The Biggest Tech News Stories of 2023

This year, we saw history made, institutions rocked, and the future born (credit: Unsplash, Apple, ISRO)

As the world got back into gear after years of lockdowns, and the effects of AI began to pop up in our everyday lives, there was plenty of tech news to keep us occupied in 2023. While some might say that smartphones have stagnated in terms of innovation and there just isn’t much that’s new and exciting anymore, we’ve seen leaps in other domains including space exploration, augmented reality, infrastructure, cybersecurity, transportation, and fintech. Our tech landscape shifted a lot in 2023 and there’s much more to come next year as companies keep consolidating, government policies shift, and new security threats need to be dealt with. Here’s a recap of the biggest events and developments that shaped tech in 2023.

OpenAI board fires Sam Altman, but things don’t go according to plan

Chaos suddenly erupted in Silicon Valley on November 17, with the shock news that the board of OpenAI had decided to terminate its high-profile CEO Sam Altman with zero notice. Altman, who rose to prominence after the spectacular launch of ChatGPT, was immediately bombarded with offers to work elsewhere and wound up accepting a position at Microsoft, which incidentally has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI. Meanwhile, speculation about the reasons for the termination was running rampant, multiple high-profile executives and researchers announced they would leave in solidarity with Altman, and two interim CEOs were appointed in succession. Just when it looked like the entire company might collapse due to such a huge staff revolt, and the board was under fire from investors, a deal was reached for Altman to return and the board to depart. Details about the whole saga are still emerging, and this will no doubt go down as one of the biggest surprises of the year.

Twitter rebrands to ‘X’ and Elon Musk continues to lose goodwill

Like many things since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, rebranding the entire site to ‘X’ was a sudden and chaotic move, criticised by branding experts and confusing to many long-time users. That’s just one of a long list of changes that have been made to the “Internet’s town square” under Musk’s leadership in 2023, including killing third-party clients and capping API access with no notice, preventing users from blocking anyone, introducing a deliberate delay when users click on some exernal links, removing headlines from links to news articles, the appointment of a new CEO, reversing a ban on political advertising, reinstating the accounts of users who were banned for spreading abuse and misinformation, and eliminating the entire content moderation team. Most recently, the platform has lost major contributors and advertisers over allegations of antisemitic and anti-trans content being amplified, including by Musk himself, even as the company’s valuation continues to decline.

Chandrayaan-3 inspires a generation of Indians

India became only the fourth country in history to land a vehicle on the surface of the moon, and the first to do so near the formerly unexplored lunar south pole. The mission was launched on July 14, 2023 and the Vikram lander touched down on August 28. The mission was a success, and although the pioneering lander did not survive through the harsh lunar night to carry out additional research, we were all pleasantly surprised to learn that the propulsion module had returned to Earth orbit in late November, in a continuation of the overall mission. India has been praised by the international community for achieving a moon landing, that too on a tiny budget, especially since many others have tried and failed. This sets the stage for future endeavours including the Aditya-L1 solar exploration mission which has already launched, and the country’s first Gaganyaan orbiter vehicle tests in 2024 and 2025; precursors to human space flight.

Apple hits a $3 trillion market value, Nvidia jumps to $1 trillion thanks to AI chip demand

Apple became the first company in the world to surpass a valuation of $3 trillion in mid-2023 and now stands at $3.03 trillion (approximately Rs. 2.5 crore crores), thanks partly to its expansion in China and India. Although iPhone sales are slowing in most parts of the world, Apple’s services division including its TV and music streaming services which pull in recurring revenue, is doing quite well. Next year should be interesting, as Apple has a slew of launches planned, starting with the ultra-expensive (and ultra-niche) Vision Pro headset. A rumoured lineup of more affordable Macs could also spur sales.

Together with Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon, four out of five of the most valuable companies in the world today are tech companies. Most recently, Nvidia has joined the $1 trillion club, mainly because of staggering demand for its AI accelerators. The company has made the most of its early mover advantage in the space, and its chips can be found everywhere from research labs to supercomputers.

Deepfakes send policymakers scrambling to regulate AI

Along with the creative freedom that generative AI has unleashed, we have to deal with bad actors coming up with everything from realistic-looking computer-generated pornography featuring real-world people to doctored “evidence” of politicians making outrageous statements. The technology is advancing to the point that even AI-generated video can be extremely convincing. This can cause severe social and legal problems, ranging from harassment to making us all doubt the veracity of everything we see. With misinformation taking on alarming new dimensions, regulators in India and across the world have stepped up to try to get a handle on things.

