Month: May 2025

Pinterest finally admits mass bans were a mistake caused by an ‘internal error’

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Pinterest has now publicly apologized for the wave of moderation issues that have swept across the social network over the past few weeks, leading to account bans and Pin removals that users said were unwarranted. In posts published to social media Tuesday, the company took responsibility for the issue, saying that an “internal error” led … Read more

Stablecoins Bring ‘Meaningful Innovation for Global Payments,’ Ripple Exec Says

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Stablecoins are shifting from tools for crypto traders to the backbone of global finance and represent a “meaningful innovation for global payments,” Jack McDonald, senior vice president of stablecoins at Ripple, said on Wednesday at Consensus 2025 in Toronto. Speaking at a recent panel alongside crypto exchange Kraken’s head of consumer Mark Greenberg, McDonald argued … Read more

Cost-effective AI image generation with PixArt-Σ inference on AWS Trainium and AWS Inferentia

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PixArt-Sigma is a diffusion transformer model that is capable of image generation at 4k resolution. This model shows significant improvements over previous generation PixArt models like Pixart-Alpha and other diffusion models through dataset and architectural improvements. AWS Trainium and AWS Inferentia are purpose-built AI chips to accelerate machine learning (ML) workloads, making them ideal for … Read more

Square Enix cancels Kingdom Hearts mobile game

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Square Enix has announced that it is cancelling the mobile spinoff Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link. In a statement on the game’s website, Square Enix apologized to fans who were anticipating the game. The announcement also mentioned that Square was still hard at work on Kingdom Hearts IV perhaps to allay fears that this cancellation might indicate … Read more

A new bipartisan bill aims to lift the 52-year ban on supersonic flight

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U.S. lawmakers introduced Wednesday the Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act in a bid to revise the FAA’s 52-year ban on supersonic flight over U.S. soil. The bipartisan legislation – introduced by Senator Ted Budd (R-NC), Aviation Subcommittee Chair Troy Nehls (R-TX), and Representative Sharice Davids (D-KS) – would allow supersonic travel, provided no audible sonic boom … Read more

CFTC Commissioner will step down to become Blockchain Association CEO

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Summer Mersinger, one of four commissioners currently serving at the US financial regulatory body Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), will become the next CEO of the digital asset advocacy group the Blockchain Association (BA).  In a May 14 notice, the Blockchain Association said its current CEO, Kristin Smith, would be stepping down for Mersinger on … Read more

OpenAI may build data centers in the UAE

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OpenAI is reportedly considering building data centers in the United Arab Emirates to greatly expand its Middle East footprint. A deal could be announced as soon as this week, according to Bloomberg. As Bloomberg notes, OpenAI has a long relationship with the UAE. In 2023, the company partnered with Abu Dhabi’s AI firm G42, which … Read more

Customize DeepSeek-R1 671b model using Amazon SageMaker HyperPod recipes – Part 2

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This post is the second part of the DeepSeek series focusing on model customization with Amazon SageMaker HyperPod recipes (or recipes for brevity). In Part 1, we demonstrated the performance and ease of fine-tuning DeepSeek-R1 distilled models using these recipes. In this post, we use the recipes to fine-tune the original DeepSeek-R1 671b parameter model. … Read more

Build a financial research assistant using Amazon Q Business and Amazon QuickSight for generative AI–powered insights

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According to a Gartner survey in 2024, 58% of finance functions have adopted generative AI, marking a significant rise in adoption. Among these, four primary use cases have emerged as especially prominent: intelligent process automation, anomaly detection, analytics, and operational assistance. In this post, we show you how Amazon Q Business can help augment your … Read more

Cardano (ADA) Surges 22% in One Week After Brave Browser Boosts User Exposure

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Global economic uncertainties are creating ripple effects across cryptocurrency markets, with Cardano (ADA) demonstrating notable volatility amid shifting investor sentiment. After rallying 22% weekly, ADA has established a trading range between $0.795 and $0.841, reflecting both profit-taking and strategic accumulation by larger investors. Recent developments have strengthened Cardano’s market position, particularly its addition to Grayscale’s … Read more

