| Here's your daily tech briefing: - Microsoft-OpenAI partnership draws scrutiny from U.K.
- Spotify's CFO to step down next year.
- Apple to shift more iPhone manufacturing to India.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI is potentially facing a full-scale antitrust investigation in the U.K. Britain's competition regulator is seeking feedback about whether to launch the probe, which would determine if the partnership qualifies as a "relevant merger." More: - The agency is taking public comments until Jan. 3 to decide on a formal investigation into whether the collaboration threatens U.K. competition.
- Since 2019, Microsoft has invested as much as $13B into OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and incorporated its AI technology across nearly all of its services.
- The two have remained independent, though Microsoft owns 49% of OpenAI's for-profit operating company.
Zoom out: - In explaining its concerns, Britain's Competition and Markets Authority cited recent developments in OpenAI's governance, some of which involved Microsoft.
- In November, following the firing and hiring of OpenAI's CEO, Microsoft gained a non-voting observer seat on the nonprofit board overseeing OpenAI's for-profit business.
- In a statement, Brad Smith, Microsoft vice chairman and president, said the non-voting observer was "the only thing that has changed" recently in the partnership between the companies.
- This is "very different from an acquisition, such as Google's purchase of DeepMind in the U.K.," he said.
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| 2 | | Spotify CFO Paul Vogel will step down in March after eight years at the company. The announcement of Vogel's departure comes three days after Spotify said it would lay off roughly 1,500 employees, or 17% of its workforce, to curb costs and adjust for a slowdown in growth. More: - In a statement, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said he and Vogel concluded that "Spotify is entering a new phase and needs a CFO with a different mix of experiences."
- The company is actively seeking a replacement while Ben Kung, VP of financial planning and analysis, takes on expanded interim duties for the role.
Zoom out: - On Monday, Spotify announced the layoffs, its third round this year. Following the news, Spotify shares jumped 7.5% to one of Spotify's highest prices in two years.
- On Tuesday, Vogel exercised 47,859 stock options and sold the shares in a sale worth $9.38M, according to securities filings.
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| 3 | | Apple plans to shift a quarter of its iPhone manufacturing, or more than 50 million phones, to India within the next 2-3 years, according to The Wall Street Journal. Apple has shipped an average of approximately 57 million iPhones per quarter for the past three years. 
Details: Apple suppliers such as Foxconn and Tata are preparing to ramp up production in India. Tata, for example, plans to build one of India's largest iPhone assembly plants in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, adding to the iPhone factory it recently acquired in nearby Karnataka. Over the summer, Foxconn started producing the iPhone 15 in India, part of Apple's efforts to diversify manufacturing away from China. India has also been chosen as the main location for producing a new more affordable iPhone. Zoom out: India's commerce and industry minister. Piyush Goyal, said earlier this year that Apple would shift up to 25% of its production to India, an increase from 7%, though he didn't provide a timeline. After meeting with Indian PM Narendra Modi in June, CEO Tim Cook said India represents a "huge opportunity." | | | |
| 4 | | YouTube is rolling out the option for creators to pause comments, preventing an overload of negative or inappropriate posts. When the "Pause" setting is turned on, viewers can still see existing comments on videos, but can't post new comments. More: - Before, creators could only disable all comments from the start or manually review each one before allowing them to be posted.
- In testing, YouTube found that Pause allowed creators and moderators to gain flexibility and take breaks from moderation when overwhelmed, without disabling comments entirely.
- The option is available in the video-level comment settings on the YouTube app's watch page and YouTube Studio on both desktop and mobile.
Zoom out: - Along with Pause, YouTube has renamed some of the settings for comment moderation to make them simpler.
- For example, "None" means not holding any comments for review before publishing.
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| 5 | | Meta's Threads platform now has its own version of hashtags. The text-based social network is launching "tags" globally after a period of successful testing. More: - Threads users can now find a new "#" button in the compose window for posts. Users can tap on the "#" and type a topic, similar to a hashtag.
- However, tags are not restricted to single words. Users can type out a whole phrase, including spaces, and add special characters.
- The tag itself does not include a hash symbol. Users are limited to one tag per post.
- While the Threads app currently lacks a trending section, users can view popular tags when they type the "#" button.
Zoom out: - Threads makes its debut in Europe on Dec. 14. The competitor to X launched across most of the world in July but was delayed in the European Union due to its stricter online service regulations.
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| 6 | | Apple's iPhone 16 models coming out in fall 2024 could have upgraded microphones that will improve voice interactions with Siri, according to prominent analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Kuo suggests that Apple could incorporate more AI and generative AI capabilities into Siri as "a key selling point of the iPhone 16." More: - According to Kuo, the new mics will "hear" the user's voice better, improving the accuracy of Siri voice commands and dictation.
- The mics will have an improved signal-to-noise ratio, as well as better water resistance, he said.
- Dictation algorithms work better when they receive a clear and interference-free audio signal as input.
- AAC and Goertek will reportedly supply the new microphone component.
Zoom out: - Apple also reorganized its Siri team in the third quarter of 2023 to integrate AI-generated content (AIGC) and large language models, Kuo noted.
- Voice input is expected to be "the key interface" for that AI tech on smartphones, "so strengthening Siri's hardware and software features and specifications is the key to promoting AIGC," he said.
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| 7 | | QUICK HITS - Want to master Kubernetes? The Kubernetes Cookbook is a must-have guide to discover guidance on cloud architecture analytics, optimization, governance, and more.*
- Microsoft is hiring more than 70 ZeniMax QA contractors as unionized employees after formally recognizing their union.
- "Baldur's Gate 3" won Game of the Year at Thursday's Game Awards 2023 in Los Angeles. The fantasy game also picked up awards for Best Community Support, Best RPG, Best Multiplayer, and the Player's Voice category.
- Google's AI-driven note-taking app, NotebookLM, has launched in the U.S. The app can summarize imported documents, generate key points, answer questions about sources, and transform notes into different document formats.
- Toast to 2024: Key affiliate marketing trends to help your campaigns start off on the right foot in the new year. Get the free report.*
*This is a sponsored post. | | | |
 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is a contributing editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters. She has written for notable publications like USA Today and the Arizona Business Gazette. During her time as a public policy reporter at The Arizona Republic, she received recognition with a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a First Amendment Award for her collaborative reporting on pension cost increases. Beth also authored a book on the solar photovoltaic industry in 2016. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Eduardo Garcia | |
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