LinkedIn is the latest notable tech company to announce a round of mass layoffs. It's letting 716 staff go and shutting down its job search app in China. LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky said in a memo to employees that the cuts were part of a shift in strategy that was driven by changes in customer behavior and slower revenue growth. That's despite the platform seeing record levels of engagement and "making meaningful progress creating economic opportunities for our members and customers."

In 2021, LinkedIn shut down the seven-year-old Chinese version of its service, citing the difficulties of operating in the country. It rolled out a job board app for Chinese users called InCareer that did not have any social networking features. Now, Roslansky says the company will phase out that app by August 9th. While InCareer found some success, Roslansky wrote, "it also encountered fierce competition and a challenging macroeconomic climate."

LinkedIn is shifting its strategy in China toward helping companies based there recruit and train workers from other countries. It will cut its product and engineering teams in China and reduce the headcount of its local corporate, sales and marketing divisions. As The New York Times notes, LinkedIn did not say how many of the layoffs will be in China.

Around 20,000 people work at LinkedIn, so the layoffs account for around 3.5 percent of the overall headcount. However, Roslansky said LinkedIn will open more than 250 positions in other areas starting next week, namely in the operations, new business and account management divisions. 

This is just the latest instance of widespread layoffs in the tech industry over the last several months. LinkedIn parent Microsoft said in January it would cut 10,000 workers. Meta, Alphabet and Amazon have all laid off tens of thousands of workers too.

Artiphon, the company behind the Orba handheld synth and MIDI controller, launched a new AR music creation app today that you don’t need a musical background to enjoy. Minibeats for iOS uses gestures, dance moves and facial expressions to craft songs played on 12 virtual instruments with colorful visual effects.

You could view the Minibeats app as a phone camera equivalent to Artiphon’s music-creation hardware. Here, instead of tapping touchpads on top of an orb-like device, the app lets you wave your hands, smile, frown and bust a move; the camera will capture your gestures and turn them into corresponding music.

The app is an extension of the company’s mission to make music creation a fun and simple activity that anyone can do. “With an intuitive interface and zero learning curve, Minibeats allows you to make music in innovative ways using simple gestures,” Artiphon’s announcement reads. “Dance to the beat as Minibeats tracks your movements and mixes the music. Wave your hands to draw across the sky with sparkles, lasers, and ripples. And even play music by smiling and frowning as Minibeats detects your emotions and scores it with a mood that matches the moment.”

Artiphon

The app taps into the Snapchat CameraKit SDK, which Artiphon already used in custom lenses it launched earlier this year in collaboration with electronic artists San Holo and LP Giobbi. “The iOS app will take this idea even further with more music to choose from and even more exciting ways to play it,” the launch video below states.

Although the app is tailored for simplicity, it provides hint videos to show you the ropes and learn the subtler details of AR music creation. Additionally, it includes “dozens” of visual effects corresponding to your gestures and sounds. And, of course, the app makes it easy to share your creations, letting you download your makeshift music video to your iOS Photos library or share with friends through text, email or social apps.

"[Y]ou will probably see follower count drop," Twitter owner Elon Musk has warned the website's users, because the company is purging accounts that has "had no activity at all" for several years. Musk's announcement was quite vague, so we'll have to wait for Twitter to announce more specific rules, such as how long "several years" actually is.

His announcement also comes after he reportedly threatened to reassign NPR's handle on the website due to inactivity. According to the media organization, the executive sent one of its reporters an unprompted email that reads: "So is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company?" NPR left the social network after it was labeled "state-affiliated media" along with state-run outlets like Russia's RT. Musk apparently told NPR in their email exchange that Twitter's policy is to "recycle handles that are definitively dormant" and that "same policy applies to all accounts." It's worth noting that it's been less than a month since NPR quit Twitter and that it definitely hasn't been "several years" yet. 

At the moment, though, the website has yet to update its inactive account policy page, which only states that users need to log in every 30 days to keep their account active. That part of the policy is pretty new, because Twitter had only required users to log in every six months as recently as April 19th. Twitter's policy still also states that it "cannot release inactive usernames at this time," but Musk hinted in a follow-up tweet that the company will be changing that rule. "[I]t is important to free up abandoned handles," he wrote. 

When urged to rethink his decision, because killing inactive accounts will also delete tweets by deceased users, Musk responded that their accounts will be archived. What that means exactly remains to be seen. 

You'll soon see Hollywood's treatment of one of the most important (and dangerous) moments in scientific history. Universal has released a trailer for Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan's biopic of the physicist who played a key role in developing and testing the first atomic bomb. The clip underscores the ethical issues surrounding the Manhattan Project and its work. While the team is hopeful that nuclear weapons will end World War II and usher in a new era of peace, they're also worried abut sparking an apocalyptic arms race — the movie doesn't end with the detonation.

