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☆ Dollar stands tall as U.S. rate-cut bets recede
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The dollar steadied on Monday, holding its biggest weekly gain since 2022, as escalating conflict in the Middle East and the prospect of stubbornly high U.S. interest rates gave support. The dollar steadied on Monday, holding its biggest weekly gain since 2022, as escalating conflict in the Middle East and the prospect of stubbornly high U.S. interest rates gave support. There was little initial reaction to a weekend attack on Israel by Iran. Canadian and New Zealand inflation figures are due on Tuesday, along with Chinese growth numbers. British inflation data is out on Wednesday and Aussie jobs data on Thursday.

Persons: Jason Wong, Sterling Organizations: New Locations: Asia, Israel, Iran, New Zealand, Israeli, Damascus, Wellington, Zealand

☆ For Microsoft and OpenAI, after a year in the 'hype cycle,' the Copilot corporate spending boom is just getting started
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-20 | by ( Eric Rosenbaum | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

While another third (32%) said they have not made the spending decision, only 13% said they would not be acquiring similar gen AI capabilities. Microsoft has pointed to customers including Visa, BP, Honda and Pfizer using Copilot, and professional services firm partners on Copilot AI including Accenture, EY, KPMG, and PwC. And even amid the hype, it's important to keep in mind that as gen AI spending grows, it is still dwarfed by companies' cybersecurity budget needs. That means roughly $5 will be spent on security for every dollar spent on gen AI. But it's growing, and for now at least, when it comes to the billions in gen AI spending, Microsoft is in the pole position.

Persons: Dan Ives, Google Bard, Satya Nadella, Sam Altman, Altman, Jason Wong, Wong, Joe Atkinson, That's, Copilot, It's, Gartner, it's, Will, John Lovelock Organizations: Microsoft, Wedbush Securities, " Enterprises, Google, CNBC Technology, Survey, Gartner, Visa, BP, Honda, Pfizer, Accenture, EY, KPMG, CNBC, CNBC TEC, SAP, Adobe, Amazon Web, Meta, SharePoint Locations: San Francisco , California, U.S, Copilot, Salesforce, that's

☆ AI poster child Altman back at OpenAI, may have fewer checks on power
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Aditya Soni | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/3] Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, arrives for a bipartisan Artificial Intelligence (AI) Insight Forum for all U.S. senators hosted by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., September 13, 2023. "Altman seems awfully powerful and it is unclear that any board would be able to oversee him. The board fired Altman last week with little explanation and attempted to move on by naming an interim CEO twice. "The fact that Summers and Taylor will join OpenAI is quite extraordinary and marks a dramatic reversal of fortunes in the company," Valle said. Sutskever, Altman and Taylor could not be immediately reached for comment.

Persons: Sam Altman, OpenAI, Chuck Schumer, Craig Hudson, Sam Altman's, Altman, Mak Yuen Teen, " Altman, Beatriz Valle, Bret Taylor, Salesforce, Larry Summers, Summers, Taylor, Valle, Jack Dorsey's, Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner, Ilya Sutskever, Adam D'Angelo, Sutskever, Sam, Gartner, Jason Wong, Aditya Soni, Mark Porter Organizations: Intelligence, Senate, U.S, Capitol, REUTERS, Microsoft, National University of Singapore Business School, Wall, Elon Musk's, Twitter, ., Harvard, Democratic, OpenAI, Georgetown's Center for Security, Emerging Technology, Thomson Locations: Washington , U.S, Bengaluru

☆ Microsoft starts selling its Copilot AI tool for email and documents
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

On Wednesday, the company started selling the Microsoft 365 Copilot artificial intelligence add-on for its Office app subscriptions targeting businesses. Wong said Gartner encourages organizations to experiment with generative AI, which can create synthetic images and text with just a few words of human input. "I think getting to 20% will be reasonable within two to three years for technologies like Copilot, because there's going to be early adopters, and there's going to be fast followers," he said. Microsoft acknowledges on its website that "the responses that generative AI produces aren't guaranteed to be 100% factual." Microsoft says prompts and responses in Copilot aren't used to train language models and adhere to the company's privacy standards.

