Amendments to the UK Online Safety Bill mean a report must be written before powers can be used by the regulator to force tech firms to scan encrypted messages for child abuse images.
What Is The Online Safety Bill?
The Online Safety Bill is the way the UK government plans to establish a new regulatory regime to address illegal and harmful content online and to impose legal requirements on search engine and internet service providers, including those providing pornographic content. The bill will also give new powers to the Office of Communications (Ofcom), enabling them to act as the online safety regulator.
The Latest Amendments
The government says the latest amendments to the (highly controversial) Online Safety Bill have been made to address concerns about the privacy implications and technical feasibility of the powers proposed in the bill. The new House of Lords amendments to the bill are:
– A report must be written for Ofcom by a “skilled person” (appointed by Ofcom) before the new powers are used to force a firm, such as an encrypted app like WhatsApp or Signal, to scan messages. Previously, the report was optional. The purpose of the report will be to assess the impact of scanning on freedom of expression or privacy, and to explore whether other less intrusive, less alternative technologies that could be used instead. The report’s findings will be used to help decide whether to force a tech firm, e.g. an encrypted messages app, to scan messages, and a summary of those findings must be shared with the tech firm concerned.
– An amendment to the bill requiring Ofcom to look at the possible impact of the use of technology on journalism and the protection of journalistic sources. Under the amendment, Ofcom would be able to force tech companies to use what’s been termed as “accredited technology” to scan messages for child sexual abuse material.
The Response
The response from privacy campaigners and digital rights groups has focused on the idea that the oversight of an Ofcom-appointed “skilled person” is not likely to be as effective as judicial oversight (for example), and may not give the right level of consideration to users’ rights. For example, the Open Rights Group described the House of Lords debate on the amendments as a “disappointing experience” and said, that this “skilled person” could be a political appointee, and they would be overseeing decisions about free speech and privacy rights, this would not be “effective oversight”.
Apple’s Threats In Response To 'Snoopers Charter’ Proposals
In the same week, Apple said it would simply remove services like FaceTime and iMessage from the UK rather than weaken its security under the new proposals for updating the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) 2016. The new proposals for updates to the act would mean tech companies like Apple and end-to-end encrypted message apps having to clear security features with the Home Office before releasing them to customers and allow the Home Office to demand security features are immediately disabled, without telling the public. Apple has submitted a nine-page statement to the government’s consultation on amendments to the IPA outlining its objections and opposition. For example, Apple says the proposals “constitute a serious and direct threat to data security and information privacy” that would affect people outside the UK.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
What the government says are measures to help in the fight against child sex abuse are seen by some rights groups as a route to monitoring and surveillance, and by tech companies as a way to weaken products and the privacy of their users. The idea that a “skilled person” (e.g. a consultant or political appointee) rather than a judge compiling a report to justify the forced scanning of encrypted messaging apps has not gone down well with the tech companies and rights groups. The fact that the House of Lords debate was the final session of the Report Stage and the last chance for the Online Safety Bill to be amended, before the Bill becomes law with so many major objections from tech companies still being made, it looks unlikely that the big tech companies will comply with the new laws and changes. WhatsApp for example (owned by Meta) has simply said it would pull out the UK market over how new UK laws would force it compromise security which would be considerable blow to many people who use the app for business daily. Signal (app) has also threatened to pull out of the UK and some critics think that the UK government may be naïve to think that simply pushing ahead with new laws and amendments will result in the big tech companies backing down and complying any time soon. It looks likely that the UK government will have a big fight on its hands going forward.
In this second article of the “DMARC Diligence” series, we shift our focus towards securing non-sending or “forgotten” domains and outline a strategy for their protection through DMARC implementation.
Recap Of Part 1
You may remember that in part one of this DMARC Due Diligence series of articles we laid the groundwork by exploring the essentials of the email authentication protocols SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. We learned how these mechanisms work in tandem to validate email sources, ensuring that only authenticated emails reach their intended destinations. The primary takeaway was the importance of implementing these protocols to shield email communications from the prevalent threats of phishing and spoofing attacks.
Here, in Part Two of the three-part series, we take a look at some key issues around securing non-sending or “forgotten” domains.
The Risk Of Non-Sending Domains
Businesses often accumulate multiple domain names, yet routinely only a select few which are actively used for emails. This leaves a number of domains essentially dormant, with no emails being sent from them. These can be referred to as non-sending or “forgotten” domains.
However, their existence and registration on servers mean that even if they are dormant/forgotten, they’re still viable for exploitation and make ideal targets for cybercriminals to conduct spoofing and phishing attacks under the guise of your reputable name.
How Big Is The Problem?
The problem of dormant or forgotten domains and their exploitation for email spoofing is significant and aligns with broader issues of email server misconfiguration and domain spoofing that impact businesses globally. For example, a KnowBe4 study (which used a domain spoof test) discovered that 82 per cent of email servers are misconfigured, thereby potentially enabling domain spoofing. Domain spoofing extends beyond email to include website spoofing, where fraudsters profit from the reputation of reputable domains, costing advertisers up to $1 million in lost revenue per month.
Recent Examples
Examples of non-sending or “forgotten” domains being exploited by cyber-criminals include:
– As reported by Krebs back in 2020, attackers exploiting an authentication weakness at GoDaddy (the world’s largest domain name registrar) by using legitimate but inactive domains to distribute malware, including a potent strain of ransomware named Gand Crab. Despite efforts to fix the vulnerability and clean up affected domains, new campaigns exploiting these dormant domains emerged, thereby highlighting the ongoing challenge of securing unused domains against cyber exploitation.
– Just this month, Cyber Security Company, Guardio Labs reported uncovering what they referred to as a major “SubdoMailing” campaign which involved the hijacking of 8,000+ trusted domains to send millions of spam and malicious phishing emails daily. The big brands whose subdomains they reported were being exploited in the campaign included MSN, VMware, McAfee, The Economist, Cornell University, CBS, Marvel, and eBay.
The DMARC Solution For Non-Sending/Forgotten Domains
As highlighted in the previous article in this series, DMARC offers a way to authenticate mail and specify how unauthenticated emails should be treated. However, its real power lies in its ability to be applied to all your domains, active or dormant. This means that by configuring DMARC records for your non-sending domains, you can effectively seal off a potential backdoor for attackers, preventing them from masquerading as your business in malicious campaigns.
Step-by-Step DMARC Implementation For Non-Sending Domains
With this in mind, here’s an example of a step-by-step strategy for businesses with multiple domains for using DMARC to close the backdoor vulnerability that non-sending/forgotten domains provide:
– Conduct a comprehensive domain audit to identify all the domains your business owns. Next, distinguish between those used for sending emails and those that are not.
– For your non-sending domains, establish DMARC records in the DNS with an initial policy of p=none. This monitoring mode allows you to collect data on how these domains might be exploited without impacting legitimate email traffic.
– Analyse DMARC reports. Regularly reviewing the DMARC reports to identify unauthorised usage of your non-sending domains can provide insights to guide you in tightening the DMARC policy to more restrictive settings (p=quarantine or p=reject), effectively blocking malicious emails.
– Ongoing vigilance. With the cyber threat landscape perpetually evolving, getting into the habit of continually monitoring your DMARC reports and adjusting your policies as needed can help maintain robust protection against emerging threats.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
Acknowledging and securing your non-sending/forgotten domains with DMARC is now not just a technical safeguard but is now an essential strategy in fortifying your business’s cybersecurity posture. With email fraud now rampant, overlooking these domains could leave your business susceptible to cyberattacks, compromising your integrity and the trust you’ve built with your clients and partners.
Also, as regulations around data protection become increasingly stringent, ensuring that all your domains are shielded with DMARC demonstrates a proactive stance on cybersecurity. This not only helps compliance with laws like GDPR but also positions your business as a trustworthy and secure entity in the digital marketplace.
The protection of non-sending domains via DMARC implementation, therefore, is a crucial step in closing the security gaps within your business’s digital domain strategy.
Next Week…
Next week, in the last of this three-article series, we’ll be focusing on a detailed step-by-step guide for DMARC implementation, the crucial role of monitoring and reporting for effective DMARC management, strategies for optimising DMARC policies, and preparing for future email security challenges. The hope is that this series will provide UK businesses with insights into maximising email security, enhancing brand protection, and ensuring compliance with evolving regulations.
Following a recent US ruling that Google acted illegally to maintain a monopoly on its online search and the associated advertising, the US government has now proposed forcing Google to sell off parts of its business, potentially leading to the breakup of one of the world’s leading tech companies.
Antitrust Remedies – Structural Relief Suggested
After years of investigation and following the outcome in August of a ten-week trial, a US judge delivered the landmark ruling that, “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.” At the time, 'structural’ remedies, i.e. 'structural relief’ (altering the structure of a company to restore competitive conditions in a market) was one of the remedies suggested to curb Google’s anticompetitive practices (if other remedies weren’t adequate). In plain English, structural relief essentially means breaking up a company.
Sell Off Chrome Browser and Android OS?
Following this ruling, The US Department of Justice (DoJ) and a coalition of state attorneys general have recently submitted a 32-page filing (PDF) document outlining suggested remedies to address Google’s monopolies in search and search advertising. The proposal suggests that Google could be forced to sell off key assets such as its Chrome browser and Android operating system, which the DoJ argues are used to maintain its illegal dominance.
Four Areas
In fact, the DoJ has proposed four areas for potential remedies, which are:
1. Search distribution. The DoJ wants to limit or prohibit Google’s exclusive deals that set its search engine as the default on devices like iPhones and Android smartphones. This would reduce Google’s control over how users access search services and open the market for competition.
