ReportWire

Tag: iab-computing

  • It will be more confusing than ever to watch an NFL game this season | CNN Business

    It will be more confusing than ever to watch an NFL game this season | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    You’re going to need a play-call sheet to keep track of where to watch the National Football League on television this season.

    The NFL season kicked off Thursday night with the Detroit Lions winning a surprise upset over the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.(NBC and its Peacock app aired the game under its “Sunday Night Football” rights.)

    Long gone are the days when NFL games were shown on one or two networks. The league is showing more games across broadcast networks, cable, and digital streaming platforms this season than ever before, and more games exclusively on streaming.

    NBC, Fox, CBS, ESPN/ABC — as well as their streaming apps — and Amazon will all broadcast some games this year. The NFL’s own streaming app and YouTube TV will also stream some games.

    Here’s why there are so many different channels and streaming services, which many people might not even have, to watch the NFL.

    It’s all happening now because the NFL is television’s most valuable product, especially as the media and tech industries face turmoil and more people than ever end their pay-TV subscriptions. The NFL in 2021 signed more than $100 billion in media deals over 11 years, which included the rights to more games on streaming services.

    The owners of CBS, ESPN, ABC and NBC -— Paramount, Disney, and Comcast, respectively -— are pouring billions of dollars into their streaming services, which they see as the future of their businesses. They are showing more NFL games on streaming platforms, including games exclusively, to try to entice people to sign up.

    The decline in traditional broadcast and cable television viewership is accelerating, and the NFL is the “glue” holding the pay-TV bundle together, media analysts at MoffettNathanson said in a report Thursday.

    Last season marked the first-time people were able to watch three of the five NFL game packages through streamers.

    This season will also feature a few firsts: NFL Sunday Ticket offered on YouTube; a streaming-only playoff game on Peacock; and Amazon Prime Video’s Black Friday game.

    ESPN+ will air an international NFL game exclusively on its platform for the second time later in the year, and Amazon has exclusive rights again this season to Thursday night games. Amazon’s Thursday Night Football was the first NFL package to be shown exclusively on streaming.

    Football is the rare event that millions of people still watch live and advertisers will pay up for as viewership for TV other than sports rapidly declines.

    Excluding the Super Bowl, the NFL made up more than half of Fox’s viewership last season and around one-third of CBS and NBC’s, according to the MoffettNathanson report.

    “The NFL is the biggest driver of network ratings and advertising dollars during the fall TV season,” the analysts said. “The NFL remains an outlier when compared to all other forms of linear content.”

    So, NBC will show “Sunday Night Football” on primetime TV and Peacock. Fox will show National Football Conference games on its broadcast network. CBS will show American Football Conference games on its network and Paramount+. (CBS, which has the rights to the Super Bowl in February, will also show the game on Nickelodeon.) ESPN will air “Monday Night Football” games on ESPN and ESPN+. And Amazon holds the rights to Thursday night games, shown on Amazon Prime Video.

    The NFL itself is also betting on streaming.

    The NFL Sunday Ticket package, which broadcasts all out-of-market NFL games to fans, is moving to YouTube TV, owned by Google, this year after nearly 30 years at satellite provider DirecTV.

    “We have been focused on increased digital distribution of our games and this partnership is yet another example of us looking towards the future,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said last year.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Why Taylor Swift wants you to watch the Eras concert film in theaters instead of on your couch | CNN Business

    Why Taylor Swift wants you to watch the Eras concert film in theaters instead of on your couch | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Taylor Swift’s fans know the greatest films of all time were never made, but that could be called into question come October 13, when her Eras Tour concert movie is set for release in North America.

    The bigger question might be: Why did Swift decide to release her highly anticipated film in theaters over a streaming service?

    Already, the film has reached notable milestones. It has broken records for single-day advance ticket sales revenue with $26 million of tickets sold on August 31, according to AMC Theaters, blowing past previous record-holder “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”

    But Swift’s latest film is a pivot from recent years, when she released her concert films and documentaries on streaming services. Experts say that choosing movie theaters for the Eras Tour film’s debut over the small screen is a move fitting of both Swift’s business acumen and relationship with her fans.

    Swift’s previous documentaries, “Miss Americana” and “Taylor Swift Reputation Stadium Tour” are on Netflix, while “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions” is available on Disney+. “Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless” aired on The Hub, since re-branded as Discovery Family. “The 1989 World Tour Live” was released on Apple Music. Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company, also owns the Discovery network.

    Unlike her previous concerts, the Eras Tour has become a cultural phenomenon. Many fans dress up in themed outfits to represent each of Swift’s “eras” or inside jokes among fans, donning everything from sparkly dresses to cowboy boots to cat costumes. Some make hundreds of friendship bracelets to trade during shows, and memorize lyrics and fan chants for her roughly three-hour performance.

    At a movie theater, Swifties can partake in those rituals with other fans, which wouldn’t be the case for an at-home viewing on the couch. The theater’s ability to recreate the concert experience is likely a key reason why Swift decided to choose the big screen for her film, said Jonathan Kuuskoski, chair of the entrepreneurship and leadership department at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance.

    “The movie basically functions as an overflow room for the concert tour,” said Kuuskoski.

    Swift seemed to encourage the theater as a make-shift concert venue, posting on social media: “Eras attire, friendship bracelets, singing and dancing encouraged,” adding “1, 2, 3, LGB!” the acronym to a concert fan chant.

    Demand for Swift’s concerts has been astronomical, crashing Ticketmaster’s website last November and prompting US lawmakers to investigate whether the company has a monopoly on ticket sales. Ticketmaster was hit with more glitches in July when fans tried to purchase tickets for her shows in France.

    While her concerts are in no short supply of attendees, a theater release opens the door to Swifties who couldn’t afford concert tickets, as well as potential new fans willing to pay for a movie ticket without committing to a concert, said Ralph Jaccodine, an assistant professor at Berklee College of Music and former concert promoter who has worked with Bruce Springsteen, Kiss and others.

