As Google plays catchup to OpenAI and Microsoft, CEO Sundar Pichai finds himself in the hot seat for fumbling the company&#8217;s lead in AI. It has some people questioning his leadership.



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When co-founders&nbsp;Larry Page and Sergey Brin&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.google/alphabet/letter-from-larry-and-sergey/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;that they were leaving their day-to-day roles at Google parent Alphabet in 2019, handing Sundar Pichai the keys to the kingdom, they mused about Google’s age.



“If the company was a person, it would be a young adult of 21 and it would be time to leave the roost,” they wrote. “We believe it’s time to assume the role of proud parents—offering advice and love, but not daily nagging!”



Four years later, as Google faces incursions from AI rivals dead set on dethroning the company’s iconic search business, the absent parents have returned home. Microsoft, a once-dormant rival, has sprung to life with a new version of Bing, aided by OpenAI, the upstart maker of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/02/02/inside-chatggpts-breakout-moment-and-the-race-for-the-future-of-ai/?sh=50755de3240b">the generative AI bot ChatGPT</a>. As the chatbot began to make waves, Page and Brin, who became advisors for the company after leaving their official positions, started to take a more active role: They attended AI strategy meetings. Brin got&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2023/01/31/sergey-brin-code-request-lamda/">hands-on with code</a>.



The re-emergence of the founders, as well as the fumbling of Google’s consumer AI efforts, has shaken the confidence of some in the guy in charge: the mild-mannered Pichai, who once graced the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-06-24/googles-sundar-pichai-king-of-android-master-of-mobile-profile" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cover</a>&nbsp;of Bloomberg Businessweek hugging a stuffed Android as “Google’s Soft Power.” Rivals, investors, and industry observers are wondering whether Pichai is the CEO that can navigate the company through what seems to be developing into an existential crisis.



With the company&#8217;s army of engineers and researchers, AI was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2023/02/08/google-openai-chatgpt-microsoft-bing-ai/?sh=1934a0a34de4">Google&#8217;s game to lose</a>. It&#8217;s still early, but now Google finds itself in the unlikely position of playing from behind in a field it helped pioneer—a deficit that some have blamed on leadership.



“Sundar is a very strong operator, but not as much of a strategic thinker and visionary,” Nimrit Kang, co-chief investment officer of Northstar Asset Management, which holds about $20 million in Alphabet stock, told&nbsp;Forbes. Kang said the company needs to “disrupt” itself, even if it means short-term pain, to set itself up for the long-term future. “We feel, from everything we&#8217;re seeing at least, Sundar is not that person.”



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“We feel, from everything we&#8217;re seeing at least, Sundar is not that person.”
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“Google’s board, including the founders, must ask: Is Pichai the right guy to run the company, or is it time for Sundar to go?” the veteran Silicon Valley writer Om Malik&nbsp;<a href="https://om.co/2023/02/08/does-google-need-a-new-ceo/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a>&nbsp;last month. “Does the company need a more offense-minded CEO? Someone who is not satisfied with [the] status quo, and willing to break some eggs?” After Malik’s post, respected tech analyst Ben Thompson also&nbsp;<a href="https://stratechery.com/2023/the-google-ceo-question-steve-ballmer-and-peacetime-ceos-about-that-bard-mistake/?" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">gave credence</a>&nbsp;to the question, broaching it in his widely-read blog Stratechery. Googlers have anonymously mused about it on the platform Blind, under the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.teamblind.com/post/Will-Sundar-Pichai-be-ousted-Xqx8NM1H" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">post</a>&nbsp;“Will Sundar Pichai be ousted?”



“I think Sundar and the team got complacent,” said Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities. He said it&#8217;s too early in the AI competition to think about an executive change, but they need to alter their approach. “They&#8217;re going to need an army formed with leadership that goes after this market, because this is a game of high-stakes poker and so far they&#8217;re losing.”



Google declined to comment or make Pichai available for an interview.



Pichai has weathered this type of criticism before. Executives at Google have long grumbled about his apparent aversion for risk and slow decision-making, according to a&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/21/technology/sundar-pichai-google.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">profile</a>&nbsp;of the CEO in 2021. At the time, Google defended Pichai by noting that internal surveys about his leadership were positive. But while Googlers have whispered their annoyances in the past, the chattering has become louder in recent weeks. The stakes are nearing a crescendo as rivals gun for Google’s sparkling search operation, one of the most efficient money-making machines in modern business. The questions also come as Google faces the morale blow of mass layoffs; Pichai laid off 12,000 workers, or 6% of the company, in January.



Still, Pichai is supremely respected around Google, and anyone who questions his leadership is quick to preface the criticism with remarks about how intelligent and impressive he is. Many of Pichai’s critics point to the dichotomy of the peacetime CEO and wartime CEO, a trope&nbsp;<a href="https://a16z.com/2011/04/14/peacetime-ceo-wartime-ceo/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">coined</a>&nbsp;by the venture capitalist Ben Horowtiz in 2011. A peacetime CEO, he wrote, enjoys a “large advantage vs. the competition in its core market,” while a CEO at war is like a general “fending off an imminent existential threat.”



“He is the epitome, the quintessential, the pinnacle of peacetime CEO,” a former Google executive told&nbsp;Forbes. A former Google director put it even more bluntly: “We’re taking bets on how long it&#8217;s going to last,” the person said. “I think everybody agrees he will be gone. The question is just how long from now?”



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“He is the epitome, the quintessential, the pinnacle of peacetime CEO.”
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Pichai’s defenders value his even-keeled approach, especially with something as powerful as AI. With its trillion dollar market cap and billions of users, Google was always going to be in a more precarious spot than any startup with less to lose and fewer people to anger. Supporters say the company is still well-positioned to win the AI war, with years of machine learning research and development, decades of user data and a track record of scaling products. “Who’s to say he’s not a good wartime CEO?” one current Google employee said. “He hasn&#8217;t gone to war yet.”



The caution could prove to be prudent. Google has avoided some of the backlash directed toward Microsoft&#8217;s Bing after the chatbot began responding with violent and obsessive answers, as journalists and early testers sought to push the software&#8217;s boundaries. But even as Google has moved slower, it&#8217;s still been burned: After its chatbot Bard generated an incorrect answer during a promo video last month, further inflaming concerns about Google falling behind, the company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-ai-chatbot-bard-offers-inaccurate-information-company-ad-2023-02-08/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lost $100 billion</a>&nbsp;in market value.



Pichai’s rise has been a feel-good Silicon Valley story. Born in Chennai, India, he attended the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. He moved to the U.S. in 1993 and earned master&#8217;s degrees from Stanford and Wharton. After graduating, he worked as a consultant for McKinsey before interviewing at Google on April 1, 2004, the same day the company launched Gmail.



At Google, he quickly ascended the ranks. He first served as a product manager in charge of the browser search bar, before pushing for Google to create its own browser, Chrome. In 2013, he took over Android from its now-disgraced creator Andy Rubin. Two years later, he was tapped to oversee Google’s entire portfolio of web products, including search, ads and maps. When the company restructured under Alphabet in 2015, Pichai took over Google. Four years later, he became CEO of the whole conglomerate.



Whereas Page and Brin were seen as visionaries—Page claims the idea for Google&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/qFb2rvmrahc?t=355" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">came to him in a dream</a>—employees say Pichai is the practical leader who keeps the trains on schedule: talented and competent, but not necessarily inspiring. Instead of acting decisively, he often takes a more passive approach, people who worked with him say. One former executive calls him a “babysitter CEO.”



Once early in his tenure, Pichai convened a meeting between the leadership and senior staff of some of Google’s platforms, including Android head Hiroshi Lockheimer and Nest cofounder Tony Fadell, according to two people who attended the meeting. The various units had been jostling over which team would work on what project. “Sundar was literally brought in to broker the peace negotiations between the warring factions,” one attendee told&nbsp;Forbes.



The group met for three or four hours. Pichai listened to everyone’s point of view and asked some questions, but was mostly quiet. In the end, he told the platform leaders to work it out among themselves and report back, two attendees said, instead of giving clear direction. One of the attendees likened the situation to&nbsp;Game of Thrones. “He wanted to unite the kingdoms, and everyone respects Sundar so would bend the knee to him,” the person said. “But when the dragons come, he’s not going to know what to do.”



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“When the dragons come, he’s not going to know what to do.”&nbsp;
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Google declined to comment on the meeting. Fadell, who left the company in 2016, also declined to comment.



The episode is emblematic of the leadership style Pichai has imparted at the company. In 2018, a group of more than a dozen vice presidents&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/21/technology/sundar-pichai-google.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;sent Pichai an email that said the company took too long with big decisions, and that it was difficult to coordinate technical feedback. Some of the company’s sluggishness stems from Pichai’s demeanor, a former Google executive who worked with him told&nbsp;Forbes. “He doesn&#8217;t like conflict. He doesn&#8217;t like making unpopular decisions,&#8221; that person said. &#8220;It&#8217;s just a slow, lethargic place.”



Pichai is in a difficult position. Google is far from the scrappy startup Page and Brin founded in a Menlo Park garage in 1998. The company has more than tripled in size since he took over in 2015, ballooning to more than 190,000 full-time employees in December before layoffs.



That explosive growth comes with cultural shifts that can cause stagnation. Without naming Pichai specifically, Praveen Seshadri, a former Google engineer, called out company management last month for a bureaucratic atmosphere where people aren’t incentivized to go above and beyond. “Overall, it is a soft peacetime culture where nothing is worth fighting for,” Seshadri&nbsp;<a href="https://medium.com/@pravse/the-maze-is-in-the-mouse-980c57cfd61a" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a>&nbsp;in a 3,600-word essay.



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“Google isn’t Googley anymore.”
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In other words: “Google isn’t Googley anymore,” one laid off rank-and-file employee told&nbsp;Forbes. “I hesitate to put the blame or responsibility on Sundar, because he doesn&#8217;t project a strong voice of leadership one way or another,” they continued. But that viewpoint still doesn’t bode well for the CEO. “I&#8217;m not even sure I could say what his particular vision for the company is, apart from holding the market share we already have.”



Now that outlook has stung Pichai as rivals make a meaningful run at that market share for the first time in decades. Even after laying the groundwork for dominance in AI—Google researchers pioneered a breakthrough six years ago that undergirds chatbots like ChatGPT and Bing—Google was beaten to market during what is turning out to be a seminal moment for the future of AI. “His whole thing was a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2023/02/08/google-openai-chatgpt-microsoft-bing-ai/">bet on AI-first</a>. That was clearly his drumbeat,” said the former Google director. “And he hasn’t really done much.”



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/"></a>By Richard Nieva, Forbes Staff

gettyimages-1147600063-594×594

Google’s ‘Peacetime’ CEO Sundar Pichai Faces Criticism As The AI War Heats Up

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



The roaring success of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot created by U.S. non-profit OpenAI, has sparked a frantic rush to get new AI products to market, a frenzy that is consuming tech’s biggest behemoths and countless startups as they fight for space in the emerging sector.



<h2>KEY FACTS</h2>



Microsoft, which has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/23/business/microsoft-chatgpt-artificial-intelligence.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">invested</a>&nbsp;billions in ChatGPT creator OpenAI, swiftly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/technology/microsoft-ai-chatgpt-bing.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tapped</a>&nbsp;the chatbot to enhance its Bing search engine and Edge web browser and is betting big that AI will define the next generation of big tech.



The decision <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/10/google-employees-slam-ceo-sundar-pichai-for-rushed-bard-announcement.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">goaded</a> Google into <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2023/02/06/google-to-release-chatbot-following-chatgpt-frenzy/?sh=3009b4873961">launching</a> its own AI chatbot, Bard, which gave an incorrect answer in a promotional video, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-ai-chatbot-bard-offers-inaccurate-information-company-ad-2023-02-08/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">failed</a> to impress investors and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2023/02/08/alphabet-google-stock-plunge-erases-100-billion-after-new-ai-chatbot-gives-wrong-answer-in-ad/?sh=d855ee355ce8">erased</a> $100 billion in value from parent company Alphabet.



Chinese tech giant Baidu <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/baidus-chatgpt-like-app-will-revolutionise-its-search-engine-says-ceo-2023-02-22/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-science-baidu-inc-china-artificial-intelligence-427838070f962108cabed1e553fc3d12" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">plans</a> to integrate its AI chatbot Ernie into its search engine services from March, though little is known about its capabilities.



Other Chinese&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/23/business/dealbook/china-ai-chatgpt.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">behemoths</a>&nbsp;including Alibaba, JD.com and WeChat parent Tencent have stated they are working on ChatGPT-like products of their own, though details are sparse and they have not outlined specific timetables for when they will implement them.



Among U.S. giants, Apple has been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-apple-ai-chatgpt-strategy-competition-2023-2?r=US&amp;IR=T" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">conspicuously absent&nbsp;</a>from the AI race but is<a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/tech/apple-launching-ai-chatbot-rival-siri-chatgpt-b1060568.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;reportedly making moves</a>&nbsp;signaling a launch is on the horizon and on Tuesday Amazon, which has been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-ceo-andy-jassy-on-chat-cpt-ai-2023-2?r=US&amp;IR=T" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">working</a>&nbsp;on similar tech for a long time,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-02-21/amazons-aws-hugging-face-ai-deals-chatgpt" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;a partnership with Hugging Face, an AI startup developing a ChatGPT rival.



WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram parent Meta, long a leader in the AI space, is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/technology/meta-artificial-intelligence-chatgpt.html?action=click&amp;pgtype=Article&amp;state=default&amp;module=styln-artificial-intelligence&amp;variant=show&amp;region=BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT&amp;block=storyline_flex_guide_recirc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a> more than capable of holding its own against rivals like ChatGPT but has held back over fears its AI tool would help spread false, biased or misleading information, already major problems on its platforms.



<h2>KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



The launch of OpenAi’s ChatGPT has triggered a gold rush in Silicon Valley and other global tech hubs around the world, and companies are now rushing to keep pace or get behind. The tech is grouped under the heading generative artificial intelligence, an umbrella term for systems that can produce new text, images, video and other outputs like code and music on their own. It takes vast amounts of data to train such systems and the output, which depends on the data used to train it, can reflect any biases, errors or falsities inherent in the original dataset. The ability for products like ChatGPT to generate novel content has been heralded as the dawn of a new age and in the few short months ChatGPT has been available to the public it has already threatened to disrupt numerous fields and raised new questions for businesses. Teachers are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/technology/chatgpt-schools-teachers.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">struggling</a>&nbsp;with how to handle, or detect, students using the chatbot to cheat,&nbsp;<a href="https://qz.com/clarkesword-neil-clarke-chatgpt-ai-q-and-a-1850144881" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">publishers</a>&nbsp;have been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/chatgpt-launches-boom-ai-written-e-books-amazon-2023-02-21/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">inundated</a>&nbsp;with a flood of AI-generated content of questionable quality and media outlets are looking at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/4fae2380-d7a7-410c-9eed-91fd1411f977" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">using the tool</a>&nbsp;to write news stories. JPMorgan Chase has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/02/22/jpmorgan-chase-restricts-staffers-use-of-chatgpt/?sh=249d5cdf6bc7">restricted</a>&nbsp;the use of ChatGPT by staff, reportedly due to regulatory concerns over sharing data. Amazon&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-chatgpt-openai-warns-employees-not-share-confidential-information-microsoft-2023-1?r=US&amp;IR=T" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;has similar fears. ChatGPT has been banned in its entirety in China. The restrictive state, no stranger to limiting content its citizens can access online,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/23/china-chatgpt-clamp-down-propaganda" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">clamped down</a>&nbsp;on the tool and called it an instrument of Western propaganda.



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/02/16/bing-chatbots-unhinged-responses-going-viral/?sh=74a3f08110c6">Bing Chatbot’s ‘Unhinged’ Responses Going Viral</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/02/02/inside-chatggpts-breakout-moment-and-the-race-for-the-future-of-ai/?sh=7c094084240b">Inside ChatGPT’s Breakout Moment And The Race To Put AI To Work</a>(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/16/microsoft-bing-ai-chat-interview/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The new Bing told our reporter it ‘can feel or think things’</a>&nbsp;(Washington Post)



<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/technology/meta-artificial-intelligence-chatgpt.html?action=click&amp;pgtype=Article&amp;state=default&amp;module=styln-artificial-intelligence&amp;variant=show&amp;region=BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT&amp;block=storyline_flex_guide_recirc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Meta, Long an A.I. Leader, Tries Not to Be Left Out of the Boom</a> (NYT)



By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff

In this photo illustration, the ChatGPT (OpenAI) logo is

ChatGPT’s Biggest Competition: Here Are The Companies Working On Rival AI Chatbots

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



The Supreme Court considers how responsible major social media platforms—Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, especially—are for their most dangerous posts, challenging broad protections that tech companies claim are necessary to keep the Internet from turning into a bleak wasteland, but that critics claim go too far.



<h2>KEY FACTS</h2>



The Supreme Court&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/10/03/supreme-court-to-consider-whether-tech-companies-like-google-facebook-can-be-held-liable-for-content-recommendations/?sh=7afbc97f3c5c">will hear</a>&nbsp;oral arguments Monday in the case (Gonzalez v. Google) where family members of a victim in the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks sued Google, alleging YouTube (a Google company) should be held liable after its algorithm recommended ISIS recruitment videos to potential supporters, and hear arguments Wednesday in Twitter v. Taamneh, which takes similar aim against social media companies over their role in a 2017 terrorist attack in Turkey.



The first case challenges whether YouTube can be held liable for the recommendations it makes under <a href="https://www.theverge.com/21273768/section-230-explained-internet-speech-law-definition-guide-free-moderation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Section 230</a> of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which shields social media platforms and other Internet companies from legal liability by saying they’re not legally responsible for third-party content posted on their platform.



Tech platforms including Google, Meta, Twitter, Microsoft, Yelp, Reddit, Craigslist, Wikipedia and others have argued in filings that a court ruling saying YouTube can be held liable would have disastrous consequences, resulting in online platforms broadly restricting any content that could possibly be considered legally objectionable—or taking the opposite approach and leaving everything up with no filtering of obviously problematic content.



First Amendment advocacy groups including the ACLU and Knight Foundation have warned such restrictions could chill free speech, and if tech platforms are forced to get rid of recommendation algorithms, Google argued the Internet could turn into a “disorganized mess and a litigation minefield.”



The Twitter case, which also involves Facebook and Google, doesn’t concern Section 230, but instead asks if social media companies can be held responsible under the Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows lawsuits against anyone who “aids and abets” an act of international terrorism.



After a lower court found that merely knowing terrorists were among the company’s users would be enough grounds for a lawsuit, Twitter argued a ruling against it would also result in “particularly broad liability” for social media companies, and Facebook and Google suggested that could extend to other organizations who may have to work, even indirectly, with terrorists, including humanitarian groups that work on the ground in countries like Syria.



<h2>CHIEF CRITIC</h2>



The plaintiffs who sued Google rejected the dire predictions made by tech companies in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-1333/254251/20230207191257813_GonzalezRepyMeritsPrinted.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">brief</a>&nbsp;to the court, arguing they’re overbroad and “largely unrelated to the specific issues” in the case. “Predictions that a particular decision of this Court will have dire consequences are easy to make, but often difficult to evaluate,” the petitioners argued, noting that while social media companies still have other legal safeguards in place to protect them like the First Amendment, there’s “no denying that the materials being promoted on social media sites have in fact caused serious harm.”



