Author: GT

Spotify says its video podcasts are seeing increased consumer adoption. In its third-quarter earnings report, the company shared that its video podcast catalog has expanded to nearly half a million shows, and more than 390 million users have now streamed a video podcast on the platform. That figure is up 54% year-over-year, and it also reflects Spotify’s increased investment in the format. In June 2024, the company said it had some 250,000 video podcasts as it rolled out tools that let non-hosted podcasters upload their videos to the platform. The streaming giant also lets users engage with podcasts through comments,…

More than two months ago, Tesla published its fourth “Master Plan,” a gauzy post about how the company wants to spread “sustainable abundance” via its future products. Details remain woefully absent, but that hasn’t stopped Tesla from making it the central prop in its bid to convince shareholders to hand CEO Elon Musk a compensation package worth $1 trillion at the company’s annual meeting on Thursday. If that vote passes, the world’s richest man would receive the biggest pay package in corporate history. When the “Plan” released, it was so vague that it drew criticism from some of the company’s…

The Information reports that Anthropic expects to generate as much as $70 billion in revenue and $17 billion in cash flow in 2028. The growth projections are fueled by rapid adoption of Anthropic’s business products, a person with knowledge of the company’s financials said.   Last month, Reuters reported that Anthropic is projected to more than double, and potentially nearly triple, its annual revenue run rate next year. The company is reportedly on track to meet a goal of $9 billion in ARR by the end of 2025 and has set a target of $20 billion to $26 billion ARR…

Journalists in Europe found it was “easy” to spy on top European Union officials using commercially obtained location histories sold by data brokers, despite the continent having some of the strongest data protection laws in the world. EU officials said they’re “concerned” about the trade of citizen and officials’ mobile phone location data, and have issued new guidance to staff to counter the tracking, according to a report by Netzpolitik. A coalition of reporters obtained the dataset, offered as a free sample from a data broker, containing 278 million location data points from the phones of millions of people around…

Netflix is reportedly in talks to license video podcasts distributed by iHeartMedia, according to Bloomberg. iHeartMedia’s podcast portfolio includes shows like “The Breakfast Club,” “Las Culturistas,” “Jay Shetty Podcast,” and “Stuff You Should Know.” Netflix is looking for exclusivity, which means video podcasts that it licenses from iHeartMedia could no longer be uploaded to YouTube. It’s worth noting that if a deal does come together, iHeartMedia might not license its entire podcast catalog to the streaming service. The news comes a few weeks after Netflix signed a similar deal with Spotify that will bring a curated selection of sports, culture,…

E-commerce software provider Shopify is bullish on AI-powered shopping agents, citing AI as an “incredible tool” to enable more entrepreneurs and calling it the “biggest shift in technology since the internet” during its third-quarter earnings call. The company, which partnered with ChatGPT maker OpenAI in September, reported that traffic from AI tools to its online stores is up 7x since January of this year, and purchases attributed to AI-powered search have increased by 11x. According to Shopify president Harley Finkelstein, the company’s advantage in the AI era comes from its ability to access the data from millions of merchants and…

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia has added message board Reddit and livestreaming service Kick to its list of social media platforms that must ban children younger than 16 from holding accounts.The platforms join Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube in facing a world-first legal obligation to shut the accounts of younger Australian children from Dec. 10, Communications Minister Anika Wells said on Wednesday.Platforms that fail to take reasonable steps to exclude children younger than 16 could be punished with a fine of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million).“We have met with several of the social media…

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has voted against a Tesla proposal to give CEO Elon Musk a compensation package worth $1 trillion. The fund, which is managed by Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), holds a 1.14% stake in Tesla valued at about $11.7 billion, according to its mid-year filings in June. “While we appreciate the significant value created under Mr. Musk’s visionary role, we are concerned about the total size of the award, dilution, and lack of mitigation of key person risk — consistent with our views on executive compensation,” the fund said in a statement posted on its website. “We…

Guests look at a model of the largest data center in the UAE under construction in Abu Dhabi as the Stargate initiative, a joint venture between G42, Microsoft, and OpenAI, during the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference (ADIPEC) in Abu Dhabi on November 3, 2025. (Photo by Giuseppe CACACE / AFP) (Photo by GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images) Giuseppe Cacace | Afp | Getty ImagesFossil fuel leaders have welcomed a paradigm shift in the narrative regarding the energy transition.Speaking to CNBC on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC), OPEC Secretary-General Haitham Al…

Sora, the AI video generator from OpenAI, is now officially available for Android users in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.  Initially launched as an iOS app in September, Sora quickly rose to the top of the App Store charts, amassing over 1 million downloads in a week. With its arrival on the Google Play Store, Sora is expected to attract a larger user base, likely resulting in a surge in downloads.   The Android version retains all the features of its iOS counterpart, including the “Cameos” feature, which allows users to generate videos of themselves performing various…