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☆ Apple Kills Its Electric Car Project
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-27 | by ( Brian X. Chen | More About Brian X. Chen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Though Apple had not unveiled its car to consumers, the product had for many years been one of Silicon Valley’s worst-kept secrets because it was being tested on public roads. The cancellation is a rare move by Apple, which typically doesn’t shelve such public and high-profile projects. Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has publicly hinted that Apple was interested in entering the car space. The company had also been testing hundreds of vehicles equipped with autonomous driving technology in public for many years. The car, which Apple spent billions of dollars researching, had been intended as a rival to Tesla’s electric vehicles, which include autonomous driving features.

Persons: Tim Cook, Apple, Cook’s Organizations: Apple, Apple Watch, Vision

☆ Google's new AI-powered wingman highlights the challenges of using a tool that could eventually replace you
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. In today’s big story, we’re looking at Google’s new internal AI model aimed at improving worker efficiency. The big storyAI assistanceCBS Photo Archive/Getty ImagesGoogle employees are getting an AI-powered wingman in the company’s bid to improve efficiency. Goose can answer questions about Google's tech and write and edit code, according to an internal summary of the model. Tech companies have tested inventions on their own employees for years in a process known as "dogfooding," writes BI's Alistair Barr.

Persons: —, Denny's, customizations, Hugh Langley, Tom Cruise’s copilot, Alistair Barr, Tyler Lee, “, Bryan R, Smith, Wall, Gary Gensler, We’re, Société, Elad Gil, Gil, ChatGPT, it’s, Uber, Nomura, Young homebuyers, Meredith Whitney, Donald Trump, Dan DeFrancesco, Hallam Bullock, Jordan Parker Erb, George Glover Organizations: Business, Service, CBS, Getty, Microsoft, OpenAI, Tech, Google, Big Tech, Fed, UBS, SEC, Silicon Valley’s, BI, Xbox, Dragon, Workers, Wall Locations: China, New York, London

☆ Elad Gil, tech's biggest solo capitalist, sees an AI app wave coming
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-14 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. AdvertisementThe year of the "AI app layer"Gil sees 2024 as the year that the “AI app layer” will start to crystalize, bringing the power of rapidly advancing foundation models to the masses. For someone with so much skin in the AI game, it’s notable that Gil’s portfolio does not include the big foundation models companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. Gil says he has been impressed with how quickly the legacy tech companies have moved to corner the market on cutting-edge AI research. But with the Biden administration’s more robust antitrust posture, Gil says there’s a lot of much-needed consolidation that’s not happening.

Persons: —, OpenAI, Elad Gil, Harvey, Character.ai, “ We're, ” Gil, ChatGPT, Gil, Gil's, ”, “ they’ve, Biden, there’s Organizations: Service, Business, Twitter, Mixer Labs, Google, Apple, Fortune, “ Enterprises Locations: Airbnb, MistralAI, Silicon Valley

☆ Movers are betting big on the Las Vegas real-estate market
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-11 | by ( Matt Turner | Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

On the agenda today:But first: Las Vegas, home of Super Bowl LVIII, is a popular destination for movers. Las Vegas, Nevada. AdvertisementAnd while many have jetted in for the big game, from regular fans to the billionaire types, others are making a more permanent move to Las Vegas. Las Vegas ranked second for middle-class movers from out of state, according to a recent report based on 2022 tax data. AdvertisementAnd there’s still plenty of opportunity for cities like Las Vegas to sell themselves to potential new residents.

Persons: —, George Rose, he’d, Cameron Spencer, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, it’s, Mike Kemp, Alyssa Powell, Meta, Rebecca Zisser, cubicles, — Misha Wilson, Taylor Swift, Matt Turner, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb Organizations: Business, Service, Super, Getty, Super Bowl City, Las Vegas, Vegas, Boeing, Alaska Airlines, Apple, NFL, Workers Locations: Vegas, Las Vegas , Nevada, Vegas Sin, Las Vegas, California, Malibu, New York

Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube Listen and follow ‘Hard Fork’Bluesky, the Twitter spinoff, is now open for public sign-ups. Can its dreams of decentralization fix social media? We talk with the company’s chief executive, Jay Graber. Then, the New York Times reporter Erin Griffith on how Adobe’s failure to acquire Figma has spooked tech companies and upset Silicon Valley’s start-up pipeline. And finally, updates on ancient scrolls and artificial intelligence, Google’s chatbots, and the fight between record companies and TikTok.

