely to ask, along with a handful of questions that you may want to ask them.

Tell Me About Yourself

You should consider preparing a quick summary of your work persona: Mention a few hobbies, how much you love your pets, and, just to really blow them away, throw in your favorite ice cream flavor.

They’re likely to ask for something more specific about yourself as well, too. Here are the usual questions to be ready for:

1. What are your strengths?

As with all the questions in this category, you’ll need to find an answer that’s honest to your personality. But it never hurts to consider some of the greatest hits here: Perhaps you’re great at communicating effectively, collaborating with others, or problem-solving under pressure.

2. What are your weaknesses?

Some will suggest that you answer with a version of “I care too much” or “I work too hard.” But even if this is true for you, it’s cliche and weird to flex about your terrible work-life balance in 2024.

Instead, pick a genuine weakness (nothing too terrible), and then follow up immediately to explain how you’ve already begun working to address this issue. For example, you could say that you sometimes get caught up in the details, but this has led you to realign your workflow regularly to ensure you move on to the next task at an appropriate speed.

3. Why do you want to work for this company?

To answer this one, think about what stands out about the company. If they’re small, you can benefit from how agile and scrappy they are. If they’re large, you’ll benefit from the internal network of knowledgable coworkers.

4. Why are you interested in this position?

Find an answer to this that’s personal to you, but that makes it clear that your values align with the organization, and you see a path towards growing your skills and experience at the new position.

5. Can you walk me through your resume?

When answering this one, focus on two points. First, you’ll want to highlight why your past positions are relevant to the current position you’re hoping to land. Second, you’ll also want to emphasize the diverse range of experiences you’ve banked in the past.

Prove Your Experience

A job interviewer needs to know you have the proven industry knowledge to handle everything in real life that you can already do on paper. Here are some questions about your job history they’ll likely ask some version of.

6. What relevant experience do you have?

Look through your employment history for positions in the industry or the same job role. If you don’t have them, focus on the most relevant skills. Any growth statistics you can highlight from your time at the company will be good to keep in mind.

7. How do you handle pressure or stressful situations?

I don’t know, how do you handle them? If you love them, say so. If you hate them, say that and then explain the steps you take to avoid feeling like a situation is stressful, like establishing a gameplan ahead of time.

8. What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?

This is a broad question, so start out by narrowing the field: What was the biggest project you worked on at your most relevant previous position? That’s likely the best area to focus on, although you might win a few brownie points by saying your greatest accomplishment was raising your kids.

9. What motivates you?

You’re likely best of answering this by focusing on the work itself: You like challenging yourself, growing, and gaining new skills that add up to more than the sum of their total.

10. Where do you see yourself in five years?

If you have clear career goals, discuss them. For everyone else, highlight the skills that this position offers and that you’d love to develop.

11. What do you enjoy most about your last job?

You can add a little structure to your response by opening with a summary of a project or goal that you helped work on, followed by the actions you enjoyed taking to address the issue. The point is to bring up a skillset that will transfer to your new position.

Give Examples

Even once you’ve prepared for all the questions above, you still won’t be done proving your experience. Most job interviewers are also looking for specific examples from your past that illustrate your relevant skills and perspective.

12. Describe a challenge you faced at work and how you overcame it.

A good general template for any specific experience is to describe a situation, your actions in response, and the impact that you achieved.

13. Can you provide an example of a time when you demonstrated leadership skills?

Think of a time when you took intiative to make a decision when your manager wasn’t around to make it for you. You don’t have to fully take charge to exhibit “leadership skills,” either, since this term could be interpreted to mean that you deligated responsibility or took point on a small section of a larger project.

14. Describe a time when you had to adapt to change.

Ideally, you’ll want to pick a challenge that you made a clearly outlined change in response to. Follow the story up by explaining what interpersonal or technical skill you learned from the experience.

15. Describe a time when you had to solve a complex problem.

A few things the interviewer might be looking for when asking this question: How you break a big problem down into smaller sections, and if you’re willing to ask others for help. Pick a story that illustrates these principles.

16. Tell me about a time when you failed and what you learned from it.

This potential question is an easy one to be unprepared for, since it involves admitting to a failure. If you have a story ready to go (and an explanation for how you recovered afterwards), you might stand out from the other interviewees.

17. Provide an example of a time when you went above and beyond in your role.

The interviewer won’t ask too many of these questions, so as long as you have a two-to-four potential stories ready to go, you can likely cover all your bases.

Are You a Culture Fit?

Employers want someone who will easily slot into the existing structure of their business. Here’s what they might ask to suss out if you fit the bill.

18. Why did you leave your previous job?

If you haven’t yet left your current position, this question might be phrased as “why are you looking to leave your current job?” Either way, the interviewer just needs a response that makes sense, shows your interest in furthering your career, aligns with their company’s values, or some combination of the above.

19. What do you know about our company?

Do some research into the company’s accolades. Anything that makes the company unique is worth bringing up, and of course any (authentic) praise you can muster will go over well.

20. How do you work in a team environment?

What team player traits do you love and exhibit? This might be effective communication, willingness to collaborate, a positive attitude, or something more specific, like how you enjoy breakout rooms in Zoom calls or how you collect Post-its for your idea board.

21. How do you handle conflicts with coworkers?

Saying you can always handle conflicts might sound too defensive in response to this question. Instead, think of a specific example of a way you butted heads with a coworker in the past and how you worked to defuse the situation. Emphase traits like active listening, open communciation, and a solution that works for everyone, not just you.

22. How do you prioritize tasks and manage your time effectively?

This is a chance to show that you’re a team player. Emphasize how you determine the importance of your deadlines, considering how other teams in our organization are affected. Feel free to mention specific software tools that help streamline your workflow.

23. How do you handle constructive criticism?

Let the interviewer know that you don’t take feedback personally, even if it’s negative.

24. What relevant skills do you possess for this role?

You should figure out which of your skills are most relevant ahead of the interview, which allows you to prepare an example or two of your work while at a previous position.

25. Are you comfortable working independently?

Explain that you love to take initiative, and can handle all the tasks in the job listing effectively without a need for constant supervision. Of course, you do require the right amount of open communication, particularly when tackling the intial learning curve.

Brag About Yourself

Any company wants to hire the best person for the job. You’ll have to find a way to let them know that’s you, while still making it clear that you’re a team player.

26. What makes you the best candidate for this position?

Line up your skills, experience, and personal attributes. Add in something that makes you stand out, from your proactive problem-solving to your personable approach to internal networking.

For bonus points, you can wrap up your answer with a note about what makes their company worth applying to – it’s a compliment, but it highlights that you’re interviewing them as much as they’re interviewing you.

27. How do you define success?

Good answers to this question tend to be a little lofty, from “feeling fulfilled” to “finding meaningful work.” Whatever the case, you can achieve it with ongoing growth, learning from failures… and landing this job.

28. How do you stay organized?

Explain the general tips for keeping on track, from task grouping to time management. You can also get into specific software tools as well, from your Google Calendar skills to your project management software knowledge.

29. Can you describe your work ethic?

The right answer to this will be unique to you, but common traits to highlight here might include: Dedication, reliability, enthusiasm, passion, detail-oriented, integrity. Pick a few that describe you best and don’t mention any that don’t fit as well.

30. Can you describe your approach to continuous learning and professional development?

Perhaps you spend your free time upskilling and learning new code languages. If not, however, you can still answer this one proudly: Everyone’s continually learning new skills at any job, so you can just cite the most recent or most interesting new projects that you’ve taken on, and what abilities they require from you.

The Practical and Nitty-Gritty Questions

Not all common job interview questions are as general as the options listed above. Here, we get into the questions that you can’t sweet-talk your way through. You’ll need to know exactly what software, websites, or numbers to have on hand.

31. Are you comfortable with [specific software or technology]?

You should have a list of the software that you’re familar with in mind. Don’t overpromise, though: After all, you’ve (probably?) figured out more than one project management tool in your time, so one more should be easy enough.

32. How do you stay updated in your field?

What industry newsletter or website do you regularly read? Any podcasts or YouTube courses? As long as you enjoy your career, this can be a fun question to answer and might even demonstrate your passion.

33. What are your salary expectations?

This is one of the toughest job interview questions to answer: You don’t want to name a specific figure, as it sets a benchmark that can leave you underpaid, but you don’t want to say anything so high that you’re rejected, either.

You should mention that salary isn’t the only important element of which job offer you’ll accept, but ultimately, you may need to name the range that your research shows will fit your skills and geographic location.

Do You Have Any Questions for Us?

At the end of the interview, you might be asked for any questions from your side. Even if you’re not, piping up with at least one or two questions is the right move in most cases: It’s often seen as a sign that you’re fully engaged in the process.

Here are some of the best questions to ask, with my favorite one listed first:

34. Can you tell me what you loved the most about how the previous person in this position did their job?

This shows you’re aware that you’re potentially stepping into someone else’s shoes and you’re interested in easing the transition as you enter the same role. Plus, it gives your interviewer the choice to either praise or bad-mouth their previous employee – either way, you’ll gain some insight into the workplace culture you may be entering.

