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☆ Microsoft announces unified AI assistant, new Surface devices
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Yuvraj Malik | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Rami Amichay Acquire Licensing RightsSept 21 (Reuters) - Microsoft (MSFT.O) on Thursday announced a "unified" artificial intelligence (AI) for its Windows 11 platform and four new Surface devices, upping the appeal of its products spruced with the latest technology. The new AI tool, called Copilot, will work across the company's web and productivity applications Bing, Edge browser, and Microsoft 365 software suite. The updated AI software will roll out with the latest changes to Windows 11 on Sept. 26. It will be available in Microsoft 365 Copilot on Nov. 1, when the highly anticipated enterprise AI tool will be generally available for purchase. Microsoft on Thursday announced three laptops - Surface Laptop Go 3, Surface Laptop Studio 2 and Surface Go 4 For Business - and Surface Hub 3, the newer version of its interactive whiteboard.

Persons: Rami Amichay, Bing, OpenAI's, Panos, Yusuf Mehdi, Yuvraj Malik, Jeffrey Dastin, Maju Samuel Organizations: Microsoft, REUTERS, Big Tech, Apple, GenAI, Thomson Locations: Herzliya, Tel Aviv, Israel, Redmond , Washington, Panos Panay, Bengaluru, San Francisco

☆ Arm’s shares seen as a shoo-in for Nasdaq 100, though S&P 500 unlikely
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Suzanne Mcgee And Lewis Krauskopf | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsNEW YORK, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Newly publicly traded company Arm Holdings is poised to be added to popular indexes such as the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100, although inclusion in the S&P 500 is unlikely, analysts said. Shares of the British chip designer closed up 24.7% in their Nasdaq debut on Thursday, giving it a market value of $65 billion. “The Nasdaq 100 is the most likely widely followed index for the company to get added into,” said Todd Rosenbluth, Head of Research at VettaFi. However, inclusion in the Nasdaq 100 may take time for Arm shares. Inclusion of Arm shares in the S&P 500, which is the standard benchmark for the U.S. stock market, is far less certain, analysts said.

Persons: Rene Haas, Brendan McDermid, ”, Todd Rosenbluth, Russell, Todd Sohn, Sohn, Jeffrey DeMaso, Dow Jones, Lois Gregson, Suzanne McGee, Lewis Krauskopf, Ira Iosebashvili, Nick Zieminski Organizations: Nasdaq, REUTERS, Arm Holdings, Fund, Nvidia, Research, Lucid, ARM, Vanguard Investment, VanEck Semiconductor, Software, FactSet, Thomson Locations: New York, U.S, British, VettaFi

☆ Sanity Question and Plea Talks Shadow Coming Sept. 11 Hearings
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Carol Rosenberg | More About Carol Rosenberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Prosecutors have issued a new deadline — Sept. 18 — for four detainees at the American military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to show their willingness to plead guilty to plotting the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and receive a maximum punishment of life in prison. The fifth defendant in the case has been found incompetent to stand trial and is likely to be removed from the case. Without a challenge, the judge is expected to sever him from the case when hearings resume next week after a 22-month hiatus. They describe the deadline as driven by the scheduled Oct. 7 departure of the current overseer of the case, Jeffrey D. Wood. In March 2022, Mr. Wood authorized prosecutors to pursue guilty pleas that would spare the defendants a capital trial to resolve the long-running case.

