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☆ Unsealed deposition with Elon Musk's righthand man reveals new details about their working relationship
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-23 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Previously sealed court documents provide insight into Elon Musk's righthand man, Jared Birchall. In a deposition for Twitter's lawsuit against Musk, Birchall describes his relationship with the Tesla CEO. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementEver wondered what it's like to serve as Elon Musk's righthand man? A trove of previously unreleased documents related to Musk's legal battle with Twitter provides a peek into Musk's working relationship with Jared Birchall, a former banker who runs the billionaire's family office.

Persons: Elon Musk's, Jared Birchall, Musk, Birchall, —, Aaron Greenspan Organizations: Service, Elon, Twitter, Chancery, Business Locations: Delaware

☆ Rishi Sunak has a new target: Sex education
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( Rob Picheta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Ben Birchall/PA‘Utterly disgraceful’The new draft guidance from the government, published Thursday, takes aim at the way sex and relationships are taught to English children in both primary and secondary schools. Under the new approach, children can’t be taught sex education before the age of nine, while “explicit discussion of sexual activity” will be delayed until children are 13. Gender identity, or the fact that people can change gender, is meanwhile “highly contested and should not be taught” at all, according to the Department of Education. But education specialists worry that school pupils have become the latest victim of that push. “But when a political ideology comes into it, it becomes more difficult for the whole of the education world to move behind it,” he added.

Persons: Rishi Sunak’s, “, –, Sunak’s, Pepe Di’lasio, ”, ” Di’lasio, Ben Birchall, can’t, ” Paul Whiteman, Di’lasio, Sam Freedman, Britain’s, Gillian Keegan, Keir Starmer, Jane Barlow, Sunak, Brianna Ghey, ” Whiteman, Keegan, it’s, we’ve, we’re Organizations: CNN, Association of School and College Leaders, Department of Education, National Association of Head Teachers, Institute, Government, The Sun, Labour, BBC Locations: England’s, England, Starmer

☆ Alabama ruled frozen embryos are children. Here’s what it could mean for embryos frozen across the state
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-26 | by ( Zoe Sottile | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Rumbley, 44, says she has three embryos frozen at a local fertility clinic. The process left three frozen embryos unused. Here’s what we know so far about the possible future of the frozen embryos currently stored in Alabama. Ruling leaves frozen embryos in ‘cryogenic limbo’When Alabama’s top court ruled frozen embryos are legally children and people can be held liable for their destruction, it complicated the options available to families. But the court ruling has left those frozen embryos in “cryogenic limbo.”“It’s gonna be someone’s problem long after I’m gone,” he said.

Persons: Kristia, Dustin Chambers, Andrew Harper, ” Eve Feinberg, Feinberg, Rumbley, ” Rumbley, aren’t, ”, “, Ben Birchall, Seema Mohapatra, CNN “, Mohapatra, hasn’t, ” Lauren Bowerman, CryoFuture –, Steve Marshall’s, Harper, I’m, Bowerman Organizations: CNN, Alabama Supreme, Life Sciences, Reuters, Huntsville Reproductive, Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, SMU Dedman School of Law, University of Alabama, Seattle Sperm Bank, Medical Association of, of Locations: Birmingham, Alabama, United States, Birmingham , Alabama, Huntsville, Madison , Alabama, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Seattle, of Alabama, Madison, Minnesota

☆ The mystery of Siberia's strange exploding craters may have finally been solved
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-15 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

They may be due to hot time bombs made of natural gas building up under the frozen ground. AdvertisementScientists are putting forward a new explanation for the giant exploding craters that seem to be randomly appearing in the Siberian permafrost. AdvertisementNow scientists are proposing that hot natural gas seeping from underground reserves might be behind the explosive burst. The natural gas building up over a layer of sediment is represented in purple. The area is rife with natural gas reserves, which lines up with Hellevang and colleagues' theory, per the study.

