<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Google&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.google/products/search/generative-ai-search/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;Wednesday that it’s giving its signature product, the search engine, an AI makeover—potentially transforming the way users view search results after Microsoft announced a similar plan.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Google results with AI will be available to select people in the U.S. who apply for a waitlist to be part of Search Lab, where they’ll be able to test out how the product is working and give Google feedback, the company announced Wednesday at its annual developer conference, Google I/O.



Search with AI will be labeled as an experiment for users—though it won’t be available for at least a few weeks—and Google said the AI-generated information will be more factual than conversational, unlike other AI tools like ChatGPT, AP&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/google-artificial-intelligence-search-engine-chatgpt-microsoft-fd0538018df958388991772ced6e693d?utm_source=homepage&amp;utm_medium=TopNews&amp;utm_campaign=position_06" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>; however, Google also announced Wednesday that&nbsp;<a href="https://bard.google.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bard</a>, its chatbot-like experiment, is now widely available for people to try.



PROMOTED



Combining AI with Google Search will let users type a question into the search bar and receive one main result that synthesizes the information gathered—but there will still be normal search links provided below the generated answer.



The company did not provide a timeline for when AI-based results will roll out to the general public.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-contra">CONTRA</h2>



The service will not be able to respond to certain questions about health and finance matters. People searching for those will continue to be directed to normal search results for their answers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



The AI-based updates and changes to Google products come as Microsoft, one of its main competitors, is also working to incorporate AI into its search engine, Bing, and as ChatGPT continues to grow in popularity. Google has maintained its status as the go-to search engine for most of the world for at least two decades, but the stock of Google’s parent company, Alphabet,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/17/tech/google-ai-search-engine-stock-drop/index.html#:~:text=Shares%20of%20Google%2Dparent%20Alphabet,powered%20rivals%2C%20including%20Microsoft's%20Bing." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dropped</a>&nbsp;significantly when Bing incorporated AI. The share price has since recovered—even as rumors swirl of Samsung dropping Google, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/16/technology/google-search-engine-ai.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New York Times</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/17/tech/google-ai-search-engine-stock-drop/index.html#:~:text=Shares%20of%20Google%2Dparent%20Alphabet,powered%20rivals%2C%20including%20Microsoft's%20Bing." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CNN</a>. Microsoft also has an early advantage in the AI chatbot race, investing billions of dollars into ChatGPT creator OpenAI and unveiling plans to integrate ChatGPT technology into its suite of products.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“We are at an exciting inflection point,” said Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. at the conference. “We are reimagining all our products, including search.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



AI search tools weren’t the only update from Google on Wednesday, as the company announced plans to infuse more AI technology into its products. Soon, Gmail will have a “Help Me Write” option that people can use to write long responses to emails in seconds, and the company announced “Magic Editor,” a tool for Google Photos that will automatically edit pictures.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



5%. That’s how much Alphabet’s shares increased after the series of Google and AI announcements, rising to $112.65. The increase brough Alphabet to its highest level since Bing remodeled its search engine using AI in February, AP&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/google-artificial-intelligence-search-engine-chatgpt-microsoft-fd0538018df958388991772ced6e693d?utm_source=homepage&amp;utm_medium=TopNews&amp;utm_campaign=position_06" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://apnews.com/article/google-artificial-intelligence-search-engine-chatgpt-microsoft-fd0538018df958388991772ced6e693d?utm_source=homepage&amp;utm_medium=TopNews&amp;utm_campaign=position_06" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google is giving its dominant search engine an artificial-intelligence makeover</a>&nbsp;(AP)



<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/05/10/google-search-ai-io-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AI is changing Google search: What the IO announcement means for you</a>&nbsp;(Washington Post)



<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/10/tech/ai-search-google-io/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The most popular search engine in the world is about to look different</a> (CNN)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/"></a>By Molly Bohannon, Forbes Staff

In this photo illustration, a woman holds a smartphone with

Google Adding AI To Search Engine For Some Users—Closing In On Microsoft’s AI Push

Where does the continent fit into the chatbot conversation, and why it needs its own startups that focus on AI.



By Tiana Cline



The ability to be able to have a conversation with someone else is a fundamental part of what it means to be a human being but today, it’s becoming more and more confusing to figure out whether you’re talking to a bot… or not.



Technology has advanced to the point where AI-powered conversational chatbots, like ChatGPT or Meta’s BlenderBot 3, are deceptively realistic. (More so when they go off the rails and say things like ‘I want to be alive’, which is exactly what Bing’s AI bot expressed earlier this year.) While chatbots like these are trained to avoid expressing personal or biased views, and are known to make factual mistakes and mix up information, they’re becoming smarter, more streamlined and sometimes, a little strange…



“Conversational AI is one of the first applications of NLP in artificial intelligence and this kind of technology has existed since Eliza in the sixties,” explains Professor Mpho Raborife, the deputy director at the Institute for Intelligent Systems at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa.



Natural Language Processing, or NLP, is a way for computers to understand human language. NLP uses AI tools like machine learning and neural networks to process and interpret large amounts of data.



