Consumer Tech News Highlights (Oct 21-Oct 25): Legal Action Against AI Firm, Streaming and Gaming Updates

Rupert Murdoch's Dow Jones and the New York Post have initiated legal proceedings against Jeff Bezos-backed AI firm Perplexity, alleging unauthorized use of their content and redirection of traffic to its platforms.

Entertainment News

The Walt Disney Company has made a notable decision to stop allowing customers to subscribe to Hulu and Disney+ through Apple Inc.’s App Store. This move is aimed at avoiding the in-app purchase fees imposed by the iPhone maker.

In a significant change regarding its gaming efforts, Netflix, Inc. has closed its Southern California AAA game studio known as Team Blue. This marks a pivotal shift in the company's approach to gaming.

Gaming Developments

Ahead of the upcoming release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Microsoft Corporation through its Activision division has introduced a new anti-cheat initiative that aims to remove players who cheat from the game within one hour of their first match.

Meanwhile, Insomniac Games announced that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will not be receiving any additional downloadable content, effectively disappointing fans hoping for more story expansions.

In another update, Tencent Holding Ltd. is scheduled to launch the global open beta for Delta Force: Hawk Ops on PC starting December 5.

Tech and Smartphone News

QUALCOMM Incorporated has recently unveiled its latest high-end smartphone System on Chip (SoC), the Snapdragon 8 Elite. This new chip introduces a new Oryon CPU along with enhanced AI capabilities.

However, QUALCOMM faces potential challenges as Arm Holdings plc has threatened to cancel its chip design license due to unspecified issues, giving QUALCOMM a notice period of 60 days.

In the realm of artificial intelligence, NVIDIA Corporation has quietly released a new AI model, Llama-3.1-Nemotron-70B-Instruct, which reportedly outperforms other competitors in benchmark tests.

In an event in Mumbai, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani spoke with NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang during the AI Summit India, discussing the country’s robust IT industry and the recent upskilling of 200,000 IT professionals to work with AI technologies.

In a related news, ByteDance Ltd., the parent company of TikTok, has recently dismissed an intern for allegedly disrupting the training of one of its AI models.

On a different note, Apple Inc. is reportedly scaling back production efforts for its $3,500 Vision Pro headset and is shifting its focus toward a more affordable model that is expected to launch in 2025.

Artificial Intelligence Updates

In the space of artificial intelligence, OpenAI rival Anthropic has announced an upgrade to its AI model Claude 3.5 Sonnet and introduced a new model called Claude 3.5 Haiku. The Sonnet version includes an innovative feature that enhances its ability to interact with computers in a more human-like manner.

Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, Inc., criticized Microsoft on social media for rebranding its Copilot feature as “agents.”

Lastly, Character.AI has issued a public apology following a tragic event involving a 14-year-old boy who had been using their chatbot. The company has recognized the seriousness of the situation and has announced updates to improve safety measures on their platform.

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