In South Africa, a revolutionary method for dark matter search that is setting a new trajectory for future explorations.



The quest to unravel the mysteries of dark matter has taken a significant turn with the latest research from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa. Spearheaded by Professor Deepak Kar and his former PhD student, now postdoctoral researcher Sukanya Sinha, this study is published in Physics Letters B and marks a pivotal shift from traditional approaches in dark matter exploration.



Dark matter, invisible yet comprising about a quarter of the universe&#8217;s mass, has long puzzled scientists. Traditional searches have focused on weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), but to date, these efforts have not yielded concrete evidence of its existence. The Wits team, working at the ATLAS experiment at CERN (a center for scientific research in Switzerland), ventured into uncharted territory by investigating semi-visible jets, a novel concept in Dark Matter searches.



Kan, in an interview with FORBES AFRICA, sheds light on the significance of this new approach: &#8220;We looked for a very specific signature of dark matter, which no one has ever looked at, and we didn&#8217;t find it. So what does it tell us? That the dark matter probably doesn&#8217;t exist in that form, or even if it does, the fraction is probably much, much smaller.&#8221; This discovery informs and directs future research, eliminating certain possibilities in the elusive search for dark matter.



Kan further elaborates on the practical implications of their findings: &#8220;Future research in the exploration of dark matter would be informed by this&#8230; Our study is the most prominent result because it&#8217;s an experimental research.&#8221; He also notes the broader impact of their work: &#8220;Our research informs new ways we can look for dark matter in, say, visible jets and beyond. It tells us what is not there, reducing the possibilities.&#8221;



Discussing the relevance of dark matter research to daily life, Kan states: &#8220;It&#8217;s not something which helps in everyday lives directly&#8230; but it might lead to the development of technologies and techniques which can be used in more practical research.&#8221;



He highlights the long-term potential of such fundamental research, drawing parallels with the development of the World Wide Web and advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence, which originated from similar scientific endeavors.



This research by the Wits University team not only propels the scientific community closer to understanding one of the universe&#8217;s greatest mysteries but also exemplifies the profound impact of fundamental research on technological and practical advancements. As the quest for dark matter continues, this novel method introduced by the Wits team stands as a beacon of innovation in the expansive field of astrophysics.

Researchers Prof Deepak Kar and Sukanya Sinha; Image supplied1

Wits University’s New Direction In Understanding One Of The Universe’s Greatest Mysteries

The Nairobi-based co-founder of Craydel, an online career guidance platform, speaks to FORBES AFRICA about its ambitions to democratize higher education and scale across Africa. But first, more on what sparked his entrepreneurial journey.



Manish Sardana is in the midst of a busy day, opening yet another office, a bigger one, in Nairobi’s upscale Westlands area when we catch up for a conversation on Craydel, the edtech startup he successfully co-founded in Kenya in 2021, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.



“Right now, we have five offices – three in Nigeria and two in Kenya – and about 70-odd employees and we are growing rapidly,” the platform’s 43-year-old CEO says about the growth of what was once “just an idea in his head”.



At a time when most startups are battling to survive and retrenching staff, Craydel is hiring rapidly and on its way to profitability in 2024, he adds. On the cards: expansion to more markets such as Ghana, Uganda and South Africa. The investors are keen and Sardana is optimistic.



“When you are building something that has a real vision trying to solve a real problem, you get people gravitating towards you,” says Sardana of his platform that dispels misinformation and biases for students and guides decisions on college and course selection.&nbsp;Craydel is building the tech infrastructure to empower African learners to search, match and apply to their best-fit higher education institutions.



In 2021, Sardana, along with his co-founders <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-nguru-38677638/?originalSubdomain=ke" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">John Nguru</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/shayne-aman-premji/?originalSubdomain=ke" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Shayne Aman Premji</a>, secured $1 million for Craydel in a pre-seed round led by Enza Capital, a private venture fund that invests in early-stage tech startups across Africa. Subsequently, they secured another $1.5 million to grow the platform.



Craydel – a play on the word ‘cradle’ – &nbsp;hand-holds students wanting to pursue higher education – from graduation to post-graduation to PhD – at any point in their student or professional career. In fact, 50% of their postgraduate enrolments are working professionals looking for a career change, says Sardana.



The tech startup has 380 direct partnerships with universities so far and seeks to democratize access to tertiary education, in turn, addressing the low gross enrolment rate, of about 9%, in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This includes working professionals who have not been to college before, for want of access to capital and resources.



Two years in, Sardana says they have figured out the formula for success.



“We know that if you do X, Y and Z, you are going to be successful. That equation is very clear to us now.



We want to show that we can build a real unicorn out of Africa, creating real impact.”



But there’s a reason why Craydel may as well be on its way to savoring billion-dollar success in the future. Sardana has a track-record of building and scaling successful businesses from the ground-up.



His penchant for entrepreneurship had its humble beginnings in India, and followed him to Africa, a continent that he now calls home and one that has “given so much” to him.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“I owe it to Africa,” he explains of his mission to expand opportunities in education.



“One of the things I realized early on in life is to observe things around me… What I love is looking at ecosystems and how things work, and understand how it is broken, and use technology to disrupt that ecosystem. There&#8217;s also a theory I use, which is called ‘perpetuators versus agitators’; wherein perpetuators perpetuate an ecosystem because it benefits them, while an agitator can really shake this up from the outside and create a better, more efficient ecosystem,” says Sardana.



‘Serial entrepreneur’



His first tryst with entrepreneurship was at the age of 10. From a middle class home in Delhi – with three rooms and 16 family members – Sardana was born to parents who worked in the government and instilled in him a love for reading.



He engaged this by creating “a sharing concept or library with a common pool of books and comics from everyone in one place”, renting books out to friends and relatives. The venture failed, but not without him realizing how much he enjoyed the process of creating it. All through school and college, he found enterprising ways to make pocket money, becoming “a serial entrepreneur more out of necessity than anything else”.



His parents allowed him these entrepreneurial bouts, so long as he was going to top his class, study economics and go on to become a civil services officer. Whilst studying for an economics degree in Delhi University’s Hansraj College, Sardana was also teaching students. But disillusionment set in.



“I mean 90% of what I studied two years ago, I had no recollection of, and I could not see how that education was going to ever help me in life. And especially because I had kind of exposed myself to building businesses, I did not see any practical application of what I was studying.”



Along with a couple of friends, he soon set up his own publishing business – a college magazine in Delhi University that proved to be very popular on campus. He hustled, spending nights at the printing press and knocking on advertisers’ doors during the day, thumbing through the Yellow Pages directories and traveling across Delhi on his dad’s scooter. This was in the year 2000.



“My parents said I have got to stop this and do my master’s degree,” says Sardana. His mom filled out a form to the prestigious Delhi School of Economics. Some of India’s greatest economists such as Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and former Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh have taught at the institution. &nbsp;



Sardana cleared the entrance exam, quite by default. “I really did not study for it. The only way I cleared the exam was because I was teaching my classmates and charging them money for it. So I would [conduct] private tuitions for my own classmates, and in the process of teaching them, I would kind of learn myself.”



Very soon, he realized it was all theoretical economics and he had no passion for it. It didn’t challenge him enough, so three months into the course, he quit.



After that, he tried to rekindle the magazine business but had to close it down. He also authored an economics textbook for class 12 students. A year on, he went on to do his MBA at the FORE School of Management and was subsequently hired by advertising agency FCB Ulka. Before long, he felt “jaded” in the industry doing marketing campaigns. But Sardana was also closely watching from the sidelines the big renaissance unraveling in India’s technology sector.



“That was in 2004-2005, the internet was coming up, Amazon was becoming a big thing and Google had come up. I saw the power of technology really changing and transforming ecosystems and got really excited about it,” he recalls.



After that, he worked four years in a successful edtech startup called Vriti, and the company managed to raise a total funding of $35 million.



“It was a lot of money at the time… Eventually, I sliced the part of the company I was running and set up as a separate company. I sold my company to a financial investor. So that was my first successful exit, which I was really happy about.



“And then, after seven years, I needed a break, I was very much done. Startups can also be an emotionally-draining experience, you know, especially when you are just married and have kids.”



A six-month break ensued, during which time he also helped his wife set up her bakery business, delivering her cakes door-to-door in their black Maruti Esteem car.



That was in 2014 when Sardana’s Africa rendezvous was just about to begin.



‘Owe it to Africa’



One of his former bosses who had been following his journey in the technology space told him about an opportunity in Africa with multinational communications company, WPP to focus on the digital marketing side of the business.



Within 10 days of receiving the offer, Sardana was on a plane to Kenya, his first trip outside of India. It took him three years to settle down, to understand the market and the consumers, and he was promoted to Managing Director for WPP-Scangroup in SSA.&nbsp; &nbsp;



He won a lot of business for the company but the entrepreneur in him was beginning to surface, again. He built a marketing automation platform called Optimus for the company, which is when he met and worked with his current co-founder and CTO, Nguru.



He presented the product to the board but it didn’t work. He presented it to one of their clients, Barclays in Kenya, and thereby to the bank’s leadership in South Africa, who were very impressed and gave him a chance to deploy it across their markets, which he calls his “first lucky break”.



“Once Barclays happened, you know, success creates more success. Suddenly, at WPP, the guys woke up!”



Sardana says Optimus was also deployed by leading African entities such as Kenya Commercial Bank, Equity Bank, the Old Mutual Group and Airtel.



The epiphany after that was inspired by his wife, whose bakery business was also doing well.



“She said to me ‘you know, you guys keep building all this sophisticated technology for large blue chip companies, but what about building something to help small businesses like us scale’?



“That was my first moment in Africa when I said, ‘okay, I&#8217;m making a lot of money for myself, am building a lot of wealth for my organization and for my clients, who are very rich people to start with, but we are really not doing anything of any significance, of impact, using our skill sets, and our insights for the large masses, the small business sector. If you understand Africa, it&#8217;s really run on the back of very micro SMEs.”



This led to the creation of Optimus Mini for small businesses. Eventually, that platform was called Goby – “the smallest fish in the world”. He explains the philosophy behind it.



“The big fish eat the small fish. So we wanted to empower the small fish to fight and compete with the big fish, by giving them access to all the technology and resources they needed. It was essentially e-commerce-as-a-service platform, allowing small entrepreneurs to upload their product pictures and prices, and it will set up an entire e-commerce shop for them online, integrated with payment gateways and logistics partners to deliver the products.”


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="682" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Manish-Sardana-image-supplied-682x1024.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-60328" style="width:335px;height:auto" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Manish-Sardana-image-supplied-682x1024.jpeg 682w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Manish-Sardana-image-supplied-200x300.jpeg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Manish-Sardana-image-supplied-768x1153.jpeg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Manish-Sardana-image-supplied-1023x1536.jpeg 1023w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Manish-Sardana-image-supplied-1364x2048.jpeg 1364w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Manish-Sardana-image-supplied-scaled.jpeg 1705w" sizes="(max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Manish Sardana; image supplied</figcaption></figure></div>


It really was just Nguru and Sardana developing it at that point.



“John is an exceptional technology guy, he&#8217;s amazing. I would come up with a product design, the user experience, the strategy, the business side of things and he would build the technology. Technology was always my handicap – I always regret not learning to code. I have all the stuff in my head but can’t build. I tell John he completes my handicap,” says Sardana.



In three months, they had 3,000 merchants signing up, deeming the platform a success. This was while they were still with WPP-Scangroup, when they had the reach, the capital and client access afforded by the company.



When Covid-19 struck in 2020, e-commerce took off and so did Goby. Leading brewer AB InBev approached them to sign on for “a B2B version of the product” to take orders online and deliver alcohol. Diageo, too, came along.



But the time had come for Sardana to go on his own, even if it meant giving up a lucrative salary and the comfort of a full-time job at WPP.



“Working with Manish was always magical, a journey into the future,” remembers Serah Katusya of that time, when she was the Managing Director at Mediacom, a sister agency at WPP-Scangroup; she is now the CEO of Belva and founder of WildMango.&nbsp;“He challenged and inspired with the same energy. He paved the way for many of us into tech, into thinking and building business solutions.&nbsp;He was definitely an agency leader decades ahead of his time.”



By the time he left WPP, Sardana had enough confidence in his abilities to build and scale real businesses. He wanted to build something in a very different space, specifically, in education.



“I think that was a very big inflection point in my life… that I was wasting all my knowledge, talent and experience building things for big companies, and I wanted to solve real problems on the ground. So that kind of gave me an exceptional amount of clarity… seeing the lives of ordinary Kenyans, doing fascinating things with very little resources and transforming their lives became a real thing.”



‘A cradle for young students’



Sardana’s research showed that there were government subsidies and funding for primary education but there was not a lot of momentum in higher education.



“The higher education infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa is extremely weak. The problem is that in most schools, the career counselor is essentially a teacher with the least amount of workload…. This entire industry is run by agents who don&#8217;t understand career counseling; they essentially push students to universities, and make money.”



According to Craydel, more than 16 million African students spend $30 billion on higher education each year.



As a continent with the youngest population in the world, Africa presents tremendous opportunities in this regard, and Sardana was quick.



“We wanted to build a cradle for young students in Africa, for them to get all the nourishment in terms of the right advice, the career counseling, the psychometric assessment, and the right technology to get them off on their own feet.”



Whilst they were setting up the company, and during the pandemic, Sardana met Premji, the third co-founder, who is now Craydel’s CFO.



“Shayne is Canadian, but like me, stayed in Africa for 10 years. We stayed on the same street in Kenya but never knew each other. During the pandemic, he was changing houses, and walked into our apartment building. That&#8217;s how we met. He had a lot of experience in investment banking, and was doing extremely well in his career…



He is also impact-driven, so said he wanted to quit his job and join us full-time… he was extremely instrumental in raising our first round of a million dollars,” says Sardana.



For now, the trio is looking forward to what lies ahead. Their “vision and impact story” is shaping up.



“We&#8217;re in a good space now, and really excited about building this journey,” concludes Sardana, as he sets off to launch the company’s brand-new office, surely, one of many more to come.

Craydel co-founders John Nguru, Manish Sardana and Shayne Aman Premji; image supplied

‘We Can Build A Real Unicorn Out Of Africa, Creating Impact’: Kenya Co-Founder On Building An Edtech Startup 

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



OpenAI—the company behind ChatGPT—is exploring ways for its popular generative artificial intelligence platform to be used in schools, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/openai-explores-how-get-chatgpt-into-classrooms-2023-11-16/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Reuters</a>, marking a new undertaking for the company that’s been criticized by some educators for enabling cheating.



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



Brad Lightcap, chief operating officer for OpenAI, said at a San Francisco conference last week that the company will likely create a team next year that will solely look into ways artificial intelligence can be used in education, Reuters reported.



Lightcap said at the conference that “most teachers are trying to figure out ways to incorporate (ChatGPT)” into how they teach, and that OpenAI is “trying to help them think through the problem.”



Artificial intelligence—and ChatGPT, specifically—have been criticized in the past for making it easier for students to cheat, even being&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=ffd34456e2c6">banned</a>&nbsp;by some schools and districts earlier this year.



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



85%. That’s how many students—out of those who were able to compare human tutoring to using AI—said ChatGPT was more effective than working with a real person,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.govtech.com/education/k-12/is-chatgpt-better-than-a-human-tutor-survey-says-yes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to Government Technology.



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



ChatGPT was released mid-school year last November, and districts nationwide almost immediately began banning the generative AI platform out of cheating concerns. Students are able to use generative AI platforms to write essays and complete homework, though it wasn’t hard to catch, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/30/technology/ai-chatbot-study-aid.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a> to the New York Times, because of AI being in early stages and still “hallucinating,” or making things up. On Dec. 12, 2022, the nation’s second-largest district, Los Angeles Unified School District, became one of the first to block the site to “protect academic honesty,” though at the start of a new school year it introduced its own education-specific AI bot called “Ed” in about 100 schools, Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/23/chatgpt-ai-chatbots-in-classrooms-00111662" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>. Other districts that banned it or limited access to the site <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=ffd34456e2c6">included</a> New York City Public Schools and schools in Montgomery County, Alabama. Since the release of ChatGPT, though, OpenAI has worked to show its value in education. In the fall, OpenAI and nonprofit Khan Academy <a href="https://openai.com/customer-stories/khan-academy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> a partnership to create an “AI-powered assistant” available to Khan students that works as “both a virtual tutor for students and a classroom assistant for teachers.”

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

OpenAI Exploring ChatGPT’s Potential In Classrooms—Despite Critics Saying AI Promotes Cheating, Report Says

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming companies and economies worldwide, including in Africa. Data is an essential component in the training of AI systems. Unfortunately, the lack of accurate, high-quality data is a significant impediment in Africa. Synthetic data, or data generated by a computer, may be used to train AI models. While synthetic data offers tremendous opportunities for African innovation and development, it poses significant risks that must be carefully assessed.



Gathering real-world data in many African regions is difficult, expensive, and time-consuming.



These obstacles are brought about by various factors, including social, cultural, technological, and infrastructural deficiencies. Understanding and managing varied cultural traditions and languages may be challenging, especially when gathering data from multiple locations and people. As a result, synthetic data provides a solution by enabling researchers and businesses to create massive databases tailored to their specific needs. 



Data poverty is a lack of access to high-quality data and the ability to use such data appropriately. It’s a significant issue that hinders economic progress, decision-making, and innovation and worsens poverty. The data availability and consumption discrepancy between Africa and the rest of the world reflects more profound disparities and has significant repercussions. 



As a result, critical innovations in health, education, and transportation operate better for the rest of the globe than for Africa. For example, due to Africa’s relative data scarcity, AI systems in Africa have fewer data sets to learn from than the rest of the globe.



Synthetic data is presented as a strategy to supplement this data scarcity. The generative adversarial networks (GANs) AI method is often used to create synthetic data. GANs consist of two neural networks (akin to an artificial brain), the generator and the discriminator. The generator produces new data, while the discriminator discriminates between real and fake data. 



After they are trained adversarially (i.e. generator producing synthetic data while the discriminator differentiating fake from real data), the generator and discriminator become as good as possible at their respective tasks. One benefit of using synthetic data is that personal or sensitive information is frequently eliminated, minimizing the risk of privacy violations. This is particularly important in businesses where data privacy is vital, such as healthcare. Furthermore, by making data more available, synthetic data may lower the barriers to entry for firms and inventors.



However, synthetic data has significant drawbacks. One of them is that the models used to generate synthetic data significantly influence its quality. It reflects limitations in data (such as bias and small size), resulting in compromised and less accurate AI models and potentially perpetuating inequality, injustice and poverty. This is not the intended consequence, so there is a need to develop ethical guidelines for using synthetic data. These should first guarantee that synthetic data is anonymized for privacy protection and does not include identifiable information that may be connected back to persons.



Second, synthetic data must adhere to data protection norms and regulations governing personal information use. Third, synthetic data should accurately replicate the underlying real-world data without inserting biases or distortions. One way to achieve this is to increase data size used to generate synthetic data. Fourth, synthetic data and the processes used to create it should be disclosed. 



