Stuff Worth Knowing for the Week of March 13, 2023
TikTok gets in trouble with the U.S. government, Fortnite comes for Roblox, and GPT-4 launches.
Welcome back to Stuff Worth Knowing! Each week, I'll round up news related to tech, video games, film, television, anime, and more. At the end of each newsletter, there will be a section called On The Calendar, which will include some of those notable dates that are near-term. Oh, and I also launched my Patreon, SavePhile, where my more thoughtful musings on any topic will go. Apologies for the late publishing this week. Life finds a way… to get in the way.
Tech ⌨️
TikTok Draws The Ire of the Biden Administration and Justice Department
TikTok has been under increased scrutiny from the U.S. government and American media for some time now. The heat started under the Trump administration, with former President Donald Trump wanting to ban the app outright. There’s been a sea change, however. While Trump was mostly out on his own, there is now a bipartisan movement addressing TikTok.
According to the New York Times, the Biden administration is threatening a ban of the video-sharing app if ByteDance, the Chinese owners, don’t sell it off. This comes after The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an organization that reviews transactions in the U.S involving foreign investors, also demanded the sale. As always, the issue is the fear that the Chinese government has undue influence on ByteDance, and is using TikTok user data for its own ends.
ByteDance contends that a sale won’t change the perceived issue. “If protecting national security is the objective, divestment doesn’t solve the problem: a change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access,” TikTok spokeswoman Brooke Oberwetter told the NYT. “The best way to address concerns about national security is with the transparent, U.S.-based protection of U.S. user data and systems, with robust third-party monitoring, vetting, and verification, which we are already implementing.”
Of course, the problem is that TikTok and ByteDance are already under investigation by The Justice Department and FBI. According to a Forbes report, both agencies are looking at the company after the app was used to access the private user data and location of several U.S. journalists. Hard to claim data won’t be used for malfeasance while you’re under investigation for doing just that.
Why It's Worth Knowing: TikTok is an engine of culture and one of the most popular apps in use worldwide. The issue is not purely because it’s a Chinese company, but rather that it’s one that is under some nominal control of the Chinese government. The CCP purchased golden shares in ByteDance in April 2021 and appointed a government official to its board. It’s this extensive control that gives even those who feel TikTok is harmless pause.
Samsung Caught Faking Its Space Zoom Feature For Moon Photography
How much actual reality is inherent in the pictures your smartphone takes? Unlike a standard camera, smartphones rely heavily on post-processing and computer-generated detail, a process known as computational photography. When you take a shot on an iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, or Google Pixel, the final image is the result of software finding detail here and brightening colors there.
A clear example of this is Samsung’s controversy this week. Since the Galaxy S20 line, Samsung has touted its 100x Space Zoom feature, allowing users to take crisp photos from far away. This feature has included the ability to take detailed photos of the Moon. Last week, Reddit user IBreakPhotos showed how the Samsung software was actually faking those photos.
The user took a high-quality image of the moon from the internet, downsized it immensely to remove most of the detail, and then took a picture of that image with a Samsung Galaxy phone. The resulting photo had intense detail that absolutely wasn’t present on the original image. Further tests have shown it’s not entirely an overlay of a detailed texture of the moon; if you edit the face of the moon before downsizing an image, those edits will be reflected in the detailed final photo. Still, there’s some level of replacement going on here. If you turn off Samsung’s scene optimizer, you get the natural image without any tampering.
Why It's Worth Knowing: Of course, this has driven not only accusations of Samsung cheating—similar to Huawei back in 2019—but also spurred an increased discussion on computational photography. As I stated before, most phone photos are heavily edited; that’s why there’s usually a lag between taking a photo and seeing the final product. Is that a problem if we know what’s going on?
In Samsung’s case, part of the issue is not disclosing what was going on; if folks knew ahead of time, they’d probably have no issue with it. Part of casual photography is capturing the moment as we remember it, and in night photography, that might be also having a crisp picture of a beautiful moon. Regardless, it’s an ongoing discussion.