35. Can you describe the day-to-day responsibilities of this position?

This question gets to the nitty-gritty details, and might lead to a discussion of the software tools or workflow specificities to expect at your new job. It’s a good one to ask during a second or third interview, when it’s clear you’re both serious about the potential of being hired.

36. What are the company’s short-term and long-term goals, and how does this position contribute to achieving them?

This shows that you’re looking for a job that’s clearly aligned with the direction that the entire company is headed. If your job is valued by the company, you’ll have job security and the potential for further growth as long as you do that job well.

37. What opportunities can you offer for professional development and advancement?

Another forward-thinking question, this asks the company to explain what skills and experiences it can offer you, rather than the other way around. If the interviewer struggles to answer, they’re indicating that the company isn’t committed to employee development.

38. Can you tell me about the company culture and what it’s like to work here?

This question could prompt a range of responses, and you may like some responses more than others. Do you want to work at a fast-paced organization, or one that prioritizes slow and steady accomplishment instead? Whatever the case, you need a company culture that suits you.

39. What are the next steps in the hiring process?

This is a good wrap-up question, as it transitions the whole conversation into the next stage of the timeline and pragmatically signals a conclusion to the current interview.

Job Interviewing Tips

Once you’ve figured out potential answers to most of the questions listed in this guide, you’re almost ready. The final step? Forget all those notes you just took and clear your mind.

It might sound counterintuitive, but the key element to winning a job interview is quiet confidence, and trying to re-state all of your prepared answers exactly as you wrote them will probably make you seem stiff. Instead, stay flexible: You can remix and shuffle around your answers in any way that makes sense.

Finally, if you don’t have an answer for a curveball, feel free to just admit it. You’ll sound more confident as a result, and it’s a human moment. Ultimately, what matters is connecting with your interviewer and letting them know you’ll be a reasonable coworker. Well, provided you also let them know you have the experience, skills, and personality to handle the gig.

Google’s Gemini Pro AI model was once pitched as the middle tier within the tech company’s AI family, but the latest just-released version — Gemini Pro 1.5 — is already more powerful than the higher-tier option.

Like any big AI, Gemini Pro 1.5 is jam-packed with tools and use-cases, with Google positioning it as a one-stop-shop for businesses small and large to streamline and superpower their operations. But just what can the new model do?

The tech giant is eager to explain just that, at Las Vegas this week for the Google Cloud Next 2024 event. Here’s what news has already been revealed about Pro 1.5 and all the tools that can integrate with the large language model.

The Updated Gemini Pro 1.5 Is Open to Public Preview

Surprising no one, generative AI was the headline topic, with Google’s Gemini AI leading the headlines thanks to the new public preview rollout of its updates to the latest model, Gemini Pro 1.5.

It’s available now within the company’s Vertex AI machine learning platform, although you’ll need to have access to the Vertex AI platform in order to use this latest model.

It might seem like every AI company is constantly releasing the best and most-feature-rich AI model yet, and that’s exactly what Google says it has now with Gemini Pro 1.5. Possible use cases include university courses, financial services, or startups that need to code faster.

It Has Better Grounding With Google Search

In the AI biz, “grounding” refers to a generative AI’s system ability to merge its language generation with the real world’s knowledge base.

Google’s announcing improved grounding capabilities within Vertex AI. A big part of the improvement, which is available now in the Pro 1.5 public preview, is an integration that brings the immense data of Google Search into the grounding process to directly ground generative AI responses with Search.

Search is “perhaps the world’s most trusted source of factual information,” according to Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian during the announcement. Those who always add “reddit” to the end of their searches may disagree, but there’s no denying that the Google Search homepage is one of the most used websites of all time.

Gemini Pro 1.5 Can Process Audio Now

Users can now upload audio files to Gemini 1.5 Pro. The model can interpret these files, processing them into summaries, reports, or other formats. It’s a useful perk for those sitting on audio recordings of events, meetings, or earnings calls.

Gemini in Looker Will Process Data With AI…

The “Gemini in Looker” service is also part of the public preview, giving users a Pro 1.5-powered ability to “chat” with their data processing tool Looker, Google’s enterprise solution for business intelligence.

…And Gemini Can Now Code Better, Too

Gemini 1.5 Pro integration is also arriving to the coding community, with the new Gemini Code Assist tool, for enterprise-level code completion and assistance. It’s a challenger to GitHub’s AI tool, Copilot, and it brings a hefty 1 million token window with it — the largest window yet.

Users will be able to get Gemini Code Assist on-premise as well as off.

This will be a tool to keep an eye on: The potential for a functional AI coding tool is huge, and coders everywhere are definitely excited about exploring the possibilities. But writing complex code with an AI has meant risking AI-generated bugs that are incredibly tough to root out. Can Gemini Code Assist beat the curse? We’ll find out.

Gemini’s New AI Threat Detection Tools

The “Gemini in Threat Intelligence” tool helps businesses by delivering threat research that flags specific problems early with a little help from natural language prompts.

Similar functions include Gemini in Security Operations and Gemini in Security Command Center, which both add an AI layer to their respective areas. The goal across all these tools? Helping businesses flag threats before they suffer any harm due to them.

Google’s Finding New Ways to Integrate AI With Work

In addition to the above news, Google had plenty of more advanced tech specs to share.

The tech giant is now in the arm based CPU business, for instance, with the reveal of its new Axion chip, which it says offers a truly impressive “up to 50% better performance and up to 60% better energy-efficiency than comparable current-generation x86-based instances.”

Plus, Google’s AI Hypercomputer architecture is getting a big boost: A3 Mega VMs powered by NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs offer higher performance, with Cloud TPU v5p becoming generally available to boot.

The big bet behind the artificial intelligence industry is that AI models can keep improving fast enough that they can eventually justify integration into every fascet of our lives. AI proponents still have a long way to go on that rocky road. Still, Google’s latest round of new AI tool reveals and model advancements represent that company’s best answer yet.

Google is bringing AI-powered functions to its Workspace business suite, both folding new abilities into existing Workspace accounts as well as debuting paid add-ons for $10 per user, per month.

The Google Meet video conferencing app is also getting its own add-on that comes with tools like an autotranslation and an automatic note-taking service that can let you fully focus without the need to scribble your own notes during a call.

A tech company debuting new AI tools is hardly news, but Google’s business software consitutes some of the most popular workplace tool suites around. Here are the new tools to know about, freshly debuted at Google’s latest Cloud-focused event.

Google Workspace Gets a New Video Editing App, Google Vids

One of the bigger business-oriented tools to debut from Google recently? Google Vids, a Google Workspace solution to bring video creation and editing to the business software suite. The applications have a wide range, from product pitches to “About Us” videos to social media promotion to workplace safety training clips.

The tool will slot in place next to other Google Workspace apps like Docs and Slides, with complete interoperability. It can generate storyboards and an entire “first draft” that uses stock video clips and images that can be replicated for your own custom version.

It’ll be released June 2024 within Workspace, with no need for a paid add-on.

Better AI Security for Workspace

A new AI Security add-on is coming to Google Workspace subscriptions, at the cost of $10 per user, per month.

This service will catch 20% more Gmail spam, since it can crunch “1,000 times” more user-reported spam per day, and it has new tools that help business IT teams automatically identify and process sensitive files hosted on that business’s Google Drive account.

AI Is Coming to Google Meet and Chat, Too

Another AI debut is arriving for Google’s already-AI-packed video conferencing solution: The Gemini-powered AI Meetings and Messaging add-on costs $10 per user, per month and will be available for “most” Google Workspace plans.

It includes a “Take notes for me” feature that powers automatic notes during a meeting, as well as a “Translate for me” tool that can auto-translate 69 different languages. Which is great, because I don’t speak 68 of them and I could really use that.

These auto-translation and conversation summary tools are coming to Google Chat sometime in 2024 as well.

Google has launched an updated version of its Find My Device network for Android, which alerts users to the location of their misplaced devices. It’s an answer to Android rival Apple’s “Find My Network” system for iOS, and opens up a new world of connected devices that can potentially save you a lot of time and pain when trying to locate a lost device.

Granteed, the network may open up the company to the same legal troubles that Apple has faced: The tech company is still in the process of addressing legal claims that it was negligent in preventing the use of Airtags for stalking.

Here’s how it works and what new Android functions you should know about.

5 Ways to Use Android’s Find My Device

Like Apple’s similar network, Android’s Find My Device network relies on data crowdsourced from over a billion Android devices worldwide.

It’s already rolling out to devices across the world as of today, with in the U.S. and Canada first in line. you’ll be able to use it for five different benefits:

1: Find Android devices even when offline

With Find My Device, you’ll be able to call up or view the exact location of your phone or tablet. This works even if the devices are offline, or, in the case of the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, even when the power is off or the battery has died.

