DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Column: Electric grids need major upgrades to aid global energy transition: Maguire
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Gavin Maguire | Thomson Reuters | Gavin Maguire Is The Global Energy Transition Columnist. He Was Previously Asia Commodities | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

LITTLETON, Colorado, March 30 (Reuters) - Modern electricity grids that can optimize clean power production from a constantly changing flux of renewable and fossil energy sources will play a vital role in enabling global energy transition efforts. With renewable energy supplies climbing at a record pace just as global car fleets, households and businesses supercharge electricity demand, robust grids that can bridge both sides of the energy equation will be critical. The global power sector is also a major source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and so is incompatible with international efforts to drive pollution steadily lower from all sectors over the coming decades. Many ambitious grid alteration plans are also running in to stiff opposition from powerful organisations that object to the laying of miles of new transmission lines across open areas. But if renewable energy supplies surge as expected, and if those supplies are to be made available to power-hungry customers, global grids must grow in both scale and density in every major economy - and in record time.

☆ Is Jamie Dimon the most powerful person in finance?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Insider's Carter Johnson has a story on one executive whose profile continues to rise: Jamie Dimon. Carter's story got me thinking: Who's the most powerful person in finance? Warren Buffett: Before you jump down my throat, realize this is a list of the most powerful people in finance not on Wall Street. Place your vote here — or name someone else — for who you think is the most powerful person in finance. The bank was hit with a nearly $100 million fine for letting a foreign bank make prohibited transactions, The Wall Street Journal reports.

☆ Burger King is closing 26 locations in Michigan. See the full list.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Danni Santana | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

26 Burger King locations are closing in Michigan by April 15, predominantly in the Detroit area. Burger King franchisee EYM King of Michigan said it failed to reach a deal with the fast-food giant. EYM began shuttering Burger King locations on March 17 and expects to shutter all locations by the middle of April. Leslie AllenThe news of over two dozen Burger King locations closing in Michigan comes as the chain, owned by Restaurant Brands International, undergoes a brand reset in the US. The parent company also named a new CEO of Burger King in Joshua Kobza, formerly the chain's COO.

Neither of the two contentious issues is on the official summit agenda and some EU diplomats said they hope to avoid a formal debate on them. EU leaders take decisions unanimously, meaning one country can block a deal. Escalating the car CO2 debate to leaders would therefore be pointless, one EU diplomat said on condition of anonymity. A German government official said on Wednesday the talks were "very constructive", but that the issue would not be addressed at the EU summit. ENERGY REFORMSOn the second day of the summit on Friday, EU heads of state and government will discuss a reform of the EU electricity market.

☆ Trump's legal troubles are threatening to upend the 2024 GOP race, and he's not even charged
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Former President Donald Trump faces possible criminal charges as he's running for president. "If it's a circus, there's only one ringmaster and that's Trump," said GOP pollster B.J. Operatives thinking of ways to land punches on Trump say GOP primary candidates could argue that he would lose the general election because of his legal troubles. Political insiders widely concede that a potential indictment — and how Trump responds — could still backfire on GOP challengers and strengthen Trump. While the circumstances surrounding the 2024 primary are uncharted territory, polling shows a cohort of GOP voters has grown weary of Trump and is seeking an alternative.

☆ Keith Rabois says Shopify brands have 'a lot of room' to grow, and his startup, OpenStore, just launched a new product to help with that
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Madeline Stone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Keith Rabois' startup, OpenStore, is launching a new service for Shopify merchants. Keith Rabois founded OpenStore in 2021 with the idea of scooping up Shopify stores and using economies of scale to supercharge their sales. OpenStore has acquired more than 40 Shopify stores so far, says Rabois, a venture capitalist who placed early bets on DoorDash, Affirm, Stripe, and Faire. That makes OpenStore the largest owner and operator of Shopify brands in the world, he told Insider in a recent interview. However, there's "a lot of room" to grow Shopify brands, he added.

☆ Candida auris is just one infection fueled by rising temperatures. See how extreme climate helps spread disease, in 3 simple charts.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Climate change may be driving the rapid spread of Candida auris, a deadly fungus, across the US. Three charts show how extreme weather and environmental changes help spread disease. Nicolas Armer/picture alliance via Getty ImagesA leading theory on this fungus's sudden emergence and wide spread is that it's fueled by climate change. Whatever survives, however, is adapted to extreme heat — including the fever our bodies produce to kill off pathogens. David Ryder/Getty ImagesHumans and their infrastructure are more vulnerable to the devastating impacts of disease when they're compromised by extreme weather.

☆ My skincare business made $740,000 in revenue in 16 months. Here's how we used TikTok and Instagram to do it.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Ella Hopkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

They used TikTok and Instagram to promote their product — and didn't pay for any advertising. She invested 5,000 Australian dollars in savings, around $3,363, in the business and became my business partner. We used TikTok and Instagram to build a following before our launch dateWe started posting videos on TikTok and Instagram in July 2021 to hype our launch date. She posted videos every day with her skincare routine, showing how she used our product. Often when someone bought our product, they'd post about it on TikTok or Instagram and tag us in their posts.

