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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 06: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the OpenAI DevDay event on November 06, 2023 in San Francisco, California. Altman delivered the keynote address at the first ever Open AI DevDay conference. (Photo by Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
Here are five things in tech that happened this week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?<\/p>\n
This Week in Small Business Technology NewsSmall Business Technology News #1 \u2013 OpenAI\u2019s first ChatGPT gadget could turn out to be a smart speaker with a camera attached. <\/p>\n
OpenAI<\/a> is in the process of developing new hardware according to a report published by The Information. Per the report, a ChatGPT smart speaker is in the works that will include a camera that\u2019s capable of recognizing objects and will offer facial recognition \u2013 retailing between $200-300. The facial recognition feature could be used to verify purchases according to early details. Other hardware such as smart glasses and a smart lamp are items OpenAI is purportedly working on. As for the smart speaker, the timeline for availability is likely 2027. This latest update shows OpenAI\u2019s initiative to expand its reach to the consumer. (Source: TechRadar<\/a>)<\/p>\n Why this is important for your small business: <\/p>\n The big AI platforms are now turning into big tech companies and very soon both consumers are going to have to make choices. All Microsoft? All Apple? All Amazon? Or all OpenAI (or Claude, or Grok, etc.). As these companies move beyond chatbots to a full offering of both software and hardware \u2013 each with their strengths and weaknesses \u2013 we will need to consider carefully which ecosystem we want to join.<\/p>\n Small Business Technology News #2 \u2013 Intuit and Anthropic partner to bring trusted financial intelligence and custom AI agents to consumers and businesses.<\/p>\n Intuit has announced a partnership with Anthropic<\/a> intended to deliver \u201ccustom AI agents to mid-market businesses on the Intuit platform,\u201d as stated in a company press release. By integrating Anthropic\u2019s Claude Agent SDK, businesses will be able to build and utilize custom AI agents to handle complex workflows \u2013 e.g., accounting, project timelines, payroll \u2013 in compliance with a given industry or sector. Intuit\u2019s platform will be accessible through Anthropic\u2019s Claude where users can connect with tax and invoicing tools, offering key financial services through one portal. According to Intuit, rollout of the customized AI agents is scheduled for this spring. (Source: Intuit<\/a>)<\/p>\n Why this is important for your small business: <\/p>\n Traditional software companies \u2013 and Wall Street \u2013 are concerned about their futures. Clearly, AI will enable companies to \u201cvibe code\u201d their own solutions, surpassing the need to subscribe to platforms. One strategy is to partner up with the big AI platforms doing this and I believe that\u2019s exactly where Intuit is going. It\u2019ll start with search and analytics (clearly Anthropic does it better than their own developers) and will ultimately morph into deeper partnerships.<\/p>\n Small Business Technology News #3 \u2013 Facebook Marketplace’s Venmo scam is ripping everyone off.<\/p>\n The latest financial scam has made its way to Facebook Marketplace as reported by writer Sean Kernan. He documents his online interactions after listing a monitor he intended to sell on Facebook Marketplace. Kernan immediately received three different replies of interest which contained odd wording, but he moved forward \u2013 until a major red flag surfaced \u2013 all three were newly created Facebook accounts. Second red flag \u2013 they all asked if he used Venmo. The scam is further described in the Yahoo piece linked here. (Source: Yahoo Creators<\/a>)<\/p>\n Why this is important for your small business: <\/p>\n Be careful \u2013 and aware \u2013 when buying or selling on Facebook Marketplace.<\/p>\n Small Business Technology News #4 \u2013 3 new Google Chrome features can make your workday easier.<\/p>\n Google has announced out new updates in Google Chrome: Split View, PDF annotations, and Save to Google Drive. (Source: Mashable<\/a>)<\/p>\n Why this is important for your small business: <\/p>\n According to the article Split View lets you open two tabs side-by-side in the same window, eliminating the jumping back and forth between tabs. With PDF annotations \u2013 the most requested feature according to Google \u2013 PDFs can be marked with highlights, notes, digital signatures and more, all within Chrome. Save to Google Drive lets users save any documents directly to Google Drive, skipping the process of downloading if they choose. This makes downloads easier to retrieve and track. All of these seem like good productivity tools for your employees.<\/p>\n Small Business Technology News #5 – The FBI says these Wi-Fi Routers are unsafe<\/p>\n The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a warning that outdated home Wi-Fi routers \u2013 especially those from the late 2000s and early 2010s \u2013 are now targets for cybercriminals. Routers that are considered \u201cend-of-life\u201d no longer receive security updates; and have known vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit. According to the FBI\u2019s advisory, attackers are scanning the internet for these older devices to take advantage of their security flaws. If successful, bad actors can achieve remote access, install malware or add the routers to what\u2019s called \u201cbotnets\u201d \u2013 networks of infected devices used for cyberattacks or sold as anonymous proxy access to criminals. The FBI includes specific routers they have deemed vulnerable and recommends they be replaced as soon as possible. (Source: SlashGear<\/a>)<\/p>\n Why this is important for your small business:<\/p>\n This is one of the reasons why you should be providing either hardware or IT support for any of your employees working from home. It\u2019s likely you don\u2019t have these routers in your office. But it\u2019s likelier that your employees do in their homes. When setting anyone up to work from home make sure they undergo a full security review which will include installing security and monitoring software as well as checking both their devices and routers.<\/p>\n Each week I round up five small business technology news stories and explain why they’re important for your business. If you have any interesting stories, please post to my X account @genemarks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 06: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the OpenAI DevDay event on November…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2729,64,63,5004,7810,16579,5044,255670,105],"class_list":["post-509890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-anthropic","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chatgpt","tag-fbi","tag-intuit","tag-openai","tag-small-business-technology-news","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}