The adaptation of Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin's American Prometheus book stars Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders) as its namesake scientist, with Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer's wife Katherine. Matt Damon plays Manhattan Project directo Gen. Leslie Groves Jr., while Robert Downey Jr. plays US Atomic Energy Commission co-founder Lewis Strauss. Rami Malek, Matthew Modine and Alden Ehrenreich also star.

Nolan's reputation and the top-tier cast will be the draws for many. However, this is also a rare movie that explores the role science played in WWII, not to mention in setting the stage for the Cold War and nuclear energy. The production of the movie is also notable. This is the first movie to feature sections of IMAX black-and-white film footage, so it may be worth heading to a supporting theater to get the full experience.

For the last few years, you’ve been able to say “Stop” to tell Google Assistant to end an alarm early without the need to preface your command with “Hey Google.” It’s a handy feature Google first debuted on Assistant-enabled smart displays and speakers before later rolling it out to Pixel smartphones. And for the most part, it works like a charm, though one person recently discovered a fun quirk of the feature that involves the Pixies classic “Where Is My Mind?”

In a Reddit post spotted by Android Police, Pixel user “asevarte” recounts how their morning alarm would go off and sometimes turn off moments later for seemingly no reason. “Maybe once every other week or so, I would wake up 30 minutes later on my backup alarm, with no indication as to why the first shut itself off,” they told the Google Pixel subreddit.

Earlier this week, asevarte decided to wake up early to get to the bottom of the issue. Thankfully, it didn’t take long to find the culprit. Their alarm was set to play a Spotify playlist that features “Where Is My Mind?” If you’re a Pixies fan, you know exactly where this is going. The Surfer Rosa cut opens with bassist and vocalist Kim Deal singing “Ooh” before frontman Black Francis says, “Stop,” and the song, following a brief pause, then continues. The section caused Google Assistant to prematurely end asevarte’s alarm. They had the playlist set to shuffle, which is what made identifying the bug tricky.

Android Police recorded a video of the oversight in action, and sure enough, playing “Where Is My Mind?” ends an alarm early. Interestingly, other songs that feature a prominent “stop,” such as “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen, don’t appear to trigger Assistant’s Quick Phrases feature in the same way that “Where Is My Mind?” does. Android Police speculates the reason for that could be that in those other songs “stop” is backed by instrumentals. That lines up with complaints Assistant users have had over the years that the feature doesn’t work when they try to use it while their smart display, speaker or Pixel device is playing music.

If you’re curious about what the Pixies think of all this. The band’s official Twitter account caught the original Android Police story. “Sorry about that!” the account tweeted.

You can soon log into your Netflix account and build bridges, towers, zeppelins and other structures with jiggly talking balls of goo. The World of Goo, the physics-based hit game by indie developer 2D Boy, is being remastered for mobile exclusively for the streaming giant. And when it launches on May 23rd, you can play it for free, with no ads on in-app purchases, regardless of your membership tier. 

The physics game first launched in 2008 for Microsoft Windows and Wii before it made its way to Android and iOS, Mac OS, Linux and Switch in the years that followed. To win a level in the game, you'll have to use the balls of goo to build structures and get over pits, hills and other obstacles. There are several species of goo, and each one comes with its own unique ability. 

The remaster still features the same levels, puzzles and areas, but the art has been updated to double the resolution of the original game. It has also been optimized for modern screen sizes so that it would look good on any device. The game will save your progress across devices, but take note that it tracks each profile separately. 

Back in March, Netflix announced its plans to add roughly 40 more titles to its gaming library, in hopes that you can find at least one that appeals to you. Back then, Netflix VP of external games Leanne Loombe said users are mostly drawn to three specific types of games, including titles they recognize from elsewhere and ones that encourage daily play. World of Goo certainly fits those two categories. 

Luddites had the right of things all the way back in the 1800s. When textile factory owners in early 19th century England used the industrialization of their industry as an excuse to underpay and overwork employees in dangerous, dehumanizing conditions, the secret organization of workers set about smashing the machines of the capitalists who exploited them. Today, the Writers’ Guild of America faces a similar threat from those in control of a new transformative technology, generative AI, and it’s part of the reason they’re currently on strike for better working conditions.

On March 7, 2023, WGA members voted to approve the 2023 Pattern of Demands by a count of 5,553 voting yes to 90 no’s. On Tuesday morning, more than 11,000 members of the Writers Guild of America shut Hollywood down for the first time since 2007 when they last had to fight for their livelihoods.

