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☆ House GOP's attempt to shut down Alvin Bragg is unlikely to save Trump but could serve despots in training, say oversight experts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Warren Rojas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Donald Trump's formal arraignment in Manhattan criminal court sent House Republicans into a tizzy. Stretton wondered about House Republicans' attempt to defang state prosecutors they consider to be political persecutors. "It's hard to say what overstepping bounds are any more," Davis told Insider. "When you defend somebody before you've even seen the indictment, you're kind of hitching your wagon to all the investigations," Goldberg told Insider. He also warned that spotlight-chasing House Republicans risk drowning in unfinished business at the end of the term by floating new Biden-focused inquiries "every couple of weeks."

☆ Leaders like Elon Musk want to pause AI development, but the power of the free market means it's impossible to stop
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Elon Musk and other business leaders signed a letter urging a six-month pause in AI development. From the moment the public was allowed to start testing OpenAI's GPT-3 in November, there was no stopping the bullet train of generative AI development. And the power of market forces means that there's no stopping the pace of AI development, even if companies like OpenAI wanted to. The train has left the station, and there's no going backSince November, and arguably even before, generative AI has been the technology on everyone's lips. Even if we wanted to pause AI development, there's not a clear way to enforce itThere's also the problem of enforcement.

☆ Billionaire LeBron James is 'the cheapest guy in the NBA,' won't pay for Elon Musk's Twitter Blue
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Nicolas Vega | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The 38-year-old Los Angeles Lakers star on Friday tweeted that he has no plans to pay for Elon Musk's Twitter Blue subscription, even if it means he loses his blue verification check mark on Apr. "Welp guess my blue ✔ will be gone soon cause if you know me I ain't paying the 5," James tweeted to his 52.8 million followers. Twitter Blue will actually cost $8 per month, not $5, though the distinction probably doesn't mean much to James, who once agreed that he was "the cheapest guy in the NBA." "I don't know how long this could last," James says in the film when asked why he won't pick up the tab. 1 as he pushes users to sign up for Twitter Blue.

☆ The bank failures have opened up Pandora's box, and the huge hole in banks' balance sheets isn't going away, strategist says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Jennifer Sor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The recent banking failures have opened up a Pandora's box, TD strategist Priya Misra warned. The gaping hole in banks' balance sheets will remain even as volatility fades, she said. "I think you opened a Pandora's box and massive unrealized losses sitting on banks' balance sheets," she said, adding that banks would likely need to sell their assets or raise capital. "The market will have to get used to a Fed that's not being responsive enough," Misra warned. Other Wall Street analysts have warned of a recession to strike this year, which could weigh heavily on stocks.

☆ Fact Check-Video shows zombie-themed event in Indonesia
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A video showing passengers encountering zombies at a train station from a zombie-themed event called ‘Train to Apocalypse’ organized in Indonesia has been shared online with false captions saying it shows a “zombie virus” in China. “Zombie virus spotted in china!,” states a tweet with more than 200,000 views sharing the clip (here) (archive.is/IUcOf). “We can confirm that the video is one footage of our previous event, Train to Apocalypse, organized by LRT Jakarta and Pandora Box,” a spokesperson for LRT Jakarta told Reuters. Other footage from the event can be found on Pandora Box’s Instagram account (here). Videos shows zombie-themed event in Indonesia, not an actual zombie virus outbreak.

☆ Elon Musk is right: AI needs to slow down for the good of society
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and over 1,000 others signed a letter calling for a pause on new AI models. Wozniak, Musk, and more than 1,000 other business leaders signed a letter seeking guardrails and a pause on training AI models as the technology grows more powerful. The letter argues powerful AI models like OpenAI's GPT-4 "should only be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable." It's hard to develop responsibly when the free market demands moving quicklyTo be clear, AI, particularly generative AI like ChatGPT, is incredibly transformative technology. Releasing powerful AI models for the public to play with before it's ready isn't making the technology better.

Joe Tacopino is Trump's lawyer for the Manhattan DA's probe into a hush-money payment made to Stormy Daniels. He has previously said on CNN that the exchange poses a "real problem" for Trump. "If it leads back to the Trump campaign funding, that's a big problem," Tacopino said back on March 18, 2018. "This is a real problem," Tacopino said, according to the report. Tacopino's 2018 comments are a far cry from his more recent statements as a possible indictment hangs over Trump's head.

Ever since it first released in 2021, it's been one of our top picks for the best smart display. If you're in the market for an Alexa smart display, the Echo Show 8 should be your first buy. Amazon Echo Show 8 Amazon's mid-range and mid-size Echo Show 8 is the best smart display in its current lineup. Everyone in your home will likely use a smart display a little differently. The Amazon Echo Show 8 is larger than the Echo Show 5, making watching videos a more enjoyable experience.

WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) - China is "very carefully" watching how Washington and the world respond to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but has not yet crossed the line of providing lethal aid to Moscow, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday. "The stakes in Ukraine go well beyond Ukraine. However, he said he did not believe that China has been providing lethal aid to Moscow. "As we speak today, we have not seen them cross that line," Blinken told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, the first of four times he will testify to congressional committees this week. "The post-Cold War world is over, and there is an intense competition under way to determine what comes next," Blinken said.

☆ Fed Action Could Have Prevented SVB’s Collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Hal Scott | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The Silicon Valley Bank crisis appears to demonstrate the danger of the Federal Reserve not properly performing one of its central functions: acting as a lender of last resort during a run. Thanks to the fall-off from venture-capital firms—its principal clientele—the bank was attracting less deposit funding. And it was maintaining a portfolio of long-dated Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities matched against short-term deposits. From a credit-risk perspective, SVB was much less risky than a standard bank making loans. Its issue was interest-rate risk: After a year’s worth of rate hikes, the losses on SVB’s portfolios couldn’t be offset by decreasing the value of deposits.

☆ Kellogg is giving its Pringles and Cheez-It business a new name with classical Latin twist. It's the latest company name to incorporate the 'dead' language.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Kellogg is renaming its snack business "Kellanova" — a combo of Kellogg and a Latin word for "new." Kellogg is naming its snacking division "Kellanova," the latest step in breaking up the company, it said on Wednesday. The name draws inspiration from the Kellogg name and a common Latin word, Kellogg CEO Steve Cahillane said in a statement. Etsy and Mondelez are among other companies with Latin namesKellanova is hardly the first company rebrand to draw inspiration from Latin. Before that, cigarette maker Philip Morris said it would change its name to "Altria" in an allusion to the Latin word for "high," the Journal reported in 2001.

☆ Four days of panic: How startup execs navigated SVB's meltdown and prepared for the worst
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Ari Levy | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

A Silicon Valley Bank worker talks with people lining up outside of the bank office on March 13, 2023 in Santa Clara, California. Refreshing GoogleOtter.ai founder and CEO Sam Liang spent Monday driving to SVB branches in Silicon Valley to try and retrieve millions of dollars of his company's money. "I checked Google like 20 times an hour, watched [Treasury Secretary Janet] Yellen talking about not bailing out Silicon Valley Bank." Silicon Valley Bank customers listen as FDIC representatives, left, speak with them before the opening of a branch SVBs headquarters in Santa Clara, California on March 13, 2023. "But at the moment, as long as Silicon Valley Bridge Bank is 100% federally guaranteed, there's no need to diversify.

☆ AI Tech Like ChaptGPT, Bing, Bard Is a Bigger Threat Than Social Media
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Nowadays, the promise of social media as a unifying force for good has all but collapsed, and Zuckerberg is slashing thousands of jobs after his company's rocky pivot to the metaverse. Much like social media in 2012, the AI industry is standing on the precipice of immense change. And as Altman and his cohort charge ahead, AI could fundamentally reshape our economy and lives even more than social media. If social media helped expose the worst impulses of humanity on a mass scale, generative AI could be a turbocharger that accelerates the spread of our faults. Social media amplified society's issues, as Wooldridge puts it.

☆ Are they for real? South Korean girl band offers glimpse into metaverse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Hyunsu Yim | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/3] Footages of virtual girl group MAVE is played at the control room of MBC in Seoul, South Korea, February 28, 2023. Apart from backing MAVE:, Kakao launched a 1.25 trillion won ($960 million) tender offer last week to buy South Korean K-pop pioneer SM Entertainment (041510.KQ). SM is home to popular K-pop groups such as Girls' Generation, H.O.T., EXO, Red Velvet, Super Junior, SHINee, NCT Dream and Aespa. MAVE: is an "ongoing" project to explore new business opportunities and find ways to work around technological challenges, said Chu Ji-yeon, who heads Metaverse Entertainment. But South Korean technology has made much progress since then in creating virtual characters.

Like the original movie, "Avatar: The Way of Water" is directed by James Cameron ("Titanic"). How to watch 'Avatar: The Way of Water'"Avatar: The Way of Water" is currently only available to watch in theaters, so you can't purchase or stream the movie at home just yet. When will 'Avatar: The Way of Water' be available to watch at home? You can watch "Avatar: The Way of Water" at home starting March 28. The sequel repeats one of the biggest draws of the first "Avatar" movie in terms of being a groundbreaking visual spectacle.

