Author: GT

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet.Source: AlphabetMeta and Alphabet both beat expectations in their earnings reports on Wednesday, each recording their fastest growth in years. They also lifted their guidance for capital expenditures for the year, telling investors that they’re going to keep pouring money into artificial intelligence infrastructure. But despite their similarly upbeat results, Wall Street had very different reactions. Alphabet shares popped 7% in extended trading, while Meta’s stock fell 7%. It’s the continuation of a theme that’s hampered Meta throughout much of the generative AI boom. While Alphabet and fellow hyperscalers Microsoft and Amazon all have massive cloud…

Last year, WhatsApp and Apple notified several people in Italy, including journalists and activists, that they had been targeted with government spyware. In particular, WhatsApp pointed the finger at the Israeli-American surveillance tech maker Paragon Solutions as the company that provided the technology for a hacking campaign that targeted around 90 people around the world with its “Graphite” spyware. The notifications prompted a scandal in Italy that is still unfolding. After being notified of the attacks, a number of victims filed criminal complaints with Italian authorities, and prosecutors then opened an investigation.  Now, it appears that Paragon, despite its previous…

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Microsoft said Monday it will no longer pay a share of its revenue to ChatGPT maker OpenAI, the latest move to untether a close partnership that helped unleash an artificial intelligence boom.OpenAI relied exclusively on Microsoft’s investments in cloud computing services to build the technology that helped make ChatGPT a household name. Microsoft, in turn, relied on OpenAI’s technology to build its own AI assistant Copilot.But the partnership has evolved as San Francisco-based OpenAI, founded as a nonprofit, has shifted to a capitalistic enterprise on a path toward an initial public offering on Wall Street and…

Robotically assembled building blocks could be a more environmentally friendly method for erecting large-scale structures than some existing construction techniques, according to a new study by MIT researchers.The team conducted a feasibility study to evaluate the efficiency of constructing a simple building using “voxels,” which are modular 3D subunits that assemble into complex, durable structures.After studying the performance of multiple voxels, the researchers developed three new designs intended to streamline building construction. They also produced a robotic assembler and a user-friendly interface for generating voxel-based building layouts and feeding instructions to the robots.Their results indicate this voxel-based robotic assembly system…

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Technology tycoons Elon Musk and Sam Altman are poised to face off in a high-stakes trial revolving around the alleged betrayal, deceit and unbridled ambition that blurred the bickering billionaires’ once-shared vision for the development of artificial intelligence.The trial, which is scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection, centers on the 2015 birth of ChatGPT maker OpenAI as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk before evolving into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion.The trial’s outcome could sway the balance of power in AI — breakthrough technology that is increasingly being feared as a…

The U.S. and Iran seized commercial ships from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean this week, as they compete for control of the Strait of Hormuz during the ceasefire agreement. Brent oil, the international benchmark, has risen above $100 per barrel again as tanker traffic through the strait remains at a near standstill.Two cargo vessels, but no tankers, have crossed the strait so far Thursday, according to ship tracking data from LSEG. At least nine tankers have transited the sea lane since Monday, the data showed. The fragile truce between Washington and Tehran has silenced – for now –…

After years of producing chips that can both train artificial intelligence models and handle inference work, Google is separating those tasks into distinct processors, its latest effort to take on Nvidia in AI hardware.Google said Wednesday that it’s making the change for the eighth generation of its tensor processing unit, or TPU. Both chips will become available later this year. “With the rise of AI agents, we determined the community would benefit from chips individually specialized to the needs of training and serving,” Amin Vahdat, a Google senior vice president and chief technologist for AI and infrastructure, said in a…

Meeting platform Zoom has announced a partnership with World, Sam Altman’s human ID verification company, to ensure that the people attending meetings are actually human and not AI-generated imposters. The threat is real and growing fast. The most dramatic example came in early 2024, when engineering firm Arup lost $25 million after an employee in Hong Kong authorized a series of wire transfers during what appeared to be a routine video call with the company’s CFO and several colleagues. Every person on that call — except the victim — turned out to be an AI-generated deepfake. A similar attack hit…

A picture taken on March 12, 2017, shows a view of an oil facility in the Khark Island, on the shore of the Gulf.Atta Kenare | Afp | Getty ImagesBrent oil prices jumped more than 3% on Thursday, as tensions run high in the Strait of Hormuz with the U.S. and Iran enforcing blockades. Brent oil futures rose about 3% to close at $105.07 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate futures advanced around 3% to close at $95.85.Iran is continuing to demand that ships receive its permission to cross the strait, while President Donald Trump on Thursday claimed that the U.S.…

Google, LinkedIn and Wikipedia are among hundreds of websites and apps where Meta plans to capture employee keystrokes and mouse clicks as part of a project to train its artificial intelligence models, according to internal messages viewed by CNBC. A new employee tracking tool, dubbed Model Capability Initiative (MCI), allows Meta to observe and collect data from staffers’ actions on their work computers, Reuters first reported on Tuesday. The list of sites being tracked, which also includes Microsoft’s GitHub, Salesforce’s Slack and Atlassian, has not been previously reported. Meta properties like Threads and Manus are also on the list, which…