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☆ Salesforce launches AI assistant across its apps including Slack and Tableau
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The company logo for Salesforce.com is displayed on the Salesforce Tower in New York City, U.S., March 7, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsSept 12 (Reuters) - Enterprise software maker Salesforce (CRM.N) on Tuesday launched a generative AI tool that would be available across its suite of apps from instant messaging service Slack to data visualization tool Tableau and can be tailored by its clients to meet their needs. Salesforce says its Einstein Copilot can tap customer and enterprise data available on its Data Cloud to generate appropriate responses. Users will be able to embed the assistant into their websites or integrate them with messaging platforms such as Slack and Meta Platform's (META.O) WhatsApp. The company also doubled its venture capital fund for generative AI startups to $500 million in June.

Persons: Brendan McDermid, Slack, Einstein, Salesforce, Marc Benioff, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Zaheer Kachwala, Tasim Zahid Organizations: REUTERS, Enterprise, Tuesday, Meta, Microsoft, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S, San Francisco, Bengaluru

☆ Apple's iPhone 15 launch clouded by China problems
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The iPhone made up more than half of Apple's $394.3 billion in sales last year, but it faces new challenges with selling in China, the Cupertino, California firm's third-largest market. Huawei wants to gain an edge on Apple with add-on features like satellite calling that relies on China's government-backed network. Apple's current iPhone lineup includes satellite capabilities, though they are meant only for emergency situations. "The truth of the matter is, we're in a very down smartphone market," said Bob O'Donnell, head of TECHnalysis Research. Reporting by Stephen Nellis in Cupertino, California; Editing by Peter Henderson and Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Apple, Ben Bajarin, Bob O'Donnell, O'Donnell, Tim Cook's, Siri, Stephen Nellis, Peter Henderson, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: Apple, REUTERS, Rights, Huawei Technologies, Huawei, iPhones, Apple Watch, Creative, Counterpoint Research, TECHnalysis Research, Thomson Locations: Rights CUPERTINO , California, China, Cupertino , California

☆ Citi says favorable setup for this Big Tech stock should send it higher in the next 90 days
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Hakyung Kim | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

There's a "rich" catalyst path ahead for Microsoft shares, according to Citi. The firm initiated a positive 90-day catalyst watch on Microsoft shares. While the tech giant's stock is up nearly 40% year to date, it has lagged on a relative basis since it issued disappointing quarterly revenue guidance in July. Microsoft shares have declined 5% since, while other shares in its peer group have gained 4.9%. Radke's initial read on fiscal first-quarter earnings is more positive owing to inputs on cloud consumption trends and stabilization in the PC market.

Persons: Tyler Radke, Radke, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Microsoft, Citi, CoPilot

☆ Jim Cramer says this Big Tech stock has more room to run on the AI craze
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Microsoft (MSFT) edged higher Monday after Citigroup opened a "90-day positive catalyst watch" on the stock, citing its potential around artificial intelligence. The firm reiterated its buy rating and $420 apiece price target, contending that the Big Tech name will be "trading higher into year end with a rich catalyst path ahead." If you like this story, sign up for Jim Cramer's Top 10 Morning Thoughts on the Market email newsletter for free. "They've got a real AI product. That is definitely, as Citi says, 'a rich catalyst.'"

Persons: Jim Cramer's, CNBC's Jim Cramer, Cramer, They've Organizations: Microsoft, Citigroup, Big Tech, Trust, CNBC, Citi

☆ An auto strike looks likely. Should I buy a car now?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-10 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —If you’re thinking about buying a new car, you might be warily watching news about a possible United Auto Workers strike. It depends on the vehicle you’re shopping for and on your own level of flexibility in that choice. New vehicle inventories are leaner than they’ve been before past strikes, said Pat Ryan, CEO of the car shopping site CoPilot, which closely tracks dealership inventories. So vehicle production at Mexican and Canadian factories could well shut down at some point if a strike drags on. In some ways, you might find this all somewhat similar to car shopping during the era of post-covid vehicle shortages, said Ryan.

