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☆ McDonald's fans are mourning the loss of self-serve soft drinks, saying it's the 'end of an era' and a 'tremendous loss'
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

McDonald's is nixing its self-serve soft drinks and customers are expressing their dismay. Fans of the fast-food chain said the switch was the "end of an era" and a "tremendous loss." Some people expressed concerns about the cleanliness of the soda machines and that perhaps the new method would be more sanitary. "I went to a McDonald's that was doing this already I waited for 15 mins for a refill on the drinks," wrote Alexis Coon. "They aren't staffed to refill drinks," wrote Wil Rabquer.

Persons: Hali Palombo, refills, Drew Powell, Meg Herman, McDonald's, Mike Schario, Karen Henderson, McDonald's didn't, that's McDelivery, Hannah Wismer, Alexis Coon, Wil Rabquer, Steve Tuck, Joseph Hall Organizations: Service, Beverage, Facebook Locations: Wall, Silicon, McDonald's, California, Nebraska, Northern California

☆ Rising caffeine levels spark calls for ban on energy drink sales to children
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Kailyn Rhone | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/2] FILE PHOTO-Prime energy drink cans sit on a shelf at Target in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., August 18, 2023. Rival products like Anheuser Busch InBev-backed (ABI.BR) Ghost energy drinks and Kim Kardashian's “Kimade” energy drink also have 200 mg of caffeine. In the U.S. and UK, no national regulations ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks. She added: "Any energy drink with a high dose caffeine in it, such as Prime Energy, is unsafe for children." “I got confused because when you first see the can, it’s hard to see where it says energy drink.

Persons: Kim Kardashian's, Holly Benjamin, Dr, Benjamin, Chuck Schumer, Alani, Logan Paul, KSI, Shick, ”, “, Bonnie Patten, TINA, GNC, Vanessa O'Connell, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: REUTERS, Prime Energy, Anheuser Busch InBev, Monster Energy, University of Chicago, American Academy of Child, Psychiatry, FDA, U.S, Ghost Energy, Congo Brands, American Medical Association, Walmart, Target, Energy, Kailyn, Thomson Locations: Target, Brooklyn , New York, U.S, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Congo, Florida, Kailyn Rhone, New York

☆ Here are Thursday's biggest analyst calls: Nvidia, Apple, Amazon, Splunk, Peloton, Rivian, AMC & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Goldman Sachs reiterates Nvidia as buy Goldman said it's standing by it's buy rating after Nvidia's strong earnings report on Wednesday. Stifel upgrades Nvidia to buy from hold Stifel upgraded the stock after its strong earnings report Wednesday. Bank of America upgrades Williams-Sonoma to neutral from underperform Bank of America said that the downside scenario is now "off the table" for Williams-Sonoma. Bank of America downgrades Vizio to underperform from buy Bank of America double downgraded the stock on concerns about a weakening consumer. Bank of America downgrades Peloton to neutral from buy Bank of America said it sees "limited visibility on growth initiatives" for Peloton .

Persons: Needham, Rivian, it's, Oppenheimer, Goldman Sachs, Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Wedbush, Johnson, Splunk, Raymond James, Piper Sandler, Piper, Wolfe, Charles Schwab, Bernstein, Estee Lauder, Snowflake, Rosenblatt, Read Organizations: Nvidia, Center, Stifel, AMC, Bank of America, underperform Bank of America, Williams, Sonoma, Vizio, Johnson, Prudential, DFS, ADI Locations: CY2024, Williams, Sonoma, Snowflake

☆ What ARM's expected debut means for the IPO market and SoftBank
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Its debut will be a big deal for an IPO market that's been in the doldrums since 2022, but the company's listing has big implications for SoftBank as well. SoftBank agreed to acquire Arm in 2016 for $32 billion, which at the time was the biggest-ever purchase of a European technology company. The unit also swung to a 9.5 billion yen loss, having made a profit of 29.8 billion yen in the same period a year earlier. SoftBank said its Vision Fund booked an investment gain of 159.8 billion yen, its first gain in five consecutive quarters. In July, the company led a $65 million investment in U.K. insurance technology company Tractable.

