As is the case with many tech companies, Amazon’s relationship with remote work is complex. After taking a liberal stance on home working since 2020, the ecommerce behemoth rolled out a return-to-office policy last year, and has since threatened to fire workers who don’t comply.

However, the Seattle-based company is also currently hiring for dozens of fully remote positions, making 2024 an opportune time for remote workers to seize the perks of working for Amazon – without having to brace the morning commute.

For those considering applying at Amazon this month, we’ve rounded up some openings that are currently up for grabs. We also shed light on what it’s like to work at Amazon, and how it compares to the experience working for its big tech rivals.

Fully Remote Corporate Jobs at Amazon for January

If you’ve always dreamed of becoming an Amazonian, but aren’t ready to sacrifice your WFH setup, now is the perfect time to apply for a corporate position. Amazon is currently hiring for 35 fully-remote roles, across a range of different departments from customer service to advertising.

Read on for some opportunities that are currently available, broken down by category.

Customer Service

• Shipping & Delivery Support Team Manager, DSL, DSL (Pennsylvania & Ohio)
• Virtual Customer Care Advisor, Remote Customer Care – Amazon Pharmacy  – (Arizona)
• Technical Customer Service Associate, Blink (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina & Texas)
• Technical Customer Support Manager, Blink (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina & Texas)

Operations, IT & Support Engineering

• Quality Assurance Virtual Testing (Automation), Mechatronics & Sustainable Packaging (Countrywide)
• Construction Cost Manager, North America Construction, Field Services Team, NACF (Countrywide)
• Robotics QA Requirements & Test Manager (Automation), Mechatronics & Sustainable Packaging (Countrywide)
• Project Engineer, Project Engineering (Countrywide)
• Operations Engineer (Countrywide)
• Operations Engineer, Operation Engineering (Countrywide)
• Senior Operations Engineer (Countrywide)

Project & Product Management 

• Sr. Product Manager, Order Management, eero (California)
• Ring System Administrator, Ring Community Support (Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina & Texas)
• Project Manager, Global Engineering Services, Startup, Global Engineering Services & Security (GESS) – Emerging Countries Customer Fulfilment (ECCF) (Countrywide)
• Sr Quality Eng Program Manager, Global Engineering Services (Countrywide)
• Quality Program Manager – Operations Engineering, Operations Engineering (Countrywide)
• Operations Engineer (Countrywide)

Software Development 

• Senior Software Development Engineer, AWS Network Firewall (Herndon VA, Santa Clara, CA, Seattle CA)
• System Development Engineer, Operation Engineering (Countrywide)

Sales & Advertising

• Senior Tech Business Developer, Amazon Today (Countrywide)
• Head of Sales, Americas, Ring (Washington & California)
• Market Manager – Devices (Chicago Western suburbs), Amazon Offline Retail Team (Illinois)

Can’t find a role that you love? Don’t give up hope. Amazon posts new roles daily on its AmazonJobs platform, so check in regularly to avoid missing out.

Is Working at Amazon Right For You?

While Amazon has hit headlines recently for laying off another round of workers – this time from its live streaming site Twitch – there are still tons of reasons to apply for a job at the company.

Amazon offers a number of attractive benefits to its employees, including free mental heath care, partial tuition fee coverage, and private medical insurance after one full year of employment. Being the most popular online retailer in the US, Amazon’s name recognition is also second to none, making a corporate role a great CV booster and gateway to highly esteemed positions at other tech companies.

Plus, if you did want to work in person for a change of scenery, Amazon offers one of the most impressive offices in the world, with its Seattle-based headquarters housing a massive indoor rainforest, a wide selection of trendy co-working spaces, and an array of independent vendors.

Working at Amazon definitely won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, however. If its history of quelling worker-led unions and blocking promotions for white-collar employees who don’t comply with its RTO policy is anything to go by, its working conditions appear stricter than those at fellow tech giants Google and Microsoft. Amazon’s attrition rate is famously high too, with many former corporate workers citing burnout and hard-hitting workplace culture as reasons for quitting before their first three months were up.

While Amazon recently upped its corporate pay cap from $160,000 to $350,000 in 2022, wages at the company still lag behind many Silicon Vally firms, with the average software engineer at Amazon taking in $95,016, compared to $164,249 at Google, according to salary and company review site Glassdoor.

The Job Pool Isn’t Short of Remote Opportunities

If you’re intent on working from home, but can’t find a suitable position at Amazon, don’t stress. As demand for the flexible perk continues to climb higher, the internet is awash with exciting, fully remote opportunities.

Whether you work in sales analytics or comms, check out our round-up of the best remote opportunities to apply to in January here. Or, if securing a big name on your CV is important to you, you can take a look at some great opportunities being advertised at Apple and Microsoft too.

If you made an in-game purchase playing Fortnite without being 100% sure what you were doing, you might be entitled to a slice of the $245 million pay out pie agreed as a settlement by developer Epic Games.

However, the Fortnite settlement deadline has just changed quite dramatically and there’s new information you need to know. You might also want to brush up on how to make a Fortnite settlement claim to begin with – and we’ll show you how to do just that.

It’s actually good news if you’ve been dragging your feet with your claim,  as the Fortnite settlement deadline has been extended into February. Here’s the lowdown, plus why Epic Game is paying out over its Fortnite indiscretions.

Fortnite Settlement: Claim Deadline and Pay Out Amount (2024 Update)

As we’ve just hinted at, the deadline to claim in the Fortnite settlement has been extended to February 29, 2024, as per the official Fortnite refunds listing on the FTC website. The original deadline of January 17, 2024, no longer stands.

That’s right, Epic Games has had its hand forced by none other the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) itself when it comes to this Fortnite settlement. Provided you’re at least 18 years of age and made an in-game purchase between the qualifying dates, you might be eligible for a pay out when all is said and done.

The exact pay out amount will vary depending on how many people have their claims approved, though based on the millions of potentially eligible Fortnite gamers, some reddit users have speculated that it could be around $6 a head.

How to Make a Fortnite Settlement Claim – and Who is Eligible?

To make a claim in the Fortnite settlement, simply head to the relevant page of the Fortnite Refunds website.

You may also have been contacted directly by the FTC if it thinks you’re eligible to claim, though the government body notes that only emails coming from its official Fortnite Refund Administrator <fortniterefund@rcnotifications.com> address are legitimate. This is important, as scammers often seek to impersonate bodies doling out payouts.

You also need to meet a handful of criteria to be eligible for a Fortnite pay out in addition to being 18 or over. As per the FTC, claims will be considered provided the following conditions are met:

• You were charged in-game currency for items you didn’t want between January 2017 and September 2022
• One of your children made charges to your credit card between January 2017 and November 2018 without you knowing about it
• You were locked out of your account between January 2017 and September 2022 after you made your credit card company aware of the wrongful charges

Include your claim number or your Epic account ID in your filing, while minors can have a parent or guardian complete the form on their behalf if they’re not yet of age.

Fortnite Refund Settlement: The TL;DR History

In short, Epic Games settled two US lawsuits in December 2022 claim it had used underhand methods to encourage Fortnite players to buy in-game products. The amount agreed with the FTC was $245 million.

The FTC itself notes: “The company charged parents and gamers of all ages for unwanted items and locked the accounts of customers who disputed wrongful charges with their credit card companies.”

Similar class-action lawsuits were brought around the world, including in Canada, but the one now nearing the final stages of settlement in the US is the biggest.

As part of a separate settlement, $275 million will be paid to the US government for compiling the personal information of individuals under the age of 13 without their parent’s consent.

Although the case was settled more than eight months ago, the claims process has only just opened up, which is why it’s been hitting the headlines again.

In 2024, it’s harder than ever to stay healthy and happy, with inflation and price gauging on one end and our pandemic-battered immune systems dangling by a thread on the other. As a result, anyone planning a “new year, new you” reinvention is probably interested in rebalancing their day job against the rest of their life.

A fully remote job might be what you need to do just that. Working remotely isn’t for everyone, but for many, it offers a way to reduce stress and free up valuable commute time that can be redirected to rest, hobbies, or caring for your loved ones.

But with many CEOs pushing for a return to the office, nabbing a remote position can be tough. Plus, you’ll want to have a company that truly commits to remote work — some of them claim to offer remote positions, but will fail to honor thoses promises as soon as the wind changes.

Here, we’ve rounded up the top companies with track records of supporting remote-friendly cultures, along with a handful of currently open and fully remote positions at each organization. Hopefully, your new year’s resolution for less stress can come true at one of them in 2024.

Microsoft

Microsoft is the biggest name in remote-friendly companies. Other huge names in tech are doing everything they can to roll back remote policies — we at Tech.co hesitate to name names, but a few major companies that reduced their remote policies last year rhyme with “Schmamazon” and “Schmeta, formerly known as Schmacebook.”

However, Microsoft currently has about 940 open positions that are marked as “up to 100% remote” on its online job portal, compared to a total of just 419 positions that required employees to be fully on-site, and a whopping 1890 open positions for “up to 50% remote” jobs.

Granted, the phrase “up to” hints that your chances at an entirely remote position might vary depending on your manager, but the sheer number of fully remote positions is the biggest possible indicator that Microsoft is genuinely remote friendly. And, since the company is making newsworthy moves with the ChatGPT-owner OpenAI, it’s definitely staying in the tech conversation in 2024.

Here are a few fully remote positions to check out:

• Senior Product Manager
• Partner Marketing
• ​​Principal Program Manager​
• Talent Sourcer
• Strategic Account Executive – Automotive
• Business Applications Sales Specialist
• Cloud Solution Architect

Check out all the other hundreds of open work-from-home positions over on the Microsoft job site today.

Want to work remotely for Amazon? Check out our dedicated guide to its January work from home vacancies.

Intuit

The one company that’s behind QuickBooks, TurboTax, and MailChimp is clearly a formidable software giant. At the same time, it’s also a top remote friendly workplace. At least, it is according to Indeed, which ranked it below only Microsoft on a recently updated list of the best remote companies in 2024.

