IT services firm NEC Corporation elevates Aalok Kumar to global role

IT Services provider NEC Corporation India announced to elevate Aalok Kumar, Chairman, President and CEO, NEC Corporation India, to Corporate Officer and Senior Vice President-Head of Global Smart City Business. https://ift.tt/At6kGYP

Sony rolls out its GT Sophy AI to Gran Turismo 7, an experiment announced in February 2022, letting players race against Sophy in GT Sophy Race Together mode (Jonathan M. Gitlin/Ars Technica)

Jonathan M. Gitlin / Ars Technica:
Sony rolls out its GT Sophy AI to Gran Turismo 7, an experiment announced in February 2022, letting players race against Sophy in GT Sophy Race Together mode  —  GT Sophy beat the world's best players in 2022; now you can race it yourself.  —  Last year, Sony AI and Polyphony Digital …

Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE begins layoffs

According to a report in China Star Market, several employees were notified about their layoffs before the end of February. https://ift.tt/8FgZaUN

High court takes 1st look at law that shields internet firms

The Supreme Court is taking up its first case about a federal law that is credited with helping create the modern internet by shielding Google, Twitter, Facebook and other companies from lawsuits over content posted on their sites by others. https://ift.tt/4GeBLxC

Meta plans to update its TOS for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp users in the UK and will begin moving those users from its Irish subsidiary to US agreements (Thomas Seal/Bloomberg)

Thomas Seal / Bloomberg:
Meta plans to update its TOS for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp users in the UK and will begin moving those users from its Irish subsidiary to US agreements  —  Meta Platforms Inc. will begin moving its UK users away from the company's Irish subsidiary and onto US agreements in a move the social-media giant flagged post-Brexit.

Chinese city pours $29 billion to build chips as India, US eye semiconductor dominance

Guangzhou's Industry Investment Fund of Funds (FoF) will focus on activities involving semiconductors, renewable energy and advanced manufacturing, reports the South China Morning Post. https://ift.tt/3vL0c64

Ampere: streamers will spend $8.5B on sports rights across 17 countries in 2023, up 64% YoY; DAZN accounted for 54% of streamers' 2022 sports rights spending (Karlene Lukovitz/MediaPost)

Karlene Lukovitz / MediaPost:
Ampere: streamers will spend $8.5B on sports rights across 17 countries in 2023, up 64% YoY; DAZN accounted for 54% of streamers' 2022 sports rights spending  —  Subscription OTT services' global spend on sports rights in 17 major markets around the world will reach $8.5 billion in 2023 — up 64% versus 2022, projects Ampere Analysis.

Users can soon earn money from Twitter, says Musk

Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Monday said that the micro-blogging platform is "spinning up subscriptions" so that users can "charge" their followers for specific content. https://ift.tt/qVtIzFB

Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates-backed brain implant startup testing mind-controlled computing on humans

US-based brain interface startup, Synchron, backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, is working on technology designed to transform daily life for people with paralysis. https://ift.tt/0jTqoEN

New Bing offers some marvelous responses alongside dangerously convincing falsehoods, direct quotes that appear to be made up, and shocking claims about itself (James West/Mother Jones)

James West / Mother Jones:
New Bing offers some marvelous responses alongside dangerously convincing falsehoods, direct quotes that appear to be made up, and shocking claims about itself  —  Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.  —  “You're in!” the email said.

Techies earning up to $1 million a year laid off at Big Tech firms

At Google, laid-off employees included those who had previously received high performance reviews or held managerial positions "with annual compensation packages of $500,000 to $1 million, reports The Information. As Big Tech layoffs dominate headlines, more details have emerged on which verticals and senior executives earning up to $1 million annually bore the maximum brunt at Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. https://ift.tt/fVyBTlO

Microsoft rolls out Windows 11 widgets for Messenger, Spotify to Beta Channel Insiders

Microsoft has started to roll out support for new preview widgets for Facebook Messenger, Spotify, Phone Link, and Xbox (Game Pass) to Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel. To give them a try, one can go to the widgets collection in the Microsoft Store and update to the latest version of the apps. https://ift.tt/5uGCeKm

A look at the use of conversational AI in US call centers, which some agents find helpful and others say leaves the humans with more complex, intense workloads (Lisa Bannon/Wall Street Journal)

Lisa Bannon / Wall Street Journal:
A look at the use of conversational AI in US call centers, which some agents find helpful and others say leaves the humans with more complex, intense workloads  —  Call centers are at the forefront of deploying artificial intelligence, with bots that automate basic tasks and instruct humans how to do their jobs

Sources: KKR-owned BMC Software confidentially filed for a US IPO seeking a valuation of up to $15B; KKR acquired BMC in 2018 for $8.3B (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Sources: KKR-owned BMC Software confidentially filed for a US IPO seeking a valuation of up to $15B; KKR acquired BMC in 2018 for $8.3B  —  BMC Software, a technology company owned by KKR & Co., has confidentially filed for an initial public offering, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Meta rolls out Meta Verified subscription service, offering a blue badge, impersonation protection, and more, for $12/month on the web, or $15/month on iOS (Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook)

Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook:
Meta rolls out Meta Verified subscription service, offering a blue badge, impersonation protection, and more, for $12/month on the web, or $15/month on iOS  —  Good morning and new product announcement: this week we're starting to roll out Meta Verified — a subscription service that lets …