Persons: Piper Sandler, Brent Bracelin, Hannah Rudoff, Piper Sandler's, Bracelin, Satya Nadella, Nadella, we've, Jason Wong, Wong, Gartner, Piper Sandler's Bracelin, ChatGPT, aren't, Katie Stockton Organizations: Microsoft, Google, CNBC, Copilot, Bayer, KPMG, Mayo Clinic, Suncorp, Visa, Gartner, Companies

☆ Stocks climb in calm before potential US payrolls storm
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-06 | by ( Tom Westbrook | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Tokyo's Nikkei (.N225) was flat and currency markets were similarly steady with the dollar just off recent highs as traders looked to the labour data for guidance. Ten-year Treasury yields held at 4.72%. "This may be just a brief pause while we wait for labour market data and next week's U.S. Treasury supply and CPI data," said SocGen strategist Kit Juckes. "If the labour market data are strong, pressure will return sooner than it did last year. I still think the Treasury market will take yields higher until something breaks in the system."

Persons: Jason Wong, Kit Juckes, Tom Westbrook, Shri Navaratnam Organizations: Brent, Tokyo's Nikkei, Treasury, Reuters, London, Thomson Locations: SINGAPORE, Asia, Pacific, Japan, Wellington, U.S

☆ Stocks shrug off rates risk as U.S. consumers spend
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Tom Westbrook | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Equities - with the Nasdaq (.IXIC) up 15% so far this year - are clinging to the positives, while in interest rate markets investors are quickly ditching hopes for cuts later in 2023. Two-year Treasury yields , which also track short-term interest rate expectations, hit their highest since November at 4.703% overnight. S&P 500 futures rose 0.2%. Elsewhere the repricing of the interest rates outlook is putting an end to a couple months of selling of the dollar in currency markets. The U.S. dollar index is eying a third weekly gain in a row - the longest streak since September, when the index was galloping towards a 20-year high.

☆ 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.

☆ How Microsoft could use ChatGPT to supercharge its products
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

For Microsoft, integrating the chatbot tool could make its core software products more powerful. All of the above suggestions were generated by asking ChatGPT various forms of the question, “How could Microsoft integrate ChatGPT into its products?” Microsoft, for is part, has said little on possible integrations beyond recently announcing plans to add ChatGPT features to its cloud computing service. “Microsoft will deploy OpenAI’s models across our consumer and enterprise products and introduce new categories of digital experiences built on OpenAI’s technology,” Microsoft said in a press release this week, announcing the expanded partnership. For Microsoft, that could make integrating the tool into specific products problematic. Integrating ChatGPT too quickly into Microsoft’s products could run the risk of schools rethinking their use of that software.

☆ Salesforce Customers Not Swayed by Slack, Analysts Say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Angus Loten | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Salesforce reported about $402 million in Slack subscription and support revenue in the fiscal third quarter ending Oct. 31. Meanwhile, on Wednesday Salesforce said it would lay off 10% of its workforce as customers take a more cautious approach to spending. “The Slack acquisition by Salesforce has not changed the trajectory of Salesforce up or down,” said Tim Crawford, CIO strategic adviser at Los Angeles-based enterprise IT advisory firm AVOA. “That’s really the struggle for customers, to maintain the pace with a company like Salesforce,” he said. Forrester’s Ms. Herbert said the recent departures of Mr. Taylor and the Slack executives might signal that Salesforce is shifting the focus back to its core products.

☆ Dollar on track for weekly gain as Fed pushes back on pivot
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Tom Westbrook | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The dollar rose modestly on the yen following Bullard's comments and is up about 1.2% for the week to 140.36 yen . It also rose 0.9% on the Australian dollar overnight to $0.6690 per Aussie, and is on course for its first weekly gain on the Aussie since mid-October. Fed funds futures pricing currently implies a peak rate just below 5% and for rates to start falling by late 2023. Earlier this week, stronger-than-expected retail sales data had also shaken hopes for a pause in hikes, since it seemed to suggest consumers remained in spending mode. Later on Friday, British retail sales data is due, and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is among a smattering of policymakers due to speak.

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