The Find my device app on Android. Image source: Google

2: Track other items with Bluetooth tags

Taking yet another page from the Apple playbook, the new device-location network functions with tags as well as actual devices.

Third-party tracker tag services Chipolo and Pebblebee will start offering custom-built Find My Device-capatible tags, as of May 2024. More providers are coming soon after: Google lists “eufy, Jio, Motorola and more.”

3: The “Find nearby” button

Most of the time, a lost phone isn’t a big deal: You can probably guess which room you left it in, you just don’t know if it’s behind the couch or under a book. If that’s the case, just hit the new “Find nearby” button within your app, and you’ll be prompted with an audio alert that will help you find your device (or tag, once they launch in May).

4: Use your Nest device to locate something in your home

Those with a Google Nest smarthome device can use the same app to ping their lost device or tag off of the Nest device, giving them a reference point to use when approximating where the device has wandered off to.

5: Share tag locations with friends or family

Finally, you can also add more people to help you find something by sharing specific accessories with friends or family who can help look for them if lost.

Google’s announcement post has some examples: “For instance, share your house key with your roommate, the TV remote with your friend or luggage with a travel buddy so you can easily divide and conquer if something goes missing.”

Locating Your Android Device Just Got a Lot Easier

In short, the biggest benefits and abilities are just what you’d expect: You can now retain visibility on your lost device, no matter where you lose it — even on your next globe-trotting workaction. You’ll soon be able to do the same with tags as well.

The “find nearby” button and the ability to location-share with friends are a couple smart tools that will likely prove helpful for many.

ChatGPT is a versatile, time-saving tool that has been helping businesses in numerous ways since its launch in 2022. So, it should come as no surprise that ChatGPT can also assist with one of the most widely deplored professional tasks – building a resume.

Whether you feel uncomfortable writing about your strengths and accolades or simply don’t have the time to write a tailored resume for each job you apply for, using ChatGPT can be a great way to jumpstart the writing process, or give your existing document a bit of a makeover.

If you’re interested in using AI to streamline your job search, we outline how the chatbot can be used to create a resume that stands out from the crowd. We also include prompt examples and screenshots from ChatGPT, to guide you along every step of the process.

Create a Competitive Resume With ChatGPT in 6 Simple Steps

Writing or updating a resume with ChatGPT is simple, as long as you know what you’re doing. Follow the steps below to create a resume, tailored to the job you’re interested in.

1. Gather your information
2. Open ChatGPT and craft your first prompt
3. Enter your personal experience
4. Enter information about the job description
5. Enter information about the hiring company
6. Edit and refine your resume

1. Gather your information

Before you even open ChatGPT, we recommend having all of your important information at hand. This will prevent you from switching between tabs when crafting your prompt, and will also make it easier for you to refine your resume in later stages.

The type of information you prepare will depend on you and the position you are applying for. However, as a general rule of thumb, we recommend covering the following categories.

• Contact details – This will include your mobile number, professional email, and address if relevant
• Education – Write down your education history, including the names of the institutions you studied at, your majors or subjects, your grades, the dates of graduation, and any other relevant information.
• Work experience – If you have one, make sure you have a copy of your current resume to hand. If not, compile information from your previous jobs, including your responsibilities, and information about the companies.
• Certifications – If you have any certifications or qualifications that are relevant to your role, or make you seem like more of a credible candidate, gather this information and think about how these achievements can be leveraged to improve your hiring potential
• Skills – This is a good time to summarise your best hard and soft skills too. However, be as specific as possible and make sure you only write down skills that relate to your prospective role.

2. Open ChatGPT and craft your first prompt

Once all your information is at hand, open ChatGPT and create an account if you haven’t already. Then, craft an introductory prompt requesting ChatGPT to build you a resume. We’d also recommend asking the chatbot to avoid using overused or cliche terms in your opening prompt to prevent your resume from looking like a carbon copy.

If you’re stuck for inspiration, here’s an example prompt:

I am writing a resume and I need your help. You are going to act as a professional resume writer, and are going to avoid using cliche terms. Do you understand?

After you’ve entered this prompt, ChatGPT will ask you for your following experience.

3. Enter your personal experience

Now it’s time to make your resume personal. Use all the information you compiled in the first step, and feed it into your next prompts for ChatGPT. You have two options here. You can either paste your entire current resume into ChatGPT or highlight the most important bits in the prompt, to keep things succinct.

Here’s an example of a prompt you could create below. We chose to break the prompt into different chunks but feel free to format the input how you like.

I am going to give you my personal information so you can make sure the resume reflects my personal experience and qualifications. I am a [Insert Current Job Title), with a degree in [Insert Course] from [Insert Name of Institition], which I graduated from in [Insert graduation date] with a [Insert Your Final Grade].

Since graduating, I’ve worked as a [Insert Previous Position] for [Insert Name of Previous Company] between [Insert Dates]. My main responsibilities at GoodContent included [Insert Main Responsibilities]. In my current role in [Insert Name of Current Company], I [Insert Current Responsibilities].

I have a number of hard and soft skills including [List Skills]. I also have a certification in [Insert Certifications]. Write my resume.

4. Enter information about the job description

Unless you’re creating a multi-purpose resume that you’re planning to tailor to specific job descriptions down the line, this is a good time to add more context about the job you’re planning to apply for. You can do this by simply pasting the job description into the chatbot, as we did in the example prompt below.

I am applying for a job as a [Insert Job Title]. I am going to provide you with the job description I am going to apply for. Can you read this carefully? [Insert Full Job Description]

For best practice, we’d recommend including as much information in this step as possible. However, if some details in the job description don’t apply to you as much as others, you can choose to leave these out.

5. Enter information about the hiring company

To make sure your resume is as targeted as possible, you should enter more information about the company itself next.

We’d start by telling ChatGPT exactly what you’re going to do. Let it know you’re going to be providing it with more information about the company that’s hiring, and then enter basic information about the company, including its name and core function. You can also paste information from the ‘About Us’ page on the company’s website, to make your prompt as rich as possible. Use the example prompt below for inspiration.

Now I’m going to provide you with more information on the company that’s hiring, so you can make sure my resume is tailored to their pain points and hiring needs. The company name is [Insert Name of Company] and their central mission is as follows: [Insert More Informatio About the Company].

The website’s about you page is as follows: [Insert Company’s ‘About Us’ Page]

6. Edit and refine your resume

After completing these steps, ChatGPT will have created a rough resume for you. While it may look decent, now is a good time to give it a read over, and identify areas that could be improved upon.

• Edit the format – ChatGPT can only generate text outputs, so you’ll have to format the resume yourself. The way you format the document is up to you, but for scannability purposes, make sure all the key information is bullet-pointed.
• Use active tense – Ensure your resume uses the active tense as much as possible, especially when speaking about your current work experience. This will make you appear more confident, and will grab the attention of the reader.
• Check the content – ChatGPT does a good job of building a resume based on the content you provide. However, if you think the resume should place more emphasis on certain experiences or skills, don’t be afraid to craft new prompts to achieve this.
• Watch out for generic language – ChatGPT has a habit of creating generic-sounding responses. To make sure your resume has a human touch, comb through the copy and substitute cliche, or frilly terms with something less formulaic.
• Add contact details – Once you’re happy with the result, add the personal contact details you prepared in the first step.
• Choose a template – Paste the ChatGPT-created resume into a template of your choice. Make sure that this template is appropriate for the industry that you are applying within, and avoid models that are too stylized and complicated. If you don’t want to pay for a template, you can choose a free one with platforms like Canva and Indeed.

Consider Using a Dedicated AI Resume Builder

ChatGPT does an excellent job at creating resumes, especially if you’re armed with useful tips and tried-and-tested prompts. Also, a massive perk of the platform is that it’s completely free to use too, which is a huge boon if you’re looking to save money during the job search.

However, if you’re willing to invest in your professional future, AI-enabled resume builders let you create and edit resumes in even fewer steps, and offer far more useful features than ChatGPT. Most AI resume builders will ask you to input your qualifications and experience, and then take care of everything else, saving the hassle of entering different prompts.

Aside from generating and refining text, lots of AI resume builders format and design your document too, eliminating the need to switch between platforms. After researching the best options on the market, we decided that Zety Resume Builder is the best due to its impressive range of templates and intuitive “final summary” feature.

There are loads of great pieces of software to choose from, though. Compare the best platforms in our guide to the best free and paid resume builders.

If you aren’t ready to become a digital nomad, but want an escape from your home office, it might be worth considering a workation. The trend – which refers to combining work with leisure – has seen a major uptick in recent years, as scores of workers try to spice up their 9-5 while taking advantage of flexible workplace policies brought about by Covid-19.

Workations open up exciting opportunities for employees, freelancers, and entrepreneurs by letting them travel the world without taking a day off. However, with so many exotic destinations to choose from, picking a spot isn’t smooth sailing, especially if it’s your first time combining business and leisure.

