Another day, another round of tech company layoffs, with audio product provider Sonos announcing massive cuts in an SEC filing today.

There seems to be no end in sight for the tumult taking over tech in recent months. The industry has suffered data breaches, shifting goals, and ongoing layoffs that have seen more than 100,000 employees without jobs.

There’s now another company to add to the pile, as Sonos announces that it will be laying off a substantial percentage of its workforce.

Sonos Announces Layoffs in SEC Filing

Announced in an SEC filing, Sonos is reportedly planning on laying off as much as 7% of its workforce, which will amount to approximately 130 jobs across the company.

“In the face of continued headwinds, we have had to make some hard choices, including eliminating some positions and reevaluating program spend.” – Patrick Spence, CEO of Sonos

Despite the growing trend of layoffs across the industry, this is Sonos’ first round of layoffs during the current recession. However, the company did lay off 12% of its workforce in 2020, when the growing pandemic problem caused such economic turmoil.

How Else Is Sonos Cutting Costs?

Obviously, layoffs are one of the more effective, albeit unfortunate, ways to cut costs at a business. However, Sonos is planning on doing more than that to shore up finances during the recession.

According to the SEC filing, Sonos will also be “reducing its real estate footprint and re-evaluating certain program spend.” What this means exactly is unclear, but it’s safe to say the company is substantially tightening its belt in 2023.

While the overall plan for Sonos is to cut costs in the long run, the SEC filing notes that the company “will incur approximately $11 to $14 million of restructuring and related charges, of which $9 to $11 million is related to employee severance and benefits costs.”

Mass Tech Industry Layoffs

To say the tech industry is having a bad year would be a dire understatement. If you’ve been following the news, Sonos is far from the first company to slash its workforce and it almost certainly won’t be the last. In fact, big companies like Meta, Google, Microsoft, and dozens of others have cut massive percentages of employees, resulting in over 100,000 workers without jobs.

The trend has caused some serious issues for the tech industry as well. The once-trusted industry is eroding faith at quite a clip, with former and current employees reportedly feeling stressed and generally pessimistic about the future.

Outside of the tech industry, though, you’ll find that there is some hope for a more enjoyable work environment. Despite many big tech firms pushing employees back into the office, there are plenty of companies out there offering remote work options, and, even better, some are embracing the 4-day work week to attract top talent.

All this bad news about the tech industry can make it feel like the working world is in trouble. But as long as you’re looking for jobs outside of the tech industry, you should be set up for success in the long run.

One of the world’s best VPN services just got even better, with news that Surfshark has launched a Dedicated IP feature for all users.

Staying safe online has become a full-time job in 2023. Between security breaches and data leaks, there’s no telling how bad actors can get ahold of your information, which is why services like Surfshark are always evolving.

Now, the popular VPN is adding a game-changing new feature that will enable more robust security for you and your business.

Surfshark VPN Launches Dedicated IP Feature

Announced last week in a company post, Surfshark VPN is launching a new Dedicated IP feature that will allow users to set up a dedicated IP address for specific users.

The Dedicated IP feature will work with all major allow users to set up servers in Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, San Jose, London, and Amsterdam, with other cities like Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Sydney “coming very soon,” according to the post from Surfshark.

It’s worth noting, however, that the new Dedicated IP feature is not free for Surfshark VPN users. You’ll have to pay an additional $3.75 per month if you want access to this feature. But considering a Surfshark VPN subscription costs a mere $2.39 per month when you sign up for two years, the price is still quite low for the added protection.

What Are the Benefits of a Dedicated IP Address?

So, why would you pay extra for a feature like Dedicated IP? Essentially, a dedicated IP address will act as a VPN server that only you can access. It will be a set address every single time, whereas a standard VPN changes the IP address every time.

In classic Surfshark fashion, the security company provided a convenient metaphor to explain it a bit better:

“You can think of a dedicated IP address like having a reserved parking spot in a parking lot. With a reserved spot, you don’t have to worry about someone else taking up the space & you always know where to park.”

As for the specific benefits of the Dedicated IP feature, Surfshark notes a few solid perks. For starters, it makes accessing company assets while working remotely infinitely easier, as you won’t have to give permission to a new IP address every time. This way, you won’t have to worry about your IP accidentally getting put on a blocklist and slowing down your day-to-day work process.

The cherry on top is that the Dedicated IP feature will substantially minimize the need for CAPTCHA requests. That’s right, you won’t have to prove you aren’t a robot every time you log into a company system, a benefit that alone should make this an attractive upgrade.

Is Surfshark Good for Business?

With so many employees working from home in the modern age, having a good VPN can make a big difference when it comes to prioritizing security while managing flexible schedules. So, the real question is, will Surfshark provide you with the security you need?

Our research found that Surfshark is an excellent tool at a great value point that will keep your company data secure. In fact, we found Surfshark to be better than NordVPN, which is one of the most popular VPNs on the market today.

If you want to learn more, Tech.co has done a lot of research on VPNs, and you can check out our comprehensive secure VPN guide to find one that’s right for your business.

YouTube has this week announced it’s lowering the requirements needed for creators to access monetization tools.

In a move that heavily rewards short-form content and streams, the platform looks set to take on the likes of TikTok and Twitch.

The YouTube Partner Program (YPP), which allows revenue sharing from ads that are placed on creators’ content, has historically only been available to those who meet high-reaching metrics.

This update however, makes the opportunity to earn money from videos even more accessible, and comes following the recent news that the platform has brought advertising opportunities to YouTube Shorts.

What Do the New Requirements Look Like?

Previously, creators had to have had at least 1,000 subscribers and either 4,000 watch hours in the past year or 10 million Shorts views in the last 90 days.

To qualify now, users must have 500 subscribers, three public uploads in the last 90 days and either 3,000 watch hours in the past year or three million Shorts views in the last 90 days.

This lower threshold means creators can get access to tools like Super Thanks, Super Chat and Super Stickers, which are all used for tipping. Similarly, they’ll be able to apply for subscription tools like channel membership, and can promote their merch through YouTube Shopping.

The Roll Out Is On, But Is It All Good News?

The new eligibility criteria is currently live in the US, Canada, UK, South Korea, and Taiwan. It’s expected to roll out to other countries where YPP is available soon.

Ad revenue is a more sustainable path for monetization as it means creators don’t have to rely on asking viewers for monetary support. However, this change doesn’t benefit all creators equally, as it seems to favor those who stream or produce Shorts over long-form content.

A Love Affair With Shorts

The obsession with short-form video content burns bright, with Reels scoring 140bn daily views across Instagram and Facebook in October 2022 and Shorts topping 50bn daily views in Q4 2022.

It makes sense then that YouTube is encouraging as much short-form content creation as possible. One example: they recently made Shorts ad revenue sharing a reality for creators. On top of that, some US-based creators were able to access shopping-related features just for Shorts, signifying a potential dip into TikTok Shop’s waters.

While it’s unlikely YouTube will turn its back on long-form video creation, whether or not it announces any additional benefits to those types of creators remains to be seen. The platform is set to share more details around its new programs at VidCon next week.

In more turbulent Twitter news that isn’t related to recent ad slumps or platform bugs, ex-CEO Jack Dorsey has this week made claims of government threats.

During a recent interview, Dorsey said that the platform was threatened with a shutdown in India unless the company complied with orders to restrict accounts. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has since hit back, calling the claims an “outright lie”.

The accounts in question were critical of the way the country’s contentious farmer protests had been handled. 

Twitter Claims Shutdown Threat Made in India

During an interview with YouTube news show Breaking Points, Dorsey claimed that raids on employees’ homes had been threatened.

“It manifested in ways such as ‘we will shut Twitter down in India’ – which is a very large market for us. And ‘we will raid the home of your employees”, which they did.”– Jack Dorsey Twitter’s ex-CEO

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s Deputy Minister for Information Technology – a top ranking official in Modi’s government – called these claims an “outright lie” and “attempt to brush out that very dubious period of Twitter’s history”.

He went on to say that Twitter was repeatedly violating India’s law, with claims they had a problem removing misinformation from the platform. The Government maintained that any take-down orders for content during this period were merely to prevent misinformation spreading.

During the interview, Dorsey cited no documentary evidence of the threats, but did claim that many take-down requests focused on particular journalists who had been critical about the Indian government.