Persons: Ramzi bin al, Prosecutors, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Jeffrey D, Wood Organizations: Mr Locations: Guantánamo Bay, Cuba

☆ Google introduces generative AI to Search in India, Japan
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Google logo and AI Artificial Intelligence words are seen in this illustration taken, May 4, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/file photo Acquire Licensing RightsAug 30 (Reuters) - Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google said on Wednesday it introduced generative artificial intelligence to its Search tool for users in India and Japan that will show text or visual results to prompts, including summaries. Japanese users will be able to use the feature in their local languages, while it will be available in English and Hindi in India. Google's search feature is meant to be used for seeking information, such as locating something to purchase. Google's AI search competes with Microsoft's (MSFT.O) Bing.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Bing, Chavi Mehta, Jeffrey Dastin, Krishna Chandra Organizations: REUTERS, Google, Thomson Locations: India, Japan, United States, Bengaluru, San Francisco

☆ At Taser maker Axon, ex-staff say loyalty meant being tased, tattooed
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Scottsdale | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +34 min

Reuters also interviewed 63 current and former Axon employees, including nine former executives. No one with whom Reuters spoke was aware of deaths or lawsuits stemming from tasings of Axon staff. Axon has faced fewer lawsuits since 2009, the year it introduced a new Taser model with a lower charge. Screenshots from an Axon promotional video show CEO Rick Smith taking a Taser hit in 1993, the year he co-founded the business. And that’s off-putting.”Gorman, the former Axon lawyer, said he “vividly” remembers an executive asking him if he was going to be tased.

Persons: Ross Blank, Blank, Steve Tuttle, Shawn Gorman, ”, Jennifer Chatman, Rick Smith, Andrea James, ” James, Axon’s, tasings, ” Blank, Tuttle, Staff tasings, “, Valencia Gibson, Gibson, Reuters –, Axon’s “, Bro, Josh Isner, Isner, James, –, Ann Rosenthal, Rosenthal, ” Rosenthal, Sigma Chi, Smith, ” Smith, ” Michael Church, Hans Marrero, Marrero, ” Marrero, “ I’m, ’ ” Smith, “ It’s, ” Gibson, ” ‘, impressionable, squinting, Keara, Rylan, Mihir Shah, ” Shah, Mario Barth, “ Willing, It’s, Isaiah Fields, Wayne Guay, Lamar Cousins, Cousins, Kevin De Rosa Jr, De Rosa, ” Isner, Smith’s, De Rosa bellowed, They’re, ” Gorman, You’re, Jeffrey Dastin, Paresh Dave Art, John Emerson, Julie Marquis Organizations: Enterprise Inc, Reuters, Haas School of Business, University of California, Staff, Scottsdale, Yorker, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, . Occupational Safety, Health Administration, federal, Safety, Health, Labor, Sigma, Harvard, Sigma Chi, Boston Magazine, Harvard’s Sigma Chi, U.S . Marine Corps, YouTube, Employment, Los, Keara Berlin, ” Employees, Los Angeles Police Department, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, strapping, Culture Locations: Berkeley, Rome, United States, Arizona, U.S, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, “, Berlin, Sacramento, San Jose , California, tasings, Mandalay, Scottsdale, wasn’t

☆ Dollar Tree said theft is such a problem it will start locking up items or stop selling them altogether
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( David Goldman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Dollar Tree had a miserable quarter, and company management is chalking it up to a mix of factors: changing consumer demands on top of higher prices for fuel and electricity … and theft. Shares of Dollar Tree plunged 10% on the news. Dick’s Sporting Goods this week also cited theft as a primary reason why its profit plunged last quarter, even though sales rose. Target warned earlier this year that it was bracing to lose half a billion dollars because of rising theft. And the summer heat has sent air conditioning costs through the roof; Dollar Tree said that, too, has hurt its bottom line.

Persons: Richard Dreiling, Jeffrey Davis, Davis, Dreiling, “, Kurt Petermeyer Organizations: New, New York CNN, Wall, OSHA, Dick’s, Goods, Walgreens Locations: New York, Atlanta, Lowe’s

[1/2] The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Lauwin-Planque, northern France, November 15, 2022. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File PhotoNEW YORK, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Amazon.com (AMZN.O) is in talks about joining other technology companies as a cornerstone investor in SoftBank Group Corp's (9984.T) Arm Ltd ahead of its initial public offering (IPO), people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. Amazon's potential involvement in the IPO, which has not previously been reported, underscores Arm's significance in cloud computing. Amazon Web Services, the internet giant's cloud business, makes its own processing chip called Graviton, using Arm's design. Arm has been in talks with about 10 technology companies, including Intel (INTC.O), Alphabet (GOOGL.O) and Nvidia (NVDA.O), about an investment ahead of its IPO, Reuters has reported.