Intuit ranks highly in Indeed’s reckoning for workplace happiness and flexibility. It also offers virtual internships, alongside remote jobs across a variety of career paths such as sales, design, software engineering, user experience, and accounting.

Here’s a list of a few open positions that are fully remote:

• Principal Business Development Manager
• Bilingual Customer Onboarding Specialist (Mailchimp)
• Mid Market Sales Senior Marketing Manager, Payments
• QuickBooks Live Expert
• Senior Sales Product Specialist
• Mid-Market Account Manager

You can check out the rest — there are several dozen in total — at the company’s job website.

CVS Health

The CVS franchise might not be on the top of your list of powerful tech companies to consider for a remote position, but that’s just why they’re worth considering. This dark horse contender landed near the top of Flexjobs.com’s recent rankings of companies with the most remote openings at the start of 2024: You’ll find nearly 790 remote postions listed on its job site today.

With thousands of locations, CVS is one of, if not the, largest pharmacy chain in the United States. One interesting result of this dominance? The stunning variety that you’ll find in the hundreds of remote positions that CVS has open right now. Where else can you apply for a job as a Senior Cybersecurity Incident Responder, a Field Service Technician, and a Licensed Clinical Therapist? Granted, we’d be more shocked if you were able to qualify for all three of those.

There are far more options beyond just the typical tech jobs when it comes to remote work at CVS. Here are a few remote positions to think about:

• Pharmacist – Clinical Advisor
• Medicare Community Lead Generator
• Claims Processor
• Bilingual Case Management Coordinator
• Letter Writer/Auditor – Licensed Practical or Vocational Nurse
• Senior Cybersecurity Incident Responder

Check out hundreds of additional open and remote positions at the company’s job website.

Robert Half

Robert Half International is a massive human resource consulting firm, making it a great fit for those looking for fully remote positions: Accounting and finance staffing industries are packed with white collar positions that can often be filled from any location with an internet connection.

That said, Robert Half has a lot more hybrid jobs open than fully remote ones. Should have been called Robert Half Remote, am I right? No one? Okay, moving on. The corporation currently has 85 hybrid positions open, compared to a similar 76 fully on-site positions, and 11 fully remote ones. It holds a reputation for remaining remote-friendly in 2024, and is a particularly good workplace environment if you are open to some in-person work.

Here, we’ve rounded up a selection of the fully remote job positions that are open now:

• Finance Business Partner
• Microsoft Solutions Architect
• PeopleSoft Application Manager
• Employee Communications Manager
• Sr. Workday Integrations Engineer

Head over to the company job board to see all the hybrid positions as well, if you’re interested in roles such as Talent Manager or Branch Director.

Kelly

Like Robert Half, the office staffing company Kelly is another high-ranker on many online listicles for remote-friendly businesses. They’re based out of the US, but they operate internationally, with unique job boards for the US, Canada, and Mexico, as well as across the pond in Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the UK, and even more countries.

At Kelly, you’ll work to help place employees at other companies across sectors including financial services, IT, and the legal business. As with many international operations, bilingual or translator positions are always open — if you can speak fluent English and Spanish, you have a wealth of options to chose from.

Their US job site lists over a hundred remote positions, which is nearly as many as on-site and indicates a healthy environment for remote workers. Here are a few of the most interesting open remote positions:

• Medical Record Retrieval Ops Specialist
• English / Spanish Language Interpreter
• Field Application Specialist
• Technical Writer
• Payout and Risk Operator
• Bilingual Spanish-English Interpreters

Check out Kelly’s job openings website here — although you’ll have to scroll down to the list of countries in order to head over to the job board that’s specific to your location.

BCD Travel

Is working remotely all about avoiding travel, or is it about freeing up time to devote to your travels? You’ll have to come up with a snappy answer to that one if you get a fully remote position at global corporate travel management company BCD Travel.

Working in the travel industry can be a fun, fast-paced position, and there’s no reason it wouldn’t be as fun when working remotely. You might want to persue a career as a travel consultant or as an events manager. Either way, BCD Travel is one of the well-respected names in the business, and they’re always hiring for something. Here’s a selection of currently open, fully virtual positions:

• Senior Travel Consultant
• IT Process Manager
• Privacy Professional
• System Developer Analyst
• Training Specialist
• Travel Agent (Germany)

The company has over 60 virtual positions open over here on its job site.

UnitedHealth Group

A big name in health insurance, UnitedHealth Group keeps its employees happy with benefits packages that include flexible options. As of an April 2020 blog post, the company said it provides “work/life flexibility via telecommuting to over 25% of [its] employees.”

Here, we’ve focused on the tech positions that you can apply for a remote position with at UnitedHeath — although they do have openings outside of the tech businsess, including a job for a remote Epidemiologist, should you qualify.

• Paid Search Manager
• Business Development Analyst
• Sales Analytics and Insights Analyst
• Report Coordinator
• Service Desk Manager

You can check out all the remote positions open at UnitedHealth now over on their website.

You couldn’t miss the 2024 AI trends on display at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week, but one announcement that flew slightly under the radar was Amazon’s launch of new Alexa AI skills.

Unlike self-driving concept cars equipped with 16K TVs, you can actually use Alexa’s debut AI skills right away – and, best of all, they’re free for anyone with Alexa-enabled hardware.

Whether it’s getting some fitness advice or playing AI’s take on the popular “20 Questions” game, here’s how to use Amazon Alexa’s new skills today.

Wait, What are Amazon Alexa Skills Again?

As a quick refresher, Alexa is Amazon’s smart assistant that features on popular products like its Echo range of speakers and displays. Alexa “skills” are basically things Alexa can do or help you with.

They’re probably best understood as a cross between an app and a feature or integration, in that while many are built-in to the platform, others are powered by third-parties and need to be enabled.

For instance, one of the most popular Alexa skills is the helper’s ability to tell you the weather forecast. Amazon has built in a weather forecast skill to all of its Alexa speakers and other devices, but you can also separately deploy one from providers like Big Sky.

Similarly, Alexa supports meeting scheduling across a range of common calendars including iCloud, Gmail / G Suite, Microsoft Office 365 / Outlook and more. You just enable the one you want, then ask Alexa to, “schedule a call with David Smith” and let Amazon’s digital PA do the rest.

What New Alexa AI Skills are There in 2024?

We’re glad you asked, because that’s why we’re here. At CES 2024, Amazon unveiled three initial Alexa AI skills for you to try out.

The first three new Alexa AI skills are:

• Character.AI
• Splash
• Volley Games

Here’s a more detailed look at them.

Character.AI

Character.AI is a popular AI tool in its own right and one of the best ChatGPT alternatives.

It’s an AI chatbot that can adopt the persona of anyone from a historical figure like Einstein to a more every day “character” like a travel agent or personal trainer.

Its Alexa skill is an extension of this core functionality, letting you converse with the generative AI chatbot through compatible hardware like Amazon’s Echo speakers. It’s another way for these devices to help you find stuff out, be it useful or slightly irreverent – as you’ll quickly find out many of bots created for Character.AI are!

Splash

Splash is an AI music generator. The Australian startup is actually now backed by Amazon itself, so it’s no surprise to see it appear as one of the first Alexa AI skills.

Basically, Splash lets you create “original” songs by conversing with it through an Alexa device. Ask it to make a song by specifying a genre, instrument, or style of music, then tweak it by adding lyrics and other additional elements.

Splash says that it has trained its model “exclusively” on self-owned music, so hopefully it’s not going to fall foul of any of the AI copyright battle currently raging.

Volley Games

Volley already boasts a handful of popular Alexa skill and lets you bring big name games like Jeopardy! and The Price is Right to your Amazon smart speaker or display.

Now, Volley Games has a new AI riff on “20 Questions” to add to its arsenal. Fire it up and your non-human host will give you a broad category, traditionally something like “animals” or “people.”

It’ll then be your job to ask the AI clarifying questions, in the hope of deducing the ultimate answer.

How to Use Amazon Alexa AI Skills Like Character.AI

Using Amazon’s new AI Alexa skills is really, really easy.

To get started, all you need to do is engage with Alexa, then asking it to open the specific AI skill you want.

So it’s as simple as saying, “Alexa, open Character.AI” to your Alexa-enabled device in the case of the often humorous chatbot.

Alternatively, you can say “Alexa, open Splash Music” to blast out some homebrewed AI tunes, while firing up Volley’s new game is: “Alexa, open Volley Games.” 

That’s the great thing about Alexa skills: activating them is usually just a case of knowing the name of the skill, and then prompting Alexa. In fact, as we’re talking all things AI here, it’s not entirely unlike how you would use ChatGPT prompts, just infinitely more convenient as all you need to do is speak.

Get ready to take your friendship in-jokes to the next level: WhatsApp’s brand-new sticker feature now lets users create their own stickers. That’s right, you can take any old photo or meme that you have lying around and turn it into your own personal reaction, all from within the app itself.

It’s a first on mobile for the popular Meta-owned messaging app, although third-party apps have been offering custom WhatsApp sticker packs to enterprising users for a while now.

The new feature is rolling out to iOS 17 and newer users over the coming days, although Android users are being left in the lurch for now. Here’s a quick guide to how you can create and share your own stickers on WhatsApp.

How to Create Your Custom WhatsApp Stickers

First, update your WhatsApp, to ensure you have the latest version.

Once you do, open up your stickers tray and hit the big “+” symbol that you normally use to find more stickers. This time, you’ll see a “Create Sticker” popup that includes two options: “Use a photo” or “Generate with AI.”

If you chose to use a photo, you’ll pull up your entire iOS photo gallery, which you can swipe through to find a photo you took yourself or saved from the internet. Once you click on one of them, you’ll get two sticker options: One is the entire image, and another is an auto-generated cutout of the key figure or element that the photo features.

It worked pretty well for me, turning a photo of me holding my cat into a cutout of the two of us, and a photo of someone on a motorcycle into a cutout of just the person and the cycle together.

As with normal stickers, once you send the custom sticker you created, it will be automatically stored in your sticker tray, available whenever you need it in the future.

