Day: May 26, 2023

Former Director of Listing of Crypto Exchange Coinone Acknowledges South Korea Bribery Charges: Report

“Mr Jeon,” Coinone’s former director of listing, was accused of receiving nearly 2 billion won ($1.51 million) in return for listing virtual assets such as “Furiever Coin,” which was listed exclusively on the exchange, and has since been linked to a kidnapping and murder investigation in the Gangnam district in Seoul. Jeon’s broker, known as “Mr Ko,” is accused of facilitating the listings. Source

Chinese city releases policy draft for metaverse industry development

boss

On May 24, the Chinese city of Zhengzhou announced a series of policy proposals to support metaverse companies operating in the region. As part of the initiatives, the municipal government will establish a dedicated fund worth 10 billion yuan ($1.42 billion) to foster growth and development in the industry. Per the government draft, metaverse companies that choose to relocate their headquarters to Zhengzhou will have the opportunity to receive a startup capital investment of up to 200 million yuan ($28.34 million). The companies will also qualify for other benefits, including…

OpenAI’s ChatGPT New App Clocks Over 500K Downloads in Less Than One Week

The OpenAI’s ChatGPT app has integrated Whisper, an open-source speech-recognition system, to enable voice inputs. The rise of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) market is to a great extent unrivaled. Already, the AI research company has unveiled a remarkable application, currently running on iOS products, to help its customers access the products seamlessly. Having been in the market for about six days, the ChatGPT app on iOS has ostensibly been downloaded by more than 500K users. As a result, the new ChatGPT app outperformed other developers’ YTD, despite…

OpenAI launches grant for AI democratic governance project

boss

OpenAI, the parent company of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, has launched an initiative to bring more democratic input to AI development.  In the official announcement on May 25, the company said it is preparing to award 10 grants worth $100,000 each toward experiments in setting up a “proof-of-concept,” democratic process for determining rules for AI systems to follow. According to OpenAI, the rules should be “within the bounds defined by the law” and should benefit humanity. “This grant represents a step to establish democratic processes for overseeing AGI and,…

Crypto fintech Unbanked shuts down amid US regulatory hurdle

Unbanked, a crypto fintech firm specializing in crypto custody and payments services, has decided to close its operations, citing a harsh regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies in the United States. In a blog post published on May 26, Unbanked’s co-founders, Ian Kane and Daniel Gouldman, revealed that despite initially believing that establishing their company in the US would be a wise long-term strategy, their expectations were unmet after five years of operation. Source: Unbanked on Twitter Unbanked succumbs to regulatory pressure The founders explained that while other crypto companies thrived by…

Ether Balance on Exchanges Nears All-Time Low

“This trend is anticipated to persist, particularly considering that deflationary forces are expected to propel the price of Ether significantly,” analysts at Binfinex previously shared with CoinDesk. “Prior to this upgrade, potential stakeholders may have been deterred from staking their ether tokens due to concerns about their funds being locked for an unacceptably long duration.” Source

Visa, Microsoft and others join Brazilian CBDC pilot

boss

Both national and global companies will participate in the upcoming Brazilian central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot project. Banco Central do Brasil, the country’s central bank, will begin adding participants to the digital real platform around the middle of June 2023. On May 24, the central bank published the final list of CBDC pilot participants. Participants were chosen from a pool of 36 bids made by single companies and consortia, “totaling more than 100 institutions”. The final number of participants is 14; however, some represent groups of companies. For example, the…

Microsoft Calls for Revised AI Regulation, Proposes Streamlined Five-Point Guidelines

Yesterday, Microsoft VC and President Brad Smith called for a new supervisory agency and proposed guidelines for effective AI regulation. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) has joined the discussion on artificial intelligence (AI) regulation, calling for oversight from a new federal agency. In addition to a proposed supervisory fed agency, Microsoft also stressed the need for “safety brakes” and licensing to avoid pitfalls in the sector. Furthermore, the Washington-based company called for an executive order that approves new restrictions on how the US government deploys AI tools. In a speech in…

Alibaba Rebuts Layoff Reports, Plans to Hire 15,000 People in 2023

Amid reports of layoffs, Alibaba surprised the market by announcing plans to hire 15,000 people in 2023. It is pursuing a six-way split of its operations and preparing for the spinoff of Alibaba Cloud. Amid the uncertainty in the global jobs market and major job losses over the last few months, Alibaba is taking a turn for the good. Amid reports that the Alibaba Group Holding is planning a fresh round of layoffs, the Chinese tech giant surprised everyone by announcing its plans to hire 15,000 people this year in…