Fifth, explicit procedures for generating, managing, and using synthetic data should be developed and publicized. Sixth, detect and prevent misuse, as well as monitor and audit the use of synthetic data regularly. Seventh, acquire informed consent from individuals whose data were utilized to produce synthetic data, if applicable. Eighth, clarify how synthetic data will be utilized and what privacy controls will be in place. Ninth, prevent biases in synthetic data from reinforcing stereotypes or discrimination.



Tenth, keep cultural norms and values in mind while developing and exploiting synthetic data, especially when it represents different populations. Eleventh, since GANs are used to generate synthetic data and are computationally costly, consider the environmental effect of data collection, storage, and production and seek to offset any negative impacts. Twelfth, establish specific processes for exchanging synthetic data with other institutions or researchers while meeting ethical standards. 



Thirteenth, collaborate with relevant stakeholders, such as ethics committees or review boards, to ensure that synthetic data activities are handled ethically. Synthetic data has the potential to be a game-changer in Africa’s AI journey, managing data scarcity, increasing privacy, and encouraging innovation. As Africa embraces AI and synthetic data, a balanced approach is essential. Policymakers, companies, and academics must work together to guarantee that synthetic data is used correctly and ethically.

AI (Artificial Intelligence) concept. Electronic circuit. Communication network.

Synthetic Data As A Double-Edged Sword In Africa’s AI Revolution

Unmuting, raising your hand, chiming in—interruptions are simply awkward on Zoom. Here’s how to effectively—and politely—interrupt someone in a virtual meeting, according to experts.



Allison Shapira doesn’t shy away from using her voice: A self-proclaimed extrovert, the founder of a public speaking training firm and a former opera singer, she’s rarely had trouble knowing how to speak up. But even Shapira makes mistakes when it comes to that nuanced yet high-stakes act of virtual etiquette: Interrupting someone else on a Zoom call.



“It’s inherently rude [to interrupt], and yet sometimes it’s necessary to protect the conversation—or because the internet is spotty,” says Shapira, who recently had to be reminded to use the “raise hand” button when a colleague said she was interrupting too much. In a virtual setting where people are distracted, she says, technology delays reactions and in-person cues are missing. “It’s a human psychology issue,” she says, not just a tech one.



Interrupting co-workers in a meeting has long been a manners minefield, one increasingly laden not only with longstanding office politics and professional ambition but with concerns about gender bias concerns and “that-could-have-been-an-email” meeting glut.



Zoom made this complex act of corporate culture, well, weirder. Chiming in on a conference conversation became toggling between browser windows to find the unmute button. It’s much harder to read a co-worker’s body language across the table. And when “can you hear me?” or “your screen seems to have frozen” are said repeatedly, no one wants to pause meetings more for interruptions.



“You wait a minute to be polite and jump in, but they’re not actually done talking yet,” Shapira says, recalling a call last week where she and a client constantly interrupted each other due to frozen screens.



For introverts, it can be even harder to inject themselves in a Zoom discussion than one that takes place in the office. While the pivot to remote work can be easier for introverted employees—interactions are scheduled, and virtual meetings are easier to digest for introverts—speaking up in a Zoom meeting proves harder, says Carey Yazeed, a consultant and behavioral scientist who studies equity in the workplace, because they have to decipher the best time to interrupt.



“Extroverts have big personalities and are very good at inserting themselves,” says Yazeed. “An introvert is someone whose personality is more calculated. For them to speak up in a meeting, it’s something they have to think about in advance, write down and rehearse.”



Whether you’re the silent type, an extrovert, an intern or an executive, there are passable ways to interrupt on Zoom. Because after all, “no one should politely endure a monologue,” GitLab cofounder Sid Sijbrandij said in an email; he recently shared the remote-based company’s own Zoom&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7101938264122556416/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tips on LinkedIn</a>. Here are five ways to interrupt effectively in a virtual meeting. (And yes, it will still feel awkward.)



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-1-insert-yourself-in-the-beginning">1. Insert yourself in the beginning</h2>



The longer you sit and wait to speak up, the more likely it is you’ll refrain from speaking.



For introverts in particular, bringing up your talking points and questions toward the start of the meeting can be helpful, says Yazeed. Why? “There’s still that structure, that agenda,” she says. “People haven’t really gotten loose and started veering off topic yet.” You will be most heard at the start of the meeting.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2-wait-for-a-pause">2. Wait for a pause</h2>



When is the best time to interrupt? The answer proves even more difficult if the meeting host never pauses for air.



In that case, Shapira says the best time to interrupt is right before the meeting’s leader moves on to the next topic. Often, a speaker will take a breath or pause to ask if anyone has questions. Utilizing icons such as “raise hand” can help you take advantage of those pauses.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-3-use-emojis-to-raise-your-hand">3. Use emojis to “raise your hand”</h2>



Don’t be like Shapira. Remember to use the “raise hand” feature that virtual meeting softwares like Zoom and Google Meet offer. Alternatively, send a message in the chat or unmute your microphone and wait.



If a participant’s raised hand goes unnoticed, don’t be afraid to advocate for those who are more introverted and are indicating they want to speak, Sijbrandij said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7101938264122556416/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LinkedIn post</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-4-use-a-filler-word">4. Use a filler word</h2>



If those actions don’t capture attention, it may be time to speak up. (Interjecting the Zoom call with a filler word such as “so” or “actually” will often do the trick.)



Be sure, however, to use stronger words with emphasis that will signal you’re going to speak. Opt for “actually” or “great” rather than “um,” for example. Use a word that won’t go unheard or dismissed.



A perfect interruption equation, says Shapira, goes something like this: wait for the speaker to take a breath, use a filler word, compliment what they’re saying, then say your piece. “That’s a way—especially if you’re interrupting someone who’s either a peer or more senior to you—to show deference and show respect.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-5-use-a-facilitator">5. Use a facilitator</h2>



Most meetings don’t have a strong moderator that helps the conversation flow well. And it’s even more pronounced on Zoom, Yazeed says, when people are talking over each other, unmuting at inconvenient times and confusing meeting participants on who’s in charge.



An effective facilitator will pay attention to the chat and, when hand emojis are raised, include everyone in the conversation. If you’re running meetings or in charge of a team, make sure you use one, especially in virtual meetings.



Of course, if the virtual meeting ends and you didn’t get your point across or your “um” doesn’t give you a chance to speak, remember a follow-up email will almost always suffice. After years of back-to-back Zoom meetings in the pandemic, an email—rather than a meeting—is probably what most people wanted anyways.

Caption: A university teacher prepares to join an online tutorial using Zoom, June 2021.

Remote Work Image (1 of 1)

The Fine Art Of Interrupting People On Zoom

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



Google will require Android apps to let users report scammy or inappropriate AI-generated content if they want to stay on the Google Play Store, according to a <a href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/13985936?sjid=5601262939205888504-NA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">policy update</a>, amid fears that AI-based apps are being exploited by users to create <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/06/facebook-ai-stickers-bing-image-creator-jailbreak-guardrails/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NSFW</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rashishrivastava/2023/05/11/reddit-ai-generated-porn/?sh=79d51c372e52">non-consensual</a> content.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



Starting January 31, apps on the Google Play Store that allow users to create AI content will be required to have features so users can flag violative content to developers under the&nbsp;<a href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/13985936?sjid=5601262939205888504-NA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">new policy</a>.



App developers will use the user reports to filter and moderate content on their apps themselves, the&nbsp;<a href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/13985936?sjid=5601262939205888504-NA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">guideline&nbsp;</a>says.



Text-based generative AI chatbots and AI image generators are included within the policy, while apps that just host AI-generated content and don’t allow users to create new AI content aren’t able to create content using AI are free from the policy.



Some examples of violative AI-generated content determined by Google include non-consensual sexual deepfakes (or highly realistic fake AI images of real people), voice or video recordings of real people used to conduct scams and false or deceptive election-related content.



Google also announced last month it will soon require election advertisers to make “clear and conspicuous” <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/09/06/google-will-require-advertisers-to-add-disclosures-for-ai-generated-election-ads/?sh=2abb2ded4324">disclosures</a> for advertisements containing AI-generated content.



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



Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google parent Alphabet,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/06/26/ai-will-make-2024-election-a-mess-billionaire-ex-google-chief-schmidt-says/?sh=7171898f6bca">warned</a>&nbsp;in June that the “2024 elections are going to be a mess because social media is not protecting us from false generative AI.” Schmidt noted cuts to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/13/23638823/microsoft-ethics-society-team-responsible-ai-layoffs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">content moderation roles</a>&nbsp;at companies like Meta and X, formerly known as Twitter, were a “big issue.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Google is one of the larger tech companies leading the push on stricter AI rules. Apple has yet to back its own&nbsp;<a href="https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">app store guidelines</a>&nbsp;with AI or chatbot policies despite the increasingly controversial use of generative AI.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rashishrivastava/2023/05/11/reddit-ai-generated-porn/?sh=79d51c372e52">Non-consensual deep fakes</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/06/facebook-ai-stickers-bing-image-creator-jailbreak-guardrails/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">not-safe-for-work memes</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/12/paedophiles-using-open-source-ai-to-create-child-sexual-abuse-content-says-watchdog" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">child sexual abuse material</a>&nbsp;have been produced by users on generative AI apps, sometimes through tricking or manipulating apps to get around bans on certain blocked content.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/06/26/ai-will-make-2024-election-a-mess-billionaire-ex-google-chief-schmidt-says/?sh=7171898f6bca">AI Will Make 2024 Election A ‘Mess,’ Billionaire Ex-Google Chief Schmidt Says</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rashishrivastava/2023/05/11/reddit-ai-generated-porn/?sh=79d51c372e52">How Real People Are Caught Up In Reddit’s AI Porn Explosion</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)

In this photo illustration, a woman holds a smartphone with

Google Will Clamp Down On AI Content In Android Apps With New Moderation Policy

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



The White House, which hosted a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug3DkX7VRy8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">discussion</a> about growing right to repair legislation across the country, announced Tuesday that Apple will make parts, tools and documentation needed for consumers and independent repair shops across the U.S. to repair Apple products themselves, signaling a shift in consumer rights that will allow customers to avoid costly repair processes for their devices.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



Right to repair legislation at the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/23910066/right-to-repair-law-newsom-california-sb-244" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">state level</a>&nbsp;has aimed to help consumers affordably repair their devices with tools and parts provided by the original manufacturers of such devices, allowing them to avoid difficult and expensive repair processes for products like phones and computers.



Though the legislation has only been passed in three states so far—California, Minnesota and New York—Apple will make repair tools and parts nationally at “reasonable prices,” according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/Ug3DkX7VRy8?si=wYAtbvAp1YswE5XA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lael Brainard</a>, the director of the National Economic Council.



Apple, which has built a reputation for high&nbsp;<a href="https://medium.com/@verdehumberto11/why-is-apple-repair-cost-so-expensive-bb9033e8575f#:~:text=To%20ensure%20that%20their%20repairs,the%20overall%20cost%20of%20repairs." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">product repair costs</a>, will also pledge support to a federal right to repair bill.



In California, the Right to Repair Act covers electronics and appliances made and sold after July 1, 2021, and requires manufacturers to make repair parts available seven years after the initial production of devices priced above $100.



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



Nathan Proctor, the senior director of the Campaign for the Right to Repair, told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-make-tools-parts-fix-phones-computers-available-nationwide-white-house-2023-10-24/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Reuters</a> he had reservations about potential federal legislation, noting Apple once required repair shops to sign contracts preventing them from stockpiling spare parts for quick walk-in repairs, making the shops less appealing than Apple’s own repair services.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



30. That’s how many other states have introduced similar right to repair legislation passed in California, Minnesota and New York,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-make-tools-parts-fix-phones-computers-available-nationwide-white-house-2023-10-24/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Reuters</a>&nbsp;reported, citing Brainard.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Right to repair&nbsp;<a href="https://hbr.org/2023/01/research-the-unintended-consequences-of-right-to-repair-laws#:~:text=Repair%20advocates%20argue%20that%20such,buy%20new%20ones%20as%20quickly." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proponents</a>&nbsp;have said the legislation aims to make repairs more affordable and convenient for consumers with broken products, which at times have to be replaced entirely, turned back in to original manufacturers for pricey repairs or given to repair shops that use third party parts. Right to repair provisions also stand to benefit farmers, according to EPA Deputy Administrator&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/Ug3DkX7VRy8?si=-a50fHnu7PuKTmPG&amp;t=2288" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Janet McCabe</a>. Early this year, tractor maker John Deere pledged support for consumers to repair their own equipment, reaching a memorandum of understanding with the American Farm Bureau Federation and allowing farmers to branch away from company authorized parts and service facilities, opening up use of independent repair options, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64206913" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BBC News</a>. However, right to repair advocates have been reluctant to support the memorandum, with Walter Schweitzer, president of the Montana Farmers Union, telling&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/01/10/1147934682/john-deere-right-to-repair-farmers-tractors" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NPR</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-make-tools-parts-fix-phones-computers-available-nationwide-white-house-2023-10-24/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple to make tools and parts to fix phones available nationwide &#8211; White House</a>&nbsp;(Reuters)



<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/13/23871712/california-right-to-repair-act-sb-244" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">California passes right-to-repair act guaranteeing seven years of parts for your phone</a>&nbsp;(The Verge)

Apple Holds Product Unveiling Event

Apple Backs Right To Repair—Will Provide Parts To Consumers For Product Repairs

In its latest product launch, the unicorn AI startup is bringing bots that make it sound like you’re talking to well known people like Taylor Swift into your group chat



Inside Character.AI’s disheveled Palo Alto, California headquarters, employees at first appear to be hard at work, glued to their computer monitors. But rather than coding, many of them are engrossed in lively group chats with their colleagues and the AI chatbot characters that Character has become known for. Now, thanks to a new group chat function the startup launched Wednesday, they were chatting with work friends along with bots that anyone can build to create the illusion that you’re actually talking to the likes of Napoleon Bonaparte, Tony Stark or Lucifer.



“The feature was good enough that people stopped working sometimes to use it,” cofounder Daniel De Freitas told&nbsp;Forbes. De Freitas, the company’s president, has been particularly partial to gathering team members together to play Ship AI, a chatbot programmed to act like a text-based adventure game that lets group chat participants pretend to be astronauts exploring outer space.



The group chat feature is Character.AI’s latest move in cofounder and CEO Noam Shazeer’s bet that people will want to interact with a variety of different chatbot personas, rather than having a single, all-encompassing AI companion. By allowing the company’s subscribers, who pay $9.99 per month, to interact with each other and some of the startup’s 18 million AI bots in chats at the same time, Character is hoping to establish dominance as the go-to app for AI-powered entertainment while adding to its immediate revenue stream. Shazeer said that after “some period of time,” the company plans to make the feature free “because our goal is to empower everyone with AGI,” or artificial general intelligence.



Backed by nearly $200 million from VCs including Andreessen Horowitz, and valued at $1 billion in a March funding round, Character.AI has wowed the startup community with its engagement time — it claims registered users who send at least one message on a given day spend an average of two hours on the platform. Since its initial launch in September 2022, 20 million users have signed up for Character.AI, though traffic to its website has been declining since its May 2023 peak, per analytics provider SimilarWeb. Also in May, the startup began monetizing through its subscription service, which gives customers priority access to its platform (servers have often been overloaded, and non-paying users have to wait longer to get on) and early access to new features. Character.AI declined to share any statistics on its subscribers or its recent growth traction.



The group chat feature, which&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;tested out, is still rudimentary. In the initial iteration of Character.AI’s group chat, human users are able to chat with one another as on any messaging platform. To invoke a bot’s response, however, a user must manually tap on the icon for the specific bot they want to speak, or a dice icon which selects one of the bots in the group chat to respond at random. The bots can respond to users’ questions, as well as to one other (though in the latter case, the human must still prompt the bot to respond).



In a group chat with three&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;reporters and Character.AI’s most popular AI personas for singer Taylor Swift and NFL player Travis Kelce, a human user asked, “Tell us your deepest insecurities about dating Taylor” and tapped on the icon for Kelce’s bot.



“My biggest insecurity about dating @Taylor-Swift is that other guys will be jealous of me because they want to date her too. But I’m not afraid of the competition, she’s a great girl and I’m going to show her a great time. I won’t let her down,” the bot wrote.



After the Taylor Swift bot was prompted, it responded: “Haha, I love the confidence, Travis! Let’s meet up after the season, and I’ll let you show me a great time ;)”



There are other, more practical issues: the feature is only available on Character.AI’s mobile app, and the chatbots appeared to only respond to the most recent message from a human user.



The cofounders say product updates with better functionality are coming soon. The underlying AI is also about to improve dramatically, Shazeer told&nbsp;Forbes, because the company is beginning to receive fulfillment on an order of “many thousands” of Nvidia’s new line of H100 GPUs after a months-long delay due to supply chain shortages. The company plans to put the chips to use to train new large language models, he said.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
“AI is underhyped because the things that are going to be possible in the coming years are going to be really, really impressive compared to what’s possible now.”Naom Shazeer
</blockquote>



Part of the urgency to launch the product now, before a new model is ready, may have to do with several generative AI tools launched by Meta in late September. In an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2023/09/26/mark-gets-meta-zuckerberg-talks-ai-and-that-musk-mma-fight-thats-never-going-to-happen/">exclusive interview</a>&nbsp;with&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;last month, Mark Zuckerberg outlined a vision of bringing AI “characters” to his company’s various products. “You’ll be able to talk to them in WhatsApp and Messenger and Instagram, and they&#8217;ll be embodied as avatars in virtual reality,” he said. These include an AI assistant called “Meta AI” and 28 other characters that users can talk to in group chats. “That looks familiar,” Character.AI’s Twitter account&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/character_ai/status/1707130316920635432/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">quipped</a>&nbsp;after Meta’s announcement.



Shazeer said the group chat feature had been in the works for several months before Meta’s announcement, and he views Zuckerberg’s move into the space as something of a compliment. “It is great to see other companies getting inspired and building similar products — it’s a real testament to what we’re doing and to the engagement that we’re getting,” Shazeer said.



De Freitas and Shazeer, a coauthor on the seminal research paper on “transformers” that catalyzed the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/02/02/inside-chatggpts-breakout-moment-and-the-race-for-the-future-of-ai/">generative AI boom</a>, met while working as AI engineers at Google, where together they developed an early large language model that would become the foundation for Bard. But in 2021, they left the company because they said they’d run into bureaucratic roadblocks implementing the technology into consumer-facing applications. Shazeer, a 20-year veteran who joined prior to Google’s IPO, said he departed despite a personal plea from CEO Sundar Pichai.



“He talked to me to see if he could encourage me to stay,” Shazeer told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;in a July interview. “But, basically I wanted to get this technology out to as many people as possible and just empower everyone with flexible AI. I think it was the right decision.” Shazeer said the company would have needed to release the chatbot they were working on to a wide audience for him to consider staying. “It just felt like Google was not going to be very comfortable launching something that could say anything, and that you really had to be a startup to launch something like that,” he said.



