Twitter, Wordle, ChatGPT among 20 tech highlights of 2022

The collapse of multiple cryptocurrencies, the rise of Wordle and Elon Musk’s tumultuous Twitter takeover have dominated headlines and could potentially change how people use tech in the future. The Straits Times looks at 20 major developments in technology in 2022.

Personalities in the news

1. Musk buys Twitter

It has been a chaotic time for Twitter since

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk’s US$44 billion (S$60 billion) takeover in October.

The billionaire’s executive decisions have sparked controversy worldwide, such as his plans to axe half the company’s global workforce of 7,000 employees, including an unknown number from the Singapore office, to cut costs. Since then, there has been no shortage of users threatening to quit, leading to the rise of alternative social media apps in the same ilk, with Mastodon and even Tumblr making a comeback. Most recently, Mr Musk announced plans to

hand over his role to a successor “foolish enough”,

after Twitter users voted in favour of his resignation.

2. Disney turns to Bob Iger, again

Former chief executive of The Walt Disney Company Bob Iger had left the company less than three years earlier, but

returned to the studio of Marvel and Pixar fame,

following a rocky reign by his chosen successor Bob Chapek. The latter’s leadership was challenged by one crisis after another, including the Covid-19 pandemic that closed theme parks and cinemas, affecting the confidence of investors, staff and fans. He was also faced with a power struggle with Mr Iger, who retained his office at the Disney headquarters and held meetings with Mr Chapek’s staff without inviting him.

3. Elizabeth Holmes sentenced

Elizabeth Holmes, founder of health tech start-up Theranos, was

sentenced to more than 11 years’ jail in November

for lying about its blood-testing technology. Once valued at US$9 billion, Theranos promised to revolutionise how patients receive diagnoses by replacing traditional labs with small machines, envisioned for use in homes and even on the battlefield. Forbes dubbed Holmes the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire in 2014, when she was 30 and her stake in Theranos was worth US$4.5 billion. But the start-up collapsed after a series of articles in 2015 questioned its technology, serving as a cautionary tale about misinformation in the tech industry.

Products and platforms

4. Wordle boom

The premise of online puzzle game Wordle – to guess a five-letter word in as few tries as possible – is simple, but it was addictive enough to

get millions hooked on it at the start of 2022.

It is unclear how many users were on Wordle at its peak, but searches for it topped Google’s list of search trends here in 2022. While the Wordle hype has dwindled, it remains free to play and was acquired by The New York Times in January for an undisclosed price in the low seven figures.

5. Rise in foldable tech

Once seen as a gimmick, foldable tech saw a more mainstream take-up in 2022, led by Samsung’s foldable phones like the tablet-like Galaxy Z Fold and the clamshell Z Flip series. The phones can be folded in half, allowing users to fit larger screens into their pockets, and have made progress in terms of durability and battery life. The industry is estimated to have shipped 10 million foldables in 2021, about three times more than in 2020, according to statistics provided by Samsung in July. Other manufacturers that have followed suit include Oppo and Xiaomi, whose products were met with positive reviews.

6. Elden Ring’s success

Japanese game developer FromSoftware’s fantasy role-playing game Elden Ring had a successful year, snagging multiple game-of-the-year awards from the likes of The Game Awards and IGN. Players logged hundreds of hours exploring its fantasy open world and defeating its many notoriously difficult bosses. An estimated 16 million copies have been sold, making it one of the biggest launches of 2022. Many critics say it is a wake-up call for the industry, whose games often give players too much hand-holding or are ridden with in-game purchases.

7. Netflix bounces back

Despite heavy losses in the first half of 2022, Netflix bounced back with more than two million new subscribers in its fiscal third quarter, taking its global subscriber base to about 220 million. This is expected to climb after it moved up the launch of its cheaper, advertisement-supported pricing tier to November. It is also offering highly anticipated shows for the year end, including the Knives Out sequel and The Addams Family comedy-horror spin-off, Wednesday.

8. Semi-conductor production picks up

Computer chips were in short supply over the past two years, driving up prices of electronics and stagnating the roll-out of products like cars and, famously, PlayStation 5. But the tables have since turned and some semiconductor companies face a surplus of chips, led by lower demand for tech products among consumers. The U-turn has caused manufacturers like Intel and Qualcomm to freeze hiring or retrench workers.

Crashes and crackdowns

9. Tech retrenchments

News headlines about employees being let go kept appearing as major tech companies like Meta, Twitter and Microsoft

cut thousands of jobs amid economic uncertainties.

It marked an abrupt stop to the hiring spree of past years, boosted by the growth of digitalisation amid the pandemic. The authorities in Singapore have maintained that tech jobs are still widely available here owing to the growth of digital services.