“With the rise of big data, ChatGPT was inevitable. It’s trained on a very large dataset and the technologies behind it make it a lot more advanced than other conversational AI applications.”



One of the reasons for this, explains Raborife, is that ChatGPT uses reinforcement learning alongside sophisticated algorithms that manipulate its dataset. “It’s so sophisticated that people don’t realize that it really possesses no intelligence whatsoever,”



she adds, “it really doesn’t understand the meaning behind anything, it just know how the words are supposed to work but not what they mean.”



OpenAI’s ChatGPT is a research experiment gone wild that has shown the incredible potential of conversational AI yet Africa is still being left behind. Consider smartphone voice assistants like Siri or Alexa – both examples of conversational AI used regularly; they work with English but struggle to understand local accents. They don’t support African languages.



“We know that the Global North is not going to include our languages. Therefore, we need to find a way to make sure that we create an environment that the startups that come from Africa which do incorporate our languages have the same kind of impact,” Raborife adds. Duolingo, for example, is a popular language learning mobile app that uses an AI system called Birdbrain to personalize its content. Duolingo has 43 different languages (including made-up dialects such as Klingon, High Valyrian and Esperanto) but only isiZulu and Swahili are available when it comes to African language learning courses.



“When we talk about AI, our languages are not supported or even represented by these technologies,” says Raborife. “But conversational AI has the potential to bridge the language divide as it can be used in a variety of ways because it surpasses literacy levels. If people cannot read or write, they can use their voice to access services and this is something that is important to Africa.



This is why we need our own startups that focus on AI.”



Recently launched, Lelapa AI is an African AI research and product house looking to make a real difference within the continent with a special interest in agriculture, education, energy, healthcare, microfinance and language. 



“There are so many problems on the continent that AI-type technologies can help with so there’s a responsibility for us to use our skills to help create better lives for everyday Africans,” says Pelonomi Moiloa, Lelapa AI’s co-founder and CEO.



“What we intend to do is use technology in a very smart, resource-efficient way because there are challenges on the continent like rolling blackouts, water shortages and network issues…” Lelapa AI have already debuted an app called VulaVula which offers NLP-as-a-service for under-represented languages.



Moiloa describes VulaVula as an underlying technology that supports other technologies. A banking chatbot, for example, could use VulaVula’s AI language capabilities to help customers interact in their own languages.



“The idea is that if an organization has a place for us to plug our models into and we can collaborate agreements around how that work can be done, then – ideally – if we have the resources and capacity we will help businesses do what they need.”



For Moiloa, creating African data sets to work from may be challenging but it’s also something she sees as a competitive advantage for Lelapa AI. “We’re having to think around clever ways of dealing with Africa’s data scarcity problem. We have to create models that are able to cope with less amounts of data, but models that can get really good at curating and gathering data,” she says.



And the fact that ChatGPT doesn’t necessarily draw its information from African data sets (it was apparently trained using real human conversations) means startups like Lelapa AI have the opportunity to develop responsible methods of dealing with problems that are relevant to the continent.



“I don’t think we should be trying to develop our own ChatGPT but maybe we can develop other textual tools that can help solve the problems that ChatGPT is meant to – but at the moment, it seems to be creating more problems,” she ends.

Asian woman using smartphone surrounded by beams of light. Metaverse and Artificial Intelligence

Talking A-‘bot Africa: The Potential For Conversational AI

In this photo illustration the American online social media

2023 Layoff Tracker: Latest Meta Cuts Could Hit 4,000

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



A new TikTok trend known as “Watertok” has made a splash in recent weeks — as users experiment with flavored water “cocktails” — but the trend has raised many questions, including a debate over whether the drinks are still technically “water” and whether there are health risks associated with the latest viral craze.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



“Watertok” videos often feature women filling up large cups—Stanley tumblers are usually the mode of choice—with ice and water, and then creating an elixir by adding different water flavorings, typically in pursuit of drinking more water throughout the day



Some of the most infamous “water recipes” include&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR3c5wPF/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">birthday cake</a>&nbsp;water,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR3cwP2a/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">peach ring</a>&nbsp;water and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR3cyXrV/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">piña colada</a>&nbsp;water—the creators use powdered flavorings from brands like Skittles, Sonic, Crush and Jolly Ranchers and syrups by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.skinnymixes.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jordan’s Skinny Mixes</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kerryfoodservice.com/collections/sugar-free-syrups?scroll=780" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DaVinci</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.makeitmio.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MiO</a>&nbsp;to create the drinks.



While the flavorings are typically zero-calorie and sugar free, Watertok’s popularity and the vibrant color and sweetness of the drinks have caused people to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR3c2VCD/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wonder</a>&nbsp;where to draw the line between water and juice.



Others have resorted to mocking the trend, like this TikTok&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR3cUaCY/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">video</a>&nbsp;with over 330,000 likes and 2.5 millions views, in which the creator pretends to make a water recipe, but makes a pitcher of Kool-aid instead.