The sale means UK startups and investors will be able to access their money. Like its US parent, SVB UK mostly served tech startups and their investors. Insider understands from a person close to SVB UK that there is some internal frustration at the bank run. The feeling is that SVB UK was sold off simply because of groupthink. That evening, it looked feasible that the government would allow SVB UK to collapse.

☆ Venture Capital Investors Are Trying to Take Over Pandemic Response
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +19 min

Private capital has been eyeing public health for years. Several founders and investors told me that the failure of Kleiner's fund made Silicon Valley wary of investing in pandemic preparedness. Venture investors love that kind of thing. Public health and private industryWhen COVID hit, Charity Dean was the assistant director of the California Department of Public Health. In the end, almost every pandemic-related product created by Silicon Valley will ultimately require the government as a primary customer.

☆ Why Does Instagram Think I’m Unhealthy?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Julie Jargon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Judging by the ads Instagram is constantly showing me, you’d think I’m falling apart. The deluge of sponsored posts in my feed suggests I need to take supplements to balance my hormones, get a device to monitor my blood glucose, consult an app to supercharge my metabolism, use red-light therapy to lose weight and smear on cream to eliminate my wrinkles.

☆ Why Weight-Loss Ads Have Taken Over Your Instagram Feed
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Julie Jargon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Members of the FIA include the major banks on Wall Street. As a clearing house, the OCC settles and guarantee options contracts, working as a central counterparty for credit risk. Apart from the group meeting with the FIA, the OCC has also discussed this issue individually with some market participants, one of the sources said. The OCC told this person it did not see a major risk, but it wanted to assess its members' views and explore different risk scenarios. Many 0DTE options have a low probability of rising in value as they approach expiration.

☆ 0DTE options could turn 5% intraday market decline into 25% rout -JPMorgan
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 6 (Reuters) - Trading in new near-dated U.S. options contracts can supercharge volatility in U.S. stocks, potentially leading to tremendous intraday declines, analysts at JPMorgan said. The U.S. equity options market has seen a rise in the trading of options contracts set to expire at the end of the trading day - dubbed 0DTE (zero day to expiry) options - with their daily notional value rising to about $1 trillion, according to JPMorgan data. Their recent growth has been eyed as one cause of intraday volatility, with JPMorgan's Marko Kolanovic last month warning they could spark a massive volatility event under certain circumstances. Such a scenario could occur if the S&P 500 fell 5% in five minutes, triggering $30.5 billion in 0DTE option-related trading that would tack another 20 percentage points onto the index's decline, the bank’s analysts said. Furthermore, JPM noted that retail traders were not the main driver of volume growth in 0DTE options, with individual investors accounting for about 20% of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY.P) options volume and only around 5% of the S&P 500 same-day options.

☆ A couple in Canada were reportedly scammed out of $21,000 after getting a call from an AI-generated voice pretending to be their son
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A couple in Canada reportedly lost $21,000 from a scammer claiming to be a lawyer and their son. Benjamin Perkin told The Washington Post his parents thought the AI-generated voice was him. Perkin told the Post the voice was "close enough for my parents to truly believe they did speak with me." Scams involving AI technology predate the emergence of ChatGPT and other AI bots going viral right now. "AI tools that generate authentic-seeming videos, photos, audio, and text could supercharge this trend, allowing fraudsters greater reach and speed," she said.

☆ The top US consumer watchdog is worried you're going to fall for AI scams or overblown marketing hype
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Ethan Dodd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Tech companies and investors think generative AI will be an economic revolution. Investors say generative AI could save workers loads of unnecessary labor. While AI products may hold less promise than companies say, the FTC is worried they will make it easier to deceive voters and consumers. "We're also concerned with the risk that deepfakes and other AI-based synthetic media, which are becoming easier to create and disseminate, will be used for fraud," FTC spokesperson Juliana Gruenwald told Insider. If the FTC's instincts are right, today's generative AI may pose less economic disruption than deception.

☆ 9 deals that could shape US sports betting this year, as pent-up demand for M&A could bring operators like Fanatics back to the negotiating table
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Ashley Rodriguez | Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Sports-betting insiders say there's pent-up demand for M&A in the industry after dealmaking slowed to crawl last year. That may mean fewer media and other deals that don't offer a clear return on investment or cost efficiencies.. That may mean fewer media and other deals that don't offer a clear return on investment or cost efficiencies. One thing we may see less of this year is operators looking to bring their entire tech stacks in-house, like when Bally's acquired Bet.Works and PointsBet bought Banach Technologies. Here are nine potential deals industry insiders are watching in 2023, and how they could shake up the industry:

☆ In the Whirl of ChatGPT, Startups See an Opening for Their AI Chips
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Isabelle Bousquette | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Generative AI and large language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT require massive amounts of computing power to run, and typically rely on chips like Nvidia’s graphics-processing units, or GPUs, that are specialized for these types of calculations. Graphcore sells primarily to AI startups looking to build and train models at lower cost, he said, and the company is benefiting from the proliferation of those startups. Shane Rau, who leads International Data Corp.’s semiconductor research, said chip startups are increasingly pivoting to focus their products on supporting large language models. Still, he added, “you’re going to see a combination of real adaptation and marketing.”“There will be the pressure to say: ‘Hey, we’re already relevant, our AI chip technology’s already relevant to generative AI’,” said Mr. Rau. Some chip makers say they expect yet another surge in demand once businesses more widely adopt generative AI.