Persons: Pascal, SoftBank, Echo Wang, Anirban Sen, Jeffrey Dastin, Stephen Nellis, Matthew Lewis Organizations: REUTERS, Web Services, Nasdaq, Reuters, Intel, Nvidia, San, Thomson Locations: Lauwin, France, New York, San Francisco

For the second quarter, Amazon's revenue grew 11% to $134.4 billion, beating estimates of $131.5 billion from analysts polled by Refinitiv. In recent months, Amazon Web Services (AWS) saw its sales growth slow as wary businesses scrutinized their cloud bills. The unit beat estimates of around $21.7 billion in second-quarter cloud sales, increasing them 12% to $22.1 billion. Its rivals posted bigger jumps off smaller bases: 28% growth in Alphabet's June-quarter cloud revenue and a 26% quarterly increase for Microsoft's Azure. Longer-term, Amazon aims to turn one unit, its $35 billion in yearly gross business-to-business e-commerce sales, into $100 billion, Jassy told analysts.

Persons: Pascal Rossignol, Brian Olsavsky, Olsavsky, Andy Jassy, Arun Sundaram, Sundaram, Jassy, Thomas Monteiro, Investing.com, Monteiro, Refinitiv, Chavi Mehta, Jeffrey Dastin, Noel Randewich, Arun Koyyur, Aurora Ellis, Chris Reese Organizations: REUTERS, Amazon.com Inc, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Refinitiv, Amazon Web Services, CFRA Research, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Lauwin, France, Alphabet's, Bengaluru, Jeffrey Dastin San Francisco

☆ Exclusive: Amazon has drawn thousands to try its AI service competing with Microsoft, Google
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | Thomson Reuters | Jeffrey Dastin Is A Correspondent For Reuters Based In San Francisco | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File PhotoJuly 26 (Reuters) - Amazon.com’s (AMZN.O) cloud division has drawn thousands of customers to try out its service vying with Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Google (GOOGL.O) in a key area of artificial intelligence, an executive told Reuters. "Our mission is to make every company an AI company," said Sivasubramanian, in an interview pegged to a summit the cloud provider hosted in New York. Amazon Bedrock is the company's answer to services announced by Google and Microsoft, cloud rivals that have developed or marketed AI garnering significant public attention. Microsoft has invested in OpenAI, the startup that created ChatGPT and the AI model known as GPT-4. The cloud provider announced Agents for Amazon Bedrock, which lets businesses create chatbots that execute tasks and give more personalized answers drawing from their proprietary data.

Persons: Gonzalo Fuentes, Swami Sivasubramanian, Sivasubramanian, Jeffrey Dastin, Stephen Nellis, Chizu Nomiyama, Daniel Wallis Organizations: Viva Technology, Porte de, REUTERS, Microsoft, Google, Reuters, Sony, Ryanair, Sun, Thomson Locations: Porte, Paris, France, New York, OpenAI, Silicon

☆ AI industry leaders create forum to regulate big machine learnings models
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

July 26 (Reuters) - OpenAI, Microsoft (MSFT.O), Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google and Anthropic are launching a forum to regulate the development of large machine learnings models, the industry leaders of artificial intelligence said on Wednesday. The group will focus on ensuring safe and responsible development of what is called "frontier AI models" that exceed the capabilities present in the most advanced existing models. They are highly capable foundation models that could have dangerous capabilities sufficient to pose severe risks to public safety. Generative AI models, like the one behind chatbots like ChatGPT, extrapolate large amounts of data at high speed to share responses in the form of prose, poetry and images. The industry body, Frontier Model Forum, will work to advance AI safety research, identify best practices for deployment of frontier AI models and work with policymakers, academic and companies.

