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☆ People are tearing into Apple for its latest iPad commercial: 'Steve wouldn't have shipped that ad'
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-09 | by ( Kwan Wei Kevin Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. The tech giant unveiled its latest iPad models on May 7. The ad certainly made a statement, just probably not in the manner that Apple intended. "Maybe hire Ridley Scott again next time instead," read one X post referencing the award-winning director behind the "1984" ad. Representatives for Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

Persons: —, Tim Cook's, 6PeGXNoKgG, Tim Cook, Joe B, Transue, Cook, Roger Rabbit, Apple, Ridley Scott, Y, Paul Graham, Graham, would've, Steve Jobs, Steve wouldn't, Jobs, Apple didn't Organizations: Service, Business, Venture, Apple, BI Locations: Cupertino

☆ Disney's parks are its top money maker — and it plans to spend $60 billion to keep it that way
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-07 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +12 min

It had been more than a year since the Covid pandemic had forced Disney's domestic parks to shutter, but D'Amaro, chair of Disney's experiences division, was confident guests would flood back in when the gates reopened. Revenues fell 35% in 2020, a nearly $10 billion decrease from the $26.2 billion the experiences division had tallied in the year before the pandemic. The experiences division posted record revenue of $32.5 billion in fiscal 2023, a 16% increase from the prior year. Its innovations, from ride mechanics and animatronics to creature design and immersive architecture, have made Disney's parks a standout in the industry. Storytelling is at the heart of everything across Disney's experiences division.

Persons: Mickey Mouse, Ian Langsdon, Josh D'Amaro, D'Amaro, Bob Chapek, D'Amaro —, Walt Disney, King Arthur Carousel, Christian Thompson, you've, it's, Bob Iger, Nelson, Walt Disney Imagineering, Rey, Kylo Ren, Judy Hopps, Imagineers, CNBC —, Lewis, Disney, Imagineering, Matt Stroshane, Alan Bergman Organizations: Paris, Afp, Getty, Gibson, Disney, Walt Disney Imagineering, Hong Kong Disneyland, Walt Disney, Guardians, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Star Wars, California Disneyland's, Walt Disney Imagineering's, Disney Engineers, Force, Southwest, CNBC, Galactic, Marvel Locations: California, Burbank, Disneyland, Hong Kong, Shanghai Disneyland, Florida, Epcot, Magic, Wharf, Disneyland's, Disney's, Edge

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak attends an in-conversation event with Tesla and SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk in London, Britain, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. Risks around rapidly-developing AI have been an increasingly high priority for policymakers since Microsoft-backed Open AI (MSFT.O) released ChatGPT to the public last year. "It was fascinating that just as we announced our AI safety institute, the Americans announced theirs," said attendee Nigel Toon, CEO of British AI firm Graphcore. China’s vice minister of science and technology said the country was willing to work with all sides on AI governance. Yoshua Bengio, an AI pioneer appointed to lead a "state of the science" report commissioned as part of the Bletchley Declaration, told Reuters the risks of open-source AI were a high priority.

Persons: Rishi Sunak, Tesla, Elon Musk, Kirsty Wigglesworth, Sam Altman, Kamala Harris, Ursula von der Leyen, China –, Sunak, Finance Bruno Le Maire, Vera Jourova, Jourova, Harris, Nigel Toon, Wu Zhaohui, Musk, you’ve, Martin Coulter, Paul Sandle, Matt Scuffham, Louise Heavens Organizations: British, Elon, U.S, European Commission, Microsoft, of, Finance, EU, Reuters, Thomson Locations: London, Britain, China, Bletchley, U.S, South Korea, France, United States

Not every AI company is hot right now. While European and US tech investors are throwing funding at startups that look like the next Nvidia or ChatGPT, they're less optimistic about one big player: British AI chip company Graphcore. The UK tech industry is small, and Insider granted anonymity to these people to avoid jeopardizing their professional relationships. One founder operating in the same space as the AI chip firm speculated that Arm could be a leading contender to acquire Graphcore. In September, Toon pitched Graphcore in an interview with Insider as a viable rival to Nvidia, which holds around 70% of the AI chip market, per Omdia analysis.

Persons: Graphcore, Baillie Gifford, it's, Nigel Toon's, Toon, we'll, Rishi Sunak Organizations: Nvidia, Graphcore, Insider, Sequoia Capital, Bloomberg, UK, China Locations: British, Europe

☆ Graphcore, which wants to be an AI chip rival to Nvidia, has shut offices and needs more investor cash
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-06 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

It's boom times for pretty much every business in artificial intelligence or chips — but not for British firm Graphcore. Graphcore, founded out of Bristol in 2016, develops specialized hardware for AI and machine-learning applications. Graphcore stated in its filing that it was in discussions with investors but had yet to agree a deal. Insider reported in October that existing investor Sequoia had written down its stake in Graphcore. In his September interview, Toon said Graphcore was at an "expensive" incubation phase as customers test out its processors.