“No one went to jail nor was Twitter ‘shut down’. Dorsey’s Twitter regime had a problem accepting the sovereignty of Indian law.” – Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s Deputy Minister for Information Technology

Indian Protests Led to Claims

During 2021, India’s farmers were embroiled in protests over agricultural reforms and supposed anti-farmer laws. The protests were the biggest faced by Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The government eventually repealed the laws.

During this period however, the Indian government requested an “emergency blocking” of the Twitter hashtag #ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide, which they deemed provocative. They also sought for dozens of accounts to be suspended.

Twitter is said to have initially complied but, after realising the lack of justification over the suspensions, they restored most of the accounts.

After this, it’s alleged that Indian police went to a Twitter office as part of another inquiry linked to manipulating governing party posts. During this visit, the platform is said to have been worried about staff safety.

Other Governments Also Pressured Twitter

During the interview, Dorsey alleged similar pressure from Nigerian and Turkish governments.

In June 2021, Nigeria’s Information Minister Lai Mohammed claimed that Dorsey was responsible for the violence and destruction during anti-police brutality protests. According to Dorsey, Twitter “could not even put its employees on the ground in the country out of fear of what the government might do to them”.

Allegedly, Turkey has also made multiple content take-down requests and shutdown threats.

Freedom of Speech vs Content Compliance

While this particular feud is one word against another, it does throw the wider topic of India’s freedom of speech back into the spotlight.

Last year, Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi claimed an Indian financial crime agency threatened executives with “physical violence and coercion”. The allegation was denied by the agency.

Meanwhile, Modi’s government has continually called out Google, Facebook and Twitter for not doing enough to tackle what they consider to be fake or “anti-India” content.

India has also reached its lowest ranking ever in the World Press Freedom Index, slipping from 140 to 161. The Modi administration consistently denies suggestions that it clamps down on free speech.

Without specifically naming Musk or referencing the $44bn platform purchase last year, Chandrasekhar has since said that Twitter has been in compliance with Indian laws from June 2022.

New work-from-home (WFH) regulations, that come into effect in six months, have just been announced by Mexico’s Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS).

Back in 2022, a Bank of Mexico study showed that while 22% of jobs in the country could be done remotely, only 11% of them actually were. With the opportunity to work from home not widely available, new regulations – known as NOM-037 – hope to close that percentage by laying down several key requirements.

Aiming to guarantee the safety and wellbeing of remote workers, the regulations are seemingly cracking down on what employers can ask of their employees, as well as the requirement to cover some of the costs related to teleworking.

New Regulations for Mexican Remote Workers

The new standard for telework safety conditions states that employers must ensure those working from home have all the tools they need to do their job effectively. This includes ergonomic chairs, computers, tablets, smartphone, printers and ink.

The new regulations define telework as those who are working remotely for 40% of the time or more.

Employers must cover the costs proportional to the electricity and internet used while getting the job done. In addition, environmental factors also come into play, with the regulations stipulating that there must be adequate ventilation and lighting in an employee’s home for them to work there. If not, it would be considered unsafe.

A Better Work-Life Balance for All

A “right to disconnect” has also been established as part of NOM-037, which means employers cannot obligate anyone to work more than their contracted hours when working from home.

This regulation aims to respect the employees’ right to disconnect at the end of the working day, helping to resolve a long-running complaint that many Mexican employees have.

Pay also comes into play under these regulations, with the rules stating that remote workers cannot be paid less than those who go to an office. They must also have set work hours.

Together, these stipulations should help create a better work-life balance that is globally considered to be the main benefit of working from home.

Plus, as well as increasing employees’ quality of life, the STPS has estimated that remote positions could save companies more than 86,000 pesos per employee, per year.

At a time when many firms are going back on their remote work policies, Mexican authorities are trying to secure the option for those who want to work from home.

Checks in Place to Ensure Compliance

Developed by a team of government and business experts, along with members of labor unions, the regulations were sent to the Mexican government for evaluation and approval. The aim has always been to address both workers’ and employers’ rights.

“It is a norm that derives from the reform to the Federal Labor Law that was enacted in 2021. It is very important because it clearly regulates and establishes the obligations of both employers and the workers themselves in this modality,” – Luisa María Alcalde Luján, Head of the STPS. 

To ensure compliance, employees may be asked to show documentation proving their home meets the new requirements. Similarly, employers may be asked to carry out inspections to confirm this.

Employers are also required to talk to their employees about the potential risks of working from home, such as burnout and lone working. In fact, it has been recommended for employers to create a policy promoting face-to-face communication channels, where possible, to avoid social isolation.

These regulations are a milestone for both employers and employees in Mexico. However, it’ll take some time for the practical effects to show and potentially inspire other countries to create similar legislation.

With all eyes on the development of artificial intelligence, OpenAI has upped the excitement this week by announcing an update to its pioneering text generation models, as well as a cost reduction.

No matter the sector or use-case, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has changed the landscape of how we develop and direct artificial intelligence. The announcement sees a push forward with this thanks to a model update announcement from the company.

These updates look set to provide even more complex functionality and will arm developers with an extensive toolbox to create sophisticated AI applications.

Say Hello to Function Calling

Function calling is a new and more reliable way to connect GPT’s capabilities with APIs and other external tools, revealed in the OpenAI announcement. For GPT-3.5 Turbo and GPT-4, developers can now describe functions to the model via JSON Schema, ask it to call a specific function and have the model create code to execute them.

For example, function calling can create chatbots that answer questions by calling external tools (like ChatGPT plugins), extract structured data from text, or convert natural language into function calls, API calls or database queries.

“These models have been fine-tuned to both detect when a function needs to be called and to respond with JSON that adheres to the function signature.” – OpenAI’s statements on the release.

Introducing the New GPT Models

Starting with GPT-4, GPT-4-0613 features an updated and improved model with function calling. GPT-4-32k-0613 includes the same, as well as an extended context length which means better comprehension of longer texts.

Both are currently only available through the waitlist however, OpenAI is keen to open this up to more developers as soon as possible.

Next up we have GPT-3.5 Turbo. GPT-3.5-turbo-0613 includes the same function calling as GPT-4, but with more reliable steerability thanks to the system message. Both features mean developers can guide the model’s responses even better.

GPT-3.5-turbo-16k features four times the context length of the model above and can now support around 20 pages of text in just one request. This functionality comes with a price change of $0.003 per 1k of input tokens and $0.004 per 1k output tokens.

Be Sure You’re Ready for the OpenAI Changes

Yesterday saw the start of the upgrade and deprecation process for the initial versions of these models. It’s important to note that applications using the stable models (gpt-3.5-turbo, gpt-4 and gpt-4-32k) will be automatically upgraded to the new models on June 27 2023.

While it’s always best to be sure you’re prepared for the switchover, if you do need more time to transition, OpenAI are allowing developers to continue using the older models – for the time being. You just need to specify gpt-3.5-turbo-0301, gpt-4-0314 or gpt-4-32k-0314 in the API request.

Set a reminder in your diaries though, as this functionality is only accessible until September 13 2023.

OpenAI Costs are Coming Down Too

We’ve already shared the updated token costs for GPT-3.5-turbo-16k but that’s not where the savings end. By making its systems even more efficient, OpenAI is saving money and passing those benefits onto developers.

Effective from yesterday, the most popular embedding model – text-embedding-ada-002 – is now $0.0001 per 1k tokens, which is a cost reduction of 75%.

Similarly, the most popular chat model (gpt-3.5-turbo) which powers ChatGPT sees a cost reduction of 25%. This means developers can now use the model for $0.0015 per 1k input tokens and $0.002 per 1k output tokens.

Read our guide on how to use ChatGPT for free.

What’s Next for OpenAI and ChatGPT?

Despite reservations about the safety and security of ChatGPT, excitement for the model remains and the innovations don’t stop, much of which is based on developer feedback.

“Developer feedback is a cornerstone of our platform’s evolution and we will continue to make improvements based on the suggestions we hear.” – OpenAI’s statements on the release

Incremental updates to existing models – as opposed to larger full-scale releases – is the strategy OpenAI is taking.

