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☆ The FBI is struggling to analyze Sam Bankman-Fried's laptop because it has so much data on it, prosecutors say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Prosecutors said they're struggling to analyze a laptop for their case against Sam Bankman-Fried. Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to federal prosecutors' new criminal charges against him. In a hearing in Manhattan federal court Thursday morning, Assistant US Attorney Nicholas Roos said the FBI was struggling to extract data from a laptop they obtained from the FTX founder. Prosecutors have already produced around 6 million pages' worth of discovery material to Bankman-Fried's legal team, Roos said at the hearing. Federal judges look to sentencing guidelines articulated by a pre-sentence department, part of the US probation office that works for the federal court.

☆ Elon Musk's Twitter made a mistake on tax documents for laid off workers. Now they may miss the tax filing deadline.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Kali Hays | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Former Twitter workers were told this week they likely received incorrect tax information. The error likely won't be rectified until after the IRS tax filing deadline on April 18. The company told them the issue likely won't be corrected until after the IRS deadline to file taxes has passed. To rectify the mistake on the W-2s, Twitter will send a W-2 C form, used to make corrections to W-2s. However, the IRS deadline to file taxes is April 18, so many former employees now must file an extension.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried is reportedly paying his lawyers with a 'multi-million dollar gift' to his dad through Alameda
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sam Bankman-Fried's "multi-million dollar gift" to his father is covering legal costs, per Forbes. Bankman-Fried had started Alameda in 2017 and was its CEO until October 2021, according to court filings by federal prosecutors in New York. Bankman-Fried also apparently rejected personal finance advice from his father, who had reportedly "begged his son to put away savings," according to Forbes. In an updated indictment unsealed on Tuesday, they also accused Bankman-Fried of trying to bribe Chinese officials with more than $40 million in payments to "influence" them. A hearing over the updated indictment has been scheduled for March 30 in New York federal court before US District Judge Lewis Kaplan.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried tried to bribe Chinese officials with at least $40 million, prosecutors say in a new charge
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Sam Bankman-Fried was hit with a new bribery conspiracy charge, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday. He spent $40 million or more in crypto to "influence" Chinese officials, prosecutors said. He’s previously pleaded not guilty to the DOJ’s original charges. Prosecutors have accused Bankman-Fried of spending "at least" $40 million in crypto on "at least one or more Chinese government officials in order to influence them," according to an updated indictment unsealed on Tuesday. In January, Bankman-Fried previously pleaded not guilty to the original 8-count indictment that prosecutors had filed back in December.

☆ OpenAI CEO says it's not 'a big dunk' that he fears super intelligent AI, and its risks are 'far beyond anything we're prepared for'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

"I think it's weird when people think it's like a big dunk that I say, I'm a little bit afraid," Altman told Fridman. Companies like Khan Academy, which provides online classes, are already tapping into the technology, using GPT-4 to build AI tools. "In the spirit of building in public and, and bringing society along gradually, we put something out, it's got flaws, we'll make better versions," Altman told Fridman. It was more inclined to answer questions about where to buy unlicensed guns, or about self-harm, whereas the version launched declined to answer those types of questions, according to OpenAI's document. "I think we, as OpenAI, have responsibility for the tools we put out into the world," Altman told Fridman.

☆ Google Bard is here. Catch up on everything you need to know about the ChatGPT alternative.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Google debuted its AI chatbot Bard this week with a nod to the unpredictability of AI chatbot responses. Bard works like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's Bing chatbot, but can give multiple responses to a prompt. Google had also moved to reassure users this week that Bard "is not trained on Gmail data," according to a tweet. Here's how it worksGoogle's new Bard chatbot told an AI expert it was trained using Gmail data. Google asked staff to spend time teaching its Bard chatbot to write like a human.

☆ Sam Altman responds to Elon Musk's criticism of OpenAI: 'I mean, he's a jerk,' but 'he does really care'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sam Altman rejected Elon Musk's criticism that OpenAI is now pursuing "maximum-profit." OpenAI's CEO said on Kara Swisher's podcast that Musk has "his style" but "he does really care." "Most of that is not true, and I think Elon knows that," Altman said on Swisher's podcast. "I mean, he's a jerk, whatever else you want to say about him — he has a style that is not a style that I'd want to have for myself," Altman told Swisher. "I don't think it would be good right now for us to open-source GPT-4, for example," he told Swisher.

☆ The SEC charges Tron founder Justin Sun and 8 celebrities including Lindsay Lohan and Jake Paul in crypto lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The SEC sued Tron founder Justin Sun in a lawsuit involving Tronix and BitTorrent crypto tokens. It also charged eight celebrities with promoting the tokens without disclosing they were paid. Eight celebrities including the actress Lindsay Lohan, YouTuber Jake Paul, and singer Akon were also charged. The SEC said the celebrities it charged promoted crypto assets without making it clear they were being paid. Insider did not immediately receive comment from the charged celebrities it contacted ahead of publication.

