Author: GT

While working on their MBAs at Harvard Business School, Colombian immigrants Stephanie Murra and Lorenza Vélez noticed that most of the workers in the cafeteria were Hispanic. In conversations with them, a common theme kept coming up: how difficult it was for people who legally moved to the U.S. from Spanish-speaking countries to find their first jobs in the United States. Not speaking English well or at all, unsurprisingly, was the biggest challenge.  “But then we’re looking at the news and seeing that the U.S. is actually facing an unprecedented labor shortage, especially for these types of positions where you…

As if there weren’t enough reasons to buy Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) already, a rapidly growing body of evidence suggests there’s one huge new trend emerging. The best news for holders here is that the trend is just getting started, so it could create a lot of demand for quite some time. Bitcoin is already a global phenomenon, and the world’s governments know it, which is why a slew of them are opting to hold their coins rather than sell them for a quick buck. That trend is picking up speed, and it could be a big deal for the asset’s…

Qualcomm has acquired the generative AI division of VinAI, an AI research company headquartered in Hanoi, for an undisclosed amount, the companies announced on Monday. The move marks Qualcomm’s continued expansion into the AI tooling sector. VinAI, which was founded by former DeepMind research scientist Hung Bui, develops a range of generative AI technologies, including computer vision algorithms and language models. “This acquisition underscores our commitment to dedicating the necessary resources to R&D that makes us the driving force behind the next wave of AI innovation,” Qualcomm SVP of Engineering Jilei Hou said in a press release. “By bringing in…

WASHINGTON (AP) — After TikTok was banned in the United States earlier this year, President Donald Trump gave the platform a reprieve, barreling past a law that was passed in Congress and upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court that said the ban was necessary for national security.The Republican president’s executive orders have spurred more than 130 lawsuits in the little more than two months he has been in office, but this one barely generated a peep. None of those suits challenges his temporary block of the 2024 law that banned the popular social video app after the deadline passed for…

Cryptocurrencies are coming off a strong year in 2024, the total value of all coins and tokens in circulation having soared to a new record high of $3.9 trillion shortly after the U.S. presidential election in November. President Trump campaigned on a series of pro-crypto policies that could pave the way for new use cases and a fresh wave of value creation in the future. Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB) and Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) ended 2024 with gains of 105% and 251%, respectively. They are two of the world’s most prominent meme tokens, meaning they have typically been vessels for speculation…

A new study from the AI Disclosures Project has raised questions about the data OpenAI uses to train its large language models (LLMs). The research indicates the GPT-4o model from OpenAI demonstrates a “strong recognition” of paywalled and copyrighted data from O’Reilly Media books. The AI Disclosures Project, led by technologist Tim O’Reilly and economist Ilan Strauss, aims to address the potentially harmful societal impacts of AI’s commercialisation by advocating for improved corporate and technological transparency. The project’s working paper highlights the lack of disclosure in AI, drawing parallels with financial disclosure standards and their role in fostering robust securities…

NaNoWriMo, a 25-year-old online writing community-turned-nonprofit, announced on Monday evening that it is shutting down. NaNoWriMo — an abbreviation of National Novel Writing Month — is an annual challenge for writers to complete a rough draft of a novel during the month of November. After starting as a Yahoo! mailing list in 1999, the project grew into a self-described “internet-famous” writing challenge with hundreds of thousands of participants over more than two decades. The organization says it has had longstanding financial issues that have made it difficult to operate, but its other problems became more public last year. NaNoWriMo lost…

During the past year, cryptocurrency investors have taken a particular liking to opportunities beyond mainstream choices like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Two cryptocurrencies that stand out to me are XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) and Dogecoin. Below, I’ll assess what’s been driving each of these cryptocurrencies and explore why one of them looks like the better buy. If you aren’t familiar with XRP, you may recognize the company behind it, Ripple. XRP was developed as a means to facilitate financial transactions similar to what the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) does. The central appeal of XRP is that it can complete…

Google on Tuesday announced a new partnership with gaming company Roblox, which will allow advertisers to purchase and scale Roblox’s Rewarded Video and other immersive ad formats. That means marketers who want to reach the younger Gen Z audience that dominates the platform will be able to use Google Ad Manager to place their video ad buys, including the Rewarded Video format, Roblox says. The latter can be purchased both directly and programmatically, allowing brands and agencies to reach Roblox’s “tens of millions” of Gen Z users who are active daily on the service. For Roblox, the partnership offers more…

Amazon has introduced Nova Act, an advanced AI model engineered for smarter agents that can execute tasks within web browsers. While large language models popularised the concept of “agents” as tools that answer queries or retrieve information via methods such as Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), Amazon envisions something more robust. The company defines agents not just as responders but as entities capable of performing tangible, multi-step tasks in diverse digital and physical environments. “Our dream is for agents to perform wide-ranging, complex, multi-step tasks like organising a wedding or handling complex IT tasks to increase business productivity,” said Amazon. Current market…