Author: GT

California State Senator Scott Wiener on Wednesday introduced new amendments to his latest bill, SB 53, that would require the world’s largest AI companies to publish safety and security protocols and issue reports when safety incidents occur. If signed into law, California would be the first state to impose meaningful transparency requirements onto leading AI developers, likely including OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI. Senator Wiener’s previous AI bill, SB 1047, included similar requirements for AI model developers to publish safety reports. However, Silicon Valley fought ferociously against that bill, and it was ultimately vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom. California’s governor…

Microsoft’s chief commercial officer Judson Althoff said during a presentation this week that AI tools are boosting productivity across sales, customer service, and software engineering, Bloomberg reports. Althoff noted AI has been so useful that Microsoft was able to save more than $500 million last year in its call center alone.  The internal remarks come a week after Microsoft laid off more than 9,000 workers, the company’s third round of layoffs this year that put the total number of affected employees somewhere around 15,000.  For employees who lost their jobs while working at a company that is reporting impressive cost-savings…

Cluely, an AI startup that uses a hidden in-browser window to analyze online conversations, has shot to fame with the controversial claim that its “undetectability” feature lets users “cheat on everything.” The company’s co-founder, Roy Lee, was suspended from Columbia University for boasting that he used Cluely, originally called Interview Coder, to “cheat” on a coding test when he was applying for a developer job at Amazon. On Tuesday, another Columbia University student, Patrick Shen, announced on X that he had built Truely, a product designed to help catch “cheaters” who use Cluely. Marketing itself as an “anti-Cluely,” Truely claims…

Instead of keeping their new MedGemma AI models locked behind expensive APIs, Google will hand these powerful tools to healthcare developers.The new arrivals are called MedGemma 27B Multimodal and MedSigLIP and they’re part of Google’s growing collection of open-source healthcare AI models. What makes these special isn’t just their technical prowess, but the fact that hospitals, researchers, and developers can download them, modify them, and run them however they see fit.Google’s AI meets real healthcareThe flagship MedGemma 27B model doesn’t just read medical text like previous versions did; it can actually “look” at medical images and understand what it’s seeing.…

Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, late on Wednesday released its latest flagship AI model, Grok 4, and unveiled a new $300-per-month AI subscription plan, SuperGrok Heavy. Grok is xAI’s answer to models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, and can analyze images and respond to questions. In recent months, Grok has become more deeply integrated into Musk’s social network, X, which was recently acquired by xAI. However, that has also put Grok’s misbehavior front and center for millions of users. The expectations are high for Grok 4. The latest AI model from xAI will be stacked up against OpenAI’s forthcoming AI model, GPT-5,…

The Hofburg palace receives attendees to the July 9-10 OPEC Seminar conference in Vienna.Ruxandra Iordache | CNBCFor centuries, Vienna’s romantic Hofburg palace served as a winter residence of the imperial Habsburg dynasty — this week, though, it welcomed Saudi royalty, energy ministers, top CEOs and a slew of analysts traders and more.Here are some highlights:The palaceSince 1965, Vienna has housed the headquarters of the OPEC Secretariat — the administrative backbone of the 12-member OPEC alliance of oil producers.The Secretariat is led by a secretary-general — currently, former Kuwaiti official Haitham al-Ghais, who took office for his first three-year term in 2022 and has since…

Google has launched a suite of its AI-powered advertising tools in India, which debuted in the U.S. in May, as the repeal of the “Google tax” has made the South Asian market more attractive to global tech firms selling online ads. In March, the Indian government scrapped its 6% levy on digital advertisements, effective in April, as a move to address some of the trade concerns raised by the Trump administration. The United States Trade Representative had criticized the levy by calling it “discriminatory and unreasonable,” as domestic companies were exempt. Its repeal would ease costs for tech giants, including…

Around this time last year, Cameo hit a significant low point. Its valuation dropped by at least 90%, and the company’s dire financial situation meant it was unable to pay a $600,000 fine from the FTC. Now, the company behind the celebrity greeting app is exploring a new, albeit somewhat dull, avenue for growth. On Thursday, Cameo announced the launch of Candl, a birthday planning app designed for forgetful users who want to celebrate their friends’ birthdays without being late to the party. Image Credits:Baron App, Inc. Candl, available to download for free on the App Store, syncs birthdays from…

An electric car is charged via a charging station on a street in the Norwegian capital Oslo on September 25, 2024.Jonathan Nackstrand | Afp | Getty ImagesOSLO, Norway — Tesla continues to find solace in Norway, defying a sustained European slump amid a backlash over CEO Elon Musk’s incendiary political rhetoric.The U.S. electric vehicle maker recorded a 54% year-on-year jump in new car sales in Norway in June, according to data from the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV), fueled by a 115.3% yearly increase in registrations for its revamped Model Y sports utility vehicle.The data backed up a whopping 213% increase…

Amidst unprecedented budget cuts and looming layoffs, U.S. President Donald Trump has appointed Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy as acting NASA administrator. The appointment is temporary, and Duffy will continue leading the Department of Transportation while assuming the NASA role, Trump said in a post on his social media site, Truth Social. “Sean is doing a TREMENDOUS job in handling our Country’s Transportation Affairs, including creating a state-of-the-art Air Traffic Control systems, while at the same time rebuilding our roads and bridges, making them efficient, and beautiful, again,” Trump said. The appointment is highly unusual. There is no precedent for…