    Adult tickets for the film are set at $19.89, a nod to Swift’s album “1989,” whose re-recording is set for release two weeks after the “Eras Tour” theatrical debut. Swift’s favorite number is 13, and tickets for children and seniors are aptly set at $13.13.

    Releasing the film in theaters is also a more financially lucrative decision than providing it to a streaming service, said Kuuskoski. For example, while moviegoers have to purchase a ticket each time they view a film, that’s not the case for streaming. Swift could also sell the film to a streaming service after it runs its course on the big screen.

    Releasing the film in theaters before the tour is over seemingly runs the risk of potentially cannibalizing ticket sales for the actual concert. but the timing actually helps keep the momentum surrounding her tour going, says Jaccodine. Swift’s global tour ends in late 2024.

    “I don’t think she could get any less publicity than what’s going on now,” he said.

    Others seemed to have their own reasons for concern about the Eras Tour film release’s timing. The “Exorcist: Believer,” originally scheduled to be released on the same day as Swift’s film, moved it up a week.

    “Look what you made me do. The Exorcist: Believer moves to 10/6/23 #TaylorWins,” the producer of the upcoming horror film posted on “X,” formerly Twitter, just hours after Swift announced her film.

    The summer has already ushered in a film renaissance, as blockbusters “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” raked in a combined $511 million in global box office sales over their opening weekend and rekindled hopes that consumers are returning to movie theaters after the pandemic forced them to shutter their doors. “Barbie” is distributed by Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN.

    The Eras Tour’s film will likely extend the strong run of movie ticket sales set by the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, especially as theaters ramp up their own efforts to lure in moviegoers, said Michael O’Leary, chief executive of the National Association of Theater Owners.

    AMC is selling collectible popcorn tubs and fountain drink cups in theaters starting the day of the film’s release, and offering free posters along with ticket purchases while supplies last.

    “I don’t think this is something which is going to be a two- or three-week phenomenon,” O’Leary said. “You’re going to have people going multiple times.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Cuba says ‘human trafficking network’ is sending its nationals to fight for Russia in Ukraine | CNN

    Cuba says ‘human trafficking network’ is sending its nationals to fight for Russia in Ukraine | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Cuba says it has uncovered a human trafficking network operating from Russia that is recruiting Cubans to fight for their longstanding ally in Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

    Cubans living in Russia and “even some in Cuba” had been trafficked and “incorporated into the military forces taking part in the war in Ukraine,” the Cuban foreign ministry said Monday in a statement.

    The ministry gave few details about the alleged trafficking operations, but said that authorities were working to “neutralize and dismantle” the network.

    There were no reports of any arrests of people allegedly involved in the trafficking operation. In September, reports surfaced on social media of Cubans who said they were serving in Russia’s armed forces but that they had been tricked into joining the war effort and mistreated when they refused to fight. CNN was not able to independently verify those allegations, and it is not clear how many Cubans may be fighting for Russia.

    Cuba stressed in its statement that it “is not part of the war in Ukraine.” The Kremlin has not commented on the allegations.

    The report comes amid efforts by Russia to boost its forces in Ukraine, which have suffered heavy losses on the battlefield, and with the future of the mercenary Wagner Group in doubt.

    Moscow announced a plan earlier this year to increase the strength of the Russian armed forces by 30% to 1.5 million servicemen. In July, the Russian state Duma voted to extend the military draft age to include citizens from 18 to 30 years old, up from 27.

    For much of the conflict, the official Russian army has been bolstered by mercenaries contracted to Wagner. But after the death of the group’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led his troops in an aborted mutiny against Moscow in June, it is unclear whether Russia will rely on Wagner forces to wage its war in Ukraine.

    Cuba was a major ally of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and relations between Havana and Moscow have remained cozy since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    Cuba has been a staunch defender of Russia’s war on the country, blaming the US and NATO for the conflict. As Cuba grapples with its worse economic crisis in decades, Russia has supplied the communist-run island with badly needed food and shipments of crude oil. Since the war began the two nations have signed a flurry of agreements promising increased Russian foreign investment in Cuba.

    In a rare interview in May, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel told Russian state-controlled network RT that Cuba condemned “the expansion of NATO towards Russia’s borders,” echoing one of the Kremlin’s justifications for its brutal war.

    Diaz-Canel visited Moscow in November last year to attend the unveiling of a statue of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also traveled to Cuba on separate trips this year and hailed the relations between the two countries.

    There are historical precedents of Cubans fighting alongside and on behalf of Russia.

    In several conflicts in Africa during the Cold War, “the deal was the Cubans would supply the soldiers, the Soviets would supply the weapons,” Sergei Radchenko, a historian and professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, told CNN.

    Thousands of Cuban fighters intervened in support of communist forces in Angola in 1975, as well as in Ethiopia in 1977, alongside Soviet troops and using Soviet equipment.

    “Having Cuban mercenaries – you might call them mercenaries, or at that time it was revolutionary fighters – is a longstanding precedent as far as Cuba and the Cuban-Russian relationship is concerned,” said Radchenko. In Cuba, those military interventions – often fighting South African-trained mercenaries – are celebrated as having played a crucial role in ending apartheid in South Africa.

    However, Radchenko said, the statement issued by Cuba’s foreign ministry “sounds like something very different,” due to the suggestion of coercion.

    Christopher Sabatini, a senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House, said he was not surprised that Russia is seeking Cuban mercenaries to wage its war.

    “This is the typical Russian modus operandi of getting mercenaries to do their fighting for them – particularly in desperate states,” Sabatini told CNN, adding that Cuba “is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster.”

    What was surprising, he said, was the reaction of the Cuban government, which suggests that Russia “touched a nerve.”

