2024 milestones: September

Tech highlights for September 2024 included:

- Apple introduced AI in its phones via the new iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. The company said Apple Intelligence is easy-to-use, understands personal context, and protects user privacy.

- Ericsson teamed up with telecom operators around the world, including América Móvil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Reliance Jio, Singtel, Telefonica, Telstra, T-Mobile, Verizon and Vodafone, to create a company that combines and sells network application programming interfaces (APIs) on a global scale.

- The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a report about the data collection and use practices of major social media and video streaming services which found that these services "engaged in vast surveillance of consumers in order to monetise their personal information while failing to adequately protect users online, especially children and teens." 

The companies investigated included Amazon, which owns the gaming platform Twitch; Facebook, now named Meta Platforms, whose platform is Facebook; YouTube; Twitter, now called X; Snap; ByteDance, which owns TikTok; Discord; Reddit; and WhatsApp. Meta also owns WhatsApp, while Google owns YouTube.

Akhil Mittal, Senior Manager, Synopsys Software Integrity Group commented: "The FTC’s report shows what many have been worried about for a while. Social media and streaming platforms are collecting more data than people realise, especially from kids and teens. What’s concerning is that these companies are making money from this data often without user consent.

"The problem is that these companies can’t regulate themselves. Their business models depend on collecting personal data. What’s worse is that some platforms can’t even track how much data they’re gathering. Without strong privacy laws to hold them accountable, this won’t change. Some platforms have started improving their practices but those efforts aren’t enough. Families can take simple steps like adjusting privacy settings and staying informed. But the ultimate goal should be to ensure that everyone, especially kids, can enjoy technology without giving up their privacy."

- Google's NotebookLM AI-powered research and writing assistant gained a podcast creation feature. In the words of the company, Audio Overview turns documents into "engaging audio discussions". "With one click, two AI hosts start up a lively 'deep dive' discussion based on your sources. They summarise your material, make connections between topics, and banter back and forth. You can even download the conversation and take it on the go," the company said in a blog post. The assistant went global in June.

- The GSMA launched the first industry-wide Responsible AI Maturity Roadmap to provide telecoms operators with the tools and guidance to test and assess their responsible use of the technology. This is the first time a whole sector has committed to a common approach to AI. Axiata, BT Group, Deutsche Telekom, du UAE, e&, Globe, KPN, MTN, Orange, Singtel, stc, Telefónica, Telenor, Telia, Telstra, Turkcell, TIM, True, and Vodafone have signed up to use it. 

 

Source: Huawei Mobile Facebook page. Views of the new Huawei Mate XT trifold phone.

- Huawei unveiled a phone that unfolds into triple screens, a world first, just after Apple's phone announcement. The Huawei Mate XT is described on the company's social media as a device with premium design and futuristic form. 

A Xiaomi patent for a trifold phone was subsequently discovered, sparking speculation that a trifold phone from the company is in the works.

- India and Singapore sign a memorandum of understanding on partnership in semiconductors.

- Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, via its Lintasarta subsidiary, and Accenture committed to developing Indonesia's first sovereign AI cloud platform. 

- Meta has unveiled Orion, previously codenamed Project Nazare, saying it thinks they are "the most advanced pair of AR glasses ever made". 

- NVIDIA has 88% share of the graphics add-in board market for Q224, Jon Peddie Research reported, with AMD taking up the remaining 12%. These figures have remained stable since Q124, leaving Intel's share at zero for the year. 

NVIDIA also introduced the NVLM 1.0 family of multimodal large language models (LLMs). According to NVIDIA researchers, this AI model achieves "state-of-the-art results on vision-language tasks, rivaling the leading proprietary models (e.g., GPT-4o) and open-access models (e.g., Llama 3-V 405B and InternVL 2)". 

- Oracle expanded multicloud support.

- The Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), launched their first sectoral AI centre of excellence under the Singapore National AI Strategy 2.0, the Sectoral AI Centre of Excellence for Manufacturing.

The Singapore Ministry of Education stopped working with Mobile Guardian after a series of service interruptions and will work towards rolling out a new device management application solution by the new school year in January 2025.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) replaced an existing Cyber Security Advisory Panel with a Cyber and Technology Resilience Experts (CTREX) Panel. The new panel has an expanded mandate to cover technology resilience which, together with cybersecurity, significantly underpins the operational resilience of the financial sector, MAS said. The 13-member panel will advise MAS on key emerging technology risks and threats facing the financial sector, and recommend strategies and measures to enhance the technology and cyber resilience of Singapore’s financial sector. 

- Sony Research and AI Singapore are to conduct research on large-language models (LLMs) for Southeast-Asian languages.

Sony also welcomed the PlayStation 5 Pro to the PlayStation family. The top-of-the-line device has a better GPU, advanced ray tracing and AI-driven upscaled resolution. Memes online referenced the lack of new games, its high price, and the fact that the stand is sold separately.

- Telstra achieved 1.6 Tbps through a single optical channel over 700 km with Ericsson and Ciena. This is over 200 km longer than the previous record for highest capacity on a single wavelength.