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☆ Oil gains for 3rd day on Kurdish supply concern, easing banking fears
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Alex Lawler | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Crude exports of 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) from Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdistan region were halted on Saturday following an arbitration decision that confirmed Baghdad's consent was needed to ship the oil. "The longer the stoppage continues, the tighter the supply outlook will become," said Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM. On Wednesday, Norwegian oil firm DNO said it had begun shutting down production at its fields in Kurdistan. We can see that risk sentiment has recovered to some extent, which pushed (the) global stock markets and crude oil rebound," said CMC Markets analyst Leon Li. Attention will focus on official U.S. inventory data from the Energy Information Administration at 1430 GMT to see if it confirms the crude stock decline.

☆ This fintech enables banks to offer charitable giving services. Check out the 13-slide pitch deck Spiral used to raise $28 million.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Spiral, a fintech startup that helps banks offer charitable giving services, has raised $28 million. The startup believes it can help banks differentiate their brand and attract Gen Z customers. Check out Spiral's 13-slide Series A pitch deck below:A startup that enables financial institutions to embed charitable giving into their services has raised $28 million in fresh funds. New York City-based Spiral has developed a system it calls "impact-as-a-service" that it offers to banks, credit unions, and other financial service providers. The startup believes it can help banks differentiate their brand, attract Gen Z customers who are keen on more sustainable products, and increase customer loyalty and retention.

☆ Oil prices soften; banking crisis and Chinese demand in focus
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Oil prices rose in early Asian trade on the prospect that a stalled Iran nuclear deal and Moscow's new mobilization campaign would restrict global supplies. Crude prices retreated on Tuesday after rallying the previous session, with markets focused on developments in the banking crisis and indications of strengthening demand in China. Oil prices were also likely to continue drawing support from indications of recovering Chinese demand. "China's manufacturing and services PMIs will be a major economic driver to oil prices as positive data is most likely to further improve the demand outlook," Teng said. U.S. crude oil stockpiles were seen rising about 200,000 barrels last week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.

March 28 - Crude prices moved in a narrow range in early Asian trade on Tuesday after rallying in the previous session, with oil markets focused on developments in the banking crisis as well as on supply concerns and indications of strengthening demand. Brent crude futures fell 2 cents to $78.10 a barrel at 0018 GMT. Prices rose in the previous session after Turkey stopped pumping crude from Kurdistan via a pipeline following an arbitration decision that confirmed Baghdad's consent was needed to ship the oil. Oil prices also drew support from indications of strong Chinese demand. U.S. crude oil stockpiles were seen rising about 200,000 barrels last week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.

☆ Bank runs have the crypto industry on high alert. 3 experts explain why the latest batch is especially worrisome — and what comes next.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Only a decade ago, bank runs happened at a much slower pace. The era of digital bank runsOne thing the past few weeks has made clear is that bank runs now unfold differently, especially for smaller banks that service specialized sectors. "Bank runs are evolving into a different and much more dangerous beast because they happen faster," Baker said. By comparison, on March 9, SVB lost $42 billion in a day — and it was a smaller bank, Baker added. Long said she warned regulators again after FTX collapsed that banks servicing the crypto sector face the danger of bank runs.

☆ How this 26-year-old went from running bitcoin trading desks in Taco Bells to creating the largest crypto exchange in Africa
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Mackenzie Sigalos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +28 min

Yellow Card CEO Chris Maurice just before meeting with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Accra, Ghana. Chris MauriceFrom there, Yellow Card users can send or receive digital cash in eligible markets. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards Yellow Card CEO Chris Maurice in Accra, Ghana loading cash onto his Mobile Money account, MoMo. Yellow Card has facilitated $1.75 billion in transactions since launching in 2019 and has about 220 employees – mostly in Africa. A resident checks his phone outside a mobile money kiosk in the Kibera district of Nairobi, Kenya, on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.

☆ 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.

☆ I added the 'scary hour' hack to my mornings. My ability to focus shot up and so did my productivity — here's how it works
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Robin Madell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

He said the "scary hour" productivity hack helps him complete his most daunting task each day. My best productivity hack is popularly referred to as the "scary hour" — one hour where you tackle the most daunting but impactful task on your plate. But defining your top priority can be tricky, which is why I prefer to call it "scary hour" rather than "golden hour" as some people do. One of my "block sets" in LeechBlock ensures that I can't browse email, social media, my investment portfolio, or other distractions during scary hour. I use a Notion Habit Tracker to log what I completed during scary hour each day, which helps me stay accountable to my scary hour tasks.

☆ A Ramadan etiquette guide for non-Muslims
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Saeed Ahmed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

If your Muslim co-worker takes a pass, understand. You don’t have to know when it begins …Ramadan isn’t like Christmas or Thanksgiving, as in everyone knows exactly when it’ll fall. … but please be a little flexibleHow we determine when Ramadan begins is decidedly old-school: You have to physically see the moon (even though there are apps for that). You can say ‘Ramadan Mubarak’ …There’s no “war on Christmas”-level controversy surrounding the greeting (it means “Happy Ramadan”). Your Muslim co-worker will appreciate the thoughtfulness.