    “The Cuban government is fiercely loyal to its allies,” Sabatini said. “That they would call this out is an indication that they truly feel humiliated and exploited by what is an ally taking advantage of their citizens – at a time of desperate need.”

    Russia has offered foreign fighters more than $2000 a month to fight in Ukraine, a fortune in Cuba where doctors do not earn that much in an entire year. Russia has also reportedly offered citizenship to foreigners willing to take up arms.

    “It’s particularly insulting, too, because the way you are rewarding these mercenaries is giving them a chance to flee their country,” said Sabatini. “That hurts.”

    In May, the Russian regional newspaper Ryazan Vedomosti reported that Cuban immigrants living in Russia had joined the Russian army.

    “Several citizens of the Republic of Cuba went to serve in the Russian army. According to them, the Cubans want to help our country carry out tasks in the zone of a special military operation, and some of them would like to become citizens of Russia in the future,” said the article.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • X, formerly known as Twitter, may collect your biometric data and job history | CNN Business

    X, formerly known as Twitter, may collect your biometric data and job history | CNN Business

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, said this week it may collect biometric and employment information from its users — expanding the range of personal information that account-holders may be exposing to the site.

    The disclosures came in an update to the company’s privacy policy, which added two sections related to the new data collection practice.

    “Based on your consent, we may collect and use your biometric information for safety, security, and identification purposes,” the policy read.

    In addition, under a new section labeled “job applications,” X said it may collect users’ employment and educational history.

    The company also said it could collect “employment preferences, skills and abilities, job search activity and engagement, and so on” in order to suggest potential job openings to users, to share that information with prospective third-party employers or to further target users with advertising.

    For X Premium users, the company will give an option to provide a government ID and a selfie image for verification purposes. The company may extract biometric data from both the government ID and the selfie image for matching purposes, the company told CNN in a statement.

    “This will additionally helps us tie, for those that choose, an account to a real person by processing their Government issued ID,” according to the company. “This will also help X fight impersonation attempts and make the platform more secure.”

    The changes mirror what many of X’s peers already routinely collect. But it represents an expansion of the types of information Twitter is interested in tracking. The policy adjustment arrives as owner Elon Musk seeks to turn the platform into an “everything app” that could include financial services and other features similar to the popular Chinese app WeChat.

    The change also happens as some regulatory initiatives around the world begin to require that social media companies verify their users’ ages. Many age-assurance services require that users upload copies of their government-issued identification or selfies that are then analyzed by artificial intelligence.

    On Thursday, however, a federal judge temporarily blocked an Arkansas law mandating age verification for social media platforms, just hours before it was due to take effect.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Hurricane Idalia and Labor Day could send gas prices and inflation higher | CNN Business

    Hurricane Idalia and Labor Day could send gas prices and inflation higher | CNN Business

    [ad_1]

    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Labor Day — one of the busiest driving holidays in the US — is on the horizon, and so is Hurricane Idalia. That’s potentially bad news for gas prices.

    The storm, which is expected to make landfall in Florida as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday, could bring 100 mile-per-hour winds and flooding that extends hundreds of miles up the east coast. The impact could take gasoline refinery facilities offline and may limit some Gulf oil production and supplies. Plus, demand for gas is expected to surge as residents of the impacted areas evacuate.

    “Idalia… could pose risk to oil and gas output in the US Gulf,” wrote the Nasdaq Advisory Services Energy Team.

    The storm is expected to make landfall as drivers nationwide load into their vehicles for the Labor Day weekend, pushing up the demand for gasoline even further.

    All together it means the price of oil and gasoline could remain elevated well into the fall.

    Generally, summer demand for oil tends to wane in September, but so does supply as refineries shift from summer fuels to “oxygenated” winter fuels, said Louis Navellier of Navellier and Associates. Since the 1990s, the US has required manufacturers to include more oxygen in their gasoline during the colder months to prevent excessive carbon monoxide emissions.

    With the storm approaching, that trend may not play out.

    What’s happening: Gas prices are already at $3.82 a gallon. That’s the second highest price for this time of year since at least 2004, according to Bespoke Investment Group. (The only time the national average has been higher for this period was last summer, when prices hit $3.85 a gallon).

    Geopolitical tensions have been supporting high oil and gas prices for some time. Recently, increased crude oil imports into China, production cuts by Russia and Saudi Arabia and extreme heat set off a late-summer spike in gas prices. And the threat of powerful hurricanes could send them even higher.

    Analysts at Citigroup have warned that this hurricane season could seriously impact power supplies.

    “Two Category 3 or higher hurricanes landing on US shores could massively disrupt supplies for not weeks but months,” Citigroup analysts wrote in a note last week. In 2005, for example, gas prices surged by 46% between Memorial Day and Labor Day because of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina, according to Bespoke.

    What it means: The Federal Reserve and central banks around the world have been fighting to bring down stubbornly high inflation for more than a year. This week we’ll get some highly awaited economic data: The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures index, is due out on Thursday. But the task of inflation-busting is a lot more difficult when energy prices are high, and it’s even harder when they’re on the rise.

    The PCE price index uses a complicated formula to determine how much weight to give to energy prices each month, but they typically comprise a significant chunk of the headline inflation rate.

    “Crude oil price remains elevated, even after the surge at the start of the Russia-Ukraine War,” said Andrew Woods, oil analyst at Mintec, a market intelligence firm. “Energy prices have been a major contributor to persistently high inflation in the US, so the crude oil price will remain a watch-out factor for future inflation.”

    High oil and gas prices are one of the largest contributing factors to inflation. That’s bad news for drivers but tends to be great for the energy industry, as oil prices and energy stocks are closely interlinked.

    Energy stocks were trading higher on Monday. The S&P 500 energy sector was up around 0.75%. Exxon Mobil (XOM) was 0.85% higher, BP (BP) was up 1.36% and Chevron (CVX) was up 0.75%.

    OpenAI, will release a version of its popular ChatGPT tool made specifically for businesses, the company announced on Monday.