But before anyone gets too excited about the thought of a much-anticipated GPT-4 successor coming soon, CEO Sam Altman has poured cold water on the theory. He told Economic Times that they have “a lot of work to do” before starting work on the model.

ChatGPT and other generative AI services have become quite popular at businesses around the world. After all, with the right prompts, these platforms can perform a lot of work tasks, from coding and emailing to project management and customer service assistance.

However, the technology is nothing if not controversial, with a wide range of critics wary of AI’s potential impact on the business world. Concerns about its accuracy are the driving factor, but there are plenty of other reasons why banning AI has become increasingly popular over the last few months.

In this guide, we’ll show you which companies have started banning AI for their employees, as well as outlining why the tech is being banned in the first place.

Companies That Have Banned AI

The tech industry has been abuzz since the launch of ChatGPT in November, with many businesses building AI alternatives to compete with the impressive platform. Still, this has not stopped certain companies from outright banning or limiting generative AI use for employees, at least until they figure out how it can work for them in a more regulated way.

Apple

While Apple is typically on the cutting edge of new technology, the tech giant is taking a firm stance on the employee use of ChatGPT, banning the technology for all workers.

The primary concern fueling the ban from Apple is that upper management is concerned about employees unknowingly sharing confidential information, which could then in turn lead to a leak.

It’s worth noting, by the way, that Apple banned employees from using AI on the same day it launched the ChatGPT app for iOS.

Samsung

Apple’s decision to ban employee use of generative AI platforms like ChatGPT may have been spurred by Samsung’s decision to do the same, as their reasoning is surprisingly similar. The difference, however, being that Apple was afraid of employees sharing confidential information, whereas a Samsung employee actually did share confidential information on ChatGPT, which led to a potential leak of its code.

Samsung didn’t just ban ChatGPT without consideration for its employees. In fact, the South Korea-based company surveyed employees about the decision and found that 65% are concerned about security risks when using generative AI platforms like ChatGPT.

Verizon

In a public statement to employees in February, the telecommunications company Verizon made clear its opinions about employees using ChatGPT, and as you might have guessed, it’s not a positive one.

“ChatGPT is not accessible from our corporate systems, as that can put us at risk of losing control of customer information, source code and more… as a company, we want to safely embrace emerging technology.”

Verizon did note in the statement that “artificial intelligence is integral” to the company’s long-term strategy, but that ChatGPT was “not synonymous with AI,” and therefore not to be used by employees.

Wall Street Banks

Tech companies aren’t the only businesses that are wary of employees utilizing generative AI platforms like ChatGPT to improve productivity. In fact, one of the first industries to really take issue with the technology was banking, which saw a myriad of big banks banning AI outright for employees before the majority of the tech industries.

Here’s a list of big banks that have banned employees from using generative AI for work:

• Bank of America Corp.
• Citigroup Inc.
• Deutsche Bank AG
• Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
• Wells Fargo & Co.
• JPMorgan Chase & Co.

To be fair, though, the banking industry is not necessarily opposed to the technology on principal. The reality is that the banking industry is heavily regulated, which means that unvetted, third-party software like ChatGPT simply isn’t permitted to manage the billions of dollars passing through these big banks.

Considering the fact that ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms have been described as “convincingly inaccurate,” even by their creators, it’s safe to say that they shouldn’t be handling all of our money anyway. Still, once these platforms are a bit more developed, and more importantly regulated, you can rest assured that banks will likely get on the bandwagon.

Countries That Have Banned AI

In addition to several companies making the choice to nix ChatGPT for employees, there are some countries that are taking extraordinary steps to ensure the technology does not disrupt everyday life for their citizens. Here’s a list of the countries where ChatGPT is banned:

• Russia
• China
• Iran
• North Korea
• Cuba
• Syria
• Italy

In the countries listed above, you will not be able to access ChatGPT, unless you’ve got a VPN of some kind. Yes, the list is not exactly a ringing endorsement for banning ChatGPT, considering their collective reputation when it comes to unjust internet censorship.

Why Is ChatGPT Getting Banned?

With so many prominent companies and actual countries banning generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, it’s safe to wonder, why is the technology being banned in the first place?

For starters, ChatGPT and its alternatives are very much in their infancy. Having just launched in November 2022, these platforms are far from perfect, relaying a lot of significant AI errors that could have a decidedly negative impact on a company or a country. The tech is also very susceptible to spreading misinformation, according to a 2023 study of the generative platform Google Bard.

On top of that, employees and employers just aren’t on the same page when it comes to the use of generative AI in the workplace. 68% of employees reportedly use generative AI platforms at work without telling their bosses, and 47% of employers are considered AI use over new hires. Suffice to say, the impact of AI on the workplace is going to be more that substantial.

All that to say, generative AI just isn’t ready for the big time yet. The potential errors, the disconnect on usage, and proclivity for misinformation is enough to turn big business away from the tech. However, you can bet your bottom dollar that once these issues are at least somewhat resolved, these companies will be first in line to get the productivity boost they’ll all but ensure.

Indian IT services giant TCS has acknowledged a “setback” in its efforts to promote gender diversity, after its 2022/23 annual report revealed that more women were leaving the company than men in the wake of its return-to-office policy being introduced.

Back in January, TCS joined the ranks of tech companies ending remote working in 2023, with employees now expected to report to the office at least three days a week.

It’s a move that appears to have had the unintended consequence of prompting an increase in the company’s attrition rate amongst female workers, compared to their male counterparts, where historically it had been lower.

“Reset the Domestic Arrangements”

The discrepancy was highlighted in the firm’s latest Integrated Annual Report, which was released following the end of FY23. In the comprehensive review, TCS chief human resources officer Milind Lakkad notes an overall attrition rate of 20.1% for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2023.

While the company stops short of revealing specific data for its male vs female attrition rate in the last financial year, Mr Lakkad calls the trend “unusual” and notes that: “Historically, women’s attrition at TCS has been similar or lower than men’s attrition.”

He added that the experience of working fully remotely during Covid-19 may have prompted a shift in  priorities among the organization’s female workers – though we would hasten to add that a reluctance to go back to pre pandemic work/life norms is more of a universal theme in our experience.

“There might be other reasons, but intuitively, I would think working from home during the pandemic reset the domestic arrangements for some women, keeping them from returning to office even after everything normalized,” he commented in the report.

TCS Stands Firm on WFO Benefits

Despite this, Lakkad insisted that TCS’ return to office policy was necessary to help new hires and more junior members of staff “understand the company’s culture and for better collaboration among workers.”

He went on to acknowledge the news as a “setback to our efforts to promote gender diversity” but said the firm are “doubling down” on efforts to increase gender representation.

“In our external hiring, women make up 38.1% of our net hires this year, versus 35.7% in our workforce,” Lakkad revealed.

Gender Diversity and Big Tech’s Big Problem

Based on the company’s track record, there’s good reason to believe Mr Lakkad when he suggests TCS are concerned by the surge in attrition among women on the payroll. This is because the organization is one of the leading lights for gender diversity in the Indian subcontinent.

According to a December 2022 Hurun report, TCS was the largest employer of women amongst India’s 500 most valuable companies. The rankings were based on data showing women as comprising 35% (210,000) of the firm’s total workforce of 613,974.

Therein arguably lies the problem. Most of us would probably agree that in an ideal world, workforces would be distributed much more closely to 50/50 for gender and other forms of diversity. However,  reality tends to paint quite a different picture and statistics generally show women as representing a third of the employee strength at big tech outfits.

By way of an example, Microsoft’s 2022 Global Diversity & Inclusion report revealed women to make up 32.7% of its global workforce. Interestingly, that figure surges to nearly 40% as soon as you leave North America.

Look at other forms of diversity, such as representation among ethnic minority groups, and the numbers fall to single digit levels – 6.6% US Black and African American representation at Microsoft, though we could pick practically any tech bellwether.

The figures may be moving in the right direction, but whether in India or the US, diversity is still one of big tech’s biggest problems.

New Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino has revealed her vision for “Twitter 2.0”, as she looks to revitalize the social media giant following its brief but rocky stewardship by outspoken billionaire Elon Musk.

Yaccarino was announced to be taking the helm at Twitter last week, with Musk stepping away to refocus on his other projects, namely electric car giant Tesla and space exploration company SpaceX.

