Author: GT

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms Inc., arrives for the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024.David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesArtificial intelligence has been a shot in the arm for digital advertising.Meta and Alphabet both reported sales and earnings that beat Wall Street’s expectations, but the strength in digital ad spend was notable.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the earnings call that AI helped imbue “greater efficiency and gains across our ad system,” thus contributing to the 22% year-over-year increase of second-quarter sales that hit $47.52 billion.Meta finance chief Susan Li also told…

Tesla is breaking up the team behind its Dojo supercomputer, ending the automaker’s play at developing in-house chips for driverless technology, according to Bloomberg. Dojo’s lead, Peter Bannon, is leaving the company, and the remaining team members will be reassigned to other data center and compute projects within Tesla, per Bloomberg’s reporting, which cited anonymous sources.  The disbanding of Tesla’s Dojo efforts follows the departure of around 20 workers, who left the automaker to start their own AI company called DensityAI. The new startup is reportedly coming out of stealth soon and is building chips, hardware, and software that will…

A powerhouse team has launched a new initiative called ‘Doing AI Differently,’ which calls for a human-centred approach to future development.For years, we’ve treated AI’s outputs like they’re the results of a giant math problem. But the researchers – from The Alan Turing Institute, the University of Edinburgh, AHRC-UKRI, and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation – behind this project say that’s the wrong way to look at it.What AI is creating are basically cultural artifacts. They’re more like a novel or a painting than a spreadsheet. The problem is, AI is creating this “culture” without understanding any of it. It’s like…

Robert Keele said this week that he has stepped down as xAI’s head of legal after just over a year, saying he wants to spend more time with his children. In his announcement, Keele also acknowledged “daylight between our worldviews” with boss Elon Musk, who hasn’t commented on Keele’s exit. “I love my two toddlers and I don’t get to see them enough,” Keele wrote, posting the news on both X and LinkedIn. Despite calling his time at the AI startup “incredible” and working with Musk “the adventure of a lifetime,” he said he couldn’t keep “riding two horses at…

Openvibe, an app that allows you to follow open social networks like Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads, and Nostr in one place, is now expanding its functionality so you can follow your favorite news sites and blogs, too. To do so, the startup is adding support for RSS (aka Really Simple Syndication or news feeds), an open standard that allows you to subscribe to automatic updates from websites, like new articles or blog posts. The addition makes Openvibe more useful for keeping up with your interests and other important information without having to switch between multiple newsreaders, websites, or social networking apps.…

A dump truck moves raw ore inside the pit at the Mountain Pass mine, operated by MP Materials, in Mountain Pass, California, U.S., on Friday, June 7, 2019. Joe Buglewicz | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesMP Materials’ stock surged on Friday after the miner narrowed its losses in the second quarter on record production of a key rare earth oxide, raising hopes among investors that the company is moving toward profitability after a big investment by the Defense Department.Shares of MP were more than 6% in morning trading.MP booked an adjusted loss of $21.37 million, or 13 cents per share, down…

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Friday said the artificial intelligence company should prioritize growth and its investments in training and compute “for a long time,” even if it delays its path to profitability.Last year, OpenAI was expecting about $5 billion in losses on $3.7 billion in revenue. OpenAI’s annual recurring revenue is now on track to pass $20 billion this year, but the company is still losing money.”As long as we’re on this very distinct curve of the model getting better and better, I think the rational thing to do is to just be willing to run the loss for…

Google announced on Friday that it’s giving Google Finance, its tool that provides financial information and business news, an AI update. Users will now be able to research their financial questions with AI, access advanced charting tools, and get real-time data and news. With the update, users can now ask detailed questions about finance and get a comprehensive AI response that includes links to relevant sites. Instead of having to look up individual stock details, users can ask complex questions in one go. As for the new charting tools, Google says these “will help you visualize financial data beyond simple…

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan says he’s “always operated within the highest legal and ethical standards” after President Donald Trump said he should resign.On Thursday Trump said on Truth Social platform that, “The CEO of Intel is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem!”Trump’s post landed after Sen. Tom Cotton sent a letter to Intel Chairman Frank Yeary expressing concern over Tan’s investments and ties to semiconductor firms that are reportedly linked to the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army, and asked the board…

When venture capitalist Keith Rabois got into e-commerce, he couldn’t stop buying brands. Now, everything must go.OpenStore, co-founded by Rabois in 2021, is shutting down nearly all of the 40-plus Shopify stores it acquired, and it’s in the process of liquidating any remaining inventory by offering steep discounts to move merchandise.Earlier this week, the company announced it plans to focus solely on growing Jack Archer, the menswear brand it bought for $837,000 in 2022. The website address open.store now redirects to jackarcher.com.The dramatic downsizing to a single brand comes as OpenStore in recent weeks raised a $15 million funding round…