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Customers are applying Google's technology in ways both expected, such as a customer-service chatbot for Uber, and unusual, including AI to handle drive-thru orders at a Wendy's Co (WEN.O) fast-food restaurant in Ohio. Its cloud division posted its first-ever operating profit last quarter, and the AI technology that Google pioneered may help it narrow the gap with bigger players Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O). And it is exploring if Google's AI can craft research drawing from economic data, market reports and other content, to give the bank's customers and staff, said Leukert. Other companies using the technology include Adore Me, the Victoria's Secret unit drafting ad copy with AI in Google Docs, Kurian said. Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in Mountain View, California Editing by Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Reid Hoffman's new AI startup Inflection launches ChatGPT-like chatbot
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Krystal Hu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

May 2 (Reuters) - Inflection AI, the AI startup founded by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and former Deepmind (GOOGL.O) researcher Mustafa Suleyman, has released its first AI chatbot product, the company said on Tuesday. Similar to the viral chatbot ChatGPT, Inflection's AI chatbot, named Pi, uses generative AI technology to interact with users through conversations, in which people can ask questions and share interests. Inflection AI said it developed the technology in-house and its Pi chatbot is built on prioritizing human conversations with a high level of emotional intelligence. Pi uses user data, including conversational content, to train its AI systems, according to its terms of service. Chatbot powered by generative AI technology has become a crowded field since OpenAI's ChatGPT burst into the scene last November.

That meant revenue growth rates were about 5 percentage points lower in April than in the first quarter, he said, referring to a period that saw a sequential drop. Its economy-wary customers aside, Amazon aimed to project confidence for its cloud longer-term. Jassy said the growing adoption of generative AI, which can create text, imagery and other content from past data, represented a huge opportunity for Amazon's cloud. Likewise, Olsavsky told reporters, Amazon had seen no shift in the competitive balance among cloud providers. AWS sales growth slowed to 15.8% in the first quarter.

When Thiel spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention, he had more hope that the party would concentrate on economic issues, his business associate said. Four political sources also told Reuters that Thiel is taking a step back from U.S. politics. In 2012, Thiel backed libertarian lawmaker Ron Paul, and in 2016 he donated some $1.25 million to the campaign efforts of Trump, who is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination. In the 2022 election cycle, however, Thiel emerged as a potential Republican kingmaker, contributing more than $35 million to 16 federal-level Republican candidates, according to OpenSecrets. The business associate said he was not aware of any special proviso for former employees.

April 25 (Reuters) - OpenAI is introducing what one employee called an "incognito mode" for its hit chatbot ChatGPT that does not save users’ conversation history or use it to improve its artificial intelligence, the company said Tuesday. The San Francisco-based startup also said it planned a "ChatGPT Business" subscription with additional data controls. The move comes as scrutiny has grown over how ChatGPT and other chatbots it inspired manage hundreds of millions of users’ data, commonly used to improve, or "train", AI. Italy last month banned ChatGPT for possible privacy violations, saying OpenAI could resume the service if it met demands such as giving consumers tools to object to the processing of their data. Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), which has invested in OpenAI, already offers ChatGPT to businesses.

Generative AI gobbles up reams of computing power, amplifying the urgency of Meta's capacity scramble, said five of the sources. Executives also that spring set about reorganizing Meta's AI units, naming two new heads of engineering in the process, including Janardhan, the author of the September memo. According to four of the sources, Meta did not prioritize building generative AI products until after the launch of ChatGPT in November. Zuckerberg announced a new top-level generative AI team in February that he said would "turbocharge" the company's work in the area. Carvill, the Meta spokesperson, said the company has been building generative AI products on different teams for more than a year.