    OpenAI unveiled the new service, dubbed “ChatGPT Enterprise,” in a company blog post and said it will be available to business clients for purchase immediately.

    The new offering, reports my colleague Catherine Thorbecke, promises to provide “enterprise-grade security and privacy” combined with “the most powerful version of ChatGPT yet” for businesses looking to jump on the generative AI bandwagon.

    “We believe AI can assist and elevate every aspect of our working lives and make teams more creative and productive,” the blog post said. “Today marks another step towards an AI assistant for work that helps with any task, is customized for your organization, and that protects your company data.”

    Fintech startup Block, cosmetics giant Estee Lauder and professional services firm PwC have already signed on as customers.

    The highly-anticipated announcement from OpenAI comes as the company says employees from over 80% of Fortune 500 companies have already begun using ChatGPT since it launched publicly late last year, according to its analysis of accounts associated with corporate email domains.

    A multitude of leading newsrooms, meanwhile, have recently injected code into their websites that blocks OpenAI’s web crawler, GPTBot, from scanning their platforms for content. CNN’s Reliable Sources has found that CNN, The New York Times, Reuters, Disney, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Axios, Insider, ABC News, ESPN, and the Gothamist, among others have taken the step to shield themselves.

    American Airlines just got smacked with the largest-ever fine for keeping passengers waiting on the tarmac during multi-hour delays.

    The Department of Transportation is levying the $4.1 million fine, “the largest civil penalty that the Department has ever assessed” it said in a statement, for lengthy tarmac delays of 43 flights that impacted more than 5,800 passengers. The flights occurred between 2018 and 2021, reports CNN’s Gregory Wallace.

    In the longest of the delays, passengers sat aboard a plane in Texas in August 2020 for six hours and three minutes. The 105-passenger flight had landed after being diverted from the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport due to severe weather, with the DOT alleging that “American (AAL) lacked sufficient resources to appropriately handle several of these flights once they landed.”

    Federal rules set the maximum time that passengers can be held without the opportunity to get off prior to takeoff or after landing, at three hours for domestic flights and four hours for international flights. Current rules also require airlines provide passengers water and a snack.

    American told CNN the delays all resulted from “exceptional weather events” and “represent a very small number of the 7.7 million flights during this time period.”

    The company also said it has invested in technology to better handle flights in severe weather and reduce the congestion at airports.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • 8 candidates qualify for first 2024 Republican presidential debate | CNN Politics

    8 candidates qualify for first 2024 Republican presidential debate | CNN Politics

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Eight Republicans have qualified for the party’s first 2024 presidential primary debate Wednesday night, the Republican National Committee announced Monday evening.

    The list includes North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

    Former President Donald Trump – the clear front-runner in national and early state polls – has said he would skip the debate in Milwaukee and called on his rivals to drop out.

    To make the first debate stage, the RNC required candidates to draw at least 40,000 individual donors and register at least 1% support in three national polls or in two national and two early state polls that met the RNC’s criteria. The candidates were also required to sign a pledge to back the eventual winner of the GOP primary, no matter who it is. It’s not clear whether Trump, like those who will be onstage Wednesday, has signed that pledge.

    “The RNC is excited to showcase our diverse candidate field and the conservative vision to beat Joe Biden on the debate stage Wednesday night,” RNC chair Ronna McDaniel said in Monday night’s statement.

    Here’s a look at who’s in and who’s out of the first GOP debate of the 2024 presidential primary.

    Ron DeSantis

    The Florida governor could wear the biggest target Wednesday night, as the top-polling candidate onstage in Trump’s absence. DeSantis has downsized and reshuffled his campaign in recent weeks after failing to make progress toward unseating Trump as the GOP’s standard-bearer in the primary’s early months. His turn in the national spotlight Wednesday could become a turning point in the party’s primary – either launching DeSantis forward or displacing him as the top Trump alternative.

    Vivek Ramaswamy

    The tech entrepreneur posted a video of himself shirtless, practicing tennis, on Monday in a tweet he described as his debate prep. He has also made appearances on the sorts of liberal media programs that many Republican contenders skip, such as a podcast with HBO host Bill Maher. A memo by a pro-DeSantis super PAC made public last week advised the Florida governor to attack Ramaswamy, an indication of the 38-year-old’s rise in the race.

    Mike Pence

    The former vice president faced more difficulties than some of his rivals in reaching the 40,000 donor threshold but did so with two weeks to spare. He suggested he had looked forward to a showdown with his former ticket mate. Criticizing Trump’s decision to skip the debate, Pence said Sunday on ABC News that every candidate who qualified “ought to be on the stage willing to square off and answer those tough questions.”

    Nikki Haley

    The former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations under Trump offered a glimpse of how Republicans onstage could be more focused on chipping away at their lower-polling rivals’ support than on taking on Trump directly. On Monday, she criticized Ramaswamy, saying on social media that “his foreign policies have a common theme: they make America less safe.”

    Tim Scott

    The South Carolina senator has sought to offer a more positive contrast to rivals such as Trump and DeSantis – and he could be on a collision course with the Florida governor as they vie to become the top choice of those seeking to move on from the former president.

    Chris Christie

    The former New Jersey governor is perhaps the biggest wild card on Wednesday night’s stage. As a presidential contender in 2016, he all but ended Marco Rubio’s presidential hopes in a debate when he relentlessly mocked the Florida senator for delivering a “memorized 25-second speech.” Christie has positioned himself as a fierce Trump critic, but he won’t get a head-to-head showdown with Trump skipping the debate.

    Doug Burgum

    The North Dakota governor, who attracted donors with a gift-card scheme – $20 in exchange for $1 donations – has described himself as the least-known contender on Wednesday night’s stage. He said Sunday on NBC that he’ll have succeeded in the debate “if we get a chance to explain who we are, what we’re about and why we’re running.”