Meta Walks Away From NFTs As It Pivots Toward Subscriptions
Meta continues its “year of efficiency” by moving away from NFTs. The news came from Meta boss of Commerce & FinTech Stephane Kasriel. “We’re winding down digital collectibles (NFTs) for now to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses,” Kasriel said on Twitter. The move follows Meta deciding not to launch its own cryptocurrency, Diem, in the beginning of 2022.
Instead, the company is focusing on the easy route. This week, Meta Verified launched on Facebook and Instagram in the U.S. The subscription service rolled out in Australia and New Zealand last month, offering a verified badge, increased visibility, and a live support service. It will set users back $11.99 per month on the web and $14.99 per month on mobile, but there is a waitlist for the U.S. iteration. Users also have to be 18 years old in order to apply.
Amazon Begins Shuttering Magazine Subscriptions on Kindle
Back in December of last year, I mentioned that Amazon was closing down its subscription services for magazines and newspapers on Kindle. Now the company has given a firm timeline on the closure of services. The full timeline follows:
March 9, 2023 - Users can no longer order or renew a subscription through Kindle Newsstand
June 5, 2023 - After this date, all subscriptions have to be managed through the publisher, not Amazon
September 4, 2023 - After this date, there will be no more issues delivered through Amazon, though users can continue to read issues they’ve already received
“As part of our annual operating planning review process, we always look at each of our businesses and what we believe we should change. Following an assessment of our magazine and newspaper subscription offerings via Newsstand, we have decided to discontinue the individual subscription programs for both print and Kindle, including Kindle single issues. We don’t take these decisions lightly. We are winding down this program in a phased manner and will work with you throughout the wind-down process to help ensure the best experience possible for our mutual customers,” said Amazon in a statement to publishers obtained by Good E Reader.
Ryan Reynolds Makes Bank As T-Mobile Acquires Mint Mobile
The actual news is that T-Mobile has agreed to acquire telecom company Ka’ena Corporation for $1.35 billion. Ka’ena’s subsidiaries include Mint Mobile, Ultra Mobile, and Plum. T-Mobile gets to add Mint and Ultra Mobile’s direct-to-consumer offering to its existing Metro by T-Mobile prepaid brand.
“Mint has built an incredibly successful digital direct-to-consumer business that continues to deliver for customers on the Un-carrier’s leading 5G network and now we are excited to use our scale and owners' economics to help supercharge it - and Ultra Mobile - into the future," said T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert in a press release. "Over the long-term, we’ll also benefit from applying the marketing formula Mint has become famous for across more parts of T-Mobile. We think customers are really going to win with a more competitive and expansive Mint and Ultra."
Of course, the mind behind that marketing formula is actor Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds became a partial owner of Mint Mobile back in 2019, purchasing an 25% ownership stake in the company. Since then, Reynolds has done a number of ads for the company, raising its profile in the process. In fact, Reynolds is in the announcement video from T-Mobile. According to the press release, the actor will continue to work with Mint and T-Mobile on the creative side.
“Mint Mobile is the best deal in wireless and today’s news only enhances our ability to deliver for our customers. We are so happy T-Mobile beat out an aggressive last-minute bid from my mom Tammy Reynolds as we believe the excellence of their 5G network will provide a better strategic fit than my mom’s slightly-above-average mahjong skills. I am so proud of the entire Mint team and so excited for what’s to come,” said Reynolds.
The deal will reportedly earn Reynolds $300 million. It follows the sale of Aviation Gin for $610 million in 2020, another deal where Reynolds is supposed to remain the public face of the brand. Reynolds remains at the head of Maximum Effort, a marketing agency and film production company. he co-founded in 2019. That company has a first-look deal with Paramount on the film side, and is increasingly finding success on the marketing side since its acquisition by MNTN in 2021. (MNTN was one of Fast Company’s Top 10 most innovative ad companies in 2023.)
Basically, Ryan Reynolds is making money, y’all.
