Friday, March 3, 2023

Instagram expands age verification tools to more countries: What does it mean for users

Meta has been long experimenting with AI-based face scanning, especially for age verification. Last year, face scanning was introduced within Instagram for age verification, starting in the US. Now, it is being expanded to more countries in Europe, Mexico, Canada, South Korea, Australia and Japan. The social media app plans to bring age verification tools to more countries in the coming months. https://ift.tt/MtS7Ozi

UK Supreme Court hears landmark patent case over AI 'inventor'

An American computer scientist urged the United Kingdom's Supreme Court to rule he is entitled to patents over inventions created by his artificial intelligence system, in a landmark case about whether AI can own patent rights. https://ift.tt/7yMFmNg

Thursday, March 2, 2023

Apple still working on classical music app

Tech giant Apple has released its second beta of iOS 16.4 to developers, and code in the update revealed that the company is still working on its classical music application. https://ift.tt/GbZ3qmf

Swiggy sells Cloud Kitchen biz to Kitchens@ as food delivery growth slows down

Online delivery platform Swiggy has sold its Cloud Kitchen business to Kitchens@, a leading player in the rapidly growing cloud kitchen industry, for an undisclosed sum, as the growth rate for food delivery slows down. https://ift.tt/N6w78ro

Snap plans to let Snapchat users pause Streaks by buying Streak Restores for $0.99 each time and will soon let Snapchat+ subscribers pause Streaks indefinitely (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Snap plans to let Snapchat users pause Streaks by buying Streak Restores for $0.99 each time and will soon let Snapchat+ subscribers pause Streaks indefinitely  —  Maintaining Snap Streaks — where you send a snap to your friend once every 24 hours — is really important to a lot of Snapchat users.



How to start a secret conversation in Facebook Messenger

Facebook offers various user-friendly features on its Messenger app. One such interesting feature is secret conversation. The Meta-owned platform enables users to have private conversations with their contacts. https://ift.tt/kHCx9ij

After Twitter cut off API access, Tapbots and The Iconfactory update Tweetbot and Twitterrific, asking subscribers to consider declining prorated refunds (John Gruber/Daring Fireball)

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
After Twitter cut off API access, Tapbots and The Iconfactory update Tweetbot and Twitterrific, asking subscribers to consider declining prorated refunds  —  Long story short: If you're a subscriber to either Tweetbot or Twitterrific, you can help them out with three simple steps:



A profile of Emily M. Bender, a computational linguist at the University of Washington who co-wrote a paper in 2020 to illustrate what LLMs can and cannot do (Elizabeth Weil/New York Magazine)

Elizabeth Weil / New York Magazine:
A profile of Emily M. Bender, a computational linguist at the University of Washington who co-wrote a paper in 2020 to illustrate what LLMs can and cannot do  —  Nobody likes an I-told-you-so.  But before Microsoft's Bing started cranking out creepy love letters; before Meta's Galactica spewed racist rants …



Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Tesla readies revamp of Model Y codenamed 'Juniper'

Tesla is readying a production revamp of its top-selling Model Y, according to three people with knowledge of the plan. The changes to the Model Y - code-named Project Juniper at Tesla - involve the exterior and interior of the crossover electric vehicle with a target of starting production in 2024, according to two of the people, who asked not to be identified because the planning remains private. https://ift.tt/YSKJHgC

A survey of 810 Uber and Lyft California drivers: ~66% have experienced deactivation, 30% of whom were never told why, and 43% were sexually harassed on the job (Asian Law Caucus)

Asian Law Caucus:
A survey of 810 Uber and Lyft California drivers: ~66% have experienced deactivation, 30% of whom were never told why, and 43% were sexually harassed on the job  —  SAN FRANCISCO - A new report released today by the Asian Law Caucus (ALC) and Rideshare Drivers United (RDU) …



Tesla readies revamp of Model Y codenamed 'Juniper' - sources

Tesla is readying a production revamp of its top-selling Model Y, according to three people with knowledge of the plan. https://ift.tt/zgTDiRI

Twitter users globally report multiple outages for over an hour, including its timeline failing to load on web and mobile; most users can still tweet (James Vincent/The Verge)

James Vincent / The Verge:
Twitter users globally report multiple outages for over an hour, including its timeline failing to load on web and mobile; most users can still tweet  —  Twitter seems to be having difficulties, with users reporting that the site's timeline isn't loading on either the web or mobile apps.



After a lengthy, unexplained outage over the weekend due to an update, Solana Labs plans to improve its upgrade process to ensure reliability and uptime (Shaurya Malwa/CoinDesk)

Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk:
After a lengthy, unexplained outage over the weekend due to an update, Solana Labs plans to improve its upgrade process to ensure reliability and uptime  —  Solana co-founder said last week's 1.14 network update has raised concerns about maintaining stability during major updates.



How to lock Chrome Incognito tabs with face ID on iOS

Google Chrome is a web browser that is used on Android devices and iPhones and iPads. It has a unique feature that allows you to password protect the tabs in the browser. This feature is useful if you want to keep your browsing private. https://ift.tt/24aCivM

South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang reports Q4 revenue up 4.9% YoY to $5.33B and active customers up 1% YoY to 18.1M, both below estimates (Sohee Kim/Bloomberg)

Sohee Kim / Bloomberg:
South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang reports Q4 revenue up 4.9% YoY to $5.33B and active customers up 1% YoY to 18.1M, both below estimates  —  Coupang Inc., the South Korean e-commerce giant backed by SoftBank Group Corp., reported lower sales than analysts estimated, marring another profitable quarter for the company.



Arizona's Maricopa County is set to have the second largest concentration of US data centers by 2028, as the state races to increase electricity production (Pranshu Verma/Washington Post)

Pranshu Verma / Washington Post : Arizona's Maricopa County is set to have the second largest concentration of US data centers by 202...