Government cancelled plans to test free childcare rollout, says watchdog

BBC News— The National Audit Office says a £35m pilot to test the expansion of free childcare in a few areas was cancelled.

CNBC—Employee stock purchase plans offer 'free money' — but also carry complexity and risk, experts say. If you work for a publicly traded company, you may have access to discounted company shares via an employee stock purchase plan, or ESPP. Here's what to know.

TechCrunch—Meta AI tested: Doesn't quite justify its own existence, but free is free. Meta’s new large language model, Llama 3, powers the imaginatively named “Meta AI,” a newish chatbot that the social media and advertising company has installed in as many of its apps and interfaces as possible. How does this model stack up against other all-purpose conversational AIs? It tends to regurgitate a lot of web search […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Engadget—Audible is testing a cheaper plan in Australia. Audible is testing a cheaper subscription tier in Australia that sounds like an answer to Spotify’s audiobook push. Like the more expensive plan, the new Standard membership gives you one free title per month. But, similar to gaming services like PlayStation Plus, you lose access to the books you claimed under the plan if you cancel. As reported by Bloomberg, the Audible Standard plan costs AUD 8.99 (US$5.90) per month, significantly lower than the AUD 16.45 monthly cost of the Premium Plus plan...