<h2>CONTRA</h2>



The Biden Administration has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-1333/249441/20221207203557042_21-1333tsacUnitedStates.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">argued</a>&nbsp;the Supreme Court should narrow the scope of Section 230 to make it more possible to sue social media platforms, warning against an “overly broad reading” of the statute that could “undermine the importance of other federal statutes.” The White House argued Section 230 does not protect YouTube from lawsuits against harmful recommendations its algorithm makes, given that its recommendations are created by the company and not content from third parties. Supporters of the plaintiffs have also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-case-heads-to-supreme-court-with-powerful-internet-shield-law-at-stake-e548e241?mod=e2tw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">suggested</a>&nbsp;a ruling against Google could help social media platforms clean up algorithms that have resulted in harmful recommendations for minors, with the Electronic Privacy Information Center&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-1333/249376/20221207151042885_21-1333%20Electronic%20Privacy%20Information%20Center%20Amicus%20Brief%20in%20Support%20of%20Neither%20Party.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">arguing</a>&nbsp;social media companies take advantage of Section 230’s broad nature and “use Section 230 as a shield instead of making their products safer.”



<h2>CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“Denying Section 230(c)(1)’s protection to YouTube’s recommendation display could have devastating spillover effects,” Google argued to the court in a brief, arguing that gutting Section 230 “would upend the internet and perversely encourage both wide ranging suppression of speech and the proliferation of more offensive speech.”



<h2>WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



Rulings in the two cases will come by the time the Supreme Court’s term wraps up in late June or early July. It’s also possible the court won’t issue a sweeping ruling on when social media companies can be held liable under Section 230: Google argued if the court throws out the Twitter case by saying the victim’s family didn’t have grounds to sue, it could also dismiss the Google case on the same grounds without getting into Section 230 at all.



<h2>KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



The Google case comes to the Supreme Court after lower district and appeals courts have both sided with the social media platform, ruling it’s protected by Section 230 and can’t be sued. The case was heard together with the Twitter case before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but the appeals court ruled against the social media platforms in the Twitter case, holding that Twitter, Facebook and Google could all be held liable under anti-terrorism laws even as it separately upheld Section 230’s protections. The social media cases come to the Supreme Court as the increasing power of Big Tech and platforms’ failure to successfully moderate harmful content have come under fire from both sides of the political aisle, and the Supreme Court took up the cases after conservative-leaning Justice Clarence Thomas suggested the court should&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/04/05/984440891/justice-clarence-thomas-takes-aims-at-tech-and-its-power-to-cut-off-speech" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">consider</a>&nbsp;the issue of Section 230.



<h2>TANGENT</h2>



Republican lawmakers have particularly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/15/house-republicans-outline-principles-for-reforming-section-230.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">taken aim</a>&nbsp;at Section 230 and sought to hold social media companies more legally accountable, as they’ve accused social media companies of chilling conservatives’ speech. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) led 11 GOP lawmakers in filing a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-1333/249351/20221207133438524_Gonzalez%20Amicus%2020221207%20FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">brief</a>arguing for the Supreme Court to narrow the scope of Section 230, arguing social media companies have used the broad interpretation of the statute to “[not be] shy about restricting access and removing content based on the politics of the speaker.”



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/10/03/supreme-court-to-consider-whether-tech-companies-like-google-facebook-can-be-held-liable-for-content-recommendations/?sh=7afbc97f3c5c">Supreme Court To Consider Whether Tech Companies—Like Google, Twitter—Can Be Held Liable For Content Recommendations</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.theverge.com/21273768/section-230-explained-internet-speech-law-definition-guide-free-moderation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Everything you need to know about Section 230</a>&nbsp;(The Verge)



<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/18/tech/section-230-explainer/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">These 26 words ‘created the internet.’ Now the Supreme Court may be coming for them</a> (CNN)



By Alison Durkee, Forbes Staff

Twitter And Elon Musk Photo Illustrations

Should YouTube, Twitter Be More Responsible For Dangerous Content? Supreme Court Considers Tech Critics

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Apple has pushed back the targeted launch date for a new mixed-reality headset from April to June, according to<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-15/apple-pushes-back-mixed-reality-headset-debut-two-months-to-june?sref=9hGJlFio" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;Bloomberg</a>, in the latest setback for the tech giant, which has not launched a major new product line since the Apple Watch in 2015.



<h2 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Apple developers are now reportedly hoping to unveil the headset at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference, after calling off a spring launch due to persistent issues in testing.



The most pressing problems still being worked on are sensor issues involving the eye and hand control mechanism, along with battery life, according to Bloomberg.



The headset is expected to offer a mix of full virtual reality and augmented reality—which overlays digital information onto a users’ real-world experience—and will reportedly utilize a new operating system similar to an iPhone interface.



Numerous concerns have also been raised about the headset’s<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidphelan/2022/05/22/is-apple-about-to-debut-its-ar-headset-everything-we-know-so-far/?sh=605f1b943283">&nbsp;rumored $3,000 price tag</a>, which Bloomberg reports is a byproduct of using expensive materials like numerous cameras and 4K displays.



Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from&nbsp;Forbes.



<h2 id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Some within the company are reportedly concerned about the market Apple is entering, given the tens of billions Meta has invested in the metaverse and virtual reality<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/08/17/does-mark-zuckerberg-not-understand-how-bad-his-metaverse-looks/?sh=1b6924d237d4">&nbsp;with little commercial success</a>. Apple CEO<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/tim-cook/">&nbsp;Tim Cook</a>&nbsp;has publicly criticized the headset<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/03/apple-ceo-tim-cook-doesnt-like-metaverse-prefers-augmented-reality.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;approach</a>&nbsp;of Meta and other big tech companies, saying last year, “I’m really not sure the average person can tell you what the metaverse is.” Cook has instead predicted augmented reality will be the true game changer, calling it “a profound technology that will affect everything.” Apple executives are betting on the headset being the company’s biggest new revenue source since its smartwatch launched, though it’s hoping tweaks to some of its longtime staple products could also boost sales.<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-11/apple-working-on-adding-touch-screens-to-macs-in-major-turnabout" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;Bloomberg</a>&nbsp;reported last month the company is working to launch a touch-screen MacBook, despite company co-founder and longtime CEO Steve Jobs being adamantly opposed to the idea prior to his death in 2011.



<h2 id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



The major difference between the augmented reality Cook is pushing and the virtual reality experience&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/mark-zuckerberg/?sh=4bfc38c13e06">Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg</a>&nbsp;has promoted is that users are still fully aware of their real-life environment in augmented reality, where they interact with virtual components a headset places over their real space. Virtual reality is completely separate from the real environment, immersing a headset user in a digital world. Meta’s headsets offer both virtual and augmented reality experiences, but Zuckerberg has repeatedly said he sees a largely virtual metaverse–envisioned as essentially a broad collection of virtual worlds–as a revolutionary technical innovation that the company will be a pioneer in developing.



<h2 id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



Apple has also repeatedly pushed back the launch date<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/12/06/apple-scraps-plans-for-car-without-steering-wheel-or-pedals-report-says/?sh=47084c7da6db">&nbsp;for an autonomous vehicle</a>&nbsp;it has spent years developing in a secretive project, with 2026 the latest rumored target for release. The company<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-06/apple-scales-back-self-driving-car-and-delays-launch-until-2026" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;reportedly</a>&nbsp;scrapped plans last year for its car to run without a steering wheel or pedals.



<h2 id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-15/apple-pushes-back-mixed-reality-headset-debut-two-months-to-june?sref=9hGJlFio" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple Pushes Back Mixed-Reality Headset Debut Two Months to June</a>&nbsp;(Bloomberg)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidphelan/2022/05/22/is-apple-about-to-debut-its-ar-headset-everything-we-know-so-far/?sh=605f1b943283">Is Apple About To Debut Its AR Headset? Everything We Know So Far</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/08/17/does-mark-zuckerberg-not-understand-how-bad-his-metaverse-looks/?sh=1b6924d237d4">Does Mark Zuckerberg Not Understand How Bad His Metaverse Looks?</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/12/06/apple-scraps-plans-for-car-without-steering-wheel-or-pedals-report-says/?sh=47084c7da6db">Apple Scraps Plans For Car Without Steering Wheel Or Pedals, Report Says</a> (Forbes)<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/"></a>



By Nicholas Reimann, Forbes Staff

American multinational technology company Apple store seen

Apple Delays Launch Of Mixed-Reality Headset By 2 Months, Report Says

Precision healthcare is growing exponentially due to the application of AI in oncolo- gy. MedTech entrepreneur Dr Kingsley Ndoh is leading in this regard from Rwanda, helping oncologists and their patients in sub-Saharan Africa.



By Tiana Cline



Dr Kingsley Ndoh lost his aunt over a decade ago to colorectal cancer. She was only 51 years old and prior to her diagnosis, she was having high-risk abdominal symptoms. But in Nigeria, where Ndoh was both born and studied medicine, the screening guidelines for colorectal cancer begin at the age of 50.



“She didn’t even get the chance to have a screening,” he says. “What I realized is that a lot of the guidelines and treatments don’t work for all populations. It has to be specific to genetics, to the epidemiology and to the clinical context of those regions.” This was one of the reasons Ndoh decided that he wanted to get more training in oncology and that meant moving to the United States (US) to study global health. “I wanted to work at a population level,” explains Ndoh, who ended up at the University of Washington which was followed by a short-term fellowship at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center – “my foray into the world of global oncology,” he says.



But it was sitting on a plane, flying back home to Nigeria that sparked Ndoh’s interest in technology – and more specifically, artificial intelligence (AI). 



“I read a book by Jerry Kaplan called Humans Need Not Apply and became fascinated by the possibilities of AI that were mentioned in healthcare. But when I started digging into it, I realized that a lot of the AI products that are being rolled out and tested in the different aspects of healthcare deal mainly with Caucasian data and not in the context of places like sub-Saharan Africa.”



Precision healthcare is a field that is growing exponentially due to the application of AI in oncology. But AI and machine learning models require a massive about of data and Ndoh came to the realization that while the technology is there, it cannot simply be imported into Africa “because our data is different, and because the clinical context is different”, he says. After many years of planning, Ndoh launched a medical tech startup called Hurone AI focused on democratizing high-quality cancer care. “The specific area that we wanted to tackle as an early-stage startup was side effects,” he says. And then he came across research that took him by surprise: “In the last 20 years, the oncology medications (the cancer medicines) that have been approved by the FDA; less than 3% of the trial participants were black. That means the full range of side effects are not really known.”



Ndoh brings up recent research which shows that some breast cancer medications which are commonly given to African-American women lead to poor outcomes – and worse side-effects. “Tying this all together heightened my sense of urgency that we need to start understanding the data of diverse populations better,” he says. “I saw Africa as a place where things could be leapfrogged and the specific problem we’re looking at is the deficit between the number of oncologists and patients.”



<h3 id="h-a-specialist-shortage">A SPECIALIST SHORTAGE</h3>



Currently, there is around one oncologist to 187 patients in the US but in sub-Saharan Africa, the number sits at one to 3,000. African oncologists are overworked and lack critical support services but Ndoh believes that AI can help make things easier. “When patients get a diagnosis, they are bound to have side-effects from chemotherapy and radiotherapy but they don’t have access to an oncologist because they are few and far between. This means patients will begin to look at other sources of information such as Dr Google, herbalists or native doctors (as they’re called in some parts of Africa),” he elaborates, “and this could lead to worsened outcomes, unexpected symptoms or even hospitalization.”



After a couple of research trips to Rwanda, Ndoh heard how patients, nurses and doctors felt separated from each other.



Not only did the patients feel disconnected from follow-up care, the doctors said that they didn’t have a grasp of managing their patients.



“This is why Hurone AI is a two-way system. It’s a web platform for doctors and nurses to enter demographic and clinical data – including any treatment regimens given – and track their patients better. On the other side, there is a USSD text-based app for patients to receive cancer care remotely so that even those without smartphones can still access valuable information,” says Ndoh. 



Once a patient has been registered, they will receive questions related to their well-being and the answers are graded into mild, moderate and severe categories. “On the other end, the data is organized so that the doctors and nurses can easily see how a patient is doing and 70% of the complaints can be addressed by text messaging,” he says. “It also means patients can take action in emergency situations.”



As Hurone AI helps those suffering from the side-effects of cancer treatment, Ndoh is building a database of much-needed clinical and demographic information. His hope is that when the company scales, he will not only be able to automate more medical processes but build models that could use AI to predict side-effects prior to treatment. “And it could eventually help doctors to choose more wisely on what drugs they could give with the same efficacy.”



While Hurone AI is currently doing beta trials in Rwanda, Ndoh has plans to expand throughout sub-Saharan Africa as well as into other low-to-middle income countries. The patient app, which is called Gukiza, means healing in Kinyarwanda “and we make it clear that the app cannot heal you, but it brings that positivity patients need after a cancer diagnosis when they feel like their whole world is falling apart”.

Screenshot 2023-02-09 at 16.31.50

The Good Doctor With An Eye For AI in Africa

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Twitter massively<a href="https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1623411536243965954?s=20&amp;t=wHgK-etn97RQrNcUtNXo9g" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;expanded</a>&nbsp;its tweet length limit for U.S.-based Twitter Blue subscribers Wednesday, marking just the second time in the company’s 16-year history it has tweaked its character count as it reportedly struggles to attract a paying user base.



<h2 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



The character limit for subscribers in the U.S. is now 4,000—more than 14 times the existing 280-character limit, which remains in place for all non-subscribers and Twitter Blue users outside of the United States.



Users scrolling through their timelines will see 280-character snippets of lengthy tweets, with an option to expand—similar to formats on other social media platforms, like Facebook.



The move comes just two days after technology news outlet the<a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/musks-twitter-has-just-180-000-u-s-subscribers-two-months-after-launch" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;Information</a>&nbsp;reported Twitter Blue only had about 180,000 subscribers as of mid-January, accounting for less than 0.2% of monthly active users, who pay $8 a month for the service.



<h2 id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



Twitter’s only other character length expansion came in 2017, when it doubled its initial 140-character limit to 280.



<h2 id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Nascent company owner and CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly suggested a significant increase in Twitter Blue users is the only way for Twitter to remain financially solvent in the long-term, warning staff shortly after he took over the company: “Without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/11/10/musk-reportedly-bans-remote-work-at-twitter-and-warns-of-difficult-times-in-internal-email/?sh=2370b81a6031">&nbsp;Twitter will not survive</a>&nbsp;the upcoming economic downturn.” But Musk’s top selling points for Twitter Blue—limited ads, priority replies and a blue verification check mark—do not seem to be connecting for many users. Musk has also largely backed down from an early vow of forcing all users verified prior to his takeover to pay for a subscription to keep their blue check marks. Older verified accounts are now instead tagged as “legacy verified,” and include a disclaimer stating they “may or may not be notable.” Twitter’s financial problems have been compounded by a sizable drop in advertising revenue due to many<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/11/28/musk-says-apple-cutting-twitter-ads-here-are-the-other-companies-rethinking-their-ties/?sh=1a4550237032">&nbsp;prominent advertisers pulling funding</a>&nbsp;after Musk loosened some moderation guidelines and reinstated several banned accounts, including<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/11/20/elon-musk-reinstates-donald-trumps-twitter-account-after-users-vote-to-bring-him-back/?sh=359596357b60">&nbsp;former President Donald Trump’s</a>.



<h2 id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



Musk appeared to spontaneously come up with the<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/11/01/twitter-will-sell-coveted-blue-checkmark-for-8-a-month-musk-says-but-benefits-still-unclear/?sh=677ddf4f5ac2">&nbsp;$8-a-month price</a>&nbsp;for Twitter Blue subscriptions during a bizarre exchange with horror fiction author Stephen King last year, after King complained about reports that Twitter was considering a $20-per-month subscription. “We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?” Musk replied.https://embedly.forbes.com/widgets/media.html?type=text%2Fhtml&amp;key=3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935&amp;schema=twitter&amp;url=https%3A//twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1587312517679878144%3Fs%3D20%26t%3DQX7r2kWdRuxghDWqQJQZQA&amp;image=https%3A//i.embed.ly/1/image%3Furl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fabs.twimg.com%252Ferrors%252Flogo46x38.png%26key%3D3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935



<h2 id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/musks-twitter-has-just-180-000-u-s-subscribers-two-months-after-launch" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Musk’s Twitter Has Just 180,000 U.S. Subscribers, Two Months After Launch</a>&nbsp;(The Information)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/11/10/musk-reportedly-bans-remote-work-at-twitter-and-warns-of-difficult-times-in-internal-email/?sh=2370b81a6031">Musk Reportedly Bans Remote Work At Twitter And Warns Of ‘Difficult Times’ In Internal Email</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/11/20/elon-musk-reinstates-donald-trumps-twitter-account-after-users-vote-to-bring-him-back/?sh=359596357b60">Elon Musk Reinstates Donald Trump’s Twitter Account After Asking Users To Vote</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/11/01/twitter-will-sell-coveted-blue-checkmark-for-8-a-month-musk-says-but-benefits-still-unclear/?sh=677ddf4f5ac2">Twitter Will Sell Coveted Blue Checkmark For $8 A Month, Musk Says—But Benefits Still Unclear</a> (Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/"></a>By Nicholas Reimann, Forbes Staff

Photo Illustrations

Twitter Boosts Character Limit To 4,000 For Twitter Blue Subscribers

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



The highly anticipated Harry Potter video game debuts this week, but it’s been plagued by controversy and boycotts as players grapple with whether to support J.K. Rowling’s franchise in light of her history of comments widely seen as transphobic.



<h2>KEY FACTS</h2>



Hogwarts Legacy, a role-playing game set in the Harry Potter universe developed by Avalanche Software and published by Warner Bros. Games, will be&nbsp;<a href="https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/hogwarts-legacy-transgender-character-jk-rowling-harry-potter-wizarding-world-1235514416/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">released</a>&nbsp;February 10 on PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S.



The game has garnered largely&nbsp;<a href="https://www.metacritic.com/search/all/hogwarts%20legacy/results" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">positive reviews</a>&nbsp;on aggregator Metacritic, and has climbed the bestseller list of online vendors like Amazon and the Epic Store thanks to pre-orders.



However, some fans and gamers are boycotting the game in protest of J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter novel series who has a history of making comments offensive to the transgender community and stands to earn&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2023/01/12/the-hogwarts-legacy-debate-explained/?sh=af6fa126a32b">royalties</a>&nbsp;from game sales (though she was not involved in the game’s creation).



Some popular game review sites like Kotaku, Polygon and Eurogamer have not yet reviewed Hogwarts Legacy despite the review embargo lifting Monday, while others have denounced J.K. Rowling’s comments and voiced support for transgender people in their reviews.



Jessie Earl, a trans YouTuber and writer,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/jessiegender/status/1603942028555210752" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>&nbsp;in December that unlike consuming previously owned Harry Potter books or films, purchasing Hogwarts Legacy while Rowling is “using her ongoing platform to target and also justify her continued targeting of trans people is harmful to trans people” (Rowling responded, accusing her of “purethink”).



Some streamers on Amazon-owned Twitch video platform—including&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Will_Overgard/status/1614874335839420416" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Will Overgard</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/NikatinePrime/status/1622312576897138688?s=20&amp;t=rb02d41dK_8NpoRZc_sefA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nikatine</a>—have publicly voiced opposition to the game.



Nikatine, whose name is Veronica Ripley, posted a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/NikatinePrime/status/1622312576897138688?s=20&amp;t=rb02d41dK_8NpoRZc_sefA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>&nbsp;to Twitter announcing a boycott of Twitch—which is known for its video game-related content—for hosting ads for Hogwarts Legacy, urging streamers to join in halting use of the platform until the ad campaign is suspended.