Persons: Pat Ryan, —, “ They’ve, ” Ryan, Stellantis, Ryan, that’s, ”, Ivan Drury, Michelle Krebs, Thomas Goldsby, Stellantis’s, GM’s, “, you’re Organizations: CNN, United Auto Workers, Motors, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Chevrolet, GM, Dodge, GMC, Edmunds.com, AutoTrader, Ford Bronco, UAW, University of Tennessee, Factories, Chevrolet Trailblazer, Trax, Auto Locations: American, Mexico, Canada, United States, North America, South Korea, Italy, China

☆ Virgin Galactic launches three paying customers to space
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Virgin Galactic notched its third commercial spaceflight, launching three paying customers on a roughly 90-minute flight that briefly touched the edge of space. Also on board were two Virgin Galactic pilots, commander Nicola Pecile and Michael Masucci. Virgin Galactic stock has shed more than 30% of its value over the past month despite the company’s recent successes. On its first commercial launch, Virgin Galactic carried members of the Italian air force and an Italian engineer on a science research mission. All told, Virgin Galactic has sold about 800 tickets, including 600 at earlier price points up to $250,000 and, more recently, another couple hundred at $450,000 per ticket.

Persons: Virgin Galactic’s, Ken Baxter, Timothy Nash, Adrian Reynard, Nicola Pecile, Michael Masucci, Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, Michael Colglazier, Jeff Bezos, Jon Goodwin, Baxter, “ I’ve, Sir Richard, ”, Ken Baxter's Organizations: CNN, Virgin Galactic, Virgin, VSS Unity, America Locations: Vegas, British, South Africa, United Kingdom, New Mexico, Texas, Italian, Antigua

☆ Microsoft to defend customers on AI copyright challenges
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Sept 7 (Reuters) - Microsoft (MSFT.O) will pay legal damages on behalf of customers using its artificial intelligence (AI) products if they are sued for copyright infringement for the output generated by such systems, the company said on Thursday. Microsoft will assume responsibility for the potential legal risks arising out of any claims raised by third parties so long as the company's customers use "the guardrails and content filters" built into its products, the company said. It offers functionality meant to reduce the likelihood that the AI returns infringing content. The company's Copilot Copyright Commitment extends Microsoft's existing intellectual property indemnification coverage to copyright claims relating to the use of its AI-powered assistants called Copilots and Bing Chat Enterprise. Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh KuberOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: OpenAI, Yuvraj Malik, Shailesh Organizations: Microsoft, Bing, Thomson Locations: ChatGPT, Bengaluru

☆ Helicopter pilot Capt. Larry Taylor receives Medal of Honor for daring rescue during Vietnam War
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( Haley Britzky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Now, 55 years after that harrowing evening in Vietnam, Taylor received the Medal of Honor – the nation’s highest military award – from President Joe Biden at the White House on Tuesday for his heroism. Larry L. Taylor assumed command of one of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment's combat engineer companies in Nuremberg, West Germany. Within two minutes, Hill said, Taylor and his co-pilot had strapped in and taken off, heading towards Hill and his men. On his last try, he learned that any attempt to save the men had been called off, the rescue helicopter was not coming. “I think about 90% of flying a helicopter in Vietnam was making it up as you go along,” he said.

Persons: Larry Taylor, Taylor, ‘ Sir, we’ve, ” Taylor, “, Joe Biden, Larry, ‘, ” Biden, Taylor’s, ”, ’ Taylor, he’d, Larry L, Kyle Holden, US Army David Hill, Hill, ” Hill Organizations: CNN, 1G, White, White House, United States Army, Army, University of Tennessee, Army Reserve, UH, Star, Republic of, 2nd Armored Cavalry, US Army Locations: Vietnam, Tennessee, Republic, Republic of Vietnam, Nuremberg, West Germany, Hill, “

☆ Opinion: Here are the jobs AI will impact most
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( Bethany Cianciolo | Jessica Chia | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +42 min

Dan’s research and teaching focus is on using AI for legal services and the regulation of AI in society. For instance, we can develop AI tools to help individuals understand their responsibilities and rights, and preserve and enforce those rights. People in businesses, large and small, are already using chatbots, AI assistants and other AI tools to help them comply with laws, regulations and internal policies. Additionally, new roles are emerging in the legal industry, such as legal engineers who build systems, legal data scientists and legal operations professionals. AI tools will then quickly re-optimize decisions associated with inventory shipments, staffing and promotions.

