Food delivery business Menulog is set to roll out an employee model for delivery drivers in Australia in a big move to change the poor labour practices of the gig economy. Contractor models have been found to pay less than minimum wages and created poor working conditions and job security. The employee program will begin in the Sydney CBD and the company will work with the Transport Workers Union to set its pay rules.

After LG's recent decision to exit the smartphone market, the company has announced a 'three year pledge' to deliver Android OS updates for owners of its handsets that are still out in the market. The promise aims to ensure every owner of its premium model devices will get three major Android system updates from the year they purchased the device. This includes G-series, V-series and VELVET devices from 2019 onward and LG Style and K series phones from 2020.

Microsoft has acquired speech technology company Nuance, most famous to many for its Dragon Naturally Speaking software products that enabled high-quality speech to text ahead of many others. The company owns a number of other AI technologies in the space, and was where Apple's Siri originated – even more interesting in light of Microsoft's reduced focus on its AI assistant Cortana. The deal is said to be US$19.7B, Microsoft's fourth big acquisition in recent years after buying game developer ZeniMax, business social network LinkedIn, and software developer platform Github.

Nvidia opened its GTC conference overnight, announcing its first CPUs for data centres. NVIDIA Grace CPUs are Arm-based and NVIDIA boasts the processors will be 10x faster than today's fastest servers for AI, neural networks and high performance workloads. NVIDIA also announced new RTX graphics processors for desktops, laptops and workstations for high-end use by artists, designers and engineers.

In science, researchers at the Australian National University have applied adaptive optics technology to a new laser system for identifying and removing space debris in Earth's orbit. The system mounts to telescopes and beams visible light to create artificial stars out of space junk for easier identification and removal.

In entertainment, Sony has made a deal with Netflix that will break the Disney+ stranglehold on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The deal will see many Sony films go exclusively to Netflix after cinema release for 18-months, and will include Spider-Man and Venom sequels as well as a further Marvel-based film, Morbius. It will also make Netflix the place to find the Uncharted film and Ghostbusters Afterlife.

Security research group The Secret Club announced it found a remote code execution flaw in Source Engine video games from developer Valve. Source Engine games include the popular esport shooter Counter Strike Global Offensive. Secret Club says it was reported to Valve five months ago with no response. The flaw is triggered through a Steam invite and loading an infected game server. In the absence of a fix, players are encouraged to disable messages and invites from non-Steam friends.

Finally, Australia's most successful esports professional, Ana, is returning to OG to get back into DOTA 2. Ana, originally from Melbourne, has won DOTA's The International twice, part of the only team to have ever achieved the feat in the world's most lucrative esports tournament. The team won in 2018 and 2019 and Ana had retired from the team after the second win. After a recent poor performance by OG at the Singapore Major, Ana's position in the team opened up again and the team announced his return over the weekend.

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