By considering factors like cost of living, Wi-Fi speeds, and time differences from the US, we round up seven countries that should be on your radar, whether your dream working location is a cabin in the woods or a thriving metropolis. Read on to discover our favorite workation hotspots, and to learn more about the trend that is reshaping the way that we work.

In this guide, we’ll cover:

• What Is a Workation?
• Different Types of Workations
• Best Countries For Taking a Workation

What Is a Workation?

Workation is a portmanteau of the words ‘work’ and ‘vacation’, and is a concept that refers to working independently while vacationing. Unlike typical trips, workations allow you to travel the world while remaining on the clock, giving full-time employees a chance to save precious on annual leave, and enabling freelancers to earn from foreign sands.

As more and more professionals strive to establish healthier work-life balances, the concept has risen alongside ‘bleisure trips’ – a term describing when workers combine business trips with leisure activities. However, unlike bleisure trips, workations tend to be organized by individual workers not companies, giving them autonomy over where they’d like to spend their time.

Workations also draw a lot of parallels with digital nomadism  – a practice that sees professionals move to foreign lands on a permanent or semi-permanent basis. Yet, unless you’re planning on taking a long trip, workations are temporary in nature. This means they require much less commitment than digital nomadism and don’t often warrant specialist visas.

Different Types of Workations

Depending on what you want out of your trip, workations typically fall within three main categories, short-term, medium, or long-term. We explain how these types differ, and who they’re best for.

• Short-term workations – This type of trip only lasts a few days, and tends to be taken relatively close to home. Short-term workations are a great option for first-timers, or professionals after a brief change of scenery.
• Medium-term workations – Medium-term workations last anywhere from a week to a month. Since these trips are a bit longer, they’re ideal for individuals who want to travel a little bit further – within their country or overseas – and want some extra time to unwind.
• Long-term workations – Long-term workations typically last a couple of months or more, and tend to be taken by digital nomads, over regular remote workers. As those taking long-term workations will be staying on foreign soil for longer periods of time, it’s likely a special visa or permit will be required for their trip.

Best Workation Destinations for 2024

South America

Brazil

• Time difference: 1 to 3 hours ahead of EST
• Top locations: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Florianopolis, Jericoacoara
• Internet speed: Good
• Digital nomad visa: Yes ($100-$300)
• Average monthly living cost: $1,600 a month

If you’d like to work among varied, stunning landscapes, in a time zone that’s not too far ahead of the US, look no further than Brazil. From its natural phenomena like the world-renowned Amazon rainforest to its urban metropolises like Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil has something to offer for just about any globetrotting professional.

Brazil’s affordable cost of living makes it ideal for short and long-term travelers alike, while it’s recently released Digital Nomad Visa has made it easier than ever for foreign residents to apply for residency.

Argentina

• Time difference: 1 hour ahead of EST
• Top locations: Buenos Aires, Bariloche, Cordoba, Mar del Plata
• Internet speed: Good
• Digital nomad visa: Yes ($200)
• Average monthly living cost: $1,000-$1,300)

Argentina’s diverse geographical makeup makes it a naturalist’s paradise. The country is home to countless glaciers, snow-topped mountains,-and even one of the 7 natural wonders of the world – Iguazu Falls.

And if a city break is more your thing, Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires is commonly dubbed the “Paris of South America” due to its beautiful European-style architecture and thriving cafe culture. Unfortunately, due to fluctuations in the Argentine Peso ($), most tourists are advised to use US dollars, making the destination slightly less affordable compared to previous years.

Asia

South Korea

• Time difference: 13 hours ahead of EST
• Top locations: Seoul, Busan, Jeju Island, Gyeongju
• Internet speed: Excellent
• Digital nomad visa: Yes 
• Average monthly living cost: $2,000

South Korea is one of the very few countries to offer a specific  ‘Workation visa’ eligible to remote workers earning over 85 million won (~$64,000). The special visa lets you stay in the East Asian country for a year and can be renewed annually, making South Korea ideal for those considering longer-term trips.

Whether you’re a K-pop lover or a foodie who’s keen on trying cultural staples like hot pots or bibimbap, South Korea isn’t short of bucket list activities. Its robust internet connection – which is currently ranked the fastest in the world – will keep you connected in real time during the working day too.

Thailand

• Time difference: 11 hours ahead of EST
• Top locations: Bangkok, Chang Mai, Phuket, Koh Samui
• Internet speed: Good
• Digital nomad visa: Yes 
• Average monthly living cost: $1,300

Thailand’s vibrant culture, world-class cuisine, and low cost of living have been drawing in backpackers for decades. However, as the city’s infrastructure continues to evolve, it’s also becoming a hub for workers looking to add a more colorful backdrop to their 9-5.

Aside from being home to several UNESCO Work Heritage Sites and countless natural wonders, Thailand also boasts a network of coworking spaces, making it one of the best places ever to combine business and leisure. For workers willing to put up with an 11-hour time difference, the South-East Asian gem also is easy to navigate, lending itself well to first-time travelers.

India

• Time difference: 9.5 hours ahead of EST
• Top locations: Kerala, Rajasthan, Goa, Himachal 
• Internet speed: Great
• Digital nomad visa: No 
• Average monthly living cost: $900

While India’s digital nomad scene may not be as established as countries like Thailand and Vietnam, India is a massively underrated workation location. The South Asian country is home to a mélange of hidden gems, from the royal city of Udaipur to the majestic mountains of Himachal Pradesh.

India’s affordable cost of living and unique cultural history make it ideal for workers making longer-term trips. However, as the nation doesn’t currently offer a digital nomad visa, travelers will need to apply for a multiple-entry tourism visa if they want to stay for over a month.

Europe

Portugal

• Time difference: 5 hours ahead of EST
• Top locations: Lisbon, Porti, Algarve, Évora
• Internet speed: Great
• Digital nomad visa: Yes 
• Average monthly living cost: $1,500

Quickly gaining a reputation for its booming digital nomad scene, it’s no surprise Portugal is a popular destination for those taking shorter workations too. Whether you prefer the hustle of Lisbon or the laid-back nature of the Algarve, Portugal’s warm climate and traditional architecture have made it an obvious magnet for remote workers across Europe.

However, while its popularity among digital nomads has resulted in an influx of trendy co-working spaces and cafes, the country’s decision to raise taxes on foreign nationals makes it less attractive for workers looking for a long-term home.

Iceland

• Time difference: 5 hours ahead of EST
• Top locations: Reykjavik,  Isafjordur, Akureyri
• Internet speed: Excellent
• Digital nomad visa: Yes ($94)
• Average monthly living cost: $3,000

Iceland is a country with unbeatable views, warm locals, and a broadband speed that gives South Korea a run for its money. While its cost of living may be higher than the US, its high safety index and majestic scenery make it an ideal destination for solo travelers planning a short or medium-term trip.

The country’s capital Reykjavik has several coworking spaces, and is also closely situated to a range of must-see sites like the Blue Lagoon and the Golden Circle, which are perfect for checking out in your downtime. Or, if you’re looking to get even further off the grid, you can also clock in via one of the country’s many internet-accessible campsites.

Do April showers bring May job openings? Remote job openings have dipped across the past two years, due in part to widespread layoffs across the tech industry. In April 2024, however, there are a few signs of life returning to the remote job sector.

Spotify, Dropbox, and Dell are just a few major tech companies with remote positions open this year. But at the top of the remote-friendly list is Microsoft, a tech giant by any measure, and one that has consistently had far more remote positions open worldwide than on-site positions.

Here, we’ve researched the most recently opened job positions at Microsoft that fit the bill for fully remote workers. The range from senior positions to entry-level openings, so there’s something for every work-from-home employee.

Fully Remote Microsoft Jobs: Listings for April 2024

Microsoft’s online careers portal lets all users parse its thousands of job listings using the tag “up to 100% work from home.” Here are just a few of the most recent job openings you’ll find through that tag, out of a total of over 1300 possibilities:

• Principal Software Engineer, (Redmond, Washington, US)
• Cloud Solution Architect – Azure AI – Partner Success, (Multiple Locations, US)
• Principal Group Product Manager, (Redmond, Washington, US)
• Azure Enterprise Leader – Infrastructure, (New York City, New York, US)
• Data Engineer, (Redmond, Washington, US)
• Technical Program Manager, (Redmond, Washington, US)
• Cloud Solution Architecture, (Multiple Locations, Brazil)
• Cybersecurity Technical Support Engineer – Microsoft Purview Compliance (Greater Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
• Senior Security Researcher, (Redmond, Washington, US)
• Cloud Solution Architect – Azure AI (Multiple Locations, US)
• Product Manager, (Multiple Locations, India)
• Support Engineering Manager, (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia)
• Senior Security Researcher, (Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands)
• Solution Architect – Data & AI, (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
• Senior Specialist Global Black Belt (GBB) – Employee Experience (Multiple Locations, US)
• Senior Security Researcher, (Redmond, Washington, US)
• Senior Executive Market Aligned Recruiter, (Redmond, Washington, US)

You can visit the site yourself for more open positions, including options for fine-tuning your search with additional metrics such as experience levels, profession, discipline, or job role.