Twitter will still be owned by Musk through his X Corp parent company, though Yaccarino is understood to be being given complete control as she looks to transform the platform in 2023 and also takes over as X Corp CEO.

Twitter 2.0 Looks Like a Tall Order

Central to Yaccarino’s “transformation” mission is a campaign to establish the platform as a “global town square for communication”. This is a vision she apparently shares with her predecessor, Musk, though his stance as a self-described “free speech absolutist” meant that in practice Twitter became an unmoderated disinformation battleground during his tenure.

Kicking things off with a series of tweets, Yaccarino has promised nothing less than to reinvent Twitter as “the world’s most accurate real-time information source” while simultaneously  enabling an “unfiltered exchange of information and open dialogue.”

In practice, her top priority as new CEO may be to conduct damage control, with December 2022 data showing Twitter revenue to have fallen by 40% year-on-year. With advertisers having largely deserted the platform, the former NBCUniversal marketing boss seems to have her work cut out for her steadying the ship.

Twitter vs Europe a Key Battleground for Business Future

In particular,  Yaccarino must navigate Twitter’s tricky relationship with European regulators. This May, Musk pulled Twitter out of the EU’s voluntary disinformation code, though the body will begin enforcing its guidelines as laws from August 25th when they become part of the Digital Services Act.

“You can run but you can’t hide…Our teams will be ready for enforcement,” warned Thierry Breton, the EU’s Commissioner for Internal Market, in a not-so-thinly veiled tweet.

The conflict highlights just how far Twitter’s reputation has fallen, with critics saying the platform’s lack of moderation means it’s a breeding ground for fake accounts, disinformation and propaganda, and hate speech. Underlining this, a recent report by the BBC’s Global Disinformation team found there were “hundreds” of Russian and Chinese propaganda accounts thriving on Twitter.

Among other things, Yaccarino may find it difficult to bring Twitter’s profits back into the black if it’s struggling to operate in a major market such as Europe.

New CEO’s Track Record Offers Hope?

While Yaccarino stopped short of saying specifically how she planned to bring Twitter back to (more reputable) life, she does come with a strong CV and track record of organization change.

During her time at NBCUniversal, where she rose to Head of Advertising, she saw the broadcaster through a difficult period as it grappled with new content consumption realities. Specifically, she helped it come to terms with the digital streaming revolution, overhauling its ad sales model and launching its Peacock platform.

She is joined in the upper echelons of a revamped Twitter leadership by Joe Benarroch, formerly NBCUniversal SVP of Communications, Advertising and Partnerships. Mr Benarroch’s CV also includes a stint at Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.

With resumes like these, it would seem foolish to write off Twitter’s new flock before they’ve even had a chance. Still, not only does Musk’s specter still loom large over Twitter, but his particular brand of “free speech” may take some time to undo.

Apple’s WWDC event debuted plenty of software updates, but one major one is worth highlighting: The Safari browser is about to become a lot more secure.

Changes are coming to Safari to ensure your private browser stays private by locking your browser tab if you step away from your laptop. Plus, more third-party trackers will be blocked from scooping up your data.

Other Apple privacy updates include fingerprinting protections and better password management features. Here’s what to know.

Private Browsing Will Lock When Users Are Away

Some of the Safari updates will be invisible to the average user: These include “advanced tracking and fingerprinting protections” that will keep up with “the latest techniques to track or identify a user’s device” and can prevent websites from using them.

But one noticeable change is the one arriving to the Private Browsing mode:

“Private Browsing now locks when not in use, allowing a user to keep tabs open even when stepping away from the device.” –Apple Newsroom

Users will have to use Touch ID or their password in order to get back access to their private tabs.

These new features are “coming in free software updates this fall,” Apple says. They’ll likely arrive by September, when Apple’s new hardware typically debuts.

Other New Privacy and Security Features

When the updates arrive, Apple users will be able to share their passwords with entire groups, a functionality that allows everyone to stay in the loop (and secure) even while using shared accounts.

Here’s how Apple explains this update:

“For easier and more secure password and passkey sharing, users can create a group to share a set of passwords, and everyone in the group can add and edit passwords to keep them up to date. Since sharing is through iCloud Keychain, it is end-to-end encrypted.”

Apple also notes that one-time verification codes sent through Mail will soon autofill for users who have Safari, for faster logins.

Apple’s “lockdown mode” is also getting updates, with a list of new functions that includes better wireless connectivity defaults and improved media sharing defaults as well as sandboxing and some network security optimizations.

Staying Safe Online

These new tools and software improvements are just the latest signal that the popular tech giant is doubling down on its stated mission to improve data security and user privacy in an era when plenty of tech companies are making headlines for failing to do just that.

It’s working: Apple currently has a mind-boggling $2.88 trillion market cap. While we’d still recommend some caution about praising Apple’s approach to data privacy, these new updates can do a lot to prevent unwanted data collection from third-party actors.

There’s no harm in adding more layers of security, either, from a company-wide password management service to the right remote access software.

Twitter is refusing to pay the bills it owes to Google Cloud, reports say.

Twitter’s contract with the service is up for renewal this month, and the fallout of not paying could deeply impact the social platform’s safety protocols, including spam and abuse prevention measures.

It’s another problem stemming from the steep and controversial cost-cutting measures that the social platform has taken in recent months.

What Happens If Twitter Stiffs Google?

Twitter’s contracts with internet heavy hitters Google and Amazon have long supplemented the services that Twitter operates from its own servers. Twitter is currently in the middle of a multi-year contract with Google, but it has stopped holding up its end of the bargain. Now, it risks losing the Google servers it’s hosting some services on.

What Twitter functions are at risk of flailing or dying entirely when Google pulls the plug? Platformer, which broke the news, identifies three:

• Services related to fighting spam
• Services related to removing child sexual abuse material
• Services for protecting user accounts

More services may be hosted on Google as well.

Limited functionality for any one of those three services would be terrible news for a social platform that’s already had an impressive run of crises since shifting to new management in the last year.

Twitter’s Cost Cutting Under Musk

Elon Musk took over control of Twitter last year in a $44 billion deal. Since then, a large part of his plans for the social media website have revolved around cost cutting.

Twitter has laid of thousands of employees. It has refused to pay rent for its offices, as well, and one source told the New York Times that Twitter explored the possibility of avoiding paying severance to its laid-off workers. Even “hardcore Musk loyalists” were laid off.

Given these past reports, the news that Twitter is now reconsidering paying Google for services rendered doesn’t seem surprising. According to some reports, Twitter has even been arguing with Google about renegotating its contract since March of this year.

Is Using Twitter a Safety Concern?

All the best VPNs and password managers on the market — as helpful as they are — won’t protect your email, password, or other Twitter account information, should the service be breached by a third party. And a short-staffed Twitter with its Google servers at risk of disappearing doesn’t exactly scream secure.

Plenty of Twitter’s userbase seem set to sink or swim with the social platform, however.

If your business has a presence on the website, we’d recommend checking that you’ve siloed your account’s data, a move that can minimize any potential harm from a breach.

Reddit’s users are rebelling. Thousands of forums on the popular social media platform have gone private or read-only in order to protest how the company is treating its users.

The protest started today and will last 48 hours, during which time a large chunk of the platform’s community will be cut off from the public.

Among the participating forums, which are called subreddits, are r/funny, with more than 40 million users, as well as r/aww, r/gaming, r/Pics, and r/science, each of which boasts more than 30 million users. It’s a protest on a scale that’s unusual for a major social platform.

What Are Reddit Users Protesting?

Reddit recently announced a widely unpopular decision to hike the prices it demands from third-party app developers who want to access the website’s APIs. The new fees will kick in next month, at which point many developers will have to retire the tools they’ve developed to make Reddit easier to use and access.

By forcing third-party Reddit browsing apps to retire, protesters say, Reddit will likely see an increase in users on its own app, boosting ad revenue in the process of diminishing user experience.

The subreddits that are participating in the protest may not even return after 48 hours, according to some posts that say the unpaid moderators in charge of subreddits won’t be able to keep up with their workload when restricted to the “poor” tools offered by the official app.

There’s no denying that the protest is affecting the website: Not only are thousands of subreddits currently unavailable, but the website itself was down earlier today. The company says that the protest is responsible for the website’s unreliability.