The trend, which began among patients of weight-loss surgery who were advised to consume water before and after their operations, has picked up steam on TikTok, causing some health experts to praise increased water consumption while others warn that replacing meals with water could lead to disordered eating.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



134.2 million. That’s how many views the hashtag&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR3vswEU/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">#WaterTok</a>&nbsp;has accumulated on TikTok.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“In a perfect world, [people] would be drinking just regular water, but we know some people just don&#8217;t like it or don&#8217;t don&#8217;t drink enough,” obesity medicine specialist and medical director of diabetes reversal company Virta Health, Jeff Stanley, told&nbsp;Forbes. “So, adding in a bit of [flavoring] can be helpful.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-watertok-origins">WATERTOK ORIGINS</h2>



WaterTok originated from bariatric patients who needed to spice up their water intake while on pre- and postoperative liquid diets that last no more than&nbsp;<a href="https://stanfordhealthcare.org/medical-treatments/c/colorectal-cancer-surgery/what-to-expect/clear-liquid-diet-guidelines.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">five days</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/watertok-tiktok-water-experts-concerned-1234714010/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to popular WaterTok creator Tonya Spanglo. Stanley told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;the reason for the liquid diet is for “people to lose a little bit of weight before the surgery… and shrink the liver a little, which makes the surgery easier.”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?contenttypeid=135&amp;contentid=82#:~:text=The%20most%20common%20types%20of,the%20top%20of%20your%20stomach." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According</a>&nbsp;to the University of Rochester Medical Center, there are three common types of bariatric surgeries: gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy (or the gastric sleeve) and adjustable gastric banding (or the lap band). During the gastric sleeve, 85% of the patient’s is removed, creating a narrow tube that resembles a sleeve, during gastric bypass the surgeon removes part of the stomach to create a pouch and the lap band involves an adjustable band being placed at the top of the stomach and a port under the skin to tighten the band. Spanglo, known on TikTok as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR3vg4uy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">takingmylifeback42</a>, is a bariatric patient with almost 800,000 TikTok followers. In a recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR3cNUDN/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">video</a>&nbsp;addressing the hate she’s received, she made it clear her “dietician and surgeon approved [flavored water].” Spanglo is no longer on a liquid diet as she got her&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR3cPLxg/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">surgery</a>&nbsp;three years ago, so she drinks flavored water to meet her water intake goal of at least 64 ounces a day.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-benefits">BENEFITS</h2>



The main reason people drink flavored water is to up their water intake. TikToker Haley Staggs&nbsp;<a href="https://www.today.com/food/trends/watertok-flavored-water-recipes-tiktok-rcna79555" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;NBC’s&nbsp;Today&nbsp;show that WaterTok has helped her drink more water, and she now consumes “over 100 ounces of water a day.” Stanley said water recipes help his diabetic patients curb their sweet tooth, and he found flavored water was a good alternative to juice and soda because most flavorings use sugar substitutes. For the most part, Stanley believes the WaterTok trend is harmless and a way to “keep things interesting,” while having fun, and considers it water “for all intents and purposes.” Dietician Frances Largeman-Roth told&nbsp;Today&nbsp;“it’s a fun thing to make and drink,” and she loves how people are leveling up their water intakes, but advised against using artificially colored and flavored syrups.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-is-it-dangerous">IS IT DANGEROUS?</h2>



Just like any trend, WaterTok has become popular among people who were not originally the target audience. Some WaterTok videos are also hashtagged as weight loss videos, though the trend is not overtly related to weight loss outside of the bariatric surgery requirements. However, chief strategy officer for the eating disorder treatment organization the Emily Program and Veritas Collaborative, Jillian Lampert,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/watertok-tiktok-water-experts-concerned-1234714010/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;Rolling Stone&nbsp;flavored water is a recipe for a potential eating disorder. Lampert labels people drinking water in place of food as “long-term, old-school eating disorder behavior.” Around 28.8 million Americans will have an eating disorder in their lifetimes, the Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders&nbsp;<a href="https://anad.org/eating-disorders-statistics/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reports</a>. Abdul Matin Azizi, principal dentist at Harley Private Dental,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/watertok-hydration-flavoured-water-receipes-healthy-b2320966.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">warned</a>&nbsp;The Independent&nbsp;about the dangers the trend can pose for dental health. Azini said the additives, artificial sugars and citric acid in the flavorings can “erode tooth enamel and cause tooth decay,” and recommended rinsing the mouth after consumption. Most flavorings, like Skinny Mixes syrup, are sweetened with stevia and erythritol, both sugar alternatives used in the diabetic community. However, a recent study&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/03/01/new-warning-about-zero-calorie-sugar-substitute-what-experts-are-saying-about-erythritol/?sh=3c1ac8ca5385">linked</a>&nbsp;erythritol with an increased risk of heart disease, though the study only featured participants with heart problems.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/03/01/new-warning-about-zero-calorie-sugar-substitute-what-experts-are-saying-about-erythritol/?sh=3c1ac8ca5385">New Warning About Zero-Calorie Sugar Substitute: What Experts Are Saying About Erythritol</a>&nbsp;Forbes)



