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☆ Google earnings: Shares surge after Alphabet to buy back billions of dollars of its own stock
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Alphabet, the parent company of Google, bounced back from an absolutely dreadful day for tech shares, as its stock surged Thursday after the closing bell. Revenue from the quarter reached more than $80.5 billion, up 15% from the same period in the prior year and ahead of the $78.75 billion analysts had projected, according to FactSet estimates. Meta shares sank on Thursday after the company raised its annual expense forecast to fund its AI ambitions, despite better-than-expected earnings results Wednesday. But in addition to Google, multiple positive tech earnings reports on Thursday helped reverse what had been a sluggish day for tech stocks. Snap resultsSocial media company Snap, the parent company of social media platform Snapchat, also saw its stock climb after-hours on the heels of a rosy first-quarter earnings report that beat Wall Street’s estimates.

Persons: Sundar Pichai, ” Pichai, CNN’s Catherine Thorbecke Organizations: New, New York CNN, Google, Wall, Revenue Locations: New York

☆ Google has fired 50 employees after protests over Israel cloud deal, organizers say
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Google has fired an additional 20 workers that it says were involved in protests last week over the company’s cloud-computing contract with the Israeli government, bringing the total number of workers fired to 50, according to the group organizing the demonstrations. No Tech for Apartheid, the organizers of the protest at Google offices last Tuesday, said in a statement Monday evening that Google had fired an additional 20 workers, on top of the 30 workers terminated last week. We carefully confirmed and reconfirmed this,” the Google spokesperson said. The organizers of the protest, meanwhile, say that some of the workers fired did not cause any disruption inside Google offices. Last week, in the wake of the protests at Google, CEO Sundar Pichai sent a company-wide memo to staffers urging them to keep “politics” out of the workplace.

Persons: ”, “, Sundar Pichai, ” Pichai, Googlers Organizations: CNN, Google, Tech, Apartheid, Hamas Locations: New York, Sunnyvale , California, Israel, Gaza, America

☆ AI is threatening Americans’ jobs. Could guaranteed income provide a safety net?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-13 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

That idea of guaranteed income is receiving renewed interest as AI becomes an increasing threat to Americans’ livelihoods. As more Americans’ jobs are increasingly at risk due to the threat of AI, Tubbs and other proponents of guaranteed income say this could be one solution to help provide a safety net and cushion the expected blow AI will have on the labor market. “Then, when we have to deal with that job displacement, we’re better positioned to do so.”Silicon Valley’s infatuation with guaranteed incomeThe idea of a guaranteed income is not new. AFP/Getty ImagesDecades after King’s death, the idea of guaranteed income went on to see a resurgence of support emanating out of Silicon Valley. Other tech industry tycoons, including Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, have also thrown immense financial support behind guaranteed income programs.

Persons: CNN — Michael Tubbs, Tubbs, ”, “, ” Michael Tubbs, Nick Otto, ” Tubbs, Nathan Frandino, Let’s, Martin Luther King, Jr, I’m, ” King, King, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman —, Musk, Rishi Sunak, Zuckerberg, ” Altman, Altman, Sam Altman, Justin Sullivan, Elizabeth Rhodes, Jack Dorsey, Dorsey, Ken Paxton, ” Paxton, overreach, ‘ It’s, ’ Tomas Vargas Jr, Vargas, I’ve, that’s, ” Tomas Vargas Jr, Tomas Vargas Jr, ” Vargas Organizations: CNN, Getty, Global, Monetary Fund, Reuters, Stockton, Civil Rights, Washington DC, Elon, “, UK, Harvard, Facebook, YCombinator, Twitter, UPS Locations: Stockton , California, Silicon Valley, Big, America, Stockton, AFP, San Joaquin, U.S, Washington, Alaska, YCombinator, San Francisco , California, United States, Texas, Harris, Harris County

☆ Airbnb wants to help renters, and not just homeowners, share their space for cash
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Airbnb wants more renters, and not just homeowners, to be able to become hosts on its short-term rental platform. New York City, for example, has argued that short-term rental platforms like Airbnb limit available housing supply, leading to overall higher rents, and that they can be disruptive to neighborhoods. “A lot of the early laws that were made limited short-term rental to homeownership,” Theo Yedinsky, the vice president of public policy at Airbnb, told CNN. These renters, however, will still have to get permission from their landlord to host on Airbnb (Airbnb has no involvement in individual lease agreements between property owners and tenants). And many major cities, including New York, are increasingly cracking down and heavily restricting the short-term rental market.

