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Almost 20 years in, Facebook is still growing. The social network now has 2 billion daily active users, Meta reported alongside its fourth-quarter earnings. The report marks the first time Facebook, which added 16 million users last quarter, has reached 2 billion daily users.

While Facebook isn’t the first Meta-owned platform to reach 2 billion daily users — WhatsApp recently crossed 2 billion DAUs — it does show that the company’s biggest source of ad revenue is still growing, even while Meta has made significant cuts to its business in recent months. CEO Mark Zuckerberg alluded to the company’s recent restructuring, which resulted in the elimination of more than 11,000 jobs, saying in a statement that “our management theme for 2023 is the ‘Year of Efficiency.’”

But while Meta’s revenue has shrunk over the last year, the company’s $32.2 billion in revenue for the last quarter of 2022 was still slightly better than expected even as it was down 4 percent from last year.

During a call with analysts, Zuckerberg suggested that Meta will continue to make cuts as it prioritizes efficiency. “We’re going to be more proactive about cutting projects that aren’t performing or may no longer be as crucial,” he said. The CEO also said that generative AI would be a priority for Meta in the year ahead.

“Generative AI is an extremely exciting new area with so many different applications,” Zuckerberg said. “And one of my goals for Meta is to build on our research to become a leader in generative AI.”

Developing…

 

ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that has blown up over the last few months, is going premium. After confirming a few weeks ago that it would test a paid plan, OpenAI has rolled out ChatGPT Plus.

Although people will still be able to use the chatbot for free, there are of course some perks that come with a ChatGPT Plus plan. OpenAI says subscribers will have general access to the chatbot, even during peak times. They’ll also get faster response times from ChatGPT, along with priority access to upgrades and new features.

The paid service is available in the US for now. OpenAI plans to gradually invite people from the ChatGPT Plus waitlist to sign up for the service over the coming months. The company is also looking to open up the plan to folks in other countries and regions in the near future.

OpenAI says that the premium plan will help to keep ChatGPT free for anyone to use. In addition, it’s exploring cheaper subscriptions, as well as business plans and data packs to increase availability.

“We launched ChatGPT as a research preview so we could learn more about the system’s strengths and weaknesses and gather user feedback to help us improve upon its limitations,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post. “Since then, millions of people have given us feedback, we’ve made several important updates and we’ve seen users find value across a range of professional use-cases, including drafting and editing content, brainstorming ideas, programming help and learning new topics.”

OpenAI has found some other ways to bring in funding. Last month, Microsoft announced it’s making a multibillion dollar investment in the company and it plans to use OpenAI’s tech more broadly across its products. Google, meanwhile, has reportedly focused heavily on its AI work after the emergence of ChatGPT. It’s said to be preparing its own chatbot and at least 20 other AI-powered products to show off this year.

 

Don’t worry if you missed out on Nintendo’s bargain game vouchers from 2019 — they’re back. The company is once again offering a pair of vouchers for $100 to Switch Online subscribers. If you buy two eligible $60 games, this could save you $10 on each. Needless to say, this could help you score a deal for a a blockbuster like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom even when it’s brand new.

There are conditions beyond the limited catalog. You have to use the vouchers within a year, so you can’t save them for perpetuity. You also can’t hold more than eight at a time. You do get My Nintendo Gold Points equivalent to five percent of what you pay, though. Nintendo doesn’t say if or when the vouchers will

There’s no secret behind the strategy for the vouchers. Nintendo clearly hopes you’ll not only join Switch Online, but commit to buying multiple games where you might have otherwise bought just one. Still, it’s difficult to ignore the value. Even one set of vouchers can recoup the cost of Switch Online if you were already planning to buy games. In theory, you could quickly build a collection of major titles while saving a significant amount of money.

 

Before Samsung Unpacked even wrapped up today, Amazon swooped in with an offer on pre-orders for unlocked units of the new Galaxy S23 Ultra, Plus and base model smartphones — bundling a $100 Amazon gift card with the Ultra and plus and a $50 card with the S23 standard. All three phones will also get a free bump to the larger storage size and the offer is good on all available colors (black, cream, green and lavender). Like Amazon, Samsung is also offering $100 or $50 bonus, but in the form of Samsung credit.  

