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Tech Companies Expand into New Territories, Face Scrutiny
Several tech companies made headlines this week with expansions into new markets and renewed scrutiny over existing practices. Spotify announced its foray into physical book sales, while OpenAI unveiled a platform for managing AI agents. Meanwhile, Meta faced questions from senators regarding its approach to teen user privacy.
Spotify is expanding beyond its digital roots by allowing users in the U.S. and the UK to purchase physical copies of audiobooks directly through its app, according to TechCrunch. This marks a significant shift for the platform. To enhance the audiobook experience, Spotify also introduced "Page Match," a feature that allows users to scan a page from a physical book and instantly transition to that spot in the audiobook. The "Audiobook Recaps" feature, previously exclusive to iOS, is also coming to Android devices.
In the AI sector, OpenAI launched OpenAI Frontier, a platform designed to help businesses manage AI agents, even those not created by OpenAI, The Verge reported. According to OpenAI, Frontier will provide AI agents with "shared context, onboarding, hands-on learning with feedback, and clear permissions," similar to how human resources departments function for human employees. "Managing humans is hard. Managing AI agents is also hard. That’s why OpenAI is launching a new platform called OpenAI Frontier," Robert Hart of The Verge wrote.
Meta, however, faced criticism from lawmakers. A group of senators, including Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Katie Britt (R-AL), sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg questioning the company's delay in implementing key privacy protections for users under 18, The Verge reported. The senators raised concerns about allegations that Meta knew its platforms harmed users.
In other tech news, Duna, a business identity verification startup founded by Stripe alumni, raised a €30 million Series A funding round, TechCrunch reported. The round was led by Alphabet's growth fund CapitalG. Duna, based in Germany and the Netherlands, helps fintech companies with customer verification.
Finally, The Verge highlighted the Vappeby, a small Bluetooth speaker from Ikea, describing it as "a nice little gadget."
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