Persons: —, Helge Hellevang, VASILY BOGOYAVLENSKY, It's, Sofie Bates, Hellevang, Helge Hellevang et, Lauren Schurmeier, Thomas Birchall, Hellenvang Organizations: Service, University of Oslo, Gas, Getty, NASA, University of Hawai'i, New, University Locations: Siberia, Norway, AFP, Northern Russia, Canada, Svalbard

☆ Not so dead as a dodo: ‘De-extinction’ plan to reintroduce bird to Mauritius
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Tom Page | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN —An audacious collaboration between geneticists and conservationists plans to bring back the extinct dodo and reintroduce it to its once-native habitat in Mauritius. But according to the partners, its return to Mauritius could benefit the dodo’s immediate environment and other species. The Nicobar pigeon, native to the coastal regions from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, is the closest living relative to the dodo. Then it will edit the PGCs of a Nicobar so it expresses the physical traits of a dodo. “I have studied the dodo for many years, and there is still a lot to learn about this enigmatic bird,” he added.

Persons: dodo, Beth Shapiro, ”, Matt James, James, Holger Hollemann, Tatayah, ” Tatayah, “, dodos, Ben Birchall, Julian Hume, ” Hume, Ben Lamm, “ We’re Organizations: CNN, Colossal Biosciences, Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, Getty, Gorges, Colossal, “, White Rhino, Biosciences Locations: Mauritius, Rodrigues Island, Asia, Nicobar, Park, “ Mauritius, Aigrettes, Ile

Paris CNN —Storm Ciarán has brought hurricane-strength winds to France, the Channel Islands and southern England, leaving more than a million people without access to electricity and forcing hundreds of schools to close. Waves crashing on the Phare du Four in Porspoder, western France, on November 2, 2023, as Storm Ciarán reached the region. Fallen trees and electricity pylons uprooted by the storm were to blame for the cuts. A tree brought down by Storm Ciarán overnight blocking the road at Castle Hill on November 2, 2023 in Falmouth, Cornwall, England. Storm Ciarán follows less than two weeks after Storm Babet, which brought strong winds, heavy rainfall and flash flooding to parts of Scotland and northern and central England, killing several people.

Persons: Paris CNN —, Ciarán, Storm Ciarán, Damien Meyer, Enedis, Hugh Hastings, Ben Birchall, Storm Babet, ”, Friederike Otto, Angela Dewan Organizations: Paris CNN, Channel, Getty, French Transport, Clément, Franceinfo, Isles, Islands, Storm, Met, Met Office, Grantham Institute, Imperial College London Locations: France, England, Finistère, Porspoder, Brittany, Clément Beaune, Jersey, Cornwall, English, Castle Hill, Falmouth , Cornwall, Somerset, Scotland

☆ In a world of infinite AI, the new luxury item will be humans
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-25 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The same inevitable supply-and-demand dynamic is about to wash over us again with large language models and generative AI. AI models are trained on masses of data from the past. Humans are good at learning quickly from a small amount of data, while AI models need mountains of information to train on. Soon, human content creators will be vying for attention with content generated by AI models. 'Utility, value and signaling'Hartz, a venture capitalist who now chairs Eventbrite's board, says successful technologists will continue to spend heavily on human experiences.

Persons: —, Kevin Hartz, Eventbrite, Taylor Swift, Marc Andreessen, Hartz, John Barone, you'll, Sal Khan, That's, Gates, Michael Larson, Elon Musk's, Morgan Stanley, Jared Birchall, Noam Brown, He's, Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg Organizations: Service, Khan Academy, Menlo School, Sigma, Bloomberg, Meta, OpenAI, Google, Amazon Locations: GPT, Fiji, Palo Alto, Silicon, Menlo

☆ Four takeaways from Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Paul Glader | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN —“You’ll never be successful,” Errol Musk in 1989 told his 17-year-old son Elon, who was then preparing to fly from South Africa to Canada to find relatives and a college education. That’s one of the scenes Walter Isaacson paints in his 670-page biography of Elon Musk, who is now the richest person who ever lived. In a 2022 email sent to Elon Musk on Father’s Day, Errol Musk said he was freezing and lacking electricity, asking his son for money. Isaacson’s book revealed Musk had a third child (Techno Mechanicus) with the musician Grimes in 2022, and Musk confirmed the revelation Sunday. “Stop falling for weird s—.”Are robocars, an AI company and a robot called Optimus on tap?

