Other tech news headlines
January 2023 round-up
In other tech news from January of 2023, issues were wide and varied, covering items including artificial intelligence’s impact on employment, the issues and opportunities presented by ChatGPT, the launch of the Open Metaverse Foundation, a central bank digital currency for Mexico, and many more.
Also featured here are the ‘quieter’ tech locations in Asia, in terms of English-language online media coverage in January 2023:
Malaysia: January 2023 | New Zealand: January 2023
And for our other editions, spanning daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly updates on Asia’s technology spaces, here’s an outline.
Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence in the Asia Pacific Region
- Microsoft’s VALL-E launches with AI-driven voice reproductions based on as little as 3 seconds of audio
- Safe City Malta project apparently discontinued with Huawei contract expiry, and Maltese state-owned implementation firm dissolved
- LA’s Spatial Labs aims to bridge physical and digital fashion with microchip verification of authenticity and ownership via blockchain
- “In the next 5 years, it is likely that AI will begin to reduce employment for college-educated workers…will be able to perform tasks that were previously thought to require a high level of education and skill.”
“Artificial intelligence developed by startup company DoNotPay will defend two speeding offences in court in the US in the coming weeks.”
- “CBDCs are a huge undertaking. Many of the motivations for doing it are very poor and there are a lot of risks.”
- ChatGPT on ChatGPT: “The potential implications of this technology for cybersecurity are alarming.”
- Google Research and DeepMind launched MedPaLM, a large language model aligned to the medical domain, continuing ongoing moves towards better diagnostics
- Meta acquires Holland’s Luxexcel, startup producing 3D-printed smart-capable prescription lenses as part of AR moves
- Startup Weekend Global 2022 Web3 Edition takes place thru to March 4th, with Metaverse, NFT, DeFi and gaming streams
- L’Oreal takes minority investment in Digital Village metaverse platform and NFT marketplace, marking VC fund’s inaugural investment in the space and the first under Female Founders initiative
- The Open Metaverse Foundation has been launched by the Linux Foundation for collaboration on developing open-source software and standards for an inclusive, vendor-neutral, scalable Metaverse
- Mexico’s proposed central bank digital currency, Banxico, unlikely to meet 2024 launch date, with work ongoing on legal, administrative and technological requirements
NFTs as securities: “It’s inevitable and desirable, especially because once the SEC understands how the NFT market works, it’s likely to regulate with a light touch.”
- Pillz raises pre-seed funding from Xsolla gaming payments platform with ‘wearable NFTs’, allowing display on necklaces, bracelet, keychain and other accessories
- China: Researchers’ paper claiming to have found a way to break encryption using quantum computers? Debunked.
- CTIA Wireless Foundation Catalyst competition’s 4th edition now open for applications, seeking social entrepreneurs using 5G and leading-edge wireless tech to address challenges in American communities
- Highline Beta and Avery Dennison partner for AD Stretch Cohort 2, equity-free, funded pilot accelerator for startups with solutions in packaging and sustainability
- Startup 20 Engagement Group to hold inaugural meeting under India’s G20 presidency, aiming to ‘create a global narrative for supporting startups’
“More than a thousand students and recent graduates in the US were surveyed about their career ambitions in the Future Workforce Study. Only 16% of them said they would consider taking a job at a startup or small company…”
- Supply chains and ‘friend shoring’: Sectors to watch, via Atlantic Council
- Norway’s DNV maritime organizations hit by ransomware attack, forcing shut-down of ShipManager system and affecting near 1000 vessels
- OpenAI and hacking: “…lowering the bar for code generation can help less-skilled threat actors effortlessly launch cyber-attacks…”
- Android Auto unveils updates, focusing on navigation, communication and in-car entertainment
- WhatsApp, Meta/Facebook end-to-end encrypted messenger to expand anti-censorship capability with proxy feature, allowing bypassing of state-level blocking
- Qualcomm chipmaker unveils satellite connectivity chip for next-gen Android smartphones, Snapdragon Satellite, providing messaging in partnership with Iridium satellite operator
- US Supreme Court may reconsider key tenets of ‘net speech – that platforms decide what to keep online or remove without gov’t oversight and that platforms can’t be held legally responsible for user posts
“…45% of ‘citizen’ project managers say they manage projects simply because their supervisor asked them to, which points to the ad-hoc nature of this responsibility.”
- Are Google Ads trustworthy? “Security experts say caution should be exercised when clicking on adverts at the top of the search engine’s home page.”
- “Fake bylines. Content farming. Affiliate fees. What happens when private equity takes over a storied news site and milks it for clicks?”
- Microsoft working to launch a version Bing search engine using AI behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT, seeing opportunity to better compete with Google
- Semiconductor-related funding in December 2022: “December saw 6 rounds of $100M or more. The largest…half-billion dollars…in China.”
Autonomous vehicle accidents: “With unclear legislation, it’s hard to rule whether the liability for the accident should be assigned to the driver, the vehicle owner, or the manufacturer.”
- Asia’s tech news to Jan 3 2023: Alt-protein in Thailand; e-CNY red packets in China; TSMC’s moves into Germany; South Korea’s Indo-Pacific Strategy tensions; Muslims in the metaverse; and more…
- Asia’s tech news, weekly to Jan 10th: Sharing-economy surgery in Thailand; Korean sports-tech analytics; Dell’s blow to China-made chips; Animoca’s Web3 fund; Asia’s agri-tech…
- Asia’s tech news, weekly to Jan 17: Overseas Indians & UPI; Hong Kong’s Web3 ambitions; YouTube & rural Indonesia; Japan joins US for cyber defense; private space launch in China; Taiwan’s satellite moves…
- Asia’s tech news, weekly to Jan 24th: Tesla in Indonesia, Australia’s batteries opportunity, state-owned ride-hailing in China, big data and Philippines’ fisheries, Cambodia’s startup scene, iris scan payments in India…
- Asia’s tech news weekly, Jan 31st: Nat’l Australia Bank ‘green stablecoin’, China’s EV bid for London’s black cabs, Malaysian no-code metaverse builder, India and lithium-ion batteries…
2022 Annual Metaverse Virtual Real Estate Report
Malaysia in January 2023
- Malaysia’s HelloGold, Shariah-compliant app for buying, saving and selling gold, to shut down operations in home country and in Thailand from February 2nd
- Malaysia: Virtualtech Frontier gains new funding with services including Mitoworld no-code metaverse platform, enabling creation of metaverses for other businesses
New Zealand in January 2023
IMF: Towards Central Bank Digital Currencies in Asia and the Pacific
More of Asia’s tech news headlines
The monthly collections listed by country, above, are drawn from our daily Asia tech news updates, which go out on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and via mobile app.
We also deliver weekly updates in newsletter formats, via LinkedIn and Substack; and each of those also provides our tech newsletters in web format, for reading online.
Beyond these, we also produce quarterly collections, gathering a jurisdiction’s technology news into 3-monthly digests each year.
Accenture: Digital Assets – Unclaimed Territory in Asia
