In his first testimony before Congress this morning, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew faced criticism and calls for a U.S. ban of the app. Chew made his first appearance before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Thursday, where he attempted to convince lawmakers that TikTok is safe. The video-sharing app is owned by China-based ByteDance, which is required under law to share data with Beijing if requested to do so. More: - U.S. lawmakers and federal agencies are worried that TikTok may be forced to share its U.S. user data with the Chinese government or be used for influence operations. They are also concerned about the app's effects on children and teenagers.
- Chew attempted to assuage those concerns. On Thursday, he argued that divesting the U.S. app from ByteDance would not offer added security or protection over another plan that the company has proposed to safeguard U.S. user data.
- "TikTok itself is not available in mainland China, we’re headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore, and we have 7,000 employees in the U.S. today," he said.
- U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the committee chair, told Chew that TikTok "should be banned" and "when you celebrate the 150 million American users on TikTok, it emphasizes the urgency for Congress to act."
- Rep. Frank Pallone was skeptical that TikTok's security plans would be effective, saying he believes "the Beijing communist government will still control and have the ability to influence what you do."
Zoom Out: - Earlier this month, the U.S. government called on ByteDance to sell its stake in the U.S. version of the app or face a ban.
- Hours before Chew's testimony, China's government said it would vehemently oppose a forced sale of TikTok.
- A Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson argued that the move would “seriously damage the confidence of investors from all over the world, including China, to invest in the United States."
USA TODAY 
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Apple may bid for the streaming rights to broadcast English soccer games in the U.K., according to Bloomberg sources. The company is considering obtaining rights to stream games from the Premier League and the lower-ranked English Football League. More: - Currently, the Premier League has deals with multiple entities, including Amazon, to show lives games through the 2024-2025 season.
- The League's domestic rights from 2022 through 2025 totaled $6.3B.
- Apple's bid would add to its sports content as it seeks to attract and retain viewers to it Apple TV+ streaming service.
- The company recently launched Major League Soccer (MLS) streaming services in the U.S.
- Apple's deal with MLS extends over the next 10 years and is valued at around $250 million annually.
Zoom Out: - A separate Bloomberg report says Apple is planning to spend $1B a year to produce films for theatrical release.
BLOOMBERG
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 A message from CONSTRUCTOR Future-proof your ecommerce shopping experiences using AI-first search and product discovery Success in 2023 will demand that you protect revenue centers while staying agile enough to keep pace with global trends and evolving consumer needs. But how? Creating an eye-catching, up-to-date, and revenue-driving digital shelf often requires a lot of manual work that many ecommerce teams don't have. The answer lies in ecommerce-first, glass-box AI technology. Over 75% of consumers are unsatisfied with the personalized interactions ecommerce companies offer. AI can help solve that.
Over 40% of merchandising and ecommerce teams spend 20+ hours per week on manual activities. AI can help reduce that. AI is the competitive edge that retailers and brands are turning to for: - reducing manual merchandising activities
- hyper-personalizing online shopping experiences
- linking real-time physical and digital product discovery
Learn why AI is just one of the 4 essential strategies found in The 2023 Ecommerce Playbook to succeed in challenging times. Find Out Now
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IT and consulting giant Accenture plans to cut 2.5% of its workforce, or about 19,000 jobs, over the next 18 months as it seeks to reduce costs. More than half of the affected employees will be in non-billable corporate roles, according to the company's SEC quarterly report. More: - Accenture has slashed its annual revenue and profit forecasts and plans to spend $1.2B on severance payouts for laid-off employees.
- It's also planning to consolidate office space, a move expected to cost $300M.
- While the tech behemoth continues to hire for certain roles, it said it has initiated various actions to streamline operations and "transform our non-billable corporate functions to reduce costs."
Zoom Out: - The moves suggest that corporate spending on IT services is slowing down significantly as the economic outlook worsens.
