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| Here's a look at today's Tech briefing: - Coworking startup WeWork files for bankruptcy.
- Nintendo raises profit forecast after record first-half sales.
- TikTok is shutting down its $1B creator fund.
- Waze launches 'crash history alerts' for roads.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | WeWork, the former $47B coworking space provider, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New Jersey federal court on Monday. The bankruptcy, which is limited to WeWork's U.S. and Canadian locations, comes as the company grapples with major debt and operational challenges amid an unprecedented decline in the office market. More: - WeWork, backed by SoftBank's Vision Fund, was once valued at $47B in 2019, ranking it among the world's most valuable startups.
- But it later ran into trouble due to an excessive expansion, its failed attempt to go public in 2019, the impact of the pandemic, and a weak office market.
- For years, WeWork has worked to shed or renegotiate unprofitable leases, while high rent costs and low occupancy have remained challenges.
Financials: - In its bankruptcy filing, the company reported $15B in assets and $18.6B in debts, including approximately $100M in lease termination fees and unpaid rent.
- A WeWork spokesperson said 92% of lenders have agreed to convert secured debt to equity, erasing $3B in debt.
- On Monday, trading in WeWork's stock was halted at around 83 cents a share, down over 99% since going public through a SPAC merger in 2021.
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| 2 | Nintendo upped its operating profit outlook for the current fiscal year following a strong fiscal second quarter. The Kyoto-based company's fiscal Q2 sales and profits exceeded expectations, driven by the continued success of the "Super Mario Bros. Movie" and its new Zelda game, which now ranks among the best-selling Switch games. 
What the numbers show: In the first half of the fiscal year, Nintendo sales reached their highest point since the Switch launched in 2017. Revenue for the fiscal second quarter came in at 334.9 billion Japanese yen ($2.2B), surpassing an expected 317.3 billion yen. Switch sales: Nintendo got a boost from games like "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom," released in May, as well as "Pikmin 4" and "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe," which itself was bolstered by "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" release in April. Nintendo sold 6.84 million Switch consoles from April to September, up 2.4% from the same period last year. Nintendo has still maintained its sales forecast of 15 million Switch consoles for the current fiscal year. Zoom out: Investors have worried about the aging Switch's sales peak and plateau, but the company's latest results suggest its popular franchises and new games continue to drive sales of the console. Meanwhile, Nintendo is reportedly planning to launch a new Switch in the second half of 2024. | | | |
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| 3 | | TikTok is shutting down its original $1B creator fund in favor of a newer monetization method, which promises higher earnings for popular content creators. Effective Dec. 16, creators in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and France will lose their ability to monetize content through the original fund, which faced criticism for its low payouts. More: - The Creator Fund launched in 2020 with $200M initially allocated to top streamers, later expanding to $1B in the U.S. over three years.
- However, creators said they often earned only dollars for millions of views.
- Streamer Hank Green revealed that he earned around 2.5 cents per 1,000 views on the platform, significantly less than his YouTube income.
Zoom out: - In February, TikTok introduced a new monetization scheme, the Creativity Program, requiring creators to make videos longer than a minute to earn income.
- According to TikTok, the program offers up to 20 times the payout amount offered by the Creator Fund.
- Creators with subscriber counts ranging from half a million to several million have reportedly received payouts from a few thousand dollars to nearly $100,000 a month.
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| 4 | | Google's Waze is introducing a safety feature that alerts drivers when they are on a road with a history of accidents. "Crash history alerts" rely on AI technology that analyzes historical crash data, traffic levels, road type, and user reports to identify accident-prone routes. More: - The warnings don't differentiate between major and minor incidents and don't take into account whether an accident involved other cars, pedestrians, or cyclists.
- To reduce distractions, it avoids showing crash alerts on a driver's usual routes, focusing on more unfamiliar areas.
- The feature is available for both iOS and Android users in the Waze app.
Zoom out: - Waze's other safety features include real-time accident detection and lane guidance to prevent lane confusion.
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| 5 | | Microsoft is teaming up with Inworld AI to create AI-driven tools for Xbox developers. The collaboration — which involves two game development tools for dialogue, story, and quest design — comes as the market for generative AI in gaming is expected to rise from $1.1B this year to $7.1B by 2032. More: - Inworld is a startup building tools to build NPCs (non-player characters) powered by generative AI.
- Its CEO, Ilya Gelfenbeyn, said AI can help streamline gaming production, potentially speeding up game releases by saving time and resources.
- Its first tool wth Microsoft is an "AI design copilot" that can generate detailed scripts, dialogue trees, quests, and other game features based on text prompts.
- The second, an AI character runtime engine, can create dynamic in-game character interactions.
- Inworld states its AI can "craft characters with distinct personalities and contextual awareness that stay in-world."
Zoom out: - A study conducted by global consulting firm Bain & Company predicts that generative AI's presence in game development, currently at less than 5%, will rise to 50% or more within the next 5-to-10 years.
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| 6 | OpenAI unveiled GPT-4 Turbo and introduced a GPT app store at its first-ever developer conference. DevDay event, held on Monday in San Francisco, attracted close to 1,000 developers, who came together "to explore tools and exchange ideas." More: - GPT-4 Turbo, now in API preview, is trained with data up to April 2023, an advancement over the earlier GPT-4, which used data only up to September 2021.
- Turbo's expanded 128K context window — equivalent to a 300-page book — allows it to comprehend longer inputs compared to earlier versions with context windows of 8K and 32K.
- The input cost for Turbo is $0.01 per 1,000 tokens, less than the $0.03 charged for GPT-4.
Zoom out: - OpenAI also announced a personalized chatbot builder for individual ChatGPT users.
- Users can create custom chatbots, called "GPTs," for their own purposes or to share with others.
- Alongside the builder, OpenAI is introducing a GPT Store or marketplace for users to post personalized AI chatbots for public download.
- Eventually, users will be able to earn money from their apps based on usage statistics, according to OpenAI.
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 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is an editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters, with a career spanning journalism since 2007. She has written for publications including The Arizona Republic and USA Today and authored a book on the solar industry in 2016. Reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Eduardo Garcia | |
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