    Asa Hutchinson

    The former Arkansas governor has also positioned himself as a Trump critic. He previously complained about the RNC’s loyalty pledge requirement but told CNN’s Kasie Hunt on Sunday that he was signing the pledge because he was “confident that Donald Trump’s not going to be the nominee.”

    Donald Trump

    The former president made official Sunday on his social media platform Truth Social what he’d hinted at for months: He is skipping the first debate. Trump pointed to his sizable leads in Republican primary polls and said Americans are already familiar with his record after four years in the White House.

    Still, Trump’s campaign is attempting to seize some of the spotlight in Milwaukee. The former president has taped an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that is expected to be used as counterprogramming during the debate.

    Perry Johnson

    The Michigan businessman fell short of the RNC’s polling requirements despite a series of unusual schemes his campaign employed to rack up the minimum 40,000 donors necessary to qualify. It sold “I Stand with Tucker” T-shirts defending the former Fox News host after his firing. It also offered tickets to a concert by country duo Big & Rich to anyone who donated. And it handed out $10 gas cards to anyone willing to make a $1 contribution.

    Perry insisted after the RNC announced the debate participants that he had met the committee’s qualification requirements. “The debate process has been corrupted, plain and simple,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

    Francis Suarez

    The Miami mayor, who had told Fox News it was “critical” for his 2024 chances to qualify for the debate, said he had exceeded the donor threshold, but he did not meet the RNC’s polling requirements. Suarez said in a statement Tuesday that he was “sorry” the event would not include his “perspectives,” but that he respects “the rules and process set forth by the RNC.”

    His absence could be a break for DeSantis, who has faced sharp criticism from his fellow Florida Republican.

    Will Hurd

    The former Texas congressman is one of the most outspoken Trump critics in the race – and has faced backlash for it, such as when he was booed at the Iowa GOP’s Lincoln Dinner in July after telling the Des Moines crowd that the former president was “running to stay out of prison.”

    Hurd on Tuesday criticized the RNC for its “unacceptable process” for determining the debate participants. He accused the committee of disregarding polls that included independents and Democrats who would have backed a Republican candidate. He previously said he wouldn’t sign the RNC pledge, but he appeared to have shifted his position last week when he said he was “confident” he would be onstage in Milwaukee.

    Larry Elder

    The conservative California talk radio host, who was the leading GOP candidate in the state’s 2021 gubernatorial recall, has sharply criticized the RNC’s debate qualification requirements. He said Tuesday on X that he intended sue the RNC to “halt” Wednesday’s proceedings, asserting that officials were “afraid of having my voice on the debate stage.”

    Elder had attempted to meet the 40,000 donor threshold with a radio blitz Monday, but, according to CNN’s count, was also short of the polling requirements.

    Ryan Binkley

    The little-known Texas pastor and entrepreneur got a spot in the Iowa GOP Lincoln Dinner’s speaking lineup. He tweeted Sunday that he had more than 45,000 donors. But he has not made waves in primary polling.

    This story has been updated with additional information.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Tesla begins notifying workers who were affected by data breach | CNN Business

    Tesla begins notifying workers who were affected by data breach | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Tesla has begun notifying current and former employees whose information was included in a confidential data breach in May.

    In a notice posted on the Maine Attorney General’s website on Friday, Tesla

    (TSLA)     said an investigation had found “two former Tesla

    (TSLA)     employees misappropriated the information in violation of Tesla

    (TSLA)    ’s IT security and data protection policies” and that the electric automaker had since filed lawsuits against them.

    “These lawsuits resulted in the seizure of the former employees’ electronic devices that were believed to have contained the Tesla information,” Tesla said. The company added that it “also obtained court orders that prohibit the former employees from further use, access, or dissemination of the data, subject to criminal penalties.”

    Tesla said that two former employees had shared the confidential data with German newspaper Handelsblatt. The outlet assured Tesla that it won’t publish the information and that it is “legally prohibited from using it inappropriately,” according to the notice.

    Tesla emphasized that it had not detected any misuse of personal data, but has offered complimentary membership to Experian IdentityWorks’ credit monitoring and identity theft service. The membership will be one or two years, depending on the person and the specific engagement number on the letter they receive.

    The data breach affected 75,735 people, and involved Social Security numbers, names and addresses, according to Maine Attorney’s General Office.

    CNN has reached out to Tesla for comment.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Pride Month backlash hurt Target’s sales. They fell for the first time in six years | CNN Business

    Pride Month backlash hurt Target’s sales. They fell for the first time in six years | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Target’s quarterly sales fell for the first time in six years as consumers pulled back on discretionary goods and fierce right-wing backlash to Target’s Pride Month collection took a toll on the brand.

    Target’s sales at stores open for at least one year dropped 5.4% last quarter, including a 10.5% drop online. The company also cut its annual sales forecast.

    Target’s foot traffic dropped 4.8% last quarter, “likely a function of a mix that skews too discretionary, as well as the Pride merchandise issues,” Michael Baker, an analyst at DA Davidson, said in a note to clients.

    Still, Target’s profit came in higher than Wall Street’s expectations, and the stock rose 5% during early trading Wednesday. Heading into Wednesday, Target’s stock dropped 27% over the past year.

    Target was one of the strongest-performing retailers during the pandemic as consumers flocked to stores and its website while stuck at home. But Target has slipped as consumers change their spending patterns.

    Americans are spending more on experiences, including concerts and movies, and less on nonessential items. Home Depot

    (HD)     said Tuesday that consumers took on fewer major home renovation projects.

    Target

    (TGT)     is over-exposed to non-essential merchandise compared to competitors such as Walmart

    (WMT)     and Costco

    (COST)    . More than half of Target

    (TGT)    ’s merchandise is discretionary – clothing, home decor, electronics, toys, party supplies and other non-essentials. The company in recent years has added more food and essentials to its stores.