Persons: Son, Tomohiro Ohsumi, SoftBank, It's, Rene Haas, Haas, Nvidia SoftBank, Arm, Grace Hopper, Didi, Uber, Yoshimitsu Goto, Leswing Organizations: SoftBank Group Corp, ARM Holdings, Bloomberg, Getty, Apple, reining, Acorn Computers, Acorn, Machines, VLSI Technology, CNBC, ARM, Nvidia, Vision, Investors, AMD, Vision Fund Locations: Tokyo, Cambridge, England, Switzerland, European, Europe, U.S, London, New York

☆ Marqo, a startup using AI and machine learning to improve search, just raised $5.2 million with this 14-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Vector search startup Marqo has raised $5.2 million in seed funding from Blackbird Ventures. "There's a huge opportunity to improve search," Tom Hamer, Marqo's cofounder and CEO said. Marqo, a startup that helps e-commerce businesses and marketplaces improve their search functionality, has raised $5.2 million. Its vector search uses machine learning (ML) and AI to capture the meaning and context of data such as text and images, transforming it into a numeric representation that can then be queried by users through an API. While vector search models have been around for a while, improved AI technology has made the sector more accessible.

Persons: Tom Hamer, Marqo's, Marqo, Hamer, Cohere's, Ivan Zhang, Aidan Gomez Organizations: Blackbird Ventures, Amazon, Fund Locations: London, Melbourne, Canadian

☆ UK retailer John Lewis boosts AI capability with Google deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Aug 9 (Reuters) - British retailer John Lewis Partnership has agreed a five-year deal with Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google Cloud, enabling it to harness the latest artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology. The employee-owned partnership, which runs John Lewis department stores and the Waitrose supermarket chain, said on Wednesday the new agreement, which builds on a decade-long relationship with Google Cloud, was worth 100 million pounds ($127 million). Under the expanded agreement, more of the partnership's technology will migrate to Google Cloud. Google Cloud agreed a similar deal with European home improvement retailer Kingfisher(KGF.L) last November. Zak Mian, the John Lewis Partnership's chief transformation and technology officer, said an example was customers using an image scanning feature in their John Lewis App to show its home design stylists a room they're looking to furnish.

Persons: John Lewis, Zak Mian, John Lewis Partnership's, Prerna Bedi, James Davey, Nivedita Bhattacharjee, Sachin Ravikumar Organizations: John, John Lewis Partnership, Google, Waitrose, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru, London

☆ Juul seeks authorization on a new vape it says can verify a user’s age. Here’s how it works
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Nadia Bidarian | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —E-cigarette company Juul Labs is seeking US authorization to sell a “next-generation” vape with age verification capabilities in the United States. If authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration, Juul Labs hasn’t yet decided on the name to market their new product in the US. Courtesy JuulAdvertising itself as an alternative nicotine product, Juul publicly advises that adults vape only as a replacement for combustible cigarettes. In total, Juul Labs has agreed to pay more than $1 billion in its various legal settlements. Even with limited flavors, the FDA banned Juul products in the US last year after reviewing Juul’s applications seeking marketing authorization for their devices.

Persons: CNN —, ”, Joe Murillo, it’s, Juul, Robin Koval, vaping, ” Koval, Kirk Phelps Organizations: CNN, FDA, US Food and Drug Administration, Juul Labs, Truth Initiative, Tobacco Survey, Labs, Canada, Tobacco, Virginia, Centers for Disease Control Locations: United States, Canada, Washington, DC, Virginia

☆ Buy stocks like Amazon, which are undervalued and underappreciated ahead of earnings, analysts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-29 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Investors combing for value ahead of another big week of earnings should look no further, according to analysts. CNBC Pro looked through top Wall Street research to find stocks that are underappreciated as earnings season continues. Meanwhile chatter around the stock remains mostly balanced and positive, according to UBS. "We model an ~8% 5-yr. EPS CAGR and rate the stock buy as we believe this growth potential remains underappreciated," Serna said. ... We model an ~8% 5-yr. EPS CAGR and rate the stock buy as we believe this growth potential remains underappreciated."

