Weekly Tech Wrap: Apple’s AR/VR Headset, Sam Altman’s AI Warnings, Paedophilia On Instagram, And More Top Tech News
Every week, we round up the top tech news headlines worth your time. From Apple's new AR/VR goggles to Meta Verified's India entry, here are some of the biggest headlines from the week that was.
iPhone maker Apple finally popped its AR/VR cherry, AI’s biggest player warns against AI, shocking underage-sex content on Instagram, and Meta Verified making its way to India — these are some of the headlines that dominated the world of tech this week. Let’s take a closer look.
Apple Finally Unveils Mixed Reality Headset
Apple’s mixed reality headset has been going around the rumour mill for quite some time now. At the Cupertino tech giant’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) event on Monday, Apple fans finally got an official look at the much-awaited AR/VR headset, dubbed Vision Pro.
Sporting two 4K displays, the Vision Pro comes with five sensors and a dozen cameras (yes, you read that right). All the lenses and sensors are actually what makes the Vision Pro stand apart from the handful of rival glasses out there. They help the Vision Pro to operate without the need of any additional handheld controllers. The Vision Pro will rely entirely on the user’s eye movement, hand gestures, and voice commands to operate.
Despite sporting a typically-Apple price tag of $3,499, the Vision Pro brought a much needed breakthrough moment for Apple, rallying its stock prices to a record high of $184.27 soon after the WWDC keynote address.
Whether Vision Pro would actually be commercially successful or not will only be apparent once it hits the stores next year.
Until then, you can check out our critical analysis of Apple’s Vision Pro launch.
Apart from the mixed reality goggles, Apple also introduced several other products and software, including the 15-inch MacBook Air and iOS 17. Click here to get a quick lowdown of the top announcements.
AI’s Biggest Player Warns Against AI
Ever since Microsoft-backed OpenAI released its disruptive generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT, CEO Sam Altman has been touted as the frontrunner of the latest AI revolution that’s showing its teeth across sectors. You can learn more about Altman here.
This week, during his visit to India, Altman shared his insights into the transformative potential of AI and its implications for employment. Altman recognised AI as a disruptive force but reassured that it does not signify the end of permanent jobs. He stressed the urgency for governments to adapt and develop new socioeconomic agreements in response to the rapid advancements in AI technology.
Altman's viewpoint resonated with the notion that AI should be perceived as a tool to enhance human capabilities rather than replace them entirely. He highlighted the historical pattern of technological revolutions leading to job transformations and underscored the belief that new and improved job opportunities will arise due to AI's impact.
Altman also met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and apparently had a “great conversation,” discussing the country’s tech ecosystem and potential for AI.
PM Modi followed up with a retweet, saying that India welcomes “all collaboration that can accelerate our digital transformation for empowering our citizens.”
Altman’s visit comes at a time when governments across the globe are trying to figure out how to best regulate AI tools and their impact on users. For starters, Elon Musk went on a hush-hush trip to China, and while he didn’t divulge much, he did say that the Chinese government is looking to introduce AI regulations soon.
Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar also announced that the Centre would implement regulations to safeguard "digital citizens" from potential harm caused by AI. Chandrasekhar expressed concerns about the increasing toxicity and criminality prevalent on the internet and affirmed the government's commitment to thwarting attempts to harm online users.
For now, it seems that the world will have to wait and see how the AI regulation saga unfolds.
Shocking Paedophilic Content On Instagram
Facebook-parent Meta has pledged action after Instagram was found promoting an extensive network of paedophile content. The social networking giant said that "child exploitation is a horrific crime", according to a report by Wall Street Journal. The WSJ report revealed that Meta-owned Instagram's systems helped "connect and promote a vast network of accounts" devoted to underage-sex content.
The report includes investigations by WSJ and researchers at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Meta has set up an internal task force after researchers made the discovery, the report added. Unlike forums and file transfer services, Meta-owned Instagram not only hosts such activities, but promotes them via its algorithms. There has been an acknowledgement of "enforcement problems" and the company has taken actions including restricting its systems from recommending searches associated with sex abuse.
You can read more about it here.
Meta’s Twitter-Like Verified Plan Lands In India
Twitter monetised something that was available for free. After Musk took over the microblogging platform last year, he announced that Twitter’s ‘verified’ blue ticks will now be a paid-only feature. Following suit, Meta also announced that it, too, will let users get a ‘verified’ badge, as long as they pay.
Meta Verified was officially launched in India on Wednesday. iOS and Android users will need to pay Rs 699 per month to avail it. The company said that Web users, too, will be able to avail the same at Rs 599 in the coming months.
You can learn more about Meta Verified benefits here.
Speaking Of Copying…
Tech news is not always so humdrum. More often than not, we come across stories that make us chuckle. In one such instance, a seventh-grade student used ChatGPT to finish his English homework, but got caught due to a rather silly mistake.
A user named Roshan Patel, who identifies as the founder and CEO of healthcare platform Walnut, revealed how his cousin attempted to use the chatbot to complete his seventh-grade English homework. Patel shared a photo of the homework, clearly illustrating the reason behind his cousin's exposure.
In his tweet, Patel wrote, "My little cousin Arjun was caught using ChatGPT for his 7th grade English homework." When responding to a question, he added, "As an AI language model, I don't possess personal expectations or opinions." Furthermore, he expressed that the conclusion of Amy Tan's novel, "The Joy Luck Club," is often considered impactful and profound.
While it is never advisable to use ChatGPT or any other AI tool to cheat your way through school assignments, if you do decide to use it, maybe it's a good idea to actually go through the finished product before submitting it.
That’s it from the world of tech headlines this week. Stay tuned to this space for more top stories next week.
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