2. Data access and usage. This remedy would require Google to share its search data, such as search queries and results, with competitors. The goal is to prevent Google from having an unfair advantage through exclusive access to user data that can be used to improve its services. There are concerns about privacy and security risks, which Google has highlighted as a potential issue.
3. Extending search monopoly. With this issue, the DoJ is concerned that Google could use its dominance in search to extend its control to new areas, such as artificial intelligence. This proposal may prevent Google from using search data to train its AI models unless competitors have access to similar data.
4. Advertising practices. The DoJ is also targetting Google’s monopoly in digital advertising. It proposes increasing competition by forcing Google to license or syndicate its advertising platforms to other companies. This could involve changes to how Google auctions ad space, aiming to level the playing field for advertisers.
What Has Google Said In Response?
Googles’ Lee-Anne Mulholland, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs has issued a written response online which she essentially argues that Google believes the DoJ’s proposals (which she says are “radical and sweeping”) go beyond the legal issues at hand and could have far-reaching, unintended consequences for consumers, businesses, and American technological leadership. For example, Mulholland made the following points in Google’s defence:
– In terms of privacy and security risks, Google argues that forcing it to share sensitive search data, such as queries and results, with competitors would create significant privacy and security risks. These concerns stem from the potential for bad actors to access personal data in less secure environments. Google emphasises that current strict security standards protect user data, and sharing this information with other companies could compromise this.
– In relation to the impact on AI innovation, Google is concerned that restrictions on its use of search data for training AI models would hinder American innovation. The company highlights the competitive nature of the global AI industry and argues that government intervention could skew investment and slow down the development of new technologies at a critical moment.
– On the key issue of divesting Chrome and Android, it’s not surprising that Google opposes the idea of separating Chrome and Android from its business, claiming that this would disrupt the products and their open-source nature. The company argues that Chrome and Android benefit users through security features and by keeping costs low. Splitting them off, according to Google, would make them more expensive to maintain, jeopardise security updates, and hurt competition with Apple’s ecosystem
– In relation to disruption to advertising, Google believes that changes to its advertising system would hurt small businesses and publishers that rely on its platform. It argues that its current system helps level the playing field for advertisers of all sizes and that mandated changes could reduce the value of online ads for everyone involved.
– Addressing concerns about overreach and consumer harm, Google criticises the DoJ’s proposed restrictions on search distribution contracts, arguing that these would create unnecessary friction for users trying to access information and would reduce revenue for companies like Mozilla and Android device manufacturers, potentially raising costs for consumers.
Appeal
The DoJ’s filing is just a proposed framework of potential remedies, with a more detailed filing being due in November 2024. Google has stated that it plans to appeal the ruling in the DoJ’s antitrust case over its search monopoly. However, the exact date for Google’s appeal has not yet been set, although Google is expected to respond to the U.S. Department of Justice’s proposals by December 2024. The legal appeal process could take years before a final resolution is reached.
What Would Happen If Google Was Broken Up?
If Google is eventually forced to sell off major parts of its business, like Android and Chrome, it would significantly impact both the company and the broader market. For example, some of the key impacts would be:
– To Google’s business. Losing Android and Chrome would dismantle Google’s integration across mobile and web platforms. Android, key to mobile search and app distribution, could fragment without Google’s resources, potentially increasing device costs and slowing updates. Chrome, which dominates the browser market, would also be less efficient without Google’s web service integration.
– The market impact. A breakup would create opportunities for competitors like Apple and Microsoft to gain market share. It would reduce anti-competitive barriers in mobile operating systems and browsers, enabling smaller players to thrive.
– Consumer and security concerns. Consumers might face fragmented services and reduced security, as Google’s current seamless integration between products could be disrupted. Google also argues that splitting off Android and Chrome could hinder innovation and security across platforms.
Didn’t Work Before With Microsoft
It should be noted here, however, that the DoJ’s attempt to break up Microsoft in 2000 failed, which showed how complex and uncertain efforts to dismantle tech giants can be. Also, subsequent attempts to limit Microsoft’s dominance, like the ineffective browser ballot in 2007, have highlighted the difficulty of regulating major companies, and Google may face similar challenges.
What About Search Evolution?
Currently, the search market is evolving, with disruptions from AI and social media. While it may be true that Google still dominates, new technologies, such as large language models (LLMs), could weaken its hold, much like how Microsoft lost ground to Google Chrome in the browser wars. Google has, indeed, acknowledged that competition in search is growing, especially with AI transforming the landscape. This evolving market might naturally reduce Google’s dominance, potentially making a breakup less impactful over the long term.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
As the battle between Google and the DoJ continues, the question of whether the proposed breakup will actually happen remains uncertain. The complexities of dismantling a tech giant like Google are vast, as evidenced by previous attempts to regulate similar companies like Microsoft. While the DoJ is pushing hard for structural remedies, Google’s appeal and the lengthy legal process could stall any significant changes for years. Even if the breakup does occur, the impact might not be as transformative as expected, with AI and new technologies already shaking up the search market.
For Google, losing key assets like Android and Chrome would significantly weaken its control over the mobile and web ecosystems, making it harder to maintain the same level of integration and innovation. Competitors like Apple and Microsoft would undoubtedly benefit from the opening, gaining ground in both mobile and browser markets. However, consumers might face higher costs and fragmented services, especially if the separation affects Android’s open-source model or Chrome’s security features.
This shift could also create challenges for businesses that rely heavily on Google’s services. Many small and medium-sized enterprises depend on Google’s ad platform and tools like Google Analytics for visibility and revenue. A forced breakup could disrupt these services, raising costs or making the platforms less efficient. Similarly, businesses that develop apps for Android could face increased complexity if Android were to be handled by a different company, with potential delays in software updates and security patches affecting their operations.
At the same time, the evolving nature of search itself could change the landscape faster than any regulatory intervention. AI-driven platforms and social media are already challenging Google’s dominance, potentially rendering a breakup less impactful in the long term. Google has acknowledged that competition is intensifying, and the market could naturally shift away from its control as new technologies develop.
Ultimately, the road ahead is uncertain, and the final outcome of this antitrust case will set a precedent for future tech regulation. Whether through legal action or technological disruption, Google’s position at the top may not be as secure as it once was. The next few years will be pivotal in determining how the search market, and the broader tech industry, will evolve and how businesses that rely on Google’s ecosystem will adapt to this change.
ChatGPT has had a major upgrade when it comes to its memory functionality. This video tells you everything you need to know to use this new memory upgrade to the fullest.
[Note - To Watch This Video without glitches/interruptions, It may be best to download it first]
https://mklink-videos.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/2025-May-Chatgpts-Memory-Upgrade.mp4
Google is launching its 'Stack’ app for Android, an AI-based scanner that also names and categorises the documents it scans.
The Technology
The Stack app is a result of collaborative work between Area 120, Google’s in-house incubator and the DocAI team in Google Cloud, and the technologies from Google’s acquisition of the education start up 'Socratic’.
How It Works
When users take a photo of a document, the Stack app scans it, automatically names it, and suggests the right category or “stack,” to store it in.
Stack is also able to identify important information in documents (e.g. the “due date” or “total amount due”) and pull that out to make the document easier to find and access, plus users can search through the full text of documents (not just the title) to quickly find what is needed.
When it comes to (secure) storage, Stack uses advanced security and sign-in technology to protect the documents in the app and a face or fingerprint scan can be added as an extra layer to unlock the app. Copies of documents can also be automatically saved to Google Drive which means that they are still accessible should a user decide to stop using Stack.
Benefits
The benefits of using Stack are that it provides a fast, easy, handy, intelligent, and searchable way to organise all important work documents such as invoices and receipts. The fact that important details in the document (e.g. due date) can be recognised by the app can make it easier to pay bills on time and can provide different (fast) ways to search for documents. Also, the app’s ability to categorise and store a document accordingly in effect provides an instant time and space-saving filing system that is also secure and always available from anywhere using a smartphone.
Just The U.S. For Now
Unfortunately, Stack is only currently available in the U.S. via Google Play Store.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
When Stack does become available in the UK, this could be a very useful digital filing system for businesses which is fully portable (a phone app), searchable, secure, and provides a backup on Google Drive if the user decides to stop using Stack at any point. This app sounds like a handy way to finally organise any piles of paper and any disparate pdfs into one central, easily accessible system. For Google, this has been a productive way to use technology that it gained through an acquisition to add value to its services, and it is another good example of how AI can be put to practical use to tackle real-life daily challenges. There are many other mobile scanner apps available (Adobe Scan, Clear Scanner, Office Lens, Tiny Scanner), but the advantages of this one are the recognising/categorising and searching elements provided by AI plus the fact that it’s from Google and backs up to Google Drive for futureproofing.
The newly developed 'Infinity Train' in Australia uses gravitational energy to fully recharge its battery-electric systems on its outward journey so that no additional charging is required for the return trip.
Gravitational Energy?
Gravitational Energy is the potential energy associated with the gravitational field, which is released when the objects fall towards each other. An example is hydro energy (used in hydro-electric power generation) where energy is produced by the force of falling water e.g., water in a reservoir behind a dam falling.
Infinity Train
Fortescue, a global leader in the iron ore industry has acquired UK-based, world-leading technology and engineering business Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE). To mark the purchase, and Fortescue's transition to a global green renewables and resources company, WAE and Fortescue have announced the world first, zero emission “Infinity Train”.
The Infinity train, which is still in development, will recharge its special electric battery using gravitational energy created by the downward force of the heavy iron ore that the train transports Fortescue’s trains transport as part of its mining operations.