Persons: Sam Altman, Brad Smith, Chavi Mehta, Jeffrey Dastin, Arun Koyyur Organizations: Microsoft, Google, European Union, Frontier Model, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru, Palo Alto

☆ What causes someone to become a serial killer? Criminology experts explain
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Alaa Elassar | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +16 min

CNN —For decades, criminologists and true crime documentaries have attempted to understand what causes serial killers to commit the atrocities they do. CNN spoke with three forensic psychologists and serial killer experts to better understand what causes people to become serial killers. Scott Bonn: Not all psychopaths are serial killers, and not all serial killers are psychopaths. In the case (of a serial killer who) is a psychopath, their brain functions differently than a normal human brain. Are all serial killers serial sexual murderers?

Persons: Dennis Rader, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Albert DeSalvo, Ted Bundy, Rex Heuermann, Heuermann, he’s, Long, Scott Bonn, Psychopaths, Louis Schlesinger, Katherine Ramsland, DeSalvo, Joe Dennehy, Scott, –, you’re, they’re, Bundy, There’s, BTK, Jack, who’ve, They’re, Marny Malin, Sygma, William Heirens, ”, Ted Bundys, John Wayne Gacys, Dennis, they’re chameleons, it’s, He’s, there’s, Jeffrey Dahmer's Organizations: CNN, University of Michigan, John Jay College of Criminal, DeSales University, Boston, Boston Globe, Des, Des Plaines Police Department, Chicago Tribune, Tribune, Service, Getty, Lutheran Church, Boy Scout, Suffolk County Sheriff's, Scott Bonn Locations: United States, New York, Shore, criminologist, Scott Bonn, Chicago, Des Plaines, Milwaukee, Suffolk County, Long

The company also said it would make a more secure version of its Bing search engine available immediately to businesses, aiming to address their data-protection concerns, grow their interest in AI and compete more with Google. The voluntary upgrade is on top of publicly listed, monthly plans ranging from $12.50 per user to $57, meaning the copilot could triple costs for some Microsoft customers. Unlike the public Bing that millions of web surfers have accessed in recent months, the enterprise version will not allow any viewing or saving of user data to train underlying technology. Asked if Bing users were unprotected until now, Spataro said Microsoft had made its privacy policies clear and was eager to bring AI to consumers. It may also draw customers to Microsoft 365 Copilot, an AI upgrade giving access to business data and compliance controls.

Persons: Jared Spataro, Spataro, Bing, Jeffrey Dastin, Stephen Coates Organizations: Microsoft, Google, Bing Chat, Thomson Locations: copilot, Palo Alto, Calif

☆ UN Security Council meets for first time on AI risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Michelle Nichols | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] The U.N. Security Council holds a meeting on Artificial intelligence at U.N. headquarters in New York City, U.S., July 18, 2023. "Both military and non-military applications of AI could have very serious consequences for global peace and security," Guterres said. Ambassador Zhang Jun described AI as a "double-edged sword" and said Beijing supports a central coordinating role of the U.N. on establishing guiding principles for AI. "No member states should use AI to censor, constrain, repress or disempower people," he told the council. Russia questioned whether the council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, should be discussing AI.