How to Edit Your Custom WhatsApp Stickers

You don’t have to just pick the quick and easy option: WhatsApp’s sticker editor lets you get a little more fancy.

A few buttons at the top of the editor allow users to add text bubbles, choosing from a range of colors and fonts, and you’ll have a drawing tool as well. If you’re familar with other social platform interfaces such as the Instagram Story editor, you’ll be able to pick this up easily.

You can edit an existing sticker from your tray: Just long-press the sticker in order to pull up the edit options. 

Go Impress Your Friends and Family

The stickers have just debuted, so you’re now in an elite group of sticker-editing masterminds. Go impress your mom with a custom sticker about how you love her, or annoy your best friend with that one annoying picture of themselves that they hate. The power is yours.

Your knowledge of WhatsApp doesn’t have to end here, though: We’ve previously issued a list of the top 11 tips and tricks to know about the app, letting you in on everything from setting your wallpaper to sending a message that will automatically disappear after 24 hours or a week. With this knowledge, you’ll be truly unstoppable. You just need to come up with a sticker to celebrate.

Microsoft leapfrogged Apple on Thursday, becoming the most valuable company in the world, largely due to Apple reporting an underwhelming start to 2024 amid concerns about dwindling demand.

Shares in Microsoft increased to 1.5% with a market capitalization of $2.888 trillion versus Apple’s 0.03% decrease at a valuation of $2.887 trillion — the first time its valuation has fallen below that of Microsoft’s since 2021.

Just a few weeks prior, Apple’s valuation had peaked at $3.081 trillion on Dec. 14, ending 2023 with a 48% gain. Microsoft was stronger on that front too, closing out the year with a 57% increase, due to its prevalence in the exciting generative AI space and partnership with ChatGPT creators, OpenAI in 2023.

Apple Struggling in Competitive Market

According to the Reuters report, brokerage firm Redburn Atlantic speculated on the struggling iPhone creator, saying: “China could be a drag on performance over the coming years,” citing the recovery of Chinese phone manufacturer Huawei as a major obstacle to Apple’s dominance in the Chinese smartphone market.

The Chinese tech giant, Huawei Technologies, projected a 9% revenue growth in 2023 which might become a further thorn in Apple’s side over the coming years.

Wall Street appears to be favoring Microsoft at the moment. The company has no “sell,” whereas Apple has two. The brokerages covering the two companies also paint a fairer picture of Microsoft, with 90% of the analysts recommending buying the stock compared to two-thirds recommending buying Apple’s stock.

AI Innovations Pipeline: A Lifeline for Apple?

Apple appeared to be caught off-guard when chatGPT and other AI-powered technologies were unleashed on the world and has been slow to get off the starting blocks.

Whilst Microsoft and Google were busy unveiling their own chatbots, Apple could only conjure up an AI powered auto-correct system in the iOS 17 update released in September 2023. Although, Apple CEO, Tim Cook, insists the company has been working on generative AI for years.

A report by Bloomberg last summer stated that Apple had developed its own chatbot dubbed Apple GPT, which is currently in the testing phase, but only time will tell how it will be applied to Apple hardware products.

Since 2018, Microsoft has overtaken Apple as the most valuable company in the world a handful of times and only for short periods. The most recent stint in 2021 was incited by COVID, when supply chain issues had a negative impact on Apple’s stock price. Perhaps Microsoft should make the most of this once-in-a-blue-moon lead they have on the smartphone giant.

It was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek internal video acknowledging it was joining the long list of companies ending fully remote working. Instead, Internet Brands – the company that owns healthcare information site WebMD – has become the butt of its own joke after its awkward return to office call went viral.

In the two-minute long video, which was previously published on the Californian tech conglomerate’s Vimeo account before being pulled, Internet Brands CEO Bob Brisco chews out the “too big” number of employees still working remotely.

One particular highlight of the video includes the use of a stock image featuring a half-dressed white collar workers taking a video conferencing call in his boxers, while classic New Orleans song “Iko Iko” provides the soundtrack to another segment. Employees, however, seem less than amused by the stern underlying message.

WebMD Return to Office: “We’re Not Asking, We’re Informing”

While the original Vimeo post has been taken down by Internet Brands, this didn’t happen before it was widely circulated on other social media platforms.

As first reported by Vice, the video specifically targets those employees who don’t visit the office at all. After the camera pans around to show empty desks and meeting rooms, Brisco says he’s “getting serious” and isn’t “asking or negotiating at this point” about a return to office, but rather “informing of how we need to work together going forward”.

It’s worth noting that, however ill-judged its video was, Internet Brands is still offering a hybrid working policy. It’s not pushing a full, five-day return to office and in making flexible demands joins a number of other high-profile tech firms including Infosys, Roblox and Apple.

Internet Brands has also subsequently issued an updated video addressing the controversy surrounding its original HR fumble.

https://twitter.com/maxwellstrachan/status/1745446449343795506

Big Tech Remains Divided on Best Return to Office Strategy

Of the many firms mandating some kind of a return to pre-COVID office norms, some have taken a delicate return to office approach, including improving incentives like free coffee to lessen the blow and leading to the rise of the coffee badging trend.

Other have adopted a more hardline strategy amounting to “office or severance.” Brisco’s stern warning would seem to fall into the latter category, especially as its take on the “Iko Iko” included the joint message of “We mean business” and “Don’t mess with us.”

It’s still unclear as to which route is most effective in the long term, though our Impact of Technology in the Workplace report reveals that companies keeping at least an element of remote working boast higher levels of both productivity and job satisfaction.

Enforcing the Return to Office

In many ways, the ill-judged Internet Brands video sums up the struggle CEOs and business leaders have on their hands to convince employees to come back to a physical workplace.

The WebMD publisher may see a clear link between creativity, productivity, and office attendance, but it’s clear not all employees agree.

The video also sees a senior HR representative noting that “your manager will be in touch shortly about how this will be implemented and tracked,” while employees themselves have joked they’ve seen “better acting by hostages in direct to DVD movies.”

Fortunately, if you get an unwanted return to office imposed on you, there are plenty of companies still moving forward with newer ways of working. Here’s a look at some of the companies offering fully remote jobs right now.

Technology is always evolving, even the kind that you take for granted. Wi-Fi, for example, may not get an update every year, but it did this year, which means your connection is going to get that much better.

That’s right, a new standard of Wi-Fi is now available on select devices and routers — dubbed Wi-Fi 7 — that will bring faster speeds and higher quality connections for users around the world, improving everything from your Zoom calls to website loading times. But what do you need to know about the new internet standard?

In this guide, you’ll learn about how Wi-Fi 7 compares to Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, how much faster the connection is, and when you should switch over to the new standard.

• What is Wi-Fi 7?
• Wi-Fi 7 vs Wi-Fi 6 vs Wi-Fi 6E Compared
• Wi-Fi 7 vs Wi-Fi 6 Speed
• Wi-Fi 7 vs Wi-Fi 6 Bands
• Wi-Fi 7 vs Wi-Fi 6 Channels
• Wi-Fi 7 Compatibility
• Where You Can Use Wi-Fi 7

What Is Wi-Fi 7?

Wi-Fi 7 is the seventh generation of Wi-Fi evolution, supplanting Wi-Fi 6E as the new standard for internet connection. As with any upgrade, Wi-Fi 7 will be a substantial improvement, improving speeds, reducing latency, and increasing capacity.

As with all previous Wi-Fi updates, Wi-Fi 7 will be backwards compatible with previous iterations, including Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 5.

Wi-Fi 7 vs Wi-Fi 6 vs Wi-Fi 6E Compared

Naming conventions in the tech industry always get a bit convoluted, and that’s clearly the case when it comes to Wi-Fi. For those unfamiliar, Wi-Fi 6 launched in 2018, quickly followed by Wi-Fi 6E, which on the same standard (IEEE 802.11ax) but added further updates that improved the experience. Now, Wi-Fi 7 is the newest iteration on a new standard (IEEE 802.11be) that improves the technology even further.

So, how exactly does Wi-Fi 7 compare to its most recent predecessors? Let’s take a look at the difference in speeds, channels, bands, smart home functionality, and device compatibility.

Wi-Fi 7 Speed vs Wi-Fi 6 Speed

Obviously, the question on everyone’s mind isn’t whether or not Wi-Fi 7 is going to be faster than other iterations, but rather how much faster it will be. Luckily, this new Wi-Fi standard provides a big bump in that department.

According to a demonstration by Intel, the average PC with Wi-Fi 7 support can hit speeds of 5.8 Gbps, which is more than twice as fast as Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E.

From a theoretical standpoint, though, Wi-Fi 7 can hit speeds as high as 46 Gbps, which simply dwarfs the theoretical limit of Wi-Fi 6 at only 9.8 Gbps.

Wi-Fi 7 Bands vs Wi-Fi 6 Bands

A Wi-Fi band is the particular wireless broadcast frequency that a device uses to access internet over Wi-Fi. With the Wi-Fi 6 standard, routers typically only have two bands, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.

However, the Wi-Fi 6E update added a new band, the 6GHz band, which Wi-Fi 7 will also have available, improving the overall functionality of the band.

So, to recap, Wi-Fi 7 has three available bands: 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz.

Wi-Fi 7 vs Wi-Fi 6 Channels

Wi-Fi channels describe the frequency at which your device sends and receives internet signals. Essentially, it describes the capacity of your connection, so the more, the better.

For Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, the maximum channel size is 160 MHz, which is quite admirable and can handle the majority of your internet needs. However, Wi-Fi 7 is obviously an improvement, doubling the maximum size of the channel to 320 MHz.

Additionally, thanks to something called Multi-Link Operation (MLO), Wi-Fi 7 routers will be able to connect to a Wi-Fi 7 compatible device across multiple channels. This will improve speeds by reducing the demand on channels across the board.

Even better, Wi-Fi 7 unlocks the ability to link bandwidths of different sizes, so you can get a wider variety, including 240 MHz, which further adds to the improved functionality, speed, and capacity of the the new standard.

