Welcome to the Tech Meme Right Home for Friday, April 5th, 2024. I'm Brian McCullough today.

Apple joins the Tech Layoff Club. Microsoft warned China is planning to disrupt elections using AI.

Disney Plus is joining Netflix and cracking down on password sharing.

How much is the going rate to buy pictures or videos to train AI models on and of course the weekend long read

suggestions here's what you missed today in the world of tech.

Finally happened. According to various filings, Apple laid off more than 600 employees in California.

Some layoffs correspond to addresses where Apple's display and car research teams were reportedly based,

but there could be other cuts that we don't know about.

Quoting Bloomberg, the CupertinoCalifornia-based company filed eight separate reports to the state to comply with

the worker adjustment and retraining notification or warn program.

Companies must file a report to the state agency for each

California address that includes employees affected by a layoff. At least 87 of the

people worked at an address corresponding to a secret Apple facility for its

next generation screen development

while others were located at buildings related to the car project.

At the end of February, Apple began to wind down both initiatives which were seen as

major moonshot efforts to advance the

company's technologies or enter sizable new areas. The CAR project was

canceled amid indecision among executives about its direction and cost concerns.

The display program was shuttered due to

engineering supplier and cost challenges. According to the reports, 371 employees

were released at Apple's main car-related office in Santa Clara, California,

...