The S23 Ultra has an MSRP of $1,200 for the 256GB storage capacity and the S23+ starts at $1,000 for the 256GB size. The free storage upgrade bumps both of those models up to 512GB. The base S23 goes for $800 with 128GB, and the upgrade brings that to 256GB. The phones will ship on February 17th and the Amazon gift card will be delivered via mail once the phones ship.

We got a chance to spend some time with the S23 and the S23+ this week. The notable differences between the two versions are screen size, battery capacity and price. Both have vivid and smooth screens, as you’d expect from Samsung’s Galaxy S series, and this year’s versions include software advances for both photo and video capture. 

We also got a chance to check out the S23 Ultra, and, of course, the big news there is the big 200 MP camera lashed to its back. We’ll dive into full reviews on all three phones very soon, but in the meantime, the new S23 Galaxy phones are ready to pre-order as of today, and both Amazon and Samsung will throw in a bonus if you jump in now. 

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A new Twitch livestream tries to answer the question: What if AI made never-ending Seinfeld? “Nothing, Forever” is an experiment using OpenAI’s GPT-3 natural language model to produce (occasionally coherent) dialog between pixelated counterparts of Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer. Although it’s closer to surreal performance art than the beloved 90s sitcom, it conjures images of a strange, dystopian future where we entertain ourselves with endless content generated by robots.

“Nothing, Forever” immediately hits you with well-known aesthetics. Scene transitions show the exterior of a line of New York City brownstones over the sound of a quirky jazz bassline. It frequently cuts to “Larry” (the Jerry equivalent) performing what AI passes as standup comedy. Scenes inside Larry’s apartment show him chatting with George, Elaine and Kramer’s counterparts about appropriately mundane topics. Their conversations, while mostly unintelligible and lacking structure or narrative, make their inspiration clear.

On the other hand, the stiff and rudimentary character models look like they walked out of a 1980s Sierra adventure game. Their voices are robotic too, and Jerry and George sound less like their real-world counterparts and more like Mr. Van Driessen, the hippie social studies teacher from Beavis & Butthead. Finally, it’s a stretch to say the generated dialog is coherent — much less funny. (If not for its laugh track, you wouldn’t notice the laugh lines.) Generative AI’s current limits are as much on display as the show’s influence.

“Aside from the artwork and the laugh track you’ll hear,” one of the show’s creators posted to Reddit, “everything else is generative, including: dialogue, speech, direction (camera cuts, character focus, shot length, scene length, etc), character movement, and music.” The stream has little human involvement and changes based on viewer feedback from the Twitch stream. “The show can effectively change, and the narrative actually evolves based on the audience,” said Hartle in an interview with Vice. “One of the major factors that we’re thinking about is how do we get people involved in crafting the narrative so it becomes their own.”

That goal may be far away, as any narrative — much less a personalized one — seems beyond its current capabilities. Still, with a sizable budget and several years of technological advancement, it’s easy to imagine someone producing more watchable generative programming, an endless stream of personalized, assembly-line digital media. “Our grounding principle was, can we create a show that can generate entertaining content forever? Because that’s truly where we see the future emerging towards. Our goal with the next iterations or next shows that we release is to actually trade a show that is like Netflix-level quality.”

 

In 2016, Studio Ghibli co-founder and director Hayao Miyazaki, responsible for beloved anime classics like Princess Mononoke and Kiki’s Delivery Service, made headlines around the world for his reaction to an AI animation program. “I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all,” Miyazaki told the software engineers who came to show their creation to him. “I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.” A half-decade later, artificial intelligence and the potential role it could play in anime productions is once again in the spotlight.

This week, Netflix shared Dog and Boy, an animated short the streaming giant described as an “experimental effort” to address the anime industry’s ongoing labor shortage. “We used image generation technology for the background images of all three-minute video cuts,” said Netflix Japan of the project on Twitter, according to a machine translation. The short is touching but was immediately controversial. As Motherboard points out, many Twitter users accused Netflix of using AI to avoid paying human artists.

