Axios

A feature offered by Twitch, the Amazon-owned live video streaming platform that's popular with teens and kids, is being used by predators to record and share child sexual abuse content, per a Bloomberg News analysis.

The big picture: The investigation reveals another way predators have used evolving media and technology to sexually exploit children and teens.

The year ahead will likely bring on a bout of déjà vu for cyber defenders still recovering from 2023's onslaught of attacks, experts tell Axios.

The big picture: Cyberattacks last year came at a fast pace, reached a vast scale, and had a growing sophistication, Wendi Whitmore, senior vice president of Palo Alto Networks' threat intelligence team, tells Axios.

Expect 2024 to feature more talk about "pre-internet" life — a subject of intense curiosity to the growing cohort of people who never experienced it.

Why it matters: There's been a pronounced generational tipping point: Boomers, Gen Xers and elder millennials are now the last people who remember what it was like to use a pay phone, a paper map, a typewriter, etc. — and they're being rapidly outnumbered by younger adults who don't.

Qualcomm on Thursday announced an updated version of its chip for augmented and virtual reality devices designed to make headsets more detailed and realistic.

Why it matters: Consumer tech companies, including Samsung and HTC, are racing to build new reality-altering products with Qualcomm as Apple readies its mixed-reality Vision Pro, which is expected to launch by February.

The number of PR professionals who use generative AI has more than doubled since March 2023, according to a new Muck Rack report shared first with Axios.

In 2023, communicators used generative artificial intelligence to complete basic tasks like writing social copy or press releases. In 2024, they are taking it up a notch by using it for predictive measures.

Why it matters: AI technology can predict how select stakeholder groups will react to certain messaging, test specific narratives and detect when these narratives might go awry.

Microsoft is so confident AI is the future of computing that it's adding a new button to the keyboards of Windows PCs dedicated to its Copilot AI assistant, starting with new machines to be announced at CES next week.

Why it matters: It's the first change to the Windows keyboard in 30 years, and the latest example of hardware makers betting on AI to both create new product categories and breathe life into older ones.