DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Hyundai is the latest brand to pause advertising on X due to antisemitism issues
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

On Wednesday, user Nancy Levine Stearns posted screenshots of a paid Hyundai ad above an antisemitic post from a verified “premium” account. X has suspended the antisemitic account that was adjacent to the ad, the head of business operations at X, Joe Benarroch, said in an email to CNN. Benarroch said Hyundai has been running a Corporate level account on X, focused on climate change ads aimed at reaching policy makers. He said the company’s ad agency did not activate Brand Safety settings, and the campaign took place without X’s direct sales team. X’s Brand Safety settings allow advertisers to make sure their ads aren’t running alongside posts that companies might find distasteful.

Persons: New York CNN —, Hitler, Nancy Levine Stearns, Stearns, ”, Elon Musk, Joe Benarroch, Benarroch, X’s, ” Benarroch, Whites, ” Musk, CNN’s Clare Duffy Organizations: New, New York CNN, New York CNN — Hyundai, Twitter, Hyundai, CNN, ” Hyundai, NBC News, NBC Locations: New York, United States

☆ Caitlin Clark is breaking more records
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-27 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —It wouldn’t be a Caitlin Clark game without a record being broken. The average purchase price for her game, as of Tuesday morning, is 1,100% more expensive ($557) than the average price of a WNBA game ($49). Clark hasn’t said if she will forgo the 2024 WNBA draft — where she is projected to be selected first overall — or remain in college for a fifth season. That meant college athletes like Clark could start making money off their likeness. Clark has also signed deals with Gatorade, Nike and State Farm, among others.

Persons: Caitlin Clark, Clark, TickPick, ” TickPick, Brett Goldberg, “, Clark hasn’t, Shedeur Sanders, Deion Sanders, ’, CNN’s Clare Duffy, Allison Morrow Organizations: New, New York CNN, NCAA, University of Iowa, Ohio State, University of Michigan, Carver, FOX, WNBA, CNN, Iowa, Big, Clark, University of Colorado Buffaloes, NFL Hall of, Gatorade, Nike, State Farm Locations: New York, Iowa, Ohio, Minneapolis

☆ Nvidia’s market value catapults to $2 trillion
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

New York CNN —Nvidia joined an exclusive club on Friday morning when its market value topped $2 trillion, just days after the chipmaker reported gangbusters earnings that once again swept Wall Street into an artificial intelligence-induced fervor. Nvidia’s latest achievement comes after the company earlier this month surpassed Amazon and Alphabet in market value and become the third-largest company on Wall Street behind Microsoft and Apple. The company hit a $1 trillion market cap in 2023, about 24 years after going public. Its meteoric growth over the past year came as artificial intelligence mania consumed Wall Street and helped power a ferocious bull market. Nvidia has emerged the poster child of AI on Wall Street, in part because it is crucial to the burgeoning AI space.

Persons: Howard Silverblatt, Dow, — CNN’s Clare Duffy Organizations: New, New York CNN, Nvidia, Dow Jones, Apple, Microsoft, Wall Street Locations: New York

☆ Nvidia CEO climbs billionaire list as company stock price skyrockets
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-22 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s wealth saw a major boost on Thursday as the company he cofounded in 1993 surged in value. Huang, 61, is now worth an estimated $68.1 billion, passing Charles Koch and rapidly gaining on members of the Walton family, who own Walmart, which has a roughly $471 billion market cap. Huang has been at the helm of Nvidia since its beginning, serving as co-founder, CEO, president and board member. Shares of AMD (AMD) were 11% higher on Thursday and Microsoft (MSFT) rose 2%. But the company’s soaring stock price over the past year — shares grew around 230% in 2023 — means Nvidia is now deeply important to the broader market, too.

