Let's talk tech Thursday #18
Welcome to another edition of Let's talk tech Thursday, the newsletter that is never late, nor is it early, it arrives precisely when it means to.
This week we're looking at some implications of the Online Safety Act, and we spend a bit of time talking about Copilot. We also check in on the Post Office, a new research paper on AI vs Copyright, and what's going on with broadcast TV.
Let's dig in...
Top Stories
Reddit starts verifying ages of users in the UK
Summary
Reddit now checks users' ages in the UK to block under-18s from mature content. This follows new UK rules that require strong age verification on adult sites. Companies that ignore these rules risk big fines or having their sites blocked.
So what?
The next wave of Online Safety Act laws come into effect at the end of next week, and some online platforms are already rolling out their soon-to-be-mandatory age verification tools. Among them is 10th most popular social media platform Reddit.
They have opted to use third party company Persona to handle the verification in the UK. Among the "benefits" of this method, claims Reddit, is that it means they won't ever have access to the documents that users will be required to upload in order to prove their age.
This hasn't calmed critics down, as it still means that access to the platform will, in effect, require you to turn over government documents in order to take part in the debates on whether Kitchen Aids are better than Kenwood mixers (there is a right answer... shoutout to my KMix stans). With the seemingly exponential rise in cyber attack from even the most trusted of brand names, it seems like a big risk to take.
There is no doubt that the internet needs some help to become a safer and more child friendly space. So far though, there hasn't been an uncontroverisal way of making this happen. Reddit has opted for what is likely to be the most common way of moving forward - outsourcing the checks to a third party - but even if organisations opt to in-house it, are you going to trust Meta with your driver's license? No? What if you couldn't use WhatsApp if you didn't...?
San Francisco rolls out Microsoft’s Copilot AI for 30,000 city workers
Summary
San Francisco will give 30,000 city workers access to Microsoft Copilot, to help them work faster. The AI will assist with tasks like data analysis, report writing, and language translation. This move aims to improve city services and set an example for other cities worldwide.
So what?
In what is one of the largest public sector rollouts of GenAI in the world, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie hopes to save over 2,000 city workers an average of 5 hours a week.
There are some very clear wins that San Franciscan's could see here. One example given in the article is that there are over 40 languages spoken in San Francisco and not enough translators. Copilot can step in to help with some of the slack.
Beyond that, there are plenty of other low hanging fruit to be had, from data analysis to report writing.
Of course there are concerns. If Copilot turns out to be almost as good as human translators for a fraction of the cost, is it fiscally responsible for a public body to spend money "unnecessarily"? Sure, there are nuances involved in tasks like translation that AI will likely always struggle with, but are those edge cases enough to justify keeping people on the payroll?
But, if used in the right way, Copilot and other AI tools will undoubtedly be a huge relief for plenty of overworked government employees, and for now at least, the focus from Lurie seems to be on that.
OpenAI goes for Microsoft’s jugular — its Office productivity suite
Summary
OpenAI is planning a new productivity suite with built-in AI to compete directly with Microsoft 365. This suite may offer unique AI collaboration tools that change how documents are created and edited. Microsoft faces a challenge because OpenAI’s suite could be cheaper and more appealing to users than Microsoft’s costly AI add-ons.
So what?
Sticking with AI for another story. OpenAI is looking to expand its product line to an AI-first office suite. This would, they claim, give a much better experience for users than the bolted-on AI that we see with (e.g.) Microsoft Copilot.
Will it be successful? There's little else known yet, but for my money ChatGPT has long been better at dealing with spreadsheets than Microsoft has. Would that be enough to make people switch? I probably wouldn't, but I know plenty who might.
It's not the only thing in the news this week that hints at a fork in the road between the power couple that is Microsoft and OpenAI. OpenAI recently annouced that they would start to use Google Cloud for some of ChatGPT's compute power. They aren't the first non-Microsoft partner that OpenAI have worked with, but they are the most direct of Google's competitors.
What else is occuring?
Fujitsu outage crashes Post Office Horizon system
Thought we were done talking about Fujitsu and the Post Office? Think again. A major outage at a Fujitsu datacentre stopped Post Office branches from using the infamous Horizon system for hours this week. The Post Office themselves were quick to note that this wasn't a cyber related issue, and remind everyone that it plans to replace Horizon with new software by 2026.
A new research paper out of the European Union is the latest to weigh in on the AI/copyright "debate", and takes the radical view that treating silence as consent isn't the right way forward. It's a dense research paper (173 pages), but the key recommendations are to switch from an opt-out to an opt-in model, to improve safeguards for content creators, and to better pay them for their work. It remains to be seen whether the recommendations of a research report will make it into EU law, but it is - genuinely - an interesting read.
Broadcast Falls Below 20 Percent of TV Use for the First Time
Are we seeing the slow death of broadcast TV? Probably not. But viewership has dropped to below 20 percent for the first time since John Logie Baird did his thing. This is despite TV rising by 3 percent since last month (likely due to kids being on summer holidays). YouTube is still by far an away the most popular of the streaming platforms, taking nearly 13% of the streaming share compared to second place Netflix's 8.3%.
That's it for another week! Did you have a favourite tech story this week? Let me know!
In the meantime, have a great weekend, and I'll see you next week.
Will