Lyft Taps Solana’s Bee Maps for Real-Time, Crowdsourced Mapping Upgrade

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Bee Maps, a project on Hivemapper, one of the largest decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) focused on mapping data on Solana, shared Wednesday that it has teamed up with ride-hailing giant Lyft to provide them more accurate mapping data. The move underscores the growing role of crowdsourced geospatial intelligence in the transportation industry, and signals … Read more

How Spatial Digital Twins Integrate Geo‑Tech Stacks

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Table of Links Abstract and 1 Introduction 1.1. Spatial Digital Twins (SDTs) 1.2. Applications 1.3. Different Components of SDTs 1.4. Scope of This Work and Contributions 2. Related Work and 2.1. Digital Twins and Variants 2.2. Spatial Digital Twin Case Studies 3. Building Blocks of Spatial Digital Twins and 3.1. Data Acquisition and Processing 3.2. … Read more

The Amazonification of Uber: Part II

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Three years ago, I wrote about the Amazonification of Uber, an evolution of the transportation company into a closed business loop that feeds customers back into other Uber channels. At the time, the focus was on how Uber creates customer stickiness by, for example, actively cross-selling food delivery customers into grocery, and grocery into alcohol, … Read more

TikTok rolls out new accessibility tools, including AI-generated ALT text

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TikTok announced on Wednesday that it’s expanding its suite of accessibility tools by rolling out AI-generated ALT text for photos, a high-contrast mode, and support for device-level bold text preferences. TikTok introduced support for ALT text for photos a few weeks ago, allowing creators to provide descriptive text for photos to help users with screen … Read more

DeepMind claims its newest AI tool is a whiz at math and science problems

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Google’s AI R&D lab DeepMind says it has developed a new AI system to tackle problems with “machine-gradable” solutions. In experiments, the system, called AlphaEvolve, could help optimize some of the infrastructure Google uses to train its AI models, DeepMind said. The company says it’s building a user interface for interacting with AlphaEvolve, and plans … Read more

Chainproof Combats Ethereum ‘Slashing’ Losses With Guaranteed Yearly Yields

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Crypto insurer Chainproof announced a new product Wednesday that lets Ethereum stakers protect against slashing and guarantees them a minimum yearly yield. Slashing, while rare, is a big concern for stakers. It’s a feature that keeps the validators who process transactions on Ethereum in check by taking away some of their tokens if they publish … Read more

Proven Bitcoin Momentum Indicator Flashes Green, Supporting Analyst $140K-$200K Price Predictions

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This is a daily technical analysis by CoinDesk analyst and Chartered Market Technician Omkar Godbole. A momentum indicator, with a strong track record of forecasting major bitcoin (BTC) price moves, has flipped bullish, reinforcing analysts’ recent predictions of a rally to $150K–$200K. The technical analysis indicator is called the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) histogram, … Read more

Telegram Cracks Down on Suspected $8B Chinese Crypto Crime Marketplace Set Up in Colorado

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Messaging app Telegram has closed thousands of channels belonging to suspected Chinese crypto-crime marketplaces after new research shed light on the situation, according to Elliptic. The closure follows a report published by the blockchain analytics firm on Tuesday into the fast-growing Telegram-based marketplace called Xinbi Guarantee. The Colorado-incorporated marketplace has processed over $8.4 billion worth … Read more

French minister to meet crypto firms after kidnapping attempt

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The French interior minister reportedly plans to meet cryptocurrency professionals in the aftermath of a violent kidnapping attempt on the family of a crypto exchange executive in Paris. According to a May 14 France24 report, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has invited crypto professionals to meet him after a brazen attempt to kidnap the daughter and … Read more