    “Consumers are choosing to increase spending on services like leisure, travel, entertainment and food away from home, putting near-term pressure on discretionary products,” CEO Brian Cornell said on a call with analysts Wednesday.

    Cornell said that store theft and safety have also become bigger concerns.

    “Safety incidents associated with [theft] are moving in the wrong direction,” Cornell said. “During the first 5 months of this year, our stores saw a 120% increase in theft incidents involving violence or threats of violence.”

    Target has been embroiled in the political culture wars over gender and sexual orientation.

    Beginning in May, Target also faced a homophobic campaign that went viral on social media over its annual Pride Month clothing collection. Fueled by far-right personalities, the anti-LGBTQ campaign spread misleading information about the Pride Month products.

    The campaign became hostile, with violent threats levied against Target employees and instances of damaged products and displays in stores. Target said on May 24 that it was removing certain items that caused the most “volatile” reaction from opponents to protect its workers’ safety.

    But Target’s response frustrated supporters of gay and transgender rights, who said the company caved to bigoted pressure.

    “The strong reaction to this year’s Pride assortment” impacted sales during the quarter, Christina Hennington, Target’s chief growth officer, said Wednesday.

    Target will adjust its Pride Month collection next year, including potential changes to timing, placement in stores and the mix of brands it sells.

    “The reaction is a signal for us to pause, adapt and learn,” she said.

    Other brands, such as Bud Light, have faced right-wing backlash over attempts to be more inclusive.

    America’s former top-selling beer has targeted by right-wing media and anti-trans commentators since April, after sponsoring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

    The controversy cost Bud Light’s parent company about $395 million in lost US sales and Bud Light lost its top beer spot to Modelo.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • AI fears overblown? Theoretical physicist calls chatbots ‘glorified tape recorders’ | CNN Business

    AI fears overblown? Theoretical physicist calls chatbots ‘glorified tape recorders’ | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    The public’s anxiety over new AI technology is misguided, according to theoretical physicist Michio Kaku.

    In an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, the futurologist said chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT will benefit society and increase productivity. But fear has driven people to largely focus on the negative implications of the programs, which he terms “glorified tape recorders.”

    “It takes snippets of what’s on the web created by a human, splices them together and passes it off as if it created these things,” he said. “And people are saying, ‘Oh my God, it’s a human, it’s humanlike.’”

    However, he said, chatbots cannot discern true from false: “That has to be put in by a human.”

    According to Kaku, humanity is in its second stage of computer evolution. The first was the analog stage, “when we computed with sticks, stones, levers, gears, pulleys, string.”

    After that, around World War II, he said, we switched to electricity-powered transistors. It made the development of the microchip possible and helped shape today’s digital landscape.

    But this digital landscape rests on the idea of two states like “on” and “off,” and uses binary notation composed of zeros and ones.

    “Mother Nature would laugh at us because Mother Nature does not use zeros and ones,” Kaku said. “Mother Nature computes on electrons, electron waves, waves that create molecules. And that’s why we’re now entering stage three.”

    He believes the next technological stage will be in the quantum realm.

    Quantum computing is an emerging technology utilizing the various states of particles like electrons to vastly increase a computer’s processing power. Instead of using computer chips with two states, quantum computers use various states of vibrating waves. It makes them capable of analyzing and solving problems much faster than normal computers.

    Several tech giants – IBM

    (IBM)    , Microsoft

    (MSFT)    , Google

    (GOOG)     and Amazon

    (AMZN)    , among others – are developing their own quantum computers, and have granted access to a number of companies to use their technology through the cloud. The computers could help businesses with risk analysis, supply chain logistics, and machine learning.

    But beyond business applications, Kaku said quantum computing could also help advance health care. “Cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s disease – these are diseases at the molecular level. We’re powerless to cure these diseases because we have to learn the language of nature, which is the language of molecules and quantum electrons.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • A day of legal action in Trump imbroglio previews a chaotic 2024 election year | CNN Politics

    A day of legal action in Trump imbroglio previews a chaotic 2024 election year | CNN Politics

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    A whirl of developments in a quartet of cases in four separate cities encapsulate the vast legal quagmire swamping Donald Trump and threatening to overwhelm the entire 2024 presidential campaign.

    But Monday’s hectic lawyering was just a tame preview of next year when the ex-president and current Republican front-runner may be constantly shuttling between courtroom criminal trials and the campaign trail.

    A day of legal intrigue brought revelations, judgments, disputes and filings in cases related to Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 election, the classified documents case, efforts to thwart Joe Biden’s win in Georgia, and even in a defamation case dating back to Trump’s personal behavior toward women in the 1990s.

    It’s already almost impossible for voters who may be asked to decide whether Trump is fit for a return to the Oval Office – or at least to carry the GOP banner into the election – to keep pace with all the competing legal twists and the scale of his plight.

    A confusing fog in which all the cases blend together could work to the former president’s advantage as he seeks a White House comeback while proclaiming he’s a victim of political persecution by the Biden administration.

    But the deeper his legal mire gets, Trump’s rivals for the GOP nomination are getting braver in suggesting that his fight against becoming a convicted felon could be a general election liability. Trump’s dominance in the GOP primary has been boosted from his criminal indictments to date. But the sheer volume of cases unfolding alongside his campaign is increasingly daunting.

    In Washington, Trump’s lawyers just beat a deadline to file a brief in a dispute over the handling of evidence ahead of a trial in the election subversion case, and accused the government of seeking to muzzle his voice as he runs for a new White House term.

    In another glimpse into the breadth of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation that could prove troubling to the ex-president, CNN exclusively reported that Trump ally Bernie Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, met Smith’s investigators for an interview on Monday. The discussion focused on what Trump’s former attorney and Kerik’s associate, Rudy Giuliani – otherwise known as Co-Conspirator 1 – did to try to convince the former president he actually won the 2020 election. The question will be a key one when the case finally comes to trial.