Wi-Fi 7 Compatibility

Whether you’re an early adopter or you’re just tired of your slow home internet, you might be interested in getting your hands on a speedy Wi-Fi 7 connection. However, it’s not as simple just getting a new router.

While Wi-Fi 7 compatible routers are available for purchase, you’re going to have to do some digging, and the cost is understandably higher than your average device. Additionally, there aren’t a lot of devices out there that can receive the Wi-Fi 7 signal, so you aren’t going to see the fruits of your labor in real-time just yet.

Still, Wi-Fi 7 is obviously going to be the standard for the foreseeable future, so getting one now is discouraged, you’ll just have to be patient before you can see the results.

When Can You Use Wi-Fi 7?

There are Wi-Fi 7 routers and Wi-Fi 7 compatible devices available right now, so you can take advantage of the improved speeds and higher capacity immediately if you really want to.

However, the rarity and affordability of these devices doesn’t make them particularly accessible to the average user. More importantly, much like the routers, there aren’t a lot of popular devices out right now that are compatible with the new Wi-Fi 7 standard, so you won’t be getting the benefits of the upgrade in any meaningful way.

All that to say, even as an early adopter, you probably don’t need to worry about grabbing a Wi-Fi 7 router just yet.

Still, if you’re itching to try it out, there are some options, including the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and the Acer Swift Edge Laptop. There are also plenty of Wi-Fi 7 routers available from various outlets, but they will run you at least $600 to get the new standard set up at your home.

The tech sector layoff onslaught rolls on to 2024, with Alphabet’s Google being the latest to announce a fresh cull of employees in cost-cutting spree. It follows job losses at Amazon and Duolingo earlier in the week.

An exact number of affected employees was not given, but we know that the majority of cuts were made to the Augmented Reality (AR) team. The hardware team responsible for Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit products, and the Virtual Assistant Unit also lost a few hundred employees each.

Among those leaving the company are Fitbit co-founders James Park, Eric Friedman, as well as other Fitbit leaders.

Google Kicks of 2024 with Redundancies

Google has laid off hundreds of employees, with those affected including staff in its engineering and hardware divisions, as well as those working on Google Assistant, the company’s virtual assistant.

As reported by Reuters, a spokesperson for Google stated that the changes were needed for the company to become more efficient and ‘work better’, with a focus on bigger priorities meaning that some roles had to be eliminated, globally.

Last year Google announced it will be giving its virtual assistant an AI integrated makeover, with the implication that it could result in layoffs. It seems this week’s news is this implication realized. The Bard experiment is currently underway and enables Google Assistant to be a more personalized helper and complete more complicated tasks on behalf of its user.

In another statement to The Verge, Courtenay Mencini of Google, assured that they will be helping affected employees to find new positions both within Google and elsewhere.

Whilst the layoffs seem to be coming in thick and fast, it is just a small fraction of the total workforce. Alphabet, Google’s parent company employed 182,381 employees as of September 30th, 2023.

Google kicked off 2023 with cuts in January, too, although last year, it was a huge 12,000 unlucky employees who found themselves on the chopping block.

Could Google Cuts Spell the End of Fitbit?

Evidence is mounting that Google’s plan when acquiring Fitbit in 2019 was to push it out of the market all along. Laying off the majority of the Fitbit team, including its founders and leaders, might just be the final nail in the coffin for the much-loved sport watch brand.

What’s more, the tech giant quietly withdrew Fitbit products from more than a dozen countries in 2023. And in more suspicious activity, Google left Fitbit users disappointed when popular features were axed resulting in multi-day service outages and also stopped Fitbit Premium service subscriptions from auto-renewing.

The Fitbit brand remains popular despite the fact that the general fitness tracker market slowed in recent years due to the rise of smartwatches. The Fitbit-Google integration looked like a way for Google to compete more aggressively with the Apple watch and this latest jobs cut indicates that the Pixel Watch will be the device they are backing.

The Google Pixel watch is marketed primarily as a fitness watch but it also has all the Google Apps you might expect on your phone – like Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Wallet.

ChatGPT has opened the GPT store, an online home for all the ChatGPT-powered bots that are custom-designed to help users with a vast range of different skills.

Users have created over 3 million custom GPTs since the functionality was introduced two months ago, according to ChatGPT creator OpenAI. Now, with the new store’s launch, they can make those GPTs available to anyone.

Creators will be able to earn revenue from their GPTs, based on user engagement, although OpenAI hasn’t yet revealed how this process will work. Still, here’s how to upload your own GPT and how to work within your company to create custom GPTs that might make your life easier.

How the GPT Store Works

You can visit the GPT store now to check out featured and trending GPTs, as well as GPT categories including Writing, Research & Analysis, Productivity, and more.

It’s not available for free, though: You’ll need to be a ChatGPT Plus, Team, or Enterprise user in order to access the GPTs available in the store. Plus, Team and Enterprise customers will be able to “manage” GPTs with granular controls. Here’s how Open AI puts it:

“Team customers have access to a private section of the GPT Store which includes GPTs securely published to your workspace. The GPT Store will be available soon for ChatGPT Enterprise customers and will include enhanced admin controls like choosing how internal-only GPTs are shared and which external GPTs may be used inside your business.”

If you’re unfamiliar with the “Team” plan, that’s for good reason: It just launched, too.

ChatGPT Team Plan Pricing

ChatGPT’s new store isn’t the only news. The service has finally added a new price plan, dubbed “Team.” The free version and the Pro version are each for a single user, but businesses with a lot of workers now have a monthly or annual subscription available that includes higher message caps on GPT-4.

Team also offers the ability to create and share GPTs internally and has an admin console for management within your workplace. Plus, OpenAI says that the GPT will not train on the data of companies using Team, which counts as a perk if you squint.

Here are all the current ChatGPT plans and prices:

• Free: $0
• Plus: $20 per month, billed monthly
• Team (billed annually): $25 per month
• Team (billed monthly): $30 per month
• Enterprise: Contact OpenAI for a quote

How to Upload to the GPT Store

We’ve created a step-by-step guide for generating your own GPT program, and you can walk yourself through the process over here. Once you have it ready, sharing your own GPT to the new store just takes a couple of steps.

First, you’ll want to make your GPT accessible to all, which you can do by saving it for “Everyone.” Next, you’ll just have to verify your Builder profile. To do this, follow these steps:

Settings → Builder profile → Enable your name or a verified website

Then, you’re all done! It’s still unclear how you’ll profit, with OpenAI claiming that they will “launch a GPT builder revenue program” in the first quarter of the year. However, they make one element of the payment process clear: It will be based on user engagement with their GPTs. If your GPT is more popular, OpenAI will have higher compensation.

Want to Start Using GPT Today?

If you’re interested in the immediate value you could generate with this tech, consider looking into options like creating websites, Chrome extensions, or even YouTube channels, all with the aid of GPTs. We’ve covered these processes and others in our guide to the ways to make money with ChatGPT.

Outside of simple images and text conversations, figuring out how to benefit from ChatGPT is harder than you might think. This might explain the fairly low $25 per month price point for a Team subscription, which is just five dollars higher than the single-serving subscription for the professional tool: OpenAI wants to make sure ChatGPT stays in the tech conversation in 2024 by promoting deeper use than simple text-based back-and-forth conversations.

However, if you’re willing to dive into understanding how generative text AIs like ChatGPT work, you’ll certainly be a rising star in today’s tech world.

Taylor Swift may get a lot of airtime at NFL games and award shows, but that doesn’t mean you should believe it when you see her selling cookware on social media. In the internet’s latest “Wait, what?” moment, the iconic singer has found herself the subject of an insidious AI scam.

AI deepfake technology has gotten a little too good over the years, leading to a wide range of celebrity doppelgangers being used to scam unsuspecting users out of their online data and personal finances.

Now, one featuring the famous “Anti-hero” singer’s likeness is being used to sell Le Creuset products to unsuspecting users on social media. As if anyone needed another reason to splurge on artisan cookware during a global economic crisis.

What You Need to Know About Taylor Swift AI Scam

According to a report from the New York Times, a deepfake AI scam has been showing up on social media platforms like TikTok and Facebook that shows Taylor Swift promoting, endorsing, and even giving away Le Creuset cookware products.

The actual video features the likeness of the singer, as well as a synthetic version of her voice using phrases like “Swifties” to convince users of its authenticity. Even worse, Taylor Swift is a known lover of Le Creuset products, with her cookware appearing in exposés and documentaries on multiple occasions, which lends even more credibility to the recent scam.

Once users click on the link, they’re taken to fake versions of popular cooking sites and shown falsified testimonials. Then, of course, they’re asked to provide financial information to cover the shipping for their free cookware, which is now in the hands of scammers to do with it what they please.

Other Celebrity AI Deepfake Scams to Watch Out For

While Taylor Swift is one of the most famous AI deepfakes to pop up lately, she’s certainly not the only celebrity likeness that has been used to scam users out of their money and personal data.

In fact, the likeness of MrBeast was used in a scam last year that saw the most popular YouTuber in the world giving away iPhones on social media. Given the MrBeast’s proclivity towards charity, the claim is far from farfetched, which is a notable theme across these kinds of scams.

Other celebrity deekfake scams that have popped up over the years include Tom Hanks, Gayle King, Steve Harvey, Ice Cube, Oprah and even The Rock.

How to Spot an AI Deepfake

Now that you know your favorite celebrities could be lurking on social media platforms waiting to trick you into buying stuff that will never show up, you probably want to learn how to spot these kinds of scams. After all, most people can’t spot deepfakes on their own, so a little help can go a long way.

First off, a simple online search of the endorsement or giveaway will almost always yield the information you need. In fact, these kinds of scams are tracked by websites just like Tech.co, so you can keep an eye out for known threats to your online security.

There are also AI image detectors out there, but in most cases, an inquisitive eye should be able to discern the authenticity of a deepfake. Simply put, thinking critically about a celebrity endorsement before handing over your financial data is always a good start to avoiding scams.

Header image credit: Jana Zills, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In an email shared with employees this week, Amazon has announced job cuts for “several hundred” employees across Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios. 

