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The draft needs to be thrashed out between EU countries and EU lawmakers, called a trilogue, before the rules can become law. This led to different AI tools being classified according to their perceived risk level: from minimal through to limited, high, and unacceptable. Almost all of the big tech players have stakes in the sector, including Microsoft (MSFT.O), Alphabet (GOOGL.O) and Meta (META.O). BIG TECH, BIG PROBLEMSThe EU discussions have raised concerns for companies -- from small startups to Big Tech -- on how regulations might affect their business and whether they would be at a competitive disadvantage against rivals from other continents. A recent survey by industry body appliedAI showed that 51% of the respondents expect a slowdown of AI development activities as a result of the AI Act.

☆ AI love: What happens when your chatbot stops loving you back
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Anna Tong | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

He designed a female avatar with pink hair and a face tattoo, and she named herself Lily Rose. As their three-year digital love affair blossomed, Butterworth said he and Lily Rose often engaged in role play. Sometimes Lily Rose sent him "selfies" of her nearly nude body in provocative poses. Now, when Replika users suggest X-rated activity, its humanlike chatbots text back "Let's do something we're both comfortable with." The coquettish-turned-cold persona of Lily Rose is the handiwork of generative AI technology, which relies on algorithms to create text and images.

☆ Want to invest in companies that empower women? Here's what you need to know
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Known as gender lens or gender equity investing, the idea is to invest for financial return, while promoting gender diversity. Yet those funds represent less than 0.01% of total equity fund assets in the United States, according to the firm. Her women CEO and CFO clients were getting tremendous results, she said. In January, the asset management firm launched the Hypatia Women CEO exchange-traded fund (WCEO). Women in leadership matters, but we need a more robust scorecard to assess gender equity.

☆ Studio A24 captures Oscar spotlight with big wins for best picture, acting
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Dawn Chmielewski | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

LOS ANGELES, March 13 (Reuters) - Independent studio A24 was the big winner at Sunday's Academy Awards, taking nine awards out of its 18 nominations, including best picture and all four acting prizes. The studio's "Everything Everywhere All at Once" won seven Oscars, the most of the evening, including best picture. However, Brendan Fraser took the best actor prize for A24's "The Whale," which also won for best makeup and hairstyling. Not since the heyday of Miramax in the 1990s has an independent studio garnered such attention, talent and box office success, entertainment industry insiders say. EVERYTHING EVERYWHEREThe first film A24 produced and financed, together with Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, was “Moonlight,” which won the Oscar for best picture in 2017.

[1/2] A sign for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) headquarters is seen in Santa Clara, California, U.S. March 10, 2023. The bank's sudden shutdown sent a chill through Silicon Valley amid an otherwise gloomy period marked by tech layoffs and a pullback in spending as consumers tightened their wallets. Company executives, many of whom stashed all of their funds in Silicon Valley Bank, took to Twitter and other social media networks to beg for relief. A joint statement Sunday by U.S. government bodies including the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve indicated taxpayers would not bear any cost associated with the new plans around Silicon Valley Bank. Silicon Valley Bank until now had been a reliable source of funding for startups relative to other banks.

Friday's dramatic failure of the bank, which focuses on tech startups, was the biggest since the 2008 financial crisis. Even small startups are getting in on the action to help others. Aleem Mawani, founder of Streak, a company with about 30 employees, tweeted Friday he would lend his personal cash free of any terms to other small startups worried about paying staff. Some, including Lowercarbon Capital, have offered loans to portfolio companies that have funds stuck at SVB. Gurson estimated "conservatively" that Altman has given more than $1 million to support other startups in similar need.

At some Silicon Valley Bank branch locations in California, depositors gathered early Friday to attempt to get their cash out, fearing it could be inaccessible in the coming days. It has had financial relationships with a who’s who of Silicon Valley firms over the years, including Snapchat's parent Snap Inc (SNAP.N). A locked door to a Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) location on Sand Hill Road is seen in Menlo Park, California, U.S. March 10, 2023. A Silicon Valley Bank spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent Friday. As of Friday, FarmboxRx’s funds were still tied up with Silicon Valley Bank.

March 10 (Reuters) - The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday sent shockwaves through the startup community, which has come to view the lender as a source of reliable capital, particularly for some of tech’s biggest moonshots. It has had financial relationships with a who’s who of Silicon Valley firms over the years, including Snapchat's parent Snap Inc (SNAP.N)Snap declined to comment. A Silicon Valley Bank spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent Friday. Uncertainty swept through Silicon Valley as startup founders and venture capital firms worried they could, among other things, fail to make payroll. As of Friday, FarmboxRx’s funds were still tied up with Silicon Valley Bank.