    Trump’s tough day in the courts had opened with a judge in Manhattan throwing out his defamation counter suit against E. Jean Carroll, which he did in stark language that recalled the ex-president’s loss in an earlier civil trial in which the jury found he sexually abused the writer.

    Then, in a surprise move in West Palm Beach, Florida, the Trump-appointed judge who will oversee his classified documents trial asked lawyers for co-defendant Walt Nauta to comment on the legality of prosecutors using a Washington grand jury to keep investigating. The fact the probe is still active despite several indictments is hardly a good sign for Trump. And Judge Aileen Cannon’s move revived debate over whether she was favoring the ex-president’s team following criticism of her earlier handling of a dispute over documents taken from Trump’s home in an FBI search.

    There were also new signs in Atlanta that indictments could be imminent in a probe into efforts to steal Biden’s election win in the key state, as it emerged that ex-Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican and CNN political contributor, has been subpoenaed to testify to a grand jury.

    All of this frenzied activity unfolding on one day represents just a snapshot of the complex legal morass now surrounding Trump. It’s just a taste of the enormous strain the ex-president is about to feel as he campaigns for a return to the Oval Office. The crush of cases will also impose increasing financial demands. Already, Trump’s leadership PAC has been diverting cash raised from small-dollar donors to pay legal fees for the former president and associates that might instead have gone toward the 2024 campaign.

    In several of the cases on Monday, there were signs of the extraordinary complications inherent in prosecuting a former president and the front-runner for the Republican nomination. Judges, for instance, are faced with decisions that would normally go unnoticed by the public in the court system but that will now attract a glaring media and political spotlight.

    And while Monday was notable for a head-spinning sequence of legal maneuvering, it did not even encompass all of the pending cases against Trump. He is also due to go on trial in March – in the middle of the GOP primary season – in a case arising from a hush money payment to an adult film star. As with his other indictments, Trump has pleaded not guilty.

    For all his capacity to operate in the eye of converging storms of scandal and controversy, Trump’s mood is becoming increasingly agitated. In recent days he has attacked Smith, the Justice Department, the judge in the election subversion case, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, and even the US national women’s soccer team after they crashed out of the World Cup on penalties.

    One of Trump’s most incendiary posts on his Truth Social network was at the center of one of Monday’s legal dramas – wrangling between Smith’s prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers over the handling of evidence at the center of the forthcoming trial.

    Prosecutors cited Trump writing on his Truth Social network on Friday, “If you go after me, I’m coming after you!” in a filing that requested strict rules on how he could use evidence that will be turned over to the defense as part of the pre-trial discovery process. Trump’s lawyers had asked for an extension to Monday’s deadline, but Judge Tanya Chutkan refused, in a fresh sign of her possible willingness to schedule a swift trial, which the ex-president wants to delay until after the 2024 election.

    In its brief, the defense proposed narrower rules than those sought by prosecutors. Spats over discovery aren’t unusual early in a trial process. But Trump’s filing added insight into how his team will approach a case in which he has pleaded not guilty.

    “In a trial about First Amendment rights, the government seeks to restrict First Amendment rights,” the attorneys said in the court filing.

    When it comes to Smith’s indictment, Trump’s lawyers are arguing that he was within his rights to claim the election was stolen. Smith’s strategy is, however, apparently designed to avoid a First Amendment trap, and alleges that the criminal activity occurred not in what Trump said, but in actions like the ex-president’s pressure on local officials over the election and on former Vice President Mike Pence to delay its certification.

    The Trump team’s filing went on to claim that the case was in itself an example of political victimization of their client, underscoring the fusion between his courtroom defense and his presidential campaign.

    “Worse, it does so against its administration’s primary political opponent, during an election season in which the administration, prominent party members, and media allies have campaigned on the indictment and proliferated its false allegations,” the filing said.

    In a Monday night order, Chutkan signaled she would hold a hearing this week on the dispute and told the parties to come up with, by 3 p.m. Tuesday, two options for when such a hearing could be held this week.

    Any prolonged debate over the terms of the pre-discovery process – let alone the many other expected pre-trial motions – will play into the hands of the defense. Trump is showing every sign that part of his motivation in running for a second White House term is to reacquire executive powers that could lead to federal cases against him being frozen. The timing of the January 6, 2021, case, and any potential conviction, is therefore hugely significant with a general election looming in November 2024.

    Trump has called for the recusal of Chutkan, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama. His legal team has called for a shift of trial venue away from the diverse US capital, potentially to West Virginia, one of the Whitest and most pro-Trump states in the nation. These pre-trial gambits are unlikely to succeed. But they help to create extreme pressure on the judge and to build a case for Trump supporters that the legal process is biased against him – a narrative that could provide especially inflammatory if he is eventually convicted.

    Trump’s rhetoric about the case has raised some concerns about the possibility of witness intimidation – especially as some of his supporters who were tried for their part in the mob attack on the US Capitol on January 6, have testified that they were spurred to action by his rhetoric.

    CNN observed increased security around Chutkan on Monday. Security is also increased around the Superior Court in Fulton County, Georgia, where a decision is expected in days on whether to hit Trump with a fourth criminal indictment.

    Any normal political candidate would have seen their political ambitions crushed by even one of the cases in Trump’s bulging portfolio of legal jeopardy. It is, however, a sign of the ex-president’s extraordinary and unbroken hold on the Republican Party and its voters that he is still the runaway front-runner in the primary.

    But one of his top rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, is slowly becoming more willing to criticize Trump publicly, after being cautious about alienating Trump supporters who feel the ex-president is the victim of a political witch hunt. DeSantis told NBC that “of course” Trump lost the 2024 election, as he blitzes early voting states New Hampshire and Iowa and makes the case that the ex-president’s legal exposure is a distraction the GOP cannot afford if it is to oust Biden from the White House after a single term. It may seem absurd that DeSantis is risking his political career by stating the obvious truth about the 2020 election, but Trump has made signing up to his false reality a test of loyalty among base voters.