Persons: ” That’s, Dropbox, Goldman Sachs, isn’t, Erich S, Huang, ” Erich S, Huang I’ve, Regina Barzilay, Barzilay, Geoffrey Hinton, radiologists, —, ’, Daniel W, Linna, Dan, …, ” Daniel W, Refik, Anadol, ”, Adam Elmachtoub, Nisreen, Theodore Kim, don’t, ” Theodore Kim Moreover, Janis Joplin, Jackie Jormp, We’re, Baz Luhrmann’s “, Gatsby, That’s, Leonardo DiCaprio, mockbusters, Eirini, GitHub Copilot, Ashok Goel, Jill Watson, ” Ashok Goel, Kristen DiCerbo, Alireza, Davis Organizations: CNN, CNET, International Association of Machinists, Aerospace Workers, Informatics, Verily, Duke Health, Biomedical Informatics, Duke University School of Medicine, Adobe, Apple, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science Department, MIT, Jameel Clinic, Machine Learning, MacArthur, National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University’s CS, Center, Better Housing, UCLA’s Department of Design Media Arts, The Museum, Modern Art, Centre Pompidou, Walt Disney Concert, Department of Industrial Engineering, Research, Columbia University, NBA, Spice, Digital Organisation and Society, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK Academy of Information Systems, Yale, Pixar, Technical, Writers Guild of America, SAG, Hollywood, YouTube, Tech, Developers, Georgia Institute of Technology, National AI, Adult, Education, US National Science Foundation, Georgia Tech, Khan Academy, Systems, Studies, Agricultural Engineering, University of California, university’s, Agriculture, Labor Locations: outplacement, Iceland

[1/2] AI (Artificial Intelligence) letters and robot hand are placed on computer motherboard in this illustration taken, June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Acquire Licensing RightsAug 30 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will host tech leaders and experts at an artificial-intelligence (AI) forum on Sept. 13, as several governments around the world are considering how to mitigate the dangers of the emerging technology. - Meta Platforms (META.O) CEO Mark Zuckerberg: Meta has invested in artificial intelligence for years. - Elon Musk: The CEO of Tesla (TSLA.O) launched his own AI startup named xAI earlier this year. - IBM (IBM.N) CEO Arvind Krishna: IBM launched a new artificial-intelligence and data platform in May to help companies integrate AI in their business.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Chuck Schumer, Sam Altman, OpenAI, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon, Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Jensen Huang, Arvind Krishna, Krishna, Bill Gates, Charles Rivkin, Eric Schmidt, Tristan Harris, Deborah Raji, Alex Karp, Kanishka Singh, Richard Cowan, Matthew Lewis Organizations: REUTERS, U.S, Meta, Tesla, Microsoft, Nvidia, IBM, Bloomberg, Motion, Center for Humane Technology, University of California, Palantir Technologies, Thomson Locations: China, Berkeley, Washington

☆ Google unveils AI tools for enterprise customers at $30 a month
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A Google LLC logo is seen at the Google offices in the Chelsea section of New York City, U.S., January 20, 2023. The price is the same as rival Microsoft's (MSFT.O) "Copilot" AI-powered office software suite that includes Teams and Outlook. Google has intensified investments in generative AI this year as it plays catch-up after Microsoft-backed OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT last year took the tech world by storm. Google's new tools include "Duet AI in Workspace", which will assist customers across its apps with writing in Docs, drafting emails in Gmail and generating custom visuals in Slides, among others. The company plans to release more offerings over the coming months for other customer segments, including small and medium-sized businesses and consumers.

Persons: Shannon Stapleton, Microsoft's, Jaspreet Singh, Devika Organizations: REUTERS, Google, Microsoft, Thomson Locations: Chelsea, New York City, U.S, San Francisco, Bengaluru

☆ Google's AI feature in Gmail and productivity apps will cost big businesses $30 a month per user
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The technology — called Duet AI — will cost just as much as Microsoft's 365 Copilot enhancements, which could become available in the first half of next year. Google began taking preorders for Duet AI for Google Workspace at the $30 per user price in May, but didn't disclose it publicly, Pappu said. In Gmail and Google Docs, users can input a simple text prompt and tell Duet AI to produce a result. One early customer is lingerie brand Adore Me, where employees use Duet AI to prepare copy, a Google spokesperson said. A consumer version of Duet AI for Google Workspace should become available "early next year," Pappu said.