Others took issue with how Netflix and Wit Studio, the company that produced the short, credited those who worked on Dog and Boy. As you can see at the end of the video, human animators were not only involved in the creation of the short’s backgrounds, but they also revised the AI’s work. However, the background designer is listed as “AI (+Human).” The credits go on to list Rinna Inc, an AI artwork company, and a handful of AI researchers.

Many artists worry about the potential for AI to devalue their work, but that concern is particularly acute among anime creators. The labor shortages Netflix points to are the result of unsustainable labor practices that see the majority of Japan’s animation studios depend on essentially unpaid freelancers to complete much of the work that makes anime possible.

According to data from the Japanese Animation Creators Association published in 2018, in-between animators, the workers who draw the frames that make a scene look fluid, earn about ¥200 (or less than $2) per drawing. With many frames taking more than an hour to produce, the average in-between animator can expect to make about ¥1.1 million (or $10,000) per year. For context, in 2019, Japan’s poverty line was at ¥2.2 million.

 

When Elon Musk took over Twitter, he said he would offer “amnesty” to previously banned and suspended accounts. Since then, he’s restored dozens of controversial high-profile users, including Donald Trump (who has yet to return to the platform), comedian Kathy Griffin, and a number of whitenationalists and members of the far-right.

Now, Twitter is opening a public-facing appeals process, which will allow anyone whose account has previously been suspended to request reinstatement. The company posted a link to an online form accessible to users who are able to log into an account that’s previously been locked or suspended.

Earlier this week, the company indicated a new appeals process would be coming as part of its policy to take “less severe actions” against rule-breaking accounts. “Going forward, we will take less severe actions, such as limiting the reach of policy-violating Tweets or asking you to remove Tweets before you can continue using your account,” the company said. “Account suspension will be reserved for severe or ongoing, repeat violations of our policies.”

Twitter added that appeals would be “evaluated under our new criteria for reinstatement.” But it didn’t elaborate on what that criteria would be, or how long the process might take. The company says it expects to receive a “high volume” of requests and that reinstated requests are expected to “follow our rules.”

 

Samsung is ready to take its Ultra branding to the final frontier — at least, as far as its mobile products go. After introducing an Ultra variant of its tablets last year, the company is launching a similarly high-specced model of its Galaxy Book laptops in 2023. Alongside the new S23 series of flagship phones, Samsung launched the Galaxy Book 3 Pro, Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 and Galaxy Book 3 Ultra at its Unpacked event in San Francisco today.

The Ultra and the Pro 360 are only available in 16 inches, while the clamshell Galaxy Book 3 Pro comes in 14- and 16-inch sizes. I was able to check out a few of them at a recent hands-on event, though Samsung didn’t have every single model available. Rather than detail every configuration, I’m going to focus on my impressions of the Book 3 Ultra here. For the complete breakdown of the six other laptops, check out our news post for the full specs.

In general, the Galaxy Book 3 lineup is pretty straightforward. They’re powered by 13th-gen Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, with Iris X graphics and up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM. The Pro 360 is the only touch-enabled model, and Samsung has redesigned its display to remove a layer in the panel while still supporting touch. All models have 3K Dynamic AMOLED screens that run at 120Hz and can get as bright as 400 nits.

The star of the show, however, is the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, and it’s a beast of a machine. It uses Intel’s Core i7 and i9 processors, and those are paired with NVIDIA’s RTX 4050 and 4070 graphics cards respectively. The i7 model comes with 16GB of DDR5 RAM while the i9 configuration has 32GB.

Despite packing such powerful guts, the Book 3 Ultra is an impressively thin and light laptop, weighing 1.79kg (3.9 pounds) and measuring 16.5mm (0.64 inches) thin. It’s not as light as the LG Gram Style I saw at CES, which is just 1.2kg, but the latter doesn’t offer RTX 30 series graphics. Samsung’s laptop also felt more premium and sturdy than the Gram, which might be thanks to its aluminum frame, though I have to say LG’s machines at least have a distinctive style. The Galaxy Books are starting to look boring, with the same MacBook-esque design they’ve come in for years. Like the Galaxy S23 phones, parts of the Book 3 series were built from recycled plastics from discarded fishing nets.

