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Summary of the news

• Microsoft says that its AI is showing signs of human reasoning
• AI startup, Hippocratic AI has raised $50 million
• Bayobab said it will build a fibre optic network across 10 African countries
• Payday said it currently no longer supports withdrawals from its Mastercard

Ecosystem

• Bayobab, a subsidiary of MTN Group, has announced a collaboration with Africa50 to build a terrestrial fibre optic cable network that would run across Africa. Called Project East2West and riding on a $320 million investment, the project aims to connect the eastern and western shores of Africa across 10 countries. Project East2West which is scheduled for completion in 2025, aligns with MTN’s Ambition 2025 plans. This investment will contribute to Bayobab’s goal of achieving 135,000km of proprietary fibre within the next three years. (Technext)
• Airtel says that the 13.6 million lines barred from its voice services last year has cost it $110 million in annual revenue after it reported a 5% drop in profits. (Bloomberg)
• Payday sent out a memo to customers telling them that withdrawals from its Mastercard is not only not currently functional but outrightly not supported. It told them to only fund as much as they need for their transactions and not consider withdrawals back to their wallets.
• Nigeria ranked sixth in a list of ten countries with the most interest in meme coins. (Techpoint Africa)
• FCMB Group Plc says that 12.0% of FCMB Group’s gross earnings in Q1 2023, about 10 billion naira came from its digital banking initiatives, including its digital lending solutions. "We continue to leverage our unique group structure to build a technology-driven ecosystem. This strategy enables us to deliver robust performance despite the challenging domestic and global environment," CEO Ladi Balogun said. (Technext)
• Chari, a Moroccan e-commerce startup, has received fresh investment from Plug and Play to digitise FMCG fulfilment for retail stores in francophone Africa. Chari didn't say how much it received in the closed Series A round. (TechCabal)
• Miva Open University, which is part of uLesson Group, has been granted an Open Distance eLearning License, the equivalence of an online university status. (Twitter)

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Policy

• Segun Cole, founder of Fund the Gap Alliance, has called for the president-elect to establish a Ministry of Startups. “Such a ministry would serve as a dedicated point of contact for startups. This would signal the government’s commitment to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in Nigeria and help attract even more investment and talent to the sector,” he said. (TechCabal)
• Nigeria's Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy has launched NigComHealth, a virtual health platform. Users can book appointments, receive medical advice and consult with physicians. (NAN)

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Social Tech

• CNET journalists are pushing to unionize, seeking a formal say on issues including the use of artificial intelligence at the technology-news company. They say that AI threatens their jobs and reputation. (Bloomberg)
• Microsoft says that its AI is showing signs of human reasoning. “I started off being very skeptical — and that evolved into a sense of frustration, annoyance, maybe even fear. You think: Where the heck is this coming from?” Peter Lee, who leads research at Microsoft, said. (New York Times)
• Google said that it plans to delete accounts that have remained inactive for two years. The decision is part of the internet giant’s ongoing efforts to strengthen security measures for its vast user base, the company said. (TechCrunch)
• Apple has previewed a new “Personal Voice” feature, expected as part of iOS 17, that will let iPhones and iPads generate digital reproductions of a user’s voice for in-person conversations and on phone, FaceTime and audio calls. (CNBC)
• Twitter Inc. and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were sued by the sister of an activist who disappeared in 2018, alleging the social media network allowed the kingdom to target dissidents including her brother by allowing access to the company’s confidential data. (Bloomberg)
• Apple said its App Store prevented over $2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions last year. The company says it rejected nearly 1.7 million app submissions in 2022 for failing to meet the App Store’s standards for privacy and security. (TechCrunch)

Global News

• Former Apple engineer, Weibao Wang has been charged with six counts of theft or attempted theft by prosecutors, who allege he stole troves of source code on Apple’s autonomous technology for an unnamed Chinese company. (CNBC)
• Hippocratic AI, a startup with a generative AI tool that hopes to lower medical costs and make health care more accessible has received a $50 million investment co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst. (Bloomberg)
• Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella said it is “factually not correct” to claim that Microsoft controls its partner OpenAI, in a thinly veilled rebuke of Elon Musk's April accertion that it did. "OpenAI is very grounded in their mission of being controlled by a nonprofit board. We have a noncontrolling interest in it, we have a great commercial partnership in it,” he said. (CNBC)
• OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman defended the adoption and research into artificial intelligenece during his first day of US Senate hearings. “We believe that the benefits of the tools we have deployed so far vastly outweigh the risks, but ensuring their safety is vital to our work,” he said. (New York Times)

Latest in funding

• Private Equity Firm Cerberus Targets $2.5 Billion to Back US Supply Chain Projects
• AI Health Startup Gets $50 Million Seed Funding From Venture Titans
• Kustomer, the CRM startup acquired by Meta last year for $1B, spins out on a $250M valuation

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Other stories we are following

• The rising cost of cable TV in Africa versus the decreasing income of subscribers
• From teen to tech maven: 19-year-old Helen Okereke is redefining possibilities for young African women
• Limited charging infrastructure and other problems with Nigeria’s 30% electric vehicles production plan
• Here’s what the Nigerian tech ecosystem expects from a Tinubu presidency
• Your DNA Can Now Be Pulled From Thin Air. Privacy Experts Are Worried.