It's too late to put the genie back in the bottle, but severe penalties and measures to track the origin of manipulated content could help

A year of upheaval for cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency isn’t turning ordinary people into millionaires overnight anymore – the cost and complexity of mining have shot up astronomically and most of the hype has dissipated. This year saw multiple high-profile legal and regulatory actions affecting companies including FTX, Binance, Kraken, and Ripple, as well as consolidation and layoffs at CoinDesk, Coinbase, Robinhood, Crypto.com and many others. The bubble has well and truly burst, but this might allow a stronger, more mature digital finance environment to emerge in 2024 and beyond.

Streaming services consolidate and tighten restrictions

Things aren’t going well for movie and TV streaming services. Internationally and in India, users seem to be fatigued by the need to pay for multiple providers and constantly rising prices. HBO Max and Discovery+ have merged, Disney has acquired Hulu, Warner Bros. seems to be in discussions with Paramount+, and even Apple might look to bundle its Apple TV+ service to increase adoption. In the US, nearly every streaming service has also raised prices this year. Netflix drew criticism for denying people the ability to share accounts with friends and family, going back on one of its earliest value propositions. More services that used to be ad-free are allowing ads, or charging users more to avoid them.

In India, Netflix has also cut off sharing outside of one family home, but there’s no add-on subscription plan so you’ll have to buy your own if you move out. YouTube also cracked down on ad blockers in order to force people to pay for a premium subscription, though the blockers seem to have the upper hand for now. We’ve also seen some consolidation, with Jio likely to acquire Disney+ Hotstar after absorbing Voot, Zee5 and Sony Liv set to combine if their parent companies merge, Peacock content coming to JioCinema instead of a standalone service, and Hayu withdrawing from the country.

The EU shows mega corporations who has the power

The EU is one of the world’s most influential governing bodies, and has set standards that end up becoming de facto rules for the whole world. With a regulatory framework and social context that’s very different to what US-based companies might take for granted, it was inevitable that clashes would come up. After mandating the use of Micro-USB and then USB Type-C chargers, the EU finally forced Apple to comply this year, at the cost of its proprietary Lightning connector standard. Next year, Apple will be forced to allow software to be installed on iPhones from sources other than Apple’s own App Store, which is another seismic shift.

Data privacy, AI regulation, and open competition are big issues for the EU, and in 2023 we saw companies including Google, Microsoft, Meta and Bytedance being designated “gatekeepers”, meaning they are considered to be locking users into their services. Some appeals are pending, but big changes could be coming to some of the world’s most popular digital platforms.

India takes decisive steps to strengthen local tech production

India has continued to attract investments in tech manufacturing, with Apple of course being one of the most prominent companies ramping up production volume here. Apple’s local partners are gearing up to take on a significant proportion of global iPhone production, and according to reports, AirPods will be the next products to be made in India. With the Tata Group taking over Wistron’s facilities in Karnataka, an Indian company is now manufacturing iPhones here for the first time. Over two billion India-made smartphones have been sold as of 2023, representing a 23 percent CAGR, according to counterpoint research.

Of course the big story is component manufacturing, and Vedanta is the biggest Indian name in this race. Despite a setback in 2023 with a $19.5 billion proposed joint venture with Foxconn falling through, the conglomerate is set to kick off semiconductor and display manufacturing at its plant in Gujarat. Over the next decade or so, India could become a global player in chip fabrication, packaging, and testing.

The government also made news in August by announcing immediate restrictions on computer and tablet imports in order to promote local manufacturing. Implementation was delayed and the move has since been called off, although imports will be more closely regulated in anticipation of future rule changes. In response, several Indian and global companies have reportedly accelerated plans to assemble devices in India and have applied for the government’s PLI incentives.

Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard, further consolidating the gaming industry

After multiple rounds of regulatory approvals in multiple regions that took over a year, Microsoft’s staggering $68.7 billion acquisition of AAA game developer Activision Blizzard was completed in late 2023. Microsoft now controls some of the industry’s most popular gaming franchises including Forza, Minecraft, Gears of War, Halo, The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Fallout, Call of Duty, Overwatch, Starcraft, and World of Warcraft. The massive deal has raised concerns about how Microsoft might enforce exclusivity in the future, particularly with the Call of Duty series which is popular on rival Sony’s PlayStation consoles. Regulators also highlighted the potential for consolidation leading to job losses, although employees and labour organisations supported the move, amid reports of poor workplace culture and sexual harassment at Activition Blizzard prior to the acquisition.