The AI frenzy, Adobe in jeopardy, and the mutiny at Dell
Also, autonomous trucks, YouTube’s latest experiment, and the new Windows feature
Welcome to Tech Pills, the weekly newsletter about technology, innovation and startups. My name is Jose, and you can follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter (X). Let’s begin!
🍏Apple reportedly paid OpenAI nothing for their ChatGPT partnership. The deal allows OpenAI access to billions of Apple devices, while Apple benefits by providing generative AI capabilities to consumers without having to develop a solution. The partnership is a major milestone for OpenAI, despite no monetary payment. The integration of ChatGPT into Apple devices will increase OpenAI's expenses, but the mass distribution is considered more valuable than cash. This agreement highlights the growing significance of AI in the tech industry.
With Microsoft in the background with OpenAI, this could be another huge milestone for the company created by Bill Gates.
Elon Musk qualified this announcement as an “unacceptable security violation”.
In Elon’s words, “Apple has no clue what’s actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI. They’re selling you down the river.”
📈 The latest updates presented by Apple, which we covered here, take them to the top of the largest companies worldwide. As App Economy Insights published here, the top 3 are Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia, with more than $3 trillion each. To put these numbers in perspective, the market cap for ALL the largest companies in France is less than $3 trillion, and the same happens if we use Germany as example. In other words, tech has so much influence that six out of the ten companies of this ranking are technological. As we mentioned here, the only legal entity above these companies is the US government.
However, just a few days later, Nvidia surpassed Apple as the world’s most valuable company. Its market capitalization reached $3.33 trillion after the stock rose 3.2% to $135.21.
By the way, if you want to get economic insights like this, I highly recommend the newsletter How They Make Money.
🥷 We are not leaving from Cupertino yet, Apple could impact almost $400 million in revenue for third-party apps through the App Store. They leverage the analytics from the App Store and incorporate features from third-party apps into its own software. The analysis by app intelligence firm Appfigures reveals that trail apps, grammar helpers, math solvers, password managers, and custom emoji apps are among the categories potentially impacted. Nonetheless, the ethics about these practices as well as the use of proprietary data remain unclear.
⚖️ The US government is suing Adobe for allegedly deceiving customers with hidden fees and difficult cancellation processes. The Department of Justice claims that Adobe enrolls customers in its most expensive subscription plan without clearly disclosing important terms. They claim that Adobe hides the annual plan details in fine print and behind optional textboxes and hyperlinks. Adobe denies the claims and emphasizes transparency in its subscription agreements. The lawsuit seeks civil fines and an injunction to stop these practices, and targets Adobe executives for their involvement.
🏢 As we mentioned back in March, Dell forced its employees back to the office by not making remote workers eligible for promotions. The company required employees to classify themselves as either hybrid or remote. This push has been met with resistance because nearly half of its US workforce has chosen to remain remote despite the announcement. Many workers pointed to personal and financial benefits of remote work as their reasons for staying remote. The decline in Dell's revenue and limited promotion opportunities have led employees to consider leaving.
🔐 The former head of the National Security Agency, Paul Nakasone, will join OpenAI's Safety and Security Committee. His addition aims to address concerns about AI's fast-paced development and the need for risk evaluation. His expertise and institutional knowledge are expected to benefit the company as it expands its presence in government, defense, and major enterprises. He’ll also contribute to strengthening cybersecurity and detecting cyber threats using AI. This is another movement tied to security, along with the recent departures of Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike.
🤳 TikTok copies Instagram again. This time, they launched a new photo-sharing app called Whee, positioning it as a platform for sharing photos with close friends. It features a photo viewfinder, a list of friends to message, and a feed, emphasizing its focus on connecting with friends. This isn’t the first time they introduce features suspiciously similar to the competition, back in March, they launched TikTok Photos, and a few weeks ago, they rolled out an image-sharing app called TikTok Notes. However, other social media also replicated features from TikTok.
🎮 Princess Zelda will have her own video game for the first time. In the upcoming game The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, which will be released on September 26th for Nintendo Switch, she’ll embark on an adventure to save the world from destruction after Ganon defeats Link. The game is set in a Hyrule inspired by Link's Awakening remake. This game marks a significant moment for the franchise because Zelda takes the center stage as the protagonist in her own story. Also, and being totally honest, this will help to avoid the confusion between Zelda and Link.
Innovation & Startups
🚚 Waabi, an autonomous trucking startup, raised $200 million in a Series B funding round led by Uber Technologies. The company plans to use the funds to support the rollout of its fully autonomous trucks next year. Unlike Tesla, which relies on imitation learning and extensive data collection, Waabi uses a closed-loop simulator called Waabi World to train its AI driver. They launched commercial pilots in Texas and seek to reach its planned fully driverless launch in 2025. Although initially focused on trucks, Waabi's technology has broader applications, including robotaxis and warehouse robotics.
📺 YouTube is testing a new feature called "Notes" that allows users to add more context and information to videos. These notes provide additional information to clarify whether a video is a parody or contains older footage presented as a current event, nuances that algorithms are unable to detect. If considered helpful, the notes will appear beneath the video. As the pilot progresses, YouTube will ask viewers to rate the notes to determine their overall helpfulness. The introduction of this feature coincides with the 2024 US election, as YouTube seeks to combat the spread of misinformation.
🧠 Recall, the controversial AI-powered feature for Windows has been postponed. Microsoft initially set to launch it on June 18, but the concerns about its security contributed to the delay. Essentially, Recall records user actions for productivity purposes, but this raised many eyebrows due to its intrusive surveillance capabilities. The company addressed these questions by making it opt-in, but seems like it isn’t enough. Microsoft aims to refine this feature before its wider release.
💳 X Payment Services could be launched before the end of this year. The social media platform owned by Elon Musk, is reportedly rushing to launch X Payment Services in the US. This move is part of Musk's plan to transform X into the "everything app," offering a wide range of experiences, including online payments. X has already secured 28 state licenses for this service, with the goal of obtaining all 50 licenses in the United States. The new fintech approach for X Payments will focus on worldwide money transfers.
Byte-Sized News
Meta releases the Threads API, allowing developers to create unique integrations for Threads.
Apple Pay Later is shutting down, but it will be replaced by new features.
ChatGPT stunts the demand for digital online freelancers. Writing, coding, and image-generation roles are the most impacted.
Meme of the Week