Hogwarts Legacy is set to feature the first&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/07/entertainment/harry-potter-legacy-trans-character-cec/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">transgender woman character</a>&nbsp;in the Harry Potter universe, though her name, Sirona Ryan, has attracted some&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thegamer.com/hogwarts-legacy-sirona-ryan-trans-character-name/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">criticism</a>&nbsp;for allegedly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/hogwarts-legacy-trans-character-name-sirona-ryan/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sounding masculine</a>(beginning with the prefix “Sir” and ending with common male name “Ryan”)—but others&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/07/entertainment/harry-potter-legacy-trans-character-cec/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">noted</a>&nbsp;the name&nbsp;<a href="https://www.names.org/n/sirona/about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sirona</a>&nbsp;refers to a Celtic goddess of healing and rebirth.



<h2>KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



J.K. Rowling has regularly come under fire in recent years for her views on biological sex and the transgender community, which many have criticized as transphobic. In June 2020, she ridiculed an article headline for using the phrase “people who menstruate” (“I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” she&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1269382518362509313?s=20&amp;t=g0g80nrjW_NbQJgWZOhDbQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>), inspiring backlash from critics who said her tweet excludes transgender people. In response to backlash, she&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1269389298664701952?s=20&amp;t=HvsofpXgAxn_rNRjnApwxQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>“if sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased,” adding that she knows and loves transgender people but criticized the alleged erasing of the concept of sex. She also published an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">essay</a>&nbsp;on her website, calling it unsafe to allow “any man who believes or feels he’s a woman” into changing rooms and bathrooms, and she’s since stirred controversy for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/08/31/1120299781/jk-rowling-new-book-the-ink-black-heart" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">authoring</a>&nbsp;a book about a character who is killed after facing accusations of transphobia and for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-63162533" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">calling</a>&nbsp;Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who supported a bill making it easier for transgender people to be legally recognized as their preferred gender, a “destroyer of women’s rights.” Her comments have been criticized as transphobic by LGBTQ rights organizations including the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hrc.org/news/hrc-president-alphonso-david-responds-to-j-k-rowlings-latest-transphobic-b" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Human Rights Campaign</a>, and actors from the Harry Potter films have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2022/01/18/harry-potter-stars-comments-author-j-k-rowling/6565240001/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">voiced support</a>&nbsp;for transgender people in response.



<h2>HOGWARTS LEGACY REVIEWS</h2>



Early reviews for the Harry Potter game have been almost uniformly positive, though some publications have declined to review the game or have included statements critical of Rowling or in support of the transgender community in their reviews. Gamespot, a popular gaming website which has not yet reviewed Hogwarts Legacy, has instead published an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-to-help-trans-people-by-donating-to-charity/1100-6511097/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">article</a>&nbsp;listing charities in support of trans people, along with an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gamespot.com/articles/jk-rowlings-anti-transgender-stance-and-hogwarts-legacy/1100-6501632/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">analysis</a>&nbsp;of Rowling’s comments and rising anti-LGBTQ legislation and protests worldwide, the latter authored by Earl. In a positive&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/hogwarts-legacy-review-harry-potter-ps5-xbox-pc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">review</a>, IGN included a statement titled “Concerning J.K. Rowling,” affirming the publication’s support for human rights and stating the publication’s purpose is to “answer the question of whether or not we find Hogwarts Legacy to be fun to play and why; whether it’s ethical to play is a separate but still very important question.” Canadian outlet TheGamer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/02/06/hogwarts-legacy-jk-rowling-launch" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;it&nbsp;will not review Hogwarts Legacy or create any online guides for the game.



<h2>CONTRA</h2>



Though the game’s release has inspired vocal critics, it’s still on track to sell well and has plenty of supporters who believe Rowling’s controversy can be separated from the game. Popular streamer xQc, who has more than 11 million Twitch&nbsp;<a href="https://www.twitch.tv/xqc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">followers</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dexerto.com/hogwarts-legacy/xqc-slams-hogwarts-legacy-boycotters-after-making-streamer-cry-on-twitch-2054609/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">criticized</a>&nbsp;people for making others feel bad for purchasing a video game, claiming “people fund all sorts of evil with their purchases across the board in way worse ways.” It’s already a hit on Twitch, where users who have early access are streaming the game; Hogwarts Legacy has more than one million viewers and 120,000 followers on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Hogwarts%20Legacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">platform</a>.



<h2>CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“If you are not willing to give up a piece of entertainment in solidarity against the harm J.K. Rowling continues to enact; then how can trans people feel assured you’ll be willing to fight for us in more important areas, such as anti-trans violence, be it physical, mental, personal, systemic or legislative, especially as the discrimination continues to rise?” Jessie Earl wrote in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gamespot.com/articles/jk-rowlings-anti-transgender-stance-and-hogwarts-legacy/1100-6501632/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gamespot</a>&nbsp;essay.



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2023/01/23/hogwarts-legacy-jk-rowling-trans/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Why the new game ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ is roiling the LGBTQ community</a>(The Washington Post)



<a href="https://www.gamespot.com/articles/jk-rowlings-anti-transgender-stance-and-hogwarts-legacy/1100-6501632/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">JK Rowling&#8217;s Anti-Transgender Stance And Hogwarts Legacy</a>(Gamespot)



<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/07/entertainment/harry-potter-legacy-trans-character-cec/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">‘Hogwarts Legacy’ game appears to introduce ‘Harry Potter’s’ first trans character</a>&nbsp;(CNN)



By Conor Murray, Forbes Staff

“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” World Premiere – Arrivals

‘Hogwarts Legacy’ Video Game Controversy: Boycotts And J.K. Rowling’s Comments On Transgender Community, Explained

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October, the social media platform has made many tweaks to the user experience, including an overhaul to the verification process and an emphasis on “freedom of speech.”



<h2>KEY FACTS</h2>



Since Elon Musk’s highly publicized — and controversial — acquisition of Twitter in October, he’s made a series of updates to the platform, often live-tweeting them along the way.



Among the most notable changes is the overhaul to the verification process: Previously, blue checkmarks denoted public figures that the platform had independently verified, but now users can purchase a verified checkmark by subscribing to <a href="https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/twitter-blue" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twitter Blue</a> for $8 per month.



After&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593673339826212864?s=20&amp;t=6ANX0DjzIxKuKaV6BWa_Mw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">declaring</a>&nbsp;Twitter’s new policy to be “freedom of speech” in which negative or hate tweets will be “deboosted,” but not banned, Musk reinstated a number of accounts that were notably suspended, including Donald Trump,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593673844996288512?s=20&amp;t=6ANX0DjzIxKuKaV6BWa_Mw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jordan Peterson and Kathy Griffin</a>&nbsp;(Musk reinstated Trump’s account after conducting a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593767953706921985" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">poll</a>&nbsp;on Twitter — 51.8% of the 15 million respondents voted “yes” to return the former president’s account).



Each tweet now publicly displays how many views it has garnered, an update Musk made in an effort to&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1601112753271209985?s=20&amp;t=wkeaG5Nb24XxhUcRRNZ4aQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">show</a>&nbsp;how “Twitter is much more alive than people think.”



Twitter now splits a user’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/10/23549368/twitter-for-you-page-tiktok-following-tab" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">timeline</a>&nbsp;between a TikTok-esque “for you” page, an algorithm-curated feed with tweets it thinks the user will like, and a “following” page, which consists solely of tweets that user follows.



Twitter <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/tech/twitter-elon-musk-deletes-policy/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">backtracked</a> from a short-lived policy banning users from sharing links to other social media platforms — after less than a day of backlash, the platform deleted the policy from its website.



<h2>NEW VERIFICATION PROCESS</h2>



One of the biggest — and most widely ridiculed — Musk-era Twitter updates is his drastic change to the verification process. Previously, blue verification badges confirmed that profiles of public figures, like celebrities, journalists or government officials, were legitimate. Those blue checks (which Twitter now refers to as “legacy” verified accounts) are still visible, but the platform has made blue checks available to anyone so long as they subscribe to&nbsp;<a href="https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/twitter-blue" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twitter Blue</a>, a service that permits users to preview new features. There’s no visual difference between the old and new blue checkmarks, which has raised concerns that people may impersonate public figures (though hovering over or tapping on the blue check reveals whether the account is subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account). Within hours of the new blue checks launching, users purchased checkmarks to impersonate people including Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and Kobe Bryant,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/09/tech/twitter-impersonators-paid-verification/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CNN reported</a>. A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/11/twitter-blue-checkmark/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Washington Post</a>&nbsp;columnist got accounts impersonating comedian Blaire Erskine and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) verified within minutes. Twitter&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/11/twitter-fake-verified-accounts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">temporarily suspended</a>&nbsp;the ability to purchase a blue check the following day, pledging to address impersonation issues. Musk has said he plans to get rid of legacy verified checkmarks,&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/12/elon-says-twitter-will-remove-all-legacy-verifications-in-a-few-months/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">claiming</a>&nbsp;that the old process of verification was “corrupt and nonsensical.” In&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/12/tech/twitter-verification-relaunch/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">another shakeup</a>&nbsp;to the verification system, accounts owned by companies are denoted by gold checks while government entities and politicians are marked with gray checks.



<h2>CRITICISM OVER UPDATES</h2>



Musk’s changes to the platform have been criticized for a number of reasons, ranging from being unnecessary and annoying to opening the door for hate speech. The ability of anyone to purchase verification has been condemned for making it easy to impersonate public figures and spread misinformation. In January, members of the Taliban&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jan/17/twitter-blue-verified-taliban" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">purchased</a>blue checks, though these were later removed following backlash. Musk also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/12/17/1143796992/twitter-lifts-suspensions-on-several-journalists-amid-rift-between-the-site-and-" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">came under fire</a>&nbsp;in December after Twitter suspended the accounts of several journalists who were critical of his ownership of the company (Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1603600001057185792" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>&nbsp;these accounts “doxxed my exact location in real time”), though these accounts were later reinstated. Criticisms of the verification process as well as Musk’s massive layoffs have prompted more than 500 advertisers to pause spending on Twitter,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/twitter-manager-daily-revenue-has-dropped-40-500-top-advertisers-have-left" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Information reported</a>, causing a 40% drop in daily revenue. Some popular Twitter influencers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/musk-making-twitter-worse-say-top-influencers-platform-rcna63606" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told NBC News</a>&nbsp;that daily use of the platform has gotten worse under Musk’s leadership, including an influx of hate speech in light of its new emphasis on freedom of speech, as well as an uptick in technical glitches as the company’s staff has been halved. These influencers — including Matt Nelson, who runs “<a href="https://twitter.com/dog_rates?s=20&amp;t=4h2872WW1RY106CSjpj1XA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">We Rate Dogs</a>,” an account with 9.3 million followers — told NBC News the verified notifications feature, which displays notifications received by verified accounts, is no longer useful as anyone can pay for a blue checkmark. The default “for you” feed has also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/01/13/twitter-faces-wave-complaints-tiktok-style-reboot/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">angered</a>&nbsp;some users who find the update unnecessary and now see tweets they are uninterested in. LGBTQ advocacy groups have also alleged that the platform’s “freedom of speech” approach is worsening anti-transgender speech on the platform. Among the accounts reinstated under Musk’s tenure are the Babylon Bee, a Christian satire news site, and author Jordan Peterson, who has previously made transphobic tweets,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-22/twitter-restores-anti-trans-accounts-and-fuels-hate-groups-say" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg reported.</a>



<h2>WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



Musk has discussed future updates that have yet to debut on the platform. He will increase the current 280 character limit to 4,000 in February — a massive increase for the platform long known for its brevity — and users will soon be able to use formatting features like bold, underline, and font sizes, a move Musk hopes will keep people on Twitter instead of using other websites to publish work. The company is also considering selling usernames that have been dormant for years to free up the handles and generate revenue.



<h2>KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



After months of back-and-forth and the threat of going to trial, Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/27/technology/elon-musk-twitter-deal-complete.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">purchased</a>&nbsp;Twitter in October in a highly publicized $44 million dollar deal. He quickly slashed the company’s workforce,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/15/technology/elon-musk-twitter-fired-criticism.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">claiming</a>&nbsp;that it could go bankrupt and needed to become “hard core” in order to survive, and began implementing his “free speech” vision for the platform. Musk had previously&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/04/27/musk-twitter-attacks/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">criticized</a>&nbsp;Twitter’s prior leadership, alleging they operated the platform with a “left-wing bias.”



<h2>WHAT WE DON’T KNOW</h2>



Will Musk actually step down as CEO of Twitter? He&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1605372724800393216" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>&nbsp;in December he will step down when he finds someone “foolish enough” to succeed him and will then run the company’s software and servers teams. He asked via Twitter&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604617643973124097?s=20&amp;t=fo6JvyaSKDLpmPKgPuAPCQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">poll</a>&nbsp;if he should step down, stating he would “abide by the results of this poll” — and “yes” won a clear victory, securing 57.5% of the poll’s 17.5 million votes. Musk has not provided updates or a timeline on the search for a successor since creating the poll.



<h2>FORBES VALUATION</h2>



$149.4 billion. That’s Musk’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/?sh=6c332b5d7999">net worth</a>&nbsp;as of Wednesday according to the Forbes real-time net worth tracker, making him the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#776435d23d78">second-richest person</a>&nbsp;in the world behind French fashion tycoon Bernard Arnault and his family. Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/2022/12/08/elon-musk-no-longer-worlds-richest-again-as-stock-hit-by-report-of-personal-margin-loan/?sh=ca7000927733">fell</a>&nbsp;from his prior position as the world’s richest person in December.



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/11/4/23438917/twitter-verifications-blue-check-elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twitter: Five ways Elon Musk has changed the platform for users</a>&nbsp;(BBC)



<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jan/17/twitter-blue-verified-taliban" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twitter ‘verified’ check marks bought by Taliban appear to have been removed</a> (The Guardian)



By Conor Murray, Forbes Staff

Twitter Losing Its Most Active Users

Verification To View Counts: Here’s Every Twitter Change Under Elon Musk

The misuse of artificial intelligence and the cost of deepfakes in a post-truth era. 



By Tiana Cline



In the beginning, it was a lot of fun. Anyone could create a deepfake video to merge their face with that of a celebrity. At first, these videos were shared across social media as a parody and everyone laughed. What could be better than becoming the star of your favorite streaming series? But now the technology has evolved. It has become more sophisticated to the point where it’s not as easy to tell what is real or not. From misinformation to identity theft, deepfake porn and copyright infringements, the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) is far from entertaining – it’s an epidemic.  



“As technology&#8217;s power increases, so the ability to cause harm increases exponentially,” says Professor Johan Steyn, a Research Fellow at the School of Data Science and Computational Thinking at Stellenbosch University in South Africa and Adjunct Professor at the School of Business at Woxsen University in India.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“From both a legal and a government ethics point of view, it’s a massive problem and I don’t know how it is going to be regulated. How do you present evidence to a court of law when you cannot confirm if a video or voice is authentic? There’s almost no way of proving deepfakes are authentic.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



There are currently over 80 different deepfake software apps, many of which are free and allow anyone to take advantage of the advancement of AI. Deepfakes use artificial neural networks – data pattern-recognition systems that are trained to identify (and reconstruct) patterns. The technology is mind-blowing.&nbsp;&nbsp;



It gained Miles Fisher – a Tom Cruise lookalike and AI entrepreneur – nearly four million followers on social media. His TikTok account, ‘deeptomcruise’, has unofficially made him the poster child of the deepfake movement. The person behind the videos, Chris Ume, is a Belgian visual effects artist and the co-founder of an AI-generated content company called Metaphysic.ai.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“There’s a big philosophical, ethical and societal lens to deepfakes,” adds Steyn. “We&#8217;re living in a world where we cannot trust almost anything. There are limited ways in verifying the authenticity of something and the technology that should have brought us together and empowered us with knowledge is doing the exact opposite.”&nbsp;



One of the most interesting deepfake use cases is happening in the advertising sector. Where actors were once paid undisclosed sums for appearing in TV advertisements, some agencies are resorting to using deepfakes instead – with or without their consent. An advert for a Russian telecoms company starring Bruce Willis went viral and it was reported that the actor sold his image rights. It turned out that Willis was a deepfake and the agency that made the advert (called Deepcake) simply mapped a digital version of his appearance onto another actor. If images and videos of Willis are readily available to do this, it questions how anyone can protect their own identity.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“In the future of AI, people will not be quantum physicists or machine learning engineers but philosophers and ethicists. We’re now in a post-truth era and thanks to the power of technology. You can no longer trust anything or anyone,” warns Steyn. “If you’re a critical thinker, fake news should be relatively easy to pick up. Deepfakes are more serious. What happens when a bank, for example, accepts voice as a proof of identity?”&nbsp;



The link between deepfakes and cybercrime is inevitable. Throughout Africa, phishing remains one of the continent’s biggest threats and by using deepfake technology, cybercriminals will be able to increase the effectiveness of their attacks exponentially. “Any new technology, development or technology will inevitably be exploited by criminals to target the vulnerable or unwary,” says Carl Wearn, Mimecast’s Head of Threat Intelligence Analysis and Future Ops. “The quicker they can utilize a new technology, before it is properly understood or awareness of it is raised, the more likely they are able to monetize some form of it.”&nbsp;



With deepfakes, cybercrime can be socially engineered because threat actors (posing as friends, family, or colleagues) exploit the inherent trust that comes with interpersonal relationships. “Deepfakes are at their core seeking to exploit key relationships to compel action,” adds Wearn. “As the technology matures – aided by machine learning and AI – this will almost certainly become indistinguishable to the real thing for ordinary humans when undertaking virtual or telephony-communication medium reliant interactions.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Deepfakes scams are increasing. They’re not only being used in cyberbullying and smear campaigns to harass and silence individuals; synthetic identity fraud can cost businesses and government millions. “People are, for example, edited into a humiliating video that is then spread on social media highlights the risk for public figures and activists,” says Vladislav Tushkanov, a Lead Data Scientist at Kaspersky. Scammers recently used a deepfake interview with Elon Musk to promote a cryptocurrency scam called BitVex. The CEO of a British energy firm was tricked out of $243,000 by a voice deepfake from the head of his parent company requesting an emergency transfer of funds. And in the United Arab Emirates, bank robbers deepfaked the voice of a company executive to an unsuspecting bank manager – it was reported that he recognized the voice and then authorized a transfer of $35 million.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Deepfakes can significantly undermine trust in audio and video content,” adds Tushkanov. “Deepfakes, and mis- and disinformation, is a rising concern around the globe. It is particularly worrying that deepfakes can be used to incite violence and stoke civil unrest. This places high importance on public education and raising awareness about this technology, as well as furthering digital literacy.”  



<h2 id="h-how-to-spot-a-deepfake">How to spot a deepfake?&nbsp;</h2>



“It all starts by having good cybersecurity procedures and practices in place – not only in the form of antivirus software, but also in the form of developed IT skills and cybersecurity awareness of the employees,” says Tushkanov. “The following are key characteristics of deepfake videos to be aware of and look out for, to avoid becoming a victim: jerky movement; shifts in lighting from one frame to the next; shifts in skin tone; strange blinking or no blinking at all; lips poorly synched with speech; digital artifacts in the image; and video is intentionally encoded down in quality with poor lighting.”

3D virtual reality space and people

When Seeing Is No Longer Believing: An African Take On The Cost Of Deepfakes

When award-winning artwork can be generated by algorithms, where does that leave artists?