The Book Ultra is heftier than the other Book 3s, but it also offers a generous array of ports including HDMI, microSD, two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C sockets, a USB-A slot and a 3.5mm audio jack. Like most laptops with a 16-inch screen, the Ultra also sports a roomy keyboard and its trackpad is positively enormous. I wish the buttons had a bit more travel, but typing on the Book Ultra was comfortable enough. It’s no ThinkPad, but it’ll do the job.

I didn’t get to try out much else on the Galaxy Book 3, since we had a limited amount of time to check out a ton of devices. The few apps I opened, like Notepad and Control Panel, launched quickly, but I can’t say that’s a good measure of performance.

I also wish I had been able to check out the 1080p webcam or new features like the updated quad speaker system and PC-smartphone connectivity tools like Recent Websites and Instant Hotspot via Microsoft’s Phone Link. In theory, though, signing into your Samsung account on the Book Ultra and your Galaxy smartphone should allow you to seamlessly move a web page from your phone to your PC. Samsung’s Multi Control now supports Galaxy smartphones so you can use your laptop, tablet and phone with a keyboard and trackpad

Computer makers have been building software that makes connecting your phone and PC less of a hassle for years. While tools like this are getting better over time, it’ll be interesting to see just how useful Samsung’s offering will be in the real world. Frankly, the most intriguing thing about the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra is what Samsung has been able to squeeze into such a svelte frame. The Galaxy Book 3 Ultra will be available on February 17th from $2,400, but you should wait till we can get one in for testing to determine how it stacks up against the competition on performance and battery life before dropping your money.

 

True to the rumors, Samsung has unveiled the Galaxy Book 3 line — including the company’s first-ever Ultra laptop model. The Galaxy Book 3 Pro, Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 convertible and Galaxy Book 3 Ultra all center around 120Hz, 2,880 x 1,800 “Dynamic AMOLED 2X” displays with technology lifted directly from Samsung’s higher-end smartphones. You’ll only find touch input on the Pro 360, but this still promises rich colors (120 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut), smooth responses and DisplayHDR True Black 500 support.

The 16-inch Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (pictured above) is, unsurprisingly, billed as a performance powerhouse. It comes with up to a 13th-gen Intel Core i9 and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4070 graphics — this is very much a gaming machine. You can also expect up to 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD (with an expansion slot), a 1080p webcam and an AKG-tuned quad speaker array with Dolby Atmos surround. Two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one USB-A port, a microSD slot, a headphone jack and HDMI round out connectivity. The Ultra is an easy-to-carry system despite the specs, weighing 3.9lbs and measuring 0.65in thick thanks to a “full” aluminum frame that you’ll also find in other models.

The Galaxy Book 3 Pro and Pro 360 (middle) are more conventional thin-and-light portables. Both support up to a 13th-gen Core i7 and lean on integrated Iris Xe graphics. They support up to 32GB of RAM a 1TB SSD and the ports of the Ultra, but don’t have the Ultra’s expansion or HDMI 2.0 compatibility (only HDMI 1.4). The Pro is available in a very light (2.42lbs) 14-inch model as well as a 16-inch (3.4lbs) configuration, while the Pro 360 is only available in a 16-inch (3.7lbs) variant. The touchscreen laptop does have optional 5G, however.

Integration with Samsung’s phones is tighter than before, too. Multi Control now lets you steer your handset (not just your tablet) using the Galaxy Book 3’s keyboard and trackpad — you can drag-and-drop content between devices. You can automatically upload the phones’ Expert RAW photos and edit them in Adobe Lightroom, too. The company is also eager to note support for Microsoft Phone Link, including new productivity features. You can quickly continue web browsing on your computer, or quickly connect to your phone’s hotspot.

We’re still waiting on pricing as we write this, but pre-orders are available today for the Galaxy Book 3 series. They’ll ship on February 17th, starting with the Pro and Pro 360 notebooks. It’s evident that the Ultra is the headliner, though, as it’s one of the few truly portable laptops that can still deliver the performance needed for games and heavy-duty media editing.

