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☆ Yellen warns of 'economic chaos' unless Congress raises the debt ceiling
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen holds a press conference at the US Treasury Department in Washington, DC, on April 11, 2023. "Our current projection is that in early June, a day will come when we're unable to pay our bills unless Congress raises the debt ceiling, and it's something I strongly urge Congress to do," Yellen told ABC's "This Week." Yellen said the U.S. has already been using "extraordinary measures" to avoid default, and it's not something the Treasury Department can continue to do. Lawmakers have been trying to find a path forward to raise or suspend the debt ceiling, which would enable the U.S. to pay its bills on time. But for Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., the meeting about the debt ceiling should have happened much sooner.

☆ Threat of TikTok ban has creators scrambling to build followings on Instagram, YouTube
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Politicians have been threatening a nationwide TikTok ban unless ByteDance sells its stake in the app, a move China said it "strongly" opposed. "That's the power of TikTok," Spangler said, adding that the app drives the majority of sales for his business, The Good Chad. Olivier Douliery | Afp | Getty ImagesIn April, Montana legislators approved a bill that would ban TikTok from being offered in the state starting next year. Creators are turning to other platformsVivian Tu, who lives in Miami, has been preparing for a possible TikTok ban by working to build her audience and diversify her content across multiple platforms. With the looming threat of a TikTok ban, Foster said she's been sharing content across Instagram, YouTube and Twitter to try to expand her following.

☆ Unity to lay off 600 employees, or 8% of its workforce
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Unity CEO John Riccitiello speaks onstage during Day 1 of TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018 at Moscone Center on September 5, 2018 in San Francisco, California. Unity Software announced plans to cut about 600 jobs, or 8% of its workforce, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday. Unity went public in 2020 pricing shares at $52 apiece, initially valuing the company at $13.7 billion. Unity eliminated 284 jobs in January and around 225 jobs in June of last year, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. In January, Google revealed plans to lay off more than 12,000 workers, Microsoft disclosed plans to cut 10,000 employees and Salesforce announced plans to lay off 7,000 workers.

☆ Kamala Harris to discuss A.I. in meeting with Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic CEOs
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with the chief executives of Google , Microsoft , OpenAI and Anthropic Thursday to discuss the responsible development of artificial intelligence, the White House confirmed to CNBC Tuesday. Harris will address the need for safeguards that can mitigate AI's potential risks and emphasize the importance of ethical and trustworthy innovation, the White House said. Generative AI has exploded into public consciousness after OpenAI released its viral new chatbot called ChatGPT late last year. In the months since, Microsoft has been integrating OpenAI's generative technology across many of its products as part of its multi-year, multi-billion-dollar investment in the company. While many experts are optimistic about the potential of generative AI, the technology has also inspired questions and concerns from regulators and tech industry giants.

☆ Uber revenue beats expectations and the stock is up
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Shares of Uber popped 9% in premarket trading Tuesday after the company reported first-quarter results that beat analysts' expectations for revenue. Here's how the company did:Loss per share: 8 cent loss vs 9 cent loss expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv. 8 cent loss vs 9 cent loss expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv. Revenue: $8.82 billion vs. $8.72 billion expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv. Uber reported a net loss of $5.9 billion for the same quarter last year.

☆ Scientists develop A.I. system focused on turning peoples' thoughts into text
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The researchers trained their semantic decoder on dozens of hours of brain activity data from participants, collected in an fMRI scanner. Scientists have developed a noninvasive AI system focused on translating a person's brain activity into a stream of text, according to a peer-reviewed study published Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience . PH.D. STUDENT JERRY TANG PREPARES TO COLLECT BRAIN ACTIVITY DATA IN THE BIOMEDICAL IMAGING CENTER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN. Once the AI system is trained, it can generate a stream of text when the participant is listening to or imagines telling a new story. According to a news release, the trained system produces text that closely or precisely matches the intended meaning of the participant's original words around half of the time.