Persons: Jay Graber, Erin Griffith, Figma, Google’s chatbots Organizations: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, New York Times

☆ Congress hasn’t been able to make social media safer. Here’s why
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

This has been true since the early 2010s, when tech companies began realizing the benefits of influencing policymakers on issues including net neutrality and privacy. This week, Microsoft announced its support for the Kids Online Safety Act, a leading social media bill. Even when lawmakers can agree on what the problem is, they often disagree on how to solve it, creating a smorgasbord of half a dozen or more social media bills floating around Congress. That would be a huge down payment on a future social media law, said Balkam. But even that proposal is still subject to many of the same dynamics that make social media regulation hard.

Persons: Washington CNN —, ”, Danny Weiss, Ben Thompson, Adam Kovacevich, “ That’s, hasn’t, Republican stonewalling, Weiss, Kovacevich, ” Kovacevich, I’m, ” Weiss, Chuck Schumer, Mike Johnson, Schumer, Nancy Pelosi’s, “, Johnson didn’t, Evan Greer Organizations: Washington CNN, Big Tech, Tech, Sense, Microsoft, Kids, LinkedIn, of, Republican, CNN Locations: Washington, United States

☆ Opinion: The chilling lesson of the Taylor Swift deepfakes
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-31 | by ( Opinion Laurie Segall | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —Sexually explicit AI-generated photos of pop superstar Taylor Swift have flooded the internet, and we don’t need to calm down. Now, you can digitally undress her or create your own explicit deepfake starring her. Imagine an immersive environment where a scorned ex invites others to collectively view a sexually explicit deepfake video of the girl who rejected him. They never taped a video, but due to advances in deepfake technology, it’s impossible to distinguish whether it’s real or fake. From a policy perspective, a handful of states have laws against the creation or sharing of these types of sexually explicit deepfakes.

Persons: Laurie Segall, Taylor Swift, Laurie Segall Angie Speranza Swift, I’ve, Swift, Mary Anne Franks, we’re, “ We’ve, ” Franks, —, Franks, Don’t Organizations: Tech’s Titans, CNN, George Washington University, ”, “ Locations: New York, Vermont

The Ely Shoshone, Duckwater Shoshone, and the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation — a coalition representing about 1,500 enrolled tribal members — are lobbying the federal government to designate nearly 40 square miles (100 square kilometers) as Bahsahwahbee National Monument. He testified in a multi-decade legal battle alongside ranchers, local officials and environmental groups who all opposed the project by the Southern Nevada Water Authority. Protecting water for sacred trees is not something the agency had previously done, Sullivan said. Even if the land becomes a national monument, the water beneath Bahsahwahbee would remain under the state’s jurisdiction. The Southern Nevada Water Authority supports a monument designation that allows for the continuation of existing ranching and agricultural activities, said Bronson Mack, water authority spokesman.

Persons: ELY, — White, ”, Warren Graham, Mamie Swallow, Spilsbury, Charlene Pete’s, —, ” Pete, Ely Shoshone, Alvin Marques, David Charlet, ” Charlet, Adam Sullivan, Sullivan, Neal Desai, Bahsahwahbee, Graham, Bronson Mack, Avi Kwa, Joe Biden, Catherine Cortez Masto, Jacky Rosen, Deb Haaland, Cortez Masto’s, Monte Sanford, “ Organizations: Rocky, Ely Shoshone, Southern Nevada Water Authority, College of Southern, Nevada Division of Water Resources, Southern, Southern Nevada Water, National Park Service, National Parks Conservation Association, National Register of Historic Places, Land Management, The Southern, The Southern Nevada Water Authority, Nevada Legislature, United, Associated Press, Walton Family Foundation, AP, Press, Lilly Endowment Inc Locations: Nev, Nevada, Ely, Duckwater Shoshone, ”, Bahsahwahbee, Vegas, College of Southern Nevada, Southern Nevada, The, The Southern Nevada, Arizona, U.S, United States

☆ A year after ChatGPT’s release, the AI revolution is just beginning
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Seemingly overnight, the user-friendly generative AI technology enraptured the globe. It also promised to revolutionize the future of white-collar work — so long as it didn’t cause an AI apocalypse in the process. ‘The world woke up to the AI revolution’And one year since ChatGPT’s public release, the fervor around AI is still at a fever pitch. And AI’s long-prophesied impacts to the labor market is also beginning to emerge, both inside and outside the tech industry. “Many, many, many jobs that are currently done by humans, AI will be able to do,” said Clune, the AI researcher at the University of British Columbia.

