Month: February 2025

Elon Musk just offered to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion

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In a dramatic escalation of Silicon Valley’s most heated AI rivalry, Elon Musk just announced that he’s leading a $97.4 billion bid to buy OpenAI’s nonprofit arm, according to The Wall Street Journal. The bid was reportedly delivered to the board Monday morning. The offer brings together a powerful coalition of backers, including Musk’s own … Read more

Big Tech is still silent on Trump’s tariffs

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President Donald Trump’s 10 percent tariff on goods imported from China has been in effect for nearly a week. Ahead of the tariff going into effect, I wrote that “Big Tech has been silent on Trump’s tariffs” — almost no one in the industry had a public reaction or said how they would respond. A week … Read more

Google’s upgraded NotebookLM is now included in its One AI Premium plan

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Google is bringing its upgraded note-taking app to its One AI Premium plan. That means subscribers will now gain access to NotebookLM Plus at no added cost, which offers higher usage limits and premium features, like the ability to customize NotebookLM’s responses. Google first launched NotebookLM in 2023, allowing people to use AI to research … Read more

Digital Identity Startup Holonym Acquires Gitcoin Passport

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Crypto’s “proof of humanity” sector saw a major merger on Monday with Holonym Foundation acquiring Gitcoin Passport for an undisclosed sum of cash and tokens. The transaction unites two close companies: Holonym was already distributing its tech through Gitcoin Passport, a logbook where 2 million internet users stash proof of personhood for services that need … Read more

Elon Musk’s DOGE activities trigger protests, vandalism for Tesla

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Berlin, Germany protestors opposing Musk’s virtual appearance at the WELT Economic Summit last month. | Photo by Annette Riedl/picture alliance via Getty Images Elon Musk’s role in carrying out President Donald Trump’s dirty work has triggered a wave of opposition that is spilling over into protests against his flagship company, Tesla. Over the last week, … Read more

Transforming credit decisions using generative AI with Rich Data Co and AWS

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This post is co-written with Gordon Campbell, Charles Guan, and Hendra Suryanto from RDC.  The mission of Rich Data Co (RDC) is to broaden access to sustainable credit globally. Its software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution empowers leading banks and lenders with deep customer insights and AI-driven decision-making capabilities. Making credit decisions using AI can be challenging, requiring … Read more

OpenAI spoke to government officials about its DeepSeek probe

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OpenAI says it has spoken to government officials about its ongoing investigation into DeepSeek. The ChatGPT-maker previously claimed to have evidence that DeepSeek trained its AI models using improperly obtained data from OpenAI’s API. During a Bloomberg TV interview on Monday, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer, Chris Lehane, said the company has talked with government … Read more

TikTok wants Android users to sideload its app

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With TikTok’s fate in the U.S. uncertain — its ban in the country has been paused, but only temporarily, thanks to an executive order from President Donald Trump — the ByteDance-owned company is now encouraging Android device owners to sideload its video app onto their phones and tablets. The company announced in a Friday X … Read more

2 More U.S. Regulatory Dominos May Have Fallen for Crypto: OCC and CFPB

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The crypto industry can likely look forward to two more agencies falling into line on its digital assets policy aims: the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which is one of the chief U.S. banking regulators, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where the lights are effectively being shut off. The sector’s dicey relationship … Read more

Amazon’s latest Kindle Paperwhite is nearly matching its best price to date

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The latest Paperwhite offers a sharp seven-inch display that’s incredibly easy to read. If you’re wondering what to gift the bibliophile in your life for Valentine’s Day, Amazon’s ongoing President’s Day sale is worth a look. The Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition has returned to its best price to date, while the latest Kindle Paperwhite has … Read more

Build agentic AI solutions with DeepSeek-R1, CrewAI, and Amazon SageMaker AI

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AI agents are rapidly becoming the next frontier in enterprise transformation, with 82% of organizations planning adoption within the next 3 years. According to a Capgemini survey of 1,100 executives at large enterprises, 10% of organizations already use AI agents, and more than half plan to use them in the next year. The recent release … Read more