“Though we negotiated intent on making a fair deal … the studios’ responses to our proposals have been wholly insufficient, given the existential crisis writers are facing,” read a statement from WGA leadership to CNN on Wednesday. “They have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession. No such deal could ever be contemplated by this membership.”

As such, the guild is demanding significant increases to the industry’s minimum compensation “to address the devaluation of writing in all areas of television, new media and features” as well as standardize the amount writers are paid writing for streaming or theatrically released features, among a host of other long-deferred needs. The guild is also looking towards the future in its negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) in efforts to prevent the studios’ from using AI and their own words) to put WGA writers out of work.

“It is not the tool itself, it's not an objection to the tool,” WGA member and writer behind Sinister,Doctor Strange and The Black Phone, C. Robert Cargill told Engadget regarding generative AI systems. “What we have asked of the studios is that they do not generate any material themselves that they have not been handed by writers.”

This is because writing contracts in Hollywood are very specific about the circumstances of how credit is attributed because residual payments are paid out based on them, Cargill explains. For example, writing the first draft of a feature pays at a higher rate than the subsequent rewrites and the amount of residuals the first screenwriter receives depends on what percentage of their original script made it into the final product.

“The fear here is very simple,” Cargill said, and one that is already being realized in the wake of the strike’s launch. “Which is, they get an idea and they put it into one of the generative programs… and then it kicks out something that looks like a script. Then what they do is they hand it over to a writer and say, ‘we're going to pay you your rewrite wage to go ahead and make it sound more like a human wrote it and to fix any of the problems.”

This would essentially preclude human — more importantly, unionized — writers from earring the highest pay rate while forcing them to still perform the highest pay grade work. “What Hollywood can be doing is cutting us out of that very lucrative first step of generating the initial script and story ideas,” he said.

The guild is also, rightfully, concerned with the potential for their existing writing content be used to train future iterations of generative AIs. “I had a fan reach out to me because he was playing around with [ChatGPT] a few weeks ago and wanted to get a couple ideas to a horror story,” Cargill recalled. “He says, ‘Give me some horror prompts based on, I want to write a horror movie that is a mystery thriller, I want it to be creepy and kind of like Sinister.’”

“What it spit back out was the plot to Sinister,” Cargill, who wrote Sinister. “A family moves into a house and finds a videotape of the murder of the family that previously lived there, and the only thing that was changed from my movie is ours happened on film and not video — and that's how it changed it.”

Cargill’s concern is that “by using our previous scripts, what the studios will be doing is essentially getting lines of our dialogue and our jokes sent back into the industry — but without our attribution, without our credit, without our pay.”

He elaborates that the guild is not seeking a full ban on generative AI’s use and that screen are welcome to use it if they want. In the same way that “you don't have to use a computer with spellcheck. You can write your script on yellow line paper by hand if you want — Quentin Tarantino still does that.”

“You don't you don't have to use the technology,” he continued. “But if you want to you can but what we want is to make sure studios aren't using that to replace that and then pay us lower rates just to rewrite what a computer sent back.”

The WGA did not respond to multiple written requests for comment. The AMPTP issued the following response:

We’re creative companies and we value the work of creatives. The best stories are original, insightful and often come from people's own experiences. AI raises hard, important creative and legal questions for everyone. For example, writers want to be able to use this technology as part of their creative process, without changing how credits are determined, which is complicated given AI material can't be copyrighted. So it's something that requires a lot more discussion, which we've committed to doing. Also, it’s important to note that the current WGA Agreement already defines a “writer” to exclude any “corporate or impersonal purveyor” of literary material, meaning that only a “person” can be considered a writer and enjoy the terms and conditions of the Basic Agreement. For example, AI-generated material would not be eligible for writing credit.

The Strong National Museum of Play has revealed this year's inductees into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. There are four games in the class of 2023: The Last of Us, Wii Sports, Barbie Fashion Designer and Computer Space. They were selected based on a number of criteria, including their influence and popularity over time.

The Last of Us is the most recent one of the bunch. Naughty Dog's post-apocalyptic action adventure has rarely been out of the limelight over the last 10 years. A TV series based on the game debuted on HBO in January and it was an enormous hit with critics and audiences. A remake of the original game hit PS5 in September and PC in March, though the latter had a buggy launch, unfortunately. 

Going backwards from there, Wii Sports arrived in 2006. Partly because it was bundled in with the massively successful Wii and partly because everyone was playing it, the ever-entertaining sports sim went on to become one of the biggest-selling games of all time. Last year, Nintendo recaptured the magic fairly well on Switch with Nintendo Switch Sports (for the record, my Mii's nickname is Party Gramps).