Persons: Brendan McDermid, James, Britain's, Antonio Guterres, Jack Clark, Zeng Yi, Guterres, U.N, Zhang Jun, Zhang, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, Dmitry Polyanskiy, Michelle Nichols, Aurora Ellis Organizations: . Security, REUTERS, Brendan McDermid UNITED NATIONS, United Nations Security Council, Britain's, U.N, China -, Research Center, AI, International Atomic Energy Agency, International Civil Aviation Organization, U.S, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S, China, United States, Beijing, Russia

☆ Meta opens AI model to commercial use, throwing nascent market into flux
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Katie Paul | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"Any incremental improvement in open-source models is eating into the market share of closed-source models because you can run them cheaply and have less dependency," said Masad. The announcement follows plans by Microsoft's largest cloud rivals, Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google and Amazon (AMZN.O), to give business customers a range of AI models from which to choose. Amazon, for instance, is marketing access to Claude - AI from the high-profile startup Anthropic - in addition to its own family of Titan models. Google, likewise, has said it plans to make Claude and other models available to its cloud customers. Until now, Microsoft has focused on making technology available from OpenAI in Azure.

Persons: Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg, Bard chatbot, Amjad Masad, Claude, Katie Paul, Jeffrey Dastin, Krystal Hu, Kenneth Li Organizations: YORK, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon Web Services, Thomson

"High level, we want this to become something like your personal AI friend," said developer Div Garg, whose company MultiOn is beta-testing an AI agent. The race towards increasingly autonomous AI agents has been supercharged by the March release of GPT-4 by developer OpenAI, a powerful upgrade of the model behind ChatGPT - the chatbot that became a sensation when released last November. GPT-4 facilitates the type of strategic and adaptable thinking required to navigate the unpredictable real world, said Vivian Cheng, an investor at venture capital firm CRV who has a focus on AI agents. OpenAI itself is very interested in AI agent technology, according to four people briefed on its plans. There are at least 100 serious projects working to commercialize agents, said Matt Schlicht, who writes a newsletter on AI.

Persons: Siri, Alexa, Tony Stark's, Kanjun Qiu, Reid Hoffman, Mustafa Suleyman, Qiu, OpenAI, Vivian Cheng, CRV, Aravind Srinivas, Jarvis, Yoshua Bengio, Satya Nadella, Apple's Siri, it's, Google, Edward Grefenstette, Jason Franklin, WVV Capital, Hesam Motlagh, Matt Schlicht, Anna Tong, Jeffrey Dastin, Kenneth Li Organizations: Microsoft, Google, U.S . Federal Trade Commission, Reuters, FTC, OpenAI's, Financial Times, Amazon, Alexa, Investors, WVV, Google Ventures, Entrepreneurs, Thomson Locations: Silicon, Jarvis, GPT, Cognosys, San Francisco, Palo Alto

☆ There's going to be a lot less new TV for a while. And that's brilliant.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-16 | by ( Chris Johnston | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Hollywood is facing its first strike by both writers and actors in more than six decades. It's going to mean a lot less new television this year, but that may not be such a bad thing. Almost 600 scripted TV shows were released in the United States alone last year. If that is the case, there might be a very big silver lining for us viewers: a break from the relentless release of new TV shows. Likewise with Donald Glover's often truly astonishing piece of performance art masquerading as television that's also known as "Atlanta."

Persons: they're, Jonathan Handel, you'd, I've, They're, Jeffrey Dahmer, Max, Donald Glover's, that's Organizations: Hollywood, Writers Guild of America, Netflix, Apple, Paramount, Lionsgate Locations: United States, Hollywood, Hulu

☆ In rare UN appearance, North Korea defends missile launch
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Michelle Nichols | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/3] Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile is launched from an undisclosed location in North Korea in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on July 13, 2023. The 15-member Security Council met after North Korea said it tested on Wednesday its latest Hwasong-18 ICBM, adding the weapon is the core of its nuclear strike force. "We categorically reject and condemn the convening of the Security Council briefing by the United States and its followers," North Korea's U.N. North Korea last spoke at a council meeting on its nuclear and ballistic missile programs in December 2017, diplomats said. North Korea - formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) - has been under U.N. sanctions for its missile and nuclear programs since 2006.