☆ NYPD asks people to put Apple AirTags in their cars to help find stolen vehicles
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and his police department have asked residents to help fight vehicle theft in the city by placing Apple AirTags in their cars. The New York City Police Department shared a video Sunday demonstrating how residents can use an AirTag to protect their vehicles. "AirTags in your car will help us recover your vehicle if it's stolen," the NYPD tweet said. "We'll use our drones, our StarChase technology & good old fashion police work to safely recover your stolen car. Adams said Sunday that AirTags are an "excellent" tracking device that he believes will help slow rates of car theft in the city.

☆ Charlie Munger reportedly warns of trouble for the U.S. commercial property market
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Charlie Munger believes there is trouble ahead for the U.S. commercial property market. The 99-year-old investor told the Financial Times that U.S. banks are packed with "bad loans" that will be vulnerable as "bad times come" and property prices fall. "It's not nearly as bad as it was in 2008," he told the Financial Times in an interview. "We have a lot of troubled office buildings, a lot of troubled shopping centers, a lot of troubled other properties. Read the complete Financial Times interview here.

☆ Jack Dorsey criticizes Elon Musk’s leadership at Twitter: ‘It all went south’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter's former CEO Jack Dorsey openly criticized Elon Musk's leadership of the company in a series of social media posts Friday, writing that "it all went south" and Musk "should have walked away" from the acquisition. Users of Bluesky, a buzzy new social media platform that is being touted as a potential alternative to Twitter, prompted the discussion. They asked Dorsey if he believed Musk was the right leader for Twitter, to which Dorsey replied, "No." He added that he is glad new social media platforms like Bluesky are being built. In a tweet from April 2022, Dorsey said he trusted Musk's "mission to extend the light of consciousness" through the platform.

☆ ChatGPT users can now turn off their chat history, OpenAI announces
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

OpenAI began rolling out new controls Tuesday that will allow ChatGPT users to turn off their chat history. Any conversations that take place while chat history is disabled will not be used to train OpenAI's models or appear in the "history" sidebar, the company wrote in a blog post. "We hope this provides an easier way to manage your data than our existing opt-out process," OpenAI wrote in the post. The company added that users can change their chat history settings at any time. OpenAI also announced a new option Tuesday that will make it easier for users to export their conversations and learn which information is stored in ChatGPT.

Jeff Shell left his role as NBCUniversal CEO on Sunday after he admitted an "inappropriate relationship" with a woman in the comany, corporate parent Comcast announced. The complaint was filed by the woman with whom Shell said he had an "inappropriate relationship," according to people familiar with the matter. Roberts will also get more involved with the NBCUniversal business alongside Cavanagh, the person said. He oversaw the company's theme parks, its Peacock streaming service, sports production operations, television stations group, and entertainment and news television networks like NBC News. Before taking the helm as CEO, Shell was chairman of NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment.

☆ A.I. takes center stage at HIMSS health conference
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

HIMSS conference attendees walk the exhibition floor Source: HIMSSDebates over artificial intelligence and its role in health care took center stage at the HIMSS Global Health Conference in Chicago this week, where more than 35,000 physicians, executives, engineers and health-care workers convened to discuss the latest advancements in health and technology. Generative AI refers to programs that can use fairly complicated prompts from end users to generate text or images. Just as generative AI has captured the attention of the general public, it has also captivated the medical community. HIMSS attendees told CNBC they believe generative AI can help with these tasks. More than 35,000 people attended the HIMSS conference in 2023 Source: HIMSS

☆ Shares of Roblox fall 12% after company releases March update
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Shares of Roblox tumbled 12% on Monday after the gaming company released its March 2023 metrics report that showed it expects average bookings per daily user to fall year over year. Estimated bookings were between $247 million and $255 million for the month, up 23% to 27% year over year. Roblox calls its revenue figure bookings. Roblox also said it will stop releasing monthly key metrics reports. Shares of Roblox are up more than 60% year to date.