By Tiana Cline 



What is an artist? In the age of artificial intelligence, machine learning and text-to-image tools, it’s questionable. Anyone with a computer can generate stunning images in seconds thanks to tools like Midjourney, DALL-E, Stable Diffusion and Craiyon. These algorithmic programs, which work with text prompts and data sets, are already starting to shift the creative economy. In August 2022, an American game designer named Jason Allen won first place at the Colorado State Fair Fine Arts Competition. His award-winning work – which has been described as ‘Renaissance meets steampunk’ – was created using Midjourney. And even though the category in which Allen came first was ‘digital arts/digitally-manipulated photography’, it left a lot of people in the creative world angry, questioning whether this kind of AI-generated art could replace human artists.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“There&#8217;s no doubt that the whole visual world is totally oversaturated with imagery. I know a lot of people who do AI art. I see it on Instagram or Facebook and some of the images have stuck in my head,” says Roger Ballen, an American artist who lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. “So, I think they’re successful from the point of view of conveying an aesthetic message from one person to another. And how they were able to achieve this, is this important or not important?”&nbsp;&nbsp;



For some industries, AI-generated art is simply a natural progression of where we’re heading – it’s a key part of Web3, the metaverse and how AI algorithms can be integrated into different industries. According to Midjourney founder David Holz, business owners, game designers and people in the movie industry use the tool for storyboarding, strategy and content development. But that’s not where AI-art ends. The Economist used Midjourney to produce one of its 2022 covers and The Atlantic chose AI-generated art for an editorial in lieu of hiring an illustrator – going so far as to credit Midjourney as the artist.&nbsp;&nbsp;



For Ballen, AI-generated art is similar to a computer beating a world chess champion – it’s inevitable. “You look at the work that&#8217;s been done and some of it is amazing. This is where we&#8217;re going – going into a world where our lives and viewpoints and experiences are more virtual rather than physical and it’s happening at an accelerating pace, he says. “I’ve been doing photography for 54 years now. When I started, you needed to go to university and there was a lot of training that took place to get there. Now anyone can do photography. For one photograph that was produced 30 years ago, there may be 50,000 now.”&nbsp;



Plagiarism by machine&nbsp;



There are many ethical considerations around creating (and selling) AI-generated art. AI often reflects human bias which means that the images contained in online datasets are subjective to what is available online.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Ballen questions being able to put a price on an artwork when the material comes from endless sources. He also asks if there is a difference between using an image of a tree (as one example) or from a well-known artist. “Some of these people are trying to produce works of art but actually, the work itself isn&#8217;t necessarily theirs – it&#8217;s an amalgamation of other people&#8217;s work compiled by a computer. So, the issue then is can that person sell it as their own when it&#8217;s ultimately other people&#8217;s work?”&nbsp;



Joh Del, a Cape Town-based artist and illustrator’s understanding that that all artists learn from other pieces of art – both human and AI. “Every time you put something out into the world, someone else can see it, and learn from it. I think almost all species of animals on earth learn from each other,” says Del.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Mikhael Subotzky, an award-winning artist based in South Africa, doesn’t see AI-generated art as something fundamentally new or different. “I think that the power and relevance of art is that its boundaries are always expanding – there should be space for every kind of art,” he says. For Subotzky, the trickiest issue is copyright. “There really should be a way for artists to opt in or out of the algorithms learning from their work. Or even a royalty system where they get a cent or whatever for every time their work is used in this way. Of course, this would require a fundamental change in how images circulate. I wish that the blockchain crowd would focus on this type of thing rather than the latest NFT prices.”&nbsp;



For now, the law is yet to catch up with the advances in AI technology. Under copyright law, copyright depends on human input and AI-generated art is made by machine. In order to avoid future legal issues, Getty Images has banned the sale of AI generative artwork created using image synthesis models. “In one way, it’s an image that somebody initiated to put on a wall and show other people and on the other hand, it’s a mixture of other people’s property. In the commercial world you have copyrights, you have patents, you have rights of property and with this, it’s not as clear because it’s a mishmash of thousands of things that are put together into an artwork,” says Ballen. “You have to look at the image itself. You have to deal with the aesthetics in the image, the message in the image, the type of artwork, where the information came from, how it was put together – there&#8217;s all sorts of things that make it almost impossible to come up with a clear answer… where this ends and where it begins, I don’t know.” 



But Is It Art?&nbsp;



“I’m the type of person who believes in the autonomy of the work, that you don’t necessarily need to know anything about the artist, the place, the time – anything,” says Roger Ballen. “It doesn&#8217;t matter whether you know anything about anything. Art should be like coming into contact with a flower. All of a sudden, you smell it, you feel it, the color leaves an imprint on you and you don’t necessarily need to be a botanist, all that matters is the experience of the art itself.”&nbsp;&nbsp;

Screenshot 2023-01-13 at 19.07.53

The Rise Of AI Art: An African Perspective

While researchers applaud Amazon’s safeguards to ensure the tech is safe for kids, some experts are concerned that generative AI could lead children to believe these algorithms are more intelligent than they actually are.



Generative AI, which is known for churning out fantastical art based on text prompts, is now sneaking into one of the most sacred bonding experiences for parents and children: bedtime storytelling.



Amazon is hopping into the generative AI craze with a new Alexa feature that creates short, five-scene stories for kids based on a few prompts. Called ‘Create With Alexa,’ the feature lets children and parents select from given themes like underwater, enchanted forest and space exploration and pick a character, a descriptive word and a color. Then, they sit back and wait as the AI comes up with different stories, visuals, audio dialogues and background music.



With Amazon hopping aboard the generative AI craze, some experts say that the company has created safeguards to ensure that the technology isn’t spouting anything inappropriate for young ears, and Create With Alexa could help foster more shared experiences for children and parents. But AI researchers also warn that stories made with generative AI could mystify children’s understanding of AI’s capabilities and intelligence.



The feature, which is available on Echo Show devices, relies on generative AI, algorithms that use existing content to create new content. Specifically, it implements language models, which ingest large amounts of text to learn how to create sentences similar to how people talk. The algorithm that powers Create With Alexa is trained on a database of commercially available visuals as well as Amazon’s own proprietary content.



Eshan Bhatnagar, head of product for Alexa AI at Amazon, says that Create With Alexa was designed with safety in mind. The technology has three safeguards in place, including content filtering, training the AI on a curated dataset that is free of toxic content, and most importantly, setting up a structured and restricted experience. “We wanted to avoid the garbage in garbage out kind of tendency of AI,” says Bhatnagar, referencing the likelihood of AI to render improper content based on the type of inputs fed into it. “We are being cautious, and conservative in our approach to how we want to expose some of the generative capabilities to our customers.”



Stefania Druga, a researcher on creative AI at the University of Washington, says Amazon’s decision to build Alexa’s new storytelling feature by structuring it around a few input prompts that ask users to select from a given set of templates can help make generative AI safer for kids. “I think this approach of providing curated templates, and really trying to curate the experience and control the types of generations that can be entered into the system is very promising,” Druga told Forbes.



But these safeguards can’t fully protect kids from the influence of intelligent computer systems like Alexa. Druga found in her research paper &#8220;<a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3078072.3084330" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hey Google is it OK if I eat you?&#8221; Initial Explorations in Child-Agent Interaction</a>” that interacting with voice assistants like Alexa and Google Home can influence how children understand the intelligence of computers. She says Create With Alexa could mystify the abilities of AI for children, influencing their judgments about how intelligent the computer actually is and whether it’s a trustworthy source.



“What I’ve seen in my research is that the kids don&#8217;t even know how to read and write when they start interacting with a voice assistant. And if that&#8217;s their first introduction into searching anything on the web, that really colors their experience on how they process information,” Druga says. “Because if it&#8217;s spoken to them with a nice voice as a human would talk, they don&#8217;t really see that this is just like the first result from a search on the web, then it&#8217;s harder to develop this critical sense of whether they should trust this or not.”



Rather than showcasing generative AI as a magical and all-knowing technology, it should be seen as a technology that can be tinkered with and used to further a craft, Druga says. In order to do so, it’s also important to make sure children understand the technology and know what is happening under the hood. “I think it&#8217;s important to not give them these applications and content already pre-chewed but also to give them tools of creation with this technology,” she says.



Sandra Cortesi, a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet &amp; Society at Harvard University, says that parents should steer clear of technologies that would make their children passively consume media. In the case of Create With Alexa, Cortesi questions whether parents want to expose their children to more screen time in the form of video storytelling. “I prefer technologies that have some kind of active character to it than just another thing where you watch and consume,” says Cortesi.



This isn’t the first time Amazon has ventured into storytelling technology. In 2017, the company launched Magic Door, an interactive adventure game that lets users decide each step of a story. The nonlinear experience doesn’t use any kind of AI but has 200 different scenes. Similar to ‘Create With Alexa,’ it gives users the agency to choose prompts such as settings like forests, seas, and enchanted lands and decide which scene will appear next. Earlier this year, Amazon also launched CodeWhisperer, a machine learning-powered coding assistant.



Over the last year, high-profile startups have launched buzzy text-to-image generative AI models like Dall-E 2 and Stable Diffusion, which have captured the imaginations of millions on social media. Startups behind these types of algorithms such as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrickcai/2022/09/07/stability-ai-funding-round-1-billion-valuation-stable-diffusion-text-to-image/?sh=1486bf0d24d6">Stability AI</a>and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrickcai/2022/12/05/runway-ml-series-c-funding-500-million-valuation/?sh=330de10a2e64">Runway ML</a>&nbsp;have raised tens of millions of dollars in venture funding and garnered high valuations. OpenAI, the company that released Dall-E 2, unveiled ChatGPT last week, a chatbot that is able to write essays, code and provide detailed (but sometimes inaccurate) answers to questions.



These companies use machine learning to generate new text and image content rather than combining the two in a video format as Amazon Alexa has done. But other generative AI tools focus on storytelling, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.storywizard.ai/?ref=producthunt" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Storywizard AI</a>, which uses generative AI to create stories with images based on plots that illustrate moral concepts like friendship and overcoming fear, and Novel AI, which touts itself as “a GPT-powered sandbox for your imagination.”



Storytelling that uses generative AI can be a means of inspiration and creativity among children. Cortesi says that the stories produced by generative AI could inspire users to build fanfiction communities online and create additional stories that build on what the AI produces.



Amazon Alexa’s Bhatnagar says the tablet will never replace the storybook; instead, it will augment the experience. Cortesi adds that traditional storytelling is far from being thrown out for a digital version.



“For parents and children, stories are something we can be nostalgic about,” says Cortesi. “I still remember when my parents told me stories.”



“I hope that for parents, who already have a ton of tasks and responsibilities, they will not just give this tool to their children and say, ‘You go ahead, do the story. Good night.’&#8221;



By Rashi Shrivastava, Forbes Staff

Mother holding ill son’s hand sleeping on bed

Amazon Alexa Wants To Put Your Child To Bed With Generative AI Storytelling

Daniel Marfo is managing operations in Africa for Zipline, ensuring that life-saving medical products are sent almost instantly to inaccessible areas using drones. The company has operated 300,000 flights in Ghana and Rwanda over the last five years. Up next: Kenya and Côte d&#8217;Ivoire, also alleviating food insecurity on the continent.



When logistics system Zipline began operations in Africa, it piqued the interest of Daniel Marfo, a Ghanaian pharmacist, because he wanted to use technology to solve healthcare issues in the developing world.



He saw a chance to solve a logistical challenge; with all the roads that need constructing and maintenance in Africa, he knew infrastructure development would take too long, and so he joined Zipline in October 2018.


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It was a long road from the world of pharmaceuticals, but with the same purpose: helping save lives.



As Senior Vice President of Zipline’s operations in Africa, at 35 years old, he is leading the market efforts across the continent, expanding the company’s reach geographically and expanding the use cases for drones.



When Marfo began, he made a point to visit as many rural areas of Ghana before deploying the technology – once having to take a ferry, followed by canoes and a long hike.



“The people, they&#8217;re dependent on whatever means of transportation that exist to be able to access their medications. When we started service, and they received their first supply of medications by drone, it was remarkable, you had just changed their lives,” he says.



He refers to a small village called Gbintri in the north eastern region of Ghana. Anytime it rains, access to roads gets cut off, and the health facility shuts down.



In 2019, it was the first time the health facility didn’t shut down.



A challenge they faced was integrating a new system into an old way of operating; so Zipline created a department called systems integration, which looked at ways to merge drone technology with existing health systems and existing aviation systems.



It’s one of the hardest parts, he says, as they’re asking airspace regulators to allow hundreds of drones to fly every day.



Another challenging aspect has been community integration, as a lot of people in the rural areas have never seen a drone until now. He says the first impression of drones from people was that they were military or spy vehicles.



Marfo now takes dummy drones into the communities and uses community champions to explain the functions of the service.



When they launched the fifth center in Ghana, they were connecting to a health facility. Two elderly gentlemen happened to be sitting under a tree, enjoying the day. A drone swooped in, dropped the package, catching them by surprise, as they together exclaimed that “God had just delivered something from heaven”.



Health staff had to explain that this is the new way they receive medication – and they were still blown away.



When speaking about the potential of drone use in Africa, Marfo mentions that the airspace in Africa isn’t as busy as Europe or America – positing that in the future, Africa could have the most advanced drone network and regulatory systems.



Zipline has operated 300,000 flights in Ghana and Rwanda combined over the last five years. Usually, the flights are round trips of 100 or more kilometers.



They started using it to deliver blood in Rwanda, and realized they could use it for medical products.



When Covid hit, they delivered over a million doses of vaccines in Ghana.



In Ghana, 70,000 malaria test kits and nearly 1.3 million courses of malaria treatment were delivered partnering with Ghana’s Health Service. In five months, 5,000 malaria vaccines were transported to piloted districts by May 2022.



“In Africa, the other use case that resonated deeply with me was food security. If I can make sure that people have access to food and [their] livelihood, I&#8217;m actually fulfilling 50% of our healthcare mission.”



In January 2022, they piloted their agriculture use case, focusing on animal health, delivering semen for artificial insemination in pigs. They extended the use case to delivering animal vaccines.



He adds that they have scaled to sending nutrients for kids two years old and younger in rural areas.



“It&#8217;s just become an amazing way of how drones have morphed from being seen as a spy or a military tech to a recreational tech, and now, it&#8217;s really a life-transforming tech.”



Soon, they will open operations in Kenya, beginning with Kisumu, a port city on Lake Victoria. From there, they can reach 13 counties from one location. They are also moving to Côte d&#8217;Ivoire.



“We are very excited about our planned expansion into the Ivory Coast. It&#8217;s the first French-speaking country that we are entering…It also brings about its own set of challenges, cultural understanding and cultural integration.”



Marfo says if they want to be a truly global company, this is part of the evolution.



In June 2022, they commissioned the first distribution center in Nigeria in Kaduna State. He says the uptake of the service has been good, with medical products, vaccines and blood being distributed.



There’s been a lot of interest in agricultural use cases in Nigeria too, and they are planning to open another facility in Bayelsa State by the first quarter of 2023, as well as Cross River State. There was flooding affecting 33 out of 36 states in Nigeria by October 2022.



“No one prays for natural disasters, but in case it ever comes again, we are in a position to bring at least some relief to people during such a difficult time.”



In Rwanda, from February to November, the company introduced animal health deliveries, which now make up 17%-18% of deliveries.



“Sixty percent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa are farmers, and so, we are making sure that farmers are able to get the vaccines for the animals so that they don&#8217;t lose any of these animals, to be able to get them better semen so that they can get a better breed of animals, which generates more meat, means that we are actually changing the economy of these people&#8217;s lives.”



If the farmers are earning $10 a month from agriculture, he posits they may be earning double with the addition of drone technology. These are the use cases that excite him; technology that is not just saving lives with much-needed blood for transfusions or vaccines, but improving food security and putting more money in the hands of the people who matter, and who are the bulk of the population of the continent.



In Ghana, they also began focusing on poultry vaccines for farmers, specifically for Newcastle disease, in partnership with CowTribe – a Ghana-based for-profit organization focused on supporting livestock farmers via a mobile platform.



“Newcastle&#8217;s disease ravages about 70% of the chicken population, and it&#8217;s really terrible. But over the last few months, we&#8217;ve been able to make sure that farmers within our catchment areas have been able to get all their vaccines and they haven&#8217;t lost animals.”



For some, this is going to be the first time in years that the disease didn&#8217;t affect most of their flock. Marfo says around Christmas, farmers sell a lot of chicken and beef, and this will put more money in their pockets.



By September, Zipline and a leading e-commerce platform Jumia partnered up in Ghana to deliver retail products, with the goal of expanding into the other countries Jumia operates in.



“In increasing access for consumers, we’re also helping the small and medium businesses that use Jumia grow.”



The partnership makes Jumia’s existing logistics system more efficient and sustainable as the electric fleet reduces carbon emissions by 98% compared to delivery by car, according to Marfo.



“I think we are at that point where we did healthcare for five years, we&#8217;ve added on agriculture and even with agriculture we are just scraping the surface.”



When he began at Zipline four years ago, they were delivering a product to a health facility every four minutes. Now, they deliver every two minutes.



He wants to continue working on improving in terms of use cases, volume and scale – and make it so every minute, someone is getting a necessary or life-saving product.

Zipline Aircraft

‘Life-Transforming Tech’: Using Drones To Change Economies In Africa

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Twitter will relaunch Blue—its subscription service that offers verification badges to users who pay a monthly fee—on Monday, the company announced Saturday, a much-delayed move that comes more than a month after the original rollout of the service was plagued by “verified” impersonator accounts sowing chaos on the platform.



<h2>KEY FACTS</h2>



The company&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1601692766257709056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1601692766257709056%7Ctwgr%5E3212198c03f98a379240e6ea3cb1f866cdc98ef7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2022%2F12%2F10%2F23503355%2Ftwitter-blue-verification-elon-musk-phone-number-ads" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced the relaunch in a tweet</a>, noting Twitter Blue subscriptions will cost $8 a month for those who sign up on the website and $11 per month for those who subscribe through the Twitter iPhone app.



As previously&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/11/30/twitter-blue-launch-reportedly-delayed-again-as-musk-takes-issue-with-apple-store-fees/">reported</a>, the higher price for the iPhone app subscription is to cover the cost of Apple’s 30% fee on all in-app purchases—but users who sign up on the website should be able to access all of Twitter Blue’s benefits on the app.



Subscribers will need to register their phone number with Twitter in order to receive a blue verified badge, part of an effort to combat impersonator accounts that plagued the original rollout of Twitter Blue.



Twitter Blue subscribers who change their display name, profile picture, or handle will lose their verified badge until the account is reviewed again.



Aside from the verification badge, Twitter Blue subscribers will have the ability to edit tweets, upload higher-quality videos and access a reader mode.



The company is also promising a set of upcoming perks for subscribers that includes fewer ads, the ability to post long-form videos and their accounts being boosted in search results or replies.



<h2>WHAT WE DON’T KNOW</h2>



The addition of a phone number verification process could mitigate some concerns around impersonator accounts, but it&#8217;s unclear how Twitter will use customers&#8217; phone numbers to confirm that their accounts are genuine. Twitter also hasn&#8217;t specified whether it plans to manually review all subscribers before granting a verified badge or if the process will be automated. Before Musk purchased Twitter, verification checkmarks were generally only available to people the company&nbsp;<a href="https://help.twitter.com/en/managing-your-account/legacy-verification-policy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">deemed notable</a>, and the company often required proof of identity from a news outlet or an ID.



<h2>WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



Aside from rolling out Twitter Blue once again, the platform is also set to make changes to how it displays other verified accounts.&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/esthercrawford/status/1601693276225998848" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According to</a>Twitter’s Head of Product Esther Crawford verified business accounts on Twitter will soon display gold checkmarks, while government and other official accounts will carry gray checkmarks.



<h2>CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



In a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1601851685915095040" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cryptic tweet</a>&nbsp;early on Sunday, Twitter CEO Elon Musk wrote: “The bots are in for a surprise tomorrow.” Although it is unclear if this is linked to the relaunch of Blue, Musk has previously pitched the service as a means to combat spam and bot accounts on the platform.