☆ Google's new AI bot Bard just debuted and it's already warning about its creator's 'monopoly' over ads
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Google just dropped Bard on Tuesday, and the AI bot is already game to even take on the tech giant. "12:11"As we've said, Bard can sometimes give inaccurate or inappropriate information that doesn't represent Google's views and Bard should not respond in a way that endorses a particular viewpoint on subjective topics," the statement said. Insider repeated Wong's question in our own test of Bard, and received similar responses — Bard offers different answers to the same question, called "drafts," as Insider previously reported. In multiple versions of its responses, Bard repeated that "I would side with the Justice Department in this case." AI chatbots can sometimes deliver factually incorrect information, experts including OpenAI's own chief technology officer Mira Murati have said.

☆ Amazon is laying off another 9,000 employees — read the email CEO Andy Jassy sent to staff
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Amazon is laying off another 9,000 employees. CEO Andy Jassy said the additional cuts weren't announced sooner because some teams hadn't finished their cost-cutting analysis. The layoffs will come on top of the cuts to 18,000 positions that the company disclosed in January. It also "led to new openings where we don't have the right skills match from our existing team members," Jassy wrote. The company is planning to conduct "limited hiring" in areas it is focusing on, he said.

☆ I rushed from bank to bank with my infant daughter when SVB collapsed to figure out how my startup could make payroll on time
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Silicon Valley Bank's collapse sent Dispatch Goods cofounder Lindsey Hoell on a race to find alternatives. Her team and investors navigated the logistical chaos of making sure the company made payroll. Dispatch Goods, a Silicon Valley Bank customer, provides reusable packaging to meal and grocery delivery companies. But by the time I got back from opening that account, the Silicon Valley Bank site was just completely bogged down with other people trying to do the same thing. We got up Friday morning and drove down to Silicon Valley Bank's Menlo Park location.

☆ The 6 big takeaways from Mark Zuckerberg's lengthy layoffs post
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Meta is cutting 10,000 employees in its "year of efficiency," Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a lengthy Facebook post. The layoffs "will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been part of our success," he acknowledged. Meta has big AI plansZuckerberg said that artificial intelligence marks the company's "single largest investment," and added that the company wants it in "every one of our products." "We have the infrastructure to do this at unprecedented scale and I think the experiences it enables will be amazing," Zuckerberg wrote on Tuesday. The move appears to mark a shift from his previously hyped metaverse, often described as a kind of virtual digital world.

☆ Mark Zuckerberg: Early-career engineers tend to perform better when they're in person 'at least 3 days a week'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Early-career engineers tend to do better when they show up in person, Mark Zuckerberg said. Zuckerberg broached the idea of in-person work in a note announcing new layoffs of 10,000 employees. Elon Musk also ended remote work at Twitter when he took over at the social media platform last year. Billionaire Thomas Siebel, the CEO of software company C3.ai, told Insider this week about his company's own in-office culture, taking a dig at remote work. "If you want to work from home, like four days of work in your pajamas, go to work for Facebook," he said.

☆ Sam Altman unveils the hotly anticipated GPT-4, an AI model he says 'can pass a bar exam and score a 5 on several AP exams'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman unveiled the much-anticipated GPT-4 model. He said it is "still flawed, still limited," but can "pass a bar exam and score a 5 on several AP exams." Sign up for our newsletter for the latest tech news and scoops — delivered daily to your inbox. Loading Something is loading. Those who pay for OpenAI's ChatGPT Plus can give GPT-4 a whirl starting today, but there's a waitlist for the GPT-4 API.

☆ Billionaire tech CEO says Meta and Google over-hired so much they didn't have enough work for employees: 'They really were doing nothing'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Grace Kay | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

C3.ai's CEO said Google and Meta over-hired employees and didn't have enough work for them to do. Thomas Siebel joked that if you want to work remote "in your pajamas," you should work at Facebook. "If you want to work from home, like four days of work in your pajamas, go to work for Facebook." Siebel is far from the first executive to express concern that tech workers aren't doing enough work. Last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warned that remote work has spurred "productivity paranoia" among managers.

☆ Venture capitalists 'almost took the whole system down' by having startups stow all their cash at Silicon Valley Bank, says one tech billionaire CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Tom Siebel, the billionaire CEO of C3.ai, offered a scathing post-mortem of the Silicon Valley Bank fallout. Top VCs like Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen let startups entrust their finances to a "C minus bank," he said. Federal regulators have said they would protect all customers with deposits at Silicon Valley Bank. Since regulators closed down Silicon Valley Bank on Friday, the 40-year-old institution whose popularity in the startup world shot up in more recent years has been under the control of the Financial Deposit Insurance Corporation. A representative for the FDIC declined to comment, and representatives for Silicon Valley Bank did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on Monday evening.

☆ Biden says taxpayers won't bail out Silicon Valley Bank and the people responsible for its collapse will be held accountable: 'No one is above the law'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Taxpayer funds will not bail out Silicon Valley Bank customers, President Joe Biden said Monday. "If the bank is taken over by FDIC, the people running the bank should not work there anymore," he said. Biden also called for a "full accounting" of the factors that led to SVB's collapse, saying, "in my administration, no one is above the law." A representative for Silicon Valley Bank did not immediately return Insider's emailed request for comment Monday morning. On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other federal officials said they moved to protect depositors of both, SVB and Signature Bank, saying that banks would foot the bill.