Persons: It’s, you’re, Francois Nel, it’s, Iftar, Ulet Ifansasti, Ramadan, ”, We’ll, Mubarak ’ … Organizations: CNN, TED, Getty Locations: United States, Al Noor Mosque, Sharjah, UAE, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Manila, Philippines, AFP

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 39 cents, or 0.6%, at $69.28. Traders and analysts will be looking out for data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday to see whether it confirms signs of weaker crude demand. Oil prices posted their biggest declines in months last week, after high-profile U.S. bank failures beginning March 10 and a crisis at Europe's Credit Suisse. An emergency rescue of Credit Suisse over the weekend helped revive oil prices. OPEC+ officials, hedge fund managers and oil market participants have called the recent decline in oil prices speculative and insisted that increasing demand will push prices to higher levels in the coming months.

☆ Oil rises 2% in retreat from 15-mth low as banking fears subside
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Arathy Somasekhar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"Fears of a banking crisis and a recession have eased, brightening the oil demand outlook at least for now," said Fiona Cincotta, Senior Financial Markets Analyst at City Index. Wall Street indexes also closed sharply higher on Tuesday as fears over liquidity in the banking sector abated and market participants eyed the Fed. Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil inventories rose by about 3.3 million barrels last week, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures. OPEC+ sources told Reuters the drop in prices reflects banking fears rather than supply and demand. The CEO of energy trader Gunvor, Torbjorn Tornqvist, said he expected oil prices to move higher toward year end as rising Chinese demand tightens the market further.

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, March 17 (Reuters) - Hong Kong-listed shares in China's Baidu (9888.HK), rebounded 15.7% on Friday as users told of their experiences with the Ernie bot, recouping losses from a day earlier prompted by the chatbot's launch, which failed to impress. One user described on the Weibo social media platform how Ernie had answered a question about the status of Hong Kong philosopher Zhang Jinqing accurately. Analysts also said the initial disappointment the market felt from the launch was tempered by the realisation that the Chinese search engine giant was still best placed to build China's strongest rival to ChatGPT. More than 75,000 corporate users have applied for a trial of an Ernie API developed by Baidu Cloud, the Chinese company said in a video published on its official WeChat account on Friday. Reporting by Eduardo Baptista and Jason Xue; Additional reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Gerry DoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The company's Ernie bot is based off its AI-driven deep learning model, Ernie - short for "Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration". During the presentation at Baidu's Beijing headquarters that was also livestreamed over nine platforms, Li cautioned it was not perfect. "After the release of ChatGPT, only Baidu has made a benchmark product among the major tech companies in the world," it said. "We continue to advise investors to patiently hold BIDU shares as the best 'national champion' play in China’s (semi-segregated) AI space," he said. "Ernie Bot is not a tool of confrontation between China and the United States," he said.

☆ TikTok went big at SXSW and creators discussed building lasting businesses. Here are 3 takeaways that I left Austin with.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Sydney Bradley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Creators gathered at Meta's Austin, TX offices for a series of talks hosted by the Asian Creator House. Whether creators were talking about pay transparency, or startups were pitching their products as solutions, creator monetization was an ongoing conversation at SXSW. "More and more creators are being transparent as to how much they're making," said Monica Ravichandran, creator and Collective Voice staffer. At the Asian Creator House, led by Always Be Creating cofounders Justin Nguyen and Jerry Won, creator pay and business building were also top of mind. But on the brand and marketing side of SXSW, AI wasn't a potent topic, according to Influencer's Penchin.

☆ OpenAI's GPT-4 has arrived. From its accuracy to its beefed-up fight against 'evil,' here are the 5 things you need to know about how the upgraded chatbot differs from GPT-3.5.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Its viral chatbot, ChatGPT, was previously powered by GPT-3.5. On Tuesday, Microsoft said its AI-boosted Bing had been powered by a version of GPT-4 that was "customized for search." In one example given by OpenAI, the chatbot is shown describing what's funny about a group of images. The bot is said to be more accurateAccording to OpenAI, the update will give more-accurate responses to users' queries. In collaboration with users, the chatbot can produce and edit creative-writing tasks such as drafting screenplays.

March 14 (Reuters) - U.S. senators reintroduced a bipartisan bill on Tuesday that would allow nationwide sales of gasoline with a higher blend of ethanol year-round, as a second heavy-weight oil trade group appeared ready to back the idea. Year-round sales of E15 have been long sought by the biofuel industry and corn farmers, who would benefit from the increased market. The American Petroleum Institute (API), one of the largest U.S. oil trade groups, has supported the bill since it was introduced last autumn. On Tuesday, another top U.S. oil group, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), signaled it could support a national standard. In response to their request, the EPA in early March proposed to allow year-round E15 sales in those states.