Video Games 🎮
Fortnite Coming For Roblox With Unreal Editor For Fortnite
This week, Epic Games revealed the upcoming Unreal Editor For Fortnite (UEFN). While Fortnite already has a Creative mode, allowing users to create new game types and maps within the game, the UEFN will allow for further expansion.
“Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) is a new PC application for designing, developing, and publishing games and experiences directly into Fortnite,” said Epic Games in the description of the new tool. “With many of Unreal Engine 5’s powerful tools and workflows at your fingertips, including custom asset import, modeling, materials and VFX, Sequencer and Control Rig, you’ll have a whole new world of options for producing and publishing games and experiences for Fortnite that can be enjoyed by millions of players. UEFN works side-by-side with Fortnite’s existing Creative toolset, and teams of creators can work together across PC and console to develop and test islands in real-time.”
Unreal Editor for Fortnite will launch next week on March 22 as an add-on for Fortnite.
Why It's Worth Knowing: The benefit of this is two-fold for Epic Games. First, it allows Fortnite to lean further into Roblox territory, as a popular game platform that users can build on top of. Being able to make all-new games will be a huge benefit, though Fortnite is currently lacking a way for creators to monetize their work in Fortnite. The second benefit is the toolset is a gateway to Unreal Engine 5, where the company really makes its money. UEFN is based on Unreal Engine 5 and creators will theoretically be able to roll from one to the other.
Many of the biggest games right now began as mods within other titles. League of Legends and DOTA 2 find their origins in Defense of the Ancients, a mod for Warcraft 3. The battle royale genre was based on a mod created for Arma 3 by Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene, before being spun off into PUBG: Battlegrounds. If Epic Games can lock those future games into Unreal Engine, then releasing these tools becomes a huge benefit for the company.
EU Decision On Activision-Blizzard Deal Delayed Until May 22
According to Reuters, Microsoft has offered remedies to the European Commission in an attempt to get the EU organization to approve its $69 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. The European Commission will review the remedies and seek feedback from consumers and other companies. Its original decision was scheduled to come on April 25, but now that date has been pushed back to May 22.
Reuters’ sources say the EU will likely approve of the acquisition, but Microsoft still has to hope that the CMA and US Federal Trade Commission back down in their respective regions. Considering the FTC is suing to block the deal, that’s unlikely to happen.
This news follows Microsoft addressing the concerns of the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last week. Sony Interactive Entertainment offered its own statements to the CMA on the deal, noting that it “cannot protect against the loss of Call of Duty.”
“SIE’s recent development experience of shooter/battle royale games is limited and its main active shooter franchise is significantly less impactful than Call of Duty. Destiny, SIE's main active first-person shooter franchise, had only [redacted] of the gameplay hours and [redacted] of the game spend of Call of Duty in 2021,” the company further stated.
Twitch Co-Founder and CEO Resigns
In a blog post on Thursday, Twitch co-founder and CEO Emmett Shear announced that he was resigning from his position in the company. Shear co-founded Justin.tv alongside Justin Kan, Michael Seibel, and Kyle Vogt in 2007, and has remained with Twitch since its spin-off from that platform. In his announcement, Shear said he was leaving to spend more time with his family.
“With my first child just born, I’ve been reflecting on my future with Twitch. Twitch often feels to me like a child I’ve been raising as well. And while I will always want to be there if Twitch needs me, at 16 years old it feels to me Twitch is ready to move out of the house and venture alone,” Shear wrote. “So it is with great poignancy that I share my decision to resign from Twitch as CEO. I want to be fully there for my son as he enters this world and I feel ready for this change to tackle new challenges. I will continue to work at Twitch in an advisory role.”
Shear will be replaced by current Twitch president Dan Clancy.