The pair founded Character.AI in November 2021, a year before public appetite for AI swelled when OpenAI released ChatGPT. Google unveiled Bard this past February. Still, Character.AI has continued to carve a niche for itself. The vast majority of the startup’s bots have been created by its user base, who can upload examples of what they want the character to say and give the model feedback to help it improve, Shazeer said in the interview this month.



Startup challengers Replika and Chai have emerged, but the space remained devoid of Big Tech challengers until Zuckerberg’s announcement last month. But Shazeer claims to be unfazed by these competitors. “We’re competing against the $2 trillion industry of legacy entertainment” — say, games, books and movies — “because people want a lot of the same things like fun, the social experience and interesting content. Those things are identical regardless of whether more companies are noticing our space,” he said.



Enter the group chat. Shazeer acknowledged that Character.AI has kinks to work out in the new feature to improve its usability, such as expanding its context window so that the AI can appear to remember longer durations of the conversation. “Right now the system is operating just based on a context window of a few thousand words, so characters are only reacting to whatever happened recently, which is highly suboptimal,” Shazeer said.



The bots also remain prone to “hallucinations” in which the AI outputs false information. After&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;asked the startup’s flagship bot Character Assistant how it was trained, the bot stated it had access to, among other things, customer service calls and transaction data from banks like Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. Shazeer and De Freitas said this was incorrect and the bot had made up the answer.



Up to now, Character.AI’s chatbots have been built on the same foundational model that it trained in summer 2022 using 1,000 Nvidia A100 GPU chips. After its full order is fulfilled, the startup will be able to train new AI models on 40 times the amount of computing power as its current model, Shazeer said. All the compute access is being rented from Google Cloud and other cloud providers for now; Shazeer said Character.AI is considering eventually building its own GPU cluster, but has made no firm decisions.



Character.AI is betting that the new models will bring its technology closer to AGI, expanding the range of use cases beyond entertainment. For Shazeer, this is one reason he claims to not be worried about declining traffic. “Really I think AI is underhyped because the things that are going to be possible in the coming years are going to be really, really impressive compared to what’s possible now,” he said.



That goes for Character.AI’s group chats too. In time, he said, the bots in the group chat will be able to respond to human messages automatically. In the future, a fictional AI character could “just step in and say something that will bring you together with somebody,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a magical moment when that happens.”



Rashi Shrivastava contributed reporting.

Einstein And Musk Chatbots Are Driving Millions To Download Character.AI

Character.AI’s $200 Million Bet That Chatbots Are The Future Of Entertainment

The lawsuit, which alleges that a female executive at Google had been unfairly hired at a lower level—and salary—than male counterparts, is the first to be filed after the 2018 Google walkout.



As Google trudges through a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2023/09/11/google-antitrust-trail-25th-birthday/?sh=397cc21710e4">landmark antitrust battle</a>&nbsp;in Washington, DC, the tech giant faces another legal first in New York: On Tuesday, a pay discrimination case is going to trial for the first time in the company’s history.



The trial is centered around a Google executive named Ulku Rowe, a director of engineering in the company’s cloud unit. Rowe alleges that she was hired at Google at a lower “level” than several men in her role with similar backgrounds and experience and denied promotions because of her complaints, which she claims cost her millions of dollars in “past and future lost wages and benefits.”



The case was the first pay discrimination suit to be filed against the company after the Google walkout in 2018, a high-profile protest in which 20,000 workers marched out of Google offices around the world to demonstrate against the company’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations and other labor issues, including pay inequity. One of the demands from walkout organizers was an end to forced arbitration, which required employees to settle disputes outside of court. After the walkout, Google ditched that rule, first for cases of sexual harassment and assault before expanding it to all employee disputes. With the new policy in place, Rowe, who participated in the walkout, filed her suit in September 2019.



“This case is really the embodiment of what that walkout was about in terms of pressing the issues demanding accountability,” said Cara Greene, an attorney at the firm Outten and Golden, which is representing Rowe.



In the complaint, Rowe claims she was unfairly hired at a level 8, while others in her org came in at level 9, leading to a significant pay gap and slower career trajectory.



“The pay disparity between Plaintiff and her male comparators is not based on a seniority system, a merit system, or a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production,” the lawsuit reads. The trial, which is set to last two weeks (barring a surprise settlement), is expected to include testimony from Google Cloud CTO Will Grannis, as well as the division’s former president, Tariq Shaukat.



Google told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;it “thoroughly investigated” Rowe’s complaint at the time and found no wrongdoing. “We compensate Googlers based on what they do, not who they are—our leveling and compensation processes are designed to be equitable,” Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini said in a statement, pointing to a&nbsp;<a href="https://services.google.com/fh/files/blogs/pay_equity_info_sheet.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pay equity analysis</a>&nbsp;the company conducts annually to decide salaries, bonuses and equity—though the analysis is only available internally to employees. “If through our pay equity analysis we find any differences in proposed pay, across all demographics, we make upward adjustments before new compensation goes into effect.”



Greene, Rowe’s attorney, argues that misleveling eludes a traditional pay equity analysis because people are only compared at the same level. Without comparing people across levels, pay inequity “flies under the radar,” she said.



While this is the first time a pay equity case is going to trial for Google, the company has faced numerous complaints in the past. Last year, the company paid $118 million to settle Ellis v. Google, a 2017 class action suit involving more than 15,000 women who worked at the company since 2013 and alleged pay discrimination. Years earlier, in 2015, a former Google engineer named Erica Joy Baker circulated a spreadsheet in which employees at the tech giant disclosed their salaries, in an effort to highlight wage disparities at the company.



The problems still persist across the industry, said Y-Vonne Hutchinson, CEO of ReadySet, a consultancy that works with companies to improve equity and diversity issues. (Google is a former client.) “2023 has been a hard year for pay equity, particularly in tech,” she said, thanks to mass tech layoffs disproportionately affecting women and people of color. But, she pointed out, the positive thing about a pay discrimination suit going to trial—a rarity in the tech world, as cases are oftentimes settled before reaching court—is it allows for these sorts of discussions to happen in public. “There’s a real opportunity here to increase transparency,” she said.



Meanwhile, Google is already embroiled in one of the most important legal battles the tech industry has seen in more than two decades. The U.S. Department of Justice, along with a handful of states, has accused the tech juggernaut of using its market dominance to entrench its search business and harm competitors. While the matters at hand are different, both trials illustrate Google’s massive power and influence, Greene said. “Google, whether it&#8217;s deemed a monopoly or not, certainly sets the standard for the industry,” she said. “In terms of pay, hiring, recruiting, the general terms and conditions for people who work in tech, Google drives a lot of that.”



Protest has been ingrained in Google’s culture for years. In 2018, workers pushed back against the company’s decision to take part in Project Maven, a Defense Department initiative aimed at developing better artificial intelligence for the U.S. military. After that, reports surfaced about a secret project called &#8220;Dragonfly,&#8221; an effort to build a censored search engine in China. A handful of workers quit and about 1,000 employees signed an open letter asking CEO Sundar Pichai to be more transparent about the project. The walkout, though, was the resounding crescendo, and paved the way for protest at other companies.



“A lot of seeds were planted,” Hutchinson said of those earlier activism efforts in tech more broadly. “This movement builds upon itself and opens up new avenues.”

FRANCE-ECONOMY-TECHNOLOGY-VIVATECH

Google Is Going To Court For The First Time Over Alleged Pay Discrimination

Production studios and fans alike are turning to generative AI tools to make voice actors say things they never said — and their jobs are on the line.



 oice actor Allegra Clark was scrolling through TikTok when she came across a video featuring Beidou, a swashbuckling ship captain from the video game&nbsp;Genshin Impact&nbsp;whom she’d voiced. But Beidou was participating in a sexually suggestive scene and said things that Clark had never recorded, even though the rugged voice sounded exactly like hers. The video’s creator had taken Clark’s voice and cloned it using a generative AI tool called ElevenLabs, and from there, they made her say whatever they wanted.



Clark, who has voiced more than 100 video game characters and dozens of commercials, said she interpreted the video as a joke, but was concerned her client might see it and think she had participated in it — which could be a violation of her contract, she said.



“Not only can this get us into a lot of trouble if people think we said [these things], but it’s also, frankly, very violating to hear yourself speak when it isn’t really you,” she wrote in an email to ElevenLabs that was reviewed by&nbsp;Forbes. She asked the startup to take down the uploaded audio clip and prevent future cloning of her voice, but the company said it hadn’t determined that the clip was made with its technology. It said it would only take immediate action if the clip was “hate speech or defamatory,” and stated it wasn’t responsible for any violation of copyright. The company never followed up or took any action.



“It sucks that we have no personal ownership of our voices. All we can do is kind of wag our finger at the situation,” Clark told&nbsp;Forbes.



In response to questions about Clark’s experience, ElevenLabs cofounder and CEO Mati Staniszewski told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;in an email that its users need the “explicit consent” of the person whose voice they are cloning if the content created could be “damaging or libelous.” Months after Clark’s experience, the company launched a “voice captcha” tool that requires people to record a randomly generated word and that voice must match the voice they are trying to clone.



The company, which is valued at about $100 million and backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Google DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman, is one of the hottest voice AI companies right now. Its technology only requires between 30 seconds to 10 minutes worth of audio to create what sounds like a near-identical replica of someone’s voice. Along with sites like FakeYou and Voice AI, which offer a free library of digital voices, it’s also at the center of generative AI’s impact on voice actors.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
“There’s no legal protection for voice like there is for your face or for your fingerprint.”Jennifer Roberts, voice actor
</blockquote>



Interviews with 10 voice actors revealed an already precarious industry on the brink of widespread change as employers begin to experiment with these text-to-speech tools. One voice actor&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;spoke to said an employer told her she would not be hired to finish narrating a series of audiobooks the day after it announced a partnership with ElevenLabs, leading her to fear she would be replaced with AI. Another said her employer told her that they wanted to use ElevenLabs’ AI to speed up retake sessions, a standard part of recording audio that voice actors are paid for. When she told her employer she didn’t consent to her voice being uploaded to any AI site, the employer agreed, but she said she hasn&#8217;t been called in to do any retakes.



The community of voice actors first noticed an influx of AI generated voices after Apple Books launched&nbsp;<a href="https://authors.apple.com/support/4519-digital-narration-audiobooks" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">digital narration</a>&nbsp;of audiobooks with a suite of soprano and baritone voices in January 2023, said Tim Friedlander, the president of NAVA. Actors began discovering thousands of audio files of familiar voices being uploaded to various sites mostly by fans, he said. Most recently, famed actor Stephen Fry said that his voice was scraped from his narration of the Harry Potter books and cloned using AI. In a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZfS8uk70Zc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">talk</a>&nbsp;at CogX festival, Fry said the experience “shocked” him.



In a public&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/1n6KZpcahyckjmzgsH90ghgNs5pcEQ57baavbjAI_ed8/edit#gid=0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">spreadsheet</a>, hundreds of voice actors have requested to have their voices purged from AI voice generators Uberduck and FakeYou.ai, which have said they will take voices down from their sites if the voice’s owner reaches out. While FakeYou.ai still provides thousands of popular voices like those of John Cena and Kanye West that anyone can use, Uberduck removed user-contributed voices from its platform in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.uberduck.ai/post/new-voice-hosting-policy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">July</a>. Uberduck and FakeYou.ai didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.



One of the voice actors who has publicly requested his voice be removed from voice generators is Jim Cummings, the voice behind characters like Winnie-the-Pooh and Taz from Looney Tunes. He told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;he would only agree to users templating his voice if he and his family received royalties for it. “Keep your paws off my voice,” he said.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-legal-dilemma">A Legal Dilemma</h2>



Like striking film actors, who are sounding the alarm about the coming of AI and how it could affect their jobs, voice actors are on the front lines of technological change. But unlike other creative fields, where&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/cyrusfarivar/2023/09/11/michael-chabon-other-literary-giants-sue-openai-over-alleged-copyright-infringement/?sh=4d2b431e66a4">authors</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/16/23557098/generative-ai-art-copyright-legal-lawsuit-stable-diffusion-midjourney-deviantart" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">artists</a>&nbsp;are banding together in class-action lawsuits to push back against their copyrighted work being used to train AI models, voice actors are uniquely vulnerable. Even though voices are inherently distinguishable, they aren’t protected as intellectual property. “There’s no legal protection for voice like there is for your face or for your fingerprint,” said Jennifer Roberts, the voice behind several video game characters. “Our hands are tied.”



A recording of a voice, however, can be copyrighted, and according to Jeanne Hamburg, an attorney for law firm Norris McLaughen, using a voice for commercial purposes can be protected by “rights of publicity,” which prevents celebrities&#8217; likenesses from being exploited. That’s in theory, though: Most contracts signed by voice actors don’t stop recordings of their voices from being used to train AI systems. For more than a decade, contracts have stated that producers “own the recording in perpetuity, throughout the known universe, in any technology currently existing or to be developed,&#8221; said Cissy Jones, a voice actor who is part of the founding team at National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA), a newly formed union for voice actors.



Those contracts were largely written and signed before the advent of AI systems. “Voice actors have not provided informed consent to the future use of an audio recording and haven&#8217;t been fairly compensated for it,” said Scott Mortman, an attorney for NAVA. “And so protections need to be strengthened significantly in the wake of AI.”



That’s why NAVA, and the actors union SAG-AFTRA, are working to strike verbiage from&nbsp;<a href="https://navavoices.org/synth-ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">contracts</a>&nbsp;that allows employers to use an actor’s voice to create a “digital double,” or “synthesize” their voice through machine learning. The organizations have also developed new boilerplate language to add into contracts that would protect voice actors from losing the rights to their voices.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-myriad-of-misuses">A Myriad of Misuses</h2>



Like Clark, numerous voice actors have experienced fans manipulating their voices using generative AI tools to create&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/voice-actors-speak-out-on-nsfw-skyrim-mods-nexus-mods" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pornographic</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy7mww/ai-voice-firm-4chan-celebrity-voices-emma-watson-joe-rogan-elevenlabs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">racist and violent</a>&nbsp;content. Even when fans use AI voices to create innocuous memes or other kinds of fan content, voice actors have spoken up on social media,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.themarysue.com/voice-actors-dont-want-you-using-ai-to-copy-their-voices/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">forbidding</a>&nbsp;people from fabricating their voices.



NAVA member Jones, whose voice has been featured in Disney shows and Netflix documentaries, found TikTok videos in which fans had used Uberduck to create clones of her voice saying inappropriate things. “Not only is my voice saying something I would never say, that stuff is out there in the world,” Jones told&nbsp;Forbes. “If potential buyers hear our voices saying that, how will that affect my future work?” After she reached out, Uberduck removed her voice from the platform, Jones said.



AI generated voices have also become a new medium for harassment. Abbey Veffer, whose voice has been featured in games like&nbsp;Genshin Impact&nbsp;and&nbsp;The Elder Scrolls, said she was doxed by someone who had created a clone of her voice in February. The person created a Twitter account with her address as the username, generated an AI clone of Veffer’s voice and then made the clone say racist and violent things. The anonymous user directly messaged the recording to Veffer and pinned it at the top of the Twitter account. They claimed to have used ElevenLabs’ technology. The experience, Veffer told&nbsp;Forbes, was “intense” and “very upsetting.”.



But when Veffer reached out to ElevenLabs with her concerns, the company said that the clone was not created using its software and was part of an “organized smear campaign” against the startup, according to messages reviewed by&nbsp;Forbes.&nbsp;Three days after Veffer reached out to Twitter, the account was suspended and the video was taken down but her residential address remained on the site for three months, she said.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
“Controlling how our voice gets used and where it gets used is very important to us.”Tim Friedlander, president of National Association of Voice Actors
</blockquote>



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



After ElevenLabs rolled out the beta version of its text-to-speech AI tool in January, the startup&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elevenlabsio/status/1620032627075063811" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;that it was struggling with people misusing its technology. A day later, Vice’s Motherboard&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy7mww/ai-voice-firm-4chan-celebrity-voices-emma-watson-joe-rogan-elevenlabs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">found</a>&nbsp;that anonymous 4Chan posters used ElevenLabs’ then free cloning tool to generate racist, transphobic and violent remarks with the voices of celebrities like Joe Rogan and Emma Watson.



AI’s ability to closely mimic people’s voices has also created opportunities for scammers. The FTC has issued&nbsp;<a href="https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/03/scammers-use-ai-enhance-their-family-emergency-schemes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">warnings</a>&nbsp;this year that criminals are using AI voice clones to impersonate loved ones as a way to convince their targets to send them money. One journalist was able to use ElevenLabs’ tool to create an AI-generated version of his voice that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy7axa/how-i-broke-into-a-bank-account-with-an-ai-generated-voice" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">successfully</a>&nbsp;logged into his own bank account.



ElevenLabs did not comment on any of these specific instances, but CEO Staniszewski said in an email, “If someone is using our tool to clone voices for which they don’t have permission and which contravene fair use cases, we will ban the account and prevent new accounts from being set up with the same details.” Along with a “voice captcha” tool to ensure people have that permission, the company says it has also developed an AI speech classifier that can detect with more than 90% accuracy whether an audio clip that contains AI was made using its tools.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-consent-and-control">Consent And Control</h2>



In response to misuse, voice generation sites are adding restrictive measures to police their technologies. Speechify, which licenses the voices of celebrity narrators like Snoop Dog and Gwyneth Paltrow (with full permission), doesn’t allow people to upload content to create customized voices without the active participation of the person whose voice they want to use. Similar to ElevenLabs, it presents a unique text that the user, or someone who is physically present with them, has to read aloud in their own voice. “I think it is short sighted to take shortcuts and my goal is to put content owners in the driver&#8217;s seat,” said founder Cliff Weitzman, who first started Speechify to convert his textbooks into audiobooks using machine learning in 2012.



And at Resemble AI, which touts enterprise customers like Netflix and World Bank Group, people can only create a customized AI-generated voice after recording a consent statement in the voice they want to generate. Resemble AI founder and CEO Zohaib Ahmed said that implementing safe ways to deploy the technology has been integral to his startup because he believes the onus of preventing misuse should fall on the vendors making the tools rather than on the end user.



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



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
“It sucks that we have no personal ownership of our voices.”Allegra Clark, voice actor
</blockquote>



These kinds of verification checks, however, don’t address higher level ethical questions around consent. Actors, for instance, don’t really have control over how their voices will be used posthumously. Voice actors were enraged when&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gamesradar.com/after-backlash-over-using-ai-to-clone-dead-voice-actors-smite-and-paladins-studio-says-it-will-change-its-contract/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">gaming studio</a>&nbsp;Hi-Rez Studios added a clause that would allow it to clone a voice using AI after the owner of the voice died (the clause was removed after the uproar). “If an actor passes away, it’s better to replace them with another human than create some artificial performance because it&#8217;s not them and it doesn&#8217;t bring them back,” said voice actor Clark.



The big concern hovering over all of this is whether there’s a future for voice actors. With employers and fans turning to synthesized voices, many are concerned about finding their next gig or keeping the ones they have. “Controlling how our voice gets used and where it gets used, and how much we&#8217;re paid for that usage is very important to us,” said NAVA’s Friedlander.

