The Philippines races to defend its share of the ~$300B global business process outsourcing market, battling deteriorating talent, rising competition, and AI (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
The Philippines races to defend its share of the ~$300B global business process outsourcing market, battling deteriorating talent, rising competition, and AI  —  - Only one out of 10 outsourcing job applicants gets hired  — Growth in jobs added during pandemic fell below global trend

TikTok unveils Gimme the Mic, a music competition hosted on livestreams where the US winner receives 50K Diamonds, the USD conversion rate for which is unclear (Mia Sato/The Verge)

Mia Sato / The Verge:
TikTok unveils Gimme the Mic, a music competition hosted on livestreams where the US winner receives 50K Diamonds, the USD conversion rate for which is unclear  —  TikTok will host a music contest similar to popular talent shows like The Voice, the company announced today.

Toshiba announces a $14B tender offer to take the company private at $32/share led by Japan Industrial Partners, a buyout fund of Japanese banks and companies (Yuri Kageyama/Associated Press)

Yuri Kageyama / Associated Press:
Toshiba announces a $14B tender offer to take the company private at $32/share led by Japan Industrial Partners, a buyout fund of Japanese banks and companies  —  Toshiba announced a 2 trillion yen ($14 billion) tender offer on Monday in a move that would take it private …

Global ransomware attacks at an all-time high, India amongst the top ten most-hit countries

The US has seen a substantial increase in ransomware attacks, accounting for over 43% of reported incidents globally between June 2022 and June 2023, according to MalwareBytes. France, Germany and the UK also saw an increase, although not to the same extent. Hospitals, schools and government agencies have been targeted. Healthcare and educational institutions in the US were hit hardest. Meanwhile, India was one of the top ten countries to be targeted. The rise of the CL0P group, which exploits zero-day vulnerabilities, is a concerning development in cyber attacks and could lead to a shift towards vulnerability-focused attacks. https://ift.tt/gHflDkj

Germany's "Silicon Saxony", set to become the home of TSMC's European fab, may be undermined by a lack of local workers and rising anti-immigrant sentiment (Guy Chazan/Financial Times)

Guy Chazan / Financial Times:
Germany's “Silicon Saxony”, set to become the home of TSMC's European fab, may be undermined by a lack of local workers and rising anti-immigrant sentiment  —  Industry concerned rise of anti-immigration movements in state of Saxony will hinder efforts to attract foreign talent

After social media upended the fashion and beauty magazine industries, some women turn to Facebook Groups and Substack to find curated recommendations (Sapna Maheshwari/New York Times)

Sapna Maheshwari / New York Times:
After social media upended the fashion and beauty magazine industries, some women turn to Facebook Groups and Substack to find curated recommendations  —  People still want to know what to wear and what is actually worth buying — and they want to trust the person telling them.

Researchers show how ChatGPT 3.5 performs better than ChatGPT 4.0 in several tasks, often math related, highlighting the issue of "drift" in improving AI models (Josh Zumbrun/Wall Street Journal)

Josh Zumbrun / Wall Street Journal:
Researchers show how ChatGPT 3.5 performs better than ChatGPT 4.0 in several tasks, often math related, highlighting the issue of “drift” in improving AI models  —  AI chatbots have stoked fears that they could spin out of control, but they also suffer from a type of deterioration called ‘drift’

China's Hua Hong Semiconductor raises $2.96B in its Shanghai listing, the largest in the Asia Pacific region this year; the firm is already listed in Hong Kong (Filipe Pacheco/Bloomberg)

Filipe Pacheco / Bloomberg:
China's Hua Hong Semiconductor raises $2.96B in its Shanghai listing, the largest in the Asia Pacific region this year; the firm is already listed in Hong Kong  —  - Company raised nearly $3 billion through the share sale  — It is the largest listing in the Asia Pacific region this year

Twitter Blue now has a new name, here’s what it is called

Twitter Blue has been renamed X Premium as part of the company's rebranding plan. Twitter changed its official handle to @Premium, and company owner Elon Musk announced the name change while talking about ad revenue share on X. To be eligible for the share, users must meet at least four requirements, including being a premium subscriber and having at least 500 followers. X has also taken other handles from users, such as @Sports and @Music. https://ift.tt/Qnqh1ef

Shoddy self-published guidebooks, which appear to be compiled with the help of generative AI and promoted via deceptive reviews, are proliferating on Amazon (New York Times)

New York Times:
Shoddy self-published guidebooks, which appear to be compiled with the help of generative AI and promoted via deceptive reviews, are proliferating on Amazon  —  In March, as she planned for an upcoming trip to France, Amy Kolsky, an experienced international traveler who lives in Bucks County …

Indiana is converting 10,000 acres of fields into an innovation park, with the goal of transforming the state into a microchip manufacturing and research hub (New York Times)

New York Times:
Indiana is converting 10,000 acres of fields into an innovation park, with the goal of transforming the state into a microchip manufacturing and research hub  —  The state has little experience with semiconductors, but the Biden administration has promised to unleash opportunity in …

Apple acknowledges the US "smartphone market has been in a decline for the last couple of quarters"; sources: iPhone 15 sales will start around September 22 (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple acknowledges the US “smartphone market has been in a decline for the last couple of quarters”; sources: iPhone 15 sales will start around September 22  —  On the cusp of the iPhone 15 debut, Apple has finally admitted what has long been clear: The industry is facing a smartphone slowdown.

A profile of Clop, a Russian-speaking ransomware group responsible for the MOVEit hack and believed to be operating out of Russia and Ukraine (Misha Glenny/Financial Times)

Misha Glenny / Financial Times:
A profile of Clop, a Russian-speaking ransomware group responsible for the MOVEit hack and believed to be operating out of Russia and Ukraine  —  They hold global businesses to ransom and seem to act with impunity — but behind them lies a tangled geopolitical web

Some workers say on-demand home services startup Urban Company, which helped Indian women enter the gig economy, pushed them out for not meeting steep targets (Varsha Bansal/Wired)

Varsha Bansal / Wired:
Some workers say on-demand home services startup Urban Company, which helped Indian women enter the gig economy, pushed them out for not meeting steep targets  —  Home services platform Urban Company helped Indian women get into the gig economy.  Now they say it's setting impossible targets and then abandoning them.

Russian independent news outlet Meduza says Apple removed its flagship podcast from Apple Podcasts; source: Roskomnadzor asked Apple to remove the show (Meduza.io)

Meduza.io:
Russian independent news outlet Meduza says Apple removed its flagship podcast from Apple Podcasts; source: Roskomnadzor asked Apple to remove the show  —  Meduza has received a notice from Apple, informing our media that our flagship podcast “What Happened” has been removed from the Apple Podcasts streaming platform.