☆ A freelance SEO expert explains 5 steps to drive search traffic on a limited budget
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Ryan Darani | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

X is typically a brand with 20 years of organic SEO growth that dominates a particular industry. Here are five simple steps to start generating organic traffic to your website immediately, with a limited but well-placed budget. Search traffic is driven by billions of searches happening every day. The more you can do this, the better it'll be for your rankings and organic traffic. The more mentions and links you receive from other relevant websites, the more potential you have to generate organic traffic.

☆ FTSE 100 at record high on positive Centrica, StanChart earnings
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Shashwat Chauhan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SummarySummary Companies FTSE 100 hits record high, trading above 8,000 pointsCentrica, StanChart, Relx jump on upbeat resultsVodafone rises on report of looking at options for Africa unitFTSE 100 up 0.3%, FTSE 250 adds 0.4%Feb 16 (Reuters) - UK's FTSE 100 rose to a record high on Thursday, underpinned by corporate earnings from Centrica and Standard Chartered, while higher commodity prices drove up heavyweight miners. The blue-chip FTSE 100 (.FTSE) gained 0.3%, trading comfortably above the 8,000-point mark it had breached in the previous session. The exporter-heavy FTSE has had a stellar start to the year as positive corporate earnings and rising commodity prices supported the index. Shares of Centrica (CNA.L) jumped to top the FTSE 100, adding 4.2%, after the British gas owner's annual profit more than tripled and as it announced an extension of its share buyback programme. Standard Chartered (STAN.L) rose 1.8% after the lender reported a 28% rise in annual pretax profit and unveiled a $1 billion share buyback programme.

☆ Relx sees AI driving growth as shares hit new high
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Paul Sandle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Information and analytics firm Relx (REL.L) said it was using generative AI to supercharge its legal, health and science products as it forecast another year of strong growth in 2023, sending its shares to an all-time high. "Momentum remains strong across the group and we expect underlying growth rates and revenue and adjusted operating profit to remain above historical trends," he told reporters. Shares in Relx, which have risen 8% in the last 12 months, hit a record 2,551 pence on Thursday. Luff said generative AI was an opportunity rather than a threat, and Relx was already building it into products. ($1 = 0.8290 pounds)Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Jason Neely and William JamesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Business Technology Chiefs Question ChatGPT’s Readiness for the Enterprise
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Angus Loten | Chris Bedi | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Yet some business-technology professionals are uneasy about integrating it into the enterprise stack, citing concerns over its use of online data and security risks. But at the moment, ChatGPT “should be used with caution in an enterprise business setting,” she said. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CIO Journal The Morning Download delivers daily insights and news on business technology from the CIO Journal team. For now, Mr. Schmidt said, generative AI capabilities should be reserved for writing corporate boilerplate—product or service announcements, or other promotional materials. For enterprise information-technology, “ChatGPT use cases might be a smaller universe than people are imagining,” he said.

☆ Only 9% of Americans think AI development will do more good than harm
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

46% of respondents think that AI development will do about the same amount of good and harm, and 41% of people in the sample believe that the technology will ultimately do harm to society overall. Large language models are increasingly being used in generative AI tools, like ChatGPT or Google's unreleased Bard, which can spit out blocks of text. But there have been issues with large language models, which can simply make information up, a phenomenon known as "hallucinating." Both Google and Microsoft's recent AI launches showed their software making factual errors. Some artificial intelligence algorithms can be used for facial recognition, for example, to identify people who attend sporting events.

☆ This is the No. 1 money habit of early retirees, says CFP—and it only takes 30 minutes
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Ryan Ermey | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Short for financial independence, retire early, FIRE adherents aim to save and invest large portions of their income early in their careers in order to have enough money to retire decades before their mid-60s. Some early retirees start their own businesses and sell at a huge profit. "This is a huge, huge priority for them," she says. Here's why Camp says taking regular dives into your finances is essential if you want to increase your savings rate — whether you're planning to retire early or not. "People who have a healthy savings rate know where their money is going because they track it."

Iger said this week that while a spinout was considered in his absence, it was concluded ESPN should stay with Disney. Another proposition floated to Disney was to have Comcast buy out Hulu. Iger has previously championed Hulu as part of Disney's strategy to offer three relatively low-priced services (Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+) rather than one mega-product that would likely be the most expensive streaming service. Selling Hulu would unwind this strategy, and it also may lead to cancellations of Disney+ and ESPN+. Even if Disney buys the remaining stake of Hulu, the sides must agree on fair market value.

Search resuls for: "supercharge"

25 mentions found