🏛 The TikTok block

The app will be erased from all government devices in 30 days

February 28, 2023

IN THIS ISSUE 🏛 TikTok ordered off U.S. federal devices within 30 days 🗣 Is Elon Musk cooking up a ChatGPT competitor? 🤖 Meta is building 'AI personas' for Instagram, Whatsapp, and FB

UP FIRST TikTok ordered off U.S. federal devices within 30 days Government officials don't trust the Chinese-owned app U.S. government agencies have been given 30 days to delete the TikTok app from federal devices and systems, Reuters reported on Monday.   Lawmakers have long been concerned that user data linked to the app, owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, could find its way into the hands of Chinese officials. The U.S. has also claimed that the Chinese government is able to influence TikTok's recommendation algorithm, allowing it to manipulate content.   At the end of last year, Congress voted to ban federal workers from using TikTok on government-owned devices, and now the White House is ordering the app's removal from those devices within the next four weeks.   Canada has also said that starting today it will ban TikTok from government-issued devices, and the European Commission is taking similar action, too.   ByteDance insists that Chinese officials have no access to user data and that it has mechanisms in place to tackle any misinformation that lands on its service. Read more

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Elon Musk considering ChatGPT competitor, report claims The billionaire entrepreneur is keen to hop on the AI bandwagon Always on the lookout for an opportunity, Elon Musk has contacted AI experts in recent weeks with a view to creating a competitor to OpenAI's much-hyped ChatGPT technology, according to sources who spoke to The Information.   Notably, Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but cut ties with the startup three years later to avoid any conflicts of interest with his work at Tesla.   For his latest potential bid to dive into the world of generative AI, Musk has reportedly been in touch with Igor Babuschkin, a researcher who recently left Alphabet's DeepMind AI unit and whose work involves the kind of machine-learning models behind advanced chatbots like ChatGPT.   At this stage, the project is still in the first stage of development, according to The Information, and Musk and Babuschkin have only talked about building a team to explore AI rather than taking any concrete steps. Read more

SOCIAL MEDIA Meta is building 'AI personas' for Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook And it's formed a whole new AI research unit to make it happen Mark Zuckerberg is another high-profile tech chief who's determined to ride the wave of generative AI that's currently sweeping over the industry.   In a Facebook post shared on Monday, the Meta CEO said his company was bringing many of his AI specialists under one roof to form a unified unit for AI research.   Zuckerberg said the move would help Meta to "turbocharge" its work in the sector, as others such as Microsoft and Google continue to grab all the headlines with ChatGPT and Bard, respectively.   Without sharing much detail, the Meta boss said the team will focus on developing "AI personas" that will "help people in a variety of ways."   The Zuck added: "We're exploring experiences with text (like chat in WhatsApp and Messenger), with images (like creative Instagram filters and ad formats), and with video and multi-modal experiences."   He admitted the new team has a lot of work to do before getting to the "really futuristic experiences," but said he's "excited about all of the new things we'll build along the way." Read more

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The HMD Global Nokia G22 At first glance, the HMD Global Nokia G22 is just another low-cost Android phone, but should you accidentally break the screen or require a new battery, it becomes something more than that. It's the first device to be enrolled into HMD Global's QuickFix initiative, which lowers the cost and increases the simplicity of replacing a dead battery or broken screen.   How easy is it? The battery can be swapped in five minutes, and the screen in 20 minutes, all at home and for a fraction of the price a store would charge. The phone is relatively ordinary outside of this, with a 6.5-inch screen, a Unisoc processor, and a 50-megapixel main camera on the back. It will cost 179 euros, or around $180, when it launches soon. - Andy Boxall Contributing Editor

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