Oil prices dropped alongside a continued slide in equities markets (.MIWD00000PUS). A lower rate rise could mean the dollar weakening which in turn is a bullish signal for oil prices. A stronger-than-expected U.S. consumer inflation outcome could put further downward pressure on oil prices. Meanwhile, consumer inflation in China, the world's biggest oil importer, slowed to the lowest rate in a year in February. IEA/SOn the supply side, the American Petroleum Institute is expected to release industry data on U.S. oil inventories at 1630 ET/2030 GMT.

☆ Oil prices fall as SVB collapse rocks financial markets
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Emily Chow | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ETSINGAPORE, March 14 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell more than $1 on Tuesday, extending the previous day's slide, as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank rattled equities markets and sparked fear about a fresh financial crisis. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) dropped 82 cents, or 1.1%, to $73.98 a barrel. A stronger-than-expected U.S. consumer inflation outcome would put further downward pressure on near term oil prices, National Australia Bank analysts said in a note. Beyond the Silicon Valley Bank shockwaves, oil prices were also under pressure due to signs of a weaker-than-expected economic recovery in China, despite the lifting of its strict COVID-19 restrictions, said Leon Li, an analyst at CMC Markets. In U.S. supply news, the American Petroleum Institute is expected to release industry data on U.S. oil inventories on Tuesday.

ETMarch 14 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell more than $1 on Tuesday, extending the previous day's slide, as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank rattled equities markets and sparked fear about a fresh financial crisis. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) dropped 85 cents, or 1.1%, to $73.93 a barrel. On Monday, Brent fell to its lowest since early January, while WTI dropped to its lowest since December. Beyond the Silicon Valley Bank shockwaves, oil prices were also under pressure due to signs of a weaker-than-expected economic recovery in China, despite the lifting of its strict COVID-19 restrictions, said Leon Li, an analyst at CMC Markets. In U.S. supply news, the American Petroleum Institute is expected to release industry data on U.S. oil inventories on Tuesday.

SummarySummary Companies POLL-U.S. crude stockpiles seen up, products likely downComing up: API data on U.S. stockpiles at 4:30 p.m. ETMarch 14 (Reuters) - Oil prices slipped on Tuesday, extending the previous day's slide, as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank startled equities markets and raised worries about a fresh financial crisis. A weaker dollar makes oil cheaper for holders of other currencies and typically supports oil prices. In U.S. supply news, the American Petroleum Institute is expected to release industry data on U.S. oil inventories on Tuesday. Six analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that crude inventories rose by about 600,000 barrels in the week to March 10.

☆ The CEO of AI startup Anthropic explains how his experience at OpenAI helped him develop a new chatbot that he says is 'more conversational' and creative than ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The AI company Anthropic announced Tuesday that its Claude chatbot would be available to developers. While working at OpenAI, Dario Amodei spent nearly five years helping to develop the language model powering ChatGPT. Amodei, Anthropic's CEO, says early testers have found Claude "more conversational" and creative than ChatGPT. Anthropic is launching two versions of its chatbot, dubbed Claude and Claude Instant. With constitutional AI, Claude would create and critique its outputs after reading the customer's constitution to create more predictable outcomes.

☆ 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.

☆ OpenAI announces smarter AI model called GPT-4, claims it does better on the SAT than 90% of test takers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

OpenAI announced the latest version of its primary large language model, GPT-4, on Tuesday, that it says exhibits "human-level performance" on many professional tests. OpenAI said it used Microsoft Azure to train the model; Microsoft has invested billions in the startup. Bing's AI chatbot uses GPT-4, Microsoft said on Tuesday. GPT-4 performed at the 90th percentile on a simulated bar exam, the 93rd percentile on an SAT reading exam, and the 89th percentile on the SAT Math exam, OpenAI claimed. OpenAI will charge about 3 cents for about 750 words of prompts and 6 cents for about 750 words in response.

☆ The new normal on Twitter: watching it break
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

When he would check his notifications tab on Twitter, Sinker, who has tens of thousands of followers, often saw the platform recommend the same weeks-old tweet from another user. Probably, but it becomes a less sure thing with each bit that falls off,” Sinker, a writer who has been on Twitter since 2007, told CNN. But in trying to cut his way to profitability, Musk risks making Twitter a less viable service. Weeks earlier, Twitter users encountered other various issues with the platform, including the inability to tweet, send direct messages or follow new accounts. After some publications pointed out the sudden surge in Musk posts in users’ feeds last month, the Twitter CEO responded: “Please stay tuned while we make adjustments.”

☆ Elon Musk is behaving 'like the local drunk,' says a former Twitter executive
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A former Twitter exec told i News that Elon Musk was behaving "like the local drunk." "The more Musk behaves like the local drunk – getting into slanging matches with disabled ex-employees – the less current employees will be proud to say they work there," Daisley told i News. Just a week after taking control of Twitter, Musk laid off around half of its workers. "It's a little bit like the character in the cartoon who runs off the cliff but doesn't fall straight away," Daisley told i News. Under Musk, Twitter has become "a pressure cooker," an employee who still works at the company and who spoke on the condition of anonymity told i News.

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