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☆ Oil extends losses as rate hike concerns spur sell-off
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Ahmad Ghaddar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slipped $1.11, or 1.4%, to $76.47 a barrel. "[We] expect the continued recovery in civil aviation demand in China and neighboring countries, a stabilisation in industrial activity and slower non-OPEC+ supply growth to drive the oil market balance into a deficit later this year," the bank added. Data from the API showed U.S. crude inventories fell by about 3.8 million barrels in the week ended March 3, according to market sources. The drawdown defied forecasts for a 400,000 barrel rise in crude stocks from nine analysts polled by Reuters. Meanwhile, gasoline inventories rose by about 1.8 million barrels, while distillate stocks rose by about 1.9 million barrels, according to the sources.

☆ Oil extends declines on rate hike concerns
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Jeslyn Lerh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Data from the American Petroleum Institute showed U.S. crude inventories fell by about 3.8 million barrels in the week ended March 3, according to market sources. The drawdown defied forecasts for a 400,000 barrel rise in crude stocks from nine analysts polled by Reuters. Meanwhile, gasoline inventories rose by about 1.8 million barrels, while distillate stocks rose by about 1.9 million barrels, according to the sources. Powell's comments had propelled the U.S. dollar, which typically trades inversely with oil, to hit a three-month high against a basket of currencies. The dollar index =USD rose as high as 105.65, up 1.3% on Tuesday and the highest since Dec. 6.

Brent crude futures rose 18 cents, or 0.2%, to $83.47 per barrel by 0452 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 4 cents to $77.62 a barrel. Data from the American Petroleum Institute showed U.S. crude inventories fell by about 3.8 million barrels in the week ended March 3, according to market sources. The drawdown defied forecasts for a 400,000 barrel rise in crude stocks from nine analysts polled by Reuters. Traders were awaiting crude inventory data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration later on Wednesday, after the API data showed a decline in crude inventories for the first time after a 10-week build, she added. Powell's comments propelled the U.S. dollar, which typically trades inversely with oil, to hit a three-month high against a basket of currencies.

☆ Oil stabilises as surprise US crude draw offsets rate hike jitters
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Laila Kearney | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Brent crude futures for April gained 8 cents to $83.37 per barrel by 0120 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures lost 4 cents to $77.54 a barrel. Supporting the market on Wednesday, data from the American Petroleum Institute showed U.S. crude inventories fell by about 3.8 million barrels in the week ended March 3, according to market sources. The drawdown defied forecasts for a 400,000 barrel rise in crude stocks from nine analysts polled by Reuters. Gasoline inventories rose by about 1.8 million barrels, while distillate stocks rose by about 1.9 million barrels, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

☆ A startup raised $79 million for its open smart-locker network. Check out the pitch deck it used to raise the funds.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Maybrit Martschin | Nathan Rennolds | Business Insider Deutschland | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Myflexbox is an Austrian startup that offers a smart-locker network. The company uses an open API to connect operating systems from different delivery providers. Insider has an exclusive copy of the pitch deck it used to raise 75 million euros. To help them achieve this, the founders recently secured 75 million euros, or about $79 million, in new funding. Insider has an exclusive copy of the pitch deck it used to raise the funds.

☆ Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck that Y Combinator alum Opkit, a health insurance verification startup, used to raise funding from investors like Plaid CEO Zach Perret's VC firm
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Opkit is a startup that helps telehealth companies verify and process patient health insurance. Software engineers Sherwood Callaway and Justin Ko first met as early employees at the fintech startup Brex and became fast friends. As more telehealth companies were popping up after the pandemic, they often had issues with quickly processing patient health insurance for care, Callaway told Insider. Opkit also offers providers an insurance dashboard, that allows telehealth employees to perform eligibility checks or inquiries to insurance companies about specific patients' plans. "Opkit was our first experience doing venture fundraising, and Y Combinator really helped us make connections with investors," said Callaway.