<h2>KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Twitter first rolled out the $8 per month Twitter Blue subscription last month as part of a broader effort by the company to shore up revenue and reduce its reliance on advertisers, many of whom left over content moderation concerns. It was Twitter’s first high-profile product launch since Musk closed his purchase of the social media company in late October. The rollout was a disaster, as the platform was soon&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/11/10/twitter-tries-to-clamp-down-on-verified-impersonator-accounts-as-musk-hints-at-more-changes/?sh=4681c88b7afb">flooded by impersonator accounts</a>&nbsp;with “verified” badges which made them hard to distinguish from real high-profile accounts. Musk, who had&nbsp;<a href="https://www.platformer.news/p/elon-only-trusts-elon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ignored repeated</a>&nbsp;warnings about a rapid rollout of the service from his own trust and safety team, attempted to resolve the issue by first issuing diktats about parody accounts. The company, however, was eventually forced to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/11/11/twitter-blue-new-signups-for-paid-verification-appear-suspended-after-impersonator-chaos/?sh=3940684a385c">suspend new signups</a>&nbsp;to deal with the chaos.



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/11/25/elon-musk-says-twitter-is-launching-a-new-color-coded-verification-scheme-next-week---heres-what-we-know-so-far/?sh=3d6ae307617b">Elon Musk Says Twitter Is Launching A New Color-Coded Verification Scheme Next Week — Here’s What We Know So Far</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/11/30/twitter-blue-launch-reportedly-delayed-again-as-musk-takes-issue-with-apple-store-fees/?sh=1b5a99965d9b">Twitter Blue Launch Reportedly Delayed—Again—As Musk Takes Issue With Apple Store Fees</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



By Siladitya Ray, Forbes Staff

Twitter Blue Subscription Service Relaunched Monday—Here’s Everything You Need To Know

ElonMusk has received praise for his attempts to tackle Twitter’s long-documented child exploitation problems. Yet Forbes finds many users who appear to be trading egregious illegal content.



Last week, influential podcaster Liz Wheeler, who describes herself as “unapologetically one of the conservative movement&#8217;s boldest voices,” took to Twitter to praise its new CEO, Elon Musk, for purging the site of “child pornography and child trafficking hashtags.” (Child advocates have long argued these terms indicate legitimacy and compliance on the part of the victim, and that such content should be called “child sexual abuse material.”)



“Think about how many little children he’s saving from sexual abuse, exploitation &amp; torture,” she added. Responding to Wheeler’s comments on Tuesday, Musk tweeted, “This will forever be our top priority.”



Yet such illegal material remains alarmingly easy to find on Twitter—in multiple languages. Hashtags and search terms long related to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) still return lots of associated content. And recently departed Twitter employees, from the rank-and-file to the executive level, told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;the issue will be far more difficult to combat now that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandralevine/2022/11/18/elon-musk-twitter-csam-lawsuit/?sh=3b76e95b3733">Musk has obliterated the teams charged with policing it</a>, as well as their institutional knowledge.



As one such team member explained: “No one is left who is an expert on these issues and can do the work. . . . It’s a ghost town.”



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“No one is left who is an expert on these issues and can do the work. . . . It’s a ghost town.”Recently departed Twitter executive</blockquote>



While it is true that some hashtags previously used by those trading child sexual abuse material (CSAM) appear to have been rendered useless—something for which Musk was <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/while-blue-checks-whine-about-extremism-elon-musk-protecting-sexually-exploited-children-opinion-1761383" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recently celebrated</a>—plenty have not.



In under an hour of searching on Tuesday,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;found dozens of users offering to buy and sell child sexual abuse images and videos. One offered footage of nude children ages 5 to 17. Another mentioned an exchange of images of children being abused on Telegram. Both these tweets, as well as nearly 30 others either promoting or seeking CSAM, were posted in the last week.



Simply searching the same words in banned hashtags revealed advertisements for much of the same content. One Twitter search for links to a well-known online storage platform returned a number of tweets offering videos of young boys and girls having sex with fathers and “with adult,” as well as images of “forced sex.”



Other questionable hashtags were still searchable. One containing an abbreviation long associated with CSAM returned ads, including one containing the image of what appeared to be an underage girl, offering an RFID tag that could be scanned and promised to take the user through to a CSAM-themed website.&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;also found multiple Spanish-language users offering what appeared to be images of minor girls over on Telegram, with Spanish hashtags attached.



Such posts often had other hashtags attached. These could be clicked on to reveal yet more problematic content, such as a tweet with a cartoon depiction of a minor and male genitalia, with overlaid text asking for, “anything illegal or legal. This person is horny.”



Even some hashtags that were ostensibly banned before Musk took over Twitter returned a handful of problematic results. While no new posts were visible when searching one such hashtag, one popped up from June in which a user said they were looking for images of newborns. That user was still on Twitter as of Tuesday. With only three posts, all carrying the same text and image, it’s possible they were a bot, another bugbear Musk has promised to tackle. It’s unclear why the account remains online. Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“I don’t see any meaningful action taken by Musk so far.”Carolina Christofoletti, CSAM threat analyst for TRM Labs</blockquote>



Experts who have long studied the pervasiveness of this material on social media have warned that reducing Twitter’s CSAM problem to a handful of hashtags is a gross oversimplification. They say Musk is essentially being applauded for something he hasn’t done, or even tried to do.



“I don&#8217;t see any meaningful action taken by Musk so far,” said Carolina Christofoletti, a CSAM threat analyst for TRM Labs and researcher at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. She&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/carolina-christofoletti-26b0a01b1_elon-musks-says-the-issue-of-child-sexual-activity-7000611728015118336-1kBu/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has cautioned</a>&nbsp;that the issue “is far bigger than a bunch of hashtags” and “much bigger than ‘easy to catch’ fishes.” She noted that the wiping of some troubling CSAM hashtags and other associated actions “were all things done under the previous leadership.”



“He has drained the child safety team on Twitter without any risk impact whatsoever,” she added, pointing to a Musk tweet asking users—rather than his internal team—for ideas on how to better tackle CSAM. “Twitter is exactly how it was, nothing new under the sun here,” she wrote in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/carolina-christofoletti-26b0a01b1_after-acquisition-elon-musk-taking-down-activity-7000390970529742848-zLcG/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop#" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a LinkedIn post</a>. “The CSAM networks are still there, as active as before.”



Meanwhile, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation is warning that Musk’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/01/elon-musk-twitter-paywalled-video/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported plans</a>&nbsp;to move forward with a paywalled video feature, akin to OnlyFans, would only exacerbate the already urgent children’s safety issues on the site. “Musk cannot confront child sexual abuse material on Twitter while creating another means that would only fuel sexual abuse and exploitation on the platform,” Lina Nealon, director of corporate and strategic initiatives, said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://endsexualexploitation.org/articles/if-elon-musk-is-serious-about-confronting-child-exploitation-he-must-shut-down-idea-of-an-onlyfans-competitor/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">public statement</a>&nbsp;Tuesday.



At least one person who remains at the company said the leadership shakeup has not changed Twitter’s policy on, or employees’ commitment to, the issue. A current child safety specialist said Musk is “fully aware” of Twitter’s “<a href="https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/sexual-exploitation-policy#:~:text=Twitter%20has%20zero%20tolerance%20towards,%2C%20or%20computer%2Dgenerated%20images." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">zero tolerance</a>” approach to child exploitation material and that “our team is working 24/7” across three regions—San Francisco, Singapore and Dublin—to keep children safe.



“I&#8217;m proud of the work we do for our team,” she wrote to Forbes over LinkedIn. “And despite all the outside/internal noise, our team is focused on our work.”



By Thomas Brewster, Forbes Staff and Alexandra S. Levine Forbes Staff

If Child Protection Is Musk’s ‘Top Priority,’ Why Is It So Easy To Find Users Selling Images Of Nude Minors On Twitter?

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Apple may fall short of its production target for its flagship iPhone 14 Pro models by nearly 6 million units worldwide, Bloomberg&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-28/apple-to-lose-6-million-iphone-pros-from-tumult-at-china-plant" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;Monday, after workers at the world&#8217;s largest iPhone manufacturing plant in Zhengzhou, China, protested delayed bonus payments, poor living conditions caused by China’s stringent Covid restrictions.



<h2>KEY FACTS</h2>



According to Bloomberg, the exact size of the shortfall still remains unclear and will likely depend on manufacturer Foxconn’s ability to hire enough workers for the iPhone assembly line to keep up with production targets.



Earlier this month, Apple had cut its production target for the iPhone 14 by 3 million units due to Covid-related disruptions at the Foxconn plant and that number has now been revised by double, the report adds.



Workers at the Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou—sometimes referred to as “iPhone city”—have been forced to live on-site in a closed bubble, only being allowed to move from the factory floor to their dorm rooms due to the city’s Covid control measures.



While sales of the cheaper iPhone 14 and 14 Plus have slowed down, the pricier iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max have continued to remain in strong demand in the U.S., the report adds.



While the company has diversified its manufacturing line by making some of its devices in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/26/apple-starts-manufacturing-the-iphone-14-in-india.html#:~:text=Apple%20on%20Monday%20said%20it,on%20the%20outskirts%20of%20Chennai." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">India</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/08/24/iphone-shipments-from-vietnam-saw-major-growth-in-q2-2022" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Vietnam</a>, nearly all of its flagship iPhone 14 Pro models are made in the Zhengzhou factory.



Apple’s shares were down 1.87% in pre-market trading on Monday morning following the report.



Forbes&nbsp;has reached out to Apple for a comment.



<h2>BIG NUMBER</h2>



90 million. That was Apple’s initial target for the total number of iPhone 14 series devices that Apple planned to manufacture this year, Bloomberg&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-11/apple-expects-to-sustain-iphone-sales-in-2022-as-market-slows#xj4y7vzkg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">previously reported</a>.



<h2>CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



In an analyst note, investment firm Wedbush Securities said: “We estimate that Apple now has significant iPhone shortages that could take off roughly at least 5% of units in the quarter and potentially up to 10% depending on the next few weeks in China around Foxconn production and protests” The note added, “The zero China Covid policy has been an absolute gut punch to Apple&#8217;s supply chain with the Foxconn protests in Zhengzhou a black eye for both Apple and Foxconn.”



<h2>NEWS PEG</h2>



Anticipating a disruption due to China’s anti-Covid measures, Apple issued a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/11/update-on-supply-of-iphone-14-pro-and-iphone-14-pro-max/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>&nbsp;earlier this month warning of a delay in shipments for the Pro model iPhones. The statement blamed “Covid-19 restrictions” for impacting production at the Foxconn plant and said customers trying to purchase the top-end models will face longer wait times. At present on Apple’s website, the wait time for an iPhone 14 Pro or Pro Max shows up as exactly one month. The cheaper iPhone 14 and 14 Plus are available for same-day pickup at most Apple stores.



<h2>KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Last week, violent clashes broke out between security personnel and workers at the Foxconn plant over delayed payments and poor living conditions. Several workers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-24/foxconn-offers-staff-1-400-to-leave-after-iphone-city-violence?" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said they feared</a>&nbsp;they would not receive their promised bonus payouts for joining the factory unless they stayed until March. The new recruits had been lured by promises of higher wages and a bonus payment after hundreds of workers fled the factory campus in October, fearing the impact of stringent Covid measures. Foxconn eventually apologized and blamed the problems on a “technical error” in its hiring process. In an effort to assuage angry recruits, the company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/11/24/foxconn-apologizes-after-workers-revolt-at-worlds-largest-iphone-factory/?sh=61d8a80a245f">offered</a>&nbsp;a ¥10,000 ($1,400) compensation to those who wanted to leave the plant.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/more-than-20000-new-hires-have-left-apple-supplier-foxconns-zhengzhou-plant-2022-11-25/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According to</a>&nbsp;Reuters, nearly 20,000 recruits took up Foxconn’s offer, nearly 10% of iPhone City’s 200,000-strong workforce.



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-28/apple-to-lose-6-million-iphone-pros-from-tumult-at-china-plant?sref=PFCuwcPr&amp;leadSource=uverify%20wall" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple to Lose 6 Million iPhone Pros From Tumult at China Plant</a>(Bloomberg)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/11/23/apple-shares-dip-in-premarket-amid-covid-protest-at-chinas-biggest-iphone-factory/?sh=6fa253a54d68">Apple Shares Dip In Premarket Amid Covid Protest At China’s Biggest iPhone Factory</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/11/24/foxconn-apologizes-after-workers-revolt-at-worlds-largest-iphone-factory/?sh=61d8a80a245f">Foxconn Apologizes After Workers Revolt At World’s Largest iPhone Factory</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



By Siladitya Ray, Forbes Staff

Apple’s iPhone 14 Series On Sale In China

Apple Reportedly Faces Shortfall Of 6 Million iPhones Amid China Factory Protests￼

Wall Street billionaires Carl Icahn, Ken Griffin, Israel Englander and Daniel Loeb can thank Elon Musk for what might be 2022’s easiest money trade.



For many hedge funds,&nbsp;Elon Musk’s $44 billion “forced” purchase of Twitter represented an easy money trade.



“You didn’t have to be a genius to realize that he was going to finish that deal,” said Carl Icahn at the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hanktucker/2022/11/03/carl-icahn-would-have-waged-a-proxy-fight-for-twitter-if-musk-deal-fell-through/?sh=684d42f74623">Forbes Iconoclast Summit</a>&nbsp;on November 3, adding that he would have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hanktucker/2022/11/03/carl-icahn-would-have-waged-a-proxy-fight-for-twitter-if-musk-deal-fell-through/?sh=5928e07d4623">considered waging a proxy fight</a>&nbsp;if the deal fell through.



Icahn told the audience at New York’s Historical Society that he made a profit of around $250 million by investing in Twitter this summer. But he was far from the only one to benefit. Regulatory filings show that billionaire-led hedge funds including Citadel Advisors, Millennium Management, D.E. Shaw and Third Point built large positions in Twitter in the second and third quarters, as well as other firms like Pentwater Capital and Farallon Capital.



Musk signed a merger agreement to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share in April, but the stock was trading as low as $32.65 by July when he tried to terminate the deal. That created an arbitrage opportunity for as much as a 66% return for investors who doubted Musk had much of a chance in the Delaware Court of Chancery to back out.



Icahn’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/921669/000153949722001801/xslForm13F_X01/infotable.xml" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">third-quarter 13-F filing</a>&nbsp;with the SEC shows that he owned 12.5 million Twitter shares as of September 30. He said at the&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;summit he bought in the mid-$30s–if he bought at an average price of $35 per share and made a $19.20 profit on each one when the deal closed at the original price of $54.20 per share on October 28, he would have netted a $240 million profit.



The only fund that made a bigger bet than Icahn was Naples, Florida-based Pentwater Capital Management, founded by Matthew Halbower in 2007. It bought 18.1 million shares during the second quarter and added another 5.3 million shares as of the end of the third quarter. If it bought those 24 million shares at Twitter stock’s median closing price of $40.16 in the first quarter and $41.05 in the second quarter and held them through the completion of the acquisition in October, it would have made $324 million in profit, though its 13-F filing shows it hedged some of those gains by buying put options as well. Pentwater didn’t respond to a request for comment.



In all,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;found 13 hedge funds that spent upwards of $100 million adding to their Twitter stakes between the end of the first quarter and the end of the third quarter this year. We reached out to each fund to ask for average purchase prices, and estimated that they bought at Twitter’s median closing price in each quarter if more precise information wasn’t available. These funds cumulatively purchased more than 10% of the company in the six months leading up to September 30 and likely made well over $1 billion in profits on the deal.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h4 id="h-twitter-winners">TWITTER WINNERS</h4>



<h4 id="h-these-hedge-funds-added-the-most-to-their-twitter-positions-this-spring-and-summer-and-likely-minted-profits-if-they-held-on-through-elon-musk-s-purchase">These hedge funds added the most to their Twitter positions this spring and summer and likely minted profits if they held on through Elon Musk&#8217;s purchase.</h4>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="800" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Screenshot-2022-11-21-at-15.52.49-1024x800.png" alt="" class="wp-image-56886" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Screenshot-2022-11-21-at-15.52.49-1024x800.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Screenshot-2022-11-21-at-15.52.49-300x234.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Screenshot-2022-11-21-at-15.52.49-768x600.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Screenshot-2022-11-21-at-15.52.49.png 1480w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Source: SEC 13-F Filings</figcaption></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



These numbers don’t include any additional shares the firms may have purchased in October, when the margins were slimmer while Musk finalized the acquisition, and don’t include possible trading that took place within each quarter. 13-F filings show a simple snapshot of each firm’s long stock holdings on the last day of each quarter and don’t provide enough information to pin down exact gains and losses, but often represent the most thorough picture of what funds are buying and selling.



The biggest winners included Hong Kong-based Segantii Capital Management, founded by British investor Simon Sadler, and Farallon Capital, the San Francisco-based firm founded by Thomas Steyer in 1986 and now run by Andrew Spokes.



David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital initiated a position of 4.3 million shares in the third quarter, his 13-F filing shows, and he wrote in a letter to investors viewed by&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;that the average purchase price was $37.24 per share. He expected that the Delaware Court of Chancery would be wary of inviting future buyer’s remorse suits if it let Musk walk away.



“The case law on this is quite clear. If it were anyone other than Musk, we would handicap the odds of the buyer wiggling out of the deal to be much less than 5%,” Einhorn wrote in the letter prior to the completion of the deal. “At this price there is $17 per share of upside if TWTR prevails in court and we believe about $17 per share of downside, if the deal breaks. So, we are getting 50-50 odds on something that should happen 95%+ of the time.”



Musk saw the writing on the wall and reversed course in October, agreeing to pay the full price as these investors expected. His first weeks as Twitter’s owner have been marked by confusion and complaints after he opened verification to anyone willing to pay $8 per month, causing a wave of “verified” parody accounts, and laid off 3,700 employees, almost half of its staff. He has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/11/10/musk-tells-staff-twitter-could-go-bankrupt-without-financial-turnaround-reports-say/?sh=5cc89ccc7257">warned Twitter’s staff</a>&nbsp;that “bankruptcy is not out of the question,” but if his $44 billion equity investment goes up in smoke, the hedge funds he paid that cash to will be laughing all the way to the bank.



By Hank Tucker, Forbes Staff

Elon Musk’s Twitter Buyout Was A Billion Dollar Windfall For These 13 Hedge Funds

gettyimages-1176382466-594×594

Meta Reportedly Preparing ‘Large-Scale’ Job Cuts—Here Are The Biggest U.S. Layoffs This Year￼

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



A textless meme of a dog in a T-shirt tweeted by the world’s wealthiest man Elon Musk sent one of the world’s largest cryptocurrencies up 12% Tuesday, the latest instance of tongue-in-cheek social media activity causing big money moves.



<h2>KEY FACTS</h2>



Musk’s&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1587297730631696384?s=20&amp;t=LyxmZux9A7OErRktrr3ddw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweet</a>&nbsp;of a Shiba Inu adorned with a Twitter logo instantly went viral, picking up nearly 600,000 likes.



The image is an apparent reference to&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/29/elon-musk-texts-discovery-twitter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reports</a>&nbsp;Musk will heavily incorporate dogecoin, a coin with a Shiba Inu’s face on it, on Twitter.



Dogecoin rose to a six-month high of $0.14, and is up a whopping 131% over the last month, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/digital-assets/traded-assets/">Forbes’ tracker of digital assets</a>.



Also gaining was the cryptocurrency Shiba Inu, which rose 8% Tuesday.



Outside from the canine tokens, the crypto market broadly rose, with bitcoin and Ethereum gaining 2.6% and 5%, respectively.



<h2>BIG NUMBER</h2>



$10.2 billion. That’s how much in market capitalization dogecoin has gained since October 4, the day Musk’s intent to close the Twitter deal went public. Its $19.1 billion market cap is roughly the same as Hewlett Packard.



