Following are a handful of stories from around the tech world for this week 17-23 December 2022.
Elon Musk poll and the results
On Sunday December 18 Elon Musk asked the Twitter users if he should step down as the head of the company, promising to abide by the results of his poll. The poll closed Monday at 13:00 GMT+2 and 57.5% of more than 17 million voters said he should step down. Musk did not tweet in the immediate hours after the poll. His silence was finally broken when he responded with “Interesting” to multiple suggestions that the results of the poll were skewed by fake accounts.
He also replied to another user’s suggestion that “Blue subscribers should be the only ones that can vote in policy related polls”, Musk said: “Good point. Twitter will make that change.” Twitter Blue is a paid-for subscription meaning that anyone can buy a blue tick verified badge for their account.
As the majority owner of Twitter, no one can force Musk to step out, but a series of baffling decisions over the past few days has caused even some of his closest backers to break ties with him. The idea of stepping down as CEO had also been hinted at long before the Twitter poll was published. On 16 November, Elon Musk told a Delaware judge that he planned to reduce his time at Twitter and “find somebody else to run Twitter over time”.
EU Charges Meta with Anti-Trust Violations
Meta Platforms Inc. is yet again in the crosshairs of governmental regulatory bodies. The European Union (EU) has accused the company of unfairly tying its online classified ad service to the Facebook social network.
The European Commission, announced on Monday that the U.S. tech company automatically gives Facebook users access to its Marketplace service, potentially pushing aside competing classified-ad services.
According to the commission, the company’s terms and conditions authorize Meta to use advertising data from third parties to benefit its Marketplace service. The charge is the result of an investigation into Meta that began in 2021. Meta could face a fine worth as much as $11.8 billion if it is found guilty of the charges.
North Carolina restaurant has hired its first robot employee
A restaurant in Wilmington, North Carolina recently hired its first robot staff member. The Italian restaurant aRtisano Pizza & Gelato welcomed its newest employee, a robot named Chris. The robot was developed by Bear Robotics and more specifically by an engineer that previously worked for Google and has since launched the California-based company. The robot Chris can deliver orders, assist with hosting, sing to restaurant patrons, and busses tables.
Even though people are afraid of robots taking over our jobs and soon firing human employees, the owner of the restaurant Nigel Langstone explained that this is not the case here. Langstone wants to clarify that Chris is not coming for anyone’s job, he is trying to ease the stress on his restaurant employees.