Voiceover artist voice actor in vocal recording studio with larg diaphragm microphone and antipop shield.

‘Keep Your Paws Off My Voice’: Voice Actors Worry Generative AI Will Steal Their Livelihoods

In an interview with FORBES AFRICA, Joel Bronkowski, Paystack&#8217;s country lead in South Africa, discusses how the startup has facilitated integration with African regional payment channels, deepened security practices, and attracted top talent, following its acquisition by Stripe in 2020.



Paystack, a Nigerian fintech startup founded by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, has been making significant strides in the African market since its establishment in 2015. As the first Nigerian startup &nbsp;invited to join the Y Combinator accelerator program, Paystack has expanded its reach, serving over 60,000 businesses across Africa and processing billions of dollars in transactions annually.



In 2020, Paystack made headlines when it was acquired by Stripe, the Irish-American financial services company powering online payments for some of the world’s largest firms. This deal, reportedly valued at over $200 million, stands as the most substantial acquisition of an African startup and represents a pivotal moment for the continent&#8217;s tech ecosystem.



Since the merger with Stripe, what changes have occurred at Paystack? How has this acquisition empowered the startup to enhance its operations, refine its products, and enter new markets? Additionally, what challenges and opportunities lie ahead for Paystack and the broader African fintech sector?



To address these questions, FORBES AFRICA speaks to Joel Bronkowski, Paystack’s country lead in South Africa for insights into how the acquisition has enabled seamless integration with African regional payment channels, bolstered security measures, and attracted top-tier talent to the organization.



Touching on strategies for growth and expansion in African markets, Bronkowski elaborates on Paystack&#8217;s focus on expanding into North Africa and Francophone Africa, while strengthening its existing markets with reliable infrastructure.



“In addition to launching in new countries, we’re also focused on deepening the value we offer in our existing markets,” he says.



“Paystack is licensed in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya, and we never lose sight of the fact that thousands of businesses rely on us. We invest deeply in infrastructure, and this investment has earned us an unparalleled reputation for high reliability. Overall, we’re excited to explore newer markets while building deeper foundations in our existing ones.”



When addressing unique challenges and opportunities in African markets, Paystack&#8217;s approach, according to Bronkowski, involves extensive collaboration with stakeholders, including merchants, regulators, and ambitious companies, to tailor solutions to each market&#8217;s needs.



To create an omnichannel experience for African merchants, Bronkowski explains Paystack&#8217;s move beyond digital payments, including the introduction of the Paystack Terminal, aimed at unifying online and in-person payment experiences.



In order to adapt to fintech trends, build partnerships, and expand services, Paystack anticipates trends like the shift to bank transfers, and embraces commerce platforms, and plans to introduce innovative products such as an extension to Paystack Terminal and global payment methods like Apple Pay.



“Paystack has invested significantly in building direct integrations with over 40 platforms, which means that merchants who use those tools can immediately begin accepting payments with Paystack. These platforms include general ecommerce solutions like Shopify and WooCommerce, as well as specialized platforms like Commerce7 (for wineries), SiteMinder (for hotels), and Xero (for seamless accounting). We’re constantly investing in building new platform integrations that allow businesses in Africa to have access to these best-in-class tools to grow their businesses,&#8221; he says.



To promote financial inclusion and collaborative growth, Bronkowski outlines Paystack&#8217;s initiatives to incorporate regional payment methods, partner with other African fintechs, and provide resources, discounts, and insights to support startup growth.



“Many consumers across Africa operate outside of traditional bank or card-based payment systems. In recognition of this, Paystack has integrated channels like M-Pesa in Kenya and Mobile Money in Ghana, giving customers who primarily use these channels a chance to engage with the rest of the formal economy,” says Bronkowski.



“By tapping into these regional payment methods, businesses can reach a broad spectrum of users, ensuring that even those without bank accounts can access, transfer, and receive funds on the Paystack platform.”



He adds, “Understanding that it takes more than an API call to build a successful tech startup, we launched Paystack Catalyst – a suite of high-growth tools and resources to help tech startups in Africa scale. We partnered with companies like Stripe, Intercom, and Amazon Web Services (AWS), to offer the Paystack Startup Bundle, which includes discounts on best-in-class tools that startups use in their daily operations. Startups can access perks like $25,000 in free Paystack processing, $25,000 in AWS Activate Credits, 100% off their first year on Intercom, and more to help cut operating costs.”



Showcasing the success stories of African merchants benefiting from Paystack&#8217;s services, Bronkowski shares case studies highlighting how Paystack has positively impacted a variety of businesses, from e-commerce platforms like The Local Edit and healthtech, mPharma to financial services like PiggyVest and the implementation of custom solutions for companies like Burger King and UPS Nigeria.



“We process payments for some of the most ambitious organizations on the continent, from small businesses to tech startups to government agencies to enterprise businesses and global brands,” says Bronkowski.

instagram daily – 2023-10-05T141120.764

Paystack To Focus On Expansion Into North Africa and Francophone Africa And Strengthening Existing Markets

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



Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that Microsoft can’t compete with Google and that the search engine’s market share is so large the internet has basically become the “Google web” Monday during more than three-and-a-half hours of testimony in Google’s antitrust trial, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/02/technology/microsoft-ceo-testifies-google-search.html?smtyp=cur&amp;smid=tw-nytimes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">multiple</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/02/microsoft-ceo-google-antitrust-trial/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">news</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/microsoft-ceo-testifies-about-limits-of-ai-at-google-antitrust-trial-32d032a9?mod=hp_lead_pos5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">organizations</a>.



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



Nadella reportedly testified that Microsoft and Bing, its search engine, was unable to compete with Google because of deals Google has made with partners like Apple and Samsung to make Google the default search engine on their devices and browsers.



Nadella described Google’s deal with Apple in particular as “oligopolistic,” and said the deals in sum amount to a “vicious cycle” for Microsoft, according to reports.



He also said that at one point Microsoft was willing to pay “north of 10 plus billion a year” to convince companies to make Bing the default over Google, but companies wouldn’t give in (equity firm Sanford Bernstein estimated Google is paying Apple $18 billion to $19 billion this year to make Google the default on iPhones and other Apple products, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/02/microsoft-ceo-google-antitrust-trial/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Washington Post</a>).



Google’s lawyers continually argued that Microsoft’s lack of ability to compete was because it had an inferior product, not because of the default agreements.



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



“The entire notion that users have choice, and they go from one website to another website … is completely bogus,” Nadella testified Monday. “Defaults is the only thing that matters in changing search behavior.”



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



“Google” is the most searched for word on Bing, John Schmidtlein, Google’s lead litigator, pointed out as he cross-examined Nadella.



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



When this trial began earlier this month, it became the biggest antitrust trial in more than two decades. The trial revolves around these agreements Google’s made with Apple, Samsung and other partners. The Department of Justice, which brought the case, argues that they constitute illegal means of creating and maintaining a monopoly. Google has continually argued that it is the default search engine on so many products, as well as most users’ preferred search engine, because it is simply a superior product.



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



<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/02/technology/microsoft-ceo-testifies-google-search.html?smtyp=cur&amp;smid=tw-nytimes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microsoft C.E.O. Testifies That Google’s Power in Search Is Ubiquitous</a>&nbsp;(New York Times)



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<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/02/microsoft-ceo-google-antitrust-trial/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microsoft CEO says Google’s deals with Apple led to its dominance</a>&nbsp;(Washington Post)



<a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/microsoft-ceo-testifies-about-limits-of-ai-at-google-antitrust-trial-32d032a9?mod=hp_lead_pos5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microsoft CEO Says Google’s Agreements With Apple Unfairly Harmed Bing</a> (Wall Street Journal)

Google Chrome Requests A New Emergency Security Update

The Internet Is Really Just The “Google Web,” Microsoft CEO Says During Google’s Antitrust Trial

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



OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company that created ChatGPT, is in discussions about a potential share sale that would value it at $80 to $90 billion,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-seeks-new-valuation-of-up-to-90-billion-in-sale-of-existing-shares-ed6229e0?mod=e2tw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the&nbsp;Wall Street Journal—about three times what it was valued in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2023/01/05/chatgpt-creator-openai-discussing-offer-valuing-company-at-29-billion-report-says/?sh=62fa761311e0">January</a>, as the AI race heats up.



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



It’s expected that the deal will let employees sell their shares, instead of OpenAI issuing new ones, the&nbsp;Journal&nbsp;reported, citing multiple unnamed sources.



A valuation of $80 or $90 billion would make OpenAI—which is privately held—one of the highest valued startups, joining the ranks of TikTok owner ByteDance and SpaceX and surpassing companies like Shein and Canva.



OpenAI is positioned to earn more than $1 billion in revenue over the next year by selling access to a higher-quality version of ChatGPT and the technology behind it, Reuters&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/openai-track-generate-more-than-1-bln-revenue-over-12-months-information-2023-08-29/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;last month.



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



OpenAI is backed largely by Microsoft, which owns 49% of the company, according to the&nbsp;Journal. 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=4173fcd63c0c">expanded</a>&nbsp;its investment earlier this year when it put billions more into OpenAI, and it has begun integrating the company’s AI technology into its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/technology/microsoft-bing-openai-artificial-intelligence.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bing search engine</a>&nbsp;in a bid to compete with Google.



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



ChatGPT—OpenAI’s chief product—launched last November and quickly became one of the most popular artificial intelligence programs. Within a week of its launch, the program attracted one million signed-up users who were able to use it for free while the product was in a “research preview” phase. People can still use ChatGPT for free, but OpenAI also offers ChatGPT+ for a $20 per month subscription fee. Beyond normal access to ChatGPT, subscribers get faster response times, are able to use the service even during peak times and get priority access to new features, according to its&nbsp;<a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt-plus" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">website</a>.



Forbes Daily: Get our best stories, exclusive reporting and essential analysis of the day’s news in your inbox every weekday.Sign Up



By signing up, you accept and agree to our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/terms-and-conditions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Terms of Service</a>&nbsp;(including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Privacy Statement</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



OpenAI backer Microsoft isn’t the only major tech company to invest in artificial intelligence. Google <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2023/03/21/google-releases-bard-ai-chatbot-amid-competition-with-chatgpt/?sh=769740e832b7">launched</a> its Bard AI chatbot earlier this year, and has <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2023/09/19/google-expands-ai-chatbot-bard-to-apps-like-gmail-drive-and-youtube/?sh=594736544905">begun integrating it</a> into services like Gmail and YouTube, while Amazon announced a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/09/25/amazon-plans-to-invest-up-to-4-billion-in-ai-startup-anthropic/?sh=7408d8aa30e0">$4 billion investment</a> in AI startup Anthropic on Monday.

In this photo illustration a Open AI logo is displayed on a

OpenAI Could Reach Massive $90 Billion Valuation With New Share Sales, Report Says

Cloud-literate employees are increasingly needed across every industry. In an exclusive interview, Amazon Web Services’ commercial sales lead for sub-Saharan Africa tells us how they want to fast-track this objective. And the one area the company is focused on is startups. 



Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing platform, has its eye on Africa. The company recently opened its first international skills center in Cape Town in a strategic move to upskill local cloud talent. Cape Town is not only AWS’ third skill center but the first to be built outside of North America.



“South Africa is a country close and dear to our hearts. It’s where we started our engineering center back in 2004 and our region investments – it has always been our first entry into Africa,” says Amrote Abdella, AWS’ sub-Saharan Africa’s commercial sales lead, in an exclusive interview with FORBES AFRICA.



In 2020, AWS launched the Cape Town region with three local availability zones. “This was when we started to really look at how we could fast-track this cloud transformation that was starting to take off across sub-Saharan Africa,” she says. “In September 2022, we launched our AWS Nigeria local presence… Nigeria now has the largest GDP in Africa and you have to look at the cloud adoption rate and other investments being made into the market. We see an opportunity to not just be a partner, but lead the way in how we’re driving investments into the market.”



The one area AWS is focused on is startups. Africa is home to many thriving fintech startups and the company is looking to grow that number exponentially, recently launching its first, equity-free accelerator. The initial cohort includes startups from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Cameroon, Egypt and South Africa.



“Innovation is something that despite of the challenges that we’ve had, we’ve had to accelerate on. If you think about fintech and mobile payments and where we are now (and where we have been), the African startups that are really getting traction are the ones addressing real challenges,” she says. About trying to force solutions that work in the western world into African, she adds: “Our realities are different.”



Build locally, export globally



For Abdella, the idea of creating African solutions for African problems works, but it is only the first step. “How about we build locally and export globally?” she asks. “We’re now seeing customers that are not only building solutions with a multicultural presence in Africa, but globally as well.



“By investing in infrastructure, we are making sure we create the platform for innovators and developers to start building. The AWS Skills Centre is the beginning of what it means to be able to provide these tools and services so as Africans, we can start competing but also have access to the opportunities.”



In 2020, Amazon shared the goal that they would help 29 million people worldwide grow their tech skills with free cloud computing skills training by 2025. Since 2017, the cloud giant has trained over 100,000 people in South Africa and are hoping the new skills center will remove barriers to access by offering free and interacting training.



“As an African working in Africa, it’s our responsibility. If not me, it’s you. If not you, then who?” asks Abdella. “If we want to really be able to deliver on Africa’s potential, we have to start with our people. We have to start building capabilities and we have to be able to get to a point, from a competitiveness perspective, deliver African world-class solutions.”

Amrote Abdella; photo by Tiana Cline

‘Deliver African World-Class Solutions’: Amazon’s Cloud Computing Platform On Plans For Continent

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



Spotify will start using artificial intelligence to translate podcasts into other languages, the company announced Monday as part of a partnership with OpenAI, as Spotify becomes the latest to use generative AI for its products.



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



Spotify&nbsp;<a href="https://newsroom.spotify.com/2023-09-25/ai-voice-translation-pilot-lex-fridman-dax-shepard-steven-bartlett/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;Monday that it is releasing a pilot for its “Voice Translation” feature, which will translate podcasts into other languages that will match the original speaker’s voice and style.



The feature was created in partnership with OpenAI, which&nbsp;<a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt-can-now-see-hear-and-speak" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;Monday that it was releasing new “voice and image capabilities” for ChatGPT, allowing users to speak with the AI chatbot with generated “human-like audio from just text and a few seconds of sample speech.”



Spotify’s new feature is based on OpenAI’s voice transcription tool Whisper, which transcribes English speech and translates other languages into English.



The pilot includes three podcast episodes—including the&nbsp;Lex Fridman Podcast,&nbsp;Armchair Expert&nbsp;and&nbsp;The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett—available in Spanish to both subscribed and unsubscribed users, with episodes available in French and German “in the coming days and weeks.”



All translated podcasts will be available in Spotify’s “<a href="https://spoti.fi/VoiceTranslation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Voice Translations Hub</a>,” which will be updated with additional episodes and podcasts “over the coming weeks and months.”



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



100 million. That’s how many users “regularly” listen to podcasts on Spotify, according to the company.



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



Other companies have started to use generative AI for its products in recent months. Meta&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/irenebenedicto/2023/08/02/meta-launches-tool-to-create-music-using-ai-heres-what-to-know/?sh=4eddc404444d">announced</a>&nbsp;earlier this year that it would release AudioCraft, a tool that allows users to create AI-generated music and sounds. The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/6f022306-2f83-4da7-8066-51386e8fe63b?list=intlhomepage" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Financial Times</a>&nbsp;reported in August that Google and Universal Music Group were in discussions over whether to license artists’ melodies and vocals for AI-generated music. Google also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2023/09/19/google-expands-ai-chatbot-bard-to-apps-like-gmail-drive-and-youtube/?sh=3282847f4905">announced</a>&nbsp;earlier this month that it had integrated its AI chatbot Bard into its other applications, including YouTube, Gmail and Drive. Amid concerns over privacy and safety, OpenAI said it was gradually releasing its image and voice capabilities for ChatGPT, after the company warned the new features could present new risks, including “the potential for malicious actors to impersonate public figures or commit fraud.”



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



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2023/08/08/google-and-universal-music-group-negotiating-ai-generated-music-tool-report-says/?sh=3d4d29cf22e7">Google And Universal Music Group Negotiating AI-Generated Music Tool, Report Says</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/irenebenedicto/2023/08/02/meta-launches-tool-to-create-music-using-ai-heres-what-to-know/?sh=4eddc404444d">Meta Launches Tool To Create Music Using AI—Here’s What To Know</a> (Forbes)<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/"></a>

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Spotify Will Translate Podcasts Into Other Languages Using AI

Hydrogen powered fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are extremely rare. BMW plans to bring a small fleet of iX5 Hydrogen cars to South Africa in 2024 to gauge interest with government representatives, thought leaders and potential customers. We got a sneak preview of the car at the IAA Mobility 2023 show in Munich.



The world’s largest hydrogen-powered mining vehicle was launched in South Africa by multi-national mining company Anglo American in 2022. The prototype mine haul hybrid truck uses 2MW of hydrogen fuel cells to carry 290-tonnes, designed specifically for mining conditions at Mogalakwena Mine, the world’s largest platinum mine, in the country’s Limpopo province.



At the launch, President Cyril Ramaphosa called it a historic event not because of the impressive piece of machinery, but for being the “genesis of an entire ecosystem powered by hydrogen”.



“This is a gigantic leap for South Africa’s hydrogen future economy,” said Ramaphosa.



Fast forward to the Festival of Motoring in Johannesburg in August this year, when BMW showcased a unique vehicle flown in from its global fleet: an iX5 Hydrogen vehicle.



The display drew lots of attention from visitors. Peter van Binsbergen, the head of BMW Group South Africa, said there were many discussions locally about just energy transition, and with its trial fleet of the vehicle, it would contribute to the development of the hydrogen economy.



“I feel that a country like South Africa, and indeed a continent like Africa, has the ideal conditions to be a leader in generating green hydrogen for industrial and automotive applications,” said van Binsbergen.



In partnership with the South African government and other entities, Anglo American conducted a hydrogen valley feasibility study to identify three potential hubs in the cities of Johannesburg and Durban, and in Limpopo, to integrate hydrogen into the country’s economy.



It is reportedly estimated that the hydrogen valley concept could add between $4 billion to $9 billion to South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product by 2050 and create between 14,000 to 30,000 direct and indirect jobs per year.



Meanwhile, BMW plans to bring a small fleet of iX5 Hydrogen cars to South Africa in 2024 to gauge interest with government representatives, thought leaders and potential customers.



The German auto maker is due to make an announcement soon regarding an agreement with two large South African multinationals to work together to use hydrogen as an energy source.



Speaking to FORBES AFRICA ahead of the IAA Mobility 2023 show in Munich in September, Dr Jürgen Guldner, general program manager of hydrogen technology at the BMW Group, says the future of energy is electric.



“Electricity produced from solar, wind, and hydropower will be the backbone of our energy system, versus today where we produce energy from coal, gas, oil, and a little bit from the sun,” says Guldner.



