The Tech Jawn

Happy belated birthday to ChatGPT. OpenAI’s generative AI chatbot that kicked off the AI craze of 2023 officially turned 1 year old on November 30th.Spotify has laid off 17% of its workforce eliminating around 1500 jobs. This is the music streaming company’s third reduction in staff this year.Do we need to worry about NameDrop? All the concerns related to the new contact sharing feature which debuted in iOS 17 may be just a bit overstated.And you might be surprised by just how much data Colleges and Universities collect on their students.Link to Show Notes...

This is a public service announcement to check your old Google accounts because, starting this week, Google is deleting accounts that have not been accessed in over two years.Tech Life Steph has made the switch from PC to Mac, but, all is not well as she explains why she is not yet using her new hotness to record episodes of the show.Coding My Crown and Dove have partnered to launch an open-source guide for coding Black hair in video games.And, billion-dollar case maker Casetify is being sued by dBrands for jacking its designs, Easter eggs and all, from its Teardown line of cases.We've got all this, a recap of the OpenAI hot mess from a week ago, and we've got a Spotlight in episode 108 of The Tech Jawn.Link to Show Notes

Apple has finally decided to add RCS to the iPhone sometime in 2024, but, the company makes it clear that RCS is not coming to iMessage, thus the blue bubble vs. green bubble bullying will continue.OpenAI fired its CEO, failed at trying to rehire him less than 24 hours later, had most of its employees threaten to leave the company if it didn’t bring him back, and is now trying to rehire him again, all while knowing Microsoft has already offered him and those who to follow him a gig.And, Amazon is offering free AI training to up to 2 million people by 2025. It’s trying to build the AI workforce for tomorrow by training it today.Link to Show Notes

It looks like the Food and Drug Administration might be ready to approve the first gene-editing therapy, CRISPR, that cured sickle cell anemia symptoms in 97% of trial patients. Are we ready for the Humane AI Pin? A wearable AI assistant that kind of reminds you of a Star Trek TNG communicator badge. Rapper and Producer The D. O. C. may use AI to release new music.And banks are under pressure to refund funds to Zelle users who were scammed out of their money, while the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau aims to regulate all digital payment apps like Banks.Link to Show Notes

Electric vehicle sales are actually up year over year but their increased cost compared to the ICE counterparts keeps consumers from adopting them at the rate auto manufacturers thought they would.Elon Musk’s generative AI company X.ai released its LLM Grok this week. The chatbot comes with an X Premium+ account and answers you in a snarky tone.Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses are out. Are you going to cop a pair, or, naw?And Click Workers, the people who train AI, are underpaid, underappreciated, and incentivized to “go along with the group” instead of calling it like they see it.Link to Show Notes

Cruise’s robotaxi permit was immediately suspended in San Francisco after the company failed to report the whole story about a pedestrian-involved accident and two days later the company suspended service everywhere.Facebook and Instagram launched ad-free premium subscriptions in Europe.  And X, formerly Twitter, launched Basic and Premium+ subscriptions here in the U.S.Multiple states are suing Meta because of beauty filters’ effects on children’s development.And,  Dr. Joy Buolamwini, the Biden Administration, and the United Nations all feel some type of way about AI, its safeguards, and its proliferation.Link to Show Notes

A jury awards a female Google Cloud executive $1.1 million because the company gave higher pay to less-experienced male cohorts and later denied her promotions in retaliation for complaining about it.On the heels of the password-sharing crackdown and a 70% increase in ad-supported tiers, Netflix has a better-than-expected Q3.  The company is still hiking subscription prices though.Google is rolling out RSS to YouTube and YouTube Music, but, it isn’t quite what many podcasters expected.And, could former Fugees member Pras be granted an appeal because his former lawyer used A.I. to write closing arguments in his federal court case?Link to Show Notes

Microsoft, Apple, and now Google all have native support for passkeys, the next wave of authentication technology that doesn’t require you to remember passwords.A New York state bill has been proposed that would require everyone to register in order to buy certain 3-D printers because of their potential to print parts for guns.The European Union isn’t messing around when it comes to misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war on social media platforms but we wonder where that fervor was for other atrocities in recent memory.And we shine the Spotlight on Trisha Prabhu, who, at only 22 years old, has received worldwide acclaim in the business world.Link to Show Notes

Midjourney is trippin' when it comes to using AI to draw Black African doctors helping white children.Would you pay $14 monthly or more to access Facebook and Instagram without ads? This is what Meta wants European Union users to pay if they opt out of targeted adAmazon is being sued by the US Federal Trade Commission for illegally maintaining monopoly power.And, another Tesla owner was killed when driving with autopilot engaged, but, the automated system made no attempt to stop or steer clear of a semi that cut the car off.Link to Show Notes