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Twitter held another round of layoffs over the weekend, impacting 200 employees. The job cuts, announced late on Saturday, affected about 10% of Twitter's remaining workforce of 2,300 people. New owner Elon Musk has since told the company's remaining employees that Twitter will grant them “very significant” performance-based stock awards in late March. More: - Those who lost their jobs include product managers, engineers, and data scientists, including those who specialized in site reliability and machine learning.
- Twitter cut its monetization infrastructure team from 30 employees to fewer than eight.
- Twitter product manager Esther Crawford, who oversaw the company's Blue subscription redesign and upcoming payments platform, was let go, as was senior product manager Martijn de Kuijper, founder of the Revue newsletter startup acquired by Twitter in 2021.
- The job cuts come after Twitter took its internal Slack offline, barring employees from communicating via the messaging service.
Zoom out: - Twitter has reduced its workforce from more than 7,500 employees to roughly 2,000 since Elon Musk took over in late October.
- The CEO has said that he instituted the layoffs and other cost-cutting measures to avert a projected $3B budget shortfall.
THE NEW YORK TIMES 
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Canada will soon become the latest jurisdiction to bar civil employees from using TikTok on government-issued devices. A government memo cited concerns over the "security and protection of government information systems and networks" that will result in an upcoming ban of the app. More: - According to a memo, Canada's government conducted a review and found that TikTok’s data collection may leave its users "vulnerable to cyber attacks.”
- Canadian officials are concerned that China's government could gain access to Canadian citizens' data via TikTok.
- According to the memo, TikTok's parent company ByteDance is "located in China, which has laws that force companies to share data with authorities when requested."
- The ban is expected to take effect on March 1.
Zoom out: - The U.S. federal government and multiple states have also banned TikTok on government-issued mobile devices.
- Last week, the European Commission barred employees from using TikTok on their corporate phones. The EU's executive arm also cited security threats that could lead to cyberattacks.
ENGADGET
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 Chinese phone maker Xiaomi unveiled prototype augmented reality (AR) glasses during today's Mobile World Congress trade show. The Xiaomi Wireless AR Glass Discovery Edition remains a concept for now, though Xiaomi could choose to sell the glasses as a consumer product in the future. More: - The compact glasses use Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 1, the same XR chipset found in Meta's Quest Pro headset.
- The glasses connect to smartphones wirelessly. They weigh 4.4 ounces and contain microOLED displays and light-guiding prisms for image re-creation.
- The device supports hand and finger tracking. For example, users could slide their thumb or their index finger to tell the device to enter or exit an application.
- While the glasses blend the real and digital worlds using AR technology, they also offer a "blackout mode" for a more immersive VR-like experience.
Zoom Out: - Xiaomi has also announced the global release of its 13 and 13 Pro flagship smartphones, which work with the AR glasses.
- Other Chinese firms with AR devices include TCL and Oppo, which showed off its Air Glass augmented reality headset last summer.
MASHABLE
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 New emoji combinations in Gboard Google is rolling out new features for Android phones, Chromebooks, and smartwatches running Wear OS. The nine new updates and features, unveiled during today's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, are designed to improve productivity, accessibility, and connectivity, according to Google. More: - For Android, the new features include freehand annotation for PDFs on Google Drive, Chrome page zoom, and new tap-to-pay animations, such as "cheerful pengiuns," in Google Wallet.
- The company is introducing new emoji combinations to its Emoji Kitchen feature in Gboard.
- Soon, Google will offer Fast Pair support on Chromebooks, enabling a one-tap connection of Bluetooth headphones to laptops and tablets running ChromeOS.
- Over the next few months, it plans to launch a new Google Keep single note widget and new shortcuts for smartwatches running Wear OS, which will also get new sound and display modes.
ENGADGET
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Autonomous drone manufacturer Skydio announced a $230M financing deal that gives the startup a valuation above $2.2B. Skydio, the largest drone manufacturer in the U.S., supplies it UAVs to more than half of state transportation departments, all branches of the U.S. military, and more than 200 public safety agencies in most states. More: - The Ukrainian military is also using Skydio drones to inspect building damages, view terrain before deploying troops, and gather evidence related to war crimes.
- Skydio's enterprise customer base now covers more than 1,200 clients, including Dominion Energy Inc. and a Shell USA contractor.
- The San Mateo, California-based said the new funding will go toward new hires and an expansion of its manufacturing facility that will grow capacity by over 10x.
- The Series E round was led by Linse Capital, which was joined by existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Next47, IVP, DoCoMo, NVIDIA, the Walton Family Foundation, and UP.Partners. New investors included Hercules Capital and Taser maker Axon.
- Skydio has raised $562M to date.
BLOOMBERG
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Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group, and other banks have restricted employees' access to OpenAI's ChatGPT app. JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank, was among the first banks to ban ChatGPT access among its global workforce. More: - Bank of America has now added ChatGPT to its list of unauthorized apps. The banking giant told staff that ChatGPT and OpenAI in general are barred from business use.
- Meanwhile, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs Group have all banned the AI chatbot via an automatic restriction on third-party software.
- Deutsche Bank has also removed employees' access to ChatGPT.
Zoom Out: - The banking industry may be especially concerned about workers using third-party AI software such as ChatGPT because it could result in data and information leaks, potentially breaching government regulations.
RETAIL BANKER INTERNATIONAL
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Community Corner I'm Kiani from Inside.com! Last week, we asked our community, "If you could design your own tech device, what would it be and how would it work?" Here are some highlighted responses we received: - Alicia Green (p/aliciaagreen), Brand Strategist at Hendricks Drive, answered, “I would love to design a device that could detect signs of depression in its early stages. This would help improve early intervention, and help stifle the rate of suicide among all populations.”
- Yansi Fugel (p/YANSI--FUGEL), Founder/Designer at TuxCouture by Yansi Fugel, answered, “a business solution for the fashion industry! a downloadable app that does body scan and gives ACCURATE measurements for tailored garments. (been researching this for several years, but nothing yet...) then, once this is perfected, it creates a 3D avatar to try on what is being made before production begins … a perfect fit for the client!”
- David Gastelum (p/dashqrcodes), Founder at DASH, answered, “ARVR headset that lets you interact with your deceased loved one: go for a hike, walk, run, play video games…
Join the conversations at Inside.com, and we may shout out your name and business, or contact you for more! ⭐️
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- Data analysis company Palantir Technologies Inc. said it is cutting 2% of its workforce, or about 75 jobs, after announcing its first profitable period in Q4.
- Chinese phone maker Honor said it will launch its Magic Vs foldable smartphone in the U.K. in June. The phone will retail for $1,690 in Europe.
- On Friday, the Federal Trade Commission voted to withdraw its remaining effort to block Meta Platforms' purchase of VR startup Within Unlimited, officially ending the case.
- Media company Red Ventures is planning to reinstate the use of AI to assist in content generation at CNET.
- Developer Select Button plans to release the "Pokémon Sleep" mobile game sometime this summer. The sleep tracker categorizes a user as "dozing, snoozing, or slumbering" and unlocks Pokémon with similar sleep types.
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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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