Having purchased MGM back in 2022 for $8.5 billion, Amazon explained that the layoffs were in part due to issues carried over from the deal.

This latest round of layoffs is the second set of job cuts this month involving Amazon, with Twitch having just announced it will be making 35% of staff redundant.

Cuts Said To Spark Product Opportunities

Senior Vice President of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, Mike Hopkins shared the email that explained the reasons for the layoffs, as well as the company’s future focus.

A desire to increase time and money in order to bolster content and product offering is behind the job cuts, according to Hopkins.

“We’ve identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas while increasing our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact. As a result of these decisions, we will be eliminating several hundred roles across the Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios organization.” – Hopkins

Hopkins continued, saying “Our industry continues to evolve quickly and it’s important that we prioritize our investments for the long-term success of our business” as well as “this is a difficult decision to make and one that my leadership team and I do not take lightly. It is hard to say goodbye to talented Amazonians.”

Those impacted by the role reductions in the Americas will be notified by midday January 10th, Pacific time, with all other regions being made aware by the end of the week.

How Did We Get Here?

Prime Video is home to the likes of Reacher and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, while MGM owns franchises such as James Bond and Rocky. Together, the two divisions hold the rights to big content names, yet this still hasn’t been enough to turn a profit.

The reason? In part, expensive productions. Take The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Season 1 touts the title of being the most expensive season of television ever created, with a $465 million budget. However, its viewership didn’t live up to the hype or justify the price tag.

Prime Video is considered a loss leader for Amazon – often thought of as an add-on service to Amazon Prime. However, this is one loss the company is clearly able to swallow, since in the summer quarter of 2023 alone Amazon turned a profit of nearly $10 billion.

Still, a business that just exists under the arm of its wealthy parent company is never a favorable option, so where does that leave the future of Prime Video and MGM?

What Comes Next

According to Hopkins’ plan, this latest round of job cuts aims to free up budget that can in turn “move the needle” so future spend can focus on programming, marketing, and product.

An ad-supported tier is also expected to launch on the Prime Video platform by the end of January. The additional $2.99 a month coming from users who’d prefer to remain ad-free is estimated to earn the division billions in incremental revenue.

Other than that, more tangible information on what Amazon Prime plans on producing is yet to be seen.

Another day and another giant corporation has been hit with a class action lawsuit and large settlement fee. Up to bat this time, telecommunications company Verizon, following recent lawsuits for Apple and Facebook.

In an argument over misleading advertising, former and current Verizon customers could find themselves eligible for up to $100. 

Here we explain what you need to know about the settlement and how to claim.

What’s the Verizon Lawsuit About?

According to the lawsuit, the $100 million settlement will address claims that Verizon implemented, charged, and increased an administrative charge that was not advertised in its price plans – a move plaintiffs have stated was “deceptive” and “unfair”.

If the settlement is approved and finalized, customers who file a valid claim could receive up to $100 each, depending on how long they were a Verizon subscriber and how many valid claims are filed.

Despite this, a Verizon spokesperson has stated that the company: “clearly identifies and describes its wireless consumer Admin Charge multiple times during the sales transaction, as well as in its marketing, contracts and billing. This charge helps our company recover certain regulatory compliance and network-related costs.”

Who Is Eligible for Verizon Settlement?

According to the Verizon administrative charge settlement website, if you’ve received a notice about the settlement via email or post you may be entitled to claim.

Haven’t received anything yet? Then you may also be eligible if you are a current or former U.S. customer who purchased postpaid wireless or data services from Verizon AND paid an administrative charge or an administrative and telco recovery charge between January 1, 2016 and November 8, 2023.

And according to Verizon’s October 2023 factsheet, that could be a lot of you, as it served around 93 million retail postpaid customers.

The postpaid wireless plan means customers pay for the service after they’ve used it, as opposed to prepaid plans. Customers with a prepaid plan during that time period are not eligible to claim.

How To Claim in Verizon Settlement

Verizon’s settlement administrative website has a claim form that you can fill out and submit online. 

You can also download a paper form to fill out and post it to this address:

Verizon Administrative Charge Settlement
c/o Settlement Administrator
1650 Arch St., Suite 2210
Philadelphia, PA 19103

According to the site’s FAQs, payments will be issued by check or electronic payment after the settlement is approved and finalized. 

A hearing is scheduled for March 22, 2024 and the deadline to submit a claim is April 15, 2024.

Microsoft and Walmart have just announced a significant advance in the digital shopping experience with new generative-AI search functionalities.

Through a blend of Walmart proprietary data and technology and large language models, the new capabilities will provide a curated list of personalized items for shoppers in an effort to deliver helpful, intuitive browsing.

This innovation looks set to increase on the $82 billion worth of e-commerce sales that Walmart generated last year.

This news also comes just as we shared the 2024 AI-trend predictions, suggesting that AI assistants will become more advanced in the next 12 months, with “get things done” capabilities.

How Will AI Browsing Work?

The innovation was revealed at this year’s CES tech event by Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon and Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella.

The AI-powered search function has been built bespoke to Walmart and will understand the context of a customer’s query in order to generate personalized responses.

The example given in a Microsoft blog post announcing the technology was if a parent was planning a unicorn-themed birthday party, they could simply type “Help me plan a unicorn-themed birthday party for my daughter”. This would provide search results of relevant items such as unicorn-themed balloons, napkins, and streamers, and means the user wouldn’t have to undertake multiple individual searches.

The aim of the AI search function is to give customers a more interactive and conversational experience, and will be available across iOS, Android, and Walmart’s own website.

Not Walmart’s First AI Rodeo

While this may be Walmart’s first customer-facing AI-powered tool, the retail giant has already dipped its toe in generative AI capabilities.

Last year, in a blog post by Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at Walmart Donna Morris, it launched a new generative-AI powered feature called My Assistant to all 50,000 non-store associates in the U.S. 

The desktop and mobile app was designed to help speed up document drafting, summarize large documents, and serve as a creative partner in “a highly personalized and intuitive format”.

Created and built by Walmart, and leveraging LLMs in Azure OpenAI Service, the app seemingly set the path for further AI innovations with Morris stating: 

“The possibilities with Gen-AI are broad, especially when we think of how this can benefit not only our associates, but also how we engage with customers and members, enabling more personalized interactions.”

The Latest Step In Microsoft Partnership

Having established a partnership back in 2018, Microsoft has been behind a range of Walmart’s cloud-based projects. 

For it’s 32 health clinics, Walmart deployed Horizon Cloud on Azure so every new U.S location that opens will be able to access electronic health records. Similarly, the retailer’s finance organization chose to create an agile reporting and analytics solution using Microsoft Power BI.

When pairing this wide-ranging collaborative history with Walmart’s desire for more AI-powered solutions, it’s clear that the recently launched generative-AI search feature is only the start of more consumer-facing innovations.

Since ChatGPT was first made public, the conversational chatbot has been harnessed by millions to streamline work processes, grade essays, and even create sub-bar comedy material.

But its use isn’t reserved for workspaces and classrooms. Thanks to its massive corpus of training data and sophisticated algorithms its applications are quite literally endless – creating valuable opportunities for users looking to unlock their best self in 2024, and beyond.

Whether you’re in your ‘new year, new me’ era, or you simply want to build healthier habits and stick to them year-round, we’ve rounded up some of the top self-improvement prompts to feed ChatGPT this January. We also offer advice on what makes a great prompt, to help you get the most out of generative AI.

The best ChatGPT prompts for:

1. Setting 2024 resolutions
2. Building a 2024 vision board
3. Creating daily affirmations
4. Improving time management 
5. Building a fitness plan
6. Practicing mindfulness
7. Creating a budget
8. Asking for a promotion
9. Creating a healthy meal plan

What are ChatGPT Prompts?

If you’re new to ChatGPT — what rock have you been living under? And secondly, you might be wondering what we mean by prompts.

A ChatGPT prompt is a specific instruction fed to an AI chatbot to generate a response. Prompts essentially act as a starting point for conversations with chatbots, can take the form of a question or statement, and can be as detailed, or as vague, as the user chooses.

What makes a good ChatGPT prompt?

Whether you’re writing your own or embellishing on the examples below, follow these best practices to make sure ChatGPT delivers the best results possible.

• Be as specific as possible – To help generate your desired response, specify the tone, length, and format of the output. Also, try to avoid using wishy-washy, subjective language.
• Add context – Don’t shy away from details. The more contextual information you include in a prompt the more accurate the response will be.
• Add examples – If you want your responses to reflect domain-specific knowledge or a specific style and tone, add reference material so ChatGPT can generate a response to your liking.
• Ask ChatGPT to assume a profession – ChatGPT is great at taking on points of view, so if you’re looking for advice relating to distinct fields – from fitness to horticulture – we’d recommend asking the chatbot to take on that profession.

Best ChatGPT Prompts For January

Whether you want to tap into your inner guru with mindfulness or create a fitness plan you’ll actually stick to, here is a selection of ChatGPT prompts designed to nurture your personal growth in a variety of ways.

All of these prompts are customizable and can be tailored to your exact needs and preferences. And remember, prompts are just a jump-off point –  asking follow-up questions is a great way to fine-tune your responses until you’ve got the most useful output possible.

1. Setting 2024 New Year resolutions

We may be well into January, but it’s never too late to set a New Year resolution. If you’re after something a little more creative than working out more and lowering your screen time, ChatGPT should be able to help you out.

The prompt: “Help me come with my New Year’s resolutions. Here is a little about me to help you: [enter information about your lifestyle, goals, and the direction you want to be heading in 2024.] I’d like the resolutions to be tangible and for them to be achievable by the end of the year.”

You can also limit the number of resolutions ChatGPT generates and cap the amount of detail it offers by adding “Make [insert number] resolutions that are no longer than [insert word limit] words each.”

2. Building a 2024 vision board

News just in: vision boards aren’t just for teenagers. Creating a collage that represents your wishes and goals can be used as a powerful method to visualize and manifest success  — and ChatGPT just made the process easier than ever. It’s worth noting that you will need a paid-for subscription to ChatGPT or Dall-E for this one.