Persons: CNN — Airbnb, ” Theo Yedinsky, Yedinsky, Airbnb, couldn’t, “, ”, Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, Glenn Youngkin, ” Yedinsky, Rahul Bhaskar, Bhaskar, ” Bhaskar Organizations: CNN, Gov Locations: New York City, San Francisco, Virginia, New York, India

☆ Meta’s AI image generator really struggles with the concept of interracial couples
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-04 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Meta’s AI image generator is coming under fire for its apparent struggles to create images of couples or friends from different racial backgrounds. The same thing happened when prompted by CNN to create an image of an Asian woman with a White husband. This screen grab of an Imagine with Meta AI prompt shows an AI-generated image. Catherine Thorbecke/CNN via Imagine with Meta AIMeta released its AI image generator in December. Please try something else.”This screen grab of Imagine with Meta AI shows a message in response to a prompt.

Persons: Catherine Thorbecke, Meta, “, OpenAI’s Dall Organizations: New, New York CNN, CNN, East, Meta, Google Locations: New York, America, White

☆ Google to delete billions of browser records to settle ‘Incognito’ lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Google will delete billions of data records as part of a settlement for a lawsuit that accused the tech giant of improperly tracking the web-browsing habits of users who thought they were browsing the internet privately. As part of the settlement, Google must delete “billions of data records” that reflect the private browsing activities of users in the class action suit, according to court documents filed Monday in San Francisco federal court. Google will also update its disclosure to inform users about what data it collects each time a user initiates a private browsing session. For the next five years, Google will also let private browsing users block third-party cookies as part of the settlement. “Moreover, the settlement requires Google to delete and remediate, in unprecedented scope and scale, the data it improperly collected in the past,” Boies added.

Persons: David Boies, ” Boies, José, ” “, Castañeda, “ Organizations: CNN, Google Locations: San Francisco federal

☆ Who ends up holding the bag for the Baltimore bridge collapse?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Marine insurance companies will be on the hook for much of the costs. These insurance companies are backed by insurance companies of their own – a type of business known as a reinsurer. The potential cost of insurance claims from the bridge collapse could be between $1 billion and $3 billion, analysts at Barclays wrote in a note Wednesday. “But other than that, the economic impact of what has happened will be enormous, but not recoverable from the ship,” Davies said. Maryland lawmakers, meanwhile, are drafting an emergency bill to provide income replacement for Port of Baltimore workers impacted by the bridge collapse.

Persons: Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key, ”, John Miklus, Dali, Brendan Holmes, Miklus, Loretta Worters, Worters, Martin Davies, ” Davies, Joe Biden, Francis Scott Key, it’s, ” Biden, Scott Olson, Davies, Bill Ferguson Organizations: New, New York CNN, American Institute of Marine Underwriters, “, Barclays, Grace Ocean, Britannia, Indemnity, International Group, International, CNN, Insurance, Costa, Maritime Law Center, Tulane University, “ Maersk, Federal Highway Administration, Infrastructure Investment, Jobs, Biden, . Workers, Robins, Repair, Port, Maryland Locations: New York, Singapore, Costa Concordia, Italy, Danish, Baltimore , Maryland, Maryland, Baltimore

☆ Congress may be going after the wrong social network
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-16 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Chew, meanwhile, clapped back, “American social companies don’t have a good track record with data privacy and user security. But if lawmakers were serious about protecting the digital data of millions of American social media users, targeting TikTok alone is a limited way to achieve this goal. Separately, US intelligence authorities have said that Russian operatives were able to exploit US-based social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter as part of an election meddling campaign in the lead-up to the 2016 US presidential vote. Sherman said he thinks some lawmakers are raising important national security concerns regarding TikTok. Ultimately, Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, called the bill a “missed opportunity” for Congress to take real action regarding their concerns about US user data.