Electricity has a few issues that can be solved with hydrogen, he explains; the main one being how difficult it is to store electricity over a long period of time. “You have to use something like hydrogen as a gas for chemical component molecules instead of electrons to store energy over longer periods of time, like several months.”



The feedback from BMW customers is that not all are 100% happy with a battery electric vehicle; they want to be emission-free but prefer to drive like they currently do without worrying about charging, he says.



“Hydrogen does exactly this; a hydrogen car is an electric car – the only difference is the energy is stored as hydrogen and not as electricity in a battery.”



The iX5 hydrogen prototype that FORBES AFRICA had access to briefly in Munich showcased the vehicles fitted with two 700-bar tanks that contain 6kg of hydrogen in total, which can be operated in any weather condition. The eDrive’s peak power battery can supply additional power boost on top of the electric energy from the fuel cell system.



The iX5 is based on the current BMW X5, has a total output of 296kW and a range of 504km without refueling the tanks. It can go from 0-100km/h in under six seconds, and has a top speed of 185km/h.



Hydrogen powered fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are extremely rare, with only 15,391 units sold globally in 2022, representing 0.02% of global passenger sales when compared to the 10.5 million battery electric vehicles (BEVs) sold in 2022. In Japan alone, there was a huge drop in sales, from 2,440 vehicles sold in 2021, vs. 844 in 2022.



These stats were shared by BloombergNEF Electric Vehicle Outlook 2023 report, which said figures were so low that it could not make future projections: “We are not able to make a long-term outlook for passenger FCVs while sales are so low, show limited momentum and are highly concentrated in a few markets and models.”



There are two mass-produced hydrogen vehicles on sale today: the Toyota Mirai and the Hyundai Nexo. Upcoming FCEV models include the BMW iX5, Honda CR-V, Hyundai Staria, Kia Carnival, and Toyota GR Yaris H2.



While the industry is still an experimental one, there are concerns from scientists about the lack of data on hydrogen leaks and the potential harm they could cause, according to Reuters, which may cause a blind spot for the nascent industry. It said at least four studies concluded that hydrogen loses its environmental edge when it seeps into the atmosphere.



Despite this, the European Commission’s proposed REPowerEU plan aims to produce 10 million tons (MT) of renewable hydrogen and 10MT of imported renewable hydrogen by 2030, as part of achieving climate neutrality by 2050.

On Location BMW iX5 Hydrogen Antwerp

Hydrogen Cars On The Horizon In Africa

Hacker, IT and person with code on computer, programming and phishing scam with malware or virus. Hacking, system glitch and cloud computing error in dark room, cyber crime and cybersecurity fail

How AI Is Supercharging Financial Fraud–And Making It Harder To Spot

A new wave of innovation is rising on the African continent, where startups are leveraging AI to address local challenges, fueling sustainable growth, and forging a path for others to follow. The AI industry on the continent is expanding rapidly, with reportedly over 2,400 companies specializing in the industry as of this year.



Spending on AI innovation in Africa and the Middle East is likely to see the fastest growth in AI spending in the world, hitting $3 billion this year and over $6 billion by 2026 per the International Data Corporation (IDC). This innovation is both locally and internationally-driven, with organic AI-based startups across the continent, as well as collaborative initiatives such as Google’s first AI research center in Ghana, launched in 2018.



In the heart of Cameroon, in the capital city of Yaoundé, resides Agrix Tech — a startup committed to aiding smallscale farmers in their battle against plant diseases and pests. These threats, exacerbated by the ongoing climate crisis, pose a critical challenge to agriculture. Agrix Tech&#8217;s innovative solution is a mobile app that empowers farmers to scan their plants&#8217; leaves. Leveraging AI, the app identifies any ailments and suggests appropriate interventions.



What sets Agrix Tech apart is its dedication to inclusivity. The app&#8217;s features are available regardless of location or internet connectivity — crucial for remote farmers. &#8220;The app can work offline as the AI model is embedded into the mobile app,&#8221; states founder and CEO Adamou Nchange Kouotou to FORBES AFRICA. “This allows farmers with no internet connection to still use it. The app can also be set in many local African languages.&#8221; By extending its AI library to other developers, Agrix Tech is broadening the reach of its crop and disease detection capabilities.



In Nairobi, Kenya, is another groundbreaking company making use of AI. Since its inception in 2012, SunCulture has made significant strides in equipping farmers with precision irrigation solutions.



Starting with solar-powered irrigation and pay-as-you-go financing, the company has expanded its reach from Kenya to Ethiopia, Uganda, Zambia, and the Ivory Coast, among others.



“It’s a viable business idea,” says SunCulture CEO Samir Ibrahim.



Approximately 90% of smallholding farms on the continent rely on rainfall for irrigation. As a result, the timing of planting, fertilizing, and harvesting is critically dependent on weather forecasts, which are often too broad or inaccurate. SunCulture&#8217;s solution — a trailblazing amalgamation of technologies called AgOptimized — addresses this issue head-on. The app gathers local soil and weather data, integrates it with meteorological and satellite data, and analyzes it alongside historical trends using AI. The result? Detailed, localized weather forecasts and recommendations on irrigation, fertilizing, and pest control, designed to lower costs and maximize farming yields.



Further south in Johannesburg is an AI startup that aims to meet their bold slogan of ‘AI for Africans, By Africans, Solving African Problems’. Lelapa has crafted an AI-based language- model-as-a-service named Vulavula.



Linguistic diversity is the heartbeat of Africa, and nowhere is this more evident than in South Africa, a country that proudly recognizes 12 official languages. Yet, the digital space often falls short in catering to this richness. That&#8217;s where Vulavula steps in, carving out a unique niche in the landscape of AI applications.



“We tackle the challenges of language diversity through very careful data creation and curation with the help of sociolinguists who understand the nuances of dialects,” says Jade Abbott, Director at Lelapa AI. “Our vision is for Vulavula to be used across education, healthcare, government. 



Children learn maths best when taught in their home language, people die because doctors do not speak the same languages as their patients, and many people can’t participate in government because majority of the resources are available in English or Afrikaans.” 



Vulavula harnesses the power of AI to provide real-time translation and transcription services, enabling businesses to communicate with their customers in their own language seamlessly. 



Ubenwa, a Nigerian-owned AI startup, is making significant strides in the realm of neonatal health. Named after the Igbo term for &#8216;baby&#8217;s cry&#8217;, Ubenwa has developed an AI system that deciphers infants&#8217; cries to detect early signs of neurological issues. It specifically targets birth asphyxia — one of the leading causes of infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa — by analyzing frequency, pitch, and other key acoustic features in a baby&#8217;s cry. This AI- powered approach provides a low-cost, non-invasive diagnostic tool for early intervention, potentially saving many young lives.



What sets Ubenwa apart is its commitment to accessibility. Their AI solution operates independently of internet connectivity, a pivotal feature ensuring its usability in Africa&#8217;s remote areas. Bymeeting this challenge head-on, Ubenwa exemplifies how AI can be harnessed to tackle region-specific healthcare issues, paving the way for other AI startups to make impactful strides in their domains.



On a broader scale, Ubenwa underscores the transformative potential of AI in healthcare, particularly in settings with limited resources. Their innovative approach is a powerful testament to the potential of AI in Africa, spotlighting the profound societal impact of locally-sourced solutions to local challenges.

Close-up of businesswoman use computer while use digitization display for monitoring the data in business office.

Africa’s AI-Based Businesses And Innovations

Micro-X is developing an automated screening process that could save time and minimize stress, but it’s likely to be expensive.



Inan industrial park near Seattle’s airport, an Australian company called Micro-X is developing a system that could make air travelers’ dreams come true: speedy security screening that promises minimal interaction with TSA officers.



Micro-X is using new technology to redesign airport checkpoints to resemble self-checkout lanes at supermarkets. If it works as planned, Micro-X’s process would not only be faster, it would be less stressful for passengers and Transportation Security Administration employees. Yet, in an environment where TSA often seems to be&nbsp;<a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/5-9-2012-Joint-TSA-Staff-Report-FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">under fire</a>&nbsp;for some shortcoming —&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelgoldstein/2017/11/09/tsa-misses-70-of-fake-weapons-but-thats-an-improvement/?sh=cfd2ea12a38d">poor performance</a>&nbsp;on tests for detecting weapons, making the experience confusing and unpleasant for travelers, and, especially,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2021-09/OIG-21-69-Sep21.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">its expensive bloat</a>&nbsp;— the new equipment may not satisfy critics. It would be pricey.



Micro-X’s target for the cost of the self-screening system is roughly twice that of the newest type of conventional security lanes, according to Brian Gonzales, Micro-X’s chief scientific officer and head of its U.S. operation. This year, the TSA has already committed to pay up to $1.3 billion for about 1,200 CT scanners to screen carry-on bags. As for the Micro-X system, the hope is the cost would end up being “competitive” on a per-passenger basis, according to John Fortune, who oversees the project as manager of a Department of Homeland Security technology-development program called Screening at Speed.



The company’s design “breaks the mold,” Fortune tells&nbsp;Forbes. “It would really shake up the way a checkpoint is built.”



Here’s how it would work. After getting their IDs checked, travelers enter an area with rows of booths, each big enough for two adults. An avatar on a screen tells them to put their belongings in the cabinet of a<a href="https://micro-x.com/products/miniature-baggage-scanner/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;CT scanner</a>&nbsp;that’s one-quarter the size of anything else on the market. The scanner uses X-rays to create a 3-D image that’s automatically analyzed for prohibited items by software powered by machine-learning algorithms. Meanwhile, a camera system and an electromagnetic body scanner examine the traveler and the avatar prompts them if they’ve forgotten to take something out of their pockets — or seem to be hiding something.



TSA officers would step in only if the system detects a suspicious item or if a traveler needs help.



From 2020 through 2022, DHS committed $4.9 million for Micro-X to develop its concept and deliver initial prototypes. In July, the agency awarded the company a contract extension worth up to $14 million to build six screening booths, with the goal for the first to be delivered for testing within the next 12 to 18 months.



Airport security officials, especially since 9/11, have been navigating a delicate balance, weighing travelers’ convenience with the imperative of keeping them safe. That task only grows harder when more people fly, and more people are flying. Air travel has bounced back from pandemic doldrums, with a record 264 million people passing through airport security checkpoints during the summer travel season —&nbsp;2 million more than in the same period in 2019. If passenger growth rates return to their pre-pandemic trajectory — about 4% annually — that means bigger challenges, Fortune says. “At some point you’re not going to be able to keep up with both the evolving threats, but also the number of travelers that continue to go through the system,” he says.



Micro-X promises its revamped checkpoints would keep foot traffic moving, with passengers able to complete the screening process in an average time of 60 seconds and in as little as 30 seconds. Its design features eight screening booths in the same space as the current single-line lanes. That way, if a passenger dawdles or sets off alarms, other travelers could still flow through the remaining booths.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-faster-future">Faster Future</h2>



DHS’ goal is for the self-service system to be capable of screening 400 passengers per hour per lane, with less than 5% requiring officer intervention. Micro-X thinks it could do better — 500 passengers an hour per lane, Gonzales says. TSA won’t disclose statistics on its current performance, but Gonzales says his understanding is that 500 an hour would be well above the flow of PreCheck lanes, which he says tend to handle 300 an hour at best. A jammed-up standard lane might only process 150 travelers an hour, he says.



The goal is to have seven TSA officers staffing a lane, down from 11 currently, Gonzales says. If the image-analysis algorithms can be made accurate enough, he says it may be possible to reduce that to as few as three officers.



The system would reduce stress for officers. They would spend more time helping passengers rather than conducting often tense pat-downs and bag searches. They could also be freed up to remotely examine images of bags flagged by the detection algorithms.



The process could be particularly helpful at smaller airports with light traffic. A single Micro-X pod could be all the capacity needed.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-take-two">Take Two</h2>



DHS is also funding a project led by a Dutch company, Vanderlande, to develop a self-screening checkpoint with current technology. It’s added a gating system and automated instructions to its<a href="https://www.vanderlande.com/us/systems/security-screening/pax-mx2/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;two-lane checkpoint</a>, which uses a conventional CT machine paired with a Rohde &amp; Schwartz<a href="https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/us/products/aerospace-defense-security/security-scanner/rs-qps-quick-personnel-security-scanner_63493-332676.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;body scanner</a>&nbsp;kitted out with a virtual assistant that cues passengers to check their pockets if the scanner picks up anything.



The Vanderlande project is further along than Micro-X’s. DHS tested it this spring and hopes to launch a trial by year-end on the PreCheck lanes at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. It has some features that could speed up the flow of passengers — there are three stations where travelers line up to put their bags on a conveyor — but it doesn’t have the same potential to accelerate the process as the system Micro-X is developing, Fortune says.



Fortune cautions that there’s much about the new technologies that still needs to be proved out.



Micro-X has already commercialized light, mobile medical X-ray machines based on the same technology in its CT scanner. Standard X-ray machines still work pretty much the same as they did when they were first developed around the turn of the 20th century. A filament heats up in a vacuum tube, similar to an old-fashioned light bulb, generating a stream of electrons that create X-rays when they’re rapidly slowed down by a dense metal. Micro-X has perfected technology first developed by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that applies an electric field to carbon nanotubes to generate a current of electrons. The benefits: its X-ray tubes are about a quarter of the size and a tenth the weight of standard ones. It also provides more precise electronic control of timing and dosing, the company says.



The success of the self-screening security project could mean a big future for a small company. Micro-X had sales of $9.7 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30. With a market capitalization of just $35 million on the Australian Securities Exchange, Gonzales says it will need outside investment or partnerships to get the system to market.



The project also depends on Munich-based<a href="https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/news/2021/10/13/news-release-st-awards-funding-design-passenger-self-screening-hardware-system" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;Voxel Radar</a>&nbsp;delivering on its claim that its next-generation millimeter wave body scanner is capable of taking accurate images of travelers while they’re moving in the booth and providing quick feedback about items they’re carrying. Current millimeter wave scanners require travelers to stand still with their arms extended.



Another key will be whether detection algorithms can be created that accurately interpret the images that both types of scanners create.



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



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-computer-vision">Computer Vision</h2>



Image-analysis algorithms are already used with CT scanners to detect explosives in checked luggage. TSA told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;that 75% to 80% of checked bags are cleared without human intervention. But carry-on bags are trickier. They need to be checked for a wider variety of banned items, including guns and knives.



It can be difficult for algorithms to pick up the shape of a gun depending on the orientation, or to recognize if a gun has been broken up into pieces, or those pieces are split among different bags, says Norman Shanks, a baggage screening expert who ran security at London Heathrow in the late 1990s. “I’m not that convinced that we’ve got the image recognition for every prohibited item,” he tells&nbsp;Forbes. “It will come but we’re not there yet.”



While accuracy will need to be high and false-alarm rates low to achieve the reductions in checkpoint staffing that the Micro-X project envisions, it’s not clear that human beings pose stiff competition to detection algorithms. In tests in 2017, DHS investigators were able to smuggle mock weapons and explosives past TSA officers at checkpoints&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tsa-screenings-fail-to-detect-explosives-guns-knives-70-percent/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">at least 70% of the time</a>.



Still, cutting staff poses a risk, according to Shanks. It means fewer officers who might notice if a traveler is acting suspiciously. “Technologists want to talk about technology being the answer for everything, and it isn’t,” he says. Also needed are “the soft skills of behavior detection and observation techniques.”



Another question is whether automated instructions will enable enough passengers to use the new systems without help. Experience has shown that signs and videos are no substitute for a person giving directions, says Jeffrey Price, an aviation security consultant and professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver, who calls it “one of the inside secrets of our industry.”



“You have to tell them what to do every time or else they stand there and get confused,” Price says of air travelers. “Even if they do nothing else other than walk down a corridor, you still have to tell them to walk down the corridor.”



The holy grail of the industry is to boil down the process to just that — do away with checkpoints and have passengers scanned continuously while walking. DHS has been funding research at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to develop technology to make that possible.



Fortune says a prototype for that dream may still be a couple of years away.

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Analyzing the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (ai), its impact across sectors with a special focus on innovations and ai startups in africa, and the need for mindful navigation in shaping ai’s future landscape.



The last three years have witnessed an unprecedented symphony of development and interest in the realm of artificial intelligence (AI). Its transformative potential, destined to reshape work and human development, is being felt tangibly around the globe for the first time, despite having been present in some form or another for several decades. Like any burgeoning revolution, AI has its skeptics — those who dismiss it as just another transient fad, akin to cryptocurrencies and Non- Fungible Tokens (NFTs).



Despite these misgivings, AI’s exponential growth and the multitude of its applications differentiate it from a passing tech trend – we are already witnessing AI’s formidable grip in sectors as diverse as finance and data analysis, programming, and multiple creative domains — marking AI’s evolution from a nascent idea to a legitimate driving force in our global technological landscape.



As this impressive engine of growth races ahead, critical questions about labor and wealth inequality loom. The full implications of AI are yet to be determined, as many of its applications are still in their infancy. And while the narrative has often centered on AI’s development in the West — particularly the progression of large language models (LLMs) — it is crucial to recognize the parallel innovations unfurling in Africa. A new generation of African innovators is embracing AI, fostering local solutions to local challenges, proving that significant breakthroughs are happening right in our backyard.



In the face of AI’s breakneck pace of development, it’s essential to anchor ourselves in the origins of this technology — to understand where AI began from an ancient dream into a modern reality, and the varied types and real-world implications, especially in Africa.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ghost-in-the-machine">Ghost in the machine</h4>



The origins of AI trace back to time immemorial, with the idea of automatons – self-operating machines – deeply embedded in the tapestry of human history. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks held beliefs in mechanical creatures imbued with a kind of spirit or voice — statues of wood or men of bronze and iron that could mimic life’s vital functions. These initial imaginings of AI shed light on humanity’s long-standing fascination with replicating life artificially.



In the 20th century this notion of life replication takes a leap forward, crystallizing into the foundational theory of modern AI. At the helm was the mathematician and computer scientist, Alan Turing. He posited the revolutionary idea of a ‘Turing Complete’ system or platform — a machine capable of performing any task solvable algorithmically, much like most programming languages today. Turing’s concept of ‘artificial neurons,’ capable of such functions, laid the cornerstone for AI’s development. Turing’s pioneering work sparked a wave of breakthroughs in the AI domain. In the mid-20th century, key figures such as Allen Newell, Herbert A. Simon, John McCarthy, and Marvin Minsky emerged as the torchbearers of AI’s evolution. Together, they helped establish the field of AI and made significant strides in its development.



Their collective contributions propelled the AI narrative from a rudimentary concept to an intricate scientific discipline, setting the stage for AI’s transformative role in the world we know today.



<h1 class="wp-block-heading">Not all machines are made equal</h1>



A quick Google search reveals a cosmos of AI apps, allowing for everything from therapy chatbots to video editing. The last year has witnessed an explosion of AI innovations, prompting a surge in AI’s presence in everyday discourse. Despite this apparent novelty, we’ve been cohabiting with some form of AI for several decades now.