☆ Bill Gates and professors at top universities agree: The future belongs to those who master AI like ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Even though some school districts banned ChatGPT, educators encourage students to play with AI. But some in the education sector see the intrinsic value of ChatGPT, believing that a familiarity with AI will be an essential skill in the future. The students began to ask ChatGPT more complicated questions that showed they were using AI not to do the work for them, but rather to generate and explore different ideas. The potential for ChatGPT in education is thereNew York City and Los Angeles were two of the largest public school systems that banned ChatGPT. Ultimately, ChatGPT and AI will not go away, so you might as well learn how to use it to get a head start on others.

☆ Ubisoft vows to get back to operating margin above 20% in medium term
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Enrico Sciacovelli | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 16 (Reuters) - French video game producer Ubisoft (UBIP.PA) said it would reach operating margin above 20% in the medium term, as it aims to shift its focus to major franchises and "long-lasting" live service games. "We anticipate that in the coming years, behind a very rich lineup, we progressively get back to above 20% operating margin in the medium term," Chief Financial Officer Frederick Duguet said in a call with analysts. Last year Ubisoft achieved an operating margin of 19.1%, compared to a 21.1% in 2020-21, as the pandemic kept people home and boosted sales. The company stuck to January's forecast for an operating loss of around 500 million euros in its 2022-23 year. That was a drop of 2.6% year-on-year, however, with Ubisoft citing the impact of the macro-economic environment on the video game market and the company's performance.

☆ Assassin's Creed maker Ubisoft reports Q3 net bookings in line with forecast
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 16 (Reuters) - French video game producer Ubisoft (UBIP.PA) reported on Thursday net bookings of 726.9 million euros ($776.2 million) in its third quarter to the end of December, in line with its forecast. That was a drop of 2.6% year-on-year, however, with Ubisoft citing the impact of the macro-economic environment on the video game market and the company's performance. The gaming market is set to fall 4.3% in 2022, according to estimates from gaming market research firm Newzoo. The company stuck to January's guidance for an operating loss of around 500 million euros in its 2022-23 year. Ubisoft said its line-up for the next fiscal year would include Skull & Bones - first revealed in 2017 - Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

Read our review Read Our Review A looong arrow, pointing rightThe $0-annual-fee U.S. Bank Altitude® Go Visa® Secured Card is an above-average secured credit card, with high earning rates in extremely common spending categories and a $15 annual statement credit to reimburse streaming purchases. Review: Is the US Bank Altitude Go Secured Credit Card the Best Credit Card for You? Let's take a look at the U.S. Bank Altitude® Go Visa® Secured Card card to see if it's right for your situation. Insider's Featured Secured Credit Cards Discover it® Secured Credit CardCapital One Platinum Secured Credit CardCapital One Quicksilver Secured Cash Rewards Credit Card Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Read our review Read Our Review A looong arrow, pointing rightFees and CostsThe U.S. Bank Altitude® Go Visa® Secured Card is a $0-annual-fee card.

☆ Top US diplomat warns that if Ukraine gives up territory to Russia in exchange for peace it will 'open a Pandora's box around the world'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Blinken said a lasting peace deal in Ukraine can't occur if it's territorial integrity is not respected. The top US diplomat said that Ukraine giving up territory to Russia would "open a Pandora's box." "Putin has to give up on his notion that Ukraine is not its own country," Blinken said. And unless he's disabused of that notion, it's hard to see how peace can really move forward," Blinken said. The Russian leader's decision to annex the Ukrainian territories made the possibility of negotiations to end the fighting extremely unlikely.

☆ Premarket stocks: Why traders are so infatuated with inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

What’s happening: Investors will get some market direction clarity on Tuesday morning with the release of key inflation data. It’s not all about the Fed: Traders are infatuated with CPI, but it’s likely going to affect markets more than it will future Fed policy. “CPI is the big inflation report that affects markets more than any other,” he said. Even beyond housing, the services sector has seen year-over-year inflation higher than 3.9% every month since March 2021, said Chaudhuri. And as Powell noted in Washington last week, the stickiness of core services inflation is his greatest concern.

☆ Pandora CEO: Consumer demand continues to be stable
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailPandora CEO: Consumer demand continues to be stableAlexander Lacik, CEO of Pandora, discusses fourth-quarter earnings and its expansion plans.

☆ AI needs a set of rules — for its own good, and for ours
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Lawmakers and industry insiders agree: AI needs strong regulations for the industry to thrive. Ultimately, experts agree that this is a necessary step for the nascent AI industry to truly thrive. The AI industry welcomes regulationTech industry insiders say that AI regulation is a prudent step to helping make sure that the technology can be brought to the mass market in a sustainable, responsible way. While the tech industry has historically viewed regulation as harmful to innovation, supporters of rules for AI point to the many instances where strict rules have helped technologies flourish. Calls for AI regulation are not limited to policymakers and researchers.

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