Persons: “ You’ll, Errol Musk, Elon, Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk, Isaacson, Musk, ” Musk, Errol, ” Elon Musk, ”, Covid, Anthony Fauci, Fauci, Grimes, “, ” Isaacson, Simon, Schuster Zilis, Zilis, Jenna, Musk’s, “ I’ve, Jared Birchall, Alex Spiro, Kimbal, Optimus, Sam Altman, Altman, Larry Page Organizations: CNN, Blacks, Defamation League, Elon, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Tesla Locations: South Africa, Canada, United States, Texas

London CNN —Asylum-seekers have been removed from a controversial barge in southern England after Legionella bacteria was discovered in the water – days after experts warned of the risk of infection. Thirty-nine asylum-seekers disembarked the Bibby Stockholm barge, a UK Home Office spokesperson said in a statement Friday – just days after they were first housed in it. Legionella bacteria, which is commonly found in water, and can cause Legionnaires’ disease, a serious lung infection. The spokesperson said that no individuals on board the barge showed symptoms of Legionnaires’ and that the asylum-seekers were being provided with appropriate advice and support. “The presence of life-threatening bacteria onboard the Bibby Stockholm is just another shocking revelation that we’ve seen unfold over the past few weeks.

Persons: Bibby, Ben Birchall, Kolbassia Haoussou Organizations: London CNN —, Bibby, Home, Channel, Fire Brigades Union, CNN Locations: England, Portland, Bibby Stockholm, Dorset, Portland , Dorset, Britain

London CNN —A barge on which the United Kingdom government plans to house hundreds of asylum-seekers has been described as a “death trap” by the country’s Fire Brigades Union. Yui Mok/WPA Pool/Getty Images/FileThe Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said it will write to the UK Home Office on Wednesday to set out its safety concerns. The government’s plans to house migrants on the barge has been widely criticized by human rights groups. “We’ve got British taxpayers stumping up millions of pounds a day to house migrants in hotels.”Rival protesters argue in Portland, Dorset, where the Bibby Stockholm docked on July 18, 2023. Ben Birchall/PA/APThe Home Office announced plans to house around 500 single adult males on the barge in April.

Persons: Rishi Sunak, Bibby, it’s, ” Sunak, hasn’t, ”, Sunak, Yui Mok, Ben Selby, ” Selby, Selby, ” Natasha Tsangarides, “ We’ve, Ben Birchall Organizations: London CNN, country’s Fire Brigades Union, LBC, Channel, Fire Brigades, Office, Sky News, CNN, “, ”, Home Office, United Nations Locations: United Kingdom, Portland, Dorset, England, Bibby Stockholm, “, Britain, Australian, Dover, London, Portland , Dorset, France

☆ Elon Musk launches AI firm xAI as he looks to take on OpenAI
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

In a Twitter Spaces event Wednesday evening, Musk explained his plan for building a safer AI. Rather than explicitly programming morality into its AI, xAI will seek to create a "maximally curious" AI, he said. Musk in March registered a firm named X.AI Corp, incorporated in Nevada, according to a state filing. The firm lists Musk as the sole director and Jared Birchall, the managing director of Musk's family office, as a secretary. Dan Hendrycks, who will advise the xAI team, is currently director of the Center for AI Safety and his work revolves around the risks of AI.

Persons: Elon Musk, Musk, xAI, that's, Igor Babuschkin, DeepMind, Tony Wu, Szegedy, Greg Yang, Jared Birchall, Google's Bard, Microsoft's, Bing, Bard, Dan Hendrycks, Tesla, Akash Sriram, Chavi Mehta, Yuvraj Malik, Aditya Soni, Anna Tong, Shailesh Kuber, Leslie Adler Organizations: SpaceX, Twitter, Microsoft, Google, X.AI Corp, Center, AI Safety, X Corp, Thomson Locations: OpenAI, Nevada, San Francisco Bay, Bengaluru, Anna, San Francisco

☆ Elon Musk launches artificial intelligence firm xAI
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

July 12 (Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk's xAI on Wednesday announced the formation of the artificial intelligence (AI) startup with the launch of its website, unveiling a team made up of engineers who have worked at companies from Alphabet-owned Google to Microsoft and OpenAI. "Announcing formation of @xAI to understand reality," Musk said in a tweet on Wednesday. The website said xAI will hold a Twitter Spaces event on July 14. Musk in March registered a firm named X.AI Corp, incorporated in Nevada, according to a state filing. The firm lists Musk as the sole director and Jared Birchall, the managing director of Musk's family office, as a secretary.

