HeyWhatsNew: The U.S. Government Is Taking Adobe to Court, and a Former OpenAI Exec Is Establishing a New AI Company
What’s new, Heyuppers? It’s good to have you back for this week’s edition of HeyWhatsNew, your weekly tech news updates plug. Here’s what’s happening in the world in the week beginning 17/06/2024.
OpenAI Co-Founder Exploring Personal AI Endeavours After Leaving the Company
UK news outlet The Independent reports that Ilya Sutskever, the ex-chief scientist and co-founder of OpenAI, announced the creation of his new AI company, Safe Superintelligence. This venture will prioritize AI safety, which Sutskever emphasized as their primary mission and core focus.
Last year, Sutskever played a significant role in the high-profile effort to remove Sam Altman as OpenAI’s CEO. Following Altman’s quick reinstatement, Sutskever was ousted from the company’s board and eventually departed from OpenAI in May this year.
New EU Chat Control Law Proposes Undermining End-to-End Encryption
In an effort to combat child sexual abuse material (CSAM), the EU is proposing a law that aims to undermine end-to-end encryption. Mashable reports that the “chat control” law suggests scanning all messages, including encrypted ones. End-to-end encryption ensures that messages are scrambled so that only the sender and receiver can read them, preventing access by governments or the messaging platform itself.
The proposed legislation acknowledges the importance of end-to-end encryption for protecting rights, but stresses the need to prevent encrypted services from becoming secure channels for sharing or distributing CSAM without repercussions.
Beats by Dre Leaks New Beats Pill Speaker Info
Since the release of the Beats Pill+ in 2022, no new Beats Pill speaker has been introduced, until now. Apple and Beats by Dre have officially announced a new Beats Pill speaker through a teaser video on X featuring Lebron James, indicating a release date of June 25.
Tom’s Guide reports that the 2024 model of the speaker is expected to offer double the battery life of its predecessor, boasting an estimated 24 hours. Additionally, it will update its charging ports, replacing the old USB-A and Apple lightning ports with at least one USB-C port for both charging in and out.
Netflix Announces the First Two Locations for Netflix House
Eight months ago, Netflix announced plans to venture into physical stores known as Netflix House. This week, The Verge reported that the company revealed where the first two Netflix House retail stores would be located.
According to the report, Netflix House stores will be located in Dallas and Pennsylvania when they’re first opened in 2025, but that’s all we know so far. Marian Lee, Netflix’s chief marketing officer, highlighted that the venue will feature “unique food and drink offerings.”
Apple Is Shutting Down Apple Pay Later
In light of new features expected to drop this fall, Apple has decided to discontinue their Pay Later service with immediate effect, according to 9to5Mac. Instead, Apple is focusing on introducing new global features to Apple Pay later this year.
These include the ability to access installment loan options from eligible credit or debit cards, as well as through Affirm. Current users with active Apple Pay Later loans will continue to manage them through the Wallet app.
McDonald’s Is Letting Go of Its AI-powered Ordering
McDonald’s has decided to terminate its trial of an AI ordering system following several viral incidents of mistaken orders. The system, developed by IBM, utilized voice recognition to process orders and had been tested in over 100 McDonald’s locations across the US since 2021.
McDonald’s has instructed franchisees to remove the technology by the end of July, as reported by the trade publication Restaurant Business. In a statement, the company acknowledged the successes of the trial but expressed a desire to explore voice ordering solutions more broadly.
The U.S. Government Is Suing Adobe for Deceptive Practices
The US government is suing Adobe for allegedly obscuring costly fees and complicating the subscription cancellation process. The lawsuit claims Adobe hides the terms of its annual, paid monthly plan in the “fine print and behind optional textboxes and hyperlinks,” thereby failing to adequately disclose the early termination fee, which can be as much as several hundred dollars.
The Verge reports that the Department of Justice asserts that Adobe has “harmed consumers by enrolling them in its default, most lucrative subscription plan without clearly disclosing important plan terms.”
It seems like we have plenty of exciting updates to look forward to in the coming weeks. Join us again next time to get your dose of weekly tech updates.