The Pros and Cons of Remote Work

Remote and hybrid job positions might appear to be a simple “nice to have” perk for many workers, but for a significant percentage of the workforce, work-from-home positions are absolutely essential.

If you’re a working parent, you may need to stay home to keep an eye on your kid — 52% of mothers consider leaving the workforce over a lack of adequate childcare, after all. Many of those with chronic disabilities also rely on remote work options to earn a living.

And for everyone else, remote work comes with a host of much-needed health benefits, from stress reduction to higher happiness in general. Even your employer will benefit, often in ways that they aren’t aware of: According to many studies, workers have been found to be more productive, not less, when working remotely rather than in the physical office.

Granted, there are cautions surrounding remote work as well: Work remotely, and you may be less likely to be considered for the promotion you deserve. Even this downside can be pushed back on by normalizing remote work for all, however, and the good news is that we’re well on the way to doing just that.

Microsoft Perks and Employee Benefits

Work perks and benefits might not make up for a sub-standard salary, but they certainly don’t hurt. And while tech companies have been starting to pare back their benefits in recent years, Microsoft still stands out for everything it offers.

The company says it supports “employee growth with hundreds of online and in-person technical, management and professional development classes,” alongside “world-class health care benefits, along with our generous wellbeing benefits.” They’re admittedly a bit vague, since these benefits can vary “across regions.”

Glassdoor rates the company reasonably well, with a 4.3/5 score in the US, based on ratings from former and current employees.

It’s a particularly attractive option for remote-focused workers, too, since Microsoft was offering plenty of entirely remote positions even before the covid pandemic ushered in a more remote-friendly tech era. Currently, the company has 1,300 “up to fully remote” positions listed on its site, compared to the fewer than 440 fully on-site positions open.

Apple is planning to lay off over 700 employees from eight different locations, following the recent cancellation of ‘Project Titan’ – the company’s self-driving project which cost the company billions, and has been in the pipeline for over a decade.

Employees were given the chance to transfer to other divisions, including artificial intelligence and home robotics, but those who didn’t make the cut will be officially dismissed by May 27, according to a WARN notice recently filed in the state of California.

The news is a powerful reminder that hard times aren’t letting up in the tech sector just yet, despite many tech businesses showing green shoots of recovery throughout much of 2024. Here’s what we know so far.

Apple Makes Biggest Layoff Announcement Since the Pandemic

While the seismic wave of layoffs that upended the tech industry for much of 2022 and 2023 appears to have calmed, Apple has disrupted the status quo with a major round of dismissals that are likely to impact over 700 workers.

Out of the eight different locations that were affected in total, one was responsible for the company’s MicroLED display project, which intended to produce its own screens for iPhones, Macs, and smartwatches before being scrapped in March due to escalating costs.

However, the majority (371) of affected workers worked in the Santa Clara offices dealing with the company’s now-shuttered electric vehicle project. The secretive project – dubbed Project Titan by insiders – has been in the works since 2014. It originally aimed to develop a fully autonomous vehicle without pedals and a steering wheel, before switching its focus to electric vehicles in 2022.

News of the layoffs came after the Silicon Valley company told 1.400 workers in its autonomous car division that they have three months to find reassignments or they’ll be laid off. But what were Apple’s aspirations with its self-driving car project, and how did it go so wrong?

Why Did Apple’s Project Titan Fail So Badly?

While the idea of building a self-driving car was first conceptualized by Apple’s former CEO Steve Jobs and senior VP Tony Fadell in 2008, gears were officially put into motion with the launch of Project Titan in 2014.

In its decade-long life-span, Project Titan made several wins, including the acquisition of self-driving tech company Drive.ai, and a rumored partnership with Hyundai’s Kia. However, after encountering numerous bumps in the road, Apple was forced to push its launch date from 2024 to 2026, before officially canning the project this February.

Failure for the project has been blamed on attempting to build a fully autonomous vehicle that required no intervention from the driver – a feat that hasn’t even been achieved by electric vehicle (EV) powerhouse Tesla. By the time Apple engineers realized developing full-self-driving (FSD) cars was unfeasible with existing technology, it was too late to pivot. Ten years, and billions of dollars of wasted investment later, Apple employees appear to be paying the price.

Apple Continues to Invest in AI and Home Robotics

EV isn’t the only area where Apple is falling short. With the company famously lagging behind rivals when it comes to AI advancements, Microsoft officially overtook the iPhone manufacturer as the most valuable company in the world, due to its early lead in the race to monetize generative AI.

However, despite starting off on the back foot, Apple has made a number of strides in the field, including recently developing an AI model that’s able to understand conversational subtitles. The model, dubbed ReALM (Reference Resolution As Language Mode) will be used to improve Apple’s AI assistant, Siri, helping to improve the company’s competitive advantage over rivals like Samsung.

Apple is also rumored to be in the early stages of developing personal AI-enabled robotics to be used in homes. According to a recent report by Bloomberg, one robot is being programmed to follow people around the home and be helpful. The project is still in its infancy, however, so it is unclear when these devices will be available to the public.

These developments are part of Apple’s wider mission to bring generative AI into more of its products. But with many investors criticizing the company’s sluggish pace of AI development, much more work needs to be done before Apple can secure a steak in the rapidly expanding market.

As artificial intelligence experiences a new spring, kickstarted by the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, AI-enabled technologies have become a staple of our daily lives – and for good reason.

By automating manual processes, AI tools help us to work faster, and smarter. In fact, results from our own report reveal that 72% of workers who use AI extensively report high levels of productivity. However, with so many AI tools littering app stores, separating the wheat from the chaff isn’t always easy.

Whether you’re looking to streamline processes with task managers or create powerful copy with content writers, we round up nine AI tools designed to boost productivity, broken down into their different uses. Read on to take a look at our top picks — including their price point and features – or jump to a specific tool using the links below.

9 AI Tools to Boost Your Productivity

AI tools take up the leg work, leaving you to focus on more important tasks. Take a look at our top picks, and their USPs below.

1. ChatGPT (AI chatbot)
2. Gemini (AI chatbot)
3. Claude (AI chatbot)
4. Otter AI (AI transcriber)
5. Riverside (AI transcriber)
6. Jasper (AI content writer)
7. CopyAI (AI content writer)
8. Trevor (AI scheduling software)
9. Clockwise (AI scheduling software)

Best AI Chatbots

If you’re limiting yourself to one AI tool, we’d recommend using AI chatbots. The generative AI apps are trained on vast quantities of data, giving them basically limitless applications. Take a look at our favorites below.

1. ChatGPT 

• Best multi-purpose chatbot 
• Key use cases: Translating copy, creating content, data analysis, email composing, coding
• Price from: Free

If you’re after a versatile AI tool, look no further than ChatGPT. OpenAI’s chatbot kickstarted the AI boom back in 2022, spawning an army of copycats. However, in most ways the originator still remains undefeated, thanks in part to its powerful GPT language model, comparatively large context window, and impressive language options.

ChatGPT Advances is now powered by it’s sophisticated GPT-4 model. Source: Tech.co’s testing

The chatbots LLM GPT-4 – available to ChatGPT Plus users – is trained on a much larger data set than Google’s Gemini (1.1.7 trillion parameters compared to 540 billion), making it more capable of responding to a wider variety of queries. This makes it more useful to users looking for a jack-of-all-trades tool with multiple uses.

ChatGPT is also excellent at learning from the conversations it has with people, making it useful for tasks like getting to grips with a new language. However, despite improvements being made in the field, ChatGPT isn’t as strong as its competition when it comes to numerical tasks like coding and math equations.

The chatbot is available to users for free. However, to access GPT-4 and to use additional tools like DALL-E and advanced data analysis, you’ll need to upgrade to its Plus ($20 per month), Team ($25 per month) or Enterprise plan. However, we have found a few ways you can access GPT-4 for free.

2. Gemini

• Best for coding and research
• Key use cases: Image generation, text summarization, coding, mathematics problem solving, conducting research
• Price from: Free

Google’s recently rebranded Gemini (formerly Bard) is an extremely capable AI chatbot, and its offering is constantly evolving too. The chatbot recently switched its LLM to Gemini Ultra, improving its numerical capabilities and making it more adept at tasks like coding and mathematics.

Gemini’s powerful LLM model makes it excellent at producing copy and summarizing test. Souce: Tech.co testing

Gemini Ultra, which is currently only available to Gemini Advanced users, outperforms GPT-4 in a number of other areas too. Its enhanced multimodel understanding makes Gemini stronger at image generation and voice data comprehension. Gemini’s access to the real-time internet makes it a more reliable source of information for research and learning purposes as well.

