Spotify slashes 1500 jobs, Google delays launch of Gemini AI robot
Swedish music-streaming giant Spotify has announced it is cutting 17% of its workforce, about 1,500 jobs, as the company seeks to clamp down on costs. Chief executive Daniel Ek said he had made the “difficult” decision with economic growth slowing “dramatically”. Spotify employs about 9,000 people, and Mr Ek said “substantial action to rightsize our costs” was needed for the company to meet its objectives. He added he understood the cuts would be “incredibly painful for our team”. “I recognize this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions”, Mr Ek said. BBC
As per the latest information pouring in, Google has delayed the launch of its next-gen AI chatbot, Gemini, and will keep it under wraps until next year. Notably, Google announced at I/O 2023 Gemini as its next-gen foundation model, and it was all set to debut next week. However, you will not see Gemini come out until January 2024. Gemini is said to be the most powerful conversational AI that Google has created. According to reports from The Information, this multimodal AI chatbot was supposed to grace the world next week with multiple events in California, New York, and Washington, where politicians and policymakers were also expected to be present. SamMobile
The end of the year is always a time to reflect, and the gaming industry is no different. The 10th annual Game Awards take place in Los Angeles on Thursday, 7 December, celebrating the best interactive entertainment released in 2023. It’s a smorgasbord of blockbuster sequels battling it out for best game, and we think it’s between Alan Wake 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3. Both were long in the making and took advantage of their lengthy development to upend fans’ expectations and achieve some of the highest review scores of the year. Sky News
Efforts to convince remote workers to return to corporate offices appear to have stalled, based on data from the government, academia, and private-sector organizations. Stanford economist Nick Bloom this week went so far as to declare the death of “return to the office” – a campaign backed by those with real-estate commitments, commercial landlords, and cities deprived of labor force spending to undo the pandemic-driven pragmatism of working from home. “Levels of WFH [working from home] were falling throughout 2020 to 2022, and office occupancy was rising,” Bloom wrote earlier this week. “That trend ended in 2023, with both now pancake-flat. Return to the Office is dead.”
The compact new Urban Crossover concept is one of five new electric cars that Toyota will launch in Europe within the next two years. Positioned as a rival to the likes of the Jeep Avenger and Mini Aceman, it arrives as the Japanese firm accelerates the expansion of its electric car line-up in the run-up to 2026. That’s when Toyota will begin launching an all-new family of cars atop the modular architecture that it revealed in October, with next-generation batteries that dramatically boost range and efficiency. The Register
Scientists have developed a laser camera that can read a person’s heartbeat at a distance and pinpoint signs that they might be suffering from cardiovascular illnesses. The system – which exploits AI and quantum technologies – could transform the way we monitor our health, say researchers at Glasgow University. “This technology could be set up in booths in shopping malls where people could get a quick heartbeat reading that could then be added to their online medical records,” said Professor Daniele Faccio of the university’s Advanced Research Centre. The Guardian