<a href="https://www.today.com/food/trends/watertok-flavored-water-recipes-tiktok-rcna79555" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">#WaterTok: Why ‘water recipes’ are taking over TikTok</a>&nbsp;(Today)



<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/watertok-tiktok-water-experts-concerned-1234714010/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TikTok Is Obsessed With Water. Experts Are Concerned</a> (Rolling Stone)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/"></a>By Arianna Johnson, Forbes Staff

In this photo illustration the TikTok logo seen displayed on

Divisive TikTok Trend ‘WaterTok’: Why Some Experts Warn Against It And Others Encourage It

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Alphabet shares are on pace for their worst day in over two months following a report indicating the Google parent company is in danger of losing a key multibillion-dollar search engine contract to Microsoft, as the artificial intelligence rivalry between the two technology giants rages on.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Samsung is mulling a switch from Google to Microsoft’s Bing as the default search engine on its smartphones and tablets, the&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/16/technology/google-search-engine-ai.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;Sunday, putting a contract worth a reported $3 billion per year in jeopardy.



Though that represents just over 1% of Alphabet’s roughly $280 billion in annual revenue, it’s the latest indication that Google’s search engine dominance may be fading, with the&nbsp;Times&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/16/technology/google-search-engine-ai.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reporting</a>&nbsp;there was “panic” among Alphabet employees over the Samsung contract.



Alphabet shares slid as much as 4.1% in early trading Monday, shedding $57 billion in market capitalization, while Microsoft shares climbed 1.6%.



That continues a months-long trend of Microsoft’s stock outperforming Alphabet’s, as Microsoft shares are up 21% since the November launch of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s viral chatbot incorporated into Bing; Alphabet shares are up 10% during the same period.



Microsoft has an “early lead” in the artificial intelligence space as it exhibits a “renewed vigor” in the search market, Goldman Sachs analysts led by Kash Rangan wrote in a note to clients last month.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Microsoft&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/01/23/chatgpt-parent-open-ai-gets-game-changing-multibillion-dollar-boost-from-microsoft/?sh=7e64a4253c0c">announced</a>&nbsp;in January it made a multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/01/23/chatgpt-parent-open-ai-gets-game-changing-multibillion-dollar-boost-from-microsoft/?sh=7e64a4253c0c">reportedly</a>&nbsp;infusing $10 billion into the budding generative AI company and taking what will be a 49% stake in the firm. Just three weeks later, Microsoft&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/02/07/reinventing-search-with-a-new-ai-powered-microsoft-bing-and-edge-your-copilot-for-the-web/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rolled out</a>&nbsp;its integration of ChatGPT into Bing and its Edge web browser. Bard, Google’s answer to ChatGPT, has received more lukewarm feedback, with Alphabet shares&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">tanking</a>&nbsp;7% on February 8 after the chatbot provided inaccurate information during a demo.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



Microsoft is the “clear early leader” in the generative AI space and has “potential to achieve escape velocity” and separate itself from competitors, JPMorgan analyst Mark Murphy wrote earlier this month.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



20%. That’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-smartphone-share/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">roughly</a>&nbsp;the proportion of the roughly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gsma.com/mobileeconomy/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/270223-The-Mobile-Economy-2023-Infographic.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">4.4 billion</a>&nbsp;smartphone users worldwide that use a Samsung device, according to Counterpoint Research and GSMA Intelligence data.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/lists/ai50/?sh=1c90f134290f">AI 50</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/03/01/ai-is-the-new-electricity-bank-of-america-picks-20-stocks-to-cash-in-on-chatgpt-hype/?sh=5a8f4d9777ac">‘AI Is The New Electricity’: Bank Of America Picks 20 Stocks To Cash In On ChatGPT Hype</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/16/technology/google-search-engine-ai.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google Devising Radical Search Changes to Beat Back A.I. Rivals</a> (New York Times)



By Derek Saul, Forbes Staff

Google Stock Loses $57 Billion Amid Microsoft’s AI ‘Lead’—And Reports It Could Be Replaced By Bing On Some Smartphones

The AI based tool can create &#8220;cutouts&#8221; or segments of different parts of an image. This comes handy while editing photos or while analyzing imagery for biological or security purposes. META AI



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-announcement-comes-as-the-social-media-giant-increasingly-diverts-its-attention-from-creating-a-virtual-reality-based-metaverse-to-embed-ai-features-across-its-platforms-like-instagram-facebook-messenger-and-whatsapp">The announcement comes as the social media giant increasingly diverts its attention from creating a virtual reality-based Metaverse to embed AI features across its platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp</h3>
</blockquote>



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



Editing photos, analyzing surveillance footage and understanding the parts of a cell. These tasks have one thing in common: you need to be able to identify and separate different objects within an image. Traditionally, researchers have had to start from scratch each time they want to analyze a new part of an image.