☆ Twitter's latest outage was reportedly caused by a single engineer's mistake. One employee says the platform is so brittle, 'everything breaks' if engineers change something.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A mistake by a single Twitter engineer prompted Monday's service outage, Platformer reported. Twitter owner Elon Musk has cut thousands from Twitter's headcount since acquiring the company. In a reply to investor Marc Andreessen, Musk said: "A small API change had massive ramifications. Musk has cut thousands from Twitter's headcount since completing his acquisition of the company in October. Twitter insiders previously told Insider's Kali Hays that although a complete failure of Twitter was unlikely, technical issues could pile up to the point that the site could no longer function reliably.

☆ A Twitter employee says staff have grown 'numb' to outages because they've become 'so frequent'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter staff have grown "numb" to outages because they're "so frequent," an employee told Platformer. In a report published late Monday, Platformer quoted a current Twitter employee as saying: "This type of outage has become so frequent that I think we're all numb to it." A current employee told the news outlet that the engineer made a "bad configuration change" that "basically broke the Twitter API." The mistake took out many of Twitter's internal tools as well as the company's API, leaving owner Elon Musk furious, per the report. A former employee told Insider in November that with so few employees left to share critical work, "Twitter is done."

☆ London fintech Griffin lands UK banking license with restrictions after years-long process as it eyes fresh funding in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

British fintech startup Griffin has secured a banking license after a years-long process. The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has approved the startup, subject to restrictions. Banking-as-a-service startup Griffin has become the latest fintech to land a UK banking license with restrictions after a years-long process. Securing a UK banking license is no mean feat. Neobanks like Revolut, founded in 2015, haven't yet managed to get a UK banking license with stringent processes in place, with Jarvis suggesting that the application process isn't something "you can just throw money at."

☆ Twitter links inaccessible in outage impacting thousands
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 6 (Reuters) - Thousands of Twitter users on Monday reported problems with accessing links from the Elon Musk-headed social media platform and other websites, an issue the company said it was working to resolve. We're working on this now and will share an update when it's fixed," Twitter said. loadingThere were more than 8,000 incidents of people reporting issues with the social media platform, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from a number of sources including user-submitted errors on its platform. "This suggests Twitter has not been effectively testing its updates before pushing them to the public." Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini GanguliOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Developers are turning to GitHub Copilot, a ChatGPT-like tool that helps them write code. One startup VP says it helped him save 10% of the time he'd spend coding.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

GitHub Copilot, launched in 2021, uses generative AI to help programmers write code. Codex is the basis for GitHub Copilot, a tool that functions as a sort of autocomplete for software engineers. At a recent event in San Francisco, he compared using Copilot to a lottery experience. In other words, if developers don't already understand what they're looking for, they'll quickly get stuck using Copilot. "Sure, you could create a basic iOS app with Copilot," Ghazanfar said.

☆ Twitter hit by another outage as Musk complains platform is ‘so brittle’
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Outage tracker site DownDetector showed more than 8,000 Twitter outage reports around noon on Monday. For users who were able to access the platform, “Twitter API” was trending as people tweeted about the issues. We’re working on this now and will share an update when it’s fixed.”In a separate tweet on Monday, Musk said: “This platform is so brittle (sigh). Other users were met with a “Welcome to Twitter!” message as if they had just joined the platform. Three weeks ago, Twitter users encountered various issues with the platform, including the inability to tweet, send direct messages or follow new accounts.

☆ Twitter breaks after 'internal change' had 'unintended consequences'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter showed an error code when users attempted to click external links and images. ET, the external links appeared to be working again for some Twitter users. Twitter showed users an error code when they tried to access outside websites on Monday. ET, the external links appeared to be working for some Twitter users. Downdetector showed a spike in people reporting problems with the app and "Twitter API" was trending on Monday afternoon.