☆ Data company Palantir to help Ukraine prosecute alleged Russian war crimes
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | Thomson Reuters | Jeffrey Dastin Is A Technology Correspondent For Reuters Based In San Francisco | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 22 (Reuters) - Ukraine plans to deploy software from U.S. data analytics provider Palantir Technologies Inc (PLTR.N) to help it prosecute alleged war crimes committed by Russia, the company told Reuters. Palantir, which has supplied Ukraine with systems to help it target Russian tanks and support refugees, is now working with the prosecutor general's office to help investigators across Europe pool and process data, the company said. Moscow has denied attacking civilians or perpetrating war crimes. Any successful war crimes prosecution will require Ukraine to navigate overlapping court jurisdictions and furnish evidence despite often restricted access to suspects or crime scenes. A U.N.-mandated investigative body last month accused Russia of war crimes, though its chair said it had not found evidence of genocide, which is being investigated by Ukraine.

The release is poised to widen what pupils do with AI just as educators are grappling with its consequences. Rosensweig said Chegg focuses on math and the sciences, not the essay drafting that has challenged schools. Rosensweig said Chegg has structured and checked its answers to ensure accuracy. Asked if AI will prompt Chegg to shrink its pool of 150,000 experts contributing to its content, he said the company already balances humans with technology. Analysts in recent months have questioned whether Chegg can grow its base of 8 million subscribers as students embrace the largely free ChatGPT software, created by the startup OpenAI.

April 13 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) did not grant its Chief Executive Andy Jassy any new stock in 2022, shrinking the pay gap between the online retailer's top boss and rank-and-file employees, the company said Thursday in a securities filing. Amazon for months has grappled with inflation and recession fears that prompted its customers to tighten their budgets. Aiming to slash costs, the company said it would cut 27,000 jobs and trim some stock awards. The year prior, the ratio was 1 to 6,474, reflecting a stock grant Amazon said would take Jassy a decade to earn fully. Reflecting the company's stock drop, Jassy's award along with older grants lost nearly $148 million of their value in 2022.

“VCs think this is the new internet,” a generative AI founder in the United States told Reuters. While the closure of Silicon Valley Bank may hamper debt financing, venture capitalists said interest in funding AI startups remains high, especially for top early-stage founders. Investors sense opportunity, even for a sale if not an initial public offering; some are betting that AI startups might outpace bigger rivals, encumbered by their size. You.com, a search engine company founded in 2020 and backed by Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benioff, has found new life from incorporating generative AI technology. It has attracted more attention from users and investors, handling millions of searches per day, the company told Reuters.

☆ Amazon has rolled out contactless tech to 200 locations including Panera cafes
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The e-commerce and cloud-computing giant is widening deployment of its contactless technology with existing customers, Vice President Dilip Kumar said in an interview. Amazon declined to provide growth figures, but in June 2022 the company said more than 69 locations in the U.S. and UK had such technology. On Wednesday the U.S. cafe chain Panera Bread unveiled Amazon One devices, which let customers scan their palms to pay, for two locations in greater St. Louis. Nearly 150,000 employees at tech companies have faced cuts this year alone, according to industry tracker Layoffs.fyi. "It wasn't as bad" for tech companies in the 2008 financial crisis.

☆ Google begins opening access to its ChatGPT competitor Bard
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Starting in the U.S. and UK, consumers can join a waiting list for English-language access to Bard, a program previously open to approved testers only. Google describes Bard as an experiment allowing collaboration with generative AI, technology that relies on past data to create rather than identify content. Asked whether competitive dynamics were behind Bard's rollout, Jack Krawczyk, a senior product director, said Google was focused on users. Unlike ChatGPT, Bard is not proficient in generating computer code, Google said on its website. "Bard will not always get it right," a Google pop-up notice warned during the demo.

[1/4] The Amazon.com logo and stock price information is seen on screens at the Nasdaq Market Site in New York City, New York, U.S., September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File PhotoMarch 20 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) on Monday said it would axe another 9,000 roles, piling on to a wave of layoffs that has swept the technology sector as an uncertain economy forces companies to get leaner. The layoffs will affect Amazon's streaming unit Twitch as well, following cuts that began in November focused on the company's devices, e-commerce and human-resources organizations. Amazon's stock fell 2%. The company has scaled back or shut down entire services like its virtual primary care offering for employers in recent months.