Persons: Elon Musk's xAI, Musk, xAI, Jared Birchall, Akash Sriram, Shailesh Organizations: Wednesday, Google, Microsoft, Tesla, Twitter, X.AI Corp, Thomson Locations: Nevada, Bengaluru

☆ Elon Musk Creates New Artificial Intelligence Company X.AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Berber Jin | Deepa Seetharaman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Elon Musk previously has warned about the risks from AI technology and advocated for its regulation. Elon Musk has created a new artificial intelligence company called X.AI Corp. that is incorporated in Nevada, according to a state filing. Mr. Musk is the only listed director of the company, and Jared Birchall, the director of Mr. Musk’s family office, is its secretary, according to the filing made last month. X.AI has authorized the sale of 100 million shares for the privately held company.

☆ The Twitter leaders Elon Musk put in place keep quitting or getting fired. See who's left and who's recently been hired, including engineers from Google's DeepMind and a Tesla superfan.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

About half of the 20 people who reported to Elon Musk after his takeover have left Twitter. Musk has hired some new people, including engineers who may be working on an AI project. Elon Musk's Twitter is ruled by chaos. None have been directly replaced, the people familiar said, although Musk has also hired some new people from outside his companies. Below is a complete list of who Musk set as his direct reports, including those who have already left the company.

☆ Britain 'warming up' weapon output to help Ukraine, says defence minister
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Elizabeth Piper | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/5] British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is helped off a tank during a visit to Bovington Camp, a British Army military base in Dorset, to view Ukrainian soldiers training on Challenger 2 tanks, Britain February 22, 2023. In an interview with Reuters in southwest England where officers are training Ukrainian crews on Challenger-2 tanks, Wallace said he believed Britain was in a good place to help Ukraine but needed to sustain the provision of weapons. 'REASSURED'Standing at a tank training ground surrounded by armoured fighting vehicles and tanks, Wallace spoke to Ukrainian soldiers who were training to use Britain's Challenger tanks which the defence minister said would arrive in Ukraine in "the spring". London has also offered to train Ukrainian soldiers on war planes rather than delivering fighter jets as yet. Wallace said Britain could offer additional Challenger tanks to the 14 already promised, but that it would depend on the threat level and also the country's defence needs.

☆ The UK plans to train Ukrainian pilots to fly the kind of NATO-standard fighter jets the alliance is refusing to give them
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The UK government plans to train Ukrainian pilots on how to fly NATO-standard fighter jets. Ukraine has long requested advanced fighter jets, but NATO has been reluctant to provide them. The British government will offer to train Ukrainian pilots to fly advanced NATO-standard fighter jets in the future, Downing Street said on Wednesday, even as the military alliance refuses to actually send the physical aircraft to Ukraine. "The training will ensure pilots are able to fly sophisticated NATO-standard fighter jets in the future," it said. Since obtaining the Western-made tanks, Ukraine has pivoted its focus to fighter jets, fourth-generation jets like the American F-15 or F-16.

☆ Twitter recruiters are keeping busy by reaching out to select former employees Elon Musk laid off
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Some Twitter recruiters are getting back to work about three months after Elon Musk's acquisition. Despite being laid off by Musk in his first round of cuts, former employees are being contacted by Twitter recruiters. At least two emails have been sent by Twitter recruiters to laid-off workers with the subject line "Hello from Twitter!," according to messages seen by Insider. That subject line has been used by Twitter recruiters for years in reaching out cold to prospective job candidates, one of the people familiar said. "That's dirty," one former employee said of Twitter recruiters contacting people who worked there only a couple of months ago.

☆ Twitter employees have been bringing their own toilet paper to the office after janitorial services were cut, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Bathrooms at Twitter's San Francisco HQ are dirty amid a lack of janitors, per the New York Times. Twitter failed to negotiate a new contract with a janitorial company after they went on strike. The company's San Francisco headquarters have been left with dirty bathrooms and the office is in disarray, per the publication. The company didn't negotiate a new contract with Flagship, the janitorial company that employs them, according to unions. The Boring Company's CEO Steve Davis, who reportedly slept at Twitter's headquarters with his partner and newborn baby, is supervising the cost-cutting exercise.

