Tech Digest daily roundup: Microsoft to cut 10,000 jobs
Microsoft will cut 10,000 jobs in the latest round of staff redundancies to hit the tech industry. It will affect up to 5% of its global workforce and cost the business $1.2bn (£972m) in severance and reorganisation costs. Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said that while customer spending had grown during Covid, more people were now choosing to “exercise caution”…Mr Nadella said many parts of the world were in recession or anticipating one, while “at the same time, the next major wave of computing is being born, with advances in AI”. Microsoft is considering a multi-billion-dollar investment in artificial intelligence company OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), according to the Financial Times. BBC
Elon Musk “lied” when he claimed he had “secured” funding to take Tesla private, a lawyer for investors has told a court. The company’s chief executive wrote in 2018 that he had “secured” funding to take the electric carmaker private and later that investor backing was “confirmed”, causing shares to fall and then to soar. Less than three weeks later, Musk backtracked on the plans. Tesla investor Glen Littleton is seeking damages on behalf of shareholders who bought or sold stock in the days after the tweets, claiming Musk‘s tweets cost them “millions”. Sky News
Robots, especially those in the form of a humanoid are fascinating. What makes them even more fascinating is their ability to actually behave and move like humans. And if a humanoid robot can jump around, and perform acrobatics that more than half of the human population don’t even dare to try, that’s just the cherry on top of an already awesome sundae. Boston Dynamics recently released a video of their Atlas Robot taking on a miniature construction site as if it was a parkour course. Up until now, the Atlas Robot could already run and jump over complex terrain thanks to its feet. The latest demo shows that the robot now has hands and can actually grab stuff, pick them up and toss it to someone else. First Post
All users can now enable iCloud Advanced Data Protection, an opt-in feature to get end-to-end encryption for almost all data stored in iCloud, including messages, photos, and device backups. The feature is activatable once users upgrade to iOS 16.3, currently in developer beta, with a public release of the new software update expected to arrive next week. Under the default setup, Apple retains the keys to decrypt your iCloud data on their servers…But for users wanting ultimate data protection, iCloud Advanced Data Protection allows users to encrypt their iCloud data with their own device passcode so that Apple doesn’t have a key. 9to5Mac
Brexit is to blame for the collapse of the British electric car battery start-up Britishvolt causing hundreds of job losses, according to former Conservative leader Lord William Hague. The Tory grandee said the failure of the company – which had plans to build a giga-factory in Northumberland – was “part of the damage” of the UK’s exit from the EU. Britishvolt made the majority of its 300 staff redundant on Wednesday after appointing administrators when it failed to raise enough funding for its Cambois site. Independent