 

It’s February and the first major flagship phone launch of 2023 is here. Samsung is launching the new Galaxy S23 series at its Unpacked event in San Francisco today, and this year’s trio of phones are no surprise. While last year’s focus was on the addition of an S Pen slot to the Ultra variant and saying hello to the Note replacement, this time around things feel less monumental.

Most of the changes to the standard S23 and S23 Plus models feel incremental, while the biggest update to the S23 Ultra is a new 200-megapixel rear camera, enhanced selfie shooter and a few software updates. Some other improvements are less obvious, like a tweak in the curvature of the phone’s screen, different materials used in the case and the latest Qualcomm processors. There are also new colors and storage options available, but that’s pretty much it. If you want the details on the regular S23 and S23 Plus, check out what my colleague Mat Smith thought in his hands-on. I am focusing on the S23 Ultra here.

Besides the camera bump, everything about the S23 Ultra feels like a negligible improvement. But that’s not a bad thing and it does mean those who bought last year’s model won’t feel like they’re missing out by not jumping on the new phone.

Design and display

At first glance, unless you have one of the newer colors like green or lavender, the S23 Ultra looks nearly identical to its predecessor. It retains the same boxy shape, though Samsung says it’s reduced the screen edges’ curvature to make it easier to use with the S Pen. The display can also hit up to 1,750 nits of outdoor peak brightness now, though I couldn’t really tell the difference, especially without an S22 Ultra on hand to do a side by side comparison. And even though I continue to struggle using a 6.8-inch screen with just one hand, I was able to reach across the display to hit far-off elements. It just took some effort.

One of Samsung’s focal points for the S23 Ultra is sustainability. Materials like pre-consumer recycled aluminum and glass, as well as post-consumer plastics from discarded fishing nets went into the handset. The S23 Ultra is also the first phone to use Gorilla Glass Victus 2, which the company says offers “heightened durability for long-term use and [was] designed with an average of 22 percent pre-consumer recycled content.” Honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference simply by touch. All I can say is the S23 Ultra felt well-made and wasn’t noticeably heavier or lighter than before.

Cameras

The most significant update to the S23 Ultra is its new 200-megapixel “Adaptive Pixel” rear sensor that Samsung says is a first for its Galaxy family of products. While you will have the option to shoot at 200MP, by default the system uses pixel-binning to deliver brighter, clearer pictures at 12MP. When I used the S23 Ultra to shoot a bowl of lemons at the available options of 200mp, 50MP and the default level, the latter resulted in the best picture. I zoomed in on the peel of the fruit on all three images, and was surprised to see individual pits and fine hairs on the 12MP photo. On the other two, there was barely enough detail to see the skin texture.

Samsung says it also improved its Nightography mode for better images in low light, thanks to a new “AI-powered image signal processing (ISP) algorithm.” Our demo area was very brightly lit and I wasn’t able to access any dark corners to put this claim to the test, so we’ll have to wait till we can run a real-world test to verify how well this works. And though I did capture a quick 8K video at 30 frames per second (up from 24fps before), it’s hard to judge the quality just by playing that footage back on the phone. You’ll likely want to shell out for the new 1TB storage model if you plan on filming a lot of 8K video.

There are some additional improvements to the S23 Ultra’s cameras that I couldn’t test during the hands-on event. The optical image stabilization (OIS)’s range has been doubled, meaning it can compensate for twice the amount of movement in all directions. The processing algorithms have also been updated to, as Samsung says, “carefully reflect a person’s dynamic characteristics” based on details “even down to minute facial features such as hair and eyes.” I don’t really get what that last one means practically and couldn’t see a difference in the few photos I snapped.

I also checked out the S23 Ultra’s new 12-mp selfie camera, which is the same across this year’s lineup. Though the bump in resolution seems like a step up for the two standard models, going to 12-mp might feel like a drop from the S22 Ultra’s 40-mp sensor. But a Samsung rep told me the new sensor is bigger and more advanced, featuring dual-pixel autofocus. They also support Super HDR and can now shoot clips at 60 fps, up from 30 fps before. The few selfies I snapped at the demo came out clear and autofocused quickly, but without a side by side comparison I can’t judge how much better the S23 Ultra is than its predecessor and competitors.

