August 2023 business blogspot

Free Big Screen TV
Telly, a new aptly named start-up that first appeared in May, offered the prospect of a free 55-inch 4K television to avid box watchers. The catch was a small built-in second screen showing frequent commercials. This month, Telly started shipping the free TVs to households in America. The main display is separated from the additional Smart Screen by a "premium soundbar" that can display widget-based news tickers, sports scores, weather updates as well as a regular supply of advertising. In case viewers are thinking that the secondary screen can be powered off or disconnected, Telly CEO and founder Ilya Pozin told reporters "if you try to degrade the TV experience, we have the ability to deactivate the television. If you somehow manage to do something to the bottom screen, you're not going to be able to use the top screen. It's a single processor running both screens, so if you mess with one, you mess with both". The company attracted more than 250,000 sign-ups in the first week of registration. Plans call for 500,000 units to ship by the end of 2023, and "millions more" next year. Your editor has a query in with Telly in the USA, asking about prospects of giveaway TV sets for British consumers anytime soon.
https://www.freetelly.com/

TikTok, The Movie
Look out for a  full-length film "TikTok, Boom" about the increasingly controversial Chinese-owned platform. The documentary, described as an examination of one of the most influential elements of the contemporary social media landscape, examines the algorithmic, socio-political, economic and cultural influences and impact of the history-making app. This exploration balances a genuine interest in the TikTok community and its innovative inner workings with a healthy scepticism around the security issues, global political challenges, and racial biases behind the platform. A cast of Gen Z talking heads, curated by influencer Feroza Aziz, frames the 90-minute movie, making it one of the most timely and empathetic films exploring what it means to be a full-on digital native in today's online community. The trailer for TikTok, Boom, link below, can be found on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/7erHaZoMZuc

Better Than Counting Sheep
Having trouble nodding off for a good night's rest after a tough day at the desktop? Try heading to zzzuckerberg.com to hear someone read Instagram's complete Terms of Service? (all 4,200 words of it) in a sleep inducing tone that sounds like it might have been borrowed from Headspace or one of the other relaxing meditation apps. There's also a TikTok version of the legalese lullaby (link below) and if you ever need help understanding other tech company terms and conditions without being in danger of nodding off before reaching the end of page one, remember to try ToS;DR  - tosdr.org - for bitesize summaries and assessments of the terms of service and privacy policies of all the major Internet sites and services.
https://www.zzzuckerberg.com/zzzhang

New YouTube Marketing Tools
Video thumbnail testing could soon be available to everyone on YouTube via "Test and Compare". Currently in early testing, the native feature will allow content creators to test the performance of up to three thumbnails against each other. Thumbnails are one of the most important elements that affect a video's success on the platform. Creators and marketers already use a number of third-party tools and plugins to test and optimise thumbnails. Now that the same functionality is set to roll out in YouTube Studio, it will remind everyone that regardless of which tools you use to test your thumbnail performance, you should always pay attention to two most important metrics, namely: impressions clickthrough rate and view duration. If the impressions clickthrough rate on a video is low but the average view duration is high, it's probably time to change the thumbnail. Using a thumbnail that gets more clicks will give you more viewers who watch longer. If your clickthrough rate is high, but view duration is low, then you probably need to think about changing the content or subject itself. Comparing these two metrics will tell you which element deserves most attention. YouTube says the new feature will roll out to thousands of creators over the coming months. If you want early access to test features like this one, you can sign up at https://www.youtube.com/creators/research/.

AI Legal Team To Fight Speeding Tickets
The start-up company DoNotPay claims to have built a legal chatbot - built on LLM technology - that can advise defendants when they appear in court. The company recently said it would let its AI system help two defendants fight speeding tickets in real-time. Connected via an earpiece, the AI can listen to proceedings and whisper legal arguments into the ear of the defendant, who then repeats them out loud to the judge. After criticism and a lawsuit for practising law without a license, the start-up postponed the AI’s courtroom debut. The potential for the technology will thus not be decided by technological or economic constraints, but by the authority of the legal system. Lawyers are well-paid professionals and the costs of litigation are high, so the economic potential for automation is huge. However, the US legal system so far seems to oppose robots representing humans in court. Johann Laux and Fabian Stephany at University of Oxford recently highlighted this ambitious AI adaptation and three more "technologies that could make a difference next".
https://uk.style.yahoo.com/chatgpt-took-people-surprise-four-125251618.html

SEARCH ENGINE OF THE MONTH
Google Search Generative Experience (SGE) is an experimental version of Google's search engine that uses artificial intelligence to generate contextual answers to complex questions. It's the latest indication that the future of search is changing: Google is rolling out new, experimental search experiences while Microsoft leans heavily into generative AI. Meanwhile, YouTube is blurring the line between search and social and TikTok is taking searches away from everybody - Google included. Alphabet executives are well aware that informational searches are declining, particularly when it comes to Gen Z. Speaking to TechCrunch in 2022, Google Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan revealed the company's own research found that almost 40 per cent of youngsters turn to TikTok or Instagram when looking for such things as a place to eat lunch - not Google Maps or Search. Google trailed the future of AI-powered search by unveiling its experimental Search Generative Experience (SGE) project with lots of big promises but only limited access to users for now.
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2023/05/19/google-search-generative-experience