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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.

Executives across the technology sector are talking about how to operate AI like ChatGPT while accounting for the high expense. What makes this form of AI pricier than conventional search is the computing power involved. Still, footing the bill is one of two main reasons why search and social media giants with billions of users have not rolled out an AI chatbot overnight, said Paul Daugherty, Accenture's chief technology officer. Technology experts also said a workaround is applying smaller AI models to simpler tasks, which Alphabet is exploring. The company said this month a "smaller model" version of its massive LaMDA AI technology will power its chatbot Bard, requiring "significantly less computing power, enabling us to scale to more users."

☆ ChatGPT launches boom in AI-written e-books on Amazon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Greg Bensinger | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

In the edition, Sammy the Squirrel, crudely rendered also using AI, learns from his forest friends about saving money after happening upon a gold coin. While that may not sound like much, it is enough to inspire him to compose other books using the software. There were over 200 e-books in Amazon’s Kindle store as of mid-February listing ChatGPT as an author or co-author, including "How to Write and Create Content Using ChatGPT," "The Power of Homework" and poetry collection "Echoes of the Universe." There is even a new sub-genre on Amazon: Books about using ChatGPT, written entirely by ChatGPT. In the video, White says anyone with the wherewithal and time could create 300 such books a year, all using AI.

☆ Analysis: From Meta to Microsoft, AI's big moment is here
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/2] A Microsoft logo is seen a day after Microsoft Corp's $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn Corp, in Los Angeles, California, U.S. June 14, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File PhotoFeb 3 (Reuters) - Big Tech companies have a new obsession: artificial intelligence. Executives from Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), behind the latest big rivalry in tech, took their battle to the conference-call front lines. We can bring those to life using generative (AI) art, which I think is really exciting," he said. "One of my goals for Meta is to build on our research to become a leader in generative AI," said Zuckerberg.

Shares of Alphabet, were down about 4% in after-hours trading, after losing about 40% of their value in 2022. Revenue from Google advertising, which includes Search and YouTube, fell 3.6% to $59.04 billion. Alphabet's net income fell to $13.62 billion, or $1.05 per share, from $20.64 billion, or $1.53 per share, a year earlier. Adjusted profit of $1.05 per share fell short of an expected $1.18 per share, according to Refinitiv. Like rivals, Alphabet had bulked up during the pandemic and into last year, adding 12,700 new jobs in the third quarter alone.

Across the company, Alphabet will "meaningfully" slow its pace of hiring this year, said Porat. Net income fell to $13.62 billion, or $1.05 per share, from $20.64 billion, or $1.53 per share, a year earlier. Adjusted profit of $1.05 per share fell short of an expected $1.18 per share, according to Refinitiv. Revenue from Google advertising, which includes Search and YouTube, fell 3.6% to $59.04 billion. Late last month, the Justice Department and eight states sued Google over what they said were anticompetitive practices in its digital ad sales.

Jan 25 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) said Wednesday it will reinstate former U.S. President Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks, following a two-year suspension after the deadly Capitol Hill riot on January 6, 2021. He has 34 million followers on Facebook and 23 million on Instagram, platforms that are key vehicles for political outreach and fundraising. "I worry about Facebook's capacity to understand the real world harm that Trump poses: Facebook has been too slow to act." Whether, and how, Trump will seize upon the opportunity to return to Facebook and Instagram is unclear. He did not indicate if or when he would begin posting on Meta platforms again.

Dec 22 (Reuters) - Tesla (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said on Thursday he will not sell any more Tesla stock for another two years. Musk has previously made promises about not selling Tesla stock before subsequently selling it. "I needed to sell some stock to make sure, like, there's powder dry...to account for a worst case scenario," the billionaire said. Musk said that Tesla is close to picking the location of its new "Gigafactory." "(Twitter) is maybe 10% of the complexity of Tesla," Musk said.

Dec 22 (Reuters) - Tesla (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said on Thursday he will not sell any more Tesla stock for about two years. His comments came after a Tesla stock sell-off deepened on Thursday over worries about softening demand for electric cars and Musk's distraction with Twitter and his stock sales. "I won't sell stock until I don't know probably two years from now. Musk has previously made promises about not selling Tesla stock before subsequently selling it. "(Twitter) is maybe 10% of the complexity of Tesla," Musk said.

☆ Twitter suspends accounts of several journalists
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Dec 15 (Reuters) - Twitter on Thursday suspended the accounts of several prominent journalists who recently wrote about its new owner Elon Musk, with the billionaire tweeting that rules banning the publishing of personal information applied to all, including journalists. On Wednesday, Twitter suspended @elonjet, an account tracking Musk's private jet in real time using data available in the public domain. Twitter on Thursday showed "account suspended" notices for a clutch of journalists' accounts. A spokesperson for The New York Times said: "Tonight's suspension of the Twitter accounts of a number of prominent journalists, including The New York Times's Ryan Mac, is questionable and unfortunate. We hope that all of the journalists' accounts are reinstated and that Twitter provides a satisfying explanation for this action."

☆ These baristas are leading a nationwide campaign to unionize Starbucks. It came at a cost
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

Since then workers at 243 other stores spread over 38 states have voted to join Starbucks Workers United — that’s more than five stores a week. Still, most of the fired workers nationwide remain off the job, including Tambellini. “The pizza place next door [to the Starbucks store I worked at] offered me a job almost immediately,” said Tambellini. Starbucks employees and supporters react as votes are read during a union-election watch party in Buffalo, New York. The Starbucks workers are really demonstrating that it’s possible to unionize in an industry where it was thought of as impossible to organize, due to high turnover and a large percentage of young people,” he said.

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