☆ Airbnb bans the use of indoor security cameras
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Airbnb is banning the use of indoor security cameras in listings globally, the short-term rental platform announced Monday. Indoor security cameras, however, were never allowed in spaces like sleeping areas and bathrooms. Hosts who do currently have indoor security cameras have until April 30 to remove them. Outdoor security cameras, such as doorbell cameras, will continue to be permitted in Airbnb. The use of indoor security cameras in Airbnb listings has long drawn frustration from travelers using the platform.

Persons: New York CNN —, “, Downs, NBC’s Organizations: New, New York CNN Locations: New York, Juniper Downs, Airbnb

Without ever clicking a mouse or touching a screen, Mark selected this command on his computer simply using signals from his brain. “I figured I had two choices: I could wallow in self-pity, or I could pick myself up by the bootstraps and do what I could to help,” Mark said. Synchron’s brain implant, the one Mark has, is called a Stentrode and consists of a stent with electrode sensors that can detect electrical brain activity. That external transmitter sits right above the internal transmitter and carries the signal from Mark’s brain to the computer almost instantaneously. Earlier this month, Musk also said Neuralink’s first human trial participant can control a computer mouse with their brain.

Persons: Sanjay Gupta’s, Erin Burnett OutFront, CNN —, Mark, Lou Gehrig’s, ” Mark, Elon Musk, ”, “, Sanjay Gupta, Synchron, Tom Oxley, hardwired, he’s, Mark didn’t, “ We’d, Maria Nardozzi, ” Oxley, CNN Mark, Musk’s Neuralink, Oxley, António Guterres, ” Elon Musk, Gonzalo Fuentes, Neuralink, Musk, Hope Organizations: CNN, BCI, US Food and Drug Administration, Netflix, US Securities and Exchange Commission, United Nations, Reuters, SpaceX Locations: Neuralink, UNESCO’s, Pennsylvania

Here are the key takeaways from the courtroom:How far does the First Amendment reach when it comes to social media? Online platforms engage in censorship when they silence certain users’ speech, the states argued to the court. In fact, the tech industry argued, government requirements that social media not moderate content would violate the platforms’ own First Amendment freedoms from government meddling. Section 230 features prominently in argumentsOne question kept coming up during the arguments, just as it has in lower courts: What these state laws could mean for Americans’ overall ability to sue social media companies over content moderation. The state laws explicitly allow users to sue tech platforms for alleged censorship.

Persons: Donald Trump, Samuel Alito, Biden, ” Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, ’, ” Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, Elon Musk, ” Kagan, –, – that’s, Kagan, Uber, you’re, Amy Coney Barrett, ” Organizations: CNN, Meta, ”, X, Elon, YouTube, Communications Locations: Texas, Florida

☆ What AT&T got right and wrong communicating to its customers during the outage
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Samantha Delouya | Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The company didn’t publicly acknowledge the outage until it first posted on its site about the outage at 11:15 am ET. Reports on outage tracking service Downdetector showed the network initially went down more than seven hours earlier: Reyes said he experienced the outage starting at 3:50 am ET. AT&T posted just once on X about the outage, pointing customers seeking more information to a faulty link. For many AT&T customers, the network outage was far more than an inconvenience. A "No Service" message is seen on an iPhone in Atlanta during an AT&T outage on February 22.

Persons: CNN —, Damián Reyes, ”, “, I’m, Reyes, Uber, didn’t, Reyes ’, ” Reyes, Mojtaba, John Breyault, Brook Joyner, CNN Breyault, Catherine Thorbecke, Clare Duffy Organizations: CNN, Mobile, T’s Twitter, Villanova University, Wireless Networking Laboratory, National Consumers League, San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management Locations: Jacksonville , Florida, Atlanta

CNN —Tens of thousands of Americans had trouble making phone calls, sending texts, reaching emergency services or even accessing the internet on Thursday because of a nearly 12-hour AT&T network outage. The alarm over an outage of a major cell network that at one point affected more than 70,000 customers is understandable. AT&T finally restored wireless service to all customers by around 3 pm ET, and the company said it was “sincerely” sorry to customers. But starting early Thursday morning, thousands of AT&T customers began reporting issues calling, texting and accessing the internet on their mobile devices. At one point, more than 74,000 AT&T customers reported outages on digital-service tracking site DownDetector.