World’s Most Efficient Battery Electric Locomotive
Fortescue Chief Executive Officer, Elizabeth Gaines said “The Infinity Train has the capacity to be the world’s most efficient battery electric locomotive. The regeneration of electricity on the downhill loaded sections will remove the need for the installation of renewable energy generation and recharging infrastructure, making it a capital efficient solution for eliminating diesel and emissions from our rail operations.”
Why?
Fortescue’s iron ore mining operations are reported to involve the use of 54 operating locomotives that haul 16 train sets. It is understood that, in 2021, these rail operations consumed 82 million litres of diesel, which accounted for 11 per cent of Fortescue’s Scope 1 emissions.
With Fortescue aiming to decarbonise its mining operations by 2030, the Infinity Train is a way for Fortescue to drastically reduce its emissions and fuel costs, expand its green fleet, and help it to become a major player in the growing global market for green industrial transport equipment, thereby pleasing its shareholders. The use of the Infinity Train may also create maintenance efficiencies and productivity opportunities.
WAE Chief Executive Officer, Craig Wilson has said that working with Fortescue “presents an exciting opportunity to develop new technologies as we work together to tackle climate change".
What Does This Mean for Your Organisation?
Not only will the gravitational energy battery re-charging system help Fortescue to meet its green targets and make savings, but also has potential to be used to help reduce in emissions elsewhere in the hard to abate heavy industry sector. This technology appears to show real promise as a way of helping to decarbonise and increase levels of sustainability in other transport and heavy industries / mining operations where gravity and the weight of what of what is being carried could become a source of cost and emissions-saving advantage. This story also shows how synergies, opportunities and competitive advantages can be created by the joining of two very different companies whose challenges and solutions fit together.
Amazon is reported to be testing the machine learning 'Sparrow’ robot arm that could handle 65 percent of its 100+ million diverse parcels.
Challenge
Although Amazon already uses robot arms called 'Robin’ and 'Cardinal’ to re-direct boxed-up pre-delivery items around its warehouses, the challenge has been to create a robot arm that can detect, recognise, select, and handle a huge variety of different shapes and sizes of products prior to packaging, in the handling part of its business.
Sparrow
The Sparrow robot arm leverages the technologies of computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) to help detect and select items.
The Benefits
Amazon sees the potential benefits of Sparrow as:
– Enabling the company to work smarter, not harder, and to operate efficiently and safely.
– Enabling employees to focus their time and energy on other things by taking on repetitive tasks for them.
– Helping to drive efficiency by automating a critical part of the fulfilment process.
Replacing Human Workers?
Although Sparrow’s unique capabilities may be good news for Amazon’s Ecommerce future, it could be bad news for its human workers. The effects on jobs by increased automation at Amazon have been a concern of labour unions (the Amazon Labor Union) for some time now, although a recent study suggested that more robots were needed anyway to plug a labour shortage at Amazon. Also, some commentators have suggested that rather than creating large-scale job losses, an increase in the use of robots in Amazon warehouses could simply mean a de-skilling of the labour force (saving on training), job stagnation and insecurity.
Supporting, Not Replacing
Amazon, however, chooses to frame Sparrow as “a major technological advancement to support our employees” rather than a machine learning, highly dextrous robot that could cost many of them their jobs.
Back in September, for example, Amazon’s robotics chief Tye Brady, however, was reported as saying that the robots are not intended to replace workers but to collaborate with human workers to do a job.
Create New Kinds Of Jobs Too
Amazon has highlighted how it believes the use of Sparrow and other robots in its business has already created (and could create more) new kinds of jobs related to maintaining the robots. Amazon says, for example, “The design and deployment of robotics and technology across our operations have created over 700 new categories of jobs”.
On its 'About Amazon’ website, the company gives the example of its Amazon Mechatronic and Robotics Apprenticeship which it says helps employees “learn new skills and pursue in-demand, technical maintenance roles” and leads to a 40 per cent increase in the pay of participants.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
With Amazon being the largest manufacturer of industrial robots in the world, and with Sparrow being another of several types of robot arms already in use in Amazon warehouses, it is highly likely that automation plus the pursuit of benefits like efficiency, safety, and 24-hour / 365 days a year working (and no protests) looks likely to continue. Although unions have protested about automation, some have suggested that more unionisation could simply mean a harder push for automation.
Amazon’s re-framing of Sparrow being a robot that will help rather than replace workers and even create more tech maintenance-based jobs sounds good, but with more than 1.6 million people on the Amazon payroll, and more robots like Sparrow that can 'learn’ to keep improving, its hard to see how many people at the company’s warehouses aren’t going to end up being made redundant over time. For Amazon, however, the efficiencies automation could bring are likely to make the company even more competitive and powerful.
Microsoft’s announcement of pricing for its AI productivity suite 365 Copilot shows its intent to monetise its AI, ending any expectations of free AI provision.
Furthering Its (Monetising) Ambitions – Microsoft 365 Copilot & Bing Chat Enterprise
Announced under the heading “furthering our ambitions”, Microsoft has released details of both Bing Chat Enterprise and Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing.
Bing Chat Enterprise is an AI-powered chat tool for work with commercial data protection that’s accessible for subscriber via bing.com/chat and the Microsoft Edge sidebar in their work account.
Microsoft 365 Copilot is the company’s AI chatbot, processing, and orchestration engine that’s embedded in the Microsoft 365 apps and works behind the scenes to combine the power of LLMs like GPT-4, with the Microsoft 365 apps and business data in the Microsoft Graph.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Pricing
Microsoft has announced that 365 pricing for Copilot for commercial customers will be $30 per user, per month for Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard and Business Premium customers (when broadly available). The pricing follows the expansion of the Microsoft 365 Copilot paid Early Access Program in May to 600 enterprise customers worldwide, including companies like KPMG, Lumen, and Emirates NBD. The company is confident that the value of Copilot expressed during the Early Access Program and the AI tool’s benefits justify the price tag, saying: “The more customers use Copilot, the more their enthusiasm for Copilot grows. Soon, no one will want to work without it.”
Why Microsoft Says It’s Worth The Extra $360 Per Year
In its pricing announcement, Microsoft reminded users what makes Copilot worth the extra investment, citing:
– Unlike some generative AI apps, Copilot doesn’t focus on a single capability but “puts thousands of skills at your command and can reason over all your content and context to take on any task”.
– Copilot’s good on its own, but also integrated into the popular 365 apps (millions of people use daily).
– It uses the customer’s actual business data in the Microsoft Graph thereby “grounding” it – making it practically useful and customised.
Microsoft’s Investment In AI (And OpenAI)
Microsoft has invested heavily in AI and incorporating it into its products. For example, OpenAI, ChatGPT’s developers, first partnered with Microsoft in July 2019 in a collaboration aimed at bringing OpenAI’s technologies to Microsoft’s cloud services, allowing customers to build and run AI-powered applications and services. ChatGPT is also supported by Microsoft’s Azure services as part of the collaboration.
Fast forward to today and OpenAI’s models and generative capability have been deployed across Microsoft’s consumer and enterprise products as Copilot in (for example) 365 Copilot, Copilot for Viva, Copilot X (for coding), and Security Copilot.
A Lesson From ChatGPT
It’s clear that Microsoft has learned from ChatGPT’s experience, i.e. having to introduce a $20 version relatively early on to cover its operating costs, estimated in April to have been $700,000 per day / 36 cents per query (ref. SemiAnalysis) and, therefore, has realised the need for and the potential value of monetising Copilot as early as possible.
Also, with many businesses now having fully adopted ChatGPT as an important business tool, realised its benefits (and therefore the benefits of generative AI), and with many having signed up happily to the $20 version, $30 for what Microsoft sees as an added value, wider scope version probably seems to Microsoft like a fair price. To Microsoft at least.
Questions
Some commentators, however, still have some questions about a possible lack of case studies, figures, and success stories to date about how companies have actually been using Copilot in the real world to demonstrably improve productivity, efficiency, creativity, and profits. No doubt, these will come in time as Copilot is relatively new to most businesses.
Also, since Copilot is grounded in a company’s own data, it’s arguably important to have quality data in the Microsoft Graph to get a quality output. For example, as ChatGPT users will know, the better the prompt and help that the chatbot’s given as an instruction, the better the relevance and quality of its output.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
It’s true that the operating costs of AI chatbots are high, as experienced by ChatGPT. Many businesses are already aware of the value of generative AI and as with ChatGPT, have shown that paying for a 'business’ version is popular. These are two reasons why, along with its considerable investment in AI, Microsoft’s “Ambitions” already include charging $30 per user per month for Copilot which the company sees as more than just a one-trick AI pony. Copilot’s integration into popular apps and its ability to work across the whole 365 suite as an orchestrating engine offers businesses obvious productivity and efficiency benefits, provided users are able to understand and harness its power, and this ability to get much greater value from Microsoft 365 that could translate into profits may be something that businesses feel is worth the extra money.
Just as Microsoft is committed to AI across its services, AI is something that’s spreading across all areas of work and personal life in some form or another and with Microsoft and OpenAI both charging for it, perhaps expect (business) AI services coming from other providers to be chargeable too.
A recent US congressional vote means that TikTok and its parent company’s alleged ties with the Chinese Communist Party must be severed within six months or the popular TikTok app must be sold, thereby banning it in the US.
The Vote
The unanimous Energy and Commerce Committee vote (50-0) in favour of forcing TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to divest itself or sell the app could see 170 million American users no longer able to use TikTok. There is now a wait to see whether the US Senate approves the measure before it becomes law. The stated purpose of the bill (as it stands) is to “protect the national security of the United States from the threat posed by foreign adversary controlled applications.”