“A significant number of subreddits shifting to private caused some expected stability issues, and we’ve been working on resolving the anticipated issue.” -Reddit statement to NBC News.

What’s the Scope of the Protest?

According to Reddark, a website created by the protesters to document the movement, 7266 subreddits are currently participating, with the exact number potentially fluctuating over the course of the 48-hour protest.

These subreddits are either private to those with Reddit accounts who had previously subscribed, or are “read-only,” which means that they can be viewed, but no one is allowed to post new links or comments. In either case, it’s a dramatic reduction of the utility of the website.

The protest may even have ripple impacts on other platforms that frequently draw on Reddit for free content, from YouTubers to Buzzfeed writers.

One thing’s for sure: Any impact that the protest movement ultimately makes will come because of the size and dedication of the protesting group and is a testament to the communities that have formed on the nearly two-decades-old social platform. We never saw a coordinated movement like this on Twitter, for instance, despite that platform’s incredibly similar user-unfriendly API price increases earlier this year.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has given employees a preview of the company’s first batch of generative AI tools, which will be coming to platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram in the future.

At an all-hands meeting on Thursday, Zuckerberg told staff to expect generative AI to feature in “every single one of our products” going forward, as well as being leveraged as a productivity assistant internally.

With the ways businesses are using ChatGPT and other AI tech increasing by the day, the showcase by Meta is perhaps somewhat overdue, with rival tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and even Snapchat showing off their AI future some time ago.

First AI Features for Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook

Reports of the internal employee showcase came via the New York Times and have since been confirmed by Meta.

At the event, top Meta execs — including Zuckerberg, chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth, and chief product officer Chris Cox — showed off some of the ways Meta would incorporate its own generative AI models into its products.

Most obviously, this will include ChatGPT-style bot conversations taking place in Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Beyond that, AI tools for Instagram were highlighted that would allow users to modify their photos using text prompts, while another will create custom emojis for use on social media and in messaging services.

The AI Metaverse You Never Knew You Needed

Zuckerberg even suggested the company was building AI tech that would be capable of creating rich 3D content and, therefore, entire worlds in the metaverse.

Back in this world, a productivity helper for Meta staff called Metamate was also revealed. Metamate will be capable of answering various questions and performing certain internal tasks, based on the information outlined in company documentation and stored on its systems.

We can only sit back and wonder how many of those queries and routine jobs used to be done by actual people, given the 21,000 or so layoffs reported at Meta since last November.

Meta Set to Bounce Back?

Cynicism aside, it’s clear Meta is trying to move forward after a difficult few years that saw $80 billion wiped off its value in 2022. This came after the company tried and arguably failed to reinvent itself with a new name to focus on the metaverse.

Since then, it has repeatedly made headlines for being behind some of the biggest tech company layoffs we’ve seen. It will no doubt hope this June represents a turning point.

In addition to showing off its first AI tools and talking overall strategy to employees, Meta also found time this week to launch a major new WhatsApp feature, dubbed WhatsApp Channels, which has the potential to bring serious B2C reach to the world’s most popular messaging app as a B2C.

The latest WhatsApp update has been announced and it comes with a new feature called Channels, which will enable one-way broadcasting on the Meta owned app for the first time.

WhatsApp Channels will appear in a new section of the app called Updates and allow organizations and creators to set up followable groups where only the owners are permitted to send messages, essentially creating a part of the app that functions as a Twitter-esq news feed.

It represents major move for WhatsApp as it looks to explore its B2C potential, with digital marketers in particular likely to be foaming at the mouth at the possibility of leveraging this social media tool to attract more customers.

What Are WhatsApp Channels?

Take a closer look and WhatsApp Channels seem remarkably familiar, at least if you’ve used social media in the last 10 years.

They most closely resemble a Twitter feed, whereby individuals will be able to follow (and be invited to follow) content and updates from organizations like public bodies and sports teams.

Meta announced that the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Premier League winners Manchester City would be among the first users of Channels, which is being launched initially in Singapore and Columbia.

Global rollout will follow, and eventually people will be able to follow creators and other individual accounts. The similarities to Instagram are also there in terms of raw functionality, though it seems unlikely that WhatsApp will ever become quite as visual as its fellow Meta owned app.

Once opened, Channels will look just like a normal chat in WhatsApp, though you won’t be able to message back in the main feed. Channel owners will be able to share different types of assets, including text, photos, videos and polls.

As well as organizations like Man City, early official screenshots suggest interest groups will feature in Channels, which borrows from one of Facebook’s more popular features at the height of its powers.

Image Credit: WhatsApp / Meta

What’s the Big Picture?

Yes, WhatsApp is owned by Meta and Meta also owns Facebook. This might seem like a boring corporate family tree, except that Facebook has been steadily losing appeal amongst the younger users that make up such a valuable demographic for advertisers.

The social network may still be the largest in the world by some distance, but data from the Pew Research Center is damning: as of 2022, just 32% of teens reported using Facebook, which is down 39% from 2014/15 when 71% were active on the platform.

WhatsApp Channels seems like a play on Meta’s part to reclaim some of the influence it used to exert over the coveted youth demographic, now by and large enjoyed by TikTok.

No one is suggesting Channels will achieve anything like that level of popularity, but given the bulk of the technology behind the new feature will already exist within the Meta stable, it seems like a low-risk experiment for Mark Zuckerberg and co.

 WhatsApp Privacy Debate Gets New Twist

This is where things get a bit murky. One of the main reasons WhatsApp has become so popular over the years is its promise that messages use end-to-end encryption, which basically means that they claim to be completely secure and unable to be tracked by the police and other government agencies.

Despite advertising Channels as a “private way” to follow things that matter to you, the apparent guarantee of privacy when using WhatsApp will actually come to an end with the introduction of Channels.

The WhatsApp blog post introducing the feature says that: “Channels are not end-to-end encrypted by default.” It adds that there might be “some cases” where end-to-end encrypted channels make sense, citing non-profits and health bodies as examples, but doesn’t elaborate further.

On the one hand, this is probably a good thing, as it will stop criminals from harnessing WhatsApp Channels for illegal purposes and WhatsApp scams from spreading even more widely than they already do.

Conversely, it does mean that WhatsApp won’t be able to claim that it’s 100% secure any more. Dropping end-to-end encryption, even on a limited scope, heralds a major shift away from the app’s original purpose and Meta’s detractors will no doubt jump on the revelation as proof that the WhatsApp overlords don’t really care about your privacy.

Watch this space, as more is sure to be revealed once WhatsApp Channels launch more widely in the coming months.

• Related: What is Social Media Management?

OpenAI has released the first major update to its ChatGPT iOS app, with the new version adding native iPad support, as well as compatibility with Siri and Shortcuts.

New drag and drop functionality has also been added to the immensely popular generative AI chatbot, which is now available as an iOS download in over 40 countries. At the time of writing, it was still No.1 in the App Store in 31 of them.

Here’s a closer look at the new ChatGPT features for its iOS app and why we think they’re worth getting excited about.

ChatGPT App Lands on iPad

Arguably the biggest deal of ChatGPT’s new iOS update  is the arrival of native iPad support for OpenAI’s ChatGPT app.

Previously, the ChatGPT app had been available on iPad, but only in the sense that the iOS app technically worked on Apple’s tablet devices. It didn’t look great, as the display window was sized for an iPhone. Plus some of the best ways for businesses to use ChatGPT weren’t on offer.

Now, you’ll find that ChatGPT not only looks slick on the iPad, but is fully optimized for iPadOS, meaning you can use its full screen powers as they were intended. This includes the iPad’s split-screen mode, which has emerged as such a valuable productivity and collaboration tool.

Coupled with the arrival of drag and drop, it’s easy to see how useful ChatGPT could be on the iPad, with the potential to ask the AI bot for information in one window, then drag the answer to share with your co-workers in a Slack or Teams channel.

Read our full iPad buyers’ guide here: Which iPad Should I Buy?

Siri and Shortcuts Integration

The other headline additions to the ChatGPT app are support for Siri and Shortcuts. At its most basic level, this means you can now ask Siri to open the AI tool for you, just like you can with all your other favorite apps.