Persons: Mauricio Serna, Lee, Wrangler, Serna, Jason Kupferberg, it's, Kupferberg, Matt Niknam, DigitalBridge, Niknam, Baird, Jassy, DBRG, Morgan Stanley Organizations: CNBC Pro, Kontoor Brands, International, Kontoor Brands UBS, UBS, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, TAM

☆ The UK has been accidentally sending classified information to Russian-allied Mali because of a one-letter typo in a domain name: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Kwan Wei Kevin Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

British officials have been accidentally sending emails containing classified information to Mali. Millions of US military emails were sent to Mali due to the same error, the FT previously reported. Officials from the UK Ministry of Defence have also been sending emails containing classified information to Mali because of the same mistake, per The Times, which saw five emails from UK email addressess. Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that millions of US military emails had been accidentally sent to Mali. Representatives from the UK Ministry of Defence and the Malian government did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.

Persons: they're, It's, Johannes Zuurbie Organizations: Service, US, UK Ministry of Defence, The Times, Times, Financial Times, Wagner, Kremlin Locations: Mali, Wall, Silicon, Russian, Dutch, Russia, Mali ., Malian

☆ Britain investigates after Mali gets defence emails meant for Pentagon
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, July 28 (Reuters) - UK authorities said on Friday they were investigating defence ministry emails that were mistakenly sent to the wrong recipient, after reports that messages intended for U.S. military intelligence ended up with Russian ally Mali. Ministry of Defence officials were trying to contact the Pentagon, whose domain name is ".mil", but accidentally sent the mails to Mali, which has the domain name ".ml", the Times newspaper reported. Britain said the information that was mistakenly shared was not highly sensitive. "We have opened an investigation after a small number of emails were mistakenly forwarded to an incorrect email domain," a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said, without confirming the domain's name. "All sensitive information is shared on systems designed to minimise the risk of misdirection," the spokesperson said.

Persons: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan romcom, Alistair Smout, John Stonestreet Organizations: Ministry of Defence, Pentagon, Times, MoD, BBC, Britain's MoD, Thomson Locations: Mali, Russia, France, Britain, U.S

☆ Thymia uses AI to assess and track patients' mental health conditions. Check out the 9-slide deck it used to secure $2.7 million.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The startup deploys AI to monitor patients' mental health symptoms, for depression and anxiety. Check out the 9-slide deck it used to secure the fresh funding. A startup that uses AI to detect, assess, and track symptoms of mental illnesses — such as depression and anxiety disorder — has secured $2.7 million. Given the "subjective" nature of mental health diagnoses, doctors hadn't realized the severity of her friend's condition, Molimpakis said. In a bid to make "mental health as objectively measurable as physical health," Thymia has developed an AI-powered platform that combines neuropsychology, linguistics, and machine learning to assess signs of mental illness in patients — and evaluate how their symptoms are progressing.

Persons: —, Thymia, Emilia Molimpakis, hadn't, Molimpakis, Amanda M Cardinale, Nadav Rosenberg Organizations: Kodori Ventures, Syndicate, Ventures Locations: London, Crowdcube

☆ A man who runs the web domain for a Russian-allied country says the US military has been accidentally sending him millions of emails for 10 years, including sensitive information like a general's trav
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Dutch business owner is warning that millions of US military emails are being sent to Mali. People are sending sensitive information to the ".ml" instead of ".mil" accounts, he told the FT.Johannes Zuurbier said the emails sent to the Russian ally contained maps and personal records. Johannes Zuurbier, who was contracted to manage Mali's country email domain, said he's been trying to alert the Pentagon to the potential security issue for the last decade, according to The Financial Times. Zuurbier told the FT he's seen around 1,000 emails a day being sent to the wrong domain. US military email accounts also notify personnel if they try sending a message to addresses with the ".ml" domain, and will automatically block the email from being sent, Gorman added.