Persons: New York CNN —, Sam Altman, ChatGPT, ” Jeff Clune, hasn’t, ” Clune, ”, OpenAI’s, Jakub Porzycki, Suresh Venkatasubramanian, ” Venkatasubramanian, “ It’s, it’s, Venkatasubramanian, Clune, we’re, ChatGPT’s, OpenAI, David Paul Morris, “, CNN’s Kara Swisher, Altman, —, ” Altman Organizations: New, New York CNN, Big Tech, Tech, University of British, CNN, ChatGPT’s, Brown University, Economic Cooperation, Bloomberg, Getty, Microsoft — Locations: New York, University of British Columbia, Krakow, Poland, OpenAI, Asia, San Francisco , California

☆ How an L.A. Rams Training Complex Could Help Transform Urban Sprawl
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-23 | by ( Arielle Paul | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The San Fernando Valley, once an endless ramble of orange groves in Southern California that evolved into the porn capital of the world in the 1970s and later gave way to big-box retailers and strip malls, will now become the home of the 2021 season’s Super Bowl champions, the Los Angeles Rams. In a $650 million land deal by the team’s owner, Stan Kroenke, Rams executives laid out their vision last week for revitalizing nearly 100 acres in the valley’s Woodland Hills neighborhood into a sports-centric, live-work-play development, including a practice facility and team headquarters. The deal includes two properties owned by Westfield, a shopping center developer that is pulling out of the U.S. market, as well as an abandoned 13-story building and parking lot that Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield owned. After the coronavirus pandemic hastened the embrace of online retail and remote work, blighted malls and office buildings have closed their doors. The vacant properties and their adjoining parking lots now offer a chance to redevelop valuable square footage in neighborhoods like Woodland Hills.

Persons: Stan Kroenke Organizations: Bowl, Los Angeles Rams, Rams, Westfield Locations: San Fernando Valley, Southern California, Woodland, U.S

NEW YORK (AP) — It's been quite a week for ChatGPT-maker OpenAI — and co-founder Sam Altman. And as he became Silicon Valley’s most sought-after voice on the promise and potential dangers of this technology, Altman helped transform OpenAI into a world-renowned startup. WHAT IS GENERATIVE AI? Unlike traditional AI, which processes data and completes tasks using predetermined rules, generative AI (including chatbots like ChatGPT) can create something new. Meanwhile, in the U.S., President Joe Biden signed an ambitious executive order last month seeking to balance the needs of cutting-edge technology companies with national security and consumer rights.

Persons: — It's, OpenAI —, Sam Altman, Altman, what's, —, Greg Brockman, Brockman, “, OpenAI, ”, Johann Laux, Enza Iannopollo, Forrester, Iannopollo, they’ve, Chatbots, Joe Biden Organizations: OpenAI, WHO, ALTMAN, Microsoft, Twitter, Oxford Internet, Tech, European Union Locations: San Francisco, Brussels, U.S

☆ When people move out, wildlife moves in: 10 abandoned places reclaimed by nature
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Arya Jyothi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

The temple and surrounding forested areas were abandoned three centuries later, when the king moved the capital of the empire away from Angkor. People started moving out in the 1990s and by 2002, the village was completely abandoned. People started moving out in the 1990s and by 2002, the village was completely abandoned. The Whanganui River holds 18 fish species including eels, freshwater crayfish and black flounders. Graham Harries/ShutterstockLocated off the Pembrokeshire coast in west Wales, stands a time capsule in the form of a long-abandoned island fort.

Persons: Prohm, King Jayavarman, Alexander Arndt, Angelina Jolie’s, “ Lara Croft, pileated gibbons, silvered, Johannes Eisele, Leo Francini, Marcio Martins, University of São Paulo, Martins, “, Al Madam, Giuseppe Cacace, Yasuyoshi Chiba, James Beasley, allan wright, Kilda, Graham Harries, Shutterstock, Nicholas Mueller, ”, Mueller Organizations: CNN, Wildlife Alliance, ., Steam, SS, Titanic, Cyclone, University of São, Google Arts & Culture, National Institute of Ecology, Al, Getty, United Arab, Japan Earthquake, University of Georgia, TED, UNESCO Locations: CNN —, Europe, Ta Prohm, Cambodia, Angkor Thom, Khmer, Angkor, Shengshan Island, China, AFP, Houtouwan, Shengshan, Zhoushan, Mangapurua, , New Zealand, Nowhere, Mangapurua Valley, New, Whanganui, North, Australia, Grande, Brazil, Sao Paulo, Marcio, Korea, South Korea, Al Madam Village, UAE, Al, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sharjah, Fukushima, Japan, St Kilda, Scotland, Scotland’s, Kilda, Atlantic, Soay, Boreray, Fort, Wales, Pembrokeshire