However, the real power here lies in the new possibilities for automating processes between ChatGPT and other apps.

While you can’t tell Siri to draw on ChatGPT’s AI expertise when answering questions – yet – you can program custom prompts that automate what the bot does with the info you ask it for. By using Shortcuts, you can now tell ChatGPT to automatically share or save the responses it generates to other apps – Notes or Docs, for example.

This means power users of ChatGPT won’t have to manually trawl through their request history to find that one key fact they need to bring to the meeting, it’ll be neatly filed away somewhere instead.

ChatGPT Release for Android Promised Soon

If there’s one thing still missing from ChatGPT’s push on to mobile devices, it’s that the AI chatbot is currently only ready to party with Apple devices.

OpenAI has given Android users the slightly inevitable “coming soon” promise, but for now those running Google’s mobile operating must use ChatGPT as a web app. It’s still plenty powerful, just potentially not as convenient or slick.

OpenAI released the first version of its ChatGPT for iOS app in early May, following close on the heels of the ChatGPT Premium release in February. Here’s to hoping the releases keep on coming and Android users get their wish later this summer.

ChatGPT is a free AI assistant that can revolutionize how you work.

Whatever you want, ChatGPT will be quick to tell you, and all in the same calm, verbose, slightly dull tone of an encyclopedia. But the tool is a people pleaser. It’s happy to make up a false reality, if it thinks that’s what you want.

How can you drill down into the benefits of ChatGPT, all without tripping over the pitfalls of the service? Here, we’ll cover how the free tool is designed to work, what you can do with it, and all the best ways to phrase your prompts so that ChatGPT actually helps you.

In this guide:

• What Is ChatGPT?
• How to Use ChatGPT 3.5 for Free
• ChatGPT Free vs Paid ChatGPT Plus: Is It Worth Upgrading?
• What Does ChatGPT Actually Do?
• Best ChatGPT Prompt Tips
• ChatGPT Alternatives That Are Free

What Is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool that users can interact with just like they would chat with a friend over a text-based platform like Slack or Facebook Messenger. The tool was first launched in November 2022.

The “chat” part of the name is because the program is a chatbot, capable of interacting with a user through a back-and-forth text-based discussion. The rest of the name stands for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer.” This mouthful of a phrase refers to the large language model that powers the program.

The tool uses a predictive model to guess what response would make the most sense based on the commands that you give it. Users can use it to help plan out a vacation, create a shopping list, or code a website.

“While we have safeguards in place, the system may occasionally generate incorrect or misleading information and produce offensive or biased content. It is not intended to give advice.” ~OpenAI

The service is free to use, although it does come with a premium tier for $20 per month. According to some estimates, the chatbot’s owner OpenAI might be paying as much as $700,000 per day to keep the tool operating. By keeping it free, OpenAI is able to continue collecting data that lets the company make even more money down the road.

How to Use ChatGPT 3.5 for Free

ChatGPT 3.5 is the latest version of the chatbot that is easily available on the ChatGPT website.

1. To get started, you’ll need a free ChatGPT account. Click the “Sign Up” button on the upper righthand corner of the screen, and enter an email address and password.
2. Head over to your inbox to verify your email by clicking a link.
3. Then, you’ll need to add more information: First name, last name, your organization (that’s optional), and your birthday.
4. Finally, you’ll need to enter a phone number, which OpenAI will verify.

That’s it! You’ll be directed to the ChatGPT tool whenever you’re signed in, and you can start using it.

An even more recent version of the chatbot, GPT-4, came out in March 2023 — you can sign up to try it as well, but you’ll kept be on a waiting list. The only reliable way to gain access to GPT-4 is by paying for it.

ChatGPT Free vs Paid ChatGPT Plus: Is It Worth Upgrading?

ChatGPT has one paid tier, in addition to the free version. It’s called ChatGPT Plus and costs $20 per month.

OpenAI cites three benefits to paying for ChatGPT Plus:

• It will be available constantly (the free version may be throttled when demand is high)
• It has a faster response time than the free version
• New features will debut first on Plus before eventually trickling down to the free version

These benefits aren’t likely to be a huge deal for most users, so we’d recommend sticking with the free version. But if you’re really into the tool and you want to stay on the cutting edge of the technology, it’s there for you.

What Does ChatGPT Actually Do?

You need to understand what ChatGPT does before you can use it. A lot of people don’t.

The creator of popular Netflix anthology series Black Mirror, Charlie Booker, recently gave an interview discussing why ChatGPT can’t write an episode. His statement is one of the most concise explanations of what ChatGPT is designed to do:

“I’ve toyed around with ChatGPT a bit. The first thing I did was type ‘generate Black Mirror episode’ and it comes up with something that, at first glance, reads plausibly, but on second glance, is shit. Because all it’s done is look up all the synopses of Black Mirror episodes, and sort of mush them together.” ~Charlie Booker, Empire magazine

In other words, ChatGPT can synthesize existing content. Like all large language models, it can’t create something truly original or groundbreaking, because by definition it is only looking at what already exists.

It also has a limited context window, so it can’t take into account all the factors that a human might when considering the same prompt. It may even contradict itself over the course of several responses.

ChatGPT is good for:

• Creative fiction – If you’ve ever wanted life advice from Uncle Iroh from the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, or you want to hear Dracula’s review of Legally Blonde, you just have to ask.
• Small text-based tasks – If you need to create a first draft of a speech, blog post, or grocery list, ChatGPT can help. But you’ll need to give it thoughtful prompts, and you’ll need to fact-check what it says.
• (Some) Coding – ChatGPT is great at creating brand new code from scratch (although you should still check your work). It’s great for debugging error messages or helping with code reviews. However, there are limits. If you’re contributing to a preexisting code repository, ChatGPT won’t understand this larger context, making it a less useful tool.
• Simplifying confusing text – If you copy and paste stilted academic paragraphs into ChatGPT, you can ask it to translate it into an easier read.

ChatGPT is bad for:

• Math – ChatGPT uses a large language model, not a calcuator. It creates thoughtful insights in realms like philosophy, but it’s just not designed for hard science. It might answer a math problem correctly, but at no point will it complete the calculations needed to get a trustworthy solution.
• Fully factual information – ChatGPT is a predictive technology, but its predictions aren’t fact-checked. It doesn’t tell the truth; it tells truth-like statements. It will make up entirely new sources for an essay, and will attribute made-up quotes to anyone you ask it to. It will claim that the word “mayonnaise” has four Ns.
• Verifying if something was written with ChatGPT – One college professor flunked the majority of his class after ChatGPT falsely claimed that it had written their essays. The program is not designed to verify if it has or hasn’t written anything.

The bottom line is that everything ChatGPT does should be taken with a grain of salt.

ChatGPT is like a really smart toddler. If you’ve ever heard a toddler try to tell you a joke before they’ve settled on a punchline, you’ve likely experienced the context-light word-assocation you can expect from generative AI like ChatGPT.

Best ChatGPT Prompt Tips

ChatGPT is a tool for predicting what a good response might be to a prompt. The more specific your prompt, the better the ChatGPT response.

Here a few guidelines to help you understand what the process of creating anything with ChatGPT should look like.

Start your prompt with a command

ChatGPT will respond conversationally to prompts like “How are you today?,” but what it really wants is to help you solve a problem. To guide ChatGPT towards realizing exactly what you want it to do, you should start your prompts with terms like “Write,” “Create,” “Generate,” or “Suggest.”

Specify the tone and writing style

Do you want a technical tone? A poetic one? Say so. Adjectives are your friend here. You can even specify the exact writer whose style you’d like to emulate, from Phoebe Waller-Bridge to Aristotle.

Specify the intended audience

ChatGPT can phrase its response as if it’s explaining the world to a five-year-old or a 1920s gold panner. If you need marketing copy for a specific product, you should mention the demographic information for the customer that you want to reach.

Use quotes

One odd quirk of ChatGPT is that it will laser-focus on a particular phrase if you put quotes around it. Asking its opinion on ‘honey bees’ will give you a more complex, honey bee-specific response than simply asking its opinion on honey bees.

Set limits

ChatGPT needs to know the boundaries of what you want. You can tell it the number of words or the number of paragraphs you want in a response. Just saying “give me a concise overview” of a topic is an improvement over just saying “tell me about” a specific topic.