The Galaxy S23, which has the same front camera as the S23 Ultra, showing a selfie snapped with it.

The rest of the Ultra’s rear camera array is the same as last year. In addition to the new 200MP sensor, you’ll find a pair of 10MP telephoto cameras and an ultrawide 12MP option. The Ultra also has a laser autofocus that the regular S23s don’t.

Processor, battery and S Pen

Just like last year, the Ultra is the only model that has an S Pen that tucks away inside the onboard slot. There are no changes to the stylus this year, and making the few sketches and notes I did during my preview felt as smooth as before.

As always, there are loads of things we will need to wait till we can run our full barrage of tests before we can say for sure. For example, all the new S23s are powered by a custom version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, featuring higher clock speeds than the standard version. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy will hit up to 3.3Ghz, which is a whole 100Mhz faster than the standard. But Qualcomm said the improvements include “accelerated performance… in both CPU and GPU frequencies,” and that the chipset is “the fastest Snapdragon ever.” You’ll still get the benefits of the standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, like hardware-accelerated ray-tracing for better lighting effects in games.

The S23 line also has a larger vapor cooling chamber to keep the phone from overheating during a gaming marathon, while Samsung says the S23 Ultra’s 5,000mAh battery can last more than 20 percent longer than last year’s model.

Short of installing benchmarks on the demo units at the hands-on, which is kind of a no go, there wasn’t much I could do to test the S23 Ultra’s performance. I installed Survivor.iO and ran through the tutorial and first round, and the phone ran as quickly and smoothly as expected. I did encounter some lag when trying out new OneUI features like picking system-generated themes and switching modes and routines, though.

New OneUI 5.1 features

All three new S23s ship with OneUI 5.1, which brings intriguing new features that are at once Android 13-like and iOS 16-esque. In addition to new color palette options generated from your choice of wallpaper, Samsung’s software now offers lock screen customization options that are strongly reminiscent of Apple’s. You can choose your clock widget’s color, font and style, pick what system indicator symbols sit below it, as well as your wallpaper and more. But the S23 Ultra has a field for you to include a message on your lock screen in case you leave your phone somewhere and have enough faith in humanity to leave your contact information for someone to return it.

Samsung is also adding new Modes and Routines to OneUI 5.1, and the former is basically the company’s take on Apple’s Focus modes. Both give you the ability to create profiles for activities you might start like sleeping, gaming, exercising or driving, and dictate which apps to silence or whitelist. OneUI’s Routines feature, however, is a little more fun. It’s basically “if this then that” conditional programming, offering more granular triggers and action. At the demo, a Samsung rep set the Ultra to change its wallpaper when Airplane mode is activated. There was some lag when we first tried to turn Airplane mode on before the wallpaper changed, but subsequently the transition was quicker.

I’m not someone who needs my phone background to be different when I’m on a plane, but I do like the variety of combinations that Routines allows. I also appreciate that Samsung went a step further than Apple here, rather than purely mimicking the iPhone.

Other new OneUI features are still very similar to their iOS versions, like the new widget stacks and Smart Suggestions widget. There’s also a new Image Clipper tool that lets you long press on a photo and grab just the subject without its background to share in other apps — just like Apple’s updated visual lookup. Samsung’s offering is slightly different because its interface supports split screen, so you can more easily drag and drop your stickers between apps and then resize them in Notes, for example. During my brief time with the phone, Image Clipper seemed about as accurate as the iOS version, which is to say it’s mostly effective but sometimes doesn’t recognize objects. It identified people well, but failed to separate a phone from the table it was on.

Of course, OneUI 5.1 will most likely roll out to older Galaxy phones, so you don’t necessarily need to get an S23 to use these new tools. But if you’re already convinced you want the new flagships, you can pre-order them today. The S23 Ultra starts at $1,200 and will be available on February 17th. If you’re not yet sure if these phones are worth the upgrade, make sure to wait for our full review, so we can tell you more about performance, battery life and how well the S23s stack up against the competition in the real world.