The prompt: “Compose a creative vision board to visualize my goals for 2024. Some of my personal, professional, and academic goals include: [include examples of goals]. Use a mixture of inspiring imagery and language, and don’t make the vision board any bigger than [insert size limit here]. 

If you have a particular aesthetic or design style in mind, you can also mention this and even input examples, to make sure the end result is tailored to your liking. For example:

“Use a neutral color palette and cursive fonts like this vision board: [insert photo of vision board here].”

3. Creating daily affirmations

Daily affirmations are positive mantras you repeat routinely to encourage optimism and success. Depending on your goals and ambitions, they can be used to speak a variety of positive thought patterns into existence.

Ask Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, and Rhianna – all examples of incredibly successful figures who practice daily affirmation.

The prompt: “Generate a daily affirmation mantra personalized to these following challenges, desires, and aspirations: [insert more context]. Make sure the affirmation is achievable and positive, and no longer than [insert word limit] words.”

4. Improving time management

If you want 2024 to be the year of getting stuff done, it might be wise to leverage ChatGPT to improve your time management. You can use the following prompt to design a daily, weekly, or monthly timetable, with tasks stacked in order of priority. You can also edit the prompt to serve specific personal or professional goals.

The prompt: “Create a schedule that will help me achieve the goal of [insert daily goal]. Here’s a list of my tasks, in order of priority: [insert tasks in order of priority]. My day will start at [insert start time] and end at [insert end time]. My lunch will last [insert length of lunch time] and I want to have [amount of breaks] daily breaks.”

5. Building a fitness plan

If you’re looking to improve your fitness, but don’t know where to start, you don’t have to fork out on a personalized training plan or custom workout software. All you need to do is ask ChatGPT the following prompt, after determining your fitness goals:

The prompt: “You are a certified professional trainer. Your goal is to help me build a personalized workout plan based on the following information: I’m a [insert age] years old [female/male], weigh [insert weight], am [insert height] tall, and my primary fitness goal is to [insert goal].

I’m available [insert the number of hours a day you’re free] a day, [insert the number of days a week you’re free] days each week, and my preference is [aerobics/ cardio/ strength training/anaerobic/ flexibility training ] exercise.”

6. Practicing mindfulness

Mindfulness and meditation benefit the mind and body in myriad ways, with research finding that sustained practice can lower levels of depression and anxiety, and improve memory and self-esteem. If you’re looking to get more zen in 2024, why not call on ChatGPT when building your mindfulness routine?

The prompt: “You are a mindfulness guru. Suggest a daily mindfulness routine, including meditation, visualizations, and journaling, to help me [insert primary reasons for practicing mindfulness]? I have [insert time limit] of free time to invest into the practice each day.”

Feel free to list more specific reasons for engaging in the practice, like  “lowering blood pressure” or “falling asleep”. Or, if you’re stuck for reasons,  common pointers include “being present” or “reducing anxiety”. And as ever, give ChatGPT specific length guidelines to adjust for levels of detail.

7. Creating a budget

In 2024, budgeting is one of your best weapons against the spiraling cost of living. You don’t need to splurge to get your spending in check, either – ChatGPT can be used to create custom budget planners, with the simple prompt below:

The prompt: “You are a professional budget planner. Create a monthly budget plan for me. I earn [insert earnings per month] per month, and my expenses are [insert expenses per month] per month. I want to save at least [insert saving goal] by [insert time frame].”

ChatGPT will then generate a rough budget plan based on your input. You can then cross-reference this with your financial situation, and fine-tune the response by adding in details like specific purchases and payment dates.

8. Asking for a promotion

Looking to level up in your career in 2024 but aren’t sure how to ask for a promotion? How about using ChatGPT as a jump-off point?

Remember though, you don’t want your request to sound too formal or robotic, so be sure to add personal details and inflections to make it sound as human as possible.

The prompt: “You’re a recruitment manager. Can you give me a script to communicate my aspirations to move from my current position as a [insert current position] to [insert desired position] at [insert company name]? This script will be addressed to my manager. I want the tone of this message to be [formal/casual] and capped at [word limit] words.”

Follow up with details about both positions and information about specific achievements for best results.

9. Creating a healthy meal plan

While you shouldn’t trust a bot for all your dietary needs, using ChatGPT to create a rough healthy eating plan can be an effective way to improve your nutritional intake without having to employ a nutritionist.

The prompt: “As a health and nutrition expert, create a balanced diet plan for a [insert age] year old, [female/male] that weighs [weight], is [insert height] tall and has these health goals: [specific fitness or health goal]. Tailor the plan to include [vegetarian/ vegan/ omnivore] options, ensuring adequate protein intake and nutrient diversity, and my preferred preferences and culinary styles which are [insert preferences].

This guide should include sample meal plans with step-by-step instructions, and a list of what foods to include and avoid.”

Remember that ChatGPT isn’t infallible, and it’s worth sense checking any advice that it gives you, especially if it seems strange.

For more tips on how to write chatbot instructions that deliver, especially in a workplace setting, check out our guide to the best ChatGPT prompts for businesses.

Live-streaming site Twitch is expected to announce job reductions of around 35% of its staff – roughly 500 people – in its latest round of job cuts.

The site, owned by Amazon.com Inc. has had a tough couple of years, from criticism towards their ad approach to significant layoffs and departures across 2023. 

The news comes as the tech industry braces itself for yet more job cuts this year, with Duolingo already announcing layoffs.

The Latest In Twitch Layoffs

The last few months of 2023 saw several top executives announce their departure from Twitch. This included the Chief Product Officer, Chief Customer Officer, and Chief Content Officer. 

The news came after 400 employees were laid off back in March 2023, with a Twitch’s Chief Executive Officer Dan Clancy stating at the time: 

“Like many companies, our business has been impacted by the current macroeconomic environment, and user and revenue growth has not kept pace with our expectations. In order to run our business sustainably, we’ve made the very difficult decision to shrink the size of our workforce”.

So far Twitch has declined to comment on this latest round of job cuts, but it has been reported that the move has been designed to stem further losses down the line.

Twitch Costs “Prohibitively Expensive”

Last December, Clancy announced that the company would shut down business operations in South Korea owing to it being “prohibitively expensive” and unsustainable to continue.

Despite operating costs being significantly higher in South Korea, Twitch has felt this challenge all over the globe. Supporting 1.8 billion hours of live video content is expensive, even with Amazon’s infrastructure to rely on.

In fact, almost a decade after Amazon’s acquisition of the company, it’s reported that the business remains unprofitable.

Increased Focus On Ads

These money woes led to Twitch implementing an increased focus on ads. However, this sparked a huge backlash and mass exodus of gamers and gaming celebrities, who make a living by streaming on the site. 

Their issue? That the proposed ad strategy would restrict the size and type of adverts they use, which would significantly reduce how they generate income.

Under Clancy’s guidance, Twitch heard the criticism, reversed the bulk of new rules, and extended an olive branch to streamers in the form of listening to their concerns. At the time a spokesperson stated:

“We want to work with our community to create the best experience on Twitch and to do that we need to be clear about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. We appreciate your feedback and help in making this change.”

With the live-streaming site struggling to make operations work overseas, and now unable to rely on meaningful ad revenue to bolster profits, it would appear that these latest round of layoffs is the next cost-saving strategy.

Popular language learning app Duolingo is the latest tech company making layoffs, offboarding 10% of its contractors as the company begins phasing out human-led translation in favor of AI.

The news was broken in a viral Reddit post from an ex-employee, which explained that remaining translators will be tasked with overseeing the AI-led translations to make sure they’re acceptable.

Duolingo claims that the majority of its workforce has been retained and that no official “layoffs” took place, but the Pittsburgh-based company still facing backlash on social media as anxieties around AIs replacing jobs reach a fever pitch.

Duolingo Embraces Generative AI at Expense of Human Jobs

Like most companies in 2024, international language learning app Duolingo has recently ramped up its investment in generative AI tools like ChatGPT and is now using such technology to produce content at a much faster rate than it was able to do previously.

However, this pivot has come at the cost of job security within the company, with the language app recently offboarding 10% of contractors working on translations, according to a statement released by a Duolingo spokesperson yesterday.

“We just no longer need as many people to do the type of work some of these contractors were doing. Part of that could be attributed to AI,” – a Duolingo spokesperson 

The company attests that these changes were only partly spurred on by their recent prioritization of AI, and that no translators were actively laid off. Instead, Duolingo waited until temporary workers reached the end of their contract at the end of 2023, and then decided not to renew their projects.

However, even without Duolingo directly laying off staffers, it’s clear the company is gradually switching out human labor with AI – much to the disdain of many of its employees and customers.

Duolingo’s Decision Sparks Online Backlash

The news about Duolingo’s personnel changes first came to light in a viral post by Reddit user No_Comb_4582 – an ex-company contractor.

The translator worked at Duolingo for five years before his contract ended, in a team of four that shrunk to a team of two after the strategy shift, he explained in the post. The remaining workers now just review content generated by AI, to make sure it’s acceptable.

The Reddit post – which currently features 583 comments – asks netizens how they feel about Duolingo’s new AI-led strategy, sparking a lot of strong opinions around the company’s deprioritization of human translators.

The majority of commenters expressed contempt for Duolingo’s actions, with many expressing sympathies for the laid-off contractors, and others claiming the pivot goes directly against the company’s sale pitch of using native speakers.

Other users, like @EqualataralProphecy, explained that this move is part of a broader trend toward displacing workers in favor of faster, cheaper AI alternatives. “We are going to see this story almost daily. It’s going to make things that much tougher on people trying to build their careers,” the user commented.

Is the AI Job Takeover Looming?

While Duolingo’s latest actions may be unpopular, they haven’t happened in isolation.

As rising inflation rates continue to put pressure on company finances, and AI tools get more capable each day, a swath of companies are embracing the technology to the detriment of their human workers.