Microsoft announced Monday that it has hired Sam Altman and another architect of ChatGPT maker OpenAI after they unexpectedly departed the company days earlier in a corporate shakeup that shocked the artificial intelligence world. Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella tweeted that the U.S. tech giant is committed to its partnership with OpenAI, whose chatbot kicked off the generative AI craze by producing human-like text, images, video and music. Microsoft invested billions of dollars in the startup and helped provide the computing power to run its AI systems. “We’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team,” Nadella said. The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP’s text archives.

Persons: Sam Altman, OpenAI, Satya Nadella, Nadella, Emmett Shear, OpenAI's, Greg Brockman, ” Nadella, Altman, Brockman, Mira Murati, It's, Shear, didn't, “, Valley’s, ” OpenAI Organizations: Microsoft, OpenAI, Associated Press Locations: U.S

☆ Silicon Valley saw OpenAI with eyes wide shut
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Anita Ramaswamy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

NEW YORK, Nov 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Silicon Valley’s weekend episode with artificial intelligence company OpenAI seems much like the technology: the input is a mishmash, so the output is flawed. The Microsoft-backed (MSFT.O) company’s board fired boss Sam Altman, and now, according to reports, may bring him back. OpenAI has been the leader in AI technology, which is bolstering valuations in the face of slowing growth in Silicon Valley. By September, OpenAI was seeking a valuation of nearly triple that, according to Reuters. Yet with or without Altman, OpenAI’s issues are clear and abundant.

Persons: Sam Altman, Altman, Greg Brockman, Satya Nadella, OpenAI, ’, OpenAI’s, chipmaker, chatbot, Brockman, Greg, Lauren Silva Laughlin, Thomas Shum Organizations: Reuters, Microsoft, Stanford, UC Berkley, OpenAI’s, San Francisco, Wall Street, Thomson Locations: Silicon Valley, U.S

Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube Listen to and follow ‘Hard Fork’The tech start-up Humane launched a new device, an A.I. pin meant to be worn on our clothing. The pin allows users to take phone calls, catch up on messages and get answers to questions, all without ever looking at a screen. Then, why YouTube is bucking the trend on deepfakes. Plus: We eat a Thanksgiving meal made with meat that was grown in a lab.

Organizations: Apple, Spotify, YouTube

Sitting beneath a palm tree on a cliff above the ocean at Mr. Benioff’s Hawaiian home in 2018, they explained both devices. “This one,” Mr. Benioff said, pointing at the Ai Pin, as dolphins breached the surf below, “is huge.”“It’s going to be a massive company,” he added. They experimented in secret with hardware components and built a virtual assistant, like Siri or Alexa, working with customized language models based, in part, on OpenAI’s offerings. The device’s most sci-fi element — the laser that projects a text menu onto a hand — started inside a box the size of a matchbook. It took three years to miniaturize it to be smaller than the size of a golf tee.

Persons: Mr, Benioff, “, ”, Siri, Altman Organizations: Apple

☆ The AI Deals Enriching Silicon Valley’s Tech Giants
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Berber Jin | Tom Dotan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Amazon is investing $4 billion into Anthropic which committed to spending the same amount on AWS, the tech giant’s cloud platform, over the next five years. Photo: NOAH BERGER/REUTERSAmazon , Google and Microsoft have spent the past year investing billions of dollars in artificial-intelligence startups—while also charging those fledgling companies a similar amount to use their cloud platforms. The deals are making the big tech firms both the largest backers and most direct beneficiaries of these startups, reflecting how some of the AI boom’s biggest rewards keep going to the most powerful players. The value of the tech giants’ stakes could shoot up if the startups take off. And if not, they still will have turned chunks of cash into revenue.