☆ Reid Hoffman steps down from OpenAI board to avoid potential conflicts of interest
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

LinkedIn founder and Greylock partner Reid Hoffman is leaving the nonprofit board of OpenAI, he announced in a post on Friday. Hoffman cited a desire to invest in companies using OpenAI's software, which could cause a conflict of interest, he said in the post. To be clear, since the start, OpenAI and its board has been very careful to monitor and avoid any conflicts to date," Hoffman wrote. Earlier this week, it said it would charge companies using its AI about one-fifth of one cent to produce about 750 words. Previously, Tesla CEO Elon Musk left OpenAI's board in 2018.

☆ Instacart Joins ChatGPT Frenzy, Adding Chatbot To Grocery Shopping App
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Angus Loten | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Instacart’s new search tool, “Ask Instacart,” will tap data from more than 1.5 million products stocked by some 75,000 grocery stores, said JJ Zhuang, the company’s chief architect. Mr. Zhuang described the software integration as “experimenting with what’s possible” using ChatGPT on Instacart’s app. OpenAI, a San Francisco-based software startup launched in 2015, has sought to expand its reach by easing the process of integrating ChatGPT software with outside apps. Microsoft Corp. , an OpenAI investor, last month added ChatGPT technology to its Bing search engine. Mr. Brockman said it is important for companies to consider the stakes involved in the way they plan to use ChatGPT technology.

☆ Why you’re about to see ChatGPT in more of your apps
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

OpenAI is opening up access to its ChatGPT tool to third-party businesses, paving the way for the viral AI chatbot to be integrated into numerous apps and services. Instacart, Snap and tutor app Quizlet are among the early partners experimenting with adding ChatGPT. The initial batch of companies tapping into OpenAI’s API each have slightly different visions for how to incorporate ChatGPT. Dating website OkCupid has already experimented with using ChatGPT to write matching questions. Some school systems, such as in New York and Seattle, banned the use of ChatGPT in the classroom over concerns about students cheating.

☆ Oil prices rise as China factory gains boost demand outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Erwin Seba | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Brent crude oil for May was up 24 cents, 0.3%, to 83.69 a barrel at 0214 GMT. Oil prices continue to be supported by expectations for a strong rebound in demand in China, the world's second-largest crude consumer. U.S. oil inventories rose by 6.2 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 24, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute (API) figures on Tuesday. Still, gasoline inventories declined by 1.8 million barrels and distillate fuels, including diesel and jet fuel, dropped by 340,000 barrels, according to the API data. In February, OPEC pumped 28.97 million barrels per day (bpd), a Reuters survey found, up by 150,000 bpd from January.

☆ It's not just you: Cybercriminals are also using ChatGPT to make their jobs easier
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

ChatGPT can quickly generate targeted phishing emails or malicious code for malware attacks. AI companies could be held liable for chatbots counseling criminals since Section 230 may not apply. Sergey Shykevich, a lead ChatGPT researcher at cybersecurity company Checkpoint security, has already seen cybercriminals harness the AI's power to create code that can be used in a ransomware attack. In dealing with unlawful or criminal content on their sites from third-party users, most tech companies cite Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. In addition, ChatGPT continues to implement guardrails to deter illegal activity, although these guardrails can often be sidestepped with the right script.

☆ This HR startup just raised $40 million in a round led by General Catalyst and Menlo Ventures. Check out the 12-slide pitch deck Finch used to raise the funds.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The startup's API works to collect employment data from fragmented sources for companies. Check out the 12-slide pitch deck Finch used to raise the Series B round. A startup that aims to streamline HR functions like onboarding and payroll has raised $40 million in fresh funds. San Francisco-based Finch, founded in 2020, provides APIs in a bid to simplify the fragmented world of employment data. The Series B funding round was led by General Catalyst and Menlo Ventures, who led Finch's Series A round in June 2022.