One Side Of Studio ZA/UM’s Legal Battles Cool, But The Founders Still Have Beef
Back in November, a complex legal battle began involving Disco Elysium developer Studio ZA/UM. Studio founders, including art director Aleksander Rostov and designer Robert Kurvitz, alleged that an Estonian company called Tütreke OÜ gained control of Zaum Studio OÜ by fraud, and then pushed them out. At the time, executive producer Kaur Kender alleged that the dealings cheated him out of €1 million.
This week, Kender settled his side of the matter. He withdrew his lawsuit in December last year, and paid the legal fees of ZA/UM CEO Ilmar Kompus, closing out that case entirely.
"I am thankful for the years of trust and cooperation with the team, which made Disco Elysium a successful project," said Kender, according to GamesIndustry.biz. "After leaving my full-time role, I filed a lawsuit which I realized, after seeing the facts, was misguided."
Despite that, Kurvitz and Rostov (the latter under the name Sander Taal) continue to pursue legal matters against the current ZA/UM leadership.
“The press release implies that our employment claims against the studio were withdrawn for lack of evidence. They were not. We see our dismissal as part of a larger campaign against us and will pursue legal options accordingly,” said the pair in a statement. “Kender's lawsuit was based on the misuse of ZA/UM's funds (€4.8 million) by the majority shareholders [Ilmar Kompus and Tõnis Haavel] to increase their own stake in the company. In the press release, Kompus and Haavel admit to this misuse, arguing only that the money has been 'paid back to ZA/UM. Paying back stolen money, however, does not undo the crime; here, it does not undo the majority that Kompus and Haavel have illegally gained in ZA/UM."
AI 🤖
OpenAI Announces GPT-4 Model
On Tuesday, OpenAI revealed GPT-4, the next generation of its large language model. The company touted a mode with greater accuracy, more advanced reasoning, and increased safety. It also has the ability to parse images in a limited manner. OpenAI noted that GPT-4 was already in use at multiple companies, including Duolingo, Stripe, and Morgan Stanley.
Despite the company’s name, however, the model isn’t really open. GPT-4 access by the general public is locked behind the ChatGPT Plus subscription, which is $20 per month. Companies who want to use the service also have to sign up for the API waitlist before getting access. The only other public access to the model is Microsoft’s Bing, which is powered by the newer GPT model.
In its technical documentation, OpenAI acknowledges that GPT-4 has many of the same problems as the previous models. “Despite its capabilities, GPT-4 has similar limitations as earlier GPT models. Most importantly, it still is not fully reliable (it “hallucinates” facts and makes reasoning errors). Great care should be taken when using language model outputs, particularly in high-stakes contexts,” said the company in the paper.
Microsoft is all-in, however. The company announced Copilot, its AI featureset for all Microsoft 365 applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. Copilot in Word can be used to write emails, summarize content, or help with a first draft. In Excel, the feature can help analyze existing data, while in PowerPoint, you can prompt it to create presentations. Of course, Microsoft stated that it will share “more about pricing” in the coming months.
The Shout-Out: OpenAI was taken to task for leaving behind its original vision of open-source AI for an entirely for-profit venture. The Verge spoke to OpenAI chief scientist and co-founder Ilya Sutskever, who stated that fear of competition has driven the change.
“We were wrong. Flat out, we were wrong. If you believe, as we do, that at some point, AI — AGI — is going to be extremely, unbelievably potent, then it just does not make sense to open-source. It is a bad idea... I fully expect that in a few years it’s going to be completely obvious to everyone that open-sourcing AI is just not wise.”
“On the competitive landscape front — it’s competitive out there,” said Sutskever. “GPT-4 is not easy to develop. It took pretty much all of OpenAI working together for a very long time to produce this thing. And there are many many companies who want to do the same thing, so from a competitive side, you can see this as a maturation of the field.”
Google Launches PaLM API and AI Tools For Google Workspace
Google isn’t relinquishing the space to OpenAI. This week, the company announced the PaLM API, which gives companies access to Google’s large language model.
