Hello, friends, and happy day off for horrible things to our friends in Melbourne. We’ve got some tech news for you (shocking, I know).
1. Google goes to trial, again
Starting things overseas today and Google has faced its second major U.S. antitrust trial in two months, with this one targeting the Google Play Store that distributes apps for the company’s Android software. The case, per a report from AP News, stems from a lawsuit filed by Epic Games (the maker of Fortnite) which alleges Google has created an illegal monopoly on Android apps primarily so it can boost its profits through commissions ranging from 15% to 30% on purchases made within an app.
2. ChatGPT goes Turbo
Sam Altman, OpenAI cofounder and CEO, revealed Chat GPT-4 Turbo at the company’s first-ever developer conference called DevDay in San Francisco. The new model supports 128,000 tokens of context, equivalent to a 300-page book and sixteen times ChatGPT-4’s context limits. You can also customise your ChatGPT. Read more here or watch more below:
3. TikTok shutters $US1 billion creator fund
TikTok’s $1 billion creator fund will dry up in mid-December, with creators in the U.S., UK, Germany, and France no longer able to monetise their content through the original fund (those in Italy and Spain aren’t affected by the change). Brought to our attention initially by The Verge, the creator fund was originally introduced in 2020, with the company promising to pay out $US1 billion over the course of three years to people making the app’s viral content.
4. Hello to the Southern Hemisphere’s first advanced subsea cable manufacturing facility
Over now to InnovationAus, which is reporting on plans for the Southern Hemisphere’s first advanced subsea cable manufacturing facility. It wrote that Sun Cable plans to build the facility in Tasmania, with construction to begin in 2025, and operations to follow in 2029. The facility, located at Bell Bay, would support the firm’s ambition to export 1.75GW of renewable energy to Singapore via subsea cable. Per the report, Sun Cable intends to build a multi-billion dollar manufacturing facility capable of producing 1,200-1,600km of subsea cables per year. It is expected to require 25-40MW of energy to operate.
5. A great piece from Wired
Lastly, I wanted to point you all in the direction of an interesting read from Wired today. The piece explores the collective erosion of X, Instagram, and Facebook and how it marks a turning point for millennials, who “are outgrowing a constant need to be plugged in”. As a millennial, this resonates so I thought it might for you, too.
BONUS ITEM: Click the image in the embedded tweet below for a 5-minute explainer on #NupToTheCup & why people are saying no to horse racing.
Have a lovely day.
Image: Epic Games