ሰላም,
Here's what I've got for you today:
- X pays ex-employees in Ghana after 14 months
- What does Sora mean for Africa?
- Ghana to launch tap n' go transport app today
X pays ex-employees in Ghana after 14 months
So, X, the platform we all used to call Twitter, has finally resolved its beef with its ex-employees in Accra, Ghana.
Want to know the backstory? When Elon Musk took over Twitter in 2022, he cut back the workforce by over 6,000 people globally. He said the laid-off folks would get three months' pay, but the African lot said they never saw a penny.
At the time, X's African office in Accra had less than 20 employees and had only recently started working from the office. They expected to receive a month's notice pay but instead were locked out of their emails and left without their salaries.
Thus, tensions rose as former employees threatened to sue X for failing to pay their severance. It’s been over 14 months since the company gave them the boot in November 2022.
However, the situation has been resolved thanks to Seven Seven, the agency representing the sacked workers. It obtained a redundancy payout and covered the expenses of any foreign employees who needed to return home.
Finally, some closure after all the stress and financial strain these guys have endured.
This settlement in Ghana comes after X got hit with a lawsuit in California from other ex-employees, who claimed they were owed at least $500 million in severance pay.
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What does Sora mean for Africa?
Remember when OpenAI introduced ChatGPT in December 2022? It shook the AI landscape to its core. The company has once again astounded the world with Sora, a text-to-video model that defies what was previously thought possible.
Last week, OpenAI unveiled Sora, its latest AI marvel, which promises to transform content creation with its incredible text-to-video capabilities.
What’s Sora? OpenAI's latest creation is a text-to-video model designed to "simulate the physical world in motion," according to an official statement. This innovative model can generate one-minute-long videos based on a given prompt.
OpenAI says Sora is an expert at creating complex scenes with many characters. How? It goes beyond simply knowing what you want; it also involves understanding how things operate in the real world.
So, how does Sora pull off these tricks? It is similar to ChatGPT in that it has transformers that function as its brain, allowing it to understand context.
And get this: Sora is built using the same technology as DALL-E, another OpenAI creation that generates images. But Sora's been trained on several images and videos, using the "recaptioning technique" to learn the ropes.
Sora's not just a one-trick pony. Alongside turning text into videos, it can also work magic on images. It can even create videos from other videos! OpenAI states it can "extend an existing video or fill in missing frames."
To learn if you can use Sora and what it means for Africa, check out Bolu’s story here: What does OpenAI's Sora mean for you? African AI experts answer 6 burning questions about the text-to-video model
Ghana to launch tap n' go transport app today
Guess what? Ghana's Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, plans to launch the Tap n Go transport platform today, Monday, February 19, 2024.
The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) test-drove the Tap n’ Go app in December 2023. It did the trial run in Accra, covering spots like the airport, East Legon, the University of Ghana, Circle/Kaneshie, and Dansoman.
Per the government, it’s not just your regular ride-hailing service. How? On top of the standard online service app, the Tap n' Go app includes features such as 'private dropping' (private cars that double as taxis) and ‘metered service' (where you flag down a taxi and a metre calculates the fare).
There are two apps to look into: Tap n' Go for users and Tap n' Go Driver for taxi drivers looking to join the trend. Both apps are available on the Google Play and Apple App Stores.
Taxi drivers who want to join the service can use their Ghana Cards.
It is as if the government is getting into the ride-hailing game by launching its version. But the big question is whether they can scale this and persuade local taxi and trotro — privately owned minibus shared taxis — operators to use technology for their gigs.
There is still a lot to figure out, such as how much money drivers will make from this. Will the government take a cut? Or is it commission-free? Who will look after the taxi metering?
Last week on Techpoint Africa
- Nigerian cleantech startup Arnergy raises $3 million to accelerate adoption
- CBN orders electronic payments for travel allowance, bans cash payments
- Luno to release monthly proof of reserves report to gain customer trust
- Visa and Egyptian Banks Company partner to facilitate international remittances
- 4 things Nigerian employers do when they can't increase salaries
- Nigerians turn to stablecoins as inflation rises, but there could be consequences
- Botswana bans Starlink two weeks after rejecting application
- Ilara Health gets $4.2 million pre-Series A to expand its operations in Kenya
- Court orders banks to unfreeze accounts in connection with ₦2.9 billion Flutterwave hack last year
- Step aside Lagos: Nigeria's secondary cities are tapping into the startup fever
- UN urges Sudan to end Internet shutdown as paramilitary forces turn to Starlink
- Injaro secures $17.5 million fund to back Ghanaian and Ivorian SMEs
- Airtel Africa launches Telesonic to address growing wholesale data demand in Africa
- Access Holdings appoints Bolaji Agbede as Acting Group CEO after the demise of Herbert Wigwe
- Nigerian-born Moove receives $10 million for India expansion
- IHS Cameroon launches tower kiosks to offer free Internet access in rural areas
- Carbon acquires Nigerian fintech startup Vella Finance to become Carbon Business
- Naira-only payout directive to IMTOs may not drive crypto demand
- Kenya’s Roam secures $24 million to boost EV production in Africa
- AltSchool Africa secures UK’s ASIC accreditation amid growing interest in online learning
- Mastercard appoints Folasade Femi-Lawal as West Africa Country Manager
- South Africa may offer digital nomad visas after public feedback
- Orders on Jumia dropped by 22% in 2023 as inflation erodes customer purchasing power
- Let's settle this: Which departments are indispensable in a tech company?
- 9 African climate startups get $1.8 million in investment from Catalyst Fund
- Why content creators should be taxed
- Ghanaian logistics startup, Jetstream Africa, launches AI platform Jetvision for African businesses
- Ghana’s Rent Control Department to go paperless in March 2024
What I'm reading and watching
- Mastercard and Glovo launch school feeding program in Kenya and Nigeria
- Would We Want to Live Forever?
- Why everything you know about autism is wrong
- Does Consciousness Extend Beyond Brains? The 2023 Holberg Debate, feat. Seth, Luhrmann, Sheldrake.
Opportunities
- UpdraftPlus is looking for a PHP Software Developer lead. Apply here.
- Phantom is hiring a Senior Product Designer. Apply here.
- Selar launches Selar Tuition Funds, offering ₦100,000 to 50 final year Nigerian students to ease education costs. Additionally, internship opportunities will be provided to enhance their career growth. Apply by February 21, 2024, here.
- Application for the Innovest Afrika accelerator programme is open. Apply by February 14, 2024, here.
- Kenyan startups focused on embedded finance, future fintech, SME productivity tools, and content like local gaming and mobile advertising can apply for Safaricom’s Spark Accelerator programme. For more information, check this out.
- The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is looking for an editor to support the Arthur F. Burns Fellowship. Apply here.
- Application for the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) Class of 2025 is now open. Check out the one-year, fully sponsored, graduate-level programme in tech entrepreneurship here before March 18, 2023.
- Do you live in Nigeria and work with a local or foreign company? Whether it's remotely, on-site, hybrid, full-time, part-time or as a freelancer, @TheIntelpoint is trying to understand the Nigerian workspace: how you work, and toxicity in the workspace among others. Please, fill out the questionnaire here.
- Explore this website to find multiple job opportunities in Data that align with your preferences.
- If you are a software engineer, creative designer, product manager, design researcher, or a techie looking for an internship role, please, check out this website.
Have a productive week!
Victoria Fakiya for Techpoint Africa.