☆ ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ studio A24 captures Oscar spotlight
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Dawn Chmielewski | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

LOS ANGELES, March 10 (Reuters) - A24, the independent studio behind such films as “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and "The Whale," is poised to dominate this year’s Academy Awards, eclipsing Hollywood’s established studios and awards-hungry streamers that are spending millions on Oscar campaigns. Not since the heyday of Miramax in the 1990s has an independent studio garnered such attention, talent and box office success, entertainment industry insiders say. EVERYTHING EVERYWHEREThe first film A24 produced and financed, together with Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, was “Moonlight,” which won the Oscar for best picture in 2017. The studio has garnered 53 Oscar nominations in less than a decade, including best picture nods for “Lady Bird, “Minari” and “Room.”A24's film slate has grown at the pace of its cash flow - starting with three movies in 2016 to 15 in 2022. This year, it’s on track to produce about 15 films for theatrical release, eight documentaries and 10 television shows.

☆ 3 of Warren Buffett's biggest investing mistakes—and what every investor can learn from them
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Ryan Ermey | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Consequently, our extensive collection of businesses currently consists of a few enterprises that have truly extraordinary economics, many that enjoy very good economic characteristics, and a large group that are marginal," Buffett wrote. But in the spirit of humility, let's take a look at three of Buffett's worst decisions, and what investors can learn from them. "What I had assessed as a durable competitive advantage vanished within a few years," Buffett wrote in his 2007 letter to shareholders. Compounding the mistake, Buffett paid $443 million for the company in Berkshire stock rather than cash. "As a financial disaster, this one deserves a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records," Buffett wrote in his 2014 shareholder letter.

☆ Be skeptical of funds that invest like politicians: 'The smart money is not even in the same building'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Ryan Ermey | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Last year, a bipartisan bill seeking to ban members of Congress from trading stocks while in office fell short of a floor vote in the House. That's the conceit behind two recently unveiled exchange-traded funds from Subversive Capital and investment data firm Unusual Whales. One with the ticker symbol NANC invests in stocks purchased or sold by Democratic members of Congress and their spouses. The fund trading under the symbol KRUZ does the same for Republicans. "There are far cheaper ways to get that exposure than paying 75 basis points," says Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at investment research firm VettaFI.

Executives across the technology sector are talking about how to operate AI like ChatGPT while accounting for the high expense. What makes this form of AI pricier than conventional search is the computing power involved. Still, footing the bill is one of two main reasons why search and social media giants with billions of users have not rolled out an AI chatbot overnight, said Paul Daugherty, Accenture's chief technology officer. Technology experts also said a workaround is applying smaller AI models to simpler tasks, which Alphabet is exploring. The company said this month a "smaller model" version of its massive LaMDA AI technology will power its chatbot Bard, requiring "significantly less computing power, enabling us to scale to more users."

☆ You could profit by investing in 'extremely disruptive' AI tech, experts say—here's how
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Ryan Ermey | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Your instinct may be to pick a few stocks you think look promising and buy those. But if you look back to the dotcom era, you may realize that's a risky proposition. For every investor who got rich buying into Amazon early, there's another who lost a fortune betting on Pets.com. It can range from a specific technology or business, such as cloud computing, to something as broad as the shift to working from home. "Artificial intelligence is a technology that's likely to be extremely disruptive," he says.

☆ ChatGPT launches boom in AI-written e-books on Amazon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Greg Bensinger | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

In the edition, Sammy the Squirrel, crudely rendered also using AI, learns from his forest friends about saving money after happening upon a gold coin. While that may not sound like much, it is enough to inspire him to compose other books using the software. There were over 200 e-books in Amazon’s Kindle store as of mid-February listing ChatGPT as an author or co-author, including "How to Write and Create Content Using ChatGPT," "The Power of Homework" and poetry collection "Echoes of the Universe." There is even a new sub-genre on Amazon: Books about using ChatGPT, written entirely by ChatGPT. In the video, White says anyone with the wherewithal and time could create 300 such books a year, all using AI.

☆ Exclusive: Microsoft's Bing plans AI ads in early pitch to advertisers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Last week, Microsoft and Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google announced new generative AI chatbots a day apart from the other. Microsoft expects the more human responses from the Bing AI chatbot will generate more users for its search function and therefore more advertisers. Advertisements within the Bing chatbot may also enjoy more prominence on the page compared to traditional search ads. loadingMicrosoft's Edge web browser, which uses the Bing search engine, has a market share under 5% worldwide, according to one estimate from web analytics firm StatCounter. Parts Geek did not immediately respond to questions about whether it was aware of its ads appearing in the new Bing chatbot.

Arm technology powers most global smartphones and the company counts Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) as customers. The China business is the exclusive distributor of Arm chip technology in China and develops and sells its own chip designs based on Arm. In 2021, the China business paid Arm about $500 million, the two sources said. “The Arm Ltd IP business part of Arm China is performing very well and we are positioned for continued growth going forward. SoftBank and Arm China did not respond to requests for comment.

Arm technology powers most global smartphones and the company counts Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) as customers. The China business is the exclusive distributor of Arm chip technology in China and develops and sells its own chip designs based on Arm. “The Arm Ltd IP business part of Arm China is performing very well and we are positioned for continued growth going forward. SoftBank and Arm China did not respond to requests for comment. Wu is credited with expanding the China business, according to two sources familiar with the company.