☆ Elon Musk says he's 'open to the idea' of buying Silicon Valley Bank, but a Tesla investor tells him 'no thanks'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk tweeted late Friday he was "open to the idea" of buying the failed Silicon Valley Bank. Musk sold about $23 billion of Tesla stock last year to help finance his Twitter takeover. Musk made a series of Tesla stock sales last year to help finance his Twitter acquisition, helping to depress the share price. The CEO sold stock worth $8.5 billion in April, $6.9 billion in August, $3.95 billion in November, and $3.6 billion in December, totaling almost $23 billion. Silicon Valley Bank was shut down on Friday by US regulators following a run on deposits, Insider's Sindhu Sundar explained.

☆ Wondering what the hell just happened at SVB? Here's everything you need to know
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Silicon Valley Bank, a once-trusted banker to startups, was closed down by regulators on Friday. SVB became the latest casualty of a bank run as VCs and founders rushed to protect their funds. Sign up for our newsletter for the latest tech news and scoops — delivered daily to your inbox. The bank had already been experiencing headwinds from "continued higher interest rates, pressured public and private markets, and elevated cash burn," Greg Becker, the CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, wrote to investors on Wednesday. As part of the closure, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the agency that helps insure customers' bank funds, has now taken control of SVB.

☆ NYPD called to Silicon Valley Bank branch to respond to 'disorderly group' after SVB's shocking collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

The NYPD responded to a Silicon Valley Bank branch in after a complaint about a "disorderly group." An NYPD spokesman told Insider that police responding didn't witness any crimes from those gathered. People had apparently gathered at the bank's New York branch to try to withdraw their money from the collapsing financial institution. When the NYPD responded, officers didn't witness any criminal acts, a spokesman for the New York Police Department told Insider. A representative for Silicon Valley Bank did not immediately respond to Insider's emailed request for comment on Friday.

☆ Silicon Valley Bank is the biggest US bank failure since Washington Mutual during the 2008 financial crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank on Friday following a catastrophic bank run. The largest bank failure before that was Washington Mutual in 2008, which had $307 billion in assets. The size of the failure is second only to Washington Mutual Bank's closure during the sub-prime mortgage crisis in 2008. A representative for Silicon Valley Bank did not immediately respond to Insider's emailed request for comment on Friday. FDIC, now the official receiver for Silicon Valley Bank, said it has taken measures to safeguard customers.

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☆ Read the email billionaire Ron Baron sent Elon Musk telling him to stop tweeting when angry: 'Get an ice cream cone. Just don't use Twitter'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Grace Kay | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Tesla investor Ron Baron once emailed Elon Musk and told him to stop tweeting when upset. Baron told CNBC that Musk has made him "$5 billion so far, on a $400 million investment." In his 2018 email, Baron told Musk to turn the other cheek. When an attorney for the plaintiffs showed him the email, Musk offered his own take on Baron's message to him. "He's not saying don't use Twitter, he's saying I shouldn't respond to criticism in the news on Twitter," Musk said on the stand at the time.

☆ Get ready to post on Slack with ChatGPT. The viral AI chatbot is coming to the popular workplace messaging app.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Salesforce is giving its Slack workplace messaging app the ChatGPT boost that can speed up posting. Microsoft shook up its Bing search engine last month with an OpenAI-powered chatbot that transfixed users. The tool would help users write faster, review outlines of longer Slack chats, and mine channels for information, according to the company. Salesforce also said its AI tool called "Einstein GPT" will help clients use AI-generated content for customer service and marketing purposes. The company said that Slack users will have "granular controls" over access to data, and that ChatGPT's model won't learn from Slack data.

☆ Laid-off Twitter software engineer calls job market 'hot garbage': 'maybe I should go be a firefighter'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A laid-off Twitter engineer told CNN that they've faced a "wave of rejections" for job applications. "The market is hot garbage right now," De Caires told CNN. They are one of the hundreds of former Twitter employees who have sought legal recourse over severance packages offered to laid-off staff members. De Caires told CNN that the grim market for tech jobs was making them contemplate dramatically different career options. "However, following Musk's purchase of the company, Twitter reneged on this agreement."

☆ Another 70 Olaplex customers just joined the hair-loss lawsuit against the trendy hair care brand
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Dozens more customers have joined an ongoing lawsuit against the TikTok-famous brand Olaplex. More than 100 customers now say in an amended suit that they suffered physical injuries like hair loss. Olaplex has said clinical tests have shown its hair products to be "safe and effective." Dozens of customers have joined an amended complaint filed Thursday night in California federal court, adding to a rising volume of allegations that Olaplex products can cause hair loss and scalp problems. "However, Olaplex products do not cause hair loss or hair breakage."

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