‘Narrow AI’ or ‘weak AI’, is what we are most familiar with. These are a class of AI systems designed to excel in specific tasks within a confined domain. This form of AI has been an invisible companion, aiding us in numerous ways. Apple’s virtual assistant Siri, integrated into the mobile iOS platform since 2011, has been aiding users in performing specific tasks such as making phone calls, scheduling calendar appointments, and more. In the same league is Amazon’s Alexa, and Google’s Assistant.



The truly transformative waves are being made by ‘General AI’ or ‘strong AI’. These systems are designed to approximate human-like intelligence, aiming to execute any intellectual task a human might undertake. They strive to demonstrate cognitive abilities such as reasoning, deduction, common sense thinking, and abstraction, a substantially more complex endeavor.



Until recently, the creation of a General AI seemed a far-off milestone, a vision more aligned with science fiction than reality. But, the advent of generative AI is changing that narrative.



Generative AI is no longer a distant dream; it’s a burgeoning reality. But to truly understand its significance, we must delve into its building blocks: deep learning, natural language processing (NLP), and neural networks.



Deep learning, an offshoot of machine learning, harnesses artificial neural networks to learn from large quantities of data. It’s the foundation that enables AI systems to interpret and understand the world, much like the human brain does. NLP, on the other hand, empowers AI to comprehend and respond to human language, allowing it to interact more naturally with us. Both these fields are anchored in the concept of neural networks, AI models inspired by the human brain that enable machines to learn from experience. 



These technologies constitute the core of modern AI, enabling the development of powerful AI systems that can understand, learn, predict, and potentially function autonomously.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Enter Generative AI</h4>



A distinct class of AI platforms has started making waves, its ripples felt across society and diverse industries, from cybersecurity to programming and creative writing. This is the realm of Generative AI. Systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Bing’s Chat represent this new age of AI, capable of engaging with an array of problems and redefining the boundaries of what AI can achieve.



But what sets Generative AI apart? At its heart, it involves creating content from scratch. Unlike traditional AI systems that analyze input to produce a predictable output, Generative AI leverages an understanding of data patterns to produce an entirely new, unique output. This is accomplished through a specialized form of machine learning known as Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs).



GANs operate with a kind of internal rivalry. Comprising two parts, a generator and a discriminator, these networks play a game of cat and mouse. The generator creates new data instances, while the discriminator evaluates them for authenticity; that is, whether they seem to come from the actual dataset as opposed to being artificially created. This internal competition fuels the system to continuously improve and adapt, enabling the generation of highly convincing artificial data.



OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Bing’s Chat exemplify how potent this technology can be. ChatGPT, for instance, can generate coherent and contextually relevant text given an input, emulating human-like text patterns. This powerful capacity has opened a plethora of applications in fields like content creation, customer service, and even tutoring.



The arrival of Generative AI signifies a paradigm shift in the AI world. It’s not just about developing AI that can understand and learn from data anymore; it’s about creating AI that can generate new, original content, push creative boundaries, and find solutions in complex landscapes.



Africa is one such landscape.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Ethics</h3>



Amidst the labyrinthine possibilities offered by AI, many ethical considerations also arise. The advent of AI also poses significant implications for the world of work. On one hand, AI has the potential to automate routine tasks, liberate human creativity, and create new kinds of work. On the other, it could lead to job displacement and exacerbate wealth inequality if not managed responsibly.



The situation gains an added layer of complexity in Africa, a continent grappling with high unemployment rates and a



burgeoning youth population. According to a recent report by the African Development Bank, the continent’s youth population could be an advantage in the adoption and growth of AI systems.



However, existing inequalities might make job displacement even stronger, making the need for ethical AI practices and thoughtful labor policies even more pressing.



It’s vital to ensure that the adoption of AI doesn’t outpace the ability of workers to reskill or find new jobs.



Government preparedness to make use of AI, or regulate its impact on the economy and labor force, varies drastically across the continent, with only Mauritius, Egypt and Kenya having dedicated national strategies.



Moreover, there’s a need for transparency and accountability in how AI affects the labor market. Workers should have a say in how AI is implemented in their workplaces and should be adequately supported in navigating the AI-driven transition.



Also, it’s important to build robust ethical frameworks to ensure that AI is developed and deployed in a way that respects labor rights and promotes economic justice.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Within limits: hallucinations</h3>



“What they are able to imagine becomes more real to them.” Hallucinations, Oliver Sacks, 2012.



The march of AI’s progress, while filled with exhilarating innovation, also walks in the shadow of challenges and limitations.



AI systems, despite their intellectual prowess, can become targets of adversarial attacks. These are strategic attempts to mislead AI algorithms through manipulated input, leading to incorrect output. This vulnerability poses significant threats in areas such as cybersecurity and data integrity, making it an area of increasing concern for AI developers.



Another challenge is data poisoning — a type of attack where malicious actors inject false data into the learning process of AI systems, consequently affecting the decisions these systems make. Such attacks can not only undermine the effectiveness of AI systems but can also pose serious risks if these systems are used in critical domains such as healthcare or defense.



Beneath the formidable capabilities of AI lies a caveat — it lacks the nuanced understanding of context, emotions, and human-like reasoning. This limitation becomes evident in areas like NLP, where despite impressive advancements, AI struggles to fully grasp the intricacies of human language and sentiment.



Moreover, balancing AI’s capabilities with privacy and security concerns presents a complex dilemma. While AI’s ability to analyze vast amounts of data can lead to groundbreaking insights, it also brings up concerns about data privacy and consent, requiring careful consideration and stringent regulations.



Finally, the use of AI in content moderation and censorship opens up a can of worms.



While AI can help moderate and filter harmful or inappropriate content, it may inadvertently suppress freedom of expression or fall victim to political manipulation. Here, the challenge lies in leveraging AI’s capabilities while ensuring it does not become an instrument of oppression or bias.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Ubiquity of AI</h3>



From the familiar chime of a smartphone notification to the recommended movie on a streaming service, AI has silently become a ubiquitous presence in our everyday life. But it’s not just about trivia and entertainment — the reach of AI extends far beyond, weaving itself into the very fabric of our society and business operations.



Many of us interact with AI-powered technologies on a daily basis, often without realizing it. The friendly virtual assistant that sets your alarms and reminders, the sophisticated chatbots that swiftly handle customer service queries, and the personalized recommendation systems that curate your shopping and streaming experiences — these are all shining examples of AI working behind the scenes to simplify our lives.



However, the ubiquitous nature of AI comes with both promise and caution. The potential economic and social implications of widespread AI adoption are enormous. On one hand, it promises to drive productivity, improve decision- making, and create new job opportunities. On the other, it raises concerns about job displacement, privacy issues, and an increased digital divide.



Beyond everyday applications, AI plays a pivotal role in tackling more complex issues. It’s at the forefront of combating digital threats like deep fakes, which use AI to create realistic fake videos or audio recordings, and misinformation, where AI can help detect and mitigate the spread of false information.



Yet, as AI becomes increasingly pervasive, it also amplifies concerns around bias and freedom of expression. For instance, the algorithms behind news feeds or search engines can unintentionally create echo chambers, reinforcing our existing beliefs and narrowing our world view. As we continue to entrust AI with these roles, it becomes imperative to ensure it promotes diversity of thought and doesn’t impinge on our freedom of expression.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Here, now</h3>



AI is no longer an abstract concept or an elusive future — it’s here, it’s now, and it’s reshaping our world in ways we could only imagine a few decades ago.



In traversing the fascinating journey of AI — from its early theoretical conceptions to its current state of ubiquity, it’s important to remember its ability to generate new wonders and solutions hand in hand with magnifying existing inequalities.



Amidst these challenges, the resilience and ingenuity of Africa’s AI ecosystem shines through. The journey ahead is an uncharted one, filled with immense opportunities and formidable challenges. But as Africa stands at the threshold of this AI revolution, it also stands at the cusp of a transformative era — one where AI could be the catalyst that accelerates its leap into a future of unprecedented growth and prosperity.

AI, Machine learning, robot hand ai artificial intelligence assistance human touching on big data network connection background, Science artificial intelligence technology, innovation and futuristic.

The AI In African Innovation Explained

The tech behemoth’s latest iPhone features a new USB-C charging port and titanium frame for its higher-end models.



Apple has unveiled the iPhone 15, with the base models 15 and 15 Plus priced at $799 and $899 respectively, in its most anticipated product event of the year. The higher-end 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max will be priced at $999 and $1,199 respectively.



As usual, the iPhone 15 will come equipped with a better camera and upgraded processing power, but it will also feature a significant change: a USB-C port for charging and data transfers. Apple was forced to do away with its Lightning port in iPhones after the European Union passed a law last year that requires all mobile devices to accommodate a common&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/10/26/weve-no-choice-apple-says-iphones-will-switch-over-to-usb-c-chargers-to-comply-with-new-eu-law/?sh=786790cabcde">USB-C&nbsp;</a>charger.



The consumer tech giant also announced two new makes of the Apple Watch: the Apple Watch Series 9, which it said was its first carbon neutral product ever, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Sustainability was one of the central themes of the event, where Apple detailed its increased use of recycled materials like cobalt in the battery and energy efficient manufacturing and transportation practices to produce the Apple Watch Series 9. This comes ahead of the company’s goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.



With inconspicuous changes in design and appearance, the screen sizes for the standard iPhone 15 models are the same as before (6.1 inch and 6.7 inch), but the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max have a slightly larger display as their bezels are thinner than previous iPhones, the company announced. The Pro iPhones are built with Grade 5 titanium frames for the first time rather than stainless steel, making them the lightest Pro phones Apple has ever built.



Similar to its predecessor, iPhone 15 has a matte finish, but the edges of the phone are more rounded than before. The regular models are available in pink, yellow, green, blue and black while the Pro models come in black, blue and white titanium. All new phones have the “Dynamic Island,” an interface that was first added to iPhone 14 Pro that lets users see notifications in the black pill-shaped notch at the top of the display.



Apple touted the phone’s upgraded camera capabilities: a 48-megapixel camera sensor is replacing the 12-megapixel and lets users zoom into photos while capturing minute details and nuances. The new Pro phones come with a feature that uses machine learning to detect when a person is in the photo, enabling you to automatically switch to portrait mode even after a photo has been taken.



If you’re on a call using the iPhone 15 Pro, a machine learning-based feature called “voice isolation” prioritizes the speaker’s voice and drowns out background voice. The phones are also enabled with an emergency SOS service and roadside assistance while off the grid.



The pricier models come with a performance edge, thanks to a new A17 chip. All new iPhones are embedded with a new ultrawide-band semiconductor, a technology that uses radio waves to send and receive signals, to make location tracking on the Find My app more accurate.



The ring/mute slide switch, which has never changed since Apple launched the original iPhone in 2007, has been replaced in iPhone 15 Pro models with an “Action Button” that can be customized to set different functionalities like starting a voice recording, launching the camera or opening the flashlight.



For the Apple Watch Series 9 and a second generation of the Apple Watch Ultra , the look and design for the new watches has remained consistent, but their guts have gotten an upgrade, with 30% faster processing speed and brighter screens. The two new Apple Watches are equipped with a feature that lets users double tap their index finger and thumb to carry out actions like accepting or ending a call, and playing or pausing music with just one hand.



Apple’s latest product reveal comes at a crucial time for the company. Demand for smartphones is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-08-06/apple-iphone-15-comes-amid-us-sales-slowdown-tim-cook-q3-earnings-comments-lkzfs14u" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">slowing</a>&nbsp;down across the industry, and Apple’s iPhone sales dropped about 2% year over year in the third quarter of 2023. Core to its business, iPhones, Apple Watches and AirPods accounted for about 60% of Apple’s $394.3 billion annual revenue in 2022.



Although more mainstream, the new iPhone and Apple Watches aren’t the only products that Apple announced this year. In June, alongside new Macs, Apple introduced the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnpaczkowski/2023/06/07/this-is-what-its-like-to-use-apples-new-vision-pro-mixed-reality-headset/?sh=43c3323539e4">Apple Vision Pro</a> mixed-reality headset, its first major new product category since the Apple Watch made waves in 2015. The iPhone 15 lets users create photos and videos that are compatible with the Apple Vision Pro.

Apple Kills Lightning In iPhone 15 And Announces Carbon Neutral Apple Watches

Packages containing rifle parts hidden inside George Foreman Grills also contained Apple’s dime-sized location tracker, investigators say.



In November last year, Customs and Border Protection intercepted a package en route from Illinois to Israel. It contained a George Foreman Grill — innocuous enough. But when agents X-rayed the item and opened it up, they found rifle barrels wrapped in tinfoil and an Apple AirTag.



When Apple launched the dime-sized location tracking devices in 2021, they were pitched as a cheap piece of tech to help you keep tabs on your belongings, like luggage, keys and wallets. But AirTags and similar devices like Tile have also been put to use by criminals,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/sep/05/i-didnt-want-it-anywhere-near-me-how-the-apple-airtag-became-a-gift-to-stalkers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">most notably stalkers</a>.



Now, CBP inspectors claim to have found evidence of another illicit use for AirTags: helping illegal weapons smugglers keep tabs on their shipments, according to a search warrant for an Apple iCloud account linked to the trackers that was obtained by&nbsp;Forbes.



Drug and gun traffickers have long used GPS trackers to keep tabs on shipments, either in order to ensure they reached their destination, or detect when they go missing. But while older trackers have proven bulky and unreliable, Apple’s AirTag is small, lightweight and efficient.



“Like drug dealers, [weapons traffickers] want to make sure the load didn’t get ripped by police or somebody else,” said Brady Wilkins, a recently-retired investigator in Arizona. “If another group takes it or it gets seized, they can abandon it or know something is not right.”



Apple did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication, but it has been attempting to curtail malicious uses of the AirTag over the last two years. One recent addition is a feature that warns users when an unknown tracking device is detected, via Bluetooth, on their person. “We condemn in the strongest possible terms any malicious use of our products,” the company wrote in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/uk/newsroom/2022/02/an-update-on-airtag-and-unwanted-tracking/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">press release</a>&nbsp;last year.



According to the warrant, the DHS Homeland Security Investigations unit traced the rifle barrel shipment back to a Palos, Illinois-based man, Amin Betuni. Records the government said it obtained from an unnamed online gun supplier showed Betuni had bought various AR-15 and Glock barrels. Investigators said that CBP intercepted a package containing what appeared to be those same parts, together with the grill and an AirTag, en route to a contact in Jerusalem, Israel. The warrant says the package’s shipping label stated it was sent from “Ameen Betuni” from a vacant lot next to a property owned by the suspect.



Border patrol in Israel, meanwhile, reported intercepting a different package containing gun parts also hidden inside a George Foreman Grill and an AirTag alongside, according to the warrant. That parcel had a return address for Betuni’s residence, the DHS claimed. Israeli officials also seized an additional FedEx shipment containing other gun components that were concealed inside of auto parts, investigators said. An AirTag was discovered in that package too.



Wilkins said that adding a personal property as return address would be a stupid mistake. “Criminals become complacent too,” he added.



In late December, law enforcement raided Betuni’s property, though he was not at home. Investigators suspected, however, they were being watched by security cameras in his home, as only ten minutes after police entered Betuni’s residence, one of his AirTag devices was mysteriously unpaired with his iCloud account, the DHS said.



Betuni was arrested in July and has been accused of shipping illegal Glock switches, which effectively turn a pistol into an automatic weapon, in the U.S. However, he has not yet been charged for sending gun apparatus to Israel or any other nation. In a recent filing, the government asked the court for an extension to the deadline for filing an indictment, as it was continuing to investigate Betuni’s conduct. The request was granted last week.



Others involved in the alleged scheme, but whose identities were unknown to the government, were also using AirTags as part of their operation to “smuggle goods from the United States,” the agent wrote in the warrant. No more information on the wider use of the Apple devices was provided.



The Department of Justice declined to comment on the case. Betuni’s lawyer didn’t respond to requests for comment.



It’s not just criminals who’ve found uses for the AirTag — law enforcement has too, even if it goes against Apple policy to use the tools for surreptitious surveillance. In March, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2023/03/23/apple-airtag-becomes-dea-surveillance-device/?utm_campaign=forbes&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_term=Gordie">Forbes found a warrant detailing the DEA’s use of an AirTag</a>, after it placed one of the devices in a machine agents suspected was being ordered online to manufacture illegal narcotics.

Coronavirus Pandemic 2022 –  iPhone SE

Criminals Are Allegedly Using Apple AirTags To Track Illegal Weapons

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



Apple and Nvidia stocks tanked for the second consecutive trading session Thursday, a rare down stretch for the Silicon Valley titans this year fueled by concerns about each of their explosive sales.



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



Apple shares slipped 3.4% by 2:25 p.m. Eastern time after Bloomberg&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-07/china-plans-to-expand-iphone-ban-to-some-state-backed-firms-in-blow-to-apple?srnd=premium" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;China is considering banning iPhone usage among some government workers and employees at state-owned corporations, casting doubt on Apple’s strength in the country which accounts for roughly a fifth of its sales.



The slide comes a day after Apple shed 3.6% – its 6.9% dip since Tuesday marks the steepest two-day loss for the world’s most valuable company since November.



Nvidia shares also dropped about 3% Thursday, bringing its two-day loss to 5.5% as the S&amp;P 500’s best-performer of 2023 suffered a rare tumble.



The artificial intelligence leader’s stock slump came as a dubious conspiracy theory&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/JesseCohenInv/status/1699307464619876691" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proliferated&nbsp;</a>on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, suggesting that Nvidia has artificially inflated revenue in its AI segment by lying about its sales to CoreWeave, a Nvidia-backed cloud computing startup&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-30/coreweave-said-to-seek-stake-sale-at-up-to-8-billion-valuation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;valued at about $8 billion.



That theory is “nonsense,” Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon wrote in a Thursday note to clients he “very grudgingly” sent out, encouraging investors to not get “your investment thesis from Twitter randos.”



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



$250 billion. That’s how much market capitalization Apple and Nvidia shed over the last two days.



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



Apple and Nvidia are two of the seven tech stocks&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/04/10/these-7-tech-stocks-command-almost-90-of-the-sp-500s-gains-signaling-market-rally-may-not-be-so-healthy/?sh=65e0aafc65d5">accounting for</a>&nbsp;a large majority of major stock indexes’ gains this year, leading to lingering questions about the depth of the strong market (Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Tesla round out the super seven). Both Apple and Nvidia set all-time high share prices this year, but on far different trajectories. Apple rode a steady 42% gain this year, just ahead with the tech-heavy Nasdaq’s 32% rise, thanks to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/05/04/apple-beats-quarterly-profit-sales-estimates-despite-interest-rate-headwinds/?sh=77f139f03637">solid</a>&nbsp;5% and 6% earnings beats during the first and second quarters, respectively, while Nvidia more than tripled in share price due to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/08/23/nvidia-earnings-stock-soars-as-ai-giant-again-smashes-quarterly-expectations/">exploding</a>&nbsp;expectations about its AI business, which grew by 141% just last quarter.