<h2>KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Dogecoin briefly reached a market cap of about $70 billion last year when it peaked near $0.70 before quickly losing its luster, falling to as low as $0.05. Much of dogecoin’s surge came as Musk relentlessly touted the coin. This year has been bleak for crypto, with bitcoin down 57% year-to-date, compared to a 19% loss for the S&amp;P 500. Doge’s rise and fall mirrored that of several other meme assets, including stocks like AMC, Bed Bath &amp; Beyond and GameStop.&nbsp;



<h2>TANGENT</h2>



The potential dogecoin adoption is one of many changes to his new social network teased by Musk on his Twitter account, with the billionaire also putting out feelers for the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/10/31/vine-20-twitter-reportedly-working-to-bring-back-video-service-after-musk-poll/?sh=1a725f763f42">return of</a>&nbsp;the short-form video service Vine and a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/10/31/a-verified-badge-on-twitter-may-cost-users-20-a-month-report-says/">monthly fee</a>&nbsp;for users to retain their verified badges.



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/10/28/crypto-markets-gain-nearly-100-billion-after-elon-musks-twitter-deal-boosts-dogecoin/?sh=3e486d062540">Crypto Markets Gain Nearly $100 Billion After Elon Musk&#8217;s Twitter Deal Boosts Dogecoin</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



By Derek Saul, Forbes Staff

File: Crypto Losses Near $700 Billion In Worst Week Since Bubble Burst

Musk Meme Fuels $2 Billion Gain For Dogecoin￼

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Many of Twitter&#8217;s most active users abandoned the platform in recent years and have shown no sign of coming back, according to company documents obtained by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-where-did-tweeters-go-twitter-is-losing-its-most-active-users-internal-2022-10-25/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Reuters</a>, sparking serious concerns about Twitter&#8217;s future just days before Elon Musk is slated to take control of it.



<h2>KEY FACTS</h2>



The number of &#8220;heavy tweeters,&#8221; which Twitter defines as someone who uses the platform six or seven days a week and tweets at least three times a week, has been in &#8220;absolute decline&#8221; since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to an internal report viewed by Reuters.



Interest in mainstay topics popular with advertisers like sports, news and entertainment has been in decline among English-speaking frequent users, according to Reuters, while interest in cryptocurrency and pornographic &#8220;not safe for work&#8221; content has been on the rise.



&#8220;Heavy tweeters&#8221; are reportedly responsible for 90% of tweets and half of the company&#8217;s revenue, despite making up less than 10% of all monthly users.



The most significant user losses appear to be among accounts that tweeted about celebrities like the Kardashians, with the company reportedly finding a &#8220;devastating&#8221; decline in that area, possibly due to users migrating to Instagram or TikTok.



Interest in world news and liberal politics have also suffered massive declines, according to Reuters.



Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from&nbsp;Forbes.



<h2>CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“It seems as though there is a significant discrepancy between what I might imagine are our company values and our growth patterns,” a company researcher reportedly wrote.



<h2>BIG NUMBER</h2>



237.8 million. That&#8217;s how many total daily active users Twitter&nbsp;<a href="https://s22.q4cdn.com/826641620/files/doc_financials/2022/q2/Final_Q2'22_Earnings_Release.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;in the second quarter of this year, up almost 17% from a year prior. Some 41.5 million active users were U.S.-based.



<h2>WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



A Delaware judge has given Musk, the world&#8217;s richest person, until Friday afternoon to close his $44 billion deal to purchase Twitter and take it private. If the deal doesn’t close by then, a lawsuit from the social media company seeking to force him to follow through with the deal will go to trial. Musk told bankers he plans to abide by the Friday deadline,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/10/25/elon-musk-reportedly-tells-bankers-hell-buy-twitter-by-friday-deadline/?sh=6cbd56814a4c">Bloomberg reported Tuesday</a>.



<h2>KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/20/musk-twitter-acquisition-staff-cuts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Washington Post</a>&nbsp;reported last week that Twitter is planning massive staffing cuts due to its turbulent financial situation. The company has a reported goal of slashing $800 million in payroll by 2023, which would impact critical infrastructure such as data centers, potentially making the platform and its users more susceptible to security threats. Musk, meanwhile, has reportedly told prospective investors he’s eyeing even deeper cuts: According to the&nbsp;Post, he plans&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/10/20/musk-plans-to-cut-75-of-twitter-workforce-report-says/?sh=7f91de2e496c">to eliminate about 75%</a>&nbsp;of Twitter&#8217;s 7,500-person workforce if the deal closes. The billionaire also reportedly promised potential investors he will triple the number of users who see ads by the end of his third year as owner, while he&#8217;s also floated a subscription service offering users access to premium content for a fee as a way to raise revenue.



<h2>FORBES VALUATION</h2>



We estimate Musk to be worth $219.6 billion, making him the richest&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/?sh=2c0b1ec77999">person in the world</a>.



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-where-did-tweeters-go-twitter-is-losing-its-most-active-users-internal-2022-10-25/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Exclusive: Twitter is losing its most active users, internal documents show</a>(Reuters)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2022/10/20/musk-plans-to-cut-75-of-twitter-workforce-report-says/?sh=7f91de2e496c">Musk Plans To Cut 75% Of Twitter Workforce, Report Says</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/10/25/elon-musk-reportedly-tells-bankers-hell-buy-twitter-by-friday-deadline/?sh=6cbd56814a4c">Elon Musk Reportedly Tells Bankers He’ll Buy Twitter By Friday Deadline</a>(Forbes)



By Nicholas Reimann, Forbes Staff

In this photo illustration the Twitter logo seen displayed

Twitter Hemorrhaging Its Most Active Users, Report Says￼

Some of the ads include descriptions of sexual violence, paired with images of battered women and photos of male fitness influencers, which were used without permission.



Apps backed by ByteDance and Tencent have been running hundreds of ads on Facebook and Instagram containing sexually explicit content, descriptions of graphic violence and content promoting acts of self harm.



The ads, which violate Meta’s policies, contain excerpts from&nbsp;<a href="https://restofworld.org/2022/china-romance-novels/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">erotic web novels</a>&nbsp;featuring young adult fantasy themes like werewolves and vampires, often paired with short videos and images that appear to be taken from influencers, movies and TV shows. With descriptions of sexual assault and images of distressed women and girls next to muscular men, these ads push users to download apps where they can pay to read stories by the chapter.



One ad, teasing a story about a “night of terror” where a teen girl will be “mated” to a “creature,” featured a shirtless photo of Brazilian football star Neymar mashed up with a stock image of a beaten woman. A representative for Neymar told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;the image was used without permission.&nbsp;



The ad was for iReader, an app into which TikTok parent company ByteDance invested $170 million in 2020. As of Saturday morning, 83 other live ads for iReader featured a story chapter titled “His Personal Cum Bucket” and a graphic description of sexual violence. Multiple requests for comment sent to numerous iReader representatives went unanswered.&nbsp;



Ads for the Mytopia app, which is owned by ByteDance, contained similarly troubling content. Three ads for the app included a text description of a teen girl being molested by her step-brother, and three other ads contained a romanticized account of a teen girl cutting herself. After being contacted by&nbsp;Forbes, ByteDance paused Mytopia’s ad campaign, and ByteDance spokesperson Billy Kenny said that the ads “do not match our values.”



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large">Ads paired excerpts of violent erotica with images of distressed women and girls and muscular men, which were sometimes used without permission. Note: some images may be disturbing.</blockquote>



On Wednesday, an app called Webnovel, which is owned by Tencent subsidiary China Literature, began running ads featuring sexually explicit comics that implied incest between a mother and her son. China Literature stopped the ad campaign when contacted for comment by&nbsp;Forbes. In a statement, spokesperson Maggie Zhou said: “We can confirm these ads were posted by third-party agencies without informing China Literature and in violation of our content policies.”



ByteDance (which owns TikTok) and Tencent (which owns WeChat and some of the most popular videogames in the world) have long struggled to show that their products do not expose people to content&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-algorithm-sex-drugs-minors-11631052944?mod=business_lead_pos5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">promoting sex</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-china-8da6d2d346475bfb8e0942fe9c650cc2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">abuse</a>, or&nbsp;<a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2093538/groups-linked-suicide-game-found-chinese-messaging-site" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">self harm</a>. But while the Chinese tech giants have invested heavily in removing this kind of content from TikTok and WeChat, they have at the same time paid for erotic web novel businesses to create it and promote it to Meta users through ads.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large">Ads for Webnovel, which is owned by Tencent subsidiary China Literature, featured sexually explicit comics that implied incest between a mother and her son. They have now been taken down.</blockquote>



Meta, for its part, has appeared largely incapable of halting this flood of violent fantasy erotica ads that violate its rules. The company’s Ad Library reveals that while Meta has detected and removed dozens of these ads, advertisers have just put more up. Moreover, Meta’s detection appears weak and haphazard, with weeks-old ads still live featuring text that obviously violates its rules. Before&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;contacted Meta about the ads, searches of the Ad Library for phrases like “his cock” and “rape me” returned hundreds of results, nearly all of them ads for web novel apps.&nbsp;(Disclosure: in a past life, I held policy positions at Facebook and Spotify.)&nbsp;



Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the company had removed dozens of ads from web novel companies before it was approached by&nbsp;Forbes, and that it has removed nearly 200 ads and pages since being presented with our findings. Still, five new renditions of the “cum bucket” ad began running last night from a page that&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;had flagged to Meta, and a quick search of the Ad Library returns hundreds of similar results.&nbsp;



Apps like Webnovel, Mytopia and iReader have boomed during the pandemic. The apps first became popular in China, where ByteDance’s Tomato Novel app has been downloaded more than 60 million times. But they have recently become popular in the U.S., too. iReader was downloaded 1.5 million times in 2021, and Webnovel was downloaded more than 2 million times in 2022, according to Sensor Tower. Although Chinese apps dominate the sector, domestic apps offer similar wares: Amazon’s Kindle Vella features identical themes and even some of the same stories featured on other apps. It does not appear to advertise on Facebook or Instagram.&nbsp;



Earlier this year,&nbsp;<a href="https://restofworld.org/2022/china-romance-novels/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Rest of World reported</a>&nbsp;that the profit margin for China-based web novels is often very high, with companies making as much as 10 times as much as they pay authors for each story. But that profit margin may depend in significant part on ads: In 2021,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.protocol.com/china/chinese-web-novels-china" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Protocol reported</a>&nbsp;that 42.7% of China-based web novels were introduced to overseas readers through advertising.



This market also extends beyond just apps backed by Tencent and ByteDance. Last week,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;identified more than 1,000 ads running from more than 100 Facebook pages representing China-based web novel apps. Some of the ads stayed within bounds, offering largely standard romance novel fare, but others violated Meta’s policies barring explicit sexual content.&nbsp;



One ad running on Thursday morning promoted an app called MoboReader, and described a scene in which a woman’s husband tries to kill her by hitting her with a car, and then another man subsequently rapes her. Moboreader did not respond to a request for comment.&nbsp;



A text excerpt used in at least 32 other ads on Thursday included a graphic, romanticized description of a teen girl engaging in self-mutilation after being abused. The ads were for Supernovel, an app whose Terms of Service claim it is owned by Cloudary Holdings, a subsidiary of Tencent. When asked about the app, Tencent and Cloudary denied any relationship to it.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



In 2019, the China-based blog TechNode&nbsp;<a href="https://technode.com/2019/08/30/bytedance-promotes-new-online-reading-app-as-regulators-clamp-down/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;that a ByteDance web novel app popular with domestic Chinese audiences was shut down for three months by the Chinese government for distributing “lowbrow and sexually suggestive content.” But as the web novel industry has grown, ByteDance and Tencent have deepened their investments in it.&nbsp;



In December 2019, ByteDance&nbsp;<a href="https://en.pingwest.com/w/7080" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">acquired a majority stake</a>&nbsp;in MyMind Culture, the parent company behind several Chinese-language novel apps. In July 2020, it&nbsp;<a href="https://en.pingwest.com/w/7080" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bought a 10% stake</a>&nbsp;in Beijing Dingtian Culture Entertainment, which runs similar apps, including SweetRead and DmRead. Later that year, ByteDance&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/04/bytedance-to-pump-170-million-into-e-book-reader-zhangyue/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">paid $170 million</a>&nbsp;for 11% of the China-based e-book company Zhangyue, which makes the iReader app, as well as ForNovel, Novelink, Favoread and Noveltells. In 2021, it&nbsp;<a href="https://pandaily.com/bytedance-bets-on-web-novel-business-launching-mytopia-application-overseas/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">launched Mytopia</a>, which, like iReader, is targeted to foreign audiences.&nbsp;



Billy Kenny, the ByteDance spokesperson, said that ByteDance (which invested in Zhangyue through its acquisition arm, Quantum Jump) “doesn’t have any involvement in the product and business strategy of Zhangyue’s global businesses.” Zhangyue, however, told shareholders in April: &#8220;Mr. Zhang Chao, head of ByteDance&#8217;s novel business department, is a director of the company. The company and Byte have cooperated in various aspects such as content copyright and advertising cooperation.&#8221; Kenny did not answer follow-up questions about the nature of this cooperation.



Tencent owns the conglomerate China Literature, which controls the flagship English-language Webnovel app through a company called Cloudary Holdings. Terms of service for a cluster of other apps running ads on Facebook, including iNovel, eReader, SuperNovel, PopNovel, Mobooks and MyNovel, list Cloudary Holdings as their operator; however, Maggie Zhou, a spokesperson for China Literature, told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;that the entities are not owned or operated by China Literature or Cloudary.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h3 id="h-ads-for-various-apps-also-used-clips-from-major-movies-including-star-wars-marvel-comics-and-dc-comics">Ads for various apps also used clips from major movies, including Star Wars, Marvel Comics, and DC Comics.</h3>



Many of these ads also appear to rip content from influencers, television shows and movies. In addition to its Neymar ad, Zhangyue has also featured images of other celebrities, including Kylie Jenner and fitness influencer Chadoy Leon. Leon, whose image was stitched together with photos of frightened women, told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;he had never heard of iReader. “Whoever is using my pictures are using them without my permission,” he said. Jenner’s rep declined to comment on the record.&nbsp;



Ads for Zhangyue apps, as well as iNovel, Supernovel and others, also used content from major movies, including those from the&nbsp;Twilight&nbsp;movies, Star Wars, DC Comics and Marvel Studios. A representative from Warner Brothers (which owns DC Comics) said its content had been used without permission; Disney (which owns Marvel and Star Wars) and Summit Entertainment (which owns&nbsp;Twilight) did not respond to a request for comment.



Many of the Facebook pages running these ads also bore signs of ban evasion, suggesting the companies are intentionally avoiding takedowns by Meta. Some apps used intentional misspellings for words that might lead to flags. One ad for iReader described a character by the “visible V running down to his gen.ita1s.” Other iReader-owned pages, including those promoting Noveltells and Novelink, added a letter to profane terms, including bitcch and whoree.&nbsp;



Novel apps have also spread their ads out across numerous pages — a tactic often used by networks trying to ensure that one or two takedowns will not cripple an entire campaign. Ads promoting an app called Noveland have been placed from pages labeled Noveland1 through Noveland8, as well as pages with title variations like Noveland App and Noveland Romance Story. Pages called Noveland11, Noveland12, and Noveland13 were created earlier this month, but are not running ads at this time. Requests for comment sent to Noveland were not answered.



Other ads have come from pages with more colorful names: Some ads promoting iReader were placed from werewolf-themed pages with names like Alpha King, Gamma Fire and Ugly Mate, as well as pages with nonsense names like Genius Babies and Llj-Hhh. A Philippines-based app called Pinky Novel has been running ads from a page called Kz Car Tint &amp; Accesories [sic], and an app called AhaNovel, has been running ads from a page titled “Raped by Mr. CEO.” (Pinky Novel and Aha Novel did not respond to requests for comment.)&nbsp;



Despite&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;reporting the page to Meta on Wednesday morning, at time of this writing, “Raped by Mr. CEO” is still live on the platform today.&nbsp;



No longer live, though, is a page Facebook published in 2021, highlighting Webnovel as “success story” in advertiser partnerships. Stone did not respond to a question about whether Meta still considers Webnovel a model for other advertisers today.



By Emily Baker-White, Forbes Staff

Smartphone apps from Facebook

Facebook And Instagram Are Full Of Violent Erotica Ads From ByteDance- And Tencent-Backed Apps

BY TIANA CLINE



Current processes that track commodities such as palm oil through the supply chain require a lot of time and effort to perform, and often leave out valuable information around sustainability claims. Can blockchain solve the problem?



IN ITS PUREST FORM, PALM oil has a deep red color and a rich fragrance. When it was first discovered by Ca’da Mosto, a 15th-century explorer, he documented that it has “the scent of violets, the taste of olive oil and a color which tinges food like saffron”. Palm oil has been consumed as both food and medicine for thousands of years in West and Central Africa. While it remains a beloved, traditional part of African cuisine, it is a product that has become industrialized globally – bleached, refined, deodorized and relabeled to the point that it is now a hidden, food-like substance. Today, palm oil can be found in everything from ultra-processed foods to cosmetics and household cleaning products. It’s an indispensable ingredient, one linked to controversy ranging from slave labor to deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions. Can the blockchain help?



“Technology is a significant enabler of traceability and transparency, especially when it comes to knowing exactly where our raw material is coming from, even when it passes through many different hands on its way to us,” says Andrew Wilcox, the senior manager for sustainable sourcing and digital programmes at Unilever. “Getting full traceability and transparency in our supply chain is a crucial part of this journey.”



According to Wilcox, current processes that track commodities – such as palm oil – through the supply chain require a lot of time and effort to perform, and often leave out valuable information around sustainability claims. “There are currently no viable methods for preserving origin data at the scale of the commodity supply chain. This means that by the time the commodities are manufactured into products for consumers, products are simply marked as being sustainable or non-sustainable. This results in consumers rightfully questioning some of these claims.”



And that is where GreenToken comes in, a ‘chain-of- custody’ blockchain developed by SAP to help companies keep track of their bulk commodity supply chain sourcing, especially for raw materials like palm oil which is known for being especially difficult to trace.



“The supply chain is long and complex and until recently, has not had the benefit of a joined up digital transformation in recording palm [oil] movements from end-to-end,” says James Veale, GreenToken’s co-founder. GreenToken is one of the first initiatives to address that and make it into a repeatable standard.



“Ninety percent of the world’s raw materials are traded on a bulk basis. This means they are mixed with other identical raw materials at some point in the supply chain, causing most of the information to get hidden or lost,” adds Wilcox. “With GreenToken, tokens are created by commodity buyers (mills in the case of palm oil) and a range of information related to the crop (origins or sustainability credentials) are captured within the token. As the crop moves to each stage of the supply chain (e.g., a refinery), a request is made 



o transfer the digital tokens.” The blockchain tokens are therefore a digital twin for the crops, enabling a ‘virtual segregation’ even if the materials have been mixed with materials from a different source.



“The GreenToken blockchain has the ability to record RSPO certified palm at the grower delivery to the mill level and track that palm throughout the extended supply chain,” explains Veale. “In this way, the sustainable volume is made transparent on the blockchain wherever it may be in the supply chain, giving the end buyer a lot of confidence in their purchase.”



Certification from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) can take many years to achieve and the proven certified sustainable percentage is relatively small.



“End users can only claim that their palm oil is certified sustainable if they can trace it back to grower deliveries to an originating crush mill. As the supply chain is long and complex with much commingling and processing, and as off takers do not want to make unsubstantiated claims,” says



Veale. “Digital systems like blockchain can help carry this proven sustainable certification along the value chain to the off-taker, quicker, cheaper and with full auditability and so accelerate the evidence down the supply chain to the end consumer.”