Meta aims to change this laborious process by being the one-stop-shop for researchers and web developers working on such problems. On Wednesday, the company released an AI model, called “Segment Anything Model” or “SAM” through which users can create “cutouts” or segments of any item in an image by clicking on a point or drawing a box around the object. The tool can be used in research purposes, for creative editing or even to make sense of objects while wearing a VR headset by making it faster and more efficient to carve up different parts of an image.



The tech company launched the browser-based tool to the public and also open sourced its computer vision model, which it claims is trained on “the largest segmentation dataset” of 1.1 billion segmentation masks (“masks” are different parts of an image) and 11 million images licensed from a large photo company. Meta did not disclose which company it licensed the images from. Meta AI, the artificial intelligence research arm of the social media giant, worked with 130 human annotators based in Kenya to create the dataset, which was made through a combination of manual and automatic labeling of a billion parts of millions of images.



Object recognition and computer vision technologies have been around for years and are already integrated in various devices such as&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/11/visualone-smartens-up-home-security-cameras-with-object-and-action-recognition/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">surveillance cameras</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs231a/prev_projects_2016/deep-drone-object__2_.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">drones</a>.&nbsp;<a href="https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/industries/make-convenience-stores-even-more-convenient-with-amazons-just-walk-out-technology-and-amazon-one/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Amazon</a>&nbsp;stores for example use object recognition to detect the items you put into your basket and autonomous vehicles use it to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2023/02/28/luminar-plans-to-put-lidar-first-created-for-avs-into-millions-of-regular-cars/?sh=82bf66743820">perceive</a>&nbsp;their surroundings. Contemporary startups like Runway and incumbents like Adobe have commercialized their ability to use AI to detect and select different objects within an image for their creative users. As snazzy generative AI chatbots have emerged, the goal for AI researchers at Meta was to merge the advancement in AI foundational models with the dormant realm of computer vision technologies.



“I wouldn&#8217;t say that this is a new area of technology. Object segmentation already exists so I wouldn&#8217;t say this is a new capability. Fundamentally, I think their approach of using foundational models is new and the size of the dataset they&#8217;re training on could be novel,” says Paul Powers, CEO and founder of Physna, a search engine for 3D objects.



But what Meta hopes is that by releasing these tools more broadly, it’ll encourage users to build on top of their generalized model for more specific use cases in fields like biology and agriculture.



The announcement comes simultaneously as Meta&nbsp;<a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Meta-to-debut-ad-creating-generative-AI-this-year-CTO-says" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;plans to use generative AI for advertisements across Instagram and Facebook. Not wanting to miss out on the buzz around AI, in late February, CEO Mark Zuckerberg&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0vvSykpAEXpHHaKKyWMZ423TCq3qQDKtLu7m4XiRfUEYRrxzwpdewh3yYepnc1Bsrl&amp;id=4&amp;mibextid=qC1gEa&amp;_rdr" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;that he is creating a new product team solely focused on building generative AI tools like artificial personas, Instagram filters and chat-based features in WhatsApp and Instagram. Zuckerberg reportedly spends most of his time with the new AI team.



The SAM tool is built for those who don’t have the AI infrastructure or the data capacity to create their own models to “segment” or identify different components of an image, say Meta AI researchers Alexander Kirillov and Nikhila Ravi. “This is happening in real time in the browser and that makes this model much more accessible to so many more people because they don&#8217;t need to be able to run a lot of stuff on GPU…We can enable a lot more edge use cases that some other methods might not allow,” Ravi says.



But there are limitations of a computer vision model trained on a database of two-dimensional images, says Powers. For example, for the tool to detect and select a remote held upside down, it would need to be trained on different orientations of the same object. Models trained on 2D images won’t help detect images that are partly covered or partially exposed, he says. This means it wouldn’t accurately identify non-standardized objects through an AR/VR headset or it wouldn’t detect partially covered objects in public spaces if used by an autonomous vehicle manufacturer.



For the company, which rebranded itself from Facebook to Meta in late 2021 and inked its commitment to the Metaverse, the most obvious use for this object detection tool is in its virtual reality spaces such as its online VR game Horizon Worlds. Kirillov and Ravi say that their object detection tool can be used for “gaze-based” detection of objects through virtual reality and augmented reality headsets.



The model can detect unknown objects and work across domains with underwater, microscopic, aerial and agricultural images. Kirillov says he was inspired to create a generalized image segmenting model while talking to PhD researchers. “I was giving a presentation about segmentation to some natural scientists in Berkeley and people were like ‘Okay sure, this is all cool, but I need to like count and identify trees in the photos I’ve collected for my research about fires in California,’ and so this model can do that for them,” Kirillov tells Forbes.



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rashishrivastava/"></a>By Rashi Shrivastava, Forbes Staff

In this photo illustration a Facebook logo seen displayed on

Meta’s New AI Tool Makes It Easier For Researchers To Analyze Photos

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Twitter introduced a new label for accounts with blue checkmarks Sunday that removes any distinction between those paid for by monthly subscribers and accounts verified by Twitter before CEO Elon Musk’s changes—as Twitter was expected to start removing ‘legacy’ checkmarks over the weekend.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



All accounts with a blue checkmark now display a notice that reads: “This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account.”



