Author: Tapiwa Matthew Mutisi

Alphabet’s Google is reportedly in talks to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Character.AI, as the fast growing artificial intelligence chatbot startup seeks capital to train models and keep up with user demand. The investment, which could be structured as convertible notes, according to a third source, will deepen…

Airbnb has reportedly made its first acquisition as a public company, in a deal valued at just under $200 million. The startup is called Gameplanner.AI, which has been in “stealth mode” since its founding in 2020. Startups in stealth mode operate out of the public eye for various reasons, such as…

Uber drivers and riders need to maintain a high rating to keep using the app, but bad actors can pull that score down. Some may even give a driver or courier a poor rating for a perfectly fine ride or food delivery just so they can get a refund. Uber says…

Instagram is expanding its Close Friends feature from Stories and Notes to feed posts and Reels. As such, you’ll be able to share Reels and feed posts with a smaller, perhaps more trusted audience instead of everyone who follows you. The Instagram team says folks use Close Friends “as a pressure-free space to…

Meta is slowly continuing to untangle some aspects of Threads from Instagram. Threads users are now able to delete their accounts on the app without also deleting their Instagram, the app’s top exec, Adam Mosseri, said in an update. Users can remove their profile from the Threads app via Settings -> Account -> Delete or deactivate…

The Nepali government announced in a cabinet meeting Monday that TikTok would be banned to the country’s 2.2 million users to protect “social harmony.” The sweeping move comes just days after authorities issued a directive tightening content regulation on all social media sites.  The ban comes in response to public…

Nvidia recently unveiled the H200, a graphics processing unit designed for training and deploying the kinds of artificial intelligence models that are powering the generative AI boom. The new GPU is an upgrade from the H100, the chip OpenAI used to train its most advanced large language model, GPT-4. Big companies, startups and government agencies are…

As as competition intensifies in the online food delivery space, Bolt Food, the food delivery arm of ride-hailing firm Bolt, is preparing to wind down its operations in South Africa next month. In a statement, the company says it will officially pull the plug on its business operations in South…

Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd is stepping down as chief executive after nearly a decade running the dating app company. Starting on January 2, Wolfe Herd will be succeeded by Lidiane Jones, a longtime tech executive who has been serving since December as the CEO of the workplace communication service Slack, Bumble…

A US unit of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) was recently hit by a ransomware attack that disrupted some of its systems, reportedly hitting liquidity in US Treasuries which may have contributed to a brief market sell-off on Thursday. ICBC Financial Services, which is headquartered in New…

Salesforce co-founder and chief executive Marc Benioff announced on Monday that longtime Salesforce executive Denise Dresser has been appointed CEO of Slack and her role as CEO is effective immediately. Dresser becomes the third CEO of the Salesforce unit since it was acquired by Salesforce in 2020. She has been…

Just recently Amazon cut jobs in its Music division, now for the second time this year, Amazon on Monday announced it will cut more than 180 jobs in its Amazon Games division, shutting down parts of the business that focus on streaming and supporting third-party games and putting more of an emphasis on…

We all knew it was just a matter of time before one of the world’s richest and most controversial men would get the biopic treatment and now it’s happening. Elon Musk is getting his very own movie, helmed by acclaimed director Darron Aronofsky and produced by A24, as originally reported by…

China is huge market, and NVIDIA really, really doesn’t want to lose access to China’s massive AI chip market, so the company is developing three new AI chips especially for China that don’t run afoul of the latest export restrictions in the US, according to The Wall Street Journal and Reuters. Last year,…

One of the largest money transfer providers in Africa, Mukuru, has announced forming an alliance with South African online payments gateway PayFast, in introducing a new payment service in the country. Available as a payment option on Payfast, Mukuru allows merchants to accept cash payments for online purchases, according to a statement.…

That Netflix subscription you’re suddenly paying another couple of bucks for every month will soon give you a bit more value for money. The Super Mario Bros. Movie — the second highest-grossing film of the year so far after Barbie — is coming to Netflix on December 3. It’s been a Peacock streaming exclusive since early August. Peacock has 28 million…

I listen to Tracy Chapman, and considering my age, a lot of people find it a bit surprising, but that’s just how it is. She is one of the best black female vocalist and songwriter of all-time, and surely she deserves recognition while she is still alive. So it was…

Google is pulling Fitbit out of South Africa in line with its decision not to sell consumer hardware products in the country, according to a TechCentral report. Its decision comes less than three years after Google completed its acquisition of the fitness tracker company. Fitbit wearables have been sold in South…

Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI, but for a brief time on Thursday, the software company temporarily prohibited its employees to use the startup’s most famous product, ChatGPT, “due to security and data concerns.” Microsoft said in an update on an internal website; Due to security and data concerns…

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has been hospitalized after suffering from a minor stroke, according to a report from ABC News. Through initial reports, it was unclear exactly why Wozniak was hospitalized. However, on Thursday afternoon, Wozniak provided an update on his condition to ABC News via text message. According to Wozniak,…