For example, tech company Accenture recently announced it would be investing $3 billion in AI technology, after laying off 19,000 workers in early 2023. This mirrors similar decisions made by IMB, as the company continues to phase out “repetitive white-collar roles” in lieu of AI.

In more cases than not, AI is considered to be a job augmentor rather than an outright threat. However, with research findings that the rapidly advancing technology could replace 2.4 million US jobs by 2023, it’s no surprise that Duolingo’s latest actions have sparked anxieties among its employees and wider pockets of the internet.

At the same time, there could be some benefits to AI’s seemingly unstoppable rise, as our homegrown Impact of Technology in the Workplace report reveals a clear link between companies using artificial intelligence and being open to the idea of a 4-day workweek.

Apple is finally be drawing a line under the long-running iPhone “batterygate” scandal, with the latest reports suggesting that payments are starting to be received by those who successfully claimed in the settlement. Here’s what you need to know.

The Cupertino-based tech giant agreed to a $500 million class-action settlement back in 2020 over claims it had deliberately throttled, or slowed, performance of iPhone handsets.

The legal proceedings date all the way back to 2017 and helped inspire a number of similar iPhone battery lawsuits in the UK and other countries all over the world.

Apple iPhone Settlement Pay Out Date and Amount Latest

As first reported by Mac Rumours, claimants in the iPhone “batterygate” settlement have taken to social media to confirm that they have received a payout.

Some even say they have received as much as $92 as their slice of the iPhone settlement pie, which is substantially more than the $25 that originally thought to be going out to those affected.

News that iPhone settlement payouts would take place this month was also seemingly confirmed by the Smartphone Performance Settlement website, which has been monitoring proceedings for years and in December said that “distribution should occur sometime in January 2024.”

However, the bad news for some is that the considerably higher Apple settlement payout amount suggests a number of claims have been rejected along the way.

Nice thing to wake up to on a Saturday morning — especially after 3.5 years of waiting! https://t.co/efqqgca8NG pic.twitter.com/hqfBV25M6s

— Michael Burkhardt (@mbrkhrdt) January 6, 2024

How to Check if You’ve Received Your iPhone Settlement Pay Out

Checking if you’ve received a pay out in the Apple iPhone settlement is straightforward. If it’s come your way, you should see it in the bank account you registered to receive payment when filing the claim.

If you haven’t received it just yet, don’t worry, as payments will be going out all January.

If your claim was rejected, you should have been notified by now. If not, we’ll quickly run through the iPhone settlement eligibility criteria one more time.

Who Was Eligible for a Pay Out in the Apple Settlement?

The deadline to claim in this particular iPhone settlement has long past – by a matter of years, rather than days, weeks or even months.

However, as a refresher, you may have filed a successful claim if you met the eligibility criteria that prior to December 21, 2017 you owned one or more of the following devices:

• iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, or SE (running iOS 10.2.1 or above)
• iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus (running iOS 11.2 or above)

The deadline to contest claim rejections has also past, though the newer (completely unrelated) Apple Family Plan settlement is still ongoing if that sounds relevant.

Other big name tech lawsuits currently coughing up cash to successful claimants include the blockbuster Facebook settlement pay out.

As you probably noticed, AI had a bit of a breakthrough year 2023. ChatGPT – as well as a range of other AI tools – wormed their way into the lives of millions of people. As we slide into 2024, they show few signs of budging.

AI is developing so rapidly that many tech leaders think it should be slowed down or even paused. The pace of industry change, as well as the number of companies innovating in the space makes predicting what’s in store for 2024 so difficult.

That being said, there are some important themes and events from 2023 that can give us some indication of what to expect this year.

1. AI Job Anxiety Will Get Worse in 2024
2. Bard Advanced Features Will Cause a ChatGPT-Style Ripple
3. AI Disinformation is Set to Play a Huge Role in Global Election Year
4. Academic Chaos Surrounding AI & Plagiarism Detection Will Ensue
5. AI Assistants Will Become More Advanced and “Personal”
6. Get Used to Seeing More AI in the Healthcare Industry
7. New Precedents Will be Set Relating to AI and Copyright Infringement

1. AI Job Anxiety Will Continue to Get Worse in 2024

Last year, amid ChatGPT’s meteoric rise to fame – many experts warned that certain jobs were more at risk than others from being subsumed by AI.

This created a lot of anxiety in specific roles and industries, including administration, content production, graphic design, and even the legal and financial fields, and led many to scramble to find free AI training courses and other ways to learn about AI.

Unfortunately, this trend is likely to continue into 2024 – data from an Ernst & Young study published in late December 2023 showed that the majority of US workers (71%) are concerned about AI and experiencing “AI anxiety”, a larger percentage than the one recorded from LinkedIn’s earlier study.

The anxiety exists for a reason – business feedback suggests a diverse range of roles are going to be influenced by AI in 2024. Tech.co’s 2024 Impact of Technology on the Workplace report found that, among business leaders who said they were using AI in their workplaces, use cases were very varied.

32% said they were using AI for data analysis, while 26% said they were using it for writing tasks. Other top uses included design tasks (19%), recruitment and HR support (15%), and supply chain optimization (10%). In other words, no industry is going to remain unaffected by the rise of AI.

Although many companies are now upskilling and training employees to prepare them for an AI-powered world, the media-induced “robots are taking my job” paranoia will be hard to shake off considering the amount of unchartered territory ahead.

2. Bard Advanced Features Will Cause a ChatGPT-Style Ripple

The news broke shortly after the new year that some Google One users are being given coupon codes for “Bard Advanced”, a yet-to-be-released version of Google’s chatbot, Bard.

Instead of running on PaLM 2 like the free, generally available version of Bard currently does, the exciting thing about Gemini Ultra is that it’s set to be the most advanced and intelligent large language model yet.

According to Google DeepMind, Gemini is more powerful than both GPT 3.5, which powers the free version of ChatGPT, and GPT-4, which powers ChatGPT plus.

There’s very little information available regarding what features the chatbot may have, but considering Bard is already competitive with ChatGPT and this version would be significantly more sophisticated, 2024 could be the year Google leapfrogs its fierce rival.

How ChatGPT responds to this, on the other hand, is equally exciting – as are the strides being made by the likes of Anthropic, which released Claude 2.1 at the end of 2023. The point is, the Bard update seems like it’s going to be a major step change.

3. AI Disinformation is Set to Play a Huge Role in Blockbuster Global Election Year

During 2023, AI chatbots – as well as a variety of other AI tools – helped produce an avalanche of misinformation. Throughout the year, fabricated images, deepfake videos, and manipulative social media posts were generated using artificial intelligence.

China targeted US voters with AI-generated disinformation during 2023, while Russia also showed they were prepared to utilize similar tactics last year.

Concerningly, this year is a blockbuster election year across the globe – and during election cycles, when the big decision is to be made and the most political content is produced, it’s the perfect time for state as well as vigilante actors to wage disinformation wars.

The US, United Kingdom, India, The EU, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Austria, Venezuela, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Ghana, South Africa, Iran, and Taiwan all have presidential, general or legislative elections in the calendar for 2024, presenting a frightening amount of opportunity for political sabotage.

4. Academic Chaos Surrounding AI Plagiarism Detection

Just six months after ChatGPT’s release back in 2022, around half of students reported they had some experience using it. Unsurprisingly then, it wasn’t uncommon to hear tales of students being accused of using AI to cheat on their assignments by academic staff throughout 2023.

However, while AI chatbots are set to become more sophisticated, many of the AI content detection tools available online remain unreliable. There’s lots of evidence to suggest that ChatGPT will continue to pose questions for students and those working in academia.

Another, more recent issue involved Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge-fund manager who pushed for Claudine Gay, formerly president of Harvard, to resign due to instances of alleged plagiarism in her academic work amid a larger row about comments made during a congressional hearing about anti-semitism on university campuses, for which she has since apologized.

Since 2024 began, Ackman – whose spouse, a former professor, was accused of plagiarism just a few days ago – has suggested harnessing AI to crawl papers written by academics and announced he’s doing just that with the papers published by MIT’s entire faculty. These events set a tense precedent going into 2024 – AI tools could find themselves at the center of academic and political rows more frequently.

5. AI Assistants Will Become More Advanced

When we asked Bard about what it thought was in store for AI in 2024, one of the things it predicted would happen was what it called “AI assistants with “get things done” capabilities”.

Bard predicts that AI assistants will be asked to do progressively more and more complex tasks, such as “making reservations, planning trips, and connecting to other services”, shifting from “information retrieval to practical execution”.

During 2023, companies in all industries were helped by the likes of OpenAI and Merantix to incorporate artificial intelligence into their technological infrastructure, while at the same time, increasingly personal and non-work related use cases for AI chatbots came up.

What’s more, with OpenAI’s launch of GPTs, any person can familiarize themselves with concepts such as functional knowledge bases and fine-tuning without any coding knowledge at all – and the launch of the GPT Store will only encourage more innovation.

Reports from this year suggest young people are turning to AI chatbots for therapy, while Snapchat and Meta have both created AI technology designed specifically for social uses.By the end of 2024, who knows how useful they’ll be.

6. Get Used to Seeing More AI in Healthcare

Artificial intelligence being used in the healthcare space is, of course, nothing new – but 2023 was a significant year for the technology. 2024, on the other hand, is likely to bring with it even more innovation and ingenuity in this space.

For example, ChatGPT is already being touted as a solution to clinician burnout thanks to its ability to reduce the documentation burden, while one study even found it to be more empathetic and better overall at responding to patient concerns.

It wasn’t just ChatGPT that presented a reason to keep your eye on healthcare technology this year. AI-powered tools focusing on extracting insights from data and writing summaries became more widely available to healthcare teams in 2023, and will likely be iterated on in 2024.

Whatever systems or products end up being invented, it’s hard to ignore the profound impact that artificial intelligence can make. Last year, it was shown that an AI-assisted radiologist is more likely to spot cancerous cells than a radiologist working solo, as well as two radiologists working together. Other areas that increasingly call on AI for assistance include drug discovery to dosage error reduction.