Iterate your prompt

Once you get a response, you can finetune your original prompt to try for a better one. For instance, I find that adding “avoid using filler words” to the end of a prompt tends to improve the quality of a response.

ChatGPT Alternatives That Are Free

ChatGPT isn’t the only generative AI available for all, even if it is the most well-known. We’ve covered the top alternatives to ChatGPT in the past. Here’s a quick look at the best.

GitHub Copilot: Best Alternative for Coding

GitHub Copilot is a text-based generative AI for coding. It’s free for students, teachers, and anyone maintaining an open-source project. Everyone else can try a free trial for 30 days, but will need to pay a subscription fee afterwards. Like ChatGPT, Copilot is a useful tool for creating new code or other simple coding tasks.

Google’s Bard: Best Alternative for Human-like Interactivity

Google’s ChatGPT competitor Bard launched hot on the heels of its rival. It operates with a completely different language model, and comes with an extra benefit: While ChatGPT uses data entirely from 2021 and earlier, Bard can access up-to-the-minute data straight off the internet.

ChatSonic: Best Alternative for Accuracy

ChatSonic creates AI-generated images as well as text. Like Bard, it is connected to the internet, and it will even generate reference links to help users verify if it is telling the truth or not.

Otter.ai: Best Alternative for Transcriptions

The Otter.ai bot can parse audio clips, using AI to write down what it thinks is being discussed. It’s a fast, pain-free way to turn an audio interview or conversation into a more useful format.

The free plan is capped at 30 minutes of audio at a time and a total of 300 minutes per month, but two paid plans expand on the amount of transcribing as well as adding extra features.

Jasper Chat: Best Alternative for Businesses

Jasper Chat is a tool aimed at the advertising and marketing wings of a business: It allows for business-oriented tasks like writing ads, social media posts, video scripts, and more. Sadly, this service is the only one listed here that isn’t entirely free: You’ll get just a 5-day free trial, with plans starting at $29 per month after that.

In March of last year, Google called its staff back to the office, a move since followed by other big tech companies like Meta and Amazon. However, it seems not everyone was onboard, with the company now demanding stricter adherence to its return-to-office policy.

According to internal memos, Google will be tying office attendance to performance reviews, and using badge data to track who is in, and who isn’t.

The move by Google is the latest instance of big tech cracking the whip and wanting office staff to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Google Ties Attendance to Performance

In internal memos released on Wednesday, and seen by CNBC, Google announced that it was updating its hybrid working policy, including insisting that staff are in the office three days a week.

The three day week policy is nothing new – Google actually introduced this over a year ago – however, it would appear that employees are showing resistance, hence Google’s harder line.

As an ‘incentive’ to show up at the office, the memos suggest that attendance will be directly linked to performance, and that employees will be tracked by their badges, which will show if they are signing into the office. In a statement to CNBC, a spokesperson said that the badge data would be aggerate, and not tracked to individuals.

Google’s chief people officer Fiona Cicconi is also reported to have sent an email to staff yesterday, claiming that there is no substitute for being in the office.

The Reluctant Return to Office

While Google hasn’t shared information about how many of its employees are sticking to the three day office schedule, the fact the company is putting its foot down is a sign it’s not enough.

According to the email sent by Cicconi, even those that are already fully remote are being encouraged to drop into the office.

Those employees that are expected to return to the office can also look forward to a catch up with HR, should they not commit, according to the internal memo.

With company perks at Google being reduced considerably recently, and some staff having to double up on desks, you could be forgiven for not blaming Google employees for wanting to stay at home. Then there’s the potential affect on morale after the company let go of 11,000 workers earlier in the year.

However, with Google’s huge $10 billion dollar investment in physical office space, it’s fair to say the company will be looking to get its money’s worth.

Big Tech’s Love of the Office

Return to office mandates are nothing new. If you’ve been following the news you’ll know that many heavy hitters in the tech space have already told employees to get back to their desks.

However, what we haven’t seen too much of yet, is the iron fist being removed from the velvet glove, and harsher penalties being imposed on those that don’t yield. The most notable example of this has been Elon Musk’s Tesla, which threatened similar tactics to those that we’re seeing from Google now – namely tracking staff attendance with badges, and the threat of calls with HR.

Musk is notoriously vocal about his position on remote work, even going so far as to call it ‘immoral’ in recent weeks. If this move from Google is anything to go by, he may not be alone, and we could see even tighter penalties from companies going forward, when staff don’t show up.

For now, there are plenty of companies that do offer remote working opportunities.

Elon Musk scams are nothing new – the tech CEO has been a popular hook for scammers for over a decade now. However, the way these schemes are being carried out is ever evolving.

From YouTube videos which steal real footage of Musk, to faked articles made to look like legitimate sources, the attempts to defraud victims are becoming more and more sophisticated.

While the new hotness may be ChatGPT scams, Musk-based scams are still surprisingly popular. We take a look at some typical examples, and show how to spot them, as well as how to avoid them.

Elon Musk YouTube Crypto Scam

Musk crypto scams have been rampant on the internet for years, and yet they show no sign of abating. The ‘get rich quick’ appeal of crypto, combined with the ‘backing’ of the world’s richest man is a combo that some find hard to resist.

The Musk YouTube scams have two victims – those who are duped into giving their money away, but also high profile YouTube accounts which are compromised by scammers to host these fake Musk videos.

Cyber criminals identify and infiltrate established YouTube accounts with large numbers of subscribers, and change the name and logo to appear to be an official Musk-related account, often using Tesla or similar to fool viewers into believing the account is the real deal.

The scammers will then show video footage of Musk being interviewed about cryptocurrency, with instructions to follow about a giveaway. The usual pattern is to imply that Musk is willing to pay the victims double whatever cryptocurrency they pledge. There’s usually a time or number limit to instil a sense of urgency (a typical trick of all scammers).

Earlier in the year, the popular tech review channel, Linus Tech Tips, was victim to the scam, becoming locked out of its own account and spending hours trying to wrestle control of the channel back from the scammers. It’s a sign that even the most tech-savvy YouTubers can be hit.

Check out 21 ways Twitter, or X, has become worse under Musk.

Elon Musk Twitter Crypto Scam

Musk may own Twitter now, but his name has been attached to scams on the platform going back years.

One popular method used to ensnare victims it to reply to the real Musk’s Tweets, impersonating the man himself, and directing users to a crypto ‘giveaway’. With 140 million subscribers to his account, chances are high that scammers will grab a few vulnerable people this way.

When Musk took over Twitter, one of his first moves was to crack down on impersonation accounts, including those that pretended to be Musk himself. In an interview with the BBC earlier in the year, Musk suggested that there were fewer scams on his Twitter platform these days, yet evidence shows scammers are still operating, even purchasing ads and using his image to push crypto fraud offers.

Elon Musk TruthGPT Coin

WIth AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT and Bard, taking the world by storm, it stands to reason that scammers would attempt to use the buzz around them to attract new victims.

One such example, according to Texas state, which has ordered a cease and desist, is the TruthGPT crypto coin. While Musk has talked about TruthGPT in the past as his vision for a ChatGPT alternative, this particular example doesn’t not appear to be officially endorsed by Musk, despite being emblazoned with with his image. Those behind the coin claim that its value will increase ‘up to 10,000 times’.

There is no official sign of any Musk partnership with the TruthGPT coin, and the actions of Texas state against the currency sounds alarm bells.

As well as Musk scams, WhatsApp scams can be devastating to victims.

Elon Musk Spoof News Sites

It makes sense that Twitter would be home to Elon Musk scams, but one place you might not expect to find them is on legitimate news sites. Well, almost legitimate news sites.

There have been cases of scammers spoofing reputable websites, including Medium, to post articles intended to legitimize whichever scam they’re pushing.

It’s a clever, if dastardly move. It’s easy to disregard a suspicious email or Twitter link, but victims may be convinced to sign up for ‘free crypto’ of they believe it’s being reported by a genuine site.