“For developers who are experimenting with AI, we’re introducing the PaLM API, an easy and safe way to build on top of our best language models,” said the company. “Today, we’re making an efficient model available, in terms of size and capabilities, and we’ll add other sizes soon. The API also comes with an intuitive tool called MakerSuite, which lets you quickly prototype ideas and, over time, will have features for prompt engineering, synthetic data generation and custom-model tuning — all supported by robust safety tools.”
The release of the API also came alongside AI tools for Google Workspace apps, including Gmail and Google Docs. Like Copilot above, the tools will allow users to generate new emails, documents, and more via prompts.
Google isn’t the only company wading in, as Chinese tech giant Baidu also announced its own LLM, Ernie Bot. OpenAI and the Chinese government have barred Chinese users from using ChatGPT, so Baidu’s response is a necessary one. “Ernie Bot won’t just impact search engines and internet companies. It will impact every single company,” said Baidu CEO Robin Li. “It will shorten the distance between every company and their customers.”
Film, Television, and Streaming 🎞️
The Last of Us Ends Season With 8.2 Million Viewers
HBO landed another hit with The Last of Us. While the show has been riding high each week, the viewership numbers have increased each time. For the Season 1 finale on Sunday, the show reached 8.2 million viewers on HBO and HBO digital platforms. According to HBO, The Last of Us is the most-watched HBO Max show in Europe and Latin America.
The full premiere viewership numbers from HBO:
Episode 1 – 4.7 million (Jan. 15)
Episode 2 – 5.7 million (Jan. 22)
Episode 3 – 6.4 million (Jan. 29)
Episode 4 – 7.5 million (Feb. 5)
Episode 5 – 11.6 million (Feb. 10-Feb. 12) Early premiere, includes data from Friday to Sunday
Episode 6 – 7.8 million (Feb. 19)
Episode 7 – 7.7 million (Feb. 26)
Episode 8 – 8.1 million (March 5)
Episode 9 – 8.2 million (March 12)
According to Nielsen’s streaming charts for the week of February 13, the show reached 943 million minutes across the six available episodes. It’s a bona fide hit and will likely increase the move towards other video game adaptations in Hollywood.
Doctor Who Expands With New Planned Spin-Off
Russell T. Davies is dreaming big with Doctor Who, thanks to the additional resources from the Disney+ deal. As he works on Season 14, Davies has eyes on potential spin-offs already. Deadline reports that the first spin-off will feature Doctor Who guest star Jemma Redgrave and focus on UNIT, the secretive organization that helps the Doctor on his Earthbound adventures.
Redgrave may appear in the Doctor Who Christmas special this year, alongside Ncuti Gatwa as the new Doctor.
Nancy Meyers’ Expensive Romcom Might Land At Warner Bros
Part of the issue with the current “blockbuster or nothing” push at the box office is the lower number of films from other genres. Comedy, thrillers, and romantic comedies have found themselves pushed toward television and streaming. This also means those projects tend to command smaller budgets overall.
Take Nancy Meyers planned romantic comedy at Netflix. If you don’t know who Meyers is, she’s the writer and director behind a number of the biggest romantic comedies at the box office. She wrote the original Father of the Bride and its sequel, directed What Women Want, and wrote/directed 1998’s The Parent Trap, Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday, It’s Complicated, and The Intern. (Four of these films have the same type of poster, shown above.)
For her new Netflix film, Paris Paramount, Meyers wanted a budget of $150 million, while Netflix didn’t want to go above $130 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Old Netflix might’ve stomached that, but the new Netflix cannot despite the talent attached, including Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz, Michael Fassbender, and Owen Wilson.
Meyers is still a big name though, so it seems that the project has been shopped around Hollywood. According to Deadline, Warner Bros. Discovery might acquire the film. It remains to be seen if WB will give Meyers the budget she wanted, considering it’s having money problems as well.
Superhero Watch: James Gunn Directing Superman: Legacy
Since he became co-head of DC Studios, James Gunn has been writing Superman: Legacy, the first new film in what’s planned as “Chapter One” of the new DC film universe. The film will feature a new Superman, with a planned release date on July 11, 2025. Gunn was previously cagey about directing the film himself.