Persons: Jensen, Huang, Charles Koch, Walton, Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, Jeff Bezos, Chris Malachowsky, Curtis Priem, Priem, Dan Morgan, Goldman Sachs, ” CNN’s Clare Duffy, Nicole Goodkind Organizations: CNN, Nvidia, Bloomberg, Walmart, Elon, Oregon State University, Stanford University, Devices, Wall Street, AMD, Microsoft, IBM, Synovus Trust Company, Google, Cisco Locations: Malachowsky

☆ Caitlin Clark just broke another record
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Caitlin Clark, the University of Iowa athlete who last week became the all-time leading scorer in NCAA women’s basketball, is breaking more records. That meant athletes, like Clark, could start making money off their likeness. Fanatics told CNN that that it sold more Clark-branded merchandise “than any other individual men’s or women’s NIL-era college athlete across all sports has sold since 2022,” in less than 24 hours after she broke the record last Friday night. And the growing profiles of top athletes like Clark are helping to bring more attention — and more revenue — to women’s college sports programs and professional leagues. He added that Clark herself has a following of “Clarkies.”CNN’s Clare Duffy and Allison Morrow contributed to this report.

Persons: Caitlin Clark, Clark, Shedeur Sanders, Deion Sanders, ’, can’t, Clark’s, ”, Patrick Rishe, St . Louis, “, ” CNN’s Clare Duffy, Allison Morrow Organizations: New, New York CNN, University of Iowa, NCAA, CNN, Clark, University of Colorado Buffaloes, NFL Hall of, Nike, Topps, Gatorade, State Farm, WNBA, Brands, “, Washington University Locations: New York, Iowa, St .

☆ Judge dismisses Indiana state’s lawsuit against TikTok over child safety concerns
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —A judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the state of Indiana against TikTok accusing the company of making false claims about the safety of user data and age-appropriate content. Judge Jennifer DeGroote of Allen County Superior Court in Fort Wayne, Indiana, said the court “lacks personal jurisdiction” over TikTok and that downloading an app at no cost does not constitute a “consumer transaction” under the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, according to court documents. Similar lawsuits now remain active in other states including Arkansas and Utah. The lawsuit alleged TikTok attracts young people to its platform under the pretense that it’s safe yet still exposes them to inappropriate content including drug and alcohol use, nudity and profanity. Indiana was also one of the first states that ordered TikTok to be banned on government-issued devices, citing the threat of “gaining access to critical U.S. information and infrastructure.”- CNN’s Clare Duffy contributed to this report

Persons: CNN —, TikTok, Jennifer DeGroote, Todd Rokita, ”, Rokita, ” TikTok, “, Frances Haugen, CNN’s Clare Duffy Organizations: CNN, Superior Court, Associated Press, Indiana, TikTok, Big Tech, Communist Party, Instagram Locations: Indiana, Allen, Fort Wayne , Indiana, Arkansas, Utah

☆ The major companies still advertising on X despite Elon Musk’s antisemitic endorsement
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Oliver Darcy | Liam Reilly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

But those assurances have rung hollow as advertisements have continued to be placed on accounts posting hate speech and conspiracy theories. “Elon introduced unique risks,” marketing industry veteran Lou Paskalis, the founder and chief executive of marketing consultancy AJL Advisory, told CNN. “It’s self-destructive for any advertiser to be associated with him,” Sonnenfeld told CNN. His endorsement of the post came as the progressive watchdog Media Matters issued a report that indicated advertisements for major brands appeared next to neo-Nazi hate speech on X. Legal experts have told CNN that the lawsuit is deeply flawed and could open the billionaire up to embarrassing revelations during the discovery process.

Persons: Elon Musk’s, Brian McCarthy, Musk, George Soros —, X, “ Elon, Lou Paskalis, ” Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, ” Sonnenfeld, ”, Ted Boutrous, Boutrous, ” CNN’s Clare Duffy Organizations: CNN, NFL, Walmart, State, The New York Times, Washington Post, The, Mondelēz International, Ritz Crackers, Twitter, Defamation League, Apple, Disney, IBM, Paramount, Fox Sports, Paris, Warner Bros ., AJL, Yale School of Management, Media, Media Matters, Ted Boutrous CNN Locations: Wendy’s, White

☆ What OpenAI’s turmoil is really all about
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

OpenAI’s incredible upheaval — with former CEO Sam Altman caught in the middle — could have broad implications for who gets to control the future of artificial intelligence. However, Microsoft has already won the war: It is OpenAI’s most important stakeholder, with a promised $13 billion investment. In the past year, he has become the public face of the industry, and was instrumental in forging OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft, which began in 2019. Altman, sources say, wanted to move quickly, while the OpenAI board wanted to move more cautiously. Both achievements are possible, and OpenAI’s strange structure — a nonprofit overseeing a for-profit company — was designed to contain AI from destroying humanity.

