Apple and Amazon layoffs, ChatGPT getting banned, Elon Musk strikes again

Here is a roundup of the tech news that you may have missed this week.

Apple and Amazon staff laid off

Job layoffs in the tech industry seem to be the norm these days, with Apple and Amazon being the latest companies to do so.

What's surprising is that this will be Apple's first round of layoffs. Compared to past layoffs from their competitors like Amazon, Google, Meta and also Microsoft, Apple has shown no inkling of following suit and was believed to be relatively safe, until now.

That being said, reports say that the number of jobs affected by the layoffs "is likely very small".

Meanwhile, Amazon has also laid off about 100 employees in their Gaming division.

Those that were reportedly affected are from Amazon's Prime Gaming division, Game Growth division and Amazon Games' San Diego studio.

Amazon has only released one game officially in their efforts to enter the gaming market, which is New World. Even then, the game had pressing issues like setting graphics cards on fire.

The company had another game in their pocket, Crucible, but only months after its launch, Amazon decided to 'unlaunch' the game and subsequently cancelled it.

Amazon is also the parent company of streaming giant, Twitch.

ChatGPT banned in Italy, other countries considering the same

We can all agree that ChatGPT is one of the most innovative tech to be made public recently, being able to do a lot of tasks, especially with the release of OpenAI's newest version, the GPT-4.

But there is one thing that still stands out in its system, or at least Italy thinks so; collection of personal data, which has led the country to ban ChatGPT, effective immediately.

Although it isn't a permanent ban for now, Italy's data protection authority has raised concerns of unlawful collection of personal data by OpenAI.

The authority has said that there is no legal basis to justify "the mass collection and storage of personal data for the purpose of 'training' the algorithms underlying the operation of the platform".

Beyond Italy, Germany is also looking to ban the AI chatbot. The German commissioner for data protection has said that the country's regulators have been in communication with their Italian counterparts following Italy's ban.

Elon Musk does Elon Musk things to Twitter......again

The week wouldn't be complete without some news about Elon Musk and his shenanigans on Twitter.

We all know Twitter's iconic logo, the blue bird.

It makes sense as a logo because birds 'tweet' — letting out a small little chirp, which is basically what Twitter is all about.

On 3 April, Elon Musk decided to change the logo to the infamous Doge picture. If you aren't aware of what Doge is, it is essentially a picture of a Shiba Inu dog named Kabosu that lives in Japan.

That picture became a meme because of its facial expression when the picture was taken. It doesn't stop there.

In the crypto world, there also exists Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that utilises the likeness of Kabosu as its picture. Much like the meme, it was supposed to be a joke cryptocurrency.

But because of Elon Musk and his obsession with the coin, it has become somewhat valuable in the world of crypto.

In fact, after changing Twitter's logo to that of Doge, Dogecoin once again rose in value, adding US$4 billion to its market value.

Elon Musk still hasn't explained his actions at the time this article's writing.

Asus's ROG Ally is taking on the Steam Deck

The Steam Deck has taken the world by storm, being one of the most popular handheld consoles the past year.

Although still having a long way to go to beat the sales of something like the Nintendo Switch, its popularity definitely surpassed Valve's expectations as it constantly sees shortages ever since its launch in 2022.

And much like a PC, the Steam Deck runs all kinds of games that are in your Steam launcher. The games can be played anywhere, and the system is not proprietary to a single console, as opposed to something like the Switch.

This can also mean that other peripheral manufacturers are able to build their 'own version' of the Steam Deck, and this is what ASUS pulled out of their pocket this week.

The ASUS ROG Ally was revealed recently by tech YouTubers Linus Tech Tips and Dave2D.

Although the product isn't final and they weren't allowed to show much of the internals and specifications, the ROG Ally seems to have a lot of upgrades over the Steam Deck, like the 1080p 120hz screen and a new chip by AMD. ASUS claims that it has double the performance of the Steam Deck.

There is still no official release date for the product yet, but rumours have speculated that it will be out for purchase in October 2023.

Dominic loves tech and games. When he is not busy watercooling his computer parts, he does some pro wrestling.

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