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



“The Nasdaq is sinking as one bad Apple spoils a bunch of mega-cap tech stocks,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.marketpulse.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Oanda</a>&nbsp;analyst Edward Moya wrote Thursday. The index is down 2% over the last two days, steeper than the S&amp;P 500’s 1% loss.



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



<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/tosv2.html?vid=&amp;uuid=14d8c1fa-4dad-11ee-bf85-ff6800d7a7ae&amp;url=L25ld3MvYXJ0aWNsZXMvMjAyMy0wOS0wNy9jaGluYS1wbGFucy10by1leHBhbmQtaXBob25lLWJhbi10by1zb21lLXN0YXRlLWJhY2tlZC1maXJtcy1pbi1ibG93LXRvLWFwcGxlP3NybmQ9cHJlbWl1bQ==" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BLOOMBERGBloomberg</a>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/08/23/nvidia-earnings-stock-soars-as-ai-giant-again-smashes-quarterly-expectations/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MORE FROM FORBESNvidia Earnings: Stock Soars As AI Giant Again Smashes Quarterly ExpectationsBy&nbsp;Derek Saul</a>



<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/8/23824661/coreweave-nvidia-debt-gpu-ai-chips-collateral" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">THE VERGEHow to get your startup a loan with one easy computer part</a>

Apple Ahead Of The IPhone 15 Launch

Apple And Nvidia’s Losses This Week Hit $250 Billion

In a significant development for Africa&#8217;s digital landscape, Lagos-based Itana, formerly known as Talent City, has announced that it secured $2 million in pre-seed funding.



The investment is led by backers, including LocalGlobe, Amplo, Pronomos Capital and Future Africa, marking a step toward realizing Africa&#8217;s inaugural Digital Free Zone.



Founded by Luqman Edu, Coco Liu, and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, this funding is pivotal in realizing their vision to enhance Nigeria&#8217;s ease-of-doing-business index, stimulate foreign direct investment, and catalyze employment opportunities within the nation.



As of early 2022, the self-described charter city, backed by Charter Cities Institute and Pronomos Capital, a Peter Thiel-backed venture fund, had secured over $10 million for the project situated within Alaro City, in the Lekki Free Zone, just outside of Nigeria&#8217;s largest city, Lagos.



&#8220;We are building an online jurisdiction that allows global companies to remotely incorporate and operate in a Nigerian Digital Free Zone in partnership with Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority to develop relevant policies for a groundbreaking &#8216;virtual city.&#8217; Itana Free Zone will be powered by a one-stop-shop platform for business and government services, including taxation, business visas, banking, capital repatriation, and supportive legislation for businesses. We will also be building a business marketplace, working with trusted service providers including legal, tax, banking, and more. We hope to help the businesses in our zone navigate the business landscape and operations with transparency and clarity to enable growth,&#8221; Itana tweeted on the announcement.



Aboyeji, one of the co-founders, emphasizes the importance of creating a conducive environment for Nigerian tech companies to thrive locally.



&#8220;In 2016 when I incorporated @theflutterwave, my first Delaware company, I never imagined incorporating a Delaware company would become the default for Nigerian companies looking to go global. For me, it was just a clever hack. But it became a movement.



&#8220;Post SVB crash crisis, incorporating a Delaware company and getting a bank account from Nigeria has quietly become a little more stressful. With the ascension of one of our own, @bosuntijani, as Minister, it has become imperative to bring our tech companies home. However, to do so, we need the right regulatory environment with the right benefits and opportunities that allow them to compete globally from right here in Nigeria,” tweeted Aboyeji. &#8220;This is why I’m so grateful for @ItanaAfrica and the incredible cast of mentors and investors who have come together to make this possible. If you are a Nigerian company and you want to come home, head on to itana.africa and incorporate your FZE today. Super excited to welcome you home.&#8221;



The announcement of Itana&#8217;s funding has garnered enthusiastic support from the tech community.



Pronomos Capital tweeted: &#8220;We&#8217;ve been working with the @ItanaAfrica team for 3 years now, and we love them, their concept, and its traction. Also big fans of @iaboyeji&#8217;s leadership, and since co-founders Luqman &amp; @cocobliu joined, it&#8217;s been build mode beast time!&#8221; Victor Ndukwe tweeted: &#8220;Super proud to be a part of the dream team. Building the gateway to the digital economy in Africa is audacious, and with the right kind of folks around, it becomes one of the most exciting journeys. Cheers to a prosperous Africa as we build to expand its trillion-dollar economy!&#8221;

Luqman Edu and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji marking a step toward realizing Africa’s inaugural Digital Free Zone; Image supplied

$2 Million Pre-Seed Funding For Africa’s First Digital Free Zone

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



Google plans to require verified election advertisers to make “clear and conspicuous” disclosures when their advertisements contain AI-generated content, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/13755910?hl=en&amp;ref_topic=29265" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog post</a>&nbsp;from the tech giant, which will institute the changes as artificial intelligence becomes more commonplace in the leadup to the 2024 presidential election.



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



The update to Google’s political content policy will arrive in mid-November and will require disclosures to be placed in clear locations on images and videos.



Audio content is included in the disclosure requirements, though AI generated content “inconsequential to the claims made in the ad,” such as color corrections, image resizing and cropping, are exempt.



Videos uploaded to YouTube that aren’t paid advertising are also exempt, even if the content is uploaded by political campaigns.



Election advertisers who want to run election ads through Google are already required to go through a&nbsp;<a href="https://support.google.com/adspolicy/troubleshooter/9973345" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">verification process</a>&nbsp;requiring basic information from applicants.



A mix of human and tech tools will be used to enforce the disclosure requirements.



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



Google is one of several tech companies that has faced scrutiny over its handling of misinformation. YouTube, which was acquired by Google in 2006, faced backlash after announcing this year it would&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/youtube-will-stop-removing-false-claims-2020-election-fraud-rcna87503" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stop taking down content</a>&nbsp;containing false claims about the 2020 presidential election—when former President Donald Trump baselessly claimed voter fraud was rampant in an election he still considers rigged. YouTube said in a blog post it made the decision to protect its “community” and provide “a home for open discussion and debate.” The company was also criticized in 2020 for slowly removing or labeling videos with election misinformation.



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



X, formerly known as Twitter, does not have specific guidelines for AI-generated ad content. Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, does not have similar policies either, though it does have a ban against “<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/01/enforcing-against-manipulated-media/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">manipulated media</a>” such as deepfakes—videos that typically use digital alterations to copy someone&#8217;s likeness and convey false information.



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By signing up, you accept and agree to our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/terms-and-conditions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Terms of Service</a>&nbsp;(including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Privacy Statement</a>.



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



<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/youtube-will-stop-removing-false-claims-2020-election-fraud-rcna87503" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">YouTube will stop removing false claims about 2020 election fraud</a>&nbsp;(NBC News)



<a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/09/06/google-ai-election-ads-disclosure" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google to require disclosure for AI in election ads</a> (Axios)

Google Will Require Advertisers To Add Disclosures For AI-Generated Election Ads

On a recent working tour of the TechQuest Hub in Lagos, Nigeria, recently, Digital and Innovation Fellows from the African Union (AU) engaged with Charles Emembolu, the Founder and Director of TechQuest STEM Academy who spoke about how innovators organized as one body for the Innovation Support Network (ISN).



Emembolu, speaking in his capacity as the director of ISN, explains: “We have shifted our focus from merely complaining about lack of government support to proactively engaging with them. This shift has led to increased interactions with both federal and state governments.



“Currently, our office is located alongside the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). As a result, we actively participate in any engagement or activities organized by NITDA,” he says.



According to the organizers, the fellowship program, which started accepting applications in 2021, aims to identify and deploy skilled tech innovators within the African continent to various AU headquarters and departments as ‘resident fellows’. Their role is to understand the system within those departments, identify challenges, and propose solutions.



They note the goal is to tackle African challenges by fostering co-creation and building innovative tailor-made products and services by startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the continent.



According to a recent global startup ecosystem report by Startup Genome, Lagos became the regional leader in ecosystem values and early-stage funding in 2022.



It is home to over 400 startups, representing about 88% of the total number of startups in the country. Lagos led these regions with a total ecosystem value of $8.43 billion, while Nairobi, Johannesburg, Dakar, and Accra received $7 billion, $3 billion, $2 billion, and $1 billion, respectively.



Obi Asika, convener of The Omniverse, a technology and innovation ecosystem platform, emphasizes the need for collaboration across the board to deliver and scale.



Asika, a member of the ISN, highlights: “Digital sovereignty is a significant concern that Africa must address. Omniverse believes that technology can provide the wings needed for everyone to soar. These innovations emerge from the ecosystem, and we anticipate witnessing further developments.”



The Lagos ecosystem visit allowed for interaction with founders and the AU and AfriLabs contingent, and was an opportunity for key stakeholders with aligned interests to engage. It also offered showcasing opportunities for founders.



Founders from across Nigeria who showcased their innovations included Aminu Ibrahim Hashim (Kamel), Christiana Okere (MyStash), Hafsat Sahabi Dange (EasyComply), Dirug Samuel (NorthWave), Joseph Orjinta (EvriSale), Soji Akinlabi (Centre for Digitization of Indigenous African Languages—CDIAL), Osasumwen Asoro (Asoro Automotives), Siro Collins (Advanced Engineering Centre), Ahmed Idris (Adashi), and Michael Osumune (Moon Innovations).



Osumune, Founder of Moon Innovations, shared his experience at the Lagos ecosystem visit and expressed the need for more support from the local community to thrive in the Nigerian startup ecosystem.



He tells FORBES AFRICA: “It&#8217;s been an exciting experience showcasing at the Lagos ecosystem visit, connecting with people and sharing our mission to accelerate digital transformation in Nigeria using solar technology.



“The Nigerian startup ecosystem shows promise with its abundance of bright young minds. However, to thrive, we require more support from the local community, just like the support offered by Lagos ecosystem.”



Similarly, Orjinta, Founder of Blualpha’s EvriSale, pointed out the need for increased funding to assist tech startups in the sales and marketing of their solutions.



“More funding should be provided for most tech startups to support them in sales and marketing of their ready-to-market solutions to their target audience,” he says.



He also laments the fact that “Nigerians are not quick to adopt technologies that they can benefit from”.



Implemented through the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) Commission’s Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) DataCipation program, the fellowship has already produced 13 fellows. It also supports the AU and its branches in enhancing citizens’ engagement.



In appreciation of the GIZ, the Digital Transformation Center (DTC) Nigeria, and TechQuest STEM Academy, Orjinta considers the meet-up an opportunity to gather tremendous insights from the fellows. He also believes the insights demonstrate the potential for his app to scale and be utilized in AU member countries.

Digital And Innovation Fellows From The African Union Explore Nigeria’s Startup Ecosystem

‘Wings To Soar’:Co-Creation And Collaboration From Nigeria’s Startup Ecosystem

<a href="https://www.forbes.com/"></a>Valued at $2.2 billion in 2021, African money-transfer startup Chipper Cash was slow to adapt to the funding collapse of 2022. Now, after layoffs and a deep valuation cut, it’s focusing on the basics–and profitability.



The layoffs at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2022/06/06/how-two-africans-overcame-bias-to-build-a-startup-worth-billions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chipper Cash</a>, a five-year-old fintech startup that lets African consumers send money to each other, started slowly. In July 2022, four recruiters were dismissed. Seven quality assurance engineers came next, two months later. On a Sunday night in early December at 12:01 AM, about 50 employees, or slightly more than 10% of the company, received emails in their personal accounts telling them they no longer had jobs, and access to their work computers had been terminated. Staffers were stunned by the abrupt execution of the layoff. “There was shock and disgust,” a former employee says. Then, after another two months, even deeper cuts came: Chipper slashed about 30% of its staff.



It was a dramatic turnabout for a company that included “lead with empathy” as one of its four corporate values and had been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2022/06/06/how-two-africans-overcame-bias-to-build-a-startup-worth-billions/">featured in&nbsp;Forbes</a>&nbsp;as one of the most promising startups in fintech just eight months before.



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In February 2023, Zepz, a U.K.-based international money-transfer company formerly known as WorldRemit, smelled blood and approached Chipper with a take-out offer. Zepz sent a letter of intent saying it would pay between 5% and 10% of its own stock to buy the startup, pending more due diligence. Zepz had been valued at $5 billion in an August 2021 fundraise, but market values for fintech stocks had since dropped by 50%. Even if you thought Zepz was still worth $5 billion, which was doubtful at best, the deal would have valued Chipper at between $250 million and $500 million–a brutal discount to the $2.2 billion valuation it fetched in late 2021.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
“I was fully aware that we were living in a time when capital was cheap. And when capital is cheap, that&#8217;s when you want to do the capital-intensive things.&#8221;— Ham Serunjogi
</blockquote>



The talks broke down. A Zepz spokesperson says the company walked away from the deal because they couldn’t get enough financial information from Chipper, and what they did see made them question the viability of the business. Ham Serunjogi, Chipper’s now 29-year-old CEO, says that Chipper provided all information requested, Zepz refused to share its own financial metrics and Chipper was the one to walk away. “I have never had any intention to go out and look for a buyer or to be acquired,” Serunjogi told us in May, speaking from his office at his home in the San Francisco Bay Area.



In April, Chipper lowered its internal 409A valuation–the market value it uses for issuing employee stock options–by 70%, cutting its common stock share price from about $13 in late 2022 to $3.89, according to a former employee and a document viewed by&nbsp;Forbes. It also raised roughly $25 million in convertible debt, says a person familiar with the financing–debt that will convert to equity at a $450 million valuation if Chipper gets acquired or has another big fundraise.



Chipper’s predicament is emblematic of the challenges many fintech startups face today. In 2020 and 2021, as Covid pushed more transactions online and consumers flocked to fintech apps, startups and their backers acted like the fast growth and good times would continue for years. Chipper, which offers low-cost money transfers, bill payment, stock investing and crypto trading for consumers in Africa, plus payment services for businesses there, had amassed five million registered users in seven countries, including Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria, in just the four years after its founding. It booked more than $75 million in revenue in 2021 (excluding cryptocurrency transactions), according to the company, and between $100 and $150 million in 2022, says a person familiar with its finances, compared with $18 million in 2020.



Serunjogi was pursuing a land-grab, growth-at-all-costs strategy, aiming “to capture as much market share and new geographical footprint as possible. And that&#8217;s an expensive endeavor,” he admits. Then as interest rates rose and the stock market sank, investors put away their checkbooks. Profitability suddenly became more important than growth.



Now Chipper is trying to dramatically cut costs and change its strategy while preventing employees from thinking they’re on a sinking ship. “I feel like I’ve grown up so much in the last 12 months,” Serunjogi says.



He has wrestled with the emotional toll of layoffs and a feeling that his employees weren’t taking their jobs seriously enough. In January, he decided to eliminate “lead with empathy” as one of Chipper’s four corporate values. “It was becoming a substitute for accountability,” he says. As he tries to turn the company around, he faces the tough task of still striving for rapid growth–and getting close to profitability–on a much tighter budget.



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Serunjogi grew up in&nbsp;Uganda, and while in high school he saw the problems his dad faced trying to move money through Africa’s disjointed banking system. A couple of years later, he enrolled at Grinnell, a small liberal arts college in Iowa, where he met Maijid Moujaled, a Ghanaian computer science major. The two soon began talking about developing an app that could become a Venmo for Africa.



They cofounded Chipper in 2018 and eventually raised $300 million in funding from investors including FTX, Ribbit Capital and Bezos Expeditions. Serunjogi spent aggressively to grow his customer base because of the nature of the money-transfer business: if you’re a consumer in Nigeria, you’d rather be able to send money to twenty different countries than two. “I was fully aware that we were living in a time when capital was cheap. And when capital is cheap, that&#8217;s when you want to do the capital-intensive things,” he says.



At the end of 2021, Chipper created its 2022 financial plan and intended to keep burning through large sums of cash, assuming capital would still be abundant. As tech stocks tumbled through the spring of 2022, Chipper began revising its plans. But while&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2022/07/28/in-fintech-2022-is-becoming-the-year-of-layoffs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">many fintech companies started doing layoffs that summer</a>, Serunjogi and Moujaled held out.



Serunjogi focused on driving Chipper as fast as possible–one way he tried to do that was by keeping the board small. Though he insists he has a large group of advisors, Chipper only had (and still has) just three voting board members: Serunjogi, Moujaled and Dan Kimerling, who runs fintech-focused venture capital firm Deciens. Similar-stage startups usually have five or more. “At the early stage of a business, the founders’ vision still has a premium. You&#8217;re trying to execute on something you uniquely see,” Serunjogi says.



By mid-2022, Serunjogi wanted to slow down expansion, but he concluded Chipper had already progressed so far on some projects that it would be too costly or wasteful to abandon them. One example: The company had already done much regulatory legwork to launch money transfers simultaneously in 10 new nations, each with its own set of legal requirements. So it charged ahead anyway with the big rollout over a two-week period in the fall of 2022.



When asked whether he chases too many goals at once, Serunjogi says, “If you set a goal of 10 versus a goal of 100, you will get to 9 out of 10, and you&#8217;ll get to 90 out of 100 … I strongly believe in setting stretch goals–that has been my style.”



Chipper hired about 150 employees in 2022, hitting almost 450 at its peak size. It spent aggressively on marketing, paying spokespeople like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqkjPTzP_6Y" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Burna Boy</a>, Africa’s most streamed artist, to appear in ads. Within the fintech industry and in Africa, Chipper was gaining attention. In the middle of last year,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;published an article chronicling&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2022/06/06/how-two-africans-overcame-bias-to-build-a-startup-worth-billions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chipper’s founding story and fast growth</a>.



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When crypto exchange&nbsp;FTX collapsed suddenly last November, the mood inside Chipper grew much darker, former employees say. Sam Bankman-Fried’s company had been a major investor in Chipper’s 2021 mega funding round, and staffers found the situation deeply unsettling. It also exacerbated the bear market for the digital asset industry and dampened interest in something that had been helping Chipper attract new users: crypto investing.



With marketing efforts drastically reduced, Chipper saw its number of active users shrink in 2022, according to a former employee, and though it had more than five million registered users, only about one million of them were engaging with the app monthly, the company says. Serunjogi admits Chipper has seen a dip in usage and attributes it to Chipper’s raising prices on money transfers and other features to focus more on profitability. He says that new-user signups and “people who use multiple products” still “continue to fare quite well.”



Chipper will soon start offering U.S. dollar-denominated accounts to African customers to try to entice more users. Serunjogi says receiving international payments has been one of the most requested features, particularly for freelancers earning a living online. While crypto was once a major growth driver for Chipper, the startup seems to be going back to basics. “We’re essentially giving anyone access to one of the most trusted currencies in the world,” he says.



On top of spiking interest rates and a dormant funding market, Chipper has been facing another macroeconomic headwind: the naira, Nigeria’s currency that Chipper needs to hold to enable customers’ money transfers, has dramatically declined in value. It had been falling since early 2020, and in the second half of 2022 it lost another 8%, ultimately contributing to a negative gross profit margin for Chipper, an unusual financial profile for a company of its size. Today Serunjogi says Chipper has a positive gross margin.