While the chatbot may still be prone to the occasional hallucination, its seamless integration with the Google Workspace will undoubtedly make it a better alternative for many teams too. Like ChatGPT, the chatbot currently offers a free version, as well as a Advanced tier that costs $19.99 per month.

3. Claude

• Best for reviewing large documents 
• Key use cases: Organising transcripts, analyzing large files, conducting research, summarizing articles
• Price from: Free

Founded by AI research lab Anthropic in 2021, Claude is a capable chatbot that prides itself on being “harmless” and maintaining a “high degree of reliability and predictability” when responding to user queries. While it may not boast the processing power of more established chatbots, it’s unique input features separate it from the crowd.

Unlike rivals like ChatGPT and Gemini, Claude lets you upload files by clicking the attachment button. Users are able to upload up to five files at a time, up to a limit of 10MB each. Aside from automatically summarizing the content, Claude is capable of learning from the files and using the information to aid future queries.

Claude also lets you submit links and summarize online articles. This is a huge boon for users looking to quickly sum up lengthy articles for research purposes. However, like Gemini, Claude can be subject to the odd hallucination, so it’s worth fact-checking any information you’re unsure of.

Claude is available for free, but if you want to benefit from the chatbot’s recently released Claude 3 AI model you’ll need to pay $20 per month for its Claude Pro plan.

Best AI Transcription Tools

Manual transcription is a thankless task. By adopting AI tools, you’re able to transcribe audio recordings automatically and unlock extra features like text translation and summarization. Take a look at our top picks.

4. Otter AI

• Best for transcribing work and school calls
• Key use cases: Transcribing audio, playing back meetings, summarizing calls, identifying speakers
• Price from: Free

OtterAI is a user-friendly AI meeting assistant that lets you record, transcribe, and summarize meetings in real time. The tool integrates with web conferencing platforms like Google Meet and Zoom, allowing users to access audio without switching between apps. Its free plan is very generous too, letting users transcribe 300 minutes of audio per month, from three audio and video files.

Otter AI lets you transcribe 300 minutes of audio or video content for free each month. Source: Otter.ai

Otter AI also lets you chat with other teammates for free, helping you to collaborate more efficiently. Alternatively, If you’re happy to invest in a transcriber, its Pro plan ($10 per month) lets users transcribe 1200 minutes of content per month, from up to 10 audio or video files, and access advanced features like advanced search and playback.

5. Riverside 

• Best for transcribing interviews 
• Key use cases: Transcribing complex audio with multiple speakers, translating audio, editing audio, identifying different speakers
• Price from: Free

Riverside is an audio and video-to-text transcriber that claims to transcribe content with 99% efficiency, making it a great option for users relying on accurate transcript, such as those working in law, real estate or finance.

Riverside transcribes content with up to 99% efficiency. Source: Riverside

Its speaker differentiation feature, which automatically differentiates between speakers in transcriptions, makes it a great tool for transcribing interviews and other conversational speaking situations where involving multiple participants.

Riverside’s free plan is a lot more limited than Otter AI’s however, only allowing for two hours of audio and video on a one-off basis. This means that users looking to get the most out of Riverside are better off paying for its Standard ($15 per month), or Pro plan ($24 per month).

Best AI Content Writers

AI content writers help you streamline content creation by assisting with ideation, copy creation, editing, and more. If you’re interested in getting the ball rolling with smart AI-powered software, take a look at our top choices below.

6. Jasper

• Best for producing longer form content
• Key use cases: Creating engaging long-form copy, improving existing copy, generating content ideas, revising and analyzing documents
• Price from: $49 per month

Previously known as Jarvis AI, Jasper is an excellent AI writing tool that helps users create a wide variety of content including documents, product descriptions, blog posts, and more. In addition to its useful content templates, the tool is also able to revise existing copy to make it more creative and engaging.

Jasper.ai lets offers a wide range of templates for users looking to create or improve existing content. Source: Jasper.ai

Jasper’s long-form assistant makes it especially great for users looking to create or revamp longer pieces of copy like articles, and documents. Jasper’s inbuilt grammar checker, plagiarism, and SEO tools ensure your content is high quality, and discoverable too, which gives the tool a huge advantage over its rivals.

Jaspers’s feature-rich software comes at a price though. The tool doesn’t currently offer a free plan, meaning that to reap its benefits you’ll need to invest $39 per month for its Creator plan, or $59 per month for Jasper.ai Pro.

7. CopyAI

• Best for producing short-form content 
• Key use cases: Creating engaging short-form copy, writing product descriptions, checking for plagiarism
• Price from: Free

CopyAI is another popular artificial intelligence-enabled writing tool designed to help users overcome writer’s block. The platform runs on GPT-3, supports over 25 languages, and offers over 90 writing templates (compared to the 50 offered by Jasper).

Copy.ai offers over 90 writing templates . Source: Copy.AI

It offers an excellent user experience and responds to prompts quickly, making it a good choice for users who need to produce high-quality content under tight deadlines. However, since it lacks features specialized in creating and editing long-form copy, its use is capped at short-form content creation.

Users can get started at no cost with its free plan, but to unlock unlimited credits and projects, you’ll need to fork out for its Pro ($35 per month) or Custom plan.

Best AI Scheduling Software

Scheduling software helps you use your time more wisely. By organizing your day for you, the tools leave you with more time to crack on with tasks, socialize, and find balance.

8. Trevor

• Best for simply daily scheduling 
• Key use cases: Creating daily timetables, time blocking, organizing tasks, writing to-do lists
• Price from: Free

Trevor is a user-friendly daily planning app designed to help users maximize deep work and be as productive as possible. The tool’s to-do list feature gives you a full overview of your daily tasks and lets you customize it to your liking. Trevor even syncs your to-do list with Google or Microsoft Calendar to help you coordinate your schedules across platforms.

Trevor AI scheduling software lets you create customizable daily plans. Source: Trevor AI

Trevor’s time-blocking and focus mode features work in tandem to help users work for set amounts of time without distractions. Also, for users overwhelmed by lengthy to-do lists, Trevor’s software breaks tasks down tasks into 5 actionable steps to make them feel more achievable.

If you want to access advanced features like a personal AI model, recurring scheduled tasks, and personal scheduling insights, you need to upgrade to its Pro plan which costs $3.99 per month.

9. Clockwise

• Best for syncing calendars 
• Key use cases: Creating daily timetables, tracking time and attendance, reducing scheduling conflicts, time blocking, syncing work and personal calendars
• Price from: $6.75 per month

Clockwise is another AI-enabled scheduling software designed to help users enhance their productivity. Like Trevor, Clockwise utilizes time blocking to let users work undisturbed for longer. However, the platform also offers advanced calendar syncing options that let users combine events in their personal and work Google calendars.

Clockwise AI lets you sync your personal and work Google Calendars. Source: Clockwise AI

Its free version is fairly comprehensive, letting you automatically discover the optimal time for your tasks and routines, schedule outside your organization, and prospect personal time for meals, travel, and more. However, if you’re using this for business purposes, we’d recommend upgrading to its Teams ($6.75 per month), Business ($11.50 per month), or Enterprise plan.

Google Podcasts is officially gone. The podcasting app had a good run, but the tech giant has now decided to fold the service and tell users to switch to the YouTube Music app instead. Not everyone is happy about the shutdown, though, and many are now in the market for a good Google Podcasts alternative.

The recommended transition from Google Podcasts isn’t going smoothly, with YouTube Music missing a wide range of popular podcasts, including Google’s own Made by Google podcast. On top of that, many users enjoy using a separate app for podcasting, as it often provides a better experience.

Subsequently, the best Google Podcasts alternatives are seeing a big uptick in usage, which is why we’re going to cover some of your top options for a rebound listen. Most double handily as some of the best podcast apps for Android, but we’ve included options for iPhone users who might have relied on Google Podcasts, too.

Getting Started with Podcasts

Whether you’re just dipping your toes into the podcast waters or want to start your own podcast, choosing the right platform for you is key. Granted, each one has all the basics, like downloads for offline listening and playback speed increases, but you’ll notice some subtle differences across the landscape. From different features to more intuitive interfaces, the right platform will vibe with what you need.

Given that podcasts have survived pandemics, recessions, and everything in between, the industry isn’t going anywhere for a while. So, pull up a chair, put on your headphones, and start listening to your favorite podcasts with one of these popular platforms.

The Best Google Podcasts Alternatives and Replacements

1) Pocket Casts

Available: iOS and Android

Widely considered one of the best podcasting apps available today, Pocket Casts is an obvious choice for users looking to ditch the Google Podcasts and YouTube Music apps. It’s feature rich, with options like silence trimming and increased listening speed, so you can cram as much listening in as possible.

On top of that, Pocket Casts is easy to use. The interface makes it easy to find new podcasts with its dedicated Discovery page and revisit your favorite podcasts with the Podcasts tab, so you don’t have to do a lot of digging to find what you’re actually looking for.