Twitter previously had separate labels for accounts with a checkmark that distinguished “legacy verified accounts” from accounts subscribed to Twitter Blue.



Twitter has not released a statement on the change, but Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1642643460883890178" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reacted</a>&nbsp;to a tweet about it with a relieved face emoji.



The change has elicited mixed reactions from users, with some users&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/eddyburback/status/1642641613687234561" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pointing out</a>&nbsp;that this could make potential impersonator accounts appear more convincing.



The change comes a day after Twitter was expected to&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/verified/status/1639029459557679104" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">remove</a>&nbsp;the checkmarks of legacy verified accounts that do not subscribe to Twitter Blue.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



Although Twitter&#8217;s latest change makes it a lot harder to distinguish between users whose identity was actually verified by Twitter and those who received the badge by paying $8 a month, many users have already posted about workarounds. Twitter’s search function&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/RachelTobac/status/1642716930699317249" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">still allows</a>&nbsp;users to filter legacy verified and paid verified accounts, while there are some browser extensions that still allow users to distinguish between the two types of accounts.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



The latest change comes a day after the company was expected to start stripping legacy verified accounts of their blue checkmarks. It’s not clear why Twitter has not yet done this, but the&nbsp;Washington Post&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/31/twitter-verification-checkmark-ending/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;that the platform lacks an automated solution to strip all legacy verified accounts of their badges, as the original verification process used to be manual and relied on an Excel-like spreadsheet. Musk also&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/MattBinder/status/1642401198731935747" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>&nbsp;and later deleted Sunday that the platform was offering a “grace” period to allow people to sign up for Twitter Blue. In the tweet, Musk warned that users who say they won’t pay for Twitter Blue will have their check marks removed immediately. The billionaire then followed through with his threat by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/04/02/musk-appears-to-revoke-ny-times-blue-checkmark-for-refusing-to-buy-paid-twitter-subscription/?sh=14986d32719f">revoking</a>&nbsp;the verification badge from the&nbsp;New York Times’ primary handle after a user pointed out that the newspaper previously stated it would not pay.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/04/02/musk-appears-to-revoke-ny-times-blue-checkmark-for-refusing-to-buy-paid-twitter-subscription/?sh=14986d32719f">Musk Appears To Revoke N.Y. Times’ Blue Checkmark For Refusing To Buy Paid Twitter Subscription</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/31/twitter-verification-checkmark-ending/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twitter’s blue check mark was loved and loathed. Now it’s pay for play.</a>&nbsp;(Washington Post)



<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/31/technology/personaltech/twitter-blue-check-musk.html?referringSource=articleShare" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twitter’s Blue Check Apocalypse Is Upon Us. Here’s What to Know.</a> (New York Times)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/"></a>By Siladitya Ray, Forbes Staff

Twitter And Elon Musk Photo Illustrations

Twitter’s New Blue Checkmark Label Removes Distinction Between Paying Subscribers And ‘Legacy Verified’ Users

Despite worries that the artificial intelligence program could make cheating easier, half of K-12 teachers report using it. Edtech companies are scrambling to release their own tools.



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



Diego Marin used to work late into the night at the end of each trimester submitting grades and comments for his 70 eighth grade math students at a Chicago public school. No more. Now he has a virtual assistant, ChatGPT, that cuts the time he spends on report card comments to an hour, by rapidly putting his individualized comments on each student into smooth, clean prose.



“As teachers, it feels like we’re short on time for everything,” Marin says. “I’ve had some nights where I’ve stayed up until midnight submitting comments.” He also uses the free artificial intelligence chatbot to help draft emails to parents, complete Individualized Education Programs for some students (such as those with learning disabilities) and even as a teaching tool.



Admittedly, Marin, 30, is into social media and the latest tech—he has 1.4 million followers on TikTok. But his embrace of AI isn’t unusual among teachers. Despite immediate fears after ChatGPT’s release to the public last November that the service would upend education by making cheating easier, more teachers seem to be using it to their advantage than worrying about that risk.



In a February survey of 1,000 kindergarten through 12th grade teachers nationwide, 51% said they had used ChatGPT, with 40% reporting they used it weekly and 10% using it daily. (ChatGPT is free, as long as users create an account with OpenAI. To access the latest version of the bot, built atop a more advanced version of AI—<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/cyrusfarivar/2023/03/14/gpt-4-can-ace-standardized-tests-do-your-taxes-and-more-says-openai/">GPT-4, instead of GPT-3.5</a>—users must pay $20 a month for a ChatGPT Plus subscription.)



About a third of teachers in the survey,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/learning/teachers-and-students-embrace-chatgpt-for-education" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation</a>, said they use ChatGPT for lesson planning and coming up with creative ideas for classes.



