FTI Consulting News Bytes – 24th February 2023

This week’s news

Big Tech to pay for our internet?

Reuters reported on Thursday that the European Commission launched a consultation on the future of Europe’s telecoms sector, starting a process that could lead to requiring Alphabet’s Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Netflix to pay some network costs. For over two decades, telecoms operators including the likes of Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica and Orange have lobbied for leading technology companies to contribute to 5G and broadband roll-out. For added context, telco operators argue that Big Tech companies account for more than half of data internet traffic, while EU industry chief Thierry Breton cited the heavy investments required to roll out 5G and broadband but said he was not targeting any company. On the other hand, tech firms have in response called this an internet tax that will undermine EU network neutrality rules to treat all users equally. The 12-week consultation will end on May 19.

Rise of the robo-housekeeper

This week, the BBC reported that 65 artificial intelligence experts have predicted that within a decade, around 39% of the time spent on housework and caring for loved ones – could be automated. We have already seen the advent of the robot vacuum cleaner, which fast became the most widely produced and sold robot in the world, but experts say far more is to come, predicting that grocery shopping was next to see the most automation. The rise of robot solutions for household and care-rearing activities has led researchers to pose the question of how quickly will these domestic helpers make human domestic workers, redundant? Dr Kate Devlin, a rider in AI and Society at Kings College London suggests that we won’t see this extreme overhaul, noting that it’s difficult and expensive to make a robot do multiple general tasks – and instead, it is more useful and cost-effective to create assistive technology that helps us rather than replaces us.

Pay as you Insta

Meta will launch a paid subscription service that allows Facebook and Instagram users to verify their accounts for up to $14.99 a month, the Financial Times reports. The new feature, called Meta Verified, lets users “get a blue badge, get extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you, and get direct access to customer support”, according to a Facebook post by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It will cost $11.99 for web access or $14.99 a month on Apple’s iOS operating system and on Android. Meta Verified will be rolled out first in Australia and New Zealand this week, the post said. Last year, messaging group Snap launched its own subscription model called Snapchat Plus, which costs $3.99 a month and gives users exclusive access to new features such as longer story expiration and custom notification sounds.

Broadband as a right for all

Broadband should be made more accessible to those on benefits, experts told the Lords Digital Committee’s digital exclusions hearing, the BBC reports. The cost-of-living crisis has continued to push economically vulnerable households to the margins of society. With more people facing digital exclusion in an increasingly digital-first world, experts have urged for greater action on promoting the availability of cheaper ‘social’ tariffs for people accessing benefits. At present, only 3.2% of people that qualify for social tariffs use them – with most not recognising they are an option. Taking social tariffs one step further, industry groups have urged the government to demonstrate its commitment to increasing the accessibility to broadband by exempting it from VAT, such is the case with other utilities including water and energy.

AI wreaks havoc in the publishing world

The Guardian reports that Clarkesworld, one of the most prestigious publishers of science fiction short stories, has closed its submissions portal after being flooded with a deluge of AI-generated pitches. With the onset of ChatGPT in December 2022 came the rise of opportunists identifying a get-rich-quick loophole of utilising AI to mass generate short stories. Clarkesworld lamented that generative AI detectors were unreliable in spotting the fakes, which leads us to question how do we stop AI from hindering us, but instead, solely helping us? The unrest is spreading far and wide, going beyond the publishing industry. Elsewhere, the Colorado State Fair recently revealed it had been duped into awarding the first prize in its ‘emerging digital artists’ category, to an artist that had created the submitted image with an AI image generation tool.

Top Tweets of the Week

• Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft, tweeted one of this week’s most popular tweets (109k likes), announcing that Microsoft had signed a binding 10-year contract to bring Xbox games to Nintendo gamers.
• Vice journalist, Joseph Cox, tweeted a video of him using an AI replica of his voice to break into his bank. The replica was so realistic that it successfully tricked the bank into thinking it was talking to a real person.
• Jonathan Haidt, Social Psychologist at NYU-Stern tweeted that his research found that social media causes mental illness, especially in girls and when used heavily.

Number of the Week

According to telecoms regulator Ofcom, more than 9.1 million UK households (32%) were having problems paying for their phone, broadband, pay-TV and streaming bills when figures were compiled in October 2022, more than double the level of April 2021.

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