Persons: Sundar Pichai, —, ChatGPT chatbot, Aparna Pappu, Pappu, Redmond Organizations: Allen, Co . Media, Technology Conference, Google, Gmail, CNBC, Microsoft, Bing Locations: Sun Valley , Idaho, Redmond , Washington

☆ Meta to launch AI model for writing computer codes
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The logo of Meta Platforms' business group is seen in Brussels, Belgium December 6, 2022. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsAug 24 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms (META.O) on Thursday said it would release an artificial intelligence (AI) model designed to assist in writing computer code, furthering its push into the new technology. Facebook and Instagram owner Meta has released a flurry of AI models, mostly free, this year, including an open-source language model, called Llama, that poses a serious challenge to proprietary models sold by Microsoft-backed (MSFT.O) OpenAI and Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google. The new AI model is built on top of Meta's latest Llama 2 language model and will be available in different configurations, the company said, as it gears up to compete with Microsoft's code-writing tool GitHub Copilot. Code Llama supports the popular coding languages like Python, Java and C++ and is not recommended for general text tasks, Meta said.

Persons: Yves Herman, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Meta, Zaheer Kachwala, Shweta Agarwal Organizations: REUTERS, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Thomson Locations: Brussels, Belgium, Bengaluru

☆ How 5 companies are using pricing power to protect profits during high inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Paulina Likos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

A select group of our Club holdings have recently demonstrated durable pricing power to protect profits during what continues to be a high inflation environment. For companies, elevated inflation means higher input costs — higher costs on the goods and services required to run their businesses. In a recent note, UBS acknowledged, "Inflation may trend back toward the Fed's target sooner than expected reducing the relative advantage of companies with pricing power." In fact, UBS believes that "companies with pricing power have the potential to outperform the broader market in the months ahead." Microsoft's pricing power comes down to the simple fact that they have positioned themselves as a core backbone of global productivity.

Persons: Andrew Bonfield, Jim Umpleby, we'll, Gamble, Gillette, Jon Moeller, Linde, Matthew White, White, Salesforce, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, Procter & Gamble, Justin Sullivan Organizations: Federal Reserve, UBS, Caterpillar, Procter, Gamble, Linde, LIN, Microsoft, Construction Industries, Resource Industries, Energy, Transportation, Procter & Gamble, Health, Care, Investment, Management, Services Cloud, Cloud, Industries, CNBC, Procter & Locations: U.S, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Greenbrae , California

☆ Opinion: India’s moon landing shines an uncomfortable light on Russia’s failures
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Opinion Leroy Chiao | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The milestone marks a huge accomplishment for its nascent space program, which has made steady progress over the years. China also boasts a human spaceflight program with an operational space station, including crew and cargo transport spacecraft. Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty ImagesIn the International Space Station (ISS) partnership, the US, Europe, Japan and Canada also continue to move forward with space exploration. Instead of expanding, its space program has been in decline for several years. The lamentable state of Moscow’s space program is just the latest confirmation of that.

Persons: Leroy Chiao, Yuri Gagarin, John F, Vladimir Putin, Putin, —, Luna, Indranil Mukherjee, Artemis, Jeff Bezos, Sergei Krikalev, Dmitry Rogozin, Nick Hague, ” Organizations: NASA, Russian Soyuz, International, CNN, Leroy Chiao CNN, Sputnik, Republicans, Russian Luna, Getty, Space, SpaceX, Soviet Union, ISS, Expedition, Space Shuttle, Twitter, Facebook, Progress, Soyuz, Luna Locations: Russian, what’s, India, Delhi, Soviet Union, United States, Moscow, Russia, America, Ukraine, Asia, China, Mumbai, US, Europe, Japan, Canada, West, Soviet, Columbia

☆ Ahead of a full Firefly launch, internal documents show Adobe wrestling with how to spot AI images, how to pay creators for training data, and a possible opt-out
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

It is also considering adding an opt-out choice for content contributors to its Firefly AI model. One of the things Adobe is wrestling with is what happens if creators upload AI-generated images to the dataset that's used to train Firefly. Secondly, if Adobe Stock gets flooded with unmarked AI images, future iterations of the Firefly model might be tainted. Adobe previously said it was developing a compensation model for Adobe Stock contributors and would share more details at a later date. Clues on how many Adobe Stock contributors will get AI paymentsThe memo said Adobe was planning to update its Firefly FAQ for Stock contributors in September.

Persons: what's, it's, Github, Adobe Organizations: Adobe Stock, Adobe

☆ Death by LLM: Stack Overflow's decline, and its plan to survive, shows the future of free online data in an AI world
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Alistair Barr | Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Some AI models that compete against Stack Overflow were partly trained on the company's data. Online communities, like Stack Overflow and Wikipedia, thrived as hubs for experts and curious browsers to come together and share information freely. In 2021, Prosus, a major backer of Chinese tech giant Tencent, bought Stack Overflow for $1.8 billion. However, Nat Friedman, the CEO of Github through 2021, expects tech companies to pay for training data in the future. Stack Overflow is also working on new ways to measure the impact of a human's answer on the platform.