Persons: Nigel Toon, Graphcore, Toon Organizations: Nvidia, Sequoia, Microsoft Locations: Bristol, Norway, Japan, South Korea, Graphcore

☆ Nvidia has a stranglehold on AI companies as a chip shortage begins to bite. This rival CEO is eager to offer an alternative.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Nvidia's GPUs have become a vital resource in the race to develop AI models like GPT-4. Huge demand for GPUs has created a shortage that risks stunting AI development. In other words, Nvidia has a stranglehold on companies looking to accelerate the development of their AI models in ways that could revolutionize how the entire economy operates. AdvertisementAdvertisementHaving a more advanced bit of hardware isn't enough to pry companies away from Nvidia. It's also working on its own software, known as Poplar, to offer that same kind of plug-and-play usability as Nvidia.

Persons: Nigel Toon, Google's Bard, Jensen Huang, Graphcore, Toon, It's, we'll, they'll Organizations: Service, Nvidia, Sequoia Locations: Wall, Silicon, Graphcore, China

☆ They’re Tiny, They’re Toony, They’re Packing Off to Uni
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Laurel Graeber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

First-year college students everywhere are now adjusting to campus life. Few, however, have to choose between classes like Banana Peel Placement and Whoopie Cushion Alternatives. Or suffer the crash of anvils on their heads when they give wrong answers. These experiences belong exclusively to the incoming freshmen of “Tiny Toons Looniversity,” a new animated series that begins streaming on Friday on Max and airing on Saturday on Cartoon Network. With Steven Spielberg as an executive producer, the show revives the characters and setting of the Emmy Award-winning early-’90s series “Tiny Toon Adventures,” whose own comic DNA descended from the “Looney Tunes” short films of the 1930s-60s.

Persons: Steven Spielberg, ”, Bugs, Daffy Duck, Wile E, Babs, Buster Bunny, Plucky, Hamton J, they’ve Organizations: Max, Cartoon Network, Acme, Warner Bros Locations: hilarity

☆ Four more Soudal Quick-Step riders test positive for COVID at Giro d'Italia
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A further round of tests were made on the riders and staff which showed Jan Hirt, Josef Cerny, Louis Vervaeke and Mattia Cattaneo had contracted COVID. "After the positive (test result) of Remco on Sunday evening, we had two more riders who were feeling unwell on Monday morning, but were negative on antigen tests," team doctor Toon Cruyt said in a statement. "Therefore a PCR test was carried out on the seven remaining riders, the results of which showed that the four guys were positive. We will continue to monitor and implement our testing protocol on the three riders and staff that remain at the race." Stage 11 of the Giro on Wednesday is a 219-km ride from Camaiore to Tortona.

☆ In the Whirl of ChatGPT, Startups See an Opening for Their AI Chips
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Isabelle Bousquette | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Generative AI and large language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT require massive amounts of computing power to run, and typically rely on chips like Nvidia’s graphics-processing units, or GPUs, that are specialized for these types of calculations. Graphcore sells primarily to AI startups looking to build and train models at lower cost, he said, and the company is benefiting from the proliferation of those startups. Shane Rau, who leads International Data Corp.’s semiconductor research, said chip startups are increasingly pivoting to focus their products on supporting large language models. Still, he added, “you’re going to see a combination of real adaptation and marketing.”“There will be the pressure to say: ‘Hey, we’re already relevant, our AI chip technology’s already relevant to generative AI’,” said Mr. Rau. Some chip makers say they expect yet another surge in demand once businesses more widely adopt generative AI.

☆ PayPal tells Australia it supports buy-now-pay-later regulation
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Byron Kaye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SYDNEY, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Payments giant PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL.O) wants buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) loans subjected to consumer protection law, it said in a submission to the Australian government, adding a powerful voice from inside the sector calling for regulation. Many other companies which sell BNPL loans said in submissions that they supported minimal or self-regulation. BNPL companies attract shoppers by charging no interest and make money from retailer fees. The company saw "merit in further consideration of the development of a bespoke BNPL credit reporting framework" without the full "costs typically associated with engaging in the credit reporting regime". The government has said it wants BNPL regulation in place in 2023.

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