Palm oil is the most land-efficient vegetable oil and the main source of livelihoods for millions of farmers and communities from Cameroon to Sierra Leone. There are 10 countries that make up the Africa Palm Oil Initiative with the biggest plantation (to date) sitting in Liberia.



As Russia’s War on Ukraine rages on and sunflower oil exports drop significantly, food producers are struggling to seek replacements and palm oil is making an unforeseen comeback that could potentially derail sustainability efforts if technology like the GreenToken blockchain doesn’t step in.



According to one plant-based company in South Africa that originally abstained from using palm oil, the sunflower oil shortage has made them seriously



Ultimately, the GreenToken blockchain will not only give consumers much-needed assurance that the palm oil they’re using is ethically-grown, it will help recognize the sustainability efforts of growers and smallholder farmers. “When we have a system that is potentially able to maintain and verify a tamper-proof record of commodities and their credentials, it gives more confidence that the premiums we pay for sustainable raw materials are impactful and can incentivise the production and purchase of sustainable commoditiesthroughoutthesupplychain,”saysWilcox.“We want our consumers to have the confidence when picking up a Unilever product that the product has been made with sustainable palm oil.”

Screenshot 2022-09-14 at 10.22.33

Connecting Palms In Africa: Blockchain For The Supply Chain

By Tiana Cline



THE INTERNET MAY HAVE evolved from a niche pastime to an essential part of our day-to-day life but for many, it’s problematic.



The internet in its current form, Web 2.0, has become too centralized with only a handful of big technology companies – and governments – dominating the market. There’s even a collective name for these giants who have transformed the way we work, shop and socialize: FAANG – Facebook (now Meta), Amazon.com, Apple, Netflix and Google-owner Alphabet.



Web 3.0 is the third generation of the internet, a decentralized online ecosystem based on the blockchain. The term was coined by a computer scientist named Gavin Wood in 2014. Wood co-founded Ethereum, the decentralized blockchain platform behind the cryptocurrency ether (ETH).



In a podcast with CNBC, Wood explained that the biggest issue with Web 2.0 is trusting the people behind the services: “We’ve managed to architect ourselves into this somewhat dystopian version of what the world could be,” he said. This is why, for many, Web 3.0 is about looking at the internet in a more distributed and democratic way. It’s also a critical building block towards creating the metaverse, an immersive online world. Venture capitalists are investing billions of dollars into this future vision while others remain sceptical, calling Web 3.0 a marketing buzzword and a pyramid scheme. Both Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, are known to be ‘against’ the concept, Musk tweeting that “Web 3 isn’t real” and that he couldn’t see a compelling use-case for the VR-driven metaverse.



Brian Solis, a world-renowned digital anthropologist and futurist, explains to FORBES AFRICA that even though the promise of the internet that we’re using today was wonderful, it has negative impacts and consequences that we’re only just beginning to understand: “I was one of the biggest champions of social media and I still believe in its promise,” he says. “I don’t necessarily believe in the capitalism behind it and how it has evolved&#8230; but those same principles can apply and should apply to Web 3.0.”



Solis also differentiates between the aspirational sense of what Web 3.0 could be and where we are today. “There are many aspects of the hype cycle in Web 3.0 – the metaverse, blockchain, NFTs, crypto&#8230; they lay the foundation for what we can build in terms of utility and scale.”



While global research and consultancy agency Gartner says Web 3.0 won’t necessarily overtake Web 2.0 before the end of the decade, it will enable new business and social models where users own their own data, identity, content and algorithms. And that is what makes Web 3.0 so valuable – it shifts digital power back into the hands of the user, rather than to a secondary platform, integrating both the physical and digital world.



Will Africa enter the Metaverse?



For Africa, it’s a little different. While the concept of a digital currency may be confusing at first, Africa embraced mobile money in 2007 with M-Pesa. Africa’s willingness to adopt new technologies that benefit its growing population should not be taken for granted – what was once a basic SIM card-based money transfer application is now a fully-fledged financial service.



Liebe Jeannot, the founder and manager partner of Akazi Capital, a blockchain-based impact fund that invests in female entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa, is optimistic about Web 3.0. “We’re still in early days. This is only the beginning of the cycle so I’m excited to see how things will evolve based on what’s happened in the past but also in terms of new entrants coming into the space,” she says.



A study by Chainalysis, a blockchain data platform with an extensive global research hub, found that Africa not only had the third-fastest growing cryptocurrency economy globally in 2021, it led the world in the share of overall crypto transaction volume coming from peer-to-peer. Today, the second-largest bitcoin market can be found in Nigeria, which also happens to be only one of five nations with a government-introduced central bank digital currency.



“Even though there are countries in Africa with really high crypto-adoption rates, so much of the continent hasn’t jumped on board. It speaks to the fact that when we talk about Web 3.0, it’s a concept that’s quite removed from a lot of people in terms of their lives and what they think it can do,” adds Jeannot. “As soon as you can bring those concepts close to home and show them concepts that they can relate to, that’s when you’ll have more people entering the space with things becoming more user-friendly in terms of the way in which we interact with technology.”



Jeannot believes that Africa is ready to unlock Web 3.0. And that this new, future vision for the internet will become a reality in the same way that we use email.



“We don’t have to understand the technology behind it, what goes on behind the scenes in terms of code, but we understand the way we interact with it and how we 



apply it to our daily life,” she says. “It’s going to be a similar thing with Web 3.0. NFTs, for example, play an interesting role because people relate to art – you collect it or you enjoy it but in order to buy NFTs, it doesn’t have to be complicated,” says Jeannot.



“The space is so diverse with many different projects that speak to different parts of who we are as people. There’s still a lot of room for African projects by Africans and as we start bringing more people from the continent into the space as investors, there’ll be more of an appetite from people wanting to consume and be a part of Web.3.0.”

Silhouette of a man interacting with virtual computer graphics

Web 3.0 & THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET: Is Africa ready for the digital and physical worlds to merge into the metaverse?

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Apple has warned of serious security flaws for iPhones, iPads and Macs that could allow hackers to take complete control of devices and may have been “actively exploited,” urging customers to update their devices as soon as possible in a rare admission from the tech giant that takes pride in its security measures.



<h2>KEY FACTS</h2>



Apple dropped two surprise software updates on Wednesday to fix major&nbsp;<a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213412" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">security</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213413" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">vulnerabilities</a>&nbsp;it said could allow hackers to take&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/17/iphone-ipad-mac-zero-days/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">complete control</a>&nbsp;of users’ devices.&nbsp;



Updates have been made available to affected devices, which include the iPhone 6s and later models, all iPad Pro models, the iPad Air 2 and later, the iPad 5th generation and later, the iPad mini 4 and later, the iPod touch 7th generation and Mac computers running macOS Monterey.



<a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/apple-security-flaw-iphones-update-ipad-iwatch-hacking-risk-cybersecurity-b1019648.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Security</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/18/apple-security-flaw-hack-iphone-ipad-macs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">experts</a>&nbsp;have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/apple-warns-of-security-flaw-for-iphones-ipads-and-macs/2022/08/18/2a1d146a-1f40-11ed-9ce6-68253bd31864_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">urged</a>&nbsp;affected users to update software swiftly in order to fix the flaw and secure their devices.&nbsp;



To update software on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch—either iOS 15.6.1 or iPadOS 15.6.1—go into “Settings,” tap “General,” then “Software Update” and “Download and Install.”



To update a Mac running macOS Monterey, go to “System Preferences,” then “Software Update” and hit “Update Now” or “Upgrade Now.”&nbsp;



Apple did not disclose how many people had been affected by the vulnerabilities but said it is aware of credible reports that both had been “actively exploited.



<h2>WHAT WE DON’T KNOW</h2>



How the vulnerabilities were discovered. Apple provided few details on how it became aware of the flaws or who had made the discoveries, crediting both to anonymous researchers. There have been no confirmed reports so far of cases where the vulnerabilities were used against users or their devices. In its security reports, Apple said it does not disclose, discuss or confirm any security issues until after an investigation has occurred and patches are available.



<h2>KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Vulnerabilities discovered before the producer, in this case Apple, is aware of them are known as zero-day vulnerabilities, referring to the fact that the creator has zero days warning to counter it. Such flaws can be extremely valuable and both hackers and vendors will pay large sums of money to get ahold of them. While serious flaws have been exploited to spy on users through smartphones—Israeli firm<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/11/16/candiru-spy-tool-provider-linked-to-website-hacks/?sh=38990af746c0">&nbsp;NSO Group</a>&nbsp;has allegedly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/07/22/nso-group-ceo-defends-1-billion-spyware-company-against-pegasus-project-hacking-allegations/?sh=30a8f969472d">hacked</a>&nbsp;high-profile journalists and world leaders—they are often directed at high-profile individuals rather than the public at large.&nbsp;



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/17/iphone-ipad-mac-zero-days/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple releases iOS, iPadOS and macOS security fixes for two zero-days under active attack</a> (TechCrunch)



By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff

Apple Store Opens In Knightsbridge

Apple Security Flaw Could Let Hackers Control iPhones, iPads And Macs—What You Need To Know And How To Fix It

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Google <a href="https://blog.google/products/search/more-content-by-people-for-people-in-search/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> Thursday it will take more steps to promote high-quality content in its search results, while the Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-tests-tiktok-like-feed-in-app-11660754386" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> this week Amazon will try out a new video feature for shoppers, becoming the latest tech giants to introduce changes to try to compete with the increasingly popular TikTok.



<h2>KEY FACTS</h2>



Google said it is making updates to ensure high quality content is promoted in its search results, while cutting back on the amount of low-quality, unoriginal content designed “for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people.”



The changes come after Google’s Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/12/google-exec-suggests-instagram-and-tiktok-are-eating-into-googles-core-products-search-and-maps/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> last month younger people are using apps like TikTok and Instagram instead of Google for searches.



Amazon, meanwhile, is trying out a stream of TikTok-like photos and videos in its app called “Inspire,” where shoppers can like, share and purchase items in the same place, the&nbsp;Journal&nbsp;reported, citing a person familiar with the product.&nbsp;



The new portal is being tested by Amazon employees, but could be launched more broadly, the&nbsp;Journal&nbsp;reported.&nbsp;



Amazon spokesperson Alyssa Bronikowski told Forbes the company is “constantly testing new features to help make customers’ lives a little easier.”



<h2>BIG NUMBER</h2>



One billion. That’s how many monthly active users TikTok&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/tiktok-hits-1-billion-monthly-active-users-globally-company-2021-09-27/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;it had in September 2021, a 45% increase from the year before.&nbsp;



<h2>KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has taken a series of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-11/google-is-remaking-search-maps-for-the-tiktok-generation?sref=5EPYOKdS" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">steps</a>&nbsp;this year to make improvements to Google’s search engine and maps function to help draw in younger users, including new features for people to search for nearby items using images and discover physical objects using their phone cameras. Raghavan&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-11/google-is-remaking-search-maps-for-the-tiktok-generation?sref=5EPYOKdS" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;Bloomberg in May the company was aiming for Google Search to “be something that you can do anywhere, in any way you want, using any of your senses.” Meta, too, has attempted to compete with TikTok’s popularity, launching short videos known as reels in 2020 for Instagram users, followed by Facebook&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/metas-facebook-escalates-tiktok-rivalry-launches-reels-globally-11645549200?mod=article_inline" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">users</a>&nbsp;this year. Alphabet also created a new feature called “Shorts” for YouTube, a short-form video platform designed to look like TikTok. TikTok is currently&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/09/tiktoks-latest-test-feature-improve-search-capabilities/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">trying</a>&nbsp;out a new feature to improve its own search functions by identifying keywords in comments and linking to search results for the words. The app has surged in popularity since it was launched in 2016, becoming the third largest worldwide social media platform behind Instagram and Facebook in 2021,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.insiderintelligence.com/newsroom/index.php/tiktok-is-the-third-largest-worldwide-social-network-behind-instagram-and-facebook/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to Insider Intelligence. Raghavan&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/12/google-exec-suggests-instagram-and-tiktok-are-eating-into-googles-core-products-search-and-maps/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;in July Google has found about 40% of young people turn to popular social media apps like TikTok or Instagram “when they’re looking for a place for lunch,” instead of Google Maps or Search, key products for Alphabet.&nbsp;



<h2>CONTRA</h2>



Instagram last month decided to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2022/07/28/instagram-pauses-on-some-tiktok-like-changes-for-now-after-complaints/?sh=5a474aea6526">pause</a>&nbsp;changes designed to make the app look more like TikTok, including a redesign of its feed, after facing a host of criticisms from users, including major creators like Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian. It had planned to prioritize video content over photos, but decided to “take a big step back and regroup,” after facing a backlash over the modifications, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said at the time.



<h2>FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/18/google-will-roll-out-new-updates-to-reduce-low-quality-and-unoriginal-content-in-search-results/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google will roll out new updates to reduce low-quality and unoriginal content in search results</a>&nbsp;(Tech Crunch)



<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-tests-tiktok-like-feed-in-app-11660754386" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Amazon Tests TikTok-Like Feed in App</a>&nbsp;(Wall Street Journal)



<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-11/google-is-remaking-search-maps-for-the-tiktok-generation?sref=5EPYOKdS" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google Is Remaking Search, Maps for the TikTok Generation</a>&nbsp;(Bloomberg)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2022/07/28/instagram-pauses-on-some-tiktok-like-changes-for-now-after-complaints/?sh=5a474aea6526">Instagram Pauses On Some TikTok-Like Changes—For Now—After Complaints</a> (Forbes)



By Madeline Halpert, Forbes Staff

In this photo illustration the TikTok logo seen displayed on

Tech Giants Are Racing To Compete With TikTok—Here’s How

A new study shows how websites and apps gather people’s sensitive health-related information, sometimes without consent, and channel it to the social media giant to generate business.



Digital health companies are funneling sensitive data that patients have shared with them to Facebook to help target advertisements, according to a new study from research group the Light Collective. In some cases this sharing is running afoul of the companies’ own privacy policies and raising concerns about HIPAA violations.



The peer-reviewed study, <a href="https://www.cell.com/patterns/fulltext/S2666-3899(22)00172-6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">published Monday</a> in Patterns, a data science journal, examines the way data from individuals’ health-related activity online is tracked across websites or platforms and then used for advertising purposes on Facebook. The researchers studied the online activities of 10 participants active in the online cancer community who had used digital health tools from five different companies: Color Genomics, Myriad Genetics, Invitae, Health Union and Ciitizen. They found that third-party ad trackers used by those companies followed the patients online and marketed to them based on those activities. Three of the companies went against their own privacy policies in the process.



The authors said that after disclosing their findings to the five companies, only Ciitizen and Invitae responded, saying they were investigating the privacy issues with the tracking tools. (Health Union told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;after publication that they had no record of being contacted by the researchers.)&nbsp;



Health Union president Lauren Lawhon said the safety and security of people in its online health community are a priority and that it continually takes steps to ensure its data privacy practices are “transparent and compliant with the evolving regulatory environment.” She noted, in an emailed statement, that Health Union recently began using privacy management software that shows website visitors pop-ups giving them the choice to accept or reject cookie-based data collection and tracking. (There is also a “Do Not Sell My Information” link at the bottom of their pages, she said.)



“As a publisher, Health Union collects and tracks data pertaining to content consumption, traffic sources and other information about how users engage with our websites,” Lawhon wrote in the email. “This is done to better understand the types of content, content topics and advertising that are of the most interest to people who participate in our communities, so we can continue to provide engaging, relevant websites in the future.” She also emphasized that Health Union is not covered under HIPAA because it is not a healthcare provider, but rather, a publisher owning various health-related websites.



The other four digital health companies did not respond to requests for comment.



Dale Hogan, a spokesperson for Facebook&#8217;s parent, Meta, said these companies should not be sharing&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/help/361948878201809?id=188852726110565" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">personal health information</a>&nbsp;with the social media platform in the first place because that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1057016521436966?id=188852726110565" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">violates Meta&#8217;s rules</a>. &#8220;Advertisers should not send sensitive information about people through our Business Tools as doing so is against our policies,&#8221; he wrote in an emailed statement. &#8220;We educate advertisers on properly setting up Business tools to prevent this from occurring. Our system is designed to filter out potentially sensitive data it is able to detect.”



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large">“Health privacy is a basic requirement in digital medicine for reducing the abuse of power and supporting patient autonomy.”&nbsp;</blockquote>



Andrea Downing, cofounder of the Light Collective, which is focused on privacy issues in the online world, said “data gathering and predictive algorithms that are used for advertising and other purposes are one of the biggest threats to online patient communities.” It puts them at greater risk of discrimination and online scams, the authors wrote, adding that tracking software can make cancer-patient populations in particular more vulnerable to medical misinformation and privacy breaches.&nbsp;



Despite the small scale of the study, it is indicative of larger data-sharing trends across digital health and social media. An investigation&nbsp;<a href="https://themarkup.org/pixel-hunt/2022/06/16/facebook-is-receiving-sensitive-medical-information-from-hospital-websites" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">published earlier this summer</a>&nbsp;by&nbsp;The Markup, for example, revealed how hospital websites use trackers to gather and share sensitive patient information with Facebook for marketing, in possible violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.https://6f53fffc8a221d0154a1a92a1703947c.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html



Lengthy, ambiguous privacy policies for these apps often leave users unclear on how their data will be collected, shared and used. Some platforms also engage in risky data practices without individuals’ consent. The new research, co-authored by Eric Perakslis, chief science and digital officer at the Duke Clinical Research Institute, is intended to raise awareness around both.



“Health privacy is a basic requirement in digital medicine for reducing the abuse of power and supporting patient autonomy,” the authors write.



“While the digital medicine ecosystem relies on social media to recruit and build their businesses” through ads and marketing, they add, “these practices sometimes contradict their own stated privacy policies and promises to users.”



By Alexandra S. Levine, Forbes Staff

Facebook  Friends Finance

Digital Medical Companies Funnel Patient Data To Facebook For Advertising

By Tiana Cline



Lead poisoning is an issue in Africa where lead-acid batteries reign supreme, powering cars and generators, providing solar power storage, and even backup for cell towers during rolling blackouts. But here’s How one company is transforming resources to power a more connected, sustainable world.



African children have died from lead poisoning. In countries like Botswana, Zambia, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Kenya and Tanzania, blood lead levels is not only unusually high – they’re increasing, according to a report in the Lancet Planetary Health journal. Exposure to lead, a potent neurotoxin, is known to affect the brain resulting in disability (if not death). The World Health Organization states that children are more at risk because high lead exposure damages the brain before it has had a chance to fully develop so one has to ask: where is all this lead coming from?



While certain types of paint contain high levels of lead, America banned the use of these residentially in 1978. In South Africa, however, rules around lead paint were only enforced in 2010 and from October this year, lead paint will be officially classified as a hazardous substance. But paint isn’t the biggest problem – a growing danger is the informal recycling of lead acid batteries. Even though lithium-ion batteries are a better battery (technologically-speaking), lead acid batteries reign supreme across Africa, powering cars and generators, providing solar power storage, and even backup for cell towers during rolling blackouts.



“Batteries are everywhere,” says Jamie Lee, Ecobat’s Chief Information Officer. “You don’t think about it until you think about recycling. In the transportation and energy sector, 19 percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from road transportation. If batteries could be recycled better, it would mean less transport and you’re actually making an impact.”



When lead acid batteries aren’t recycled properly, acid and lead dust enters the soil. The process emits toxic fumes that permeate the air with poison and the workers return home with hazardous dust on their clothing.



“In addition to this, there are certain countries that use child labor to break open batteries and get those materials out which are then sold to the open market,” adds Lee. “We need to configure our supply chain in a way that we can get that battery supply into our hands for recycling. Then when the materials are put out, they go back into the hands of the manufacturers to take over and the result is less mining.”