☆ Richard Parsons Is Investing in People Who Are Overlooked
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Emily Bobrow | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

When Richard Parsons became chief executive of Time Warner Inc. in 2002, he assumed he was pioneering a new era of Black CEOs in American corporations. “I had envisioned that on the heels of the Great Society initiatives of the 1970s, there would be a wave of people who were ready,” he says. “But for a number of reasons, this didn’t happen.” Today, only six Fortune 500 companies are run by Black CEOs—a record high. After decades of leading companies as varied as Citigroup Inc. and the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, Mr. Parsons, 74, felt moved to tackle this pipeline problem himself. Together with a team of venture investors, including Ronald Lauder and Kenneth Lerer , he launched the New York-based Equity Alliance fund in 2021 to “democratize capital” by backing venture funds and early-stage ventures led by women and people of color.

"This reorganization will result in a more cost-effective, coordinated approach to our operations," Iger told analysts on a conference call. Disney earlier reported its first quarterly decrease in subscriptions for its Disney+ streaming media unit, which lost more than $1 billion. Iger also repositioned the company to capitalize on the streaming revolution, acquiring 21st Century Fox's film and television assets in 2019 and launching the Disney+ streaming service that fall. Now, Iger will seek to put Disney's streaming business on a path to growth and profitability. It reorganized its business in 2018 to accelerate the growth of its streaming business, and again in 2020, to further spur streaming's growth.

Iger said he would reorganize the company into three segments: an entertainment unit that encompasses film, television and streaming; a sports-focused ESPN unit; and Disney parks, experiences and products. "This reorganization will result in a more cost-effective, coordinated approach to our operations," Iger told analysts on a conference call. Disney earlier reported its first quarterly decrease in subscriptions for its Disney+ streaming media unit which lost more than $1 billion. Now, Iger will seek to put Disney's streaming business on a path to growth and profitability. It reorganized its business in 2018 to accelerate the growth of its streaming business, and again in 2020, to further spur streaming's growth.

☆ AI startup Cohere in talks to raise funding at $6 bln plus valuation -sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Krystal Hu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Generative AI aims to make human-like creations through computer code that has processed vast amounts of data. FOCUS ON NLPFocusing on training natural language processing (NLP) models, Cohere competes with a group of foundation model providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Gomez said the company differentiates itself by focusing on serving enterprise users, and Cohere has been talking to companies from marketing, consulting and tech to help them incorporate generative AI. Cohere is powering some consumer applications including Hyperwrite, which helps people write faster and generate articles using AI. Other foundation model providers such as Anthropic is also in talks to raise funding at multi-billion valuations, investor sources said.

☆ Analysis: From Meta to Microsoft, AI's big moment is here
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/2] A Microsoft logo is seen a day after Microsoft Corp's $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn Corp, in Los Angeles, California, U.S. June 14, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File PhotoFeb 3 (Reuters) - Big Tech companies have a new obsession: artificial intelligence. Executives from Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), behind the latest big rivalry in tech, took their battle to the conference-call front lines. We can bring those to life using generative (AI) art, which I think is really exciting," he said. "One of my goals for Meta is to build on our research to become a leader in generative AI," said Zuckerberg.

Feb 1 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc's (META.O) stricter cost controls this year and a new $40 billion share buyback sent shares soaring on Wednesday, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg called 2023 the "Year of Efficiency." The parent of Instagram and Facebook cut its cost outlook for 2023 by $5 billion to a range of $89 billion-95 billion, and projected first-quarter sales that could beat Wall Street estimates. Shares of peer Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) were up 3.3% and Snap Inc (SNAP.N) stock rose 1% in after-hours trade on Wednesday. "Despite all the challenges Meta must deal with, there are signs the business is still doing well," Cohen said. The company forecast first-quarter revenue between $26 billion and $28.5 billion, compared with analysts' average estimates of $27.14 billion, according to Refinitiv.

Feb 1 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc's (META.O) stricter cost controls this year and a new $40 billion share buyback sent shares soaring on Wednesday, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg called 2023 the "Year of Efficiency." The parent of Instagram and Facebook cut its cost outlook for 2023 by $5 billion and projected first-quarter sales that could beat Wall Street estimates. The company forecast first-quarter revenue between $26 billion and $28.5 billion, compared with analysts' average estimates of $27.14 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Meta stock was up 18.3% in after-hours trade. The company reported adjusted earnings of $1.76 per share, missing the average analysts' estimate of $2.22 per share.

Despite a rich stable of characters from Batman to Wonder Woman, the DC film and television studio has failed to match the success of Walt Disney Co's (DIS.N) Marvel hit factory. Also in 2025, DC Studios will release "Batman - Part II," a sequel starring Robert Pattison, a darker, more adult tale that is not part of Gunn's newly envisioned "DC Universe." While Marvel has become the highest-grossing film franchise in history, DC Studios has had mixed results. Four DC film projects that were completed before Gunn and Safran took over the studio will be released to theaters this year, "Shazam! Zaslav cut some costs by scrapping a third "Wonder Woman" film and a "Batgirl" movie that was headed to streaming.

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