☆ Inside the lives of some of the most powerful people on Wall Street
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

We're highlighting profiles we've done of some of the most powerful people on Wall Street. They are, as you will see, largely white males — a telling reminder of who still wields the power throughout most of Wall Street. Gregg Lemkau was considered a future CEO candidate at Goldman Sachs before he shocked Wall Street by leaving for Michael Dell's investment firm in 2020. Soft-spoken types can sometimes get bulldozed on Wall Street, where so-called alphas often reign supreme. Inside his strategy for turning Goldman into the Amazon of Wall Street.

☆ Elon Musk is still cutting costs at Twitter, killing features and conducting layoffs as he tries to draw new investment
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Efforts to cut costs are ongoing, resulting in some Twitter features shutting down. Elon Musk is still very much in charge of Twitter and continues to drastically cut costs as he searches for new outside investment. Meanwhile, he's begun in earnest to solicit new funding from previous investors in his Twitter takeover. It was run mainly by Twitter's Curation team, which was almost entirely let go during Musk's first round of layoffs. Cost is top of mind in conversations that come up with Musk on any Twitter feature, the two people familiar said.

☆ 11 ancient sites that are mysteriously aligned with the sun on the winter solstice, in photos.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Archaeologists have found many ancient sites that line up with the winter solstice sun. Here are 11 sites that line up with the winter solstice, and what experts think about them. Newgrange, County Meath, IrelandPeople celebrating the sunrise at Newgrange on the morning of the winter solstice in 2018. ShutterstockOne of the most famous examples of ancient architecture lining up with the winter solstice is in Machu Picchu, Peru. "From the winter solstice the days are longer, which was a metaphor of the rebirth of the deceased," he said.

☆ Elon Musk is reportedly seeking investors for Twitter at $54.20 a share — the same price he paid for it
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Musk's family office is looking for new investors for Twitter, according to Semafor. New shares of Twitter will be sold at $54.20, the same price Musk paid back in October. Musk also sold Tesla shares worth $3.6 billion, according to filings from the SEC. Birchall is apparently offering shares of Twitter to investors for the price of $54.20 a piece, Semafor reported. That's the same price that Musk paid with his $44 billion takeover of the company in October.

☆ Elon Musk's team seeks new investors for Twitter - Semafor
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 16 (Reuters) - The managing director of Elon Musk's family office is seeking new equity investors for Twitter, news platform Semafor reported on Friday, citing two people familiar with the fundraising effort. Musk's money manager, Jared Birchall, reached out to potential investors this week, offering shares of Twitter at the same price, $54.20, that Musk paid to take the company private in October, according to the report. Twitter and Musk did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comments. Musk sold another $3.6 billion worth of shares in Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) earlier this week, making it nearly $40 billion worth of shares in the electric-vehicle company sold this year. Ross Gerber, a Tesla investor who said he put less than $1 million in Musk's original takeover of Twitter, confirmed that he was contacted Thursday evening about another funding round, Semafor reported.

☆ Elon Musk's team seeks new funding for Twitter - investor
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Hyunjoo Jin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 16 (Reuters) - Elon Musk’s team has reached out to investors to raise new funds for his struggling social media platform Twitter, one of the investors said. Jared Birchall, the managing director of Elon Musk's family office reached out to potential investors this week, news platform Semafor reported on Friday, citing two people familiar with the fundraising effort. Twitter and Musk did not respond to Reuters requests for comments. Musk sold another $3.6 billion worth of shares in Tesla earlier this week, making it nearly $40 billion worth of shares in the electric-vehicle company sold this year. Tesla shares on Friday posted their worst weekly loss since March 2020, with investors increasingly concerned about Musk being distracted by Twitter and the slowing global economy.

☆ Elon Musk defends installing bedrooms at Twitter HQ, saying he's merely 'providing beds for tired employees'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk has defended his decision to install bedrooms in Twitter's San Francisco HQ. Musk said he's simply "providing beds for tired employees." San Francisco has reportedly launched an investigation into the installation of the bedrooms. Twitter employees on Monday discovered some offices and conference rooms at Twitter HQ had bare mattresses and curtains inside, two anonymous people with knowledge of the matter told Forbes. Representatives for Twitter and the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment, made outside normal working hours.

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