Microsoft Corp. and The Coca-Cola Company on Tuesday announced a five-year strategic partnership to align Coca-Cola’s core technology strategy systemwide; enable the adoption of leading-edge technology; and foster innovation and productivity globally.

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy has opened the application for the group training of Artificial Intelligence (AI) developers in Abuja. NITDA on Wednesday disclosed that the application opened in a statement on X (formerly Twitter) with the agency also saying that the group training is for the Cohort 11 AI developers. “The free monthly program at National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), Abuja, aligns with NITDA’s goal to train one million Nigerian developers,” the statement read.

Minister of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani said Nigeria need to develop a national strategy to harness the power of Artificial Intelligence for its sustainable growth. The Minister made this known when he shared a document titled, ‘Co-creating a National Artificial Intelligence Strategy for Nigeria’ on his X handle today saying the AI should be viewed as a multi-purpose technology transforming production and service delivery, with a potential to impact positively on Nigerian economy and social growth.

The SAT-3/West Africa Cable System (WACS), the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), and MainOne are said to have been damaged, which has resulted in the disruption of internet services in Nigeria, Ghana, and other countries across the continent. According to NetBlocks, an internet analysis, the cut has triggered outages and connectivity issues for mobile operators and internet service providers across the West African sub-region.

Mobile Telephone Network (MTN) has cut off services from 4.2 million users of its network following its refusal to link Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) with National Identity Numbers (NINs) after the February 28th deadline. The firm disclosed this in its Earning Report for the year ended December 31, 2023. It noted that 19 million lines on its network are currently being verified, and 4.3 million have been verified as of February 2024. MTN said, “We also had approximately 4.2 million lines disconnected for which the subscribers did not submit their NIN. Several of these lines were low-value subscribers, minimizing the revenue impact.

The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has disclosed that it is investigating 17 major cases of data breaches which reportedly occurred across different sectors such as finance, government etc. This disclosure was made by Dr Vincent Olatunji, the National Commissioner/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NDPC during the Global Data Privacy Day, where he stated that the Commission had received over 1000 complaints of data breach, resulting in investigations.

Meta has expanded its AI service, Meta AI, to 12 countries that include Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Canada, Australia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and others. Meta is the company managing Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Meta Llama 3, Meta AI is smarter, faster and more fun. With Meta Llama 3 technology at its core, Meta AI empowers users to accomplish tasks, acquire knowledge, foster creativity, and forge connections with ease. 

On Wednesday, Google terminated 28 employees who had participated in a protest against the contract with the Israeli government that Google shares with its rival, Amazon. The firings happened after nine employees were arrested on Tuesday during sit-in protests at Google offices in Sunnyvale, California, and New York City. The detained workers were released after a few hours, according to employees.

Apple is likely to release the iOS 18 update at the company's WWDC 2024 later this year and the tech giant is expected to bring a number of AI-related improvements in this year's software update for its iPhones. Apart from the AI extravanza, a new report has hinted at the new hearing and accessibility related feature that may be introduced with the iOS 18 update. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the iOS 18 will come with a new 'hearing aid mode ' that would allow users to play different tones and sounds, allowing the AirPods to detect how well a person can hear. This is expected to come handy for people with hearing issues.

Meta has now surpassed three (3) billion daily active users across its apps, showing a 7% increase year-over-year. The biggest surge was seen in Instagram's "Threads", which has now reached over 150 million monthly active users, up from 130 million in February.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has launched a new satellite mission to study ocean health, air quality, and the effects of climate change. The new mission known as PACE, the Plankton, Aerosol, Climate, and Ocean Ecosystem satellite, launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Mobility and ride-hailing service provider, Bolt has committed N1.25 billion to empower female drivers in Nigeria. The commitment is part of a new campaign launched by the mobility service provider called ‘Women at the Wheel’ which seeks to address the under-representation of women in the mobility sector. The campaign seeks to help women access the additional earning opportunities provided by working as a driver on a ride-hailing platform.