Chinese Links
The worries that ByteDance’s links to the Chinese state make TikTok’s usage in the US a threat to national security date back to the Trump presidency. Back in 2020, (then) President Donald Trump tried to ban the app but was blocked by the courts. It was part of a wider trade and political war with China which is still carrying on. Other apps with links to China banned by Trump in 2021, for example, included the Ant Group’s Alipay mobile payment app, QQ Wallet, WeChat Pay, CamScanner, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate (published by Alibaba Group subsidiary UCWeb), and Beijing Kingsoft Office Software’s WPS Office.
Bans In Many Countries
The ban on TikTok was extended to number of other institutions and countries including:
– The European Commission, the UK government (and the BBC), the US government banned the TikTok app from staff devices, to protect sensitive personal data, increase cybersecurity, protect against misinformation, and to protect national security.
– In June 2020, India banned TikTok and around 300 other Chinese apps from government devices.
– In 2023, the TikTok app was banned from government devices in Australia and Canada.
– Other countries with a government device TikTok ban also include Taiwan, Ireland, Denmark, and Belgium.
Many may also remember how, in March last year, the CEO of TikTok, Shou Chew, had to appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the US to discuss concerns about TikTok’s consumer privacy, data security practices, its impact on children, and the app’s alleged links to China.
This Time
This time, however, rather than facing just a government device ban, TikTok is facing a whole country ban. Worse than that, it’s the country with TikTok’s largest audience, with estimates ranging around 113.3 million to 116.5 million users.
The stark choice facing ByteDance is to now either sell the TikTok app within 6 months (thereby severing alleged links with the Chinese state) or face removal from mobile app stores in the US, effectively wiping out its biggest audience, threatening the app itself.
What Would A Ban Mean?
Looking at the broader picture, Banning TikTok in the US completely could have a significant impact on several fronts, given the app’s massive user base and economic influence in the country. Some of the potential effects could include :
– Massive user impact (businesses and home users). With millions of active users in the US, a ban would abruptly cut off access for a large community of creators and viewers. It would affect the way people consume and create short-form video content, potentially shifting these users to alternative platforms.
– A blow to the creator economy. Many US-based content creators rely on TikTok for income through brand partnerships, sponsored content, and the app’s creator fund. A ban could disrupt this economy, affecting the livelihood of thousands of influencers and content creators.
– A significant effect on market competition and innovation. For example, TikTok’s absence could create a vacuum in the social media landscape, encouraging competitors like Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Snapchat to fill the gap. This could lead to innovations within these platforms as they vie for the TikTok audience.
– Trouble for advertisers (brands). Brands that leverage TikTok for marketing and customer engagement would need to pivot their strategies to other channels. This could reshape digital marketing trends and impact the effectiveness of social media campaigns.
– More regulations. Heightened awareness and concerns over data privacy and security issues related to social media, could lead to more stringent regulations and policies affecting all platforms, not just TikTok.
– Effects on international relations. Given the geopolitical tensions underlying concerns about TikTok’s Chinese ownership, a ban could have diplomatic repercussions, influencing US-China relations (making them even worse) and possibly affecting American companies operating in China. Some commentators have already suggested we are witnessing a kind of 'cold war’ with China now anyway, with the US restricting things like microchips and other components in a bid to perhaps stifle the growth of what it sees as a more powerful and growing economy.
– Legal and political ramifications. Implementing a ban would likely involve legal challenges and a complex regulatory process. It could set a precedent for how the U.S. government addresses concerns about foreign-owned technology companies in the future.
All in all, therefore, the impact of a TikTok ban in the US would extend well beyond the app itself, affecting the social media ecosystem, the digital economy, and even international relations. However, the specific outcomes would depend on a variety of factors, including how such a ban is implemented and the response from users, creators, businesses, and other stakeholders.
User Revolt Reported In The US
Not surprisingly, there have been reports in the US of congressmen being inundated with calls from TikTok users objecting to a ban. It’s also been reported that TikTok encouraged its users to call their representative to vote against the measure.
Criticisms
The vote and proposed ban have led to other criticisms, including that from The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) which pointed to the app’s value to many Americans for information and communication, and describing the ban as a “cheap” political point scoring measure in an election year.
What Does TikTok Say?
TikTok has said (on the 'X’ platform) that it amounts to “an outright ban” and that “This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs”.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
The potential total ban of TikTok in the US represents a pivotal moment not only for the app’s parent company (ByteDance) but also for a broad spectrum of stakeholders ranging from individual creators to large corporations. For ByteDance, the forced sale or severance of its largest international market could significantly impact its valuation, strategic direction, and global influence.
The loss of the US market (TikTok’s largest) would not only diminish its advertising revenue but could also deter potential investors and partners concerned about the platform’s stability and future growth prospects.
For businesses and creators that rely on TikTok, the ramifications could be profound. The US, for example, is home to a significant creator economy where individuals and businesses leverage TikTok for brand building, audience engagement, and revenue generation. A ban would necessitate a strategic move to alternative platforms, which may not offer the same level of engagement or demographic reach as TikTok. This could disrupt marketing strategies, content distribution plans, and income streams for countless users.
The competition within the social media landscape would most likely intensify in the wake of a TikTok ban. Rivals such as Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Snapchat stand to gain the most, absorbing TikTok’s displaced user base – the US may not be too unhappy about US-based company apps taking TikTok’s place. This shift could spark a wave of innovation as platforms vie to capture and retain these new audiences, potentially reshaping the social media ecosystem.
From a broader economic perspective, a TikTok ban could have ripple effects beyond well the tech industry. The platform has become an integral part of digital marketing strategies for many businesses of all sizes. The disruption to these strategies could have downstream effects on sales, customer engagement, and brand loyalty across various sectors.
Also, the ban could bring about stricter regulatory scrutiny over social media platforms, leading to increased compliance costs and operational challenges. This heightened regulatory environment could stifle innovation and deter investment in the tech sector, impacting the wider economy.
The implications of a US-wide TikTok ban could, therefore, extend way beyond the app itself, affecting the livelihoods of creators, the strategies of businesses, the dynamics of social media competition, and the broader digital and national economies. Stakeholders will now, most likely, closely monitor developments and prepare should the worst happen. TikTok has held firm and denied any Chinese state links before. Nevertheless, the US is making a powerful statement with the unanimous vote and bill proposing a possible total ban which reflects the strength of resolve now in the US. It also reflects their willingness to pile-on the pressure in what is also a political battle with what they consider as a major rival.
Following Tesla’s “We, Robot” event on October 10 at the Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles, we look at the big reveals, the reactions to them, plus some of the key comments made and opinions given.
A Showcase of Futuristic Visions
Tesla’s long-anticipated “We, Robot” event, which captured the attention of millions worldwide, was CEO Elon Musk’s bold declaration of the company’s future direction, positioning Tesla not just as an electric vehicle manufacturer but as a cutting-edge robotics and artificial intelligence company. The showcase was reported to be rich with futuristic visions, but it left many wondering whether these concepts were truly within reach or just another example of Musk’s futuristic ambitions.
The Cybercab – A Robotaxi with No Steering Wheel
The centrepiece of the evening was the long-awaited Tesla robotaxi, referred to as the “Cybercab”. A striking vehicle with gull-wing doors, the Cybercab was revealed as a completely autonomous car, lacking both a steering wheel and pedals. It operates solely on Tesla’s proprietary Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology, a vision-based system that relies on cameras rather than hardware such as lidar, which is commonly used by competitors like Waymo.
Musk announced that the Cybercab would be priced under $30,000 and would enter production in 2026, albeit without committing to a specific timeline for large-scale manufacturing. “The autonomous future is here,” Musk proclaimed to the audience, describing how these vehicles could be up to ten times safer than human-driven cars. He added that they could operate at a cost of only 20 cents per mile. Charging, he said, would be made even more convenient through inductive charging, which eliminates the need for physical charging plugs.
And …The Robovan, Tesla’s Autonomous Multi-Passenger Vehicle
While the Cybercab was undoubtedly the star of the show, Musk also introduced a surprise in the form of Tesla’s 'robovan’. Designed to carry up to 20 passengers, the robovan offers a vision for high-volume, autonomous transport. However, details about the robovan’s production timeline, features, and expected costs were reported to be notably sparse. Musk briefly mentioned that its operational costs could be as low as 5 cents per mile, making it potentially one of the cheapest transport solutions in the market.
Regulatory Hurdles Ahead
Although the robovan could potentially revolutionise shared transport, industry analysts have been quick to point out the significant regulatory and technical hurdles that stand in the way. For example, Matthew Wansley, a professor of law at New York’s Cardozo School, commented, “What Tesla showed tonight was a lot of sci-fi smoke and mirrors… Musk has yet to prove that a vision-only approach for automation is viable.”
Tesla’s 'Optimus’ Humanoid Robot
As the event’s name suggests, “We, Robot” was not just about autonomous vehicles. Musk used the opportunity to highlight Tesla’s progress with 'Optimus’, the company’s humanoid robot. Priced between $20,000 and $30,000, the robot is designed to handle many everyday tasks, offering a glimpse into how AI and robotics could reshape labour markets. Musk did not delve deeply into specific capabilities but promised that Tesla has made “a lot of progress” on the Optimus robot.
The unveiling of Optimus sparked a mixture of excitement and scepticism. For some, it reinforced Musk’s long-standing ambition to push AI and robotics into mainstream use. However, others expressed doubt about how quickly such a product could be scaled for consumer use, with some comparing it to past announcements from Tesla that have seen significant delays or failed to materialise.