Persons: Kim Song, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, NATO DeLaurentis, Washington, China's U.N, Zhang Jun, Zhang, Michelle Nichols, Mark Porter, Deepa Babington Organizations: North, Korean Central News Agency, KCNA, REUTERS UNITED NATIONS, Security, Democratic People's, U.S, United Nations, NATO, DPRK, Thomson Locations: North Korea, United States, U.N, Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK, Pyongyang, Russia, China, Britain, France, South Korea, Washington, Beijing, Moscow, emboldening North Korea, CHINA, U.S, NATO, China's

LOS ANGELES, July 12 (Reuters) - Nominations were announced on Wednesday for the Emmy Awards, the highest honors in television. Following is a list of nominees in key categories. The awards are scheduled to be handed out in a televised ceremony in Los Angeles on Sept. 18. BEST DRAMA SERIES"Andor""Better Call Saul""The Crown""House of the Dragon""The Last of Us""Succession""The White Lotus""Yellowjackets"BEST COMEDY SERIES"Abbott Elementary""Barry""Jury Duty""The Bear""The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel""Only Murders in the Building""Ted Lasso""Wednesday"BEST LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES"Beef""Black Bird""Dahmer-Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story""Daisy Jones & The Six""Fleishman is in Trouble""Obi-Wan Kenobi"BEST COMEDY ACTORBill Hader, "Barry"Martin Short, "Only Murders in the Building"Jason Sudeikis, "Ted Lasso"Jeremy Allen White, "The Bear"Jason Segel, "Shrinking"BEST COMEDY ACTRESSChristina Applegate, "Dead to Me"Rachel Brosnahhan, "The Marvelous Mrs. MaiselQuinta Brunson, "Abbott Elementary"Natasha Lyonne, "Poker Face"Jenna Ortega, "Wednesday"BEST DRAMA ACTORBrian Cox, "Succession"Kieran Culkin, "Succession"Bob Odenkirk, "Better Call Saul"Pedro Pascal, "The Last of Us"Jeremy Strong, "Succession"Jeff Bridges, "The Old Man"BEST DRAMA ACTRESSMelanie Lynskey, "Yellowjackets"Elisabeth Moss, "The Handmaid's Tale"Bella Ramsey, "The Last of Us"Sarah Snook, "Succession"Sharon Horgan, "Bad Sisters"Keri Russell, "The Diplomat"BEST ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIETaron Egerton, "Black Bird"Evan Peters, "Dahmer-Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story"Daniel Radcliffe, "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story"Michael Shannon, "George & Tammy"Steven Yeun, "Beef"Kumail Nanjiani "Welcome to Chippendales"BEST ACTRESS, LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIELizzy Caplan, "Fleishman Is In Trouble"Dominique Fishback, "Swarm"Riley Keough, Daisy Jones & The Six"Jessica Chastain, "George and Tammy"Ali Wong, "Beef"Kathryn Hahn, "Tiny Beautiful Things"Reporting by Danielle BroadwayOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Saul, Abbott, Barry, Ted Lasso, Dahmer, Jeffrey Dahmer, Daisy Jones, Obi, Wan, Bill Hader, Martin, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Allen White, Jason Segel, Christina Applegate, Rachel Brosnahhan, Maisel Quinta Brunson, Natasha Lyonne, Jenna Ortega, Brian Cox, Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, Pedro Pascal, Jeremy Strong, Jeff Bridges, Melanie Lynskey, Elisabeth Moss, Bella Ramsey, Sarah Snook, Sharon Horgan, Keri Russell, Egerton, Evan Peters, Daniel Radcliffe, Al Yankovic, Michael Shannon, George, Tammy, Steven Yeun, Lizzy Caplan, Dominique Fishback, Riley Keough, Jessica Chastain, Ali Wong, Kathryn Hahn, Danielle Broadway Organizations: Thomson Locations: ANGELES, Los Angeles

The AI models behind a viral chatbot like ChatGPT require immense computing power to train and operate, the kinds of costs Amazon Web Services (AWS) is good at lowering, said Dilip Kumar, vice president overseeing its applications group. A potential boost is that the company, like Google (GOOGL.O), has proprietary chips for AI. Rivals Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Google have marketed higher profile, proprietary technology, capturing mindshare and some business in the sector's potentially lucrative AI contest. Like Google, Amazon is marketing the technology of other prominent startups to give customers choice. The promise of AI aside, Amazon has faced uncertain economic conditions and slowing cloud revenue growth in the near term.

