Welcome to the Tech Meme Right Home for Wednesday, August 17th, 2022. I'm Brian McCullough today

cracking down on house parties as a service. Apple makes moves to diversify the supply chain,

another worrying data point from the semiconductor industry,

have the banks been using WhatsApp to avoid scrutiny

from regulators, and can large language models make our dreams of robot butlers a reality.

Here's what you miss today in the world of tech.

AirB&B is introducing what it calls anti-party technology in the US and

Canada to automatically block reservations at a high risk of leading to

unauthorized house parties.

Quoting Fast Company.

The Vacation Rental Company tells Fast Company

the new tech is aimed at identifying

quote, potentially high-risk reservations.

AirB&B will be looking at factors like a user's history of positive reviews and history with the service

length of the requested booking distance from their home to the booking and whether it's booked for a weekend or

weekday. Short-term rental platforms like Airbnb and VRBO have long

struggled with unauthorized parties taking place at bookings. The new tech is meant to flag and prevent suspect bookings from being sent to the host for approval,

so homeowners can approve bookings without fear of property damage or noise complaints. People who have been blocked from

booking an entire listing because of the new system will still be able to book a single

room and a whole residence since the host is more likely to be on the premises or a hotel room.

AirB&B has been testing the tech in Australia since October 2021 and says it's seen a 35% drop in

unauthorized parties in areas where the pilot was in effect.

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