Key Reactions and Investor Sentiment
Despite the technological marvels on display, the event appears to have left some investors and experts feeling underwhelmed. One of the recurring criticisms seems to be the lack of concrete timelines and plans for the production and deployment of Tesla’s autonomous fleet. For example, Dennis Dick, reportedly an equity trader, has been quoted as summarising the sentiment of many investors, saying: “I’m a shareholder and pretty disappointed. I think the market wanted more definitive timelines. I don’t think he said much about anything.”
Similarly, Bryant Walker Smith, a professor at the University of South Carolina, noted, “Tesla yet again claimed it is a year or two away from actual automated driving – just as the company has been claiming for a decade.” This remark highlights Tesla’s history of perhaps over-promising and under-delivering when it comes to autonomous driving capabilities.
Optimism
Musk himself acknowledged that he often errs on the side of optimism when it comes to timelines. Yet, he maintained that Tesla’s approach, which eschews lidar in favour of a camera-based system, will ultimately be the most efficient and scalable. This approach, however, remains a point of contention among experts, with many pointing out that other companies in the autonomous vehicle race, such as Waymo and General Motors’ Cruise, have invested heavily in lidar technology, which they consider crucial for ensuring the safety and reliability of driverless cars.
Hurdles and Opportunities
The robotaxi market, while potentially lucrative, appears to be fraught with obstacles with the establishment of a fully functional and safe fleet of autonomous vehicles looking like being no small feat. For example, Tesla’s reliance on vision-based AI, while cost-effective, faces significant challenges in terms of regulatory approval and the technology’s ability to handle complex driving environments, such as adverse weather or unpredictable pedestrian behaviour.
Despite these hurdles, Tesla’s massive fleet of electric vehicles, which already collect a wealth of driving data, gives the company a significant data advantage over rivals. KC Boyce, a vice president at data analytics firm Escalent, has been reported as commenting, “The vision-only system Tesla has chosen handicaps their capabilities versus how Waymo and Cruise have chosen to approach autonomy… Whether that data advantage is enough to close the sensor gap, I’m sceptical.”
A Vision of the Future, But With Some Questions
While the “We, Robot” event provided a tantalising glimpse into the future of transportation, it also raised many questions. On one hand, the promise of a $30,000 fully autonomous vehicle is certainly appealing, as is the prospect of making transportation safer, cheaper, and more efficient. Musk’s vision of a world where cars operate without human intervention could significantly alter how people live and work, offering the prospect of reclaiming valuable time spent commuting.
However, as history has shown, the road to full autonomy is long and fraught with both technical and regulatory challenges. Tesla’s vision of the future, while bold, still hinges on technological breakthroughs that have yet to be realised and on overcoming resistance from both regulators and the public.
In many ways, the “We, Robot” event could be considered to be a microcosm of Tesla’s broader strategy and a bold vision with world-changing potential, tempered by the practical realities of bringing that vision to life.
Whether the Cybercab and robovan become cornerstones of future transport or remain conceptual dreams is a question only time can answer.
Amazing Space X Rocket Return and Grab By “Chopsticks”
While the “We, Robot” event may have left some attendees and investors underwhelmed due to its lack of concrete timelines and detailed plans, it is impossible to overlook the historic achievement made just days later by Musk’s other venture, SpaceX. On October 13, SpaceX successfully launched its fifth Starship test flight, but what truly captivated the world was the unprecedented mid-air capture of the “Super Heavy” booster rocket.
This was the first time SpaceX had managed to catch the 230-foot-tall booster using mechanical arms, nicknamed “chopsticks”, as it returned to the launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas. This groundbreaking recovery method is a crucial step towards making the Starship fully reusable, a key aspect of Musk’s vision for cost-effective and rapid space travel. As Musk himself stated, the achievement marked a “big step towards making life multiplanetary,” moving closer to SpaceX’s goal of using the Starship for moon and Mars missions in the near future.
This feat of engineering comes at a pivotal moment for SpaceX, particularly as NASA has selected the Starship for its upcoming crewed lunar missions under the Artemis programme. While Tesla’s robotaxi aspirations continue to face regulatory and technical hurdles, the extraordinary success of SpaceX in recovering the booster not only demonstrates Musk’s continued innovation but also underscores the broader vision he has for advancing humanity’s future beyond Earth.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
The “We, Robot” event undoubtedly provided a bold look at the future of transportation, particularly in terms of Tesla’s ambition to reshape how we think about mobility. For example, the unveiling of a $30,000 fully autonomous vehicle promises to disrupt the transport industry by making travel more accessible, safer, and more efficient. If realised, this could mark a pivotal moment in the shift towards self-driving technologies, potentially transforming how people and goods move across cities and countries. However, the event left some critical questions unanswered. Technological breakthroughs are still needed, and regulatory obstacles remain high. Tesla’s competitors, who are also racing to develop autonomous vehicles, will be watching closely. Companies such as Waymo and General Motors’ Cruise may accelerate their own efforts, sparking fierce competition in this rapidly evolving space.
For businesses and industries reliant on transportation, the potential impact of widespread autonomous driving is vast. Companies that depend on logistics, for example, could benefit from lower costs and improved efficiency, while new opportunities for services linked to mobility could emerge. However, this transition might also bring challenges, particularly for sectors like insurance and vehicle manufacturing, which may have to adapt quickly to changing demand and the reduction in human-driven vehicles.
In a broader economic sense, should Tesla succeed in making autonomous vehicles affordable, the ripple effect could extend to urban planning, employment in the transport sector, and even global supply chains. Entire industries may need to rethink their strategies in response to what could be a revolution in how transportation is managed and delivered. The knock-on effects on global economies, particularly in regions dependent on automotive industries, could be profound.
Meanwhile, the success of SpaceX in catching the Super Heavy booster rocket marked a monumental moment for Musk’s broader ambitions. While Tesla wrestles with challenges here on Earth, the achievement in space highlighted the potential for transformative change beyond our planet. This technological leap not only moves SpaceX closer to making the Starship fully reusable but also strengthens Musk’s vision of enabling human life on other planets. The success of SpaceX serves as a powerful reminder of Musk’s ability to push the boundaries of innovation across multiple industries, potentially outpacing competitors who are yet to make comparable breakthroughs.
Both Tesla’s ambitious autonomous vehicle plans, and SpaceX’s unprecedented achievements reveal a future of rapid change, not just for transportation on Earth, but potentially for space travel as well. For Tesla, its competitors, and the wider transport industry, the next few years will be crucial in determining whether this vision becomes a reality or remains a distant dream. As for SpaceX, its success signals that the future Musk envisions is not just a concept but an impending reality.
A new sustainable building material that’s stronger than steel and made from ordinary timber is about to go into mass production, and it could change the face of construction forever.
From The Lab to the Launch of 'Superwood’
In 2018, materials scientist Liangbing Hu and his team at the University of Maryland developed a method to convert ordinary wood into a material significantly stronger and lighter than steel. The innovation, initially viewed as a promising (but laboratory-bound) breakthrough, involved finding a new way to densify wood to enhance its strength and durability through a chemical and compression process. It seems that only now, after seven years, 140 patents, and millions in investment later, Superwood is actually heading to market.
InventWood
The startup behind the commercial rollout, InventWood, is gearing up to begin production this summer 2025 (summer 2025 is as accurate a launch date as InventWood has given) at its first dedicated facility. Backed by $15 million in Series A funding from climate-focused investors including the Grantham Foundation and Builders Vision, the company believes Superwood could soon replace a substantial chunk of the steel used in buildings, and significantly reduce the environmental cost of construction in the process.
How is Superwood Made?
Superwood is essentially regular wood that has undergone a chemical and physical treatment to alter its structure at the molecular level, thereby significantly increasing its strength and durability.
The process starts with regular timber, which is mostly composed of the two key compounds of cellulose and lignin. Cellulose is the strong, fibrous material that gives plant cells their rigidity, while lignin acts as a kind of natural glue. Ironically, it’s the removal of lignin that unlocks the strength hidden inside the wood.
The process to strengthen the wood and turn it into 'Superwood’ includes:
– Boiling and bonding. The wood is first boiled in a solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfite – a process not unlike that used in paper production. This removes most of the lignin and hemicellulose, while keeping the cellulose intact.
– Compression and heating. Next, the softened wood is compressed and gently heated, causing the cell walls to collapse. This triggers hydrogen bonding between adjacent cellulose fibres, vastly increasing the wood’s strength.
– Stabilisation. For external use, some samples are impregnated with polymers, improving resistance to moisture and environmental wear.
The Result
The result of this transformative process is to create material with up to 20 times the strength of natural wood, and a strength-to-weight ratio up to 10 times greater than steel! Also, according to InventWood, it’s also highly fire-resistant (Class A fire rating), pest- and rot-resistant and, unlike most tropical hardwoods, naturally beautiful, thanks to a deep, rich colour created during the compression process. As InventWood’s CEO Alex Lau says: “It looks like walnut or ipe, but we haven’t stained any of it,” and that “These are the natural colours. It’s just wood, re-engineered.”
Steel-Level Performance Without the Carbon
The potential sustainability benefits of Superwood are huge. For example, globally, the production of steel accounts for about 7–9 per cent of direct emissions from fossil fuels, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Also, concrete and steel together make up around 90 per cent of the carbon footprint of new buildings. This means that being able to replace even a fraction of that with a renewable, carbon-sequestering material like Superwood could be a game-changer.