Persons: Prashanth Chandrasekar, OpenAI, Chandrasekar, coders, OpenAI's GPT, Stack, Elon Musk, Andreessen Horowitz, Sam Altman, JASON REDMOND, Jaap Arriens, GitHub, it's, chatGPT, Nasim Uddin, we're, Nat Friedman, Nat Friedman GitHub Friedman, Friedman, Axel Springer, Semafor, Prashanth Organizations: Union Square Ventures, Getty, Twitter, Publishers, Microsoft, Associated Press Locations: GPT, Prosus, AFP

☆ Microsoft is touting the size and growth rate of its Salesforce rival Dynamics
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Microsoft still isn't disclosing the size of its Azure business, providing only the growth rate for the cloud business and leaving investors guessing how its revenue compares to Amazon and Google . But in its much smaller Dynamics business, which includes software for salespeople, marketers and customer-service agents, Microsoft has suddenly opted for greater transparency. In its annual report to investors last week, Microsoft disclosed Dynamics revenue in a table alongside other products for the first time. He also noted that Microsoft Sales Copilot, a tool capable of writing business-oriented email drafts, integrates with Dynamics as well as Salesforce's software. Partly motivated by Microsoft's AI capabilities, some companies are switching to Dynamics from Salesforce, said Manny Medina, CEO of sales software startup Outreach.

Persons: Satya Nadella, Flipkart, Nadella, Manny Medina, Medina, Salesforce, Bret Taylor, Marc Benioff, they're, Doug Burgum, Adam Mansfield, Mansfield Organizations: Microsoft Corp, Microsoft, Google, Dynamics, Products, Cloud Services, Technology, IDC, Oracle, SAP, CNBC, Industry, Marketing, Commerce Cloud, Plains Software, North, Republican Locations: Mumbai, India, MSFT, Marketing Cloud, Commerce, North Dakota, Great Plains

☆ This little-known software company could rally more than 35%, says Canaccord Genuity
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Hakyung Kim | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Software-as-a-service company Freshworks has several positive catalysts ahead, according to Canaccord Genuity. He also increased his price target to $25 from $15. The new price target implies 37% upside from where shares closed on Tuesday. The company is "bringing it all together — [Go-to-market (GTM)] enhancements, operating efficiency, AI products and more," Hynes added. Freshworks' operating margins in the second quarter demonstrated significant upside and improved marketing and sales efficiency, Hynes said.

Persons: Freshworks, Canaccord, David Hynes, Hynes, Freddy Self, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Service Locations: Freshworks

☆ It's the hardest time in recent history to get a car loan
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

It's harder than it has been in a long time to get a car loan. It comes amid increasing car loan payments and growing delinquency rates. Car buyers are facing some of the highest interest rates and monthly car payments in history — at a time that the rate of auto loan rejections is soaring. That's lower than the overall loan rejection rate of nearly 22%, but it's still up from 9% just four months earlier, and it marks the highest likelihood of auto loan rejection in recent history. Meanwhile, consumers keep getting hammered by high interest rates and even higher monthly car payments.

Persons: it's, Pat Ryan, CoPilot's Ryan, Ryan, Gary Guthridge, Guthridge Organizations: Federal Reserve, Buyers Locations: Edmunds, delinquencies

We are buying 225 shares of GE Healthcare (GEHC), at roughly $76.84 each, and 45 shares of Microsoft (MSFT), at roughly $334.26 apiece. The first position we are adding to is GE Healthcare Technologies . GE Healthcare fared much better than Dutch peer Phillips, which last week said its orders fell 8% in the second quarter. The difference in the two order rates suggests GE Healthcare is gaining market share. The medical-technology firm is seeing good momentum in its business, partly because many health-care providers are investing to improve patient care and productivity.

