Apple roasts Microsoft for Windows Recall AI failure, Zuckerberg invests in British start-up
Apple has the proverbial knives out for Microsoft when it comes to AI, landing a blow over the recent backtracking with Windows 11’s Recall feature for Copilot+ PCs. You’ll likely have seen that Microsoft has had a turbulent time with Recall since announcing the feature, which takes regular screenshots of the activity on your PC to concoct a timeline searchable via AI – a powerful ability no doubt, but one which raised a whole bunch of security and privacy question marks. So much so that Microsoft pulled Recall from the launch of Copilot+ PCs, and put it back into testing for now. Tech Radar
The iOS 18 beta 1 has brought some of the promised new changes, but it doesn’t include ChatGPT access, or many of the Apple Intelligence features (though there are a few exceptions). Apple hasn’t revealed a precise timeline for each of the new features, likely wanting to avoid making promises it can’t keep, but there are some indications of what we can expect when … Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman provides a rundown of what he expects, based on a mix of parsing remarks Apple made during WWDC, and speaking with sources involved in Apple Intelligence development. 9to5Mac
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have snapped up a stake in a British start-up developing a screen-free audio player for children that has enjoyed booming popularity with parents. The Facebook billionaire’s investment fund, Chan Zuckerberg Ventures, joined an £18m funding round for Yoto – whose other shareholders include Sir Paul McCartney – that develops the Yoto Player. A Yoto spokesman said around $11m (£8.6m) in fresh cash came from the Facebook founder’s fund and other new investors. Telegraph
When hackers threatened to leak a film-maker’s nude photos stored on her stolen laptop, she turned the cameras on herself to document her ordeal. Spanish director Patricia Franquesa was sitting in a café in Madrid when thieves made off with her laptop in 2019. Three months later, hackers got in touch with her demanding money, threatening to leak the intimate photos she had stored on the device if she didn’t pay up. But in a situation where victims have such little control, she was able to document the whole episode on film from her perspective as it unfolded. BBC
Governments faced with economic upheaval caused by artificial intelligence should consider fiscal policies including taxes on excess profits and a green levy to atone for AI-related carbon emissions, according to the International Monetary Fund. The IMF said unlike previous technological breakthroughs such as the steam engine, generative AI – the term for computer systems such as ChatGPT that can produce convincing, human-like text, voices and images from simple hand-typed prompts – can spread “much faster” and advances in the technology are happening at “breakneck speed”. Guardian