Persons: Johannes Zuurbier, he's, —, Zuurbier, James McConville, General James Charles McConville, Prabowo Subianto, Eko Siswono, He's, Cmdr, Tim Gorman, Gorman Organizations: Service, Pentagon, Financial Times, US Army, Staff, Indonesian Defense, Anadolu Agency, Getty, White House, Wagner, Kremlin, Defense Department Locations: Mali, Wall, Silicon, Russian, Indonesia, Jakarta, Russia, Malian

☆ Chuck Schumer wants the FDA to scrutinize Logan Paul's Prime beverage brand for its marketing and caffeine content. It's nothing new for the energy drink industry.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-09 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Other energy drinks boast similar or higher levels of caffeine content, such as Celsius or Bang. "This content and the claims made should be investigated, along with the ingredients and the caffeine content in the Prime energy drink." The company notes under the energy drink product that the beverage is for ages 18+. Prime's beverage is not the only energy drink with high caffeine content on the market. Some energy drinks surpass the caffeine content of Prime.

Persons: Sen, Chuck Schumer, Logan, Schumer, influencers Paul, KSI, William Olatunji, Powerade —, Paul, it's, Red Bull Organizations: FDA, Service, Drug Administration, YouTube, Associated Press, AP, Congo Brands, Gatorade, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, New Zealand Herald, The New York Times, Prime Energy, Times, Red, American Academy of Pediatrics Locations: Wall, Silicon, Louisville, Australia, New Zealand, Swedish

☆ The US Army is looking for help from AI to predict what its enemies will do minutes or even hours before they do it
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The US Army wants help with "continuous, real-time predictive visualization" of enemy actions. The project is spurred by fears that human analysts won't be able to keep up with complex warfare. The Army wants the project to "take advantage" of emerging AI and/or machine-learning technologies. Military intelligence can't "assume an enemy whose behavior can be modeled via a doctrinal template," the Army RFI says. US Army military intelligence soldiers train at Camp Bullis in Texas in March 2019.

Persons: —, Daniel Schroeder, Melissa N, Lessard, ChatGPT, Michael Peck Organizations: US Army, Army, Service, Lewis, McChord, Army RFI, Britain's Royal United Services Institute, US Defense Department, RFI, Defense, Foreign Policy, Twitter, LinkedIn Locations: Washington, Nagorno, Karabakh, Ukraine, Russia, Bullis, Texas, Forbes

☆ This German drug stock can rally more than 40% thanks to its A.I. potential, Morgan Stanley says
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Brian Evans | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Morgan Stanley thinks little-known drug developer Evotec could benefit from artificial intelligence advancements in Europe and new collaborations with peer companies. EVO YTD mountain Evotec SE stock has surged 40% from the start of the year. Meanwhile, a security breach in April did little to caution Quigley away from the stock. The analyst highlighted the company's potential to better use AI to aid in drug development in the future, as well as partnerships with big pharma names. "A number of Pharma companies are investing in internal AI/ML efforts," he added.

Persons: Morgan Stanley, Morgan Stanley's, James Quigley, Quigley, Evotec, Eli Lilly, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: pharma, Merck & Co, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novo Nordisk Locations: Europe, Germany

☆ Cisco launches new AI networking chips to compete with Broadcom, Marvell
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

June 20 (Reuters) - Cisco Systems (CSCO.O) on Tuesday launched networking chips for AI supercomputers that would compete with offerings from Broadcom (AVGO.O) and Marvell Technology (MRVL.O). The chips are being tested by five of the six major cloud providers, Cisco said, without naming the firms. Cisco is a major supplier of networking equipment including ethernet switches, which connect devices such as computers, laptops, routers, servers and printers to a local area network. "G200 & G202 are going to be the most powerful networking chips in the market fueling AI/ML workloads enabling the most power-efficient network," Cisco fellow and formerly principal engineer Rakesh Chopra said. Cisco said the chips could help in carrying out AI and machine learning tasks with 40% fewer switches and a lesser lag, while being more power efficient.