Persons: Sam Altman, OpenAI, ChatGPT, Altman, Greg Brockman, Satya Nadella, Kara Swisher, ”, Jason Schloetzer, Gil Luria, Davidson, “, Luria, ” Schloetzer, —, — CNN’s Clare Duffy Organizations: New, New York CNN, Microsoft, CNBC, CNN, Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, D.A, Google Locations: New York, Silicon

☆ Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT parent company Open AI, is out after board found he was ‘not consistently candid’
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —OpenAI, the company behind the viral chatbot ChatGPT, fired its CEO and founder, Sam Altman, on Friday. The company, in a statement, said an internal investigation found that Altman was not always truthful with the board. ChatGPT launched late last year, making Altman an overnight quasi-celebrity and the face of a new crop of AI tools that can generate images and texts in response to simple user prompts. Google has a rival called “Bard,” and other generative AI tools have been developed in recent months. “I am sure the OpenAI board took this decision after a lot of deliberation,” he said.

Persons: CNN — OpenAI, Sam Altman, shockwaves, Altman, Mr, ” OpenAI, Mira Murati, “, ”, what’s, ChatGPT, “ Bard, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, OpenAI, Elon Musk, Arun Chandrasekaran, he’s, Murati, Mira, Eric Schmidt, ” Schmidt, ” Reece Hayden, ” Hayden, CNN’s Clare Duffy Organizations: CNN, Fortune, Microsoft, Google, “, White House, Gartner Research, Dartmouth, OpenAI, Tesla, ABI Research Locations: openai, San Francisco, Albania

When her husband, a UPS truck driver, nearly died from heatstroke, Theresa Klenk stepped in to help workers negotiate for air conditioning in all UPS trucks. At the time, she said, no UPS drivers wanted to speak up about the increasingly brutal conditions for fear of being reprimanded. According to UPS, drivers stop on average every three minutes — barely enough time for air-conditioning to make a dent. This year’s record heat caused dozens of deaths, filled some hospitals to pandemic levels and prompted government warnings about avoiding extended exposure to heat. It was a bittersweet victory for Jim and Theresa Klenk.

Persons: Jim Klenk, Klenk, Theresa Klenk, hadn’t, Jim, Theresa, Jim didn’t, ”, Zoe Todd, Jim’s, Joe Raedle, Jordan Barab, “, Michael Dwyer, Memphis , Tennessee —, Theresa said, didn’t, weren’t, ” Theresa, Mike Blake, Sean O’Brien, doesn’t, ” — CNN’s Clare Duffy Organizations: New, New York CNN, UPS, Teamsters, “, CNN, Occupational Safety, Health Administration, OSHA, US Chamber of, Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Postal Service, FedEx, Amazon, Kroger, Teamster Locations: New York, Freehold , New Jersey, heatstroke, Miami, Texas, Memphis , Tennessee, Atlanta, ”, L.A

☆ Threads is temporarily blocking searches about Covid-19
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Threads, the much-hyped social media app from Facebook-parent Meta, is taking heat for blocking searches for “coronavirus,” “Covid,” and other pandemic-related queries. News of Threads blocking searches related to the coronavirus was first reported by The Washington Post. A Meta spokesperson told CNN that the company just began rolling out keyword search for Threads to additional countries last week. Meta’s Facebook and other social media platforms faced controversy in the early part of the pandemic for the apparent spread of Covid-19-related misinformation online. Threads released its much-requested web version late last month, and its keyword search about a week ago.

Persons: “, ”, Meta, – CNN’s Clare Duffy Organizations: CNN, Facebook, The Washington Post, Meta, Twitter Locations: United States, Covid

☆ Microsoft’s Bing AI demo called out for several errors
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Microsoft’s public demo last week of an AI-powered revamp of Bing appears to have included several factual errors, highlighting the risk the company and its rivals face when incorporating this new technology into search engines. At the Bing demo at Microsoft headquarters, the company showed off how integrating artificial intelligence features from the company behind ChatGPT would empower the search engine to provide more conversational and complex search results. When asked, “What were Meta’s fourth quarter results?” the Bing AI feature gave a response that said, “according to the press release,” and then listed bullet points appearing to state Meta’s results. But Bing stated information that appeared to be attributed to the article that was, in fact, not actually there. For example, Bing said one crib had a “water-resistant mattress pad,” but that information was listed nowhere in the article.