Persons: NOAH BERGER Organizations: Amazon, REUTERS, Google, Microsoft

☆ Silicon Valley Shrugs Off Sam Bankman-Fried’s Trial
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Erin Griffith | More About Erin Griffith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the four weeks that Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, was on trial on fraud charges, the tech industry:Reacted to the war in Israel and Gaza, including protesting a tech conference organizer’s social media posts about the conflict. Buzzed over a manifesto from a top venture capitalist outlining a list of enemies to technological progress. Scrambled to invest money in the hottest artificial intelligence company, OpenAI, at triple its valuation earlier this year. Hotly debated the new features on Threads, a social media site owned by Meta. But a simpler answer could be that the tech industry has again done what it does best: move on to the next thing.

Persons: Sam Bankman, Bankman Organizations: Meta Locations: Israel, Gaza, FTX

☆ George R. R. Martin, Jodi Picoult and other famous writers join Authors Guild in class action lawsuit against OpenAI
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —A group of famous fiction writers joined the Authors Guild in filing a class action suit against OpenAI on Wednesday, alleging the company’s technology is illegally using their copyrighted work. Martin, Jodi Picoult, John Grisham and Jonathan Franzen are among the 17 prominent authors who joined the suit led by the Authors Guild, a professional organization that protects writers’ rights. “Generative AI threatens to decimate the author profession,” the Authors Guild wrote in a press release Wednesday. Two other authors sued OpenAI in June over the company’s alleged misuse of their works to train ChatGPT. Authors should have the right to decide when their works are used to ‘train’ AI,” author Jonathan Franzen said in the release on Wednesday.

Persons: OpenAI, George R.R, Martin, Jodi Picoult, John Grisham, Jonathan Franzen, Mary Rasenberger, “, Sarah Silverman, Silverman –, ” Sam Altman, Rasenberger, James Patterson, Roxane Gay, Margaret Atwood —, ” Organizations: New, New York CNN, OpenAI, Authors, of, CNN, Amazon, Meta, San, Microsoft Locations: New York, Southern, of New York, San Francisco federal

☆ Visual Highlights From the 'More Than Words' Project
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Wilson Liévano | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +13 min

Many of those who only speak Spanish are frustrated that language barriers get in the way of public safety information. Cabrera works long hours and would like to find community and services for her 79-year-old mother, but language barriers holds them back. (Emree Weaver / Yakima Herald-Republic)YAKIMA, WASHINGTON – In Yakima County, which is 52% Hispanic and largely agricultural, local health care systems have had to adapt to the needs of the population. (Emree Weaver / Yakima Herald-Republic) Rigo Zepeda, an advanced registered nurse practitioner, demonstrates how providers use a video remote interpreting device at MultiCare Yakima Memorial, in Yakima, Washington. (Emree Weaver / Yakima Herald-Republic)

Persons: Victoria Franco, Harika Maddala, Catchlight Local Salvador Reyna Madryc, Luis Magaña, Ignacio Yepez, Rosa Cardenas, Rosa Trevizo, Doug Kuehne’s, Gerdrado Serrano, Griselda Juarez, Juarez, Gabriela Martínez, Esmirna Jiménez, Jimenez, Pedro Ferreras's, Pedro Ferreras’s, ’, “, ” Jiménez, Gabriela Lozada, Flerida Moriel, Mirla Cabrera, Cabrera, Flerida, Moriel, ”, ” Cabrera, don’t, They’re, NHPR, Santiago Ochoa, Emree Weaver, YAKIMA , WASHINGTON –, Granger, Bertha “ Lily ” Gonzalez, Maria Guadalupe Diaz, Diaz, Lisaola, Rigo, Angelina Garcia, Bertha Lopez Organizations: America, . News, Services, Victoria, Catchlight Local, Flea, Stockton, News, Loel, Spanish, New, American Community Survey, Social, Derry, New Hampshire Public, Flerida, HAMPSHIRE, Immigration, New Hampshire Public Radio, Facebook, Yakima Herald, Yakima Herald -, Yakima Herald - Republic Workers, Census, Memorial Cornerstone Medicine, Memorial Locations: Stockton Text, Bay, Bay City, Stockton , California, STOCKTON , CALIFORNIA, San Joaquin County, Spanish, Lodi , California, Weston, United States, Dominican Republic, Harrisburg , Pennsylvania, WITF, HARRISBURG , PENNSYLVANIA, Pennsylvania, New American, Carlisle, Harrisburg, Allison Hill, NHPR, MANCHESTER, Manchester, New Hampshire, Nashua, New, Peru, Yakima, Yakima Herald - Republic, Cowiche , Washington, YAKIMA , WASHINGTON, Yakima County, Toppenish, Wapato, Republic, Yakima , Washington, Yakima County’s