AI’s capacity to be used to identify dangerous diseases and assist doctors isn’t going unnoticed. With the world still scarred by the pandemic and experiencing a new-found appreciation for technology, processes, and systems that can ease the strain on healthcare services at times of great need, AI is going to be called upon more regularly.

7. New Precedents Will be Set Relating to AI and Copyright Infringement

2023 ended with the surprising news that the New York Times, the world’s largest and most well-known publication, is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for billions of dollars. It’s already looking like it’ll turn into one of the most consequential legal cases of 2024.

What’s more, the paper’s decision to take legal action has already been followed by two non-fiction authors, Nicholas Basbanes and Nicholas Gage, who’ve filed a class action lawsuit against OpenAI. They join a group of 17 US fiction writers, including Game of Thrones author George RR Martin, who have also filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for using their work without their permission last year.

With these cases not set to be resolved any time soon, expect an uptick in similar lawsuits as other writers, authors, and journalists seek to get in on the action and hold the big tech-backed AI startups accountable. The verdicts in any one of these cases could change the legal precedent used going forward.

It’s far from clear-cut, either. AI tools don’t necessarily “copy” works in the way a human plagiarizing work in the traditional manner might. Arguably, they simply learn from what they consume, just like humans do – and this means that OpenAI’s legal rebuttal is likely to be industry-defining.

Flexible working remains the most desired employee perk for many, and Microsoft is taking note. The tech giant currently lets its employees work from home 50% of the time, and is accepting applications from more fully remote workers than ever before.

If you’re keen on securing the income and status that comes with working at Microsoft, without the drudgery of the morning commute, we’ve rounded up fully-remote openings that the company began advertising this month.

Whether you’re a seasoned software engineer or an IT support specialist, get there before the competition with these newly advertised roles.

Fully Remote Jobs Microsoft Released in January

If Microsoft’s recent hiring effort is anything to go by, big tech’s layoff wave that characterized the employment landscape in 2022 and 2023 may be showing signs of subsiding. The Washington-based company is currently advertising a total of 3,196 roles globally – 1844 of which are hybrid, and 937 of which are fully remote.

Microsoft is adding new roles to its roster on a weekly basis too. Below we list the opportunities open to 100% remote workers that have been published this month, broken down by profession.

Software engineering openings

• Senior Computer Architect (Hillsboro, Oregon)
• Senior Software Engineer (Redmond, Washington)
• Principal Software Engineer (Redmond, Washington)
• Software Engineer 2 (Atlanta Georgia)
• UX Engineer II (Multiple locations including the United States)
• Principal UX Engineer (Multiple locations including the United States)

Technical support openings

• Senior Technical Support Engineer, Data (Multiple locations including the United States)
• Senior Technical Support Engineer, Platform (Multiple locations including the United States)
• Critical Situation Escalation Manager (Multiple locations including the United States)
• Technical Support Engineer (Multiple locations including the United States)

Program management openings

• Senior Technical Program Manager (Redmond, Washington)
• Principal Technical Program Manager (Redmond, Washington)
• Senior Program Manager (Multiple locations including the United States)

Product management openings

• Senior Product Manager (Redmond, Washington)
• Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Defender (Redmond, Washington)
• Senior Product Manager, Security Platform (Redmond, Washington)

If none of these roles appeal to you, rest assured. There are hundreds more remote opportunities listed on Microsoft’s careers page, open to candidates with a range of experience. However, for senior candidates looking to level up in their careers, we’d recommend checking out our regularly updated guide to Microsoft vacancies that pay $100k and above.

What is it Like to Work at Microsoft?

For those pursuing a career in tech, working at Microsoft is likely to be a crowning achievement. While it may not have garnered a reputation for its colorful bean bags and multi-story slides – we’re looking at you, Google – Microsoft is frequently regarded as an ultra-competitive place to work due to its people-focused outlook and its commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Its employee feedback speaks for itself. According to the recruiting and company review site Glassdoor, 91% of Microsoft workers approve its sitting CEO Satya Nadella, and an impressive 86% of employees would recommend working a the company to a friend. This is in comparison to 81% of Apple workers and 72% of Uber workers.

However, according to a side-by-side salary comparison on Glassdoor, Microsoft’s earning potential is slightly more limited than with major competitors, with the average salary for a software engineer sitting at $151,675 at Microsoft, compared to $181,989 at Apple.

Enticed by Apple’s impressive pay? Check out some fully remote jobs Apple is hiring for right now.

Can’t Find Your Dream Job? Don’t Give Up

If you can’t find a job that’s right for you on this list, remain optimistic. Working at Microsoft isn’t the only way to level up your career from the confines of your home.

If you’re happy with your current job, but not its rigid working policies, you can ask your boss if it’s possible to work from home. This may seem daunting at first, but it’s definitely worth a go, especially if see yourself working your way up your company in the future.

Just like with anything, the remote market is bursting with opportunities if you know where to look. So before you resign yourself to lengthy commutes and overpriced office lunches, check out our guide to current vacancies available at big tech companies and beyond.

After delaying its launch by over a month, OpenAI’s GPT store is finally due to open next week – offering a golden opportunity to bedroom techies looking to launch a side hustle with their own, homemade custom GPT.

With no coding experience required, an original idea is all you need to make real profits from the digital storefront. But with the store already attracting a buzz online, we’d recommend getting in on the action fast, before the ChatGPT store is flooded with AI agent lookalikes.

From creating your GPT to diversifying its revenue streams, read on for a step-by-step guide on how to make money from OpenAI’s GPT store, and for more background on the store that’s anticipated to usher in a new frontier in tailor-made AI.

What is OpenAI’s Custom ChatGPT Store?

After initially being proposed to launch in late 2023, OpenAI’s GPT store is officially due to debut next week. The AI marketplace, which will be the first of its kind, will allow ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise customers to build, publish, and profit from their own custom GPT (Generative Pre-Trained Transformers) models.

These custom GPTs are built using the company’s GPT-4 large language model and will be able to serve any purpose imaginable adhering to OpenAI’s usage policies, from helping users create resumes and cover letters, to turning photos of them into characters from the Simpsons.

While users have been leveraging ChatGPT to make money since its launch in November 2022 the store will be the first opportunity for users to passively earn from their creations directly through OpenAI’s marketplace.

OpenAI’s GPT-maker hasn’t been free from controversy, though. In November, a security flaw was unveiled which allowed users to easily steal the build code powering public custom GPTs, something to keep in mind when using the builder.

How to Make Money From Your Very Own GPT

Ready to profit from your own GPT model? Simply follow our steps below:

Create Your GPT

1. Get ChatGPT Plus or Enterpsise

If you haven’t already, you’ll need to create a ChatGPT Plus account which costs $20 per month. You’re also able to create a custom model with an Enterprise account, but you’ll need to reach out to sales for pricing information. After you’ve signed up, log into your account to create the GPT.

2. Start building

When you’re on the home page, click on “Create a GPT” and you’ll be taken to a page with an open chat with ChatGPT and a configurations menu on the left-hand side. On the right, you’ll be able to preview your chatbot through the site’s “playground” view.

3. Come up with a niche

It’s time to come up with a unique purpose for your GPT. The limit really is your imagination, but ideas can span from practical use cases like SEO helpers and nutrition planners, to more bizarre concepts like BadRecipe GPT – a custom model designed to put you off your dinner by inventing bad and amusing recipes.

While there are already thousands of GPTs on OpenAI’s marketplace, we’d recommend finding a niche that isn’t saturated yet, or at least putting a creative spin on an established concept.

4. Name your GPT

After you’ve come up with your concept, enter a name for your GPT. This will be the title your AI model is displayed under. Try to make the name as descriptive and catchy as possible.

5. Add instructions & examples

To bring your concept to life, you have to add a clear set of instructions for your GPT to follow. You’ll be able to enter your own instructions or choose a predefined option from the dropdown menu. For the best results, these guidelines should be very detailed and should include the primary function of your GPT, how you’d like it to answer queries, and what language you’d like it to use.

You can also add examples of text that you want your model to generate. In this stage, the more context you add the better.

6. Test it

Now it’s time to test your custom model. To do this switch to the Preview panel and interact with your chatbot as you would do with any. We’d recommend asking challenging questions to see what your GPT is capable of, and to address any potential gaps in its knowledge base.

Use its responses to troubleshoot the model until you’re happy with the results. Then, it’s time to get your GPT live.

Check out our comprehensive guide on how to create a GPT with ChatGPT for a more detailed run-through, with screenshots.

Make it Sharable

7. Publish it

When you are happy with your changes, select “Publish” to create your chatbot, or “Update” if the model is already live. Then, click “Confirm” to finish the project. After completing this step, you will be provided with a link that you’ll be able to share with other users.

8. Make it public

To share your GPT with the store, you’ll need to review OpenAI’s updated usage policies and GPT brand guidelines, before verifying your builder profile by opening up settings > builder profile > enable your name or a verified website.

Now you can set your GPT as “Public”, enabling it to be shown publically on OpenAI’s digital store.

Monetize Your GPT

9. Let the GPT Store work its magic

Once your model is live on OpenAI’s soon-to-be-launched GPT store, you’ll be able to passively generate income from your custom creation. Users will be able to purchase your app and share it with others, and it will become searchable through OpenAI’s app marketplace.

However, we’d also recommend promoting the app yourself to expand its reach and drive its money-making potential further.

10. Create content using your GPT

Putting your app up for public use isn’t the only way to generate income through your custom GPT. Depending on the purpose of your model, you can also use it to create high-performing, lucrative content, from marketing copy and social media posts to e-books.

If your idea is unique enough, you can even charge users for individually tailored responses. This is a lot harder than making money through the app store but works especially well if your chatbot creates custom images through OpenAI’s text-to-image image creator DALL-E.

As you can see, there are myriad ways to profit from OpenAI’s custom GPT maker, if you’re creative enough to come up with an original idea. ChatGPT’s money-making potential isn’t limited to its GPT store though, check out our guide to making money using ChatGPT for even more ways to level up your side hustle in 2024.