Persons: Jim Cramer's, Johnson, Phillips, what's, We've, we've, Jim Cramer, Jim, Spencer Platt Organizations: GE Healthcare, Microsoft, GEHC, Johnson, GE Healthcare Technologies, GE, Electric, CNBC, Traders, New York Stock Exchange, Getty Locations: –, New York City

☆ Google, Microsoft, and Meta can't stop talking about A.I. — here's why Apple rarely mentions it
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Stefani Reynolds | AFP | Getty ImagesMicrosoft, Google and Meta are rallying everyone around AI, even though the future is murkyGoogle launched Bard AI, it's own chatbot to rival Microsoft and OpenAI's ChatGPT. Google, for example, has announced its plans to revamp its search engine using an AI model called Search Generative Experience. Google and Pichai say that the company's text-generating AI models will make its search engine better and could even answer questions that normal Google search can't. Zuckerberg was effusive about AI technology and its applications in virtual reality, ad targeting and recommending content from accounts users don't follow. UBS analyst Lloyd Walmsley wrote this week that generative AI was still an "overhang" over Google.

Persons: Tim Cook, Narendra Modi, Stefani Reynolds, ChatGPT, Jonathan Raa, OpenAI's, Amy Hood, we'll, Nadella, Pichai, it's, Zuckerberg, Meta, Bing, Gartner, Mark Murphy, Laura Martin, Lloyd Walmsley, monetization, Walmsley, Scott Olson Organizations: India's, White, AFP, Getty, Microsoft, Google, Nurphoto, Meta, Apple, Big Tech, Nvidia, Venture, JPMorgan, UBS Locations: Washington ,, iPhones, Brussels, Belgium, Chicago

July 25 (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence is expected to pay off big for tech giants including Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Alphabet (GOOGL.O) someday. Microsoft is bearing AI costs in two ways, analysts said: to power its own products such as its forthcoming $30-a-month Copilot AI assistant, and to serve companies wanting to use its Azure cloud computing services to create AI products. "They're buying a bunch of H100s," said Ben Bajarin, chief executive and principal analyst of Creative Strategies, referring to Nvidia's flagship chips for AI. Microsoft may be "aggressively buying Nvidia chips, given Microsoft does not have its own silicon as an alternative," said Atlantic Equities analyst James Cordwell. "The message on inflection point was the same," from Microsoft and Google, said Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, "but the difference was Microsoft investors wanted to see more."

Persons: Ben Bajarin, Ruth Porat, Scott Kessler, James Cordwell, Porat, Gene Munster, Stephen Nellis, Akash Sriram, Anna Tong, Max Cherney, Yuvraj Malik, Greg Bensinger, Sayantani Ghosh, Richard Chang Organizations: Microsoft, Nvidia Corp, Creative, Google, Deepwater Asset Management, Thomson Locations: Atlantic, San Francisco, Bengaluru, New York

☆ What Alphabet and Microsoft are saying about A.I. on their earnings calls
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Second-quarter earnings season brought heavyweight technology giants and artificial intelligence frontrunners Alphabet and Microsoft head-to-head in an all-too-familiar matchup. Alphabet shares rose 6% after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results and 28% year-over-year growth in cloud revenue, while Microsoft lost 4% on disappointing revenue guidance and a delayed AI rollout . GOOGL YTD mountain Alphabet shares in 2023 Both Alphabet and Microsoft have spearheaded the effort, facing off with competing chatbots early in the year. Alphabet Alphabet rolled out its Bard chatbot worldwide during the second quarter, removed a testing waitlist and added a host of new capabilities. Microsoft Despite confidence in Microsoft's long-term capabilities, some investors and analysts seemed disappointed by the seemingly delayed rollout of many of its AI products.

Persons: Bard, Sundar Pichai, Pichai, Ruth Porat, Goldman Sachs, Eric Sheridan, Amy Hood, Karl Keirstead, Satya Nadella, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Microsoft, Wall, UBS

☆ Beyond the metaverse
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Sponsor Post | Created Insider Studios With Pwc | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

However, many consumers — and even business leaders — are still confused about what the metaverse actually is and how it will work. No matter what you call it — the metaverse, spatial computing, the 3D web – when the metaverse is broken down into its component parts, more realistic applications emerge. "We call it Metaverse Technologies for a reason." PwCIt's not just retail; events that have traditionally relied on in-person participation are also embracing a combination of metaverse technologies. The Venice Carnival is just one example of how metaverse technologies can create new ways for people to connect, learn, and experience the world.

Persons: —, Roberto Hernandez, We've, Hernandez, Joe Harrington, Harrington, We're, Alberto Bozzo, Ve.La, PwC Organizations: Technologies, PwC, Venice Carnival, Venice, Companies, Insider Studios Locations: Venice

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