Middle school and high school teachers were more likely than those teaching lower grades to say they use the AI. Twenty-two percent said they use it to communicate with parents, students and colleagues. It’s easy to see the appeal of the tool, particularly for out-of-classroom tasks: a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/how-teachers-spend-their-time-a-breakdown/2022/04" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2022 EdWeek survey</a>&nbsp;found the typical teacher works 54 hours per week, with five hours spent on planning and prep, three hours on administrative work and two hours communicating with parents.



Of those teachers who have used ChapGPT, 88% said it’s having a positive impact on education. Even teachers who haven’t tried it themselves are more likely to say it has had no impact than a negative one—44% to 10%, respectively. But just 9% of nonusers ascribed a positive impact to the tool.



Moreover, only one in ten teachers reported catching a student using the chatbot without their permission. It’s unclear whether that’s because cheating is fairly rare or because teachers are missing the signs of students inclined to cheat (or more charitably, cut corners) using ChatGPT. But overall, students have actually been slower than teachers to adopt the tool, according to a February survey of 1,000 students aged 12 to 17 also commissioned by the foundation, funded by members of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/walton-1/?sh=5fa2b45c6f3f">billionaire Walton family</a>. Only a third of surveyed students said they had tried ChatGPT at all, with younger students in the sample actually reporting more use than older ones.



Not all school systems have embraced the AI tool. In January, the New York City education department, which oversees the nation’s largest school district with more than 1 million students, blocked the use of ChatGPT by both students and teachers, citing concerns about safety, accuracy and negative impacts to student learning. The Los Angeles Unified School District, Seattle Public Schools, the Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, and Montgomery County schools in Alabama have also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/01/18/chatgpt-in-schools-heres-where-its-banned-and-how-it-could-potentially-help-students/?sh=3dffde086e2c">blocked access to the AI</a>.



In addition, another smaller survey shows more teacher skepticism—at least among those working at private schools. The National Association of Independent Schools (an association for private schools) recently surveyed about 200 teachers from its member schools and found 37% of them thought that AI in schools was a negative development, compared with only 33% who said it was positive. Another 30% of teachers said they thought it was neutral.



But some private school teachers, too, are in the vanguard of experimenting with the chatbot. Phillips Academy Andover in Massachusetts, one of the nation’s fanciest college-prep schools, does not have any blanket policies about using ChatGPT. “Andover is a really big private school, and we have plenty of faculty members that are excited by this, and there are many other people that are very nervous about it,” says Nick Zufelt, a computer science and math teacher.



Zufelt is in the excited category. He first introduced ChatGPT to his students as subject material. “I was having conversations with my students about what it was doing and why it’s doing what it’s doing,” Zufelt says.



Now he’s beginning to use it as a tool in a new computer science seminar he’s teaching, that includes both students who have never written a line of code before and some with several years of coding experience. Zufelt is allowing students to have ChatGPT write a first draft of the code they’re working on. “I’m more interested that students end up with an understanding of the code than an ability to write it from first principles,” he explains. “Learning to think like a programmer is a lot harder than learning to program.”



Patrick Powers, an English teacher at Navo Middle School in Denton, Texas, has also proactively introduced ChatGPT to students; he’s encouraged them to use it to practice for debate assignments, develop business proposal templates for a “Shark Tank”-like pitching simulation and gather information about historical figures. “[Students] appreciate it being an interactive tool instead of just using Google or instead of using the lesson plan,” Powers says. “They’re just more engaged with the lesson and content itself.” He also touts ChatGPT’s clean writing as a “strong work example” that his eighth graders can learn from.



Like Marin, Powers finds ChatGPT’s writing strong enough to use when reaching out to families and says it enables him to increase the frequency of those communications, even while saving hours of email writing time a week. “Instead of being reactive and saying, ‘Hey, Johnny had a bad day in class,’’’ Powers says, he now uses the chatbot to draft regular emails to parents about what’s going on in class and how students are succeeding.



Cheating on essays has been one of the biggest concerns for educators, but Powers isn’t too worried about it. “I had a good feel for the voice of my students, so I knew the type of work to expect from them,” Powers says. “And before I introduced it, I sent out a letter to parents letting them know about the expectations in the classroom and how this tool could help us learn greater content in an innovative way.” (For those wondering, he drafted the letter in his own voice, without ChatGPT.) That said, Powers does believe a program that detects AI-written work would be useful. (GPTZero is so far the most well-known service that can identify ChatGPT-generated text).



As teachers experiment on their own, edtech providers (like those in other industries) are racing to build services on top of GPT-4. Online learning nonprofit Khan Academy debuted a closed beta version of its new AI tutor, Khanmigo, earlier this month. While students can use the older version of ChatGPT to write essays or solve problems for them, Khanmigo will act only as a coach, says Sal Khan, founder and CEO of the operation that carries his name.



“If you could go to two different tutors, and one tutor says ‘Gimme your homework, I&#8217;ll just do it for you. Here—turn this in,’ and the other tutor says, ‘Okay, let’s think about this together. How would you approach that?’ The second tutor is going to be far better for the student,” Khan says. Notably, Khanmigo&nbsp;won’t&nbsp;just give students the answer, even if they ask.