☆ Microsoft and Google promised to invest in these communities. Now they’re backtracking
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Hyosub Shin/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/ZUMA Press WireFacebook-parent Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce and Snap have each shuttered offices or announced plans to cut back on real estate, according to recent corporate announcements, filings and local news reports. But residents also had cautious optimism about the benefits Microsoft promised to the community, according to Hope. Hope’s community isn’t alone in confronting the whiplash of Silicon Valley’s real estate pullback. An office sits vacant on October 27, 2022 in San Francisco, California. The US Census Bureau reports an estimated 35% of employees in San Francisco and San Jose continue to work from home.

☆ The way we search for information online is about to change
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN Business —An entire generation of internet users has approached search engines the same way for decades: enter a few words into a search box and wait for a page of relevant results to emerge. Bing will not only provide a list of search results, but will also answer questions, chat with users and generate content in response to user queries. “We have even more exciting, AI-enabled innovations in the works that will change the way people search, work and play. These models are trained on vast troves of online data in order to generate compelling responses to user prompts. Microsoft and Google executives have acknowledged some of the potential issues with the new AI tools.

☆ Here are the companies that have laid off employees this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Tech firms went on a hiring spree. “Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in an email to employees. The crypto brokerage announced in early January that it’s cutting 950 people – almost one in five employees in its workforce. Departments from human resources to the company’s Amazon (AMZN) Stores will be affected. They’re not in heavy people expansion mode every year,” CEO Andy Jassy said in a memo to employees.

☆ John Carmack: Virtual reality titan is leaving Meta
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Video game pioneer John Carmack is resigning from his consulting position at Meta with “mixed feelings” about the “end of his decade in VR,” he announced in a Facebook post Friday. Carmack stuck around through the company’s more than $10 billion investment into virtual reality technology. He was an early advocate for virtual reality, thought it was not uncommon for him to criticize Meta. Meta bought Oculus VR in 2014 for $2 billion, and now sells the Meta Quest 2 and Quest Pro headsets. “I think my influence at the margins has been positive, but it has never been a prime mover,” Carmack said.

CNN —Elon Musk on Sunday gave credence to a fringe conspiracy theory about the violent attack on Paul Pelosi. The new Twitter owner tweeted a link to an article full of baseless claims about Pelosi. Musk, who has 112 million followers on the platform he now owns, posted the baseless story about Pelosi in response to a tweet from Hilary Clinton at 8:15 am ET. He later deleted the tweet around 2 pm, but not before racking up more than 28,000 retweets and 100,000 likes. Linking to a Los Angeles Times story about Pelosi’s alleged attacker, Clinton wrote, “The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories.

☆ Trump won’t return to Twitter right away: Musk enlists panel to review suspended accounts
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN Business —Newly minted Twitter owner Elon Musk said Friday afternoon that the social media company “will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.” That means suspended accounts like the one held by former President Donald Trump won’t immediately return to Twitter. “No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes,” Musk added. Musk has repeatedly stressed his intention to rethink Twitter (TWTR)’s content moderation policies, as well. Musk had previously indicated that he was not a supporter of permanently banishing people from Twitter and that Trump would be permitted to return under his ownership. Musk’s commitment to a moderation council should pause some of those concerns for now.

☆ Amazon debuts new shopping portal for customers on government assistance
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-03 | by ( Parija Kavilanz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN Business —Amazon on Monday launched a new shopping portal called Amazon Access that is designed for shoppers receiving government assistance. Amazon already offers some services for low-income customers, such as discounted Amazon Prime membership. It also accepts Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP benefits for groceries purchased through Amazon Grocery, Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods. Amazon (AMZN) also announced it has renamed its discounted Prime membership to Prime Access. Eligible customers can sign up for the service on Amazon (AMZN) Access.

Search resuls for: "CNN’s Clare Duffy"

19 mentions found