Persons: logins —, hasn’t, John Kirby, ” Kirby, “ Organizations: CNN, Verizon, Mobile, New York Police, Federal Communications Commission, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Bureau, FCC, FBI, National Security, T, ” Telecom, Dow Jones Locations: United States

☆ Google halts AI tool’s ability to produce images of people after backlash over historically inaccurate depictions of race
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-22 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The embarrassing blunder shows how AI tools still struggle with the concept of race. Google’s attempt to overcome this, however, appears to have backfired and made it difficult for the AI chatbot to generate images of White people. Gemini, like other AI tools such as ChatGPT, is trained on vast troves of online data. Experts have long warned that AI tools therefore have the potential to replicate the racial and gender biases baked into that information. This screen grab shows CNN asking Google Gemini to create an AI-generated image of a "White farmer in the South" and the tool's response.

Persons: OpenAI’s Dall, Gemini, Clare Duffy, ”, “, Jack Krawczyk, Bard, James Webb Organizations: New, New York CNN, Google, CNN, White, Tech, Gemini, James Webb Space Telescope Locations: New York, White, Dublin ”

☆ Uber Eats is launching robot deliveries in Japan
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-20 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Uber Eats customers in Japan can soon have an autonomous robot deliver their food on the streets of Tokyo. Japan will be the first international market to have autonomous delivery available on the Uber Eats platform. Uber Eats is launching robot delivery services in Japan. Uber Eats and Cartken first partnered to launch autonomous robot delivery services in parts of Miami in 2022, and expanded robot delivery to Fairfax, Virginia, last year. “In the future, we will work with buildings and factory infrastructure, which is one of our strengths, so autonomous robots will be able to deliver inside various facilities.”

Persons: Uber, Cartken, Shoji Tanaka, ” Tanaka, ” Organizations: CNN, Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi Electric, Cartken’s, Germany, Development Division Locations: Japan, Tokyo, Miami, Fairfax , Virginia

☆ Hillary Clinton and Sheryl Sandberg decry sexual violence as a war tactic
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-09 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —Hillary Clinton, Sheryl Sandberg and a coalition of scholars, government officials and legal experts discussed Friday how to prevent sexual violence as a weapon of war. Israeli authorities have accused Hamas militants of committing widespread, systemic sexual violence as part of their attack. Despite mounting evidence from Israeli investigators and eyewitness sources, Hamas has repeatedly denied allegations that its fighters committed sexual violence during the attack. Matviichuk said sexual violence during the war in Ukraine is violence that “is directed to the whole Ukrainian society.”“The survivors of sexual violence feel shame because it happens with them,” Matviichuk said. “It is about understanding deeply, the very real ways that women and girls are impacted differently by global challenges including this challenge of conflict-related sexual violence,” Clinton said.

Persons: Hillary Clinton, Sheryl Sandberg, ” Clinton, Clinton, Obama, Sandberg, ” Sandberg, Jeffrey Gettleman, Hala, Oleksandra Matviichuk, Columbia School of International and Public Affairs Sandberg, Matviichuk, ”, ” Matviichuk, “, Linda Thomas, Greenfield, Columbia School of International and Public Affairs Clinton’s, Columbia University –, ” Linda Thomas, we’re, ” Thomas Organizations: New, New York CNN, Columbia University’s Institute of Global Politics, Georgetown Institute for Women, Security, State, Facebook, Lean, UN, Columbia University, Global, New York Times, Strategic Initiative, Women, Center for Civil Liberties, Columbia School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia Locations: New York, Sudan, Darfur, Ukraine, Israel, Africa, Horn of Africa, Palestine

☆ Taylor Swift threatens legal action against Florida student
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Attorneys for Taylor Swift are threatening legal action against the Florida college student who tracks the private jets of celebrities and public figures, including Swift. Jack Sweeney confirmed to CNN on Tuesday that he received a cease-and-desist letter threatening legal action from attorneys for Swift over the social media accounts he runs that track Swift’s flights. Sweeney is the same person who famously drew ire from billionaire Elon Musk for tracking his jet travels online. Sweeney told CNN over email that he received the letter from Swift’s attorneys after headlines that scrutinized the singer’s carbon footprint. Sweeney also told CNN that he never intended any harm with his actions, noting that he is compiling “public information.”“I actually think Swift has some good songs,” Sweeney added.