2) Spotify

Available: iOS and Android

That’s right, it’s not just for music! Spotify has been bolstering its podcast offering for a while now, offering an in-depth experience that you can merge with your existing audio library. Even more impressive, it integrates with a wide range of other devices, allowing you to listen on smartwatches like the Pixel Watch 2 and Apple Watch Series 9.

However, while Spotify used to be the king of podcast exclusives, the company has started making its originals available to other platforms. Even the Joe Rogan Experience, one of the most popular podcasts in the world, has officially been brought to the masses, nixing the exclusivity deal in February 2024.

3) Apple Podcasts

Available: iOS only

If you’re ditching Google Podcasts on an iPhone, you might have trouble using some of these alternatives on your device. Fortunately, Apple has its own dedicated podcasting service, called Apple Podcasts, that those already in the ecosystem swear by.

Apple Podcasts has a lot of great recommendation features and the kind of slick interface iOS users are accustomed to. It excels at discovery, offering your podcasts they think you will like based on your previous listening habits as well as what’s trending. Some podcasts will even get bonus content on Apple Podcasts, so you can really rub it in the faces of Android users!

4) Podcast Addict

Available: Android only

If you’re an Android user and want a dedicated app that your iPhone friends can’t use, Podcast Addict might be it. The free service offers all the basics, as well as the ability to cast to other devices for a more all-around listening experience.

There are some downsides for this one, though. The interface looks a bit outdated, making it feel like you’re trapsing through the old internet when searching for something to listen to. Combined with the presence of ads basically everywhere, Podcast Addict could rub some users the wrong way, even though it’s free.

5) Overcast

Available: iOS only

Apple Podcasts isn’t the only iOS exclusive on the list. Overcast is a decidedly popular option that only works in the Apple ecosystem, which is a shame because it’s a great platform. It offers an intuitive interface, along with a handy playlist feature to bundle different episodes and shows together.

Most notably, Overcast is great for sharing clips with friends. It uniquely offers a feature that allows you to send a one-minute clip, audio or video, to a fellow listener to get them interested. Simplicity is a virtue in the case of Overcast and it’s the other standout Google Podcasts replacement for iPhone owners.

6) AntennaPod

Available: Android only

A little customization can go a long way when it comes to listening to podcasts, which is why AntennaPod is definitely one our list of top Google Podcasts alternatives. You can tailor your listening experience to your needs, like customized rewind and fast forward skip times and playback speed.

AntennaPod is an open-source platform is run by volunteers, so there are some key features missing, like a Discovery page. Still, you can easily find what you need by searching for it, so we still think AntennaPod is a solid option for your podcasting needs.

7) Audible

Available: iOS and Android

No, it’s not just for listening to audiobooks! Audible, the Amazon-owned online platform, is most well-known for its collection of audiobooks, but also offers an excellent podcast experience, filled with some exclusively that you’ll only find on the platform.

Admittedly, the focus on audiobooks makes the podcasting experience less easy to use than some of the dedicated options on this list. But if you’re already using Audible, you should find it a more than suitable replacement for Google Podcasts in your day-to-day life.

The messaging service Telegram stands out for its security measures: Users can instant message each other across many platforms, all while protected with end-to-end encryption.

The service is free, but a Premium version comes with extra features and expanded data file sharing caps. This higher-end version costs extra.

US users are charged $4.99 per month for the Premium service – at least, typically.

The recent rollout of a path towards a free Premium subscription has raised eyebrows in the cybersecurity community, with some arguing that the method offered for nabbing the free Premium subscription – which involves forwarding one-time login codes to their intended recipients – is a big security snafu waiting to happen.

What’s the Telegram App?

Telegram launched in 2013 and has since grown to more than 900 million monthly active users. While US citizens might be more familar with rivals like Whatsapp and Signal, Telegram remains one of the most popular messaging services worldwide, with particularly huge userbases in India and Russia.

Once you’ve signed up, your message history is tied to your phone number and your custom username, rather than your device, allowing for seamless functionality across platforms.

However, if you want even more privacy and security, Telegram offers special secret chats to all users: These use end-to-end encryption, aren’t recorded on Telegram’s servers, can’t be forwarded, and can be set to self-destruct.

Users can auto-delete chats on Telegram, in another example of the app’s focus on data security. Image source: Telegram.

These secret chats can only be accessed on their devices of origin, too, making Telegram an attractive pick for those hoping to combat the utter lack of data privacy that you’ll definitely find with most mainsteam social platforms.

Take Facebook, for example, which was recently accused of giving Netflix access to its users’ private message inboxes. Telegram’s values for data security protect its users from similar practices –although the app itself isn’t fully above scrutiny either, as we cover at the end of this article.

Standard Telegram Features

The free version of Telegram has plenty of features, and is constantly adding more. Here are the key features you’ll get with a sign-up that requires nothing but your phone number:

• Unlimited cloud storage
• File sharing for files of any type, up to 2 GB in size each
• Large groups and channels
• Voice calls
• Video calls
• Support for multiple devices and accounts
• Lots of stickers
• Bots and custom bots created with the Bot API

Telegram messages can be grouped, giving group chats a unified history across platforms, are searchable, and support pinnned messages.

Users can view and send messages from iOS, Android, iPads, PCs, Macs, Linux, and the mobile web as well as web browsers. The service has a “Telegram Tips” bot feed within its platform that alerts users to new features.

Want to ditch the app but aren’t sure how? Find out how to delete your Telegram account here

Telegram Premium Features

Telegram Premium offers all the features you’ll get with the standard free version, and adds these extra functions as well:

• File sharing for up to 4 GB in size each, up from 2 GB.
• Faster Download Speed
• Voice-to-Text Conversion
• Premium Stickers and Unique Reactions
• Advanced Chat Management
• Animated Profile Pictures
• Profile Badges
• Premium App Icons
• No Ads
• Custom Emoji
• Voice Message Privacy Settings
• Voice-to-Text for Video Messages
• Emoji Statuses
• Real-time Chat and Channel Translation

Non-premium users can still benefit from being on the receiving end of some Premium features, too, such as being able to download those 4 GB files that Premium users can upload.

Premium costs $4.99 per month in the US, though the exact price will vary depending on what app store or country you are in.

What Is Telegram Business and What Features Does It Have?

Telegram just debuted Telegram Business in a blog post on March 31, 2024. The term refers to a collection of features that is now available for Premium users.

Business is not a separate paid plan, it’s mode that Premium users can use to convert their account to a business account, opening up these functions and abilities:

• Hours and Location: Display your hours of operation and show your location on a map.
• Start Page: Choose which text and sticker people see before they start a conversation.
• Quick replies: These shortcuts for sending preset messages can contain several messages, with links, files, and more.
• Away Messages: Send these when closed or on vacation.
• Tags: Add colored labels to chats based on the chat folders they’re in.
• Chatbots for Business

These tools make it easy for a Premium user to interact with customers through pre-set chats and prompts, and could make the platform attractive to an audience of internet side-hustlers.

Check out a few examples of the Telegram Premium service and its Business tools:

Telegram Business features include locations, away messages, tags for groups, and prescheduled Quick Replies. Image source: Telegram.

How to Get Telegram Premium Free

Trying to get Telegram Premium gratis? Thanks to a new program, that’s actually possible for some. But it’s location-dependant, it requires users to do a little legwork, and it may even open up security concerns as well.

A new TOS update has the details: A new “Peer-to-Peer Login program” gives users access to Premium for free, provided they agree to accept one-time password codes intended for different Telegram users and forward them along to the users who are supposed to be getting them.

The opportunity is limited: It’s only for Android phone users and only available for specific countries, Indonesia among them. Meet the monthly minimum (no more than 150 codes), according to sources, and you’ll get a free month of Premium, although you’ll have to do it all over again the next month.

What’s the reasoning behind forwarding these codes? According to the Telegram TOS, it’s to combat unreliable SMS provides and “ensure that users in all areas can reliably receive OTPs.”

“Users sign up and log in to Telegram by receiving a verification code (“OTP”) that is sent via SMS. These messages are sent via enterprise SMS operators that, depending on the region and other factors, have varying degrees of reliability.”

The idea may not make it beyond this stage, however, as it opens up multiple security concerns that may not be accepted by the platform’s security-loving community of users. Most obviously, it’s a violation of how security codes are supposed to work. But it also lets the users who receive the codes you send to view your phone number, and allow you to view their phone numbers.

On the whole, it seems unlike that this program will be a viable long-term way for you to get a free Premium subscription: We’d recommend sticking to paying $4.99 per month as usual.

Machine learning software is taking over the tech industry right now, at the same time that fully remote positions are slowing growing as a worker movement. And there’s no reason you can’t do both at once.

Here, we’ve rounded up a variety of different types of tech corporations that offer remote-friendly workplaces and are expanding their AI teams. However, your own needs should drive you to consider even more variables when selecting the perfect company.

Do you need a company that’s very familar with AI, like Microsoft or IBM? These companies have thousands of workers who could show you the ropes or mentor you as you develop your skills. IBM in particular has plenty of entry-level job openings for those just getting started.