☆ Explainer: What is Generative AI, the technology behind OpenAI's ChatGPT?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

WHAT IS GENERATIVE AI? Like other forms of artificial intelligence, generative AI learns how to take actions from past data. The most famous generative AI application is ChatGPT, a chatbot that Microsoft-backed OpenAI released late last year. Generative AI likewise can take notes during a virtual meeting. Cybersecurity researchers have also expressed concern that generative AI could allow bad actors, even governments, to produce far more disinformation than before.

☆ Microsoft unveils AI for its office suite in increased competition with Google
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The company previewed a new AI "copilot" for Microsoft 365, its product suite that includes Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and Outlook emails. Microsoft said AI can offer a first draft in these applications, speeding up content creation and freeing up workers' time. "We believe this next generation of AI will unlock a new wave of productivity growth," Satya Nadella, Microsoft's chief executive, said in a livestreamed presentation. Such technology learns from past data how to create content anew, powering in part Microsoft's new copilot and evolving rapidly. Microsoft also showcased how its AI can summarize email threads and even virtual meetings as they occur live in its Teams collaboration software.

☆ Microsoft unveils AI office Copilot in fast-moving race with Google
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The technology company previewed a new AI "Copilot" for Microsoft 365, its product suite that includes Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and Outlook emails. This partly underpins Microsoft's Copilot features, along with an older GPT-3.5 model, business and application data, Microsoft said. Microsoft Word app is seen on the smartphone placed on the keyboard in this illustration taken, July 26, 2021. Similar to live notes that Google showed reporters this week, Microsoft said its Copilot can summarize virtual meetings as they happen in its Teams collaboration software. Friedman pointed to Microsoft's business chat experience as the biggest development on Thursday because it can handle tasks across applications.

☆ Microsoft-backed OpenAI starts release of powerful AI known as GPT-4
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 14 (Reuters) - OpenAI, the creator of chatbot sensation ChatGPT, on Tuesday said it is beginning to release a powerful artificial intelligence model known as GPT-4, setting the stage for even more human-like technology to proliferate. The startup, funded by Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), said in a blog post that its latest technology is "multimodal", meaning images as well as text prompts can spur it to generate content. The text-input features will first be available to ChatGPT Plus subscribers and to software developers, with a waitlist, while the image-input ability remains a preview of its research. The startup's latest technology in some cases represented a vast improvement on its prior version known as GPT-3.5, it said. Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in Palo Alto, Calif.; Editing by Chris Reese and Sharon SingletonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Google unveils 'magic wand' to draft documents as AI race tightens
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"This next phase is where we're bringing human beings to be supported with an AI collaborator, who is working in real time," Thomas Kurian, Chief Executive of Google Cloud, said in a press briefing. Google said customers can fine-tune its AI model with their own data while keeping the information and benefits proprietary. Google aims for its AI to "transform" the work of marketers, lawyers, scientists and educators, according to the video. The Mountain View, California-based company announced a partnership with high-profile AI research lab Midjourney, with Google to provide cloud infrastructure including its custom "TPU" chips. Kurian said Google remains "deeply committed to responsible AI," giving controls to customers and reviewing proper use of its products.

[1/2] A sign for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) headquarters is seen in Santa Clara, California, U.S. March 10, 2023. The bank's sudden shutdown sent a chill through Silicon Valley amid an otherwise gloomy period marked by tech layoffs and a pullback in spending as consumers tightened their wallets. Company executives, many of whom stashed all of their funds in Silicon Valley Bank, took to Twitter and other social media networks to beg for relief. A joint statement Sunday by U.S. government bodies including the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve indicated taxpayers would not bear any cost associated with the new plans around Silicon Valley Bank. Silicon Valley Bank until now had been a reliable source of funding for startups relative to other banks.

