DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Diamond necklace linked to Marie Antoinette scandal sells for $4.8 million
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-14 | by ( Hannah Peart | Hannah Peart Is An Intern In The Nbc News London Bureau. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The necklace has been worn at two British coronations and may contain diamonds from the infamous necklace at the heart of a scandal that tainted the reputation of Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France. The exact origins of the necklace have not been recorded, with Sotheby’s stressing it does not know for certain. That history centers on Louis XV, the king of France, who commissioned a lavish diamond necklace for his mistress, Madam Du Barry, in 1722 — two years before he died of smallpox. Marie Antoinette, the country's new queen consort, declined to buy the necklace despite her reputation for extravagance. In 2022, bracelets that once belonged to Marie Antoinette sold for more than $8 million at auction, also in Geneva.

Persons: Marie Antoinette, France, Sotheby’s, ” Andres White Correal, ”, ” White Correal, Louis XV, Madam Du Barry, Jeanne de La Motte, Marchioness, Paget, Queen Elizabeth II Organizations: Reuters, Louis Locations: Geneva, France, Anglesey

☆ Joan of Arc: Why does her image still resonate?
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-15 | by ( Tacita Quinn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —More than 800 years after her birth, Joan of Arc — a patron saint of France — remains an object of not just historical, but cultural fascination. Humble beginningsOne of five children in a peasant family in Domrémy, in north-eastern France, Joan was born in the year 1412. The Amazonian image of Joan of Arc in armor is perhaps the most recurrent one in popular culture, inspiring thousands, if not hundreds and thousands, of similar depictions. It also provided the inspiration for Carl Theodore Dreyer’s silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) starring Renée Jeanne Falconetti. She is also a cautionary tale for young women, a brutal warning of the fickle nature of celebrity and a symbol of morality and strength.

Persons: Joan of Arc, we’ve, Chappell, Joan of, Jeanne Friott, Robert Mercier, Baz Luhrmann’s, Fiona Apple, Joe McNally, ” McNally, unapparent, Chloe Sevigny, Zendaya, Joan, Dauphin, King Charles VII, J, Ingres, Dauphin —, ”, Katherine J, Chen, Joan ”, Jules Bastien, Lepage, Alexander McQueen, Arc, Ingrid Bergman, Victor Fleming, Loomis Dean, Eleanor Jackson, “, ” Jackson, Rubens, Rossetti, Milla Jovovich, Charles, King of France, Luc Besson, Carl Theodore Dreyer’s, Renée Jeanne Falconetti, Rayne Fisher, Quann, ” Chappell Roan, Mike Coppola, ” Fisher, …, I’ve, ’, Roan, Sevigny, —, McNally, InStyle, Fındıkoğlu, Joan’s, Emma Corrin, Hari Nef, Chloe Sevigny's, Sara Jaye Weiss, ” Chen Organizations: CNN, Disney, France, Dauphin, British Library, auburn, Gaumont, MTV, Apple, London Fashion Locations: France, Domrémy, Dauphin of France, Hulton, Orléans, French, Loire, Reims, Compiegne

☆ Google criticized as AI Overview makes obvious errors, saying President Obama is Muslim and that it's safe to leave dogs in hot cars
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-24 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

But on social media, users have shared a wide range of screenshots showing the AI tool sharing controversial responses. Here are some examples of what went wrong with AI Overviews, according to screenshots shared by users. When asked how many Muslim presidents the U.S. has had, AI Overviews responded, "The United States has had one Muslim president, Barack Hussein Obama." Attribution can also be a problem for AI Overviews, especially when it comes to attributing inaccurate information to medical professionals or scientists. The news follows Google's high-profile rollout of Gemini's image-generation tool in February, and a pause that same month after comparable issues.

Persons: It's, Barack Hussein Obama, it's, WebMD, they'd, Gemini, Demis Hassabis, Pichai Organizations: Google, Microsoft, UC Berkeley, U.S . Justice Department Locations: United States, German, British, France, ChatGPT

☆ Google’s Gemini AI picture generator to relaunch in a 'few weeks' following mounting criticism of inaccurate images
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-26 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Google introduced the image generator earlier this month through Gemini, the company's main suite of AI models. "We are hoping to have that back online very shortly in the next couple of weeks, few weeks." "The Gemini debacle showed how AI ethics *wasn't* being applied with the nuanced expertise necessary," Margaret Mitchell, chief ethics scientist at Hugging Face and former co-leader of Google's AI ethics group, wrote on X. On Sunday, a text-based user query went viral, asking the Gemini chatbot whether Adolf Hitler or Elon Musk's tweeting of memes had a greater negative impact on society. WATCH: Google's Gemini chatbot is 'evolutionary not revolutionary'

Persons: Demis Hassabis, Hassabis, Bard, OpenAI's, Gemini, Margaret Mitchell, Sundar Pichai, Pichai, Adolf Hitler, Elon Musk's, Elon Musk, Elon, Hitler, Sissie Hsiao Organizations: Google, Gemini, Mobile, Microsoft Locations: Barcelona, German, British, France, ChatGPT

☆ When Courtly Love Goes Wrong, It’s Deadly
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Tina Brown | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Compared to the dour, dutiful sewing circle serving Katherine of Aragon at the British court, the French matriarchs were pistols. “Anne found herself in a world in which women could exercise power in strikingly different ways,” write Guy and Fox. Stereotyped by convention as a conniving hustler bent on building the Boleyn brand, Thomas is positioned more interestingly here as a kind of geopolitical Zelig. It would prove the right time to catch the eye of the strapping 34-year-old king. Henry had never before encountered a woman as dazzling as Anne, with her French flair and intellectual self-confidence.

Persons: Katherine of Aragon, “ Anne, ”, Guy, Fox, Anne’s, Thomas, Henry VIII’s, Europe’s, Emperor Charles V, Pa Boleyn, Henry, Anne, Queen Katherine, Mary Boleyn, Katherine Locations: France, Pa, England, Europe

☆ Johnny Depp emotional after 7 minute standing ovation at Cannes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Lisa Respers France | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Johnny Depp was teary eyed after his film’s warm welcome at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday. Video shared on social media by Variety shows a visibly moved Depp during a seven minute ovation for his film, “Jeanne du Barry,” in which he stars as the former King of France Louis XV. It was the actor’s first film project since a defamation trial with his ex-wife Amber Heard last summer. A jury found them both liable for defamation in their lawsuits against each other, but awarded significantly more damages to Depp. “The film is a success, and Johnny Depp [as Louis XV] is magnificent in it.”

MPS (BMPS.MI) had scheduled a board meeting on Tuesday to set the terms of an up to 2.5 billion euros ($2.4 billion) share issue, the Tuscan bank's seventh in 14 years after an 8.2 billion euro bailout in 2017. Rocky markets and the size of the cash call, equivalent to more than 10 times MPS' current market value, have complicated talks over the share sale. The banks have long seen it as too risky to bring to the market without a pre-committed core of investors. The new shares will value MPS above healthier peers, exposing underwriters to likely losses on any shares left on their books, bankers and analysts say. On Tuesday, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that MPS had secured some 30 million euros ($29 million) from local not-for-profit banking foundations in its home region.

Search resuls for: "King of France"

7 mentions found