☆ Apple launches its savings account with 4.15% interest rate
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Apple on Monday launched its Apple Card savings account with a 4.15% annual percentage yield. It requires no minimum deposit or balance, Apple said, and users can set up an account from the Wallet app on their iPhones. The company said in a press release that all Daily Cash rewards earned through the Apple Card will automatically be deposited to the savings account. CIT Bank offers a savings account with a 4.75% APY when customers deposit a minimum balance of $5,000. Apple Card savings users can manage their accounts through a dashboard that will appear in the Wallet app, where they can track their interest and their account balance or withdraw funds.

☆ Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reportedly has been claiming thousands of dollars annually from a shuttered real estate firm
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas arrives for the swearing in ceremony of Judge Neil Gorsuch as an Associate Supreme Court Justice in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, April 10, 2017. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reported on financial disclosure forms that his family has earned thousands of dollars in rental income from a Nebraska real estate firm that has been shuttered since 2006, according to a report by the Washington Post Sunday. Thomas has reported income from a firm called Ginger, Ltd., Partnership over the last two decades, but in 2006 it was shut down and replaced by a new firm, the report said. In recent years, Thomas reportedly continued to disclose between $50,000 and $100,000 in income from the old firm annually. ProPublica later reported that Crow bought property from Thomas as well, which the justice also failed to disclose.

☆ Fox News apologizes to judge in defamation case for failing to disclose Rupert Murdoch's role at the network
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Fox News apologized to the Delaware judge presiding over the Dominion Voting Systems' lawsuit for failing to properly define Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch's formal role at the network, according to a letter filed with the court. "We understand the Court's concerns, apologize, and are committed to clear and full communication with the Court moving forward," Fox attorney Blake Rohrbacher wrote in the letter Friday. Dominion Voting Systems brought its defamation lawsuit against Fox and its TV networks, Fox News and Fox Business, in March 2021, arguing its hosts pushed false claims that Dominion's voting machines were rigged in the 2020 presidential election that saw President Joe Biden triumph over former President Donald Trump. Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis expressed frustration with the network Tuesday for its failure to accurately disclose Murdoch's leadership role there. Fox lawyers had repeatedly claimed Murdoch did not have an official title at Fox News, only to later reveal that he serves as the Fox News Executive Chair.

NPR said Wednesday it will stop sharing content on Twitter after the social media company labeled NPR "state-affiliated media," a term also used for Russia- and China-based propaganda outlets. NPR was surprised by Twitter's decision to label the company "state-affiliated media," according to a report by the outlet. NPR CEO John Lansing told his employees that NPR "will not immediately return to the platform" even if Twitter drops the designation. He stripped the news organization's verification checkmark shortly thereafter, citing the company's refusal to pay for the platform's revamped Twitter Blue subscription service. Twitter relaunched its updated Twitter Blue subscription service in December after Musk pulled and delayed the launch in November.

☆ Google TV gets 800 free channels
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Google announced that starting Tuesday it's adding more than 800 free channels to its Google TV app on the Chromecast streaming device and select TVs made by Sony, CL, Hisense and Philips. Google's aggregation of several existing free TV services like Fox's Tubi, Paramount Global's Pluto TV and Haystack News is a move to differentiate its streaming operating interface from competitors, including Roku , Apple and Amazon . The Alphabet unit said it is integrating free channels into the "Live" tab where users will see content from channels like NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX. The service is launching in the U.S. on all Google TV devices. Eligible Android TV devices will be able to access the new TV guide and free channels later this year.