Persons: Taylor Swift, Swift, Jack Sweeney, Sweeney, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Musk, ” “, ” Sweeney, “, ” Organizations: CNN, Florida, Washington Post, Twitter, Federal Aviation Administration

☆ Snap to lay off 10% of staff, cutting approximately 500 jobs
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-05 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Snap disclosed the latest layoffs in a regulatory filing on Monday, saying the cuts will impact approximately 10% of its global full time employees. Mass layoffs have roiled the tech sector since 2022, and the job cuts emanating from Silicon Valley have continued to trickle in this year. The latest job cuts at Snap come after the company said in August 2022 that it was cutting some 20% of its global employees, equating to roughly 1,200 jobs at the time. The company also cut approximately 3% of its staff last year, after it announced it was shuttering its AR Enterprise business, per a regulatory filing. Shares for Snap dipped approximately 1.5% early Monday.

Persons: Layoffs.fyi Organizations: CNN, Inc, Enterprise Locations: Silicon

☆ Jeff Bezos may cash out billions in Amazon stock this year
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-02 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to sell up to 50 million shares of Amazon stock over the next year, according to a regulatory filing posted on Friday. Bezos’ planned stock sale was included in Amazon’s annual report published on Friday due to a Securities and Exchange Commission rule requiring such disclosures. Amazon shares tumbled in 2022 amid a whiplash in pandemic-induced demand for e-commerce and broader macroeconomic uncertainty. Moreover, Bezos’ recent move to Florida from Washington state would mean he could avoid state capital gains taxes on the stock sale. Bezos’ home state of Washington upheld a capital gains tax measure last year, according to the Seattle Times.

Persons: Jeff Bezos, Bezos, fiancé Lauren Sanchez, Andy Jassy Organizations: CNN, Amazon, Securities and Exchange, Origin, Seattle Times Locations: Florida, Washington

☆ Tesla erases references to DEI from its new 10-K following Elon Musk’s criticisms
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a new social media target: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Following Musk’s recent critical posts about DEI policies and racial discrimination lawsuits against Tesla, the electric car company has omitted all language regarding minority workers and outreach to minority communities in its 10-K filing with the SEC made January 29. In Musk’s eyes, DEI is “just as morally wrong as any other racism and sexism,” he tweeted in December. And as recently as 2020, Tesla had been publishing its own corporate DEI reports, reaffirming its commitment to the mission. CNN has reached out to Tesla for comment, though the company does not usually respond to press requests.

Persons: Elon Musk, Tesla, ”, It’s, George Floyd’s, Harvard’s, Claudine Gay, Gonzalo Fuentes, Bill Ackman, Musk, ” Musk, Owen Diaz, Mark Cuban, “, Catherine Thorbecke, Nicquel Terry Ellis Organizations: New, New York CNN, Equity, SEC, Bloomberg, Tesla, Black Colleges, Universities, ”, Asian Pacific Islanders, Minneapolis, CNN, SpaceX, Twitter, Viva Technology, Reuters Billionaire, Harvard, DEI, California Department of Fair, Housing, Fremont, Dallas Mavericks Locations: New York, America, Paris, France, Fremont , California, Fremont, United States, ” Cuban

☆ Premarket stocks: The world is a mess and Wall Street isn’t paying attention
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

But geopolitical tensions are growing and Wall Street appears to be underestimating their potential impact on the global economy and markets. The United States and China are squabbling about trade, particularly high-powered AI chips that both believe carry consequences for national security. Less trade could mean lower supplies to meet demand — and that could be bad news for inflation around the world. Bank of America also gave geopolitical risk a top spot on its list of surprises that could affect markets in 2024. It’s the worst start to a year for Chinese stocks since 2016, when investors were ditching their holdings following a market crash in 2015.