On a like-for-like performance basis, Superwood generates 90 per cent lower emissions than steel and, because it locks carbon into the material itself, every Superwood beam or panel becomes a kind of mini carbon store.
The material can also be made from underutilised or waste wood, adding another layer of circularity and environmental value.
What Can It Be Used For?
At launch, InventWood is targeting facade and cladding applications for commercial and high-end residential buildings. These “skin” uses are designed to be ideal early-stage deployments, giving architects and developers a chance to work with the material in lower-stress contexts while the production process is scaled up.
However, it seems that the real ambition lies deeper in the building. For example, as Lau says, “Eventually we want to get to the bones of the building”, including structural beams, columns, and even I-beams being made entirely from Superwood. The strength, light weight, and stability of Superwood means it could be used not just in walls and roofing, but in entire load-bearing structures.
Beyond construction, other possible applications could include:
– Furniture. Stronger, lighter, and more durable wooden furniture with high aesthetic value.
– Vehicles. Potential use in interior vehicle panels or lightweight frames.
– Protective Gear. Early tests showed Superwood could stop bullet-like projectiles, leading to speculation it might be used in low-cost body armour or impact-resistant products.
– Consumer Goods. From tools to sports equipment, the applications could span industries.
Mouldable Into Different Shapes
One other big practical and aesthetic advantage is that, because it’s mouldable during the early stages of production, the wood can be shaped and formed into complex designs before hardening, thereby opening up design possibilities beyond what’s possible with standard timber.
Scaling Up
With its first production plant due to go live this summer, InventWood is keen to prove it can scale efficiently. The initial batches will be smaller and aimed at showcasing Superwood’s performance and aesthetics in real-world projects.
Over time, the plan appears to be to mass-produce structural timber products using waste or fast-growing softwoods, such as pine or poplar, woods that are cheap and abundant but typically too weak for major construction use.
By applying the Superwood process, these everyday species could be upgraded to high-performance materials without the costs or carbon associated with tropical hardwoods or engineered metal.
Investor Interest
Not surprisingly, the company has already attracted interest from major investors and partners in the climate tech space, and says the long-term goal is to replace up to 80 per cent of the structural steel currently used in building and infrastructure projects.
Hype or Hope?
Despite the excitement, it should be noted that Superwood isn’t without its critics, or its hurdles. For one, the technology is still in its commercial infancy. While lab tests and prototypes are impressive, the construction industry is notoriously conservative when it comes to adopting new materials, especially for structural use. Engineers, insurers and regulators will need to be convinced of its long-term performance under varied conditions, including moisture, temperature change, and mechanical stress.
There’s also the question of cost and scalability. While Lau says the process has been reduced from “more than a week to a few hours,” manufacturing densified wood still requires energy, chemical treatments, and controlled conditions. Whether the environmental benefits are maintained at large scale will depend on the sourcing of those inputs and the overall lifecycle of the material.
Some environmental groups have also raised concerns about supply chain transparency. If demand for Superwood grows rapidly, there will be pressure to ensure that input timber is sustainably and ethically harvested, particularly if production expands beyond waste wood and fast-growing species.
Benefits Outweigh Challenges
However, supporters of the technology argue that the potential benefits outweigh the challenges. For example, investors involved in the funding round have highlighted the urgent need for new, low-carbon materials in response to the climate crisis, and view Superwood as a promising solution that combines high strength, aesthetic appeal, and significantly lower emissions. Some believe it could represent one of the most important material innovations of the decade.
What Does This Mean For Your Organisation?
If Superwood’s apparent potential to dramatically reduce carbon emissions while delivering on performance could make it an attractive alternative to steel and tropical hardwoods, especially at a time when the construction industry is under growing pressure to decarbonise.
For UK businesses, particularly those involved in architecture, building design, and sustainable development, this could open up exciting new opportunities. Superwood’s combination of strength, lightweight handling, and natural beauty offers practical advantages that go beyond green credentials. If adopted at scale, it could help developers meet net-zero targets, reduce material costs, and differentiate projects in a highly competitive market. Manufacturers and timber suppliers may also find new demand for underused or waste wood, potentially driving regional supply chains and creating jobs linked to circular production.
Also, with early use cases already being explored in areas like furniture, transport, and protective materials, Superwood’s commercial reach could extend well beyond construction. For example, as the product matures and real-world performance data emerges, its use may spread into consumer goods, automotive interiors, and even defence applications.
That said, its long-term impact will hinge on more than just innovation. It will depend on how quickly the production process can be scaled, how effectively it’s regulated, and whether sustainability claims can be backed by transparent, verifiable supply chains. For clients, designers, and contractors alike, due diligence will be essential.
Still, in a sector where true breakthroughs are rare and often slow to emerge, Superwood offers something genuinely different, i.e. a material that aligns strength, sustainability, and versatility in a way that could reshape how (and what) we build in the years ahead.
In a move to provide more business intelligence, Amazon is launching a new tool that monitors key performance indicators (KPIs) to detect 'anomalies’ so it can alert the business to potential problems.
Lookout For Metrics
'Lookout For Metrics’ is the name of the new service from Amazon Web Services (AWS) which uses machine learning for business analytics to monitor KPI’s such as web page views, mobile app downloads, numbers of active users, and income to detect any anomalies and to inform the business/organisation about those anomalies.
Anomalies
The kinds of anomalies / outliers from the norm in business and operational data that AWS is referring to are spikes, dips, and other unusual patterns detected within the analytics that are outside of normal bounds across business functions.
Automated Alerts
Amazon says that that the Lookout for Metrics tool can be easily connected with event and notification services such as Amazon Simple Notification Service and AWS Lambda to created automated and customised alerts and actions when anomalies are detected, such as filing a trouble ticket.
Why?
AWS says that this kind of monitoring can help businesses to better understand customer issues (e.g. churn rates) and take action to improve customer experiences, optimise digital ad-campaigns and prevent overspends, and take action to optimise user engagement by understanding changes in metrics such as new users, app installs, in-app purchases, or retention rates. The Lookout For Metrics Tool can, therefore, give businesses critical insights to help them make better decisions and create a more productive and efficient organisation, giving them another way to analyse how to keep up with their competitors, and grow revenues.
AWS also points out that using this tool is a faster and more accurate way than traditional methods for anomaly detection, thereby minimising damage by saving time in finding the root cause of anomalies. Also, the tool gives businesses a prioritised list of issues, ranked by severity, so that any business can clearly see which issues need immediate attention and which can wait.
Easy To Set Up
Lookout For Metrics requires no specialist machine learning training to start using it and Amazon says that it “connects seamlessly” to popular AWS databases and has pre-built connectors to third-party SaaS applications, thereby enabling the monitoring of metrics and anomaly detection to begin with just a few clicks.
Type of Metrics
The types of popular datasets that Lookout For Metrics can be connected to include Amazon S3, Amazon Redshift, Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), and third-party SaaS applications, such as Salesforce, ServiceNow, Zendesk, and Marketo.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
Having access to accurate and timely business intelligence can help businesses to optimise their marketing, make better decisions, and make a business more competitive. Being able to easily set up an automated tool that’s compatible with popular datasets makes this a convenient and fast way for businesses to get a better understanding of where faults lie and where value-adding improvements can be made, and which areas to tackle first. This gives many businesses access to the kind of expert insights that would be more difficult, time consuming and costly to obtain by traditional methods. For AWS, this provides a way to show themselves as a provider of Business Intelligence (BI) as well as many other services.
If you've started using Windows 11 and, as a long-time Windows user, you'd prefer the Start button to still be on the left rather than centred, here's how to move it back:
- Press the Windows Key + I to open the 'Settings' app.
- Select 'Personalisation' and 'Taskbar'.
- Select 'Taskbar behaviours'.
- Click 'Left' under 'Taskbar alignment'.
Meta has announced that it is laying off a masive 13 per cent of its workforce globally in re-structuring market uncertainty about the Metaverse vision.
Losses Lead To Layoffs
Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced the 11,000-employee layoff from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, after Reality Labs, the division building the metaverse, suffered £3.16bn losses between July and September this year (the largest loss the company has made). The previous quarter also showed disappointing results.
Expensive Re-Brand
It should also be noted that Meta also spent around $15 billion last year on its re-brand which, coupled with the lack of growth and the losses may also have contributed to the need for re-structuring and layoffs.
Told By Email
Mr Zuckerberg reportedly emailed staff about the layoffs, blaming his own over-optimistic view of post-pandemic demand for e-commerce. Employees were informed that the layoffs will mean:
– There will be reductions in every organisation across Meta’s Apps and Reality Labs and some teams will be affected more than others.
– Recruiting will be disproportionately affected because fewer people will be hired next year.
– The business is being restructured “more substantially.”
Thanks For The Impact
In the US, as well as being thanked for their “impact” on Meta’s business, those being laid-off were reportedly told in their emails that they would receive at least 16 weeks salary plus two weeks’ wages for each year served with company.
Remind You of Twitter?
The big Meta layoffs are painfully similar to Twitter’s recent massive job cuts with 50 per cent of the company’s global workforce (7,500 people) being given their marching orders. Elsewhere in the big tech company world, Amazon, Alphabet and Apple are reported to have hiring freezes in place.