☆ Tesla to open a new Megafactory in Shanghai, China, company says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Tesla will open a new Megafactory in Shanghai, China, that is capable of producing 10,000 Megapacks a year, the company announced in a tweet Sunday. A Megapack is a very large battery that stores energy, helps stabilize the power grid and prevents outages. Tesla currently has a Megafactory in Lathrop, California, that is capable of producing 10,000 Megapacks units each year, according to the company's website. In a tweet Sunday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the factory in China will supplement output from the factory in California. Tesla and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

☆ EPA reportedly planning to announce significant limits on tailpipe emissions to boost electric vehicle adoption
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Under the proposed limits, electric cars will represent between 54% and 60% of new cars sold in the U.S. by 2030, and between 64% to 67% of new cars by 2032, the Times report said. These limits would also surpass President Joe Biden's previous goal to have all-electric cars make up around 50% of cars sold by 2030. Many automakers have already begun to make significant investments in electric vehicles, but forcing such rapid adoption of the technology will present challenges. Large numbers of all-electric cars will require expansive charging infrastructure, for instance. Even if the infrastructure is in place, consumers ultimately have to be willing to adopt electric vehicles, which means companies will also have to be able to maintain reasonable vehicle costs.

☆ Mark Zuckerberg is spending most of his time on A.I., says Meta CTO
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Mark Zuckerberg told the world in Oct. 2021 that he was rebranding Facebook to Meta as the company pushes toward the metaverse. Meta has its own large language model called LLaMa that it said in February it would release to researchers. Large language models power applications like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft Bing AI, and Google's Bard. Bosworth told Nikkei that he expects the company will debut some commercial applications using AI this year, and it could help the company's profit-driving ad business. Still, Bosworth told Nikkei that Meta could also use AI in the metaverse.

☆ Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announces 2024 presidential bid, says Trump should drop out of race
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Asa Hutchinson is running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, he announced Sunday. Trump's indictment marked a "sad day for America," Hutchinson said, but it is also a "great distraction." Hutchinson served as governor of Arkansas since 2015, and he has been positioning himself as an alternative to Trump. Since Trump's indictment Thursday, Hutchinson has been firm about his calls for Trump to drop out of the primary. He was also a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas.

☆ Starbucks fired the employee responsible for igniting the Starbucks Workers United union campaign
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Starbucks fired Alexis Rizzo, the employee responsible for igniting the Starbucks Workers United union campaign, just days after the company's former CEO Howard Schultz testified on Capitol Hill about the coffee chain's alleged union-busting, CNBC confirmed. Starbucks Workers United announced Rizzo's termination in a tweet Saturday and said in a corresponding GoFundMe page that "this is retaliation at its worst." It was like my family," Rizzo told CNBC in an interview. Schultz faced a volley of tough questions from Sen. Bernie Sanders Wednesday about Starbucks' labor and union practices. Nearly 300 Starbucks cafes have voted to unionize under Starbucks Workers United, according to data from the National Labor Relations Board.

☆ Ramifications of SVB failure on Fed turned out positive for the stock market, Cramer says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Thanks to the Federal Reserve, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has ended up breaking positive for the stock market, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Wednesday. "When you go through all the ramifications of the SVB failure, they actually end up breaking positive, not negative, for the stock market — all because of the Federal Reserve," Cramer said. As a result, he said investors have turned to the Wall Street playbook on what to buy when there's an economic slowdown without inflation: tech stocks. This market may be mindless, but it's got muscle memory that says you reach for tech in a slowdown," Cramer said. "The Silicon Valley Bank fiasco was just the oxygen the tech bull needed to snap out of its funk and get back to work."

☆ Disney cuts metaverse division under Iger's restructuring
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Disney is cutting its metaverse division as part of the layoffs set to begin this week, CNBC has confirmed. Disney, like most companies in 2021, hopped on the metaverse hype train after Facebook changed its name to Meta and outlined bold claims to create a new digital world. Chapek told employees in a memo at the time that White's task was "connecting the physical and digital worlds" for Disney entertainment. The cuts in the metaverse division were first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The job cuts will be cross-company, hitting Disney's media and distribution division, parks and resorts, and ESPN.

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