Image sourced from malwarebytes

How to Avoid Elon Musk Scams

The Musk scams can be sophisticated, but they are just as simple to avoid as any other online scam. Follow these tips are you can be confident in dodging them:

• Elon Musk doesn’t want to give you his money. There is no reason for him to announce huge crypto giveaways, and he never has.
• Double check that Tweets purporting to be from Musk are actually from his account.
• Similarly, check the URLs that claim to be official sources.
• Antivirus software can help identify and isolate phishing emails.
• Be very wary of any giveaways that request you send money first.
• Don’t be sucked in by the promise of an ‘easy return’ on any investment.
• Don’t be tempted by ‘limited time’ opportunities or a fear of missing out.

Elon Musk scams will likely continue for as long as they have already been around, but if you stay vigilant, you can make sure you don’t fall victim to them.

The tech industry loves a good trend, and in 2023, AI is all the rage. WordPress parent company Automattic isn’t being left behind: It just debuted a new AI-powered writing assistant for WordPress.

To use the assistent, a user can simply add the “AI Assistant” block to the content on their page. Then, they’ll be able to type in a text-based prompt in order to start a conversation with the tool.

A writing assistent is a great fit for WordPress. The Tech.co research has cited blogging as one of the best use cases for WordPress when compared to every other website builder out there — even if Wix remains the best overall.

How the WordPress AI Assistant Works

Once it is set up, users can talk to the WordPress chatbot with a text-based interface, much like other generative AIs like ChatGPT or Google’s Bard.

The list of tasks that the AI can help out with varies. Here’s a look at a few uses that Automattic says it can be deployed for:

• Creating blog posts, lists, or tables
• Checking for spelling and grammar errors
• Changing the “tone” of an existing post — formal, humorous, or confident are just a few options
• Creating a post title
• Language translation

Here’s what the tool looks like for those who are changing the tone of an article:

Like any AI, it’s not a replacement for a human hand at the wheel, but it can be a great time-saver if you need to write a quick draft or tweak an existing article.

Plus, being able to automatically translate into other languages could be a particularly useful ability for ecommerce websites that hope to sell a product across international markets.

How Big an Impact Will AI Have in Tech?

The sky’s the limit for AI in 2023: According to a recent survey of business leaders conducted here at Tech.co, a whopping 47% say they are considering using AI tools as a way to avoid hiring new employees.

Granted, that may easily never become reality, given the amount of hands-on attention AIs still need to ensure everything goes smoothly, from cybersecurity protocols to completing a simple math problem.

The true believers say that AI will continue to improve in leaps and bounds, while the cynical believe it has already hit a ceiling. We’ll have to wait to find out which camp is closest to the truth.

Is WordPress Worth Building Your Website With?

WordPress is our top pick for affordability when it comes to starting a blog. And given the amount of writing that a blog demands, having an AI assistant to help out now and then could be a huge boon.

Granted, the WordPress platform is not without its security issues — we’ve covered a rash of malicious JavaScript injections in 2022, as well as a surge in false ransomware scams in 2023. But there’s a reason it’s a popular website software and hosting service: It’ll get the job done, with plenty of plugins available for any bells and whistles you might need.

You can also check out our full list of the best website builders if you’re in the market for a website.

Around three-quarters of millennials and Gen Zs say that both their workload and poor work-life balance are contributing significantly to their stress levels, with many stuck in “always-on” workplaces, according to a recently published Deloitte survey.

The study also found that nearly half of all Gen Zs and over a third of millennials report being stressed and anxious “all or most of the time,” with many finding it difficult to disconnect from the trials and tribulations of their job.

Although more companies are offering remote or flexible working arrangements than ever before thanks to the availability of video conferencing and project management platforms, the ability to work from anywhere seems to be taking its toll on the mental health of a lot of young workers.

Young Workers Can’t Escape “Always-on” Workplaces

Deloitte’s Gen Z and Millennial survey — which features responses from 22,000 individuals working in 44 countries — found both millennials and Gen Zs are struggling to step away from the pressures and problems of their working lives and switch off for the day.

69% of Millennials and 70% of Gen Zs respond to emails outside of work hours at least once a week, while almost a fifth of Gen Zs (23%) and almost a third of millennials (30%) are sending emails after work hours at least five days a week.

Deloitte also found that “Gen Zs and millennials are reporting increasingly high levels of burnout due to work-related pressures,” compounded by the cost-of-living fears and caregiving responsibilities for older relatives.

Internal and External Pressure to Be “Always On”

Deloitte’s survey found that both internal and external pressures play a key role in stoking the “always-on” mentality — as does a simple inability to just disconnect.

Emails coming from supervisors were cited by 30% of “always-on” Gen Zs and Millennials as the “main reason” for answering emails after work, while 22% of Gen Zs and 19% of millennials respectively admitted it was an effort to enhance their career opportunities.

Over a fifth (21%) of both demographics put it down to general work anxiety, and a debilitating inability to detach from the stresses of the work day.

Burnt-Out Employees Aren’t Happy or Productive

It goes without saying that “always-on” workplaces aren’t healthy for employees, and they don’t tend to be particularly productive or innovative places, either.

Along with the insights discussed above, Deloitte’s survey found that 36% of Gen Zs and 30% of millennials report being exhausted or low energy while at work, and 35% of the former demographic and 28% of the latter say they’re “mentally distanced” from their jobs.

Evidently, young employees are finding it difficult to disconnect and struggling to truly switch off — so they may need some prompting to do so.

With companies laying off staff left, right, and center, it’s no wonder many are feeling like they have to go above and beyond to prove their worth — even if it’s at the expense of their own mental and physical health.

On the contrary, staff should be both regularly and enthusiastically encouraged to take breaks when they need to, including paid time off and mental health sick days. All staff must be provided with health & well-being resources too, coupled with a concerted effort to reduce stigma around seeking help internally — which often leaves them under-utilized.

Putting staff health first is vital. When businesses end up doing so, they tend to see better results.

Microsoft has entered into a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over methods the company used to collect children’s information, how long that information was stored, and how it went about seeking parental oversight.

Both the FTC and Microsoft published blogs detailing the alleged child data storage infractions, including why the charges were brought, the settlement amount and proposed mitigation plans.

Filed by the Department of Justice on the FTC’s behalf, the settlement, accepted by Xbox’s creator and owner, includes requirements for Microsoft to improve its safeguards for children – from initial registration through the end of the data lifespan.

Microsoft Child Protection Violations

In its $20 million settlement, the FTC claimed that Microsoft failed to fulfil its data protection duties under the US’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998.

The FTC’s blog on the settlement describes three key areas where it believes Microsoft violated the Act:

1) by collecting personal information from kids under 13 before seeking parental consent
2) by not tell parents what information the company collects, why it’s collecting it, and that Microsoft discloses some of the data to third parties
3) by retaining children’s personal information for longer than is reasonably necessary

All of these add up to some serious legal and ethical murky waters for the tech giant, and by entering into the $20M settlement agreement, Microsoft is accepting responsibility and agreeing to make proposed changes.

In a statement published by Dave McCarthy, CVP of Xbox Player Services, the company held its hands up to where it could do better, saying: “Regrettably, we did not meet customer expectations and are committed to complying with the order to continue improving upon our safety measures. We believe that we can and should do more, and we’ll remain steadfast in our commitment to safety, privacy, and security for our community.”

In the same statement, the company said it had identified a glitch during its own internal investigation that meant accounts created, but not completed, were left on the system past its standard 14 day policy.

Microsoft’s Proposed Safeguarding Strategies

McCarthy details some of the ways Microsoft will be delivering an improved age-appropriate user experience.

“We are innovating on next-generation identity and age validation – a convenient, secure, one-time process for all players that will allow us to better deliver customized, safe, age-appropriate experiences,” he explains in yesterday’s blog.

McCarthy continues: “Over the coming months, we will test new methods to validate age and take feedback from our customers’ experience. The learnings from these trials will directly inform advancements in our player identity systems. We are incorporating Microsoft’s insights from across industries to develop a principled approach to secure digital identities that minimizes data collection, prioritizes security, and makes it easier for players to understand how their data is used.”

Tightening up security measures in its gaming arm is ever-more important as Microsoft’s acquisition of Activation Blizzard faces objections at government and private level in the US and UK. The proposed takeover is the largest ever in the gaming industry, and while Microsoft faces backlash against the deal’s market fairness and anti-monopoly laws, it has plenty of time – and impetus – to get its child data protection standards up to par.