Ploughing On With The Metaverse
Despite half a year’s poor financial results due to cash being shovelled into the slow-moving Metaverse vision, Mark Zuckerberg appears to be fully committed to it and ready to plough on. Also, despite little investor confidence betraying a lack of understanding of the Metaverse vision, some commentators have noted that society is moving more towards the virtual world every day. This could mean that Mark Zuckerberg is on the right track but may not be moving fast enough with it yet.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
Meta, like other big tech companies has faced challenges like a lack of growth and declining ad revenue since the pandemic, as well as stiff competition from the likes of TikTok. Meta, however, appears not to have been able to communicate to investors exactly what the Metaverse and its value is while at the same time appearing to plough a lot of money into a vision that is not delivering yet. This combination of the investors’ responses to a lack of certainty, tough times, plus outside competition have therefore led some people to speculate that big tech itself may be in trouble and this has prompted Meta’s need to shed jobs to steady nerves.
Rather than spending time typing out your handwritten meeting notes, Google Keep’s OCR means you can quickly convert them into typed text simply by taking a photo of them using your phone. Here’s how to use it:
- If you have a Google account, Keep is included, but since the process involves taking a photo of your notes on your smartphone, download Google Keep from the Google Play store (Android) or Apple App Store (iPhone).
- Open the Google Keep app and tap the image icon (bottom of the screen).
- Tap on 'Take a photo’ and tap on 'OK’, give the image a title e.g., meeting notes, and tap the image to make it full screen.
- Click on the three dots (top right) and tap on 'Grab image text’. The text from the image will be displayed below.
- Tap on the text to edit it.
- When you’re happy with the edited version, tap the three dots bottom right and select 'Send’ which gives the options to 'Copy to Google Docs’ or 'Send via other apps’ e.g., your email or WhatsApp.
- Google Keep also allows voice recordings.
Windows allows users to customise or switch between different power plans based on their current needs, balancing performance with energy consumption. This is especially useful for laptop users who may need to maximise battery life or require full performance during intensive tasks. Here's how works:
- Right-click on the battery icon in the taskbar and select Power Options, or search for “Edit Power Plan” in the Start menu.
- Here, you can switch between pre-defined plans such as Balanced, Power saver, or High performance.
- Customise these plans or create your own by modifying settings like screen brightness, sleep timers, and processor power management.
Two Harvard students have developed a program which (when used with Meta’s smart glasses) can identify people without their knowledge, thereby highlighting a potentially serious privacy risk.
Why?
In their report about their research, the two Harvard students, AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio, said their goal was “to demonstrate the current capabilities of smart glasses, face search engines, LLMs, and public databases, raising awareness that extracting someone’s home address and other personal details from just their face on the street is possible today”.
Turning Glasses Into Facial Recognition Tools
As part of a project they called I-XRAY, the students developed a program that demonstrates the potential privacy risks of using AI with smart glasses like Meta’s Ray-Ban models.
Using their experimental system, the students have reported that they can stream live recordings from Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses (which are equipped with camera) to a computer, where AI is then used to spot when the glasses are looking at a face. Next, they are able to use AI and facial recognition tools, notably the PimEyes facial search engine while live streaming video from the glasses to Instagram, to positively identify strangers to whom the faces in the video belong.
Once the glasses detect a person’s face, the program can pull up images and publicly available personal information, including names, addresses, and more, within minutes.
The experiment shows how it’s possible to quickly access personal details of random individuals simply by walking past them and capturing their faces on camera, highlighting how invasive and dangerous this technology could become, if misused.
What Is PimEyes and How Can They Use It?
PimEyes is a facial recognition search engine that allows users to upload an image of a face and find other images of that person across the web. It scans public databases, websites, and social media platforms to match facial features, making it possible to track someone’s online presence. In their experiment, the Harvard students used PimEyes to identify people in real-time by integrating it with Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses. As the glasses recorded video, PimEyes was used to find additional images and public information about individuals whose faces were captured.
Leveraged Today’s LLMs
The students said that what makes their I-XRAY system so unique is that it operates entirely automatically, thanks to the recent progress in AI Large Language Models (LLMs). The system leverages the ability of LLMs to understand, process, and compile huge amounts of information from diverse sources, inferring relationships between online sources, such as linking a name from one article to another, and logically parsing a person’s identity and personal details through text. The students said that is this “synergy between LLMs and reverse face search” that “allows for fully automatic and comprehensive data extraction that was previously not possible with traditional methods alone”.
Used 'FastPeopleSearch’ To Get Other Personal Details From Names
Worryingly, the students reported how their system (once they get an LLM-extracted name) can use a 'FastPeopleSearch’ lookup to identify the person’s home address, phone number, plus their relatives. FastPeopleSearch is a free online tool that allows users to find personal information about individuals, such as addresses, phone numbers, and even family members or associates. It aggregates publicly available data from various sources to offer these details.
To use it, you go to the FastPeopleSearch.com website (if access is allowed – the website is using a security service – you may need a VPN), enter a person’s name, phone number, or address, and the tool will search its database to return matching results. It’s often used for background checks, though it raises privacy concerns due to the accessibility of personal information.
Doesn’t Have To Be Smart Glasses
The students have highlighted that although Meta’s smart glasses have been used in their experiments, using their system, the same results could be achieved using just a simple phone camera. This means that anyone could use this technology to identify, track, or access personal information about strangers in real time, without their knowledge or consent. This raises serious privacy and security concerns, especially regarding stalking, harassment, or 'doxxing’.
Are We Ready For This?
As one of the student researchers in this experiment, AnhPhu Nguyen, said in an 'X’ post about their findings, “Are we ready for a world where our data is exposed at a glance?”, with others commenting “Fascinating but Dystopian” and “looks like some govt entity will try and get hold of this”.
How Can You Protect Yourself?
Despite demonstrating how easily facial recognition systems can be built using publicly available technologies and data, the Harvard researchers have also provided steps to help individuals protect their privacy – helpful links to do this can be found here. They explained how people can remove their data from major facial recognition and people search engines like PimEyes and FastPeopleSearch. Both PimEyes and Facecheck.id offer free services to opt-out, while major people search engines like FastPeopleSearch, CheckThem, and Instant Checkmate allow users to remove their information. Also, considering the potential financial havoc if a person’s US social security number (SSN) is leaked/part of a data dump, the researchers have recommended freezing credit and using two-factor authentication to prevent identity theft.
What Has Meta Said?
Meta has reportedly said that the students’ experiment appears to involve them “simply using publicly-available facial recognition software on a computer that would work with photos taken on any camera, phone or recording device”, and has highlighted that its smart glasses are designed to comply with privacy laws, such as including a visible light to indicate when they are recording.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
This could be an important experiment in that it highlights just how vulnerable personal data can be in the age of advanced AI and facial recognition technology. While Nguyen and Ardayfio’s research shows the remarkable capabilities of current technologies, it also serves as a wake-up call to the broader public. The ease with which private details, such as names and addresses, can be extracted from something as simple as a passing glance on the street is a stark reminder of the privacy risks we face. The fact that these tools can be used not just with specialised smart glasses, but also with everyday devices like smartphones, makes the issue even more pressing.
For businesses, this raises important questions about the ethical and legal responsibilities of companies developing and deploying similar technologies. As facial recognition becomes more ubiquitous, organisations must navigate the fine line between innovation and privacy, ensuring that they not only comply with existing laws but also proactively address the potential misuse of their products. Meta’s response that their smart glasses are compliant with privacy regulations is likely to do very little to quell the growing concerns about how easily such technologies can be repurposed for invasive uses.
Looking ahead, as the use of AI and facial recognition continues to expand, so too will the need for stricter regulations and public awareness. Individuals, businesses, and governments alike must engage in a broader conversation about the balance between technological advancement and personal privacy to ensure that such powerful tools are not misused.
A government-commissioned red teaming exercise has found that One Login, the UK’s flagship digital identity platform, can be compromised without triggering any alerts.
The test, carried out by the National Cyber Security Centre’s Cross-Government Red Team, revealed serious gaps in the system’s ability to detect and respond to intrusions. One Login is intended to provide a single, secure sign-in for services like tax, pensions and benefits.
Over 2 million users are already enrolled, but the findings raise concerns about whether the platform is safe for wider rollout. A Cabinet Office spokesperson said the exercise was “routine best practice” and confirmed improvements are being made, but offered no technical details.
Experts say silent compromise of a national identity system could expose millions to fraud, data theft or service disruption, especially if undetected for long periods.
Although this was a simulated attack and no real data was exposed, the key concern is that One Login failed to detect the breach, showing a weakness in spotting intrusions. For businesses, the lesson is that detection matters as much as prevention. Regular testing and active monitoring are vital to catch threats before they cause damage.
With the world facing a considerable semiconductor microchip shortage, we take a look at the causes and effects of the shortage plus some potential solutions.
Why Is This Important?
Microchips are now included in virtually everything from watches to white goods and crucially in larger, high demand, big industry items such as cars. Many products have more than one chip and as the IoT market expands, so does demand for more microchips.
Why The Global Shortage?
The global shortage of semiconductor microchips has been caused by a 'perfect storm’ of many factors. These include:
– Car companies slimming down manufacturing following a 50 percent slum in car sales, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
– Microchip producers switching to smartphone, laptop, and tablet chips in response to a surge in demand due to remote working because of the pandemic, thereby disrupting chip markets.
– Manufacturers of semiconductor microchips, which require huge investment in plants over many years, tend to operate with low stock levels to minimise costs. The surge in demand for chips (particularly for cars) following the first lockdowns therefore meant there were no backup supplies, chip manufacturers would need time to adapt to switch back to car chips, and manufacturers could not meet demand.
– With most chips being manufactured in Taiwan, the US trade war with China during the Trump administration caused supply problems due to sanctions (e.g. US chip firm Xilinx having to stop supplying to China, and Huawei being put on a trade blacklist).