Persons: Dilip Kumar, Jeffrey Dastin, Nuri Vallbona AUSTIN, Kumar, Jamie Freed Organizations: Amazon, REUTERS, Amazon Web Services, Google, Rivals Microsoft, Microsoft, Thomson Locations: Austin , Texas, U.S, Austin

LOS ANGELES, July 12 (Reuters) - HBO drama "Succession," the story of a cutthroat fight for control of a family's media empire, led the nominees for television's Emmy awards on Wednesday with 27 nods for the show's final season. Others competing for best drama included HBO's "Game of Thrones" prequel "House of the Dragon," vacation-gone-wrong story "The White Lotus and "Star Wars" series "Andor." Sarah Snook, another Roy sibling, is considered the favorite to win best drama actress. [1/5]77th Golden Globe Awards - Photo Room - Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 5, 2020 - The cast of "Succession" poses backstage with their Best Television Series - Drama award. First-time nominees Jeremy Allen White of "The Bear" and Jason Segel of "Shrinking" are also among those who will compete for best comedy actor.

Persons: Alan Ruck, Roy, Saul, Ted Lasso, Abbott, Maisel, Barry, Dahmer, Jeffrey Dahmer, Obi, Wan, Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook, Mike Blake, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Allen White, Jason Segel, Rachel Brosnahan, Quinta Brunson, Christina Applegate, Natasha Lyonne, Jenna Ortega, Brunson, Clayton Davis, Pedro Pascal, Jimmy Smits, Davis, Janelle James, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Jessica Williams, Harrison Ford, Frank Scherma, Lisa Richwine, Mark Porter, David Gregorio Our Organizations: Hollywood, HBO, Television Academy, Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Netflix, Globe, Best, REUTERS, Apple, Twitter, Variety, Voters, Fox, Organizers, Thomson Locations: ANGELES, Beverly Hills , California, U.S

☆ Dragons, Jedi and zombies find a seat at the Emmy table
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Brian Lowry | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Dragons and zombies and Jedi, oh my. HBO’s gaudy show of force – with half the best-drama nominees and 127 bids overall, the highest total of any individual network or service – featured a combination of both. "Obi-Wan Kenobi," starring Ewan McGregor, was one of three "Star Wars" series to receive multiple Emmy nominations. Fabio Lovino/HBOWhen those nominees need to begin rehearsing their acceptance speeches is itself a source of mystery as of now. The last time a delay of the Emmys happened: 2001, after the September 11 terror attacks.

Persons: we’ll, “, ”, Barry, Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, –, Obi, Wan, Ewan McGregor, “ Andor, “ Obi, haven’t, Jenna Ortega, “ Dahmer, Jeffrey Dahmer, Evan Peters, Dominique Fishback, ” Dominique Fishback, “ Barry, Maisel, Ted Lasso ”, Saul, Trevor Noah, John Oliver ”, Brian Cox, Kieran Culkin, Jeremy Strong, Aubrey Plaza, Will Sharpe, Theo James, Meghann Fahey, Fabio Lovino, Frank Scherma Organizations: CNN, HBO, Warner Bros ., Lucasfilm, “, Amazon, Television Academy, Fox, Variety Locations: Dragons, “

One unit ran a "hackathon," or collaborative engineering event, of so-called generative AI, technology that produces text, images or other new content based on past data. The division, Verafin, was exploring how to imbue such AI into its product for fighting financial crime, he said, adding the technology could create investigative reports. Still, despite using other forms of AI for years, Nasdaq's latest work remains experimental; no code has been published yet drafted by AI, Peterson said. Nasdaq has accessed a preview of Amazon's answer to the generative AI race, namely Amazon Bedrock, a pick-your-preferred technology approach that includes Claude AI from the startup Anthropic. On the longer-term horizon for Nasdaq is integrating the Thoma Bravo-owned software firm Adenza, subject to closure of the $10.5 billion-deal Nasdaq announced last month.