Persons: Rakesh Chopra, Chavi Mehta, Stephen Nellis, Anil D'Silva Organizations: Cisco Systems, Broadcom, Marvell Technology, Cisco, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google, Bofa Global Research, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

☆ A.I. could ‘remove all human touchpoints’ in supply chains. Here’s what that means
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( Lucy Handley | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Ryan Collerd | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesArtificial intelligence is likely to shake up the transportation industry — transforming how supply chains are managed and reducing the number of jobs carried out by people, according to analysts and industry insiders. Sidewalk robots, self-driving trucks and customer service bots are on their way, along with generative AI that can predict disruptions or explain why sales forecasts may have been missed, according to industry executives. "AI may be able to totally (or nearly) remove all human touchpoints in the supply chain including 'back office' tasks," Morgan Stanley 's analysts led by Ravi Shanker stated in a research note last month. AI is the latest one of these potentially transformative technologies to emerge – and perhaps the most powerful to-date," the analysts added. This is a theme picked up by analysts at investment firm Jefferies, who made multiple predictions about the effect that generative AI will have on transportation and logistics.

Persons: Morgan Stanley, Ryan Collerd, Ravi Shanker, Morgan, Jefferies, Stephanie Moore, Navneet Kapoor, Kapoor, Maersk, Igor Rikalo Organizations: Hershey Co, Bloomberg, Getty, EV, Trucking, Logistics, CNBC, Maersk, o9 Solutions Maersk Locations: U.S, Russia, Ukraine

☆ I'm a former Google engineer who founded an AI startup. Here are the AI tech skills to learn and the tech roles AI will replace.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Julie Bort | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

AI will overtake many tasks, and some roles, he says, leaving people free for more creative work. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Zach Smith, founder of Nova AI. But the path to my dream career – founder of a newly launched startup called Nova AI – wasn't straightforward or easy for me. And the people who do them should prepare themselves to be shifted towards different, more creative tasks. While I don't think that QA engineers are going to be entirely replaced, all of the manual functions they do will be automated.

Persons: Zach Smith, Gayle McDowell, I've, there's, it's Organizations: Morning, Nova, Google, Georgia Institute of Technology, Nova AI

☆ Factbox: Apple spruces up products with AI but avoids the buzz word
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

June 6 (Reuters) - Apple (AAPL.O) did not once mention the word AI at its developers conference on Monday, but the iPhone-maker quietly added the technology that has taken Wall Street by storm to many of the features and updates it unveiled. The omission was in contrast to how other tech giants such as Alphabet-owned (GOOGL.O) Google and Microsoft (MSFT.O) have approached the hype recently, including talking about AI during earnings calls and at events on how they are embracing the technology. Instead, Apple used words such as "transformer language model", "machine learning" and "ML", when talking about the company's AI efforts. The company unveiled a costly augmented-reality headset called the Vision Pro, which uses AI, while also adding AI for smaller, incremental upgrades to some of its products and apps. Here are some of the products that received AI upgrades:Reporting by Yuvraj Malik, Chavi Mehta and Jaspreet Singh in BengaluruOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Apple, Yuvraj Malik, Chavi Mehta, Jaspreet Singh Organizations: Google, Microsoft, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

☆ Office workers everywhere are about to face their own Uber moment
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In other words, the lessons learned from months or years of experience are baked into an AI tool. The rise of AI tools could help millions of new software developersMicrosoft CEO Satya Nadella for example recently told Time that AI tools could lower the barriers to entry for software developers. This doesn't mean the great software developers won't remain great software developers but the ability for more people to enter the field will increase. That's good news for many wannabe software developers, but it's also bad news for many existing ones. "But for the most part, people in these jobs will just face more competition, similar to taxi drivers as Uber proliferated."

Persons: Uber, —, you'll, Carl Benedikt Frey, Erik Brynjolfsson, Lindsey R, Raymond, Danielle Li, Satya Nadella, it's, Aki Ito, Frey Organizations: Service, Transport, Oxford Martin School, Fortune Locations: London

☆ It's becoming clear that AI is going to whack the mediocre middle of office workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

More specifically, AI could disproportionately impact the middle class of white-collar workers — the folks who are mid-career, mid-ability, mid-level, and yes, in some cases, mediocre. In other words, the lessons learned from months or years of experience are baked into an AI tool. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella for example recently told Time that the same could be true for software developers. This doesn't mean the great software developers won't remain great software developers but the ability for more people to enter the field will increase. That's good news for many wannabe software developers, but it's also bad news for many existing software developers.