Friday's dramatic failure of the bank, which focuses on tech startups, was the biggest since the 2008 financial crisis. Even small startups are getting in on the action to help others. Aleem Mawani, founder of Streak, a company with about 30 employees, tweeted Friday he would lend his personal cash free of any terms to other small startups worried about paying staff. Some, including Lowercarbon Capital, have offered loans to portfolio companies that have funds stuck at SVB. Gurson estimated "conservatively" that Altman has given more than $1 million to support other startups in similar need.

At some Silicon Valley Bank branch locations in California, depositors gathered early Friday to attempt to get their cash out, fearing it could be inaccessible in the coming days. It has had financial relationships with a who’s who of Silicon Valley firms over the years, including Snapchat's parent Snap Inc (SNAP.N). A locked door to a Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) location on Sand Hill Road is seen in Menlo Park, California, U.S. March 10, 2023. A Silicon Valley Bank spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent Friday. As of Friday, FarmboxRx’s funds were still tied up with Silicon Valley Bank.

☆ How SVB employees are coping after being ordered to leave the office, from polishing their resumes to hitting the bar: 'We're pretty much in the dark'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Emmalyse Brownstein | Rebecca Ungarino | Carter Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

It read: "Operations of the SVB Securities broker dealer are distinct from the receivership of SVB Financial." The SVB Securities employee called the whirlwind leading up to SVB's meltdown as "scary, scary stuff." Kevin Heal, senior analyst at Argus Research, said he sees both SVB Securities and SVB Private being sold. SVB bought the healthcare investment bank Leerink Partners in 2018, renaming it SVB Leerink and then SVB Securities. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty ImagesHeal thinks the investment banking operations could be purchased by a smaller investment banking firm that doesn't have tech or healthcare prowess, like US Bancorp or PNC.

March 10 (Reuters) - The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday sent shockwaves through the startup community, which has come to view the lender as a source of reliable capital, particularly for some of tech’s biggest moonshots. It has had financial relationships with a who’s who of Silicon Valley firms over the years, including Snapchat's parent Snap Inc (SNAP.N)Snap declined to comment. A Silicon Valley Bank spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent Friday. Uncertainty swept through Silicon Valley as startup founders and venture capital firms worried they could, among other things, fail to make payroll. As of Friday, FarmboxRx’s funds were still tied up with Silicon Valley Bank.

☆ Palantir lands $99.6 mln deal with U.S. State Department
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 8 (Reuters) - Palantir Technologies Inc (PLTR.N) has won a contract to sell up to $99.6 million worth of software to the U.S. Department of State for monitoring the health of the diplomatic corps, the company told Reuters ahead of a Wednesday announcement. The bureau has sought software to record health incidents, predict risks, manage medical-evacuation missions and handle other tasks, according to a government document. Palantir told Reuters the State Department has already paid the company $10 million as part of the purchase agreement, and it will book the remaining value over the next five years. The Denver, Colorado-headquartered company said the deal continues a pilot dating back to 2021 and other State Department work since 2017. Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in Palo Alto, Calif.; Editing by Sherry Jacob-PhillipsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Salesforce to add ChatGPT to Slack as part of OpenAI partnership
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 7 (Reuters) - Salesforce Inc (CRM.N) said on Tuesday it was working with ChatGPT creator OpenAI to add the chatbot sensation to its collaboration software Slack, as well as bring generative artificial intelligence to its business software generally. ChatGPT also would integrate with Slack to help users summarize conversation threads and handle other queries. Clara Shih, a general manager at Salesforce, said in a press briefing that the announcement responded to demand by businesses for the nascent technology. Salesforce's generative AI tools would help companies “completely reimagine how they engage with their customers,” she said. Salesforce also announced a fund to invest in generative AI startups.

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