TRENDS
Artificial Intelligence: Hollywood is offering actors a frightening script
The threat to actors doesn’t just come from movie and TV studios trying to exert control and cut costs. It’s also from the coming torrent of AI tools that will mean just about anyone could recreate a person’s likeness and have them appear to engage in performances or acts without their consent
BUSINESS
Does Mark Zuckerberg even want Threads to replace Twitter?
Threads is going to have a hard time engaging people if posts lack wit, personality, and a taste of the real world. Meta seems to have decided it is not worth getting into politics, hard news and all the accompanying scrutiny, toxicity and negativity that social media, and especially Twitter, is now infamous for. The search for an alternative to Twitter continues
BUSINESS
Microsoft’s Activision win shouldn’t stop antitrust reform
The Microsoft-Activision case is the latest in a list of recent legal setbacks for US antitrust watchdog Federal Trade Commission, including an unsuccessful attempt to block Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. from acquiring a virtual-reality startup. The race to keep big tech in check is getting harder without the US Congress adopting new antitrust statutes
BUSINESS
Threads had big launch energy. Twitter is under pressure
For the first time since Elon Musk’s takeover, the app is at imminent risk of losing its status as the watercooler of the internet
BUSINESS
Twitter’s troubles are perfectly timed for Meta
With Twitter's strained servers facing the consequences of Musk's cost-cutting exercises, it couldn't have come at a better time for the new competitor on the block, Meta's copycat app, Threads, which could be launched any day now. Musk has been fortunate that no real viable alternative has emerged since he acquired Twitter last fall but that could change now
BUSINESS
IBM can’t acquire its way into tech’s top ranks
A deal for software provider Apptio will boost the company’s cloud business but still leave it trailing the industry’s AI innovators
BUSINESS
Amazon Prime suit puts subscription services on notice
For too long, companies have duped consumers into paying for things they didn’t want
BUSINESS
Reddit made the mistake of ignoring its core users
The social-media platform needs a path to profitability that recognises the commitment of its moderators and volunteers
BUSINESS
Apple has 520 reasons why its $3,499 Vision Pro headset will prevail over Meta's Quest
Apple's extensive retail operation comprising 520 stores is an underestimated force in its efforts to win at mixed reality. Its stores are already well-established with good footfalls and introducing mixed reality in this environment may be enough for this first-generation product
BUSINESS
Apple’s pricey new Vision Pro headset is not to be dismissed
Both iPhone and Apple 1 spoke to a computing future that hadn’t been fully imagined then. In time, the Vision Pro will become cheaper, thinner, lighter and cooler. Apple can’t claim to have invented mixed reality but in its typical fashion brings innovation and smart design to a category severely lacking in both
BUSINESS
Zelda’s legend proves great IP is timeless
With hardware heading to near-irrelevance, regulators are right to focus on the decades-long appeal of the most popular games
BUSINESS
Uber really needs Lyft to stay in the rideshare race
San Francisco’s fiercest startup rivalry is over. If Lyft ceased being a meaningful competitor, regulators could review Uber's claims that drivers are “independent contractors”. Consumers could also turn against the company over pricing
BUSINESS
Bluesky repeats most of Twitter's mistakes
The Jack Dorsey-backed social networking app is big on aspiration, but lacking in detail
BUSINESS
In the ChatGPT age, prompting is the language to learn
Most AI will keep relying heavily on the human in the loop to provide instruction, refine outputs and push the technology to new directions
BUSINESS
Twitter Blue Check Removal: Elon Musk needs journalists more than he thinks
Most people on Twitter find value in what the media does. Editors and executives now must decide whether to line the pockets of the world’s second-richest man in order to keep verified status and maintain visibility on the platform
BUSINESS
Are advertisers who remain wary of trolls actually returning to Twitter?
The social network Elon Musk seems intent on creating — a "troll heaven" — is one advertisers do not want. Musk may describe Twitter as the world’s biggest town square, but it is in fact a wild playground — a place where the loudest and roughest inhabitants set the tone
