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Meta’s mounting troubles
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission accused Meta’s Facebook of misleading parents about protections for children and proposed tightening an existing agreement on privacy to include a ban on making money from minors’ data.
The proposed changes include stopping Facebook from making money off data collected on users under age 18, including in its virtual reality business, and limiting the use of facial recognition technology. Meta has already settled cases over privacy violations with the FTC two times before this.
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Bing chatbot gets smarter
Microsoft updated its Bing AI chatbot allowing users to conduct multi-chat/search sessions instead of a single session. The update also removes the wait list for users, bringing the chatbot to an open preview.
Microsoft is also opening up Bing to third-party developers, allowing the development and use of plug-ins. This will leverage third parties to bring features like booking a table at a restaurant and generating visual answers for complex human-curated data-based questions.
Layoffs reach Cognizant
IT services and consulting firm Cognizant may let go of 3,500 employees in a move to simplify operations and organise office space.
The cost for the entire programme in 2023 will be approximately $200 million and will include employee severance and other costs primarily related to non-billable and corporate personnel, the company said in a statement. Cognizant expects to see a slight decline in its second-quarter revenue. Its revenue of $4.8 billion declined 0.3% year-over-year.