Axios

Subscription services aren’t close to disrupting gaming the way they’ve shaken the movie and music industries, according to new data shared by industry researcher Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis.

Driving the news: Gaming subscription services amount to just 4% of the revenue in the North American and European game markets, Harding-Rolls calculates.

KKR is in advanced talks to buy Spanish fertility clinic chain Ivirma Global for between €2.5 billion and €3 billion, per Bloomberg.

Why it matters: Fertility spent decades as a private market afterthought, but is now receiving intense attention from early-stage startups through multibillion-dollar buyouts. It also could be another example of private debt picking up where syndicated loans fell off, following last week's deal between Thoma Bravo and Anaplan.

Elon Musk this weekend told his 79 million Twitter followers he's giving "serious thought" to building a social media platform to compete with Twitter.

What he's saying: "Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy," Musk tweeted. "What should be done? ... Is a new platform needed?"

Last week we asked you, in response to a question posed by reader Desiree Furness, "Should robots have genders?"

Why it matters: We're going to be interacting with robots more and more, whether in human form or not. It's important that we feel comfortable with them and that they seem to hew to societal norms and expectations.

• We've grown accustomed to Siri and our GPS systems, etc., speaking to us in voices that "sound" male or female.
• But most of you who wrote to us came down in favor of keeping robots neuter or neutral whenever possible.

What some of you said: "Why do we need to rely on fabricated references to gender in order to 'relate' to robots?  We don’t assign genders to coffee pots, elevators, machine tools, ATMs or forklifts," wrote reader Jeffrey Williams.

• "One of the most insidious and bias-laden relationships in the modern, Western cultures is that of the domineering male and the subservient female," he added. "Let’s not perpetuate this systematic, antiquated and wholly unacceptable relationship by foisting a thoroughly troubling parallel fiction onto a class of automated humanoid service machines."

Another side: A reader who is a musician, Dan Vedda, sees a parallel between our relationships with robots and those of musicians with their instruments, which they tend to assign both genders and names.

• "When you spend hours working with anything that includes a large measure of both progress and frustration, it can lean into anthropomorphic bonding, and gender specificity comes along for the ride," he wrote.
• "While it never surprises me that professional musicians have this penchant, I've observed it spontaneously with fifth and sixth graders new to playing. 'I'm calling him "Oscar,"' one girl told me as she got her first rental clarinet."

A third side: "If you want people to engage with a robot telling them what to do/giving instructions, keep the voice female," wrote Amelia Gaillard.

• "People, in general, feel safer & more apt to interact with a female-sounding voice (evolutionary/female nurturing/non-threatening, etc.)."

Other readers said: "Why not make half with female-sounding voices and half with male-sounding voices?" — Elizabeth Covington

• "I have long hated that the default for almost every virtual assistant is female — Alexa, Siri, Google, etc. It's clearly sexist, or why would they all be female by default? I think it harkens back to wanting the tech to not be intimidating or scary, but helpful and non-threatening — hence, female-assigned, which is of course sexist." — Metin Toksoz-Exley
• "Seriously, what is a positive vs. negative gender stereotype? Kindness, politeness, accuracy?" — Jon Husted
• Rob Neill: "Instead of gendering robots, how about not assigning them humanity at all?"
• Cricket Moore: "Robots are NEUTER, so they are ITs. Why has IT disappeared from the gender discussion? Perhaps an androgynous voice recording could be used for robots instead of a gendered one."
• Page Gardner: "Just wondering, what are the options? … What does a non-gender speaking voice sound like?"

The invasion of Ukraine is adding heat to a long-simmering battle for control of global standards bodies, a rivalry that has pitted the U.S. and Europe against Russia and China.

Why it matters: Global standards ensure that things like smartphones and laptops — and even the internet itself — work across borders.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Kremlin censored his interview with Russian journalists Sunday because it's "frightened" of the truth about the invasion of Ukraine being reported in Russia.

Driving the news: Hours after Zelensky posted the 90-minute interview in which he spoke Russian to his Telegram channel, Russia's government issued a statement warning Russian news outlets "about the necessity of refraining from publishing" Zelensky's 90-minute interview with the journalists, per state media.

Will Smith delivered an emotional speech Sunday while accepting the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the Oscars. The acclaimed actor apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees after slapping Chris Rock in the face on stage in the middle of the telecast.

The latest: The Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement early Monday it was aware of the incident. "The individual involved has declined to file a police report," the LAPD said, in an apparent reference to Rock.

For the first time in the Academy Awards' 94-year history, a streaming company has nabbed the award for Best Picture. Apple TV+'s "CODA" won three Oscars, including Best Supporting Actor and Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay).

Why it matters: It's a watershed moment for the film industry, which has for years been grappling with ways streaming has upended Hollywood's status quo.

"CODA" star Troy Kotsur thanked his father while accepting an Oscar award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, calling him the "best signer in our family."

Why it matters: Kotsur is the first male deaf actor to win an Oscar. He's also the second deaf actor to win an Oscar after his "CODA" co-star Marlee Matlin, who won in 1986 for "Children of a Lesser God."