☆ A Who’s Who of Silicon Valley Will Convene With Lawmakers on A.I.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-13 | by ( Cecilia Kang | More About Cecilia Kang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ever since ChatGPT exploded in popularity last year, Silicon Valley’s titans have been embroiled in a race to be at the forefront of artificial intelligence. Yet in Washington, lawmakers have struggled to keep up with the technology, which they are only beginning to understand. On Wednesday, both sides are set to collide in one of the tech industry’s most proactive shows of force in the nation’s capital. Insight Forum, organized by Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, along with labor union leaders and civil society groups. The closed-door meeting is the first in a series of crash-course lessons on A.I.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, OpenAI, Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Jensen Huang, Chuck Schumer Organizations: Silicon Valley’s, Elon, Tesla, SpaceX, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, Insight Locations: Washington, New York

☆ Unity discovers how real the revenue struggle is
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Edgar Su Acquire Licensing RightsNEW YORK, Sept 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Unity Software (U.N) is finding out just how hard the revenue game will be. The $14 billion company’s new plan to climb out of an unprofitable hole makes sense, but also faces considerable pushback. The strategy seeks to impose fees on video-game developers after certain revenue and install thresholds are met, eliciting a harsh response on social media on Tuesday. Unity may retain its customers, as switching suppliers can be a pain, but deeper-pocketed rivals such as Epic Games may see an opportunity to pounce. Silicon Valley’s revenue struggle is real.

Persons: Edgar Su, Robert Cyran, BoE, Jeffrey Goldfarb, Sharon Lam, Aditya Sriwatsav Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, Unity Software, Apple, Unity, X, Treasury, UBS, Thomson Locations: Pico, Singapore, Asia

☆ American economic power is potent but unstable
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Peter Thal Larsen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

LONDON, Sept 8 (Reuters Breakingviews) - For the past 15 years, the iPhone has been a totem of U.S. economic power. If the country is cooling on the $2.8 trillion company, it’s a potent indicator of increasingly frosty relations with the United States. Perhaps most significantly, the U.S. government realised it could use the internet to spy on adversaries and the financial system to subdue them. The tendency of capitalism to produce a handful of giant companies, many of them headquartered in the United States, helped successive administrations exert their authority. A complete severing of economic links between China and the United States is hard to imagine.

Persons: Norman Angell, Thomas Friedman, Vladimir Putin, Edward Snowden, Henry Farrell, Abraham Newman, Johns Hopkins SAIS, Putin, Biden, ”, Farrell, Newman, Donald Trump, ” Farrell, Allen Lane, Jeffrey Goldfarb, Aditya Sriwatsav Organizations: Reuters, Apple, World Trade Organization, New York Times, National Security Agency, U.S . Treasury, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown University, WTO, Huawei, BNP, Biden Administration, Intel, U.S ., European, United, Thomson Locations: China, Beijing, United States, France, Russian, U.S, North Korea, Iran, New York, Washington, Sudan, Cuba, Ukraine, America, Russia, Germany, United, Europe

Apple | Spotify | Stitcher | Amazon | Google Listen and follow ‘Hard Fork’Are New York City’s new rules for short-term rentals like Airbnb effectively a ban? And will they accomplish what proponents want them to? Then, The New York Times tech reporter Erin Griffith on Silicon Valley’s mad dash for GPUs. And finally, we take stock of the A.I. songs of the summer and discuss YouTube and Universal Music Group’s plan to make synthetic voices profitable.

Persons: Erin Griffith Organizations: Apple, Spotify, York, The New York Times, Silicon, YouTube, Universal

ESPN has been Disney’s financial engine for nearly 30 years, powering the company through recessions, box office wipeouts and the pandemic. With its dual revenue stream — fees from cable subscribers and advertising — the sports juggernaut continues to earn billions of dollars for Disney. In the first six months of the 2023 fiscal year, Disney’s cable networks division, which is anchored by ESPN and its spinoff channels, generated $14 billion in revenue and $3 billion in profit. Disney is now exploring a once-unthinkable sale of a stake in ESPN. Disney has held talks with the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball about taking a minority stake.

Persons: Century Fox, ESPN’s, Robert A, ” Organizations: ESPN, Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar, Century, CNBC, National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball

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