– Under-investment in 8-inch chip manufacturing plants owned by Asian companies. Also, most of the production in Asia is concentrated into mainly the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) and Samsung, who manufacture on behalf of hundreds of other different chip companies.
– Weather and other events disrupting supply and worsening the global shortage of semiconductor microchip (e.g. droughts in Taiwan as water is needed in chip production), winter storms in February shutting-down the NXP semiconductor plant in Texas, and a fire at the AKM semiconductor plant in Nobeoka, Miyazaki, Japan last October 20. The AKM factory (owned by Renesas Electronics Corp), for example, accounts for a massive 30 per cent of the global market for the microcontroller units used in cars.
The Impact
Examples of some of the main impacts caused by the global shortage are:
– Massive disruption, damage to profits, and potential job losses in the car industry and in car supply chain businesses. For example, Ford, Toyota, and VW are partially mothballing factories. Car manufacturers are also producing fewer of their less profitable vehicles.
– Phone manufacturers delaying model releases (e.g. Samsung considering delaying the launch of the latest Galaxy Note). This, of course, will affect the phone company’s profits and competitiveness and will have a knock-on effect towards phone retail businesses.
– Games console shortages (also compounded by an increase in demand over lockdown). For example, Microsoft has been facing production challenges with Xbox Series X/S. This may have knock-on effects for games console retailers.
– Knock-on effects into the development of 5G networks (e.g. in the UK and US).
Possible Solutions
The main solution to tackling the global shortage has been for countries implementing the costly and time-consuming measures of setting up their own semiconductor microchip factories to try and guarantee at least some increased level of supply, and to reduce reliance upon countries between whom there may be a difficult relationship. For example, U.S. President Joe Biden is looking for $37 billion for legislation to boost chip manufacturing in the U.S. with a view to setting up four new factories in Arizona and Texas. Also, US sanctions have forced China to start investing heavily in its local tech companies such as Zhaoxin, Huawei, and SMIC to help deal with the shortage.
These developments will take time, and with the majority of 2021’s output already sold, it is anticipated that the shortage and many of its effects may carry on for another year.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
For any businesses that require semiconductor microchips for manufacturing, or for business that supply and sell goods and devices that include these chips, the near future may hold uncertainty and potentially damaging disruption and shortages which could impact upon operational decision-making, hit profits, and have a negative impact across supply chains.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that all UK Crypto-ATMs must be shut down. The FCA says this is because none of the cryptoasset firms registered with the FCA have been approved to offer crypto ATM services. The FCA says: “We regularly warn consumers that cryptoassets are unregulated and high-risk which means people are very unlikely to have any protection if things go wrong, so people should be prepared to lose all their money if they choose to invest in them.”
Following announcements that Twitter under Musk will generate revenue by blue tick subscriptions, we look at what this means and at the blue tick chaos that followed the announcement.
What Is this 'Blue Tick’ ?
Twitter’s paid-for Blue service, launched last year, is a subscription service – $7.99 (£6.99) per month in the US, also available in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and now in the UK since 10th November. Primarily, the Blue service is a way for users to verify (by use of a blue tick next to their name) that their account is genuine. The Blue service also gives subscribers other editing and customisation options that free accounts don’t have.
Why Blue Tik? Why The Need To Signal That An Account Is Genuine?
Back in 2021, the service was introduced following reports that perhaps as much as 19 per cent of Twitter accounts could be fake and untrustworthy. This problem appears to have persisted.
Back in June, for example, When Elon Musk was in the process of trying to buy (i.e. a takeover of) Twitter, he threatened to pull out of the sale over the amount of spam and fake accounts / bot accounts (not run by humans) which Twitter said made up 5 per cent of Twitter accounts.
These fake / bot accounts, and parody accounts are a problem, not just from Twitter’s (and Musk’s personal) point of view in that they affect the platform’s quality and could reduce value for money for advertisers but mainly because, from the user’s point of view, they are used to (for example) send adverts or scams to users, influence public debate by tweeting political propaganda, and generally spread disinformation.
What Should The Blue Service (Blue Tick) Provide?
Subscribers to Twitter’s Blue service should receive:
– The verifying tick next to the name in the user’s profile.
– The ability to edit their tweets, e.g. to correct typos or clarify meanings, up to five times within the first 30 minutes of tweeting. However, the tweet shows that it’s been edited and shows users the previous versions.
– An 'undo’ function which gives a short “cooling-off” period before a tweet goes live. This could, for example, be used to tag more people.
– The ability to change the colour of the app icon, change the general colour theme, and change the text size.
– The ability to upload longer (up to 10 minutes) and better-quality videos (1080p HD quality).
– The ability to use NFTs (non-fungible tokens) as profile photos, e.g. a piece of digital art they’ve purchased.
– Top Articles and priority ranking for subscribers. Users can use this section to see what which articles are creating a buzz.
Other points of interest about the blue tick system are:
– Whereas the old blue checkmark (prior to Musk taking over) indicated active, notable, and authentic accounts of public interest that had been independently verified by Twitter based on certain requirements, the new post-Musk blue checkmark could mean:
– Either that an account was verified under the previous verification criteria, or that the account has an active subscription to Twitter Blue.
– Accounts verified under the old system can keep their own blue badges.
There is also news that features coming soon to the Blue service will include fewer adverts, priority ranking in search, and mentions and replies for “quality content” posted by subscribers.
Backdrop Leading To Blue Service Chaos
Elon Musk’s Blue service introduction, however, has been born out of great change and turmoil for the social media platform which has led to a chaotic week for blue tick. Some of the turbulent backdrop which has fuelled the chaos includes:
– Musk’s $44 billion takeover leading to mass job cuts – Twitter cutting roughly 50 per cent of its workforce.
– Twitter top executives reportedly being sacked, i.e. Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadd.
– Fears that Twitter could change for the worse under Musk’s ownership, i.e. reinstating unpopular banned users and controversial figures and allowing the wrong kind of 'free speech’. Also, the dropping of thousands of (outsourced) content moderators have led to fears of a drop in quality and possible rise of misinformation.
– Elon Musk warning that Twitter could face bankruptcy unless more (non-advertising) revenue could be generated, e.g. by the Blue service.
– Elon Musk announcing that all but “exceptional” Twitter employees need to come back to working in the office for at least 40 hours per week or their resignation will be accepted.
– Reports that Twitter users are leaving the platform in protest over Musk’s ownership and moving to competing, and decentralised social network 'Mastodon.’
– America’s Federal Trade Commission warning that “no chief executive or company is above the law”, fears over Twitter’s approach to security, and questions about this in relation to possible Saudi involvement in the Twitter takeover.
Blue Chaos
It is against this backdrop that the introduction of the Blue service, a way to generate revenue at a time of falling ad sales, appeared to be in chaos as the following, and more, happened:
– A wave of blue tick verified (but fake) accounts impersonating influential brands and celebrities tweeting fake news plus having to be suspended and removed. Fake/parody accounts included those for Apple, Nintendo, BP, Chiquita, Mark Zuckerberg, President Joe Biden, Donald Trump, George W Bush, Tony Blair and, almost inevitably, fake Elon Musk and Tesla accounts.
– Reports that US far-right activists have been able to purchase Twitter blue ticks, and of accounts purchasing blue ticks using AI generated images of fake personalities.
– Confusion over the introduction of new grey “official” badges instead of blue ticks on some high-profile accounts, which were then suddenly scrapped by Elon Musk, only to be re-instated on some Twitter profiles.
– Some US users reporting that the Twitter Blue subscription system was no longer available to them.
– Elon Musk announcing that parody accounts would need to include parody in their name going forward.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
The takeover, the speed and apparently drastic nature of the job cuts (mass layoffs by email) and other changes and concerns about what Twitter could now become under the ownership of the controversial Elon Musk have created a turbulent environment in which to try and quickly introduce a new and apparently flawed blue tick service.
Falling ad revenues were the main reason for the introduction of the blue tick service as a much-needed extra source of revenue. However, an air of chaos and parody and fake accounts may have seriously dented confidence in blue tick, and it appears that a general unease about what Twitter will be under Musk may account for many users apparently switching to Mastodon. Given that Tesla’s fate may also be linked to the fate of Twitter, despite Musk optimistically tweeting that “Usage of Twitter continues to rise. One thing is for sure: it isn’t boring!”, chaos, turbulence, uncertainty, and security fears are not attractive to businesses (and advertisers), and news of brutal mass layoffs by email ordering people back to the office and acting too much like a billionaire are not attractive to many social media users.
Also, there is a fear that Twitter could now be much more easily exploited by bad actors to spread disruptive disinformation and other malicious activities. Events are still happening thick and fast at Twitter but for the time being, confidence in blue tick appears to have been seriously dented.
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Fenton Civil Engineering Ltd are a groundworks company based in Chesham, Buckinghamshire. The company works in the civil, residential and commercial sectors of the construction industry.
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Pure Resourcing Solutions are professional recruitment specialists for the East of England. They boast specialisms in accountancy, human resources, technology, marketing and office support.
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Chief Executive Officer, Pure Resourcing Solutions
Abacus Employment Services are a company focused on delivering excellent recruitment solutions. As well as offering 24/7 hour support to their clients, Abacus Employment Services also benefit from being the industry leader for both permanent and temporary staff.
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Sanctuary Personnel is a leading recruitment specialist with over 250 employees at their head office in Ipswich as well as offices nearby and in London.
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Cowells Arrow provides high quality gaming products and reliable service and pride themselves on being industry leaders for over 50 years.
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Warren Anthony Estate Agents was set up in 2003 and they have over 75 years combined experience.
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