☆ Twitter will reserve text-message authentication for Twitter Blue subscribers because it's being 'abused' by 'bad actors'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Twitter said only Twitter Blue subscribers can use text messages to secure accounts from March 20. Text message two-factor authentication was being "abused" by "bad actors," the company said. A Twitter Blue subscription costs $11 a month on Android or iOS. It believed that text-based two-factor authentication was being "abused" by "bad actors," according to a blog post published Wednesday and shared in Twitter's latest announcement. Shortly after Elon Musk's takeover last October, it introduced Twitter Blue, which allows users to pay for the blue checkmarks previously reserved to high-profile figures.

SummarySummary Companies API shows U.S. crude stocks rise - market sourcesOPEC raises 2023 oil demand growth forecastFeb 15 (Reuters) - Oil prices extends losses on Wednesday as a much bigger-than-expected surge in the U.S. crude inventories and expectations of further interest rate hikes sparked concerns over the prospect of weaker fuel demand and economic recession. U.S. crude inventories rose by about 10.5 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 10, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute (API) figures on Tuesday. Gasoline stocks rose by about 846,000 barrels, while distillate stocks rose by about 1.7 million barrels, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The API data put mounting pressure on the oil market as this would be the eighth week of stocks building ... Tepid demand in the U.S. market would continue to depress oil prices in the near term," said analysts from Haitong Futures. Global oil demand will rise this year by 2.32 million barrels per day (bpd), or 2.3%, OPEC said, raising the forecast from February by 100,000 bpd.

☆ More than half of Twitter’s top 1,000 advertisers stopped spending on platform, data show
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Some 625 of the top 1,000 Twitter advertisers, including major brands such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, Jeep, Wells Fargo and Merck, had pulled their ad dollars as of January, according to estimates from Pathmatics, based on data running through January 25. As a result of the pullback, monthly revenue from Twitter’s top 1,000 advertisers plummeted by more than 60% from October through January 25, from around $127 million to just over $48 million, according to the data. After initially clashing with advertisers, Musk now appears to be trying to woo them back to the platform. Some advertisers also complained that the Twitter employees they previously worked with had been terminated by Musk, causing confusion. Even among the top advertisers that remain, many have dramatically reduced their ad spending on the platform, according to Pathmatics data.

☆ Elon Musk pledged transparency at Twitter. But he’s walling off researchers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

But Twitter’s changes erecting a paywall for API access may jeopardize all that, Tromble and other researchers said. Undermining the fight against botsMusk has framed Twitter’s API restrictions as part of his wider effort to stamp out spammy, automated accounts. Ironically, however, Musk’s looming changes to the Twitter API might make it harder to study bot behavior on Twitter. API access has provided a critical resource for that work. “The researchers who were signed up to the program have heard nothing from the company in months, since Musk’s acquisition.”Adding to Twitter’s scrutiny by regulatorsBeyond the immediate impact to researchers, Twitter’s transparency issues could land the company in hot water with policymakers.

☆ Twitter suffers 'massive outage' under Elon Musk leaving users unable to tweet, message and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Twitter users on Wednesday were suddenly unable to tweet, direct message, or use other features. The ability to tweet, retweet, quote tweet and direct message on Twitter, each core functions of the platform, stopped for many users on Wednesday. By Wednesday afternoon Pacific Time, tweeting and likes were functioning again for many users, while the ability to direct message and retweet was still out. Fortune reported that Musk message earlier on Wednesday. A former Twitter executive previously told Insider how Twitter was likely to degrade over time, not simply implode all at once.

☆ Twitter says low-level use of its API will cost $100 per month. The announcement comes after it blocked the use of apps like Tweetbot and Twitterrific.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter has announced a $100 monthly charge for low-level use of its API. Last week, Twitter's CEO Elon Musk proposed a charge but did not specify the level of usage. The official announcement comes after Twitter blocked the use of apps like Tweetbot and Twitterific. Last week, Twitter's CEO Elon Musk floated the $100 monthly charge for API access, saying the interface was being "abused badly" by "bot scammers & opinion manipulators." Popular third-party services, including Tweetbot and Twitterrific, relied on the use of Twitter's API.

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