But perhaps you’re better off as a big fish in a relatively small pond. Companies like Salesforce are only set to expand their AI operations in the coming years as it figures out how to integrate the tech with its CRM platform. You could be a major player in developing the best new tool.

Whatever the case, staying remote and working in AI are a few of the most fascinating and desirable career choices you could be making in 2024. Here’s our guide to getting started with both at the same time.

Best Companies Hiring Remote AI Jobs in 2024

1. Microsoft
2. IBM
3. Dropbox
4. Google
5. Salesforce
6. Meta

1. Microsoft

We’ve long championed Microsoft as a truly remote-friendly company, unlike all those posers that have tried to roll back their work-from-anywhere policies over the past few years.

Microsoft has consistently kept well over a thousand “up to 100% remote” positions open worldwide, far outdoing the corporation’s number of open on-premises-only positions.

The company is huge player in the artificial intelligence sector, too, of course. AI is used across virtually every Microsoft application, and the company’s $16 million investment in French AI startup Mistral AI two months ago pales in comparison to the $10 billion it has sunk into OpenAI over the years.

Add all that together, and Microsoft is the first stop for a fully remote job in the AI industry. Search by those parameters, and you’ll pull up 30 pages of open job positions on the company’s job site.

Example Job Listing: Principal AI Software Engineer

Avg. Salary (~): $278K–$398K (Principal Engineer at Microsoft, via Glassdoor)

2. IBM

IBM has 1,223 remote-only positions currently open on its website, so the pickings are good. The cherry on top is that IBM has plenty of entry-level openings as well, making this company a solid resume-building option for those just starting out in the AI field.

If you’re hoping to build experience in AI before moving up to the highest-paying senior positions, we can offer a few resources: You can check out our guide to the best entry-level AI jobs here, and you should definitely consider taking advantage of the free AI training courses available online.

A few potential positions that you could remotely handle at IBM with no history of experience? Brand Technical Specialist for Data and AI Applications, Data & AI Channel Seller, or a Test Specialist in software engineering.

Example Job Listing: Application Developer – Java

Avg. Annual Salary (~): $110K – $160K (IBM Developer, via Salary.com)

3. Dropbox

The file sharing platform Dropbox stands out for its very remote friendly company policies. As we explained the appeal in our big roundup of the top 24 remote-work companies earlier this year:

“Dropbox has adopted what it calls a ‘virtual first’ approach to work. Remote working is the norm at the company, though there are opportunities for face to face meetings with teams should they be required.”

Granted, Dropbox isn’t a huge AI power player by any means, but it is exploring ways to work with artificial intelligence, and it has the open remote positions to prove it.

Head over to the company’s website, and you’ll find a small handful of machine learning engineering positions open across the US and Canada — all fully remote.

Example Job Listing: Machine Learning Engineer

Avg. Annual Salary (~): $145k (Software Engineer, via Indeed.com)

4. Google

Google has been experimenting with AI search engine results for years now. Plus, thanks to the AI-generated pablum that is increasingly cluttering up the internet, Google has to stay on the cutting edge of AI technology just so that it can figure out how to deliver good search results.

Honestly, it’s a battle that they seem to be losing at the moment, but maybe that’s because they just need to hire you.

Currently, Google has about 20 AI-related jobs that are listed as “remote eligible” on the company’s careers portal. It’s admittedly a far cry from the huge amount of open remote positions you’ll find at places like Microsoft or IBM. In addition, being “remote eligible” doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically qualify for a remote position, either, as it may be at the discretion of the manager you wind up with.

Just make sure you’ve added all the AI resume builders you’ll need to prove your worth.

Example Job Listing: Customer Engineer, Machine Learning, Healthcare, Google Cloud

Avg. Annual Salary (~): $140k–190k (Customer Engineer, via Glassdoor)

5. Salesforce

Salesforce is one of the biggest, most popular CRMs available today, and one that we’ve rated highly in the past, even if it is a smidge expensive. How else can you get all those analytics, customer support options, and huge potential for scalability?

It’s constantly making AI news headlines as well, having staged the rollout of its Einstein Copilot Studio last year, in order to let Salesforce users customize their account’s Einstein AI bot. The company’s CEO has long touted his support for remote work, and the company is likely set to continue its AI investments over the next few years.

There’s one hitch, however: The company did begin reeling some workers back into the physical office as early as 2022, and those with customer-facing roles now need to be in-person at least four days a week. Granted, most AI engineers are about as far from customer-facing as you can get, but that’s still not an amazing signal for Salesforce’s faith in the remote work that its own software makes so easy.

The company has several dozen remote job openings for AI-related positions on its website at the moment, from Senior Machine Learning Scientist to Slack Solution Engineer.

Example Job Listing: Principal AI/ML Engineer

Avg. Annual Salary (~): $147k (Principal Machine Learning Engineer, via ZipRecruiter.com)

6. Meta

Facebook parent company Meta has been building the metaverse for a while and will continue doing just that for the foreseeable future. With such a focus on VR and AR-powered remote work efficencies, it would be a little hypocritical if they didn’t offer remote career options.

AI and machine learning are a big focus at the huge tech company, as well, due in part to the fact that they have a truly eye-watering 2.9 billion monthly active users on Facebook alone, and AI is the only tech that can handle that much volume. AI curation only goes so far, but human curation does even less.

Currently open positions for directors and engineers covering AI fields of study such as monetization infrastructure or generative AI language. You can find the whole handful of remote AI-related openings on the company’s website – no need for VR.

Example Job Listing: Research Engineer, Language – Generative AI

Avg. annual salary: $120k–220k (Research Engineer, via Glassdoor)

Apple has quietly released the first beta version of its iOS 17.5 update, giving us a first look at the next batch of new features coming to iPhones later this year.

While the Cupertino-based tech giant has only recently released iOS 17.4 into the wild, it’s already moved on to seeding iOS 17.5 beta 1 to its developer community.

The new Apple software is still some ways off being ready for general release, but the early stage release gives us a sneak peek at some of the new iOS 17.5 features in the pipeline, including more major changes to how apps are downloaded for the iPhone in Europe.

iOS 17.5 Lets You Install Apps Direct From Websites

The headline new iOS 17.5 feature builds on some of iOS 17.4’s big changes, now letting iPhone users in EU countries directly install iOS apps from developer websites.

Before iOS 17.4, Apple famously took a “walled garden” approach to iOS app distribution and security, which in practice meant it only allowed apps to be downloaded from its own iOS App Store after a stringent vetting process.

In Europe, Apple’s tight-knit ecosystem fell foul of competition laws featuring in the EU’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA), which resulted in iOS 17.4 allowing third-party app stores on the platform for the first time.

In iOS 17.5, Apple appears to be going a step further and letting iPhone users download apps direct from developer websites – a move that should benefit smaller, independent app makers who’ll be able to host their downloads locally, rather than relying on app marketplaces.

Anti Stalking System is iOS 17.5’s Most Important New Feature

While Apple opening the door to direct web app downloads is undoubtedly big news, the most important new iOS 17.5 feature to our eye is the apparent rollout of a universal anti-tracking utility.

Not long ago, Apple said it was partnering with fellow mobile maestro Google to develop an industry standard aimed at combatting stalking.

According to code spotted in iOS 17.5 beta 1 by 9to5Mac, this now appears to be ready to start rolling out to Apple devices. More specifically, it will feature in an updated Find My app, which will let users recognize and disable non-Apple certified gadgets for the first time.

The string noted by the eagle-eyed Apple blog says: “This item isn’t certified on the Apple Find My network. You can disable this item and stop it from sharing its location with the owner. To do this, follow the instructions provided on a website by the manufacturer of this item.”

How to Download iOS 17.5 Beta 1 Today

If you’re itching to check out the latest iOS 17.5 features, we’d encourage a certain amount of restraint: as we’ve said, the version currently available is the first beta of the new software, and it’s not meant for general use.

Instead, iOS 17.5 beta 1 is intended for developer use only, so that Apple’s community and partners can help it address bugs and also prepare their own products to support new iOS features.

Beta releases at this early a stage of their development are notoriously unreliable, and most iPhone owners would probably find them completely unusable.

However, if you are an Apple dev or early adopter aware of the very real risk that using iOS 17.5 beta 1 could wipe or even totally brick your device, here’s how to download the update today.

First, you’ll need to log-in to your Apple developer account. If you don’t already have one, or know what one is, then that’s probably a good indication that running iOS software in beta isn’t for you.

However, if you think you do fit the criteria then you can find out more about getting an Apple developer account on its support pages. Access is priced at $99 per year.

Assuming you’re all signed up and logged in, then you should be able to install iOS 17.5 by following a similar path to downloading a regular software update.

Just navigate to Settings > General > Software Updates > Beta Updates and you’re away. Just be aware of the risks outlined above, and be sure to backup your data if you’re installing a beta release on your main device, even just to check out quickly.