Back in 1996, Mattel and Digital Domain released Barbie Fashion Designer. It allowed players to design clothing that they could print and dress their real-life Barbie dolls with. The game was a hit, selling half a million copies in two months.

“Barbie Fashion Designer became a jumping-off point for the girls’ games movement and shook up the software and gaming scene," Kristy Hisert, collections manager at The Strong, said. "It also sparked important questions and debate. What does it mean to be a game for girls? Should there even be games ‘for girls’? What are the implications of these games? What are the consequences of gendering games?”

The final member of the class of 2023 is the first ever commercially available video game. Computer Space was an arcade title based on 1962's Spacewar!, which was primarily found on the DEC PDP-1 minicomputer in computer labs. The success of 1971's Computer Space spurred creators Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney to found a little-known company called Atari.

These four titles are well-deserving inductees into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. This year's other finalists were Age of Empires, Angry Birds, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, FIFA International Soccer, Goldeneye 007, NBA 2K, Quake and Wizardry. The Strong, which is in Rochester, New York, will showcase the 2023 inductees (and presumably the ones from previousyears) on a permanent basis in a new World Video Game Hall of Fame space, which will open on June 30th.

Paramount+ is still growing quickly even as its competitors recover. Paramount has revealed that its streaming service has over 60 million subscribers, having added 4.1 million in the first quarter. For context, the platform had 43 million users at the end of last spring — that's a nearly 40 percent jump in several months. Not surprisingly, the media giant is giving credit to its slate of originals and exclusives.

The service had help from shows like the final season of Star Trek: Picard, Tulsa King and the Yellowstone spinoff 1923. Paramount+ also touts access to recent movies like Top Gun: Maverick. And yes, the NFL playoffs kept customers tuning in. The Showtime bundle also helped draw in people eager to watch titles like Yellowjackets.

There were other successes. Paramount's free-to-watch Pluto TV service topped 80 million monthly active users thanks to a 35 percent year-to-year jump in viewing hours. The company's increasing reliance on streaming also became clear through financial figures. While overall subscription revenue climbed 50 percent compared to a year earlier, the money flowing from Paramount+ surged 65 percent.

To some extent, Paramount+ is taking advantage of its rivals' misfortunes. While Netflix has bounced back from last year's rare losses, it still added a modest 1.7 million new subscribers in its first quarter. That's partly due to saturation — at 232.5 million total customers, Netflix doesn't have as much room to grow. Still, this suggests that studio-owned streaming services can fare well against incumbents.

Don't expect Paramount+ to change its strategy much as a result. The service is still leaning on Star Trek shows like Strange New Worlds, not to mention sports exclusives like the UEFA Champions League. That flurry of new content may come at a cost, as Paramount+ recently hiked prices. If viewers are willing to stay, though, the investment could easily pay off.

Apple has bulked up the Apple Arcade games library with another 20 new and classic titles. Among the additions is an exclusive co-op Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. In TMNT Splintered Fate, you and some allies can battle your way through a litany of enemies as you look for Splinter, who's gone missing.

This is a roguelike brawler, so it'll be different every time you play. You'll be able to combine the turtles' attacks with randomized powerups and get some help from friends such as April O'Neil and Casey Jones. It's worth noting that TMNT: Shredder's Revenge, a terrific retro-style beat-'em-up that arrived last year, is also available on mobile, though you'll need a Netflix subscription to play it on iOS or Android.

Also new is What The Car?, the latest title from What the Golf? and What The Bat? studio Triband. This time around, you'll control a car and take part in races. If you've played Triband's previous games, you'll know to expect some absurd (and probably funny) twists. For one thing, the car has legs.

Apple has added several Disney titles to Arcade, including the Words With Friends-style Disney SpellStruck, 3D sticker book creator Disney Coloring World+ and match-three puzzle game Disney Getaway Blast+. Elsewhere, Apple Arcade subscribers now have access to a 4K version of Temple Run, an ad-free Snake.io and Farming Simulator 20.

Other classic indies are available to Apple Arcade subscribers at no extra cost starting today as well, including the brilliant Limbo and tough physics-based platformer Getting Over It. In addition, you'll be able to check out Octodad: Dadliest Catch from Young Horses, whose charming Bugsnax is also coming to iOS this summer.

There are more than 200 games on Apple Arcade. Even so, this marks a significant expansion of the library. Meanwhile, Netflix recently said it planned to add 40 more titles to its catalog of mobile games this year, including Oxenfree II: Lost Signals.