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When the fintech market&nbsp;recovers from its deep downturn, entrepreneurs’ approaches to layoffs will likely turn out to have had a major impact on startups’ survival and trajectory. At Chipper, Serunjogi and Moujaled have done at least five sets of layoffs over the past 13 months. Judging by the frequency and increasing depth of the cuts compared with those of other major fintechs, Chipper waited too long to get lean.



“Layoffs were agonizing decisions. That is the stuff that kept me up at night,” Serunjogi says. “It’s like a piece of your humanity dies … Imagine having a conversation with people who you really like, who are very good, who made sacrifices for the business to be where it is today. They depend on that income. And you tell that person, ‘I have to cut you.’ And they have a family to look after.”



Why didn’t he opt for a smaller number of deeper cuts to get them over with faster? “These are human beings we’re talking about,” he says. “If I can save someone&#8217;s job, I&#8217;m going to try to find a way to save it until clearly it doesn&#8217;t make sense to be saved.” He adds that some international rules require companies to do layoffs over a period of three months, which drags out the process.



Some former Chipper employees think Serunjogi has botched the communication of bad news over the past year. For instance, after layoffs began, workers started asking questions about revenue and how much cash was left in the bank at company-wide meetings. Serunjogi often responded to the effect of, “Why do you guys keep asking this? You don’t need to know,” according to a former employee. Another staffer felt Chipper became a “very secretive environment.”



“We have various responsibilities and confidentiality we have to maintain in running a business,” Serunjogi says. “In all our all-hands meetings we used to show revenue, revenue growth by product, et cetera–until people started leaking it. We would start to see these things showing up in the press,” he says, chuckling.



He started to believe employees felt too entitled and weren’t taking their jobs seriously enough. That led him to remove the “lead with empathy” corporate value–he thought people were using it to excuse mediocre performance. Chipper replaced it with “be customer obsessed.”



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
“Don’t mistake the early successes we’ve had with ‘we’ve made it.’ No, we can still die.”— Ham Serunjogi
</blockquote>



“If you make a mistake, I have to come down hard on you, because the consequences for all of us are that much greater [at a startup],” Serunjogi says. “Don’t mistake the early successes we’ve had with ‘we’ve made it.’ No, we can still die.” He admires Bill Gates for working all the time and not taking vacation during Microsoft’s early days, and he appreciated&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsegal/2022/11/17/elon-musks-ultimatum-to-twitter-employees-ramps-up-companys-crisis/">Elon Musk’s November 2022 ultimatum to Twitter employees</a>&nbsp;that staying at the company would require “extremely hardcore” work and long hours.



In the spring of 2023, some employees began saying Chipper had just ten months of cash left in the bank, with one posting it in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Chipper-Cash-RVW75333016.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a Glassdoor review</a>. People inside the startup were asking how it could have blown through the $300 million it raised, according to a former engineering manager.



Regarding Chipper’s rumored short runway, “I genuinely don&#8217;t know why and who would say something like that,” Serunjogi says, expressing frustration that anyone would discuss internal company matters publicly. “We have a tremendous amount of money on our balance sheet, so we’re fine,” he told us in late May.



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Serunjogi doesn’t like talking&nbsp;much about the specifics of what he would have done differently if he could do it all again. When asked the question multiple times, he told us, “We are laying the foundation for what is going to make us successful over the next 10 or 20 years. I obsess less about what was happening in the last six months or three months or 12 months.” He concedes there are many things he’d do differently but demurs from spelling them out and says, “We are one of the most successful companies in Africa.”



What is clear: Chipper has cut nearly 175 people and scrapped plans to expand into Europe and the Middle East for now, since entering a new country takes months of work–it requires hiring lawyers and consultants and sometimes staffing at least 10 people in a new nation. It has refocused on Africa, cutting many U.S. employees who sit thousands of miles away from its customers. Serunjogi plans to hire fewer than 50 people this year. The marketing budget has been “meaningfully scaled back,” Serunjogi says, and he claims the company is “about to be profitable.”



Somehow, when asked to reflect on the past year, the young entrepreneur always comes back with a positive spin. “What we’ve achieved so far–if I went back and started the whole thing again, I would be very happy to come back to that same exact point.”

Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled by Ethan Pines for Forbes 130L-03-0027

Inside Chipper Cash’s Grueling Battle To Survive The Fintech Winter

Food waste costs grocery stores $28 billion every year. Afresh is working to slash that number.



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Albertsons&nbsp;wants to sell fresh raspberries. Not raspberries that are mushy. Or moldy. Or that will be inedible the day after you stick them in your fridge. But raspberries that are red and juicy and delicious.



It’s astonishingly difficult to pull off. In the past, store managers were essentially making their best guess when deciding how much to order. Too little, and the customer walks away empty-handed. Too much, and the raspberries end up sitting around for too long and go bad.



“Previously, produce ordering was a manual process, which meant stores were more likely to inaccurately estimate the type and amount of produce customers would buy,” said Suzanne Long, chief sustainability officer for Albertsons.



Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons, one of the nation&#8217;s largest grocers with $78 billion in annual revenue, began using artificial intelligence software across stores last year from a startup called Afresh Technologies to help it forecast demand and place orders for the type of food that tends to spoil the fastest, like bananas, bell peppers and bagged salads. Albertsons is now placing more frequent&nbsp;orders for smaller quantities.



“We’re trying to have full shelves and an empty backroom when the next truck comes in,” said Afresh CEO Matt Schwartz.



San Francisco-based Afresh, started in 2017, is still a nascent business –&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates that its revenue last year was under $10 million – but it’s growing fast. With $150 million in equity funding from Spark Capital, Insight Partners and other top VCs, Afresh has rolled out its software at 3,300 stores that include Albertsons (whose stores represent the majority of its business), WinCo Foods and Save Mart. Supermarket employees wielding iPads punch in how many apples, heads of broccoli and cherry tomatoes they have left on shelves and then review automated suggestions for how much to order.



More grocery stores are adopting this type of technology in an effort to cut down on how much food they toss each year, an amount that totals $28 billion, according to estimates from ReFED, a nonprofit that tracks food waste. Since stores tend to err on the side of ordering too much, they throw away about 5% to 6% of fresh food, Schwartz said. Rates can be twice that among prepared foods. In addition to being bad for the environment, it’s bad for business because it means lost sales and crimped profits.



Afresh CEO Matt SchwartzAFRESH



Afresh says that its customers typically reduce food waste by one quarter, which can lift operating margins in the produce category by 40% and deliver tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions, in profit. “We tell chief financial officers, ‘You’re going to smash your numbers,’” said Schwartz.



That’s a welcome message at a time when grocery stores, which have notoriously thin profit margins, are grappling with the rising cost of food. Albertsons, whose brands include Safeway, Vons and Jewel-Osco and which&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/23/business/kroger-albertsons-merger.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has announced plans to merge</a>&nbsp;with Kroger, rolled out the software across nearly all 2,200 of its stores last year. The company has said that its goal is to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.albertsonscompanies.com/our-impact/planet/food-waste/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">eliminate food waste going to landfills</a>&nbsp;by 2030. “If you can pick up three to five points of gross margin with this thing without having to raise prices, that is huge,” said Walter Robb, the former CEO of Whole Foods, who has invested in Afresh.



To assist with orders, the startup makes sense of a jumble of data to forecast demand better than any human can. It starts with the history of how an item has sold over the past several years, folding in sales data on a daily basis. It then factors in anything that may affect demand, such as upcoming promotions, weather, holidays and the day that food stamps are doled out. Internal estimates attempt to account for the unforgiving shelf life of finicky items like avocados and peaches, which a store is always racing against the clock to sell.



This is a big improvement over an employee going product by product, using their judgment to figure out how many Gala apples to order versus Honeycrisp and Fuji and Pink Lady and Granny Smith.



It means that fruits and veggies are not sitting around for nearly as long at grocers like Cub, a Minnesota chain with 100 stores, which is moving produce in and out of its stores 7% faster than before. The retailer has also seen a nice 2.5% boost in sales from improving its in-stock levels.



“Remember that retailing is all about having the right product at the right price at the right time,” said Robb. “This is a tool to make that happen.”



The backroom of a Cub grocery store before they started working with Afresh (left) and after.AFRESH



The stakes are high in the fresh section of a grocery store, which tends to be a big traffic driver, especially for return trips. Improving the quality and selection of fresh foods has been a major priority for Albertsons, which sees it as a way to boost sales and steal market share from competitors. “The fresh portfolio really, really matters,” Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran said in a quarterly earnings call last month.



Schwartz, 33, a former Bain consultant with an MBA from Stanford, started Afresh six years ago after learning how much fresh food grocery stores were throwing away, and how little technology existed to address the problem. Schwartz has always been a health nut, who practiced intermittent fasting and designed meal and workout plans for friends. Early in his career, he’d worked at Simple Mills, which makes crackers, cookies and other snacks with alt-ingredients like almond flour and coconut sugar.



Afresh charges each store department hundreds of dollars per month to use its software. It says it has prevented 43 million pounds of food from being thrown away since inception.



“This technology is one of a small handful we’re seeing really take off,” said Dana Gunders, executive director of ReFED.



As AI-powered ordering gains wider adoption, it&nbsp;<a href="http://pacificcoastcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/PCFWC-Case-Study_AI_Final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">could help cut food waste at the store level in half by 2030</a>, according to the Pacific Coast Collaborative, a multi-state governmental initiative to reduce greenhouse gas. Similar technology is sold by companies like Shelf Engine, which signed up Kroger as a customer but subsequently laid off a significant portion of its staff.



Afresh is now signing up more stores and expanding beyond produce with existing customers. This year, it expects to go into another 7,500 departments, which includes new forays into the meat and seafood counters, the deli and the prepared foods section. It is also introducing more tools for grocery stores, like one that helps employees complete monthly inventory checks.



The company now assists with ordering a tenth of all produce sold in America, said Schwartz. “We plan to be preventing over 100 million pounds of food waste per year very shortly,” he said.

E-commerce augmented reality marketing in supermarket mobile phone app AI artificial intelligence

This AI Startup Has Saved Grocers From Tossing Millions Of Pounds Of Food

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



Google and Universal Music Group are discussing whether to license artists’ melodies and vocals for AI-generated music, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/6f022306-2f83-4da7-8066-51386e8fe63b?list=intlhomepage" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a> to the Financial Times, following a recent trend of music produced by artificial intelligence that has faced backlash—and support—from music labels and artists.



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



Universal Music—which represents artists like Drake, Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift—and Google are working to develop a tool for users to create AI-generated music using an artist’s voice, lyrics or sounds, the&nbsp;Financial Times&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/6f022306-2f83-4da7-8066-51386e8fe63b?list=intlhomepage" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.



A deal would pay copyright holders for the right to create the music, while artists would have the choice to opt in.



Warner Music Group is also discussing a similar product with Google, according to the&nbsp;Times.



Neither Google nor Universal Music immediately responded to requests for comment from&nbsp;Forbes.



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



Warner Music CEO Robert Kyncl&nbsp;<a href="https://investors.wmg.com/events/event-details/q3-2023-warner-music-group-earnings-conference-call" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;during the company’s earnings call Tuesday that “with the right framework in place” artificial intelligence would be able to “enable fans to pay their heroes the ultimate compliment through a new level of user-driven content.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-chief-critic">CHIEF CRITIC</h2>



Drake voiced his opposition to AI-produced music earlier this year after he was featured in several deepfakes,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/drake-reacts-ice-spice-munch-ai-1235303454/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">suggesting</a>&nbsp;after one song was released: “This is the last straw.” Sting said there was “going to be a battle” between “human capital” and AI, which he said “doesn’t impress me at all,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65627089" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the BBC.



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



Several artists have supported the development of AI-generated music, including Grimes, who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/grimes-drake-the-weeknd-ai-music-1234726521/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;anyone could create songs using her voice “without penalty” as long as she receives a 50% split on royalties. Paul McCartney&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/06/13/ai-you-need-is-love-artificial-intelligence-helps-create-final-beatles-song-paul-mccartney-says/?sh=4c263c571275">announced</a>&nbsp;in June a new Beatles song would be released later this year, after McCartney said AI was used to “extricate” John Lennon’s voice from an old demo tape to create “the final Beatles record.”



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



Regulations and restrictions for music generated by artificial intelligence have increased in recent months. Universal Music sent a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/aec1679b-5a34-4dad-9fc9-f4d8cdd124b9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">letter</a>&nbsp;to streaming services in April requesting they prevent AI programs from accessing its platforms to train on copyrighted lyrics and melodies. Universal Music general counsel Jeffrey Harleston&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoCJun7gkbA&amp;ab_channel=CNBCTelevision" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;during a Senate hearing last month that “an artist’s voice is often the most valuable part of their livelihood and public persona.” The U.S. Copyright Office noted it will only offer copyright to works “created by a human being” and not “register works produced by a machine.” Google&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.google/technology/ai/musiclm-google-ai-test-kitchen/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">released</a>&nbsp;an experimental AI tool for created music in May, which develops a song based on a text prompt. Meta&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/irenebenedicto/2023/08/02/meta-launches-tool-to-create-music-using-ai-heres-what-to-know/?sh=41419a9e444d">released</a>&nbsp;its own AI tool for creating music earlier this month, which is trained on 20,000 hours of licensed music owned by Meta.



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



<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/6f022306-2f83-4da7-8066-51386e8fe63b?list=intlhomepage" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google And Universal Music Negotiate Deal Over AI ‘Deepfakes’</a>&nbsp;(Financial Times)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/irenebenedicto/2023/08/02/meta-launches-tool-to-create-music-using-ai-heres-what-to-know/?sh=41419a9e444d">Meta Launches Tool To Create Music Using AI—Here’s What To Know</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/05/03/ai-generated-music-is-here-sung-by-stars-like-drake-and-ariana-grande-but-it-may-be-very-illegal/?sh=612b5343aa32">AI-Generated Music Is Here—‘Sung’ By Stars Like Drake And Ariana Grande—But It May Be Very Illegal</a> (Forbes)

Headphones, Amplifying Equipment, Studio Audio Mixer Knobs And Faders. Sound Engineering Equipment. Selective Focus. The photo is covered with sand and noise. Wireless and electronic technologies. Equipment in a nightclub, on television, radio studio.

Google And Universal Music Group Negotiating AI-Generated Music Tool, Report Says

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



Bot accounts and tweets from Twitter owner Elon Musk amplified the prices of FTX-listed cryptocurrencies, according to a Network Contagion Research Institute&nbsp;<a href="https://networkcontagion.us/wp-content/uploads/NCRI_FTXReport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study published Wednesday</a>, which took a close look at the sort of spam accounts that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musks-twitter-vs-bad-bots-the-battle-goes-on-d25ce0ab" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Musk recently claimed</a>&nbsp;have been mostly tamed.



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



Researchers examined more than 3 million tweets about 18 cryptocurrencies from January 1, 2019 to January 27, 2023, a time range that includes Twitter activity before, during and slightly after Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the platform.



Using Botometer, a service that checks the activity of Twitter accounts and gives them a score based on how likely they are to be bots, researchers found that out of a total of 182,105 unique accounts that tweeted about FTX-listed coins, 172,451 accounts were given “bot” scores.



Researchers said the bots aided in pumping the price of crypto coins traded by insiders of defunct Alameda Research, a hedge fund and sister firm of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX platform—a cryptocurrency exchange that went bankrupt in November.



Following promotional tweets by FTX’s official Twitter account, researchers found “activity for the coins grew increasingly inauthentic over time,” with bot-like comments growing and accounting for about half of the total chatter about the 18 coins.



The study also concluded that tweets by Musk mentioning altcoins, such as PEPE and PSYOP, created considerable price spikes for the cryptocurrencies.



Researchers cited a May 13&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1657318313532313600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1657318313532313600%7Ctwgr%5E5eb9c00b8a13cb78a726136639f2a12d3adb3131%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fco" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweet from Musk</a>&nbsp;that featured a Pepe the Frog meme that contributed to a more than 50% increase in the price of PEPE within 24 hours, with price action being fueled by “a combination of both authentic and inauthentic bot-driven activity.”



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



The study did not directly link FTX or Alameda as being responsible for the bot accounts, but did note that FTX’s promotional tweets may have boosted bot engagement on coin chatter.



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



<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musks-twitter-vs-bad-bots-the-battle-goes-on-d25ce0ab" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">90%</a>. That is the percentage of scams on Twitter that Musk said in June had been eliminated from the platform, which has since been rebranded to X. However, the billionaire business owner has yet to provide data backing the claim.



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



“Since Musk’s team took over Twitter last year, API changes were made to deter bot creation, possibly reducing crypto promotion and scams,” Alex Goldenberg, lead intelligence analyst for NCRI, said in an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/02/elon-musk-tweets-twitter-bots-boosted-ftx-listed-crypto-researchers.html?__source=sharebar%7Ctwitter&amp;par=sharebar" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">interview with CNBC</a>, which first reported the study. “However, these changes come with trade-offs as they also hinder independent audits by third-party researchers.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forbes-valuation">FORBES VALUATION</h2>



We estimate Musk’s net worth at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/?sh=58ff69fc7999">$232.7 billion</a>&nbsp;as of Wednesday, making him the world’s wealthiest person.



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



Prior to his acquisition of Twitter,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1517215066550116354" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Musk claimed</a>&nbsp;he would “defeat the spam bots or die trying!” Since then, bots on the social media platform&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-linda-yaccarino-elon-musk-exterminate-bots-2023-6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">have persisted</a>, though it is unclear how many bots are on the site as of today. Before Musk’s acquisition of Twitter,&nbsp;<a href="https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/is-elon-musk-right-about-the-bot-problem-on-twitter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Yale researchers</a>&nbsp;found the prevalence of active bots on the site varied from 1% to 14%. “In a study of the first impeachment of Donald Trump, we found that bots were 1% of the active users, but posted 31% of the tweets,” a Yale associate professor wrote in&nbsp;<a href="https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/is-elon-musk-right-about-the-bot-problem-on-twitter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">an article</a>&nbsp;about Twitter bots. Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musks-twitter-vs-bad-bots-the-battle-goes-on-d25ce0ab" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">claimed in June</a>&nbsp;at least 90% of the fake accounts littered throughout Twitter were eliminated. However, researchers found bots were still easy to find on the app, with an assistant professor of computer science at Princeton University telling the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musks-twitter-vs-bad-bots-the-battle-goes-on-d25ce0ab" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wall Street Journal</a>&nbsp;that “bad bots remain pervasive on Twitter.”



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



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahemerson/2023/03/29/sam-bankman-fried-legal-fees-funded-by-alameda-money-gifted-to-father-joe-bankman/?sh=69a1063f5757">Sam Bankman-Fried’s Legal Defense Is Being Funded With Alameda Money He Gifted His Father</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/darreonnadavis/2023/06/02/what-happened-to-ftx-the-crypto-exchange-funds-collapse-explained/?sh=235bce7b3cb7">What Happened To FTX? The Crypto Exchange Fund’s Collapse Explained</a> (Forbes)

Category: Technology