On Twitter this week, Gunn revealed that he’s laid those fears to rest and will be directing the film. “Yes, I’m directing Superman: Legacy to be released on July 11, 2025,” he said. “It has been a long road to this point. I was offered Superman years ago — I initially said no because I didn’t have a way in that felt unique and fun and emotional that gave Superman the dignity he deserved.”
“Just because I write something doesn’t mean I feel it in my bones, visually and emotionally, enough to spend over two years directing it, especially not something of this magnitude,” he added. “But, the long and the short of it is, I love this script, and I’m incredibly excited as we begin this journey.”
Layoffs 👷
Meta Will Lay Off Another 10,000 Employees
As I noted above the “year of efficiency” continues, as Meta announced that it will be laying off 10,000 workers, or around 13% of its current workforce. This follows layoffs in November last year, when Meta parted with 11,000 employees. Alongside the new layoffs, Meta will get rid of 5,000 job postings.
DeleteMe global director of human resources Erin Sumner, who was laid off from Facebook in November, told the New York Times. “People are entering a job market that is the worst I’ve ever seen,” she stated. “There’s a lot of anger, and there’s the question many folks are asking: ‘How do you expect me to do work for the next two months while wondering if I will still have a job?’”
A pretty valid question!
On My Mind 🧠
Lance Reddick Dies At The Age of 60: On Friday, TMZ reported that actor Lance Reddick died of natural causes. The actor was recently on a promotional tour for his role in the upcoming John Wick: Chapter 4, and was scheduled to be on the Kelly Clarkson show next week. Reddick has been a fantastic character actor for a long time. He was one of my favorites in Fringe a long time ago, but he also brought his best to The Wire, Oz, Lost, and Bosch. Alongside his film work, Reddick was featured in a few high-profile games, as the voice of Commander Zavala in Destiny 2 and the voice and performance capture model for Sylens in Horizon Zero Dawn and its sequel Horizon Forbidden West. A fantastic actor. Shame to see him go.
Ben Affleck Talks About Leaving DC Behind and His New Production Company: Ben Affleck will make one final appearance as Batman in the upcoming The Flash, but after that it’s clear the actor is down with superheroes. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Affleck talked about why he was done.
“You want to go to work and find something interesting to hang onto, rather than just wearing a rubber suit, and most of it you’re just standing against the computer screen going, “If this nuclear waste gets loose, we’ll …” That’s fine. I don’t condescend to that or put it down, but I got to a point where I found it creatively not satisfying. Also just, you’re sweaty and exhausted. And I thought, “I don’t want to participate in this in any way. And I don’t want to squander any more of my life, of which I have a limited amount.”
He also talked about Artists Equity, his production company that offers an ownership stake to those who help make the film.
“I was talking to [cinematographer] Bob Richardson. He’s a genius. And I said, 'Bob, what if I gave you a million bucks to save me five [million]? Could you do it?' And he goes, 'Fuck, I’ll save you 10.' There are people who just have their hand on the wheel in ways people don’t understand. Your editor, producer, DP, first AD, production designer. The idea is you get really good people, and you say to them, 'Look, if we’re able to accomplish what we set out to accomplish, you’re going to participate in a very significant way in the delta between what the movie costs to make and what we sell it for.' The people who were bonused on this movie, like Bob and all the crew, their bonus was a piece of the pool of the sale [to Amazon]. Almost all of them are, on a weekly basis now, the highest-paid crewpeople in history, by a multiple.”
“The experiment for me is to say [to the studio], 'Don’t worry about what the budget is. That’s my job. I’m going to do my best with the budget. I’m going to guarantee you and cover all the overages. And, by the way, director, actor, company, all on the hook for overage.'”
Hope it all works out for them. The first shot will be Air, a film about Nike and Michael Jordan, chronicling the beginning of the Air Jordan line of shoes. Amazon is releasing the film in theaters on April 5, 2023.