Persons: —, Erik Brynjolfsson, Lindsey R, Raymond, Danielle Li, Satya Nadella, it's, Aki Ito, Carl Benedikt Frey, Uber, Frey, Mark Muro, Jacob Zinkula, Richard Baldwin, Aaron Mok Organizations: Service, Fortune, Microsoft, Oxford Martin School, London, BT Group, Workers, Brookings Institution, Geneva Graduate Institute Locations: London, British, Switzerland

☆ How to thrive in a new era of AI with trust and confidence
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Sponsor Post | Created Ibm With Insider Studios | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

But success in applying AI, whether based on the most advanced machine learning (ML) or the latest generative AI leveraging foundation models, is not just measured in speed. Whether based on ML or foundation models, the more customized your AI models are to those priorities, the better you will be able to serve your customers and deliver real business value. A hybrid cloud architecture provides the data foundation for extending AI deep into the business. If the models contain bias, or if AI models are misleading, "hallucinate," or are not explainable, the risk and cost of reputational damage and regulatory fines could be high. Three opportunities to put AI into actionHere are the best opportunities to derive benefit from AI in your business today:1.

Persons: IBM Watson, Carhartt, Let's Organizations: IBM Consulting, IBM, Dutch Bank ABN AMRO, IT, Insider Studios

☆ AI startup MindsDB aims to help every developer be a machine learning engineer. Here's the pitch deck it used to raise $25 million from investors like Mayfield Fund and Benchmark.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

AI startup MindsDB just raised a $25 million seed extension round led by Mayfield. The round comes less than three months after it raised a $16.5 million round led by Benchmark. The founders of MindsDB aims to help software developers worldwide perform the roles of machine-learning engineers. Founded in 2017, MindsDB is now gaining the interest of investors as AI has become the talk of the town in tech. In February, the startup announced $16.5 million in funding led by Benchmark.

Persons: Mayfield, MindsDB, Navin Chaddha, Chaddha, MindDB's cofounders Jorge Torres, Adam Carrigan, Torres, Chetan Puttagunta Organizations: Benchmark, Mayfield Fund, Ventures, Australian National University Locations: San Francisco, Europe

☆ Despite near-term growth concerns, Wall Street analysts view this cloud stock as a long-term A.I. winner
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Snowflake should emerge as a long-term artificial intelligence winner despite a host of near-term snowstorms, Wall Street analysts think. The cloud stock dropped more than 16% last Thursday after the company shared product revenue guidance that fell short of consensus expectations and results that indicated slowing growth. Even with these headwinds, many analysts remain positive on Snowflake's long-term trajectory, viewing an acquisition and the transition to the cloud as two catalysts for the stock. Deutsche Bank's Brad Zelnick said in a recent note that AI, among other developments, should drive customer stickiness and improved use cases. A murky future Not everyone seems optimistic about Snowflake's AI potential, however.

Persons: Snowflake, Brent Thill, Piper Sandler's Brent Bracelin, Raymond James, Simon Leopold, Frank Slootman, Goldman Sachs, Kash Rangan, Rangan, Brad Zelnick, Redburn, Alex Haissl, Haissl, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Wall Street, Wolfe Research, Snowflake's Summit, Deutsche, Palo Alto Networks Locations: Snowflake, Las Vegas

☆ Bank of America ranks the biggest A.I. winners in software stocks. Here are its top picks
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

As investors look for winners in the artificial intelligence boom, several software stocks stand out, including Microsoft and Oracle, according to Bank of America. Given the "immense opportunity ahead for both vendors and investors," Bank of America analysts have created a proprietary ranking system to identify potential AI beneficiaries in the software group. The rankings identify consensus AI leaders and software vendors, the firm said in a note Tuesday. "We have created a proprietary framework of analysis (based on 13 yes or no questions) that investors can use to predict potential AI beneficiaries. HubSpot may also potentially use AI for data cleansing and email data capture, among other things, he said.

Persons: Brad Sills, Bing, OpenAI, Sills, HubSpot, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Microsoft, Oracle, Bank of America, Nvidia, OpenAI, HubSpot Locations: OpenAI

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