Persons: AUSTIN, Brad Peterson, Verafin, Peterson, We're, Nasdaq's, OpenAI, Claude AI, Thoma, Jeffrey Dastin, Kenneth Li, Deepa Babington Organizations: Nasdaq, Computer, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Thoma Bravo, Thomson Locations: Austin

July 11 (Reuters) - Anthropic, an artificial intelligence startup backed by Google, on Tuesday widened consumer access to its chat program Claude and upgraded underlying technology that the company says makes "Claude 2" better at tasks such computer coding and arithmetic. Businesses can launch products drawing on the model, and consumers in the U.S. and UK can chat with it online. Anthropic said in its upgrade of Claude it had doubled the model's performance on a safety evaluation. Unlike Claude, its recent GPT-4 model is "multimodal," meaning it can respond not just to text but to images that humans give it. Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI executives, said Claude 2 now scores 76.5% on the multiple-choice section of the Bar, up from 73% for its earlier model.

Persons: Claude, Anthropic, ChatGPT, Sandy Banerjee, Banerjee, Jeffrey Dastin, Stephen Nellis, David Gregorio Our Organizations: Google, Microsoft, Thomson Locations: San Francisco, Silicon Valley, U.S

☆ Amazon partners with travel site Priceline in a first for Prime Day
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Doyinsola Oladipo | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, July 10 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) is partnering with travel booking site Priceline to offer discounts during Tuesday's Prime Day, the first time an online travel agency has participated in the shopping event. Priceline is the first travel brand to offer an exclusive U.S. Prime Day deal, Amazon said. We know travelers are shopping on Amazon and booking travel with Priceline," said Lesley Klein, senior vice president of marketing at Priceline. Booking Holdings has several sites, so this isn't the first time the company has worked with Amazon on Prime deals. Amazon several years ago attempted to build a hotel booking service called Amazon Destinations but it closed a few months after launching.

Persons: Priceline, Lesley Klein, Booking.com, Doyinsola Oladipo, Jeffrey Dastin, David Gregorio Our Organizations: YORK, Amazon.com Inc, Tuesday's, Priceline's, Express, Booking Holdings, Prime, Amazon, Tourism, U.S . Travel Association, Thomson Locations: U.S, Germany, Austria, New York, San Francisco

☆ Northern Ireland's DUP head says could back new post-Brexit trade proposal
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The DUP has not returned to Northern Ireland's devolved executive since February 2022, rejecting the first post-Brexit deal with the EU and then the second, so-called Windsor Framework, which is due to be introduced later this year. "We are very clear that the Windsor Framework does not meet our seven tests. The DUP has criticised the government's post-Brexit deals for the province since former Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed the so-called Northern Ireland protocol in order to secure a Brexit divorce and wider trade deal with Brussels. The government has said the Windsor Framework solves most of the post-Brexit trade problems and that it has no plans to renegotiate it. Instead it is trying to offer the DUP legal guarantees to protect post-Brexit trade with the province.

Persons: Jeffrey Donaldson, Rishi Sunak, Donaldson, We've, I've, Boris Johnson, Elizabeth Piper, Christina Fincher Organizations: Northern Ireland's, Democratic Unionist, DUP, European Union, EU, Windsor, Centre, Ireland, Windsor Framework, Thomson Locations: Northern, Britain, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Windsor, London, Brussels, Ireland

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