Persons: ”, “, Jamie Dimon, dory, he’s, Anna Cooban, Laura He, Hong, Premier Li Qiang, Ken Cheung, Catherine Thorbecke Organizations: New, New York CNN, Dow Jones, Federal Reserve, BlackRock, Shipping, CNBC, Economic, Bank of America, Center for Strategic, International Studies, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, “, Shenzhen Component, Premier, Mizuho Bank, MIT’s Computer, Artificial Intelligence Locations: New York, Russia, Ukraine, United States, China, Taiwan, Suez, Iranian, Pakistan, Iran, Europe, Asia, Drewry, Yemen, Davos, Switzerland, Wall, Shanghai, Shenzhen

☆ eBay is laying off 1,000 employees, about 9% of its staff
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —eBay is cutting 1,000 roles, about 9% of its full-time employees, the company’s CEO announced online Tuesday. CEO Jamie Iannone cited the “challenging macroeconomic environment” as an external pressure but added that there are factors the company can control. “We’re committed to treating everyone with respect and empathy through this transition and providing impacted employees with support and resources,” Iannone said. The eBay action is the latest round of layoffs to hit the tech industry in the first month of 2024, after an already difficult 2023 for the sector. Almost 11,000 tech employees have been laid off at 63 companies so far in 2024, according to data from layoffs.fyi.

Persons: Jamie Iannone, Iannone, ”, “ We’re, ” Iannone, Sundar Pichai, ” Duolingo, Brian Fung, Jennifer Korn, Clare Duffy, Catherine Thorbecke Organizations: New, New York CNN, eBay, Google Locations: New York, layoffs.fyi

☆ We may not lose our jobs to robots so quickly, MIT study finds
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-22 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

In a study published Monday, researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab sought to quantify the question of not just will AI automate human jobs, but when this could happen. Researchers ended up finding that a vast majority of jobs previously identified as vulnerable to AI are not economically beneficial for employers to automate at this time. While this could change over time, the overall findings suggest that job disruption from AI will likely unfurl at a gradual pace. This could mean that policymakers, employers and even workers can start best preparing and adapting for these coming changes now. “[The study] gives us this ability to start being a little more quantitative of how rapidly we expect worker displacement to happen,” Thompson said.

Persons: ” Neil Thompson, it’s, ” Thompson, “, Thompson, Kristalina Georgieva, ” Organizations: CNN, MIT’s Computer, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, International Monetary Fund, MIT

☆ Microsoft says Russian hacking group accessed email accounts of senior leaders
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —A Russian hacking group gained access to some email accounts of Microsoft senior leaders, the software giant disclosed in a regulatory filing Friday afternoon. “Microsoft has identified the threat actor as Midnight Blizzard, the Russian state-sponsored actor also known as Nobelium.”Nobelium, notably, is the same group responsible for the infamous SolarWinds breach back in 2020. Microsoft said it is in the process of notifying employees whose email was accessed. There is currently no evidence that the hackers had any access to customer environments or AI systems, Microsoft said. Microsoft systems have been the target of multiple recent high-profile hacking efforts.

Persons: ” Nobelium, SolarWinds, — Organizations: CNN, Microsoft, Midnight Blizzard, Hackers, Midnight, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Infrastructure Security Agency Locations: Russian

☆ Apple is offering rare iPhone discounts in China
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-15 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Apple is offering temporary discounts on its iPhones and other products in China, in an extremely rare move for Apple that comes as competition within Asia’s smartphone market grows more intense. Although third-party sellers at times discount Apple products, Apple itself very rarely offers deals or sales, part of its effort to maintain a premium brand image – something that has been particularly important as Apple seeks to attract high-end buyers in China. The new discounts on the iPhone in China are raising fresh questions about how demand for Apple products is faring recently in the world’s second-largest economy. China has long been a key market for the iPhone maker, with roughly one-fifth of Apple’s overall sales last year coming from China. Last week, Apple lost its status as the stock market’s most valuable company, taking a back seat to Microsoft.

Persons: Yong Xiong Organizations: New, New York CNN, Apple, Mac, Huawei, Wall Street Journal, Research, Jefferies Research, Reuters, Microsoft Locations: New York, China

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