THE WORLD’S MOST EFFICIENT CIRCULAR ECONOMY



Lee says that while many people believe paper, plastic and glass are the most recycled materials globally, lithium-ion batteries come in second and lead sits at the top of the pyramid.



“The most recycled material worldwide is lead;130 million batteries come through the recycling process,” he adds. “There’s enough lead in the recycling process to not mine for new materials.”



But that’s only when lead-acid batteries are regenerated or refurbished safely – something Ecobat does around the world because lead poisoning isn’t simply an African issue. A new study out of UNICEF found that around 800 million children are exposed to lead annually and the numbers in South Asia are higher than anywhere else.



“We are in a unique position globally as the largest battery recycler. Ecobat’s true impact is its value – if we didn’t exist there would be landfills of batteries,” he says. Recycling batteries is complicated – there’s a chain of over five different work centers to open each battery up, draw chemistries out of it and melt it down before refining the materials and shipping them off. From a safety perspective, there also has to be specialized breathing apparatus in place to ensure the recycling plant meets regulatory standards.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large">A new study out of UNICEF found that around 800 million children are exposed to lead annually and the numbers in South Asia are higher than anywhere else.</blockquote>



As battery technology evolves, Ecobat also have had to adapt the way batteries are collected and stored as well as enhance their technical capabilities in the cloud.



“We are in the business of making batteries safe and sustainable which means we need to apply technology and safety. Batteries are not going away – they’re only going up in consumption,” says Lee, adding that the battery market size is expected to grow exponentially by 2030. “That means more and more batteries as well as different types of batteries – we’re chasing technology that’s evolving.”



Lithium-ion batteries, for example, contain 20 different chemistries. Every material inside a battery requires specialization that goes into Ecobat’s engineering in order to maximize sustainability.



“If we maximize our performance, the battery manufacturers can maximize theirs and lead batteries could last longer. If you’re lengthening the cycle, by effectively bringing the product back to recycling, you’re almost completely circular and that’s an exciting place to get to.”



Ecobat have slowly been buying out recycling and manufacturing businesses across Europe, the United Kingdom, America and Africa. So far, they’ve consolidated 2,730 companies under one brand using SAP sustainable intelligence to help them scale their growth.



“We need to reclaim and reuse materials like lead rather than mine more,” says Lee. “Even renewable energies rely on lead acid batteries for backup. Electronic vehicles have lead acid batteries because if their security or intelligence systems go down, you need to transition seamlessly.”



Many African countries today still lack adequate recycling facilities and these informal, lead acid battery processing sites continue to put the health of millions of people at risk. To create an ecological impact, Lee believes that the conversation shouldn’t start with materials like plastic, aluminium and glass.



“That’s all low on the list because we see it being collected – even if it isn’t necessarily being recycled correctly,” he adds. “But we need to get recycling visible and help people understand where batteries of all kinds should not (and cannot) go. We do not want them in landfills – we need batteries to be a key consideration in the recycling process so we can make use of those materials.”

Old leaking batteries

COUNTERING THE DANGERS OF ONE OF THE MOST RECYCLED MATERIALS IN THE WORLD

BY RIDHIMA SHUKLA



Yussouf Ntwali’s edtech company has grown from idea to impact, changing the recruitment landscape in Rwanda.



IN THE BEATING HEART of the impeccably-green city of Kigali, in one of the most sought-after commercial zones, past a small gate and a garden is a shared space for home-grown Rwandan startups.



Entering the first building, a double- storied structure marked BAG, a white board reads ‘Training, Problem Solving, IoT and Education’.



Inside, there are more white boards in the middle of a large room, which looks like a cross between a classroom and a workplace, buzzing with youthful energy and the start of something bright and new.



Across the foyer is the office of Yussouf Ntwali, the 21-year-old CEO of BAG Innovation, an edtech company into innovation and social impact, one of Rwanda’s most popular tech companies today.



Since its inception, the company has grown from an idea to a real impact firm. Ntwali, who started out as a curious 17-year-old volunteer, climbed the ranks to becoming the Chief Operations Officer (COO) and now the CEO.



With no university degree or background in technology, Ntwali’s badge is his unwavering enthusiasm and unapologetic approach to learning on the job, which he reiterates during our interview.



Now resident in Rwanda, he spent his early years in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, born to a Rwandan father and a Congolese mother.



After spending his formative years in 



Lubumbashi with his parents and three siblings, Ntwali moved back to Rwanda in 2007. Accustomed to the Congolese school curriculum, he was bilingual and spoke Swahili and French. To his surprise, Rwanda favored English.



“I spent the first few years in Rwanda without studying Kinyarwanda or English. But, around the age of 10, I began to pick it up.”



An extrovert brimming with confidence and with a penchant for conversation, Ntwali picked up the two languages quickly.



“I always like the challenge of learning new things, even as a child, I pursued everything with the same passion,” he says.



Apart from his professional zeal, he loved rap music, and for a while, even thought he was going to become the next Jay-Z. Ntwali spent a few years focused on music and was selected for a national competition in Rwanda.



But when it came to academics, he couldn’t be tied down to the conventional.



After high school, he instead opted to attend workshops and training sessions in business management and entrepreneurship.



Instead of going to university like most of his classmates, Ntwali made music, also working as an assistant manager at his father’s chain of barber shops. This is where he first faced the day-to-day challenges of running a business and realized the gaps in his own skill- sets as well as in others.



After months on the job, thanks to his brother – another entrepreneur in the family – he was motivated to attend an entrepreneurship event in Kigali unaware of the several early stage creative startups he was about to encounter.



Ntwali was 17 when he met the founder of BAG Innovation, Gabriel Ekman.



“He spoke about the lack of skilled youth in Rwanda and the gaps in training. How most students had degrees but did not know how to use them. Employers had employees that did not perform and I thought ‘yes! I have seen this’!”



Intrigued and excited by the social impact model illustrated by Ekman, Ntwali approached him to find out more and the two instantly connected on their shared energy and desire to solve problems.



Ntwali joined Ekman in his tiny workspace with a laptop and began to work on improving the recruitment, training and selection ecosystem of Rwanda.



Making use of simple tools like Facebook and interpersonal skills, the two would approach small companies in the country to learn about their challenges. After acquiring a fair understanding of the challenge, the two would brainstorm on solutions, but not alone.



“If a coffee shop told us they struggled with pushing higher sales, we would advertise to students on Facebook to solve the problem for the shop, to sell more coffee.”



Once they had worked out the solutions together, the group would offer them to the coffee shop. This was a social impact exercise that built the foundation of BAG Innovation.



After a few successful attempts, the two began training the students with the best solutions and preparing them for various job scenarios. By connecting the students with the shops/companies, they would not only offer solutions but a pipeline of potential employees.



This led to companies coming forth and asking to employ the students trained and acquired by BAG Innovation.



“When we noticed that our services were gaining demand, we sat down to chart a monetize-able model for our business.”



Ntwali joined the company in 2018, by which time, the company had reeled in many contracts and was able to pay off bills and expand operations.



When asked what differentiates them from a HR firm, he says: “We complement each other. We are not looking for the right candidate for you; we are creating the right candidate for a job. We are working with the same social impact model but one that is scalable, sustainable and profitable.”



Even though BAG Innovation makes its money from companies that hire talent through them on a per-person basis, its blended model of offline and online interactions for tackling specific challenges within a firm and the ability to offer a range of employee portfolios to choose from is their differentiator, they say.



“Those who do not perform in our trainings, we offer them further programs to learn from and improve while keeping them out of our talent pool, until they match the required standard.”



Ntwali’s ability to pitch his company’s unique model, ideas and potential to others has won him a few cash grants.



From the African Union startup challenge to the Hanga Pitchfest, he is now a name in the startup community.



“We have used the money from these competitions and grants to scale up operations and improve our marketing and sales team.”



As the non-technical founders of a tech company, a lot of BAG Innovation’s funds have gone towards outsourcing their IT services.



Just last year, they hired an engineer to lead tech and a full marketing-sales team to support the founders in bringing more clients.



“I always function like a COO – I like to work closely with the team and know everything that happens in the company, that’s how I learned and grew.”



Ntwali has a spring in his step as he walks around the office, saying hello to his colleagues and stepping out the main door to stop and stand next to the sign, Bag, beaming with pride.



As a 21-year-old business head, he has enough reason to smile.

Screenshot 2022-07-07 at 17.00.26

The Making Of A 21-Year-Old Rwandan CEO

<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has assembled a team to study unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) – popularly described as UFOs, or unidentified flying objects – the agency&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-to-set-up-independent-study-on-unidentified-aerial-phenomena/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;Thursday, a year after a highly anticipated report from U.S. intelligence agencies into a host of sightings since 2004.



<h2 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



The NASA study aims “to move the scientific understanding of UAPs forward” as well as look at how they impact national security and air safety, NASA said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-to-set-up-independent-study-on-unidentified-aerial-phenomena/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>.



Don’t expect the commissioned study to provide any breakthroughs about the existence of aliens: NASA said in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-to-set-up-independent-study-on-unidentified-aerial-phenomena/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">release</a>&nbsp;there is “no evidence UAPs are extraterrestrial in origin.”



The project’s budget will be no more than $100,000, Dan Evans, the NASA official overseeing the study, told reporters Thursday,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1534948757246197764" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to SpaceNews.



It will take about nine months to conduct the study, which will rely on data collected by governments, private companies, non-profit organizations and even civilians, NASA said.



<h2 id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Last June, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/06/25/intel-agencies-say-most-ufo-sightings-they-investigated-were-real-objects-no-that-doesnt-mean-theyre-alien-spacecraft/?sh=3391a6e7544c">released</a>&nbsp;a report stating that the federal government&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/ufo-report-government-can-t-explain-143-144-mysterious-flying-n1272390" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">couldn’t explain</a>&nbsp;143 of 144 of the UAPs identified by military pilots, but offered a number of possibilities, including aerial clutter like birds or balloons; natural atmospheric phenomena like thermal fluctuations or ice crystals; classified U.S. programs; or advanced Russian or Chinese technology. The report made no mention of extraterrestrial origins, a popular but unsupported conspiracy theory, but did identify UAPs as a national security threat. In November, the Pentagon&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2021/11/24/year-of-the-ufo-continues-pentagon-launches-program-to-investigate-sightings/?sh=efe182a16340">established</a>&nbsp;the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group&nbsp;<a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2853121/dod-announces-the-establishment-of-the-airborne-object-identification-and-manag/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">designed</a>&nbsp;to “address the challenges associated” with UAPs. Last month, Congress held its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2022/05/17/real-but-still-unexplained-congress-holds-its-first-ufo-hearing-in-50-years/?sh=e6df1852e707">first</a>&nbsp;public UFO hearing in over 50 years.



<h2 id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



About 400. That’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2022/05/17/real-but-still-unexplained-congress-holds-its-first-ufo-hearing-in-50-years/?sh=e6df1852e707">how many</a>&nbsp;UAP sightings are in the U.S. military’s databases, Scott W. Bray, the deputy director of naval intelligence, said during last month’s congressional hearing.



<h2 id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2021/11/24/year-of-the-ufo-continues-pentagon-launches-program-to-investigate-sightings/?sh=efe182a16340">Year Of The UFO Continues: Pentagon Launches Program To Investigate Sightings</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2022/05/17/real-but-still-unexplained-congress-holds-its-first-ufo-hearing-in-50-years/?sh=e6df1852e707">Real But Still Unexplained: Congress Holds Its First UFO Hearing In 50 Years</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/06/25/intel-agencies-say-most-ufo-sightings-they-investigated-were-real-objects-no-that-doesnt-mean-theyre-alien-spacecraft/?sh=3391a6e7544c">Intel Agencies Say Most UFO Sightings They Reviewed Were Likely Real Objects (No, That Doesn’t Mean They’re Alien Spacecraft)</a> (Forbes)



By Derek Saul, Forbes Staff

Logo Photo Illustration

NASA Launches Study On UFOs

A pair of twentysomethings from Uganda and Ghana thought there was a fortune to be made bringing transnational financial services to Africa’s 1.2 billion people. With 5 million users, San Francisco-based Chipper Cash is just getting started.



It was the summer of 2018, and Ham Serunjogi, a 24-year-old Ugandan immigrant, thought the pitch he was making to a Palo Alto venture capi­tal firm was going well. He had explained how his fintech startup, Chipper Cash, would enable African consumers to send money to each other, across national borders, more cheaply and easily than the antiquated banking system—a sort of Venmo for the continent.



Then came a question from one of the partners: “Why don’t you go look for donations and grants to fund this?” Because, Serunjogi replied, this will be a profit-making business. The clueless partner persisted: “Why don’t you talk to Unicef or an impact investing firm?” Serunjogi discreetly declines to name the firm, or to say which VC later told him that “regardless of what the metrics are, I have to apply a discount to this business because it’s in Africa.”



Those memories still sting, even though Chipper Cash has now raised $300 million from a roster of blue-chip VCs, most recently in November at a $2.2 billion valuation. “These were things I’d have to take with a straight face. But it was outrageous, and it still is,” Serunjogi says from the San Francisco office where he, cofounder Maijid Moujaled and nearly a fifth of the company’s 350 employees are based. The two founders each have an estimated 10% stake in Chipper, translating into paper fortunes north of $200 million.



Sheel Mohnot, a former partner at 500 Startups—Chipper Cash’s first backer—chalks up some early investor resistance to ignorance about Africa. “No one was investing in Africa at the time,” he says. That has changed. Per CB Insights, venture capitalists invested $1.5 billion in African fintech companies last year, up sevenfold from 2020. Sub-Saharan Africans today have 605 million registered mobile money accounts—with which they can send cash via text message—up from 469 million in 2018. That makes the area fertile ground for more advanced consumer financial apps.



Four years after its founding, Chipper Cash has 5 million registered users in seven countries, including Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria. It offers not only low-cost money transfers but bill payment, crypto trading and the ability to buy U.S. stocks. Excluding crypto transactions, it booked more than $75 million in revenue in 2021, compared with $18 million in 2020.



The idea for Chipper Cash was seeded when high-school-age Serunjogi saw the problems his father encountered trying to move money through Africa’s ossified banking system. Serunjogi’s family lived in Gayaza, a Ugandan town 10 miles outside Kampala, the capital. His parents owned a farm, and his father also ran an IT operation helping local businesses set up networks. Though hardly rich, the family sent Serunjogi and his two brothers to a private high school and enrolled them in a competitive swim club. In 2010, Serunjogi, then 16, made the Ugandan Youth Olympic team. After having problems completing a bank transfer, his father was forced to fly to South Africa with an envelope full of cash to pay his son’s swim coach while they were training there.



After high school, Serunjogi followed his older brother to Grinnell, a small liberal arts college in Iowa known for its strong academics, where both swam varsity. At Grinnell he met Moujaled, a Ghanaian computer science major who had started a popular student coding group. Almost immediately, the two began talking about developing an African money transfer app. But first they wanted real-world tech experience and needed work visas. So during his junior year Serunjogi sent cold emails to Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg and snagged an internship with Facebook, which turned into a full-time job in Dublin after he graduated in 2016.



In the spring of 2018, Serunjogi texted Moujaled, who was working as a software engineer in San Francisco, to say it was time to get going. Serunjogi quit his job and moved into Moujaled’s studio apartment, sleeping on an air mattress in the kitchenette. The two used their combined savings of less than $30,000 and Moujaled’s ongoing salary as seed capital. They&nbsp;<a href="https://digestafrica.com/chipper-cash-money-whatsapp" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">launched</a>&nbsp;a test version of their app in July 2018, letting customers send money from Uganda to Ghana for free.



They took pitches to more than 50 VC firms until, in November 2018, 500 Startups agreed to invest $150,000. Before the papers were signed, Mohnot wired $40,000 to Chipper after Serunjogi told him he was about to miss rent. “I will be eternally grateful to him for that,” Serunjogi says.



Chipper’s free, easy-to-use app was a big improvement over the available alternatives. For example, Kenya’s M-Pesa, which launched in 2007, charges <a href="https://www.safaricom.co.ke/personal/m-pesa/m-pesa-rates" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">1% to 2%</a> for many domestic transfers.



By mid-2019 Chipper Cash was available in Uganda, Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda. It soon expanded to Nigeria, Africa’s biggest market with more than 200 million people, and by the end of the year, it had 600,000 customers. It also introduced a foreign-exchange markup fee of 2% to 5% to start generating revenue. As bitcoin rose from $14,000 to $20,000 in the fall of 2020, Chipper began to let users buy and sell bitcoin and ether, establishing a second lucrative line of business: trading fees. It reached a $2.2 billion valuation in late 2021, with investment from firms including Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, Ribbit Capital and Bezos Expeditions. Transactions grew from $200 million in the first quarter of 2021 to $1.6 billion 12 months later.



All that growth comes with added high-stakes challenges. One is liquidity: Chipper needs to make sure it has enough funds in each country to support instant transfers. When it doesn’t, transaction times can slow to a full day or longer. Money can solve that problem. A bigger worry is competition. Senegal-based startup Wave offers similar services (albeit in different countries so far) and notched a&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/06/sequoia-heritage-stripe-and-others-invest-200m-in-african-fintech-wave-at-1-7b-valuation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$1.7 billion</a>&nbsp;valuation last year. Other remittance companies such as Remitly and Wise don’t yet let people send money from one African country to another, but there’s nothing stopping them from entering the market.



For now, Serunjogi is focused on maintaining Chipper’s steep growth, moving to profitability—and helping Africans while doing so. Customers benefit, he says, when they can move money easily and have new ways to invest and build wealth. “I’m a deep believer in the role of entrepreneurship and capitalism in improving the lives of people who live in developing countries.”



By Jeff Kauflin, Forbes Staff

Screenshot 2022-06-07 at 09.24.29

How Two Africans Overcame Bias To Build A Startup Worth Billions

BY TIANA CLINE



According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, microchips are the world’s most complex, costly, and research- intensive product humankind has ever manufactured. Microchips, also known as chips or semiconductors, are packed with tens of billions of transistors on a piece of silicon real estate the size of a fingernail. As technology advances and the Internet of Things (IoT) grows, more chips are needed. Because of the chip shortage, 7.1 million fewer cars were built last year at a $210 billion loss in profits for automakers.



“We often refer to semiconductors as if there were homogenous but there are many different types of semiconductors and over time, they become smaller and smaller,” explains Paul Lee. “The latest technology goes into smartphones and is a few nanometers thick. There’s also old generation technology and that’s where a lot of the shortages are. That’s why there is a lack of supply in cars – lots of elements require screen and you don’t need the latest, smallest technology because cars are big.” There has also been a shift in demand in the car market. Global electric car sales more than doubled in 2021 to 6.6 million and these vehicles have more semiconductors inside, not only because of their electrification, but for digital displays and other high-tech features.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large">Because of the chip shortage, 7.1 million fewer cars were built last year at a $210 billion loss in profits for automakers.</blockquote>



Crosscall, a French specialist of waterproof and rugged devices, managed to avoid the chip shortage by optimizing their product line. While many technology brands have complex ranges with endless product variations (many of which are built to order), Crosscall’s focus was on durability. If a device doesn’t break easily, there’s no need to replace it and all the components that go with it. “Of course we are seeing the impact – the chip shortage is a huge problem, especially when it comes to price increases,” says Crosscall South Africa Sales Director Julien Fouriot.



“From components to transport, the overall cost of everything is increasing. We managed to secure components at the right time and created stock but lead times of getting new supplies in at the moment is crazy – what once took four to six weeks, can now be up to six months.”



<a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2022/05/25/where-did-all-the-chips-go/">Read more here </a>(FORBES AFRICA)

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