- Consulting giant and Accenture rival KPMG is cutting nearly 2% of its U.S. workforce, while McKinsey is expected to eliminate the positions of 2,000 non-consulting staff, one of its biggest layoffs ever.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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Celebrities including Lindsay Lohan and Jake Paul have agreed to pay a collective $400,000 to settle SEC charges claiming that they promoted crypto investments without the proper disclosure. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged eight celebrities with "illegally touting" the tokens known as Tronix and BitTorrent. More: - Six of the celebrities have now agreed to pay fines to settle the charges, without admitting fault.
- Lohan, for example, has agreed to pay $30,000 in fines plus $10,000 in earnings, while Paul will pay $75,000 in fines in addition to the $25,000 he earned.
- The tokens come from cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun, who also faces SEC charges accusing him of securities law violations.
- In its complaint, the SEC says Sun's companies — BitTorrent Foundation, Tron Foundation, and Rainberry — offered up digital currencies without the proper registration. Sun is also accused of manipulative trading practices.
- The SEC claims Sun paid the celebrities millions of dollars to endorse the unregistered offerings while telling them not to disclose their compensation.
THE WASHINGTON POST
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 A message from FORTE GROUP ChatGPT, "when it comes to whether 'ilities' should be prioritized in software engineering, who is right, the CTO or the CEO?" To learn the answer firsthand, join Forte Group on March 30th, 2023, for a virtual panel discussion, "The balance between business expectations and CTOs' software sustainability needs." A panel on how CTOs balance and prioritize non-functional requirements into their roadmap. We have lined up seasoned professionals in the room who drive the evolution from agile, excellent cloud migration, and test-driven-development to become what we refer to as modern engineering. Our expert panel, composed of experienced CTOs and business leaders and our special guest ChatGPT, will share their thoughts on 7 "ilities" that continue to be the source of conversation within engineering circles: - Usability
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Take the opportunity to learn from experts in the field and gain valuable insights into the latest engineering trends! Register Now
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Snapchat's parent company has formed a new division to help businesses develop augmented reality (AR) tools and apps for immersive customer experiences. Snap will sell its AR technologies to business customers through its new AR Enterprise Services unit for the first time. More: - The venture's first product, Shopping Suite, offers technologies for companies to develop features that let customers try on clothes virtually or view products in 3D.
- Users can also upload photos of themselves to see how certain products look on their bodies using AR.
- The first customers of the services include Goodr, Princess Polly, and Gobi Cashmere.
- AR Enterprise Services includes technologies gained through Snap's recent Vertebrae, Fit Analytics, and Forma acquisitions.
Zoom Out: - Snap says more than 250 million users engage with AR features daily on Snapchat, which claims 375 million daily active users.
THE VERGE
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Nvidia announced new cloud services for businesses to create and deploy their own AI models. "We are at the iPhone moment for AI," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said. More: - Morningstar, Shutterstock, and Getty Images are among the companies using the services.
- Called Nvidia AI Foundations, the services allow companies to build and use AI models based on their own data and needs.
- It includes the NeMo language service and the Picasso image, video, and 3D service, which will allow businesses to build generative AI apps for content creation, chat and customer support, and more.
- The services also include Nvidia BioNeMo, which offers generative AI for use in areas like drug discovery and biological research.
- The NeMo and Picasso services run on Nvidia's newly launched DGX cloud service, which allows companies to access its AI supercomputers and software via a web browser to train AI models.
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- An apparent bug has caused the playlists and songs of other users to appear on the Apple Music iOS app for some customers. Some playlists have also disappeared altogether, according to 9to5Mac.
- WhatsApp launched a new Windows desktop client that supports video calls with up to eight participants and audio calls with up to 32 participants, among other upgrades.
- Firefox organization Mozilla is launching a startup to build an open-source and "trustworthy" AI ecosystem.
- Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research and Heidelberg University have developed a "touchless 3D printing" concept that utilizes acoustic holograms.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. She has written the Inside AI newsletter since 2019. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. |   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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