10. Crypto crashes

The collapse of several cryptocurrency players sent investors into panic. Sam Bankman-Fried, disgraced founder of now-collapsed crypto exchange FTX, made headlines in November after

he filed for bankruptcy in the United States and resigned from the company.

Investors that have lost millions include Singapore’s Temasek, which wrote off its $377 million investment in FTX. Separately, Terraform Labs’ co-founder Do Kwon is on the run, with a US$56.9 million lawsuit in Singapore hanging over him for his alleged role in a wipeout of his company’s TerraUSD stablecoin and Luna token. The downfall of these platforms underscores the failure of corporate controls and dangers of hype in the field.

11. WhatsApp outage

The widely used online messaging app may have been down for only a few hours in October, but

the crash affected millions of users globally.

Business users, for example, were temporarily cut off from their clients. The outage, reportedly caused by a technical error, is a reminder to netizens to have alternative chat apps on standby in case of another crash, said cyber-security experts.

12. Counter-ransomware task force assembled

Singapore set up

an inter-agency task force to help businesses and major institutions tackle the growing threat of ransomware.

The number of cases reported here grew from 89 in 2020 to 137 in 2021, according to the Cyber Security Agency. In November, the task force published a blueprint for Singapore to counter such attacks, signalling the steps that enterprises and the Government should take to combat the scourge.

13. Crackdown on online harms

Singapore doubled down on its fight against online harms, with a proposed law that is set to launch in 2023 and will give the authorities more tools to tackle dangerous posts, such as those that advocate suicide or terrorism, or incite racial or religious tensions. Major social media services here will need to implement measures to limit users’ exposure to harmful content, while the authorities will be empowered to issue orders to remove egregious content when necessary.

14. EU versus Big Tech

The European Union kept up its mission to rein in tech giants, which have been accused of avoiding taxes, stifling competition and spreading misinformation and online harms. On Dec 20, Amazon agreed to make big changes to how it uses sellers’ data in Europe as part of a settlement of antitrust investigations that could have resulted in a hefty fine. It is the latest resolution in a series of fights between regulators and the tech giants.

When politics step in

15. USB-C mandated in the EU

Future iPhones could look different after the European Commission mandated that makers of

mobile devices must standardise their charging ports by 2024.

This is to reduce waste and the chargers needed for multiple devices, as the USB-C cable is the wire of choice for most Android devices, iPads and MacBooks. But questions remain over how Apple will respond to the new law, as some observers suspect the tech giant will do away with wired charging entirely and opt for a wireless mode in future.

15. Gaming crackdown in China

Gamers in China may have seen the last of World of Warcraft, Overwatch and other Activision Blizzard video games. This comes after the games’ distributor, NetEase, failed to renew their licensing agreements in the light of the authorities’ action to curb gaming addiction. About 14,000 gaming-related companies in China have shut down since the government’s efforts to freeze video game licences, spurring many companies to look overseas for business.

The digital future

17. Quantum on the rise

The race to build more powerful quantum computers is hotting up. These computers can handle near-impossible computing tasks at exponentially faster speeds than those of traditional computers, and companies like IBM are doubling down on research to build the computer of the future. The increased processing power could hasten the discovery of new drugs and lead to better artificial intelligence (AI) and an unhackable Internet, but could also unravel traditional encryption in today’s computers. Singapore has set up test beds to research the nascent technology and invest in quantum cyber security.

18. Questions about the metaverse

Meta maintained its commitment to building the metaverse since announcing it in 2021, but scepticism still shrouds its multi-billion-dollar project following a rocky 2022. Touted as a successor to the mobile Internet, the Metaverse is a virtual-reality space where users can interact with a computer-generated space with other users. But early renders of the Metaverse, like its avatars and graphics, have been the subject of memes instead of inspiring confidence. Meta has lost billions on its metaverse investments, and this is expected to climb in 2023, according to the tech titan’s projections.

19. NFT hype

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) amassed enormous hype in 2022, with a high of US$12.5 billion in sales in the first quarter of the year. But this fell to about US$3.4 billion in the third quarter, as scepticism around cryptocurrencies grew, according to blockchain tracker DappRadar. Big names like Nike, Gucci and Instagram jumped on the bandwagon with their own NFTs in 2022, paving the way for NFTs to be used in fashion, entertainment and gaming. The Singapore High Court ruled in October that NFTs can be considered as property, in its first written judgment on a case involving an NFT.

20. ChatGPT: Best of the bots?

There has been no shortage of chatbots in tech, but none has been as convincing as ChatGPT. The AI software is smart enough to write essays, create art and answer just about any question users throw at it. It remains to be seen how the potential perils of the technology – like misinformation and fraud – can be tackled, but ChatGPT is a major step in AI-created content that can pave the way for more personable and authentic robots.