Khanmigo is also better at math than the free version of ChatGPT. One of the well-known limitations of that free version built on GPT-3.5 is that it very often gives incorrect answers to basic math problems, even if it accurately explains the concepts behind the solution. Because Khanmigo is built using GPT-4, its math skills are much improved.



Marin has occasionally witnessed GPT-3.5’s math fails during class and now uses them as a learning opportunity. “When I introduced ChatGPT to my students … we had ChatGPT open on the projector and it was going through a sequence of how to solve a system and it actually came up with the wrong answer,” Marin says. “For a second I thought my kids were just pulling my leg to be honest—because that’s what they like to do—but they said ‘No, Mr. Marin, it’s telling us that this is the answer, but it’s not.’ So that’s where we went back and found a mistake.” Now, he routinely asks ChatGPT to solve problems incorrectly and asks students to point out where the bot went wrong and why.



Teachers interested in piloting Khanmigo can sign up for a waitlist, and once selected, are asked to donate $20 monthly to use the service. Running Khanmigo is expensive—it costs Khan Academy about $0.05 for every 600-700 words that Khanmigo generates, and Khan anticipates that the AI will cost about $10 to $15 per student per month to run. The nonprofit has spent millions to build Khanmigo and hopes to secure extra philanthropic support for the project.



“Right now, it’s not cheap to be running this stuff,” Khan says. “The reason why we’re moving so aggressively on this, but in a safe way, is we think those costs are going to come down dramatically. And so we’re going to make it a lot more accessible in the coming months.”



Journalists, bloggers and other users have revealed how easy it can be to get around GPT’s guardrails. A&nbsp;NewYork Times&nbsp;tech columnist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/technology/bing-chatbot-microsoft-chatgpt.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">published a disturbing conversation</a>&nbsp;with Microsoft’s Bing chatbot—also built using GPT-4—that showed the AI, which called itself Sydney, fantasizing about hacking computers, spreading misinformation, and harming humans, despite guardrails that are supposed to prevent Bing from talking about such topics. (Additional guardrails&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/02/18/microsoft-puts-new-limits-on-bings-ai-chatbot-after-it-expressed-desire-to-steal-nuclear-secrets/?sh=3bf6fc90685c">have since been added</a>.)



Khan is well aware of this, and has built additional safety measures into Khanmigo to keep students from straying into questionable, non-educational conversations with the chatbot. All Khanmigo chats are logged, and if a student runs up against one of Khanmigo’s guardrails, teachers are notified.



ChatGPT also has a tendency to make things up—called hallucinations in AI-speak. Joe Welch, a history teacher at North Hills Middle School in Pittsburgh, saw this first hand, when he was seeking specific information on a niche topic.



A student working on a report shared that he had found conflicting information from different data sources about the extent of damage and casualties caused by a series of tornadoes that hit Western Pennsylvania in 1985. “I asked ChatGPT for a table of casualties, towns, time of the tornado, and monetary value of damage and the table came back with extremely inaccurate numbers,” says Welch. In other words, while a middle-schooler recognized the numbers he was finding were in conflict, the chatbot admitted to no such uncertainty, producing a definitive (but wrong) table.



Despite this, ChatGPT has saved Welch tons of time. He uses the chatbot, among other things, to create tables for student study guides, which would have previously used up at least an hour of prep time.



“It’s just cleaning up a lot of tasks that would’ve been arduous for me to complete,” he says.



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawhitford/"></a>By Emma Whitford, Forbes Staff

Microsoft Built GPT-4 Into Office

How ChatGPT Is Fast Becoming The Teacher’s Pet

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.



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



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.”



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“We feel, from everything we&#8217;re seeing at least, Sundar is not that person.”
</blockquote>



“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.”
</blockquote>



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.”



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“When the dragons come, he’s not going to know what to do.”&nbsp;
</blockquote>



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.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“Google isn’t Googley anymore.”
</blockquote>



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 class="wp-block-heading" 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 class="wp-block-heading">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 class="wp-block-heading">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 class="wp-block-heading">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 class="wp-block-heading" 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 class="wp-block-heading">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 class="wp-block-heading">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 class="wp-block-heading">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 class="wp-block-heading">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 class="wp-block-heading">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 class="wp-block-heading">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 class="wp-block-heading">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 class="wp-block-heading">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

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

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" 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 class="wp-block-heading" 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 class="wp-block-heading" 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 class="wp-block-heading" 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 class="wp-block-heading" 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 class="wp-block-heading" 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 class="wp-block-heading" 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 class="wp-block-heading" 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 class="wp-block-heading" 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 class="wp-block-heading" 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 class="wp-block-heading" 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 class="wp-block-heading" 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 class="wp-block-heading" 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 class="wp-block-heading" 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 class="wp-block-heading">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 class="wp-block-heading">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 class="wp-block-heading">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 class="wp-block-heading">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 class="wp-block-heading">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 class="wp-block-heading">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

Category: Technology

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