    And Pence, who rejected Trump’s public pressure to thwart the certification of Biden’s election – a scheme at the center of Smith’s case – indicated over the weekend that he may testify in Trump’s trial if required to do so by law.

    The spectacle of a former vice presidential running mate testifying against the man who picked him for his ticket would be an extreme twist even in the Trump era of shattered political conventions.

    Thanks to Trump’s unfathomable and widening legal nightmare, nothing about the 2024 election is going to be anywhere near normal.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • ‘Zelda’ sales breakout juices Nintendo’s aging Switch | CNN Business

    ‘Zelda’ sales breakout juices Nintendo’s aging Switch | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    Tokyo
    CNN
     — 

    Japan’s Nintendo on Thursday said it sold 3.91 million units of its Switch console in the April-June quarter, exceeding sales in the same period a year earlier, boosted by the runaway success of its latest “Zelda” title.

    Investor sentiment has been buoyed by the breakout success of the “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which leads this year’s global box office ranking, and praise for video game “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” which went on sale in May.

    Nintendo

    (NTDOF)     said it sold 18.51 million units of “Tears of the Kingdom” in the first quarter. The game has a score of 96 out of 100 on reviews aggregator Metacritic, indicating universal acclaim.

    Still, the market is focused on the timing of a potential successor for the hybrid home-portable Switch, which has received incremental updates including a handheld-only version but is now in its seventh year on the market.

    “I think they’re going to ride out this fiscal year and squeeze the last bit of juice out of this system and then establish excitement for the new hardware sometime next year,” said Serkan Toto, founder of the Kantan Games consultancy.

    The Kyoto-based gaming firm maintained its full-year forecast for the console of 15 million units.

    It sold 17.97 million units in the previous financial year.

    Hitting the sales target at this stage of the console’s lifecycle would underscore Nintendo’s success in extending the appeal of its hardware and uniting its console and handheld businesses in a single device.

    Unlike periods of thin games supply previously, Nintendo also has a robust pipeline of titles with “Detective Pikachu Returns” and “Super Mario Bros. Wonder” due for release later this year.

    Nintendo’s shares have delivered a more than three-fold return, including dividends, since the Switch went on sale in major markets in March 2017, outperforming the benchmark Nikkei’s 91% return over the same period.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Portable hotspots arrive in Maui to bring internet to residents and tourists | CNN Business

    Portable hotspots arrive in Maui to bring internet to residents and tourists | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Portable mobile hotspots have arrived in Maui to help bring internet service to the thousands of people who may have been unable to call for help since the wildfires started to rage out of control on the island.

    Verizon told CNN on Thursday its teams are currently deploying the first batch of satellite-based mobile hotspots at evacuation sites in areas of greatest need, particularly the west side of the island, west of Maalaea, Lahaina and Northern Kapalua.

    Verizon’s larger equipment, which is being barged over from Honolulu, is expected to arrive later in the day. This includes COLTs (Cells on Light Trucks) — a mobile site on wheels that connects to a carrier’s service via a satellite link — and a specialized satellite trailer used to provide service to a cell site that has a damaged fiber connection.

    “Our team is closely monitoring the situation on the ground and our network performance,” a Verizon spokesperson told CNN. “Verizon engineers on the island are working to restore service in impacted areas as quickly and safely as possible.”

    The company said it is working closely with the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and the Maui County Emergency Operations Center to prioritize its network recovery.

    Other carriers continue to mobilize their efforts, too. An AT&T spokesperson said it is working with local public safety officials to deploy SatCOLTs (Satellite Cells on Light Trucks), drones with cell support and other solutions across the island, as equipment comes in from neighboring islands.

    Meanwhile, a T-Mobile spokesperson said its cell sites are “holding up well during the fires” but commercial power outages may be disrupting the service for some customers. “As soon as conditions allow, our priority is to deploy teams with portable generators that will bring temporary power back to our sites,” the spokesperson said.

    The Maui disaster has already wiped out power to at least 14,000 homes and businesses in the area, according to PowerOutage.us. Many cell towers have backup power generators but they have limited capacity to keep towers running.

    “911 is down. Cell service is down. Phone service is down,” Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke told CNN on Wednesday morning.

    Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T said they are waiving call, text and data overage charges for Maui residents during this time.

    Although strong winds can sometimes threaten cell towers, most are strong enough to handle the worst that even a Category 5 hurricane can bring. Fire, however, complicates the issue.

    “When the fires get too close to cell sites, they will obviously burn equipment, antennas, and feedlines,” said Glenn O’Donnell, VP of research at market research firm Forrester. “In extreme cases, they will also weaken the towers, leading some to collapse. The smoke and flames can also attenuate [reduce the strength of] signals because of the particulate density in the air.”

    If a tower collapses, cell networks could take months to be restored. But if carriers are able and prepared to do restorations with mobile backup units, it could bring limited service back within hours, O’Donnell said. Wireless carriers often bring in COWs (Cells On Wheels), COLTs and GOaTs (Generator on a Trailer) in emergencies to provide backup service when cell towers go down.

    Cell towers have backup technology built in, but this is typically done through optical fiber cables or microwave (wireless) links, according to Dimitris Mavrakis, senior researcher at ABI Research. However, if something extraordinary happens, such as interaction with rampant fires, these links may experience “catastrophic failures and leave cells without a connection to the rest of the world.”

    And, in an emergency, a spike in call volume can overload the system — if people are able to get reception.

    “Even cells that have a good service may experience outages due to the sheer volume of communication happening at once,” Mavrakis said. “Everyone in these areas may be trying to contact relatives or the authorities at once, saturating the network and causing an outage. This is easier to correct, though, and network operators may put in place additional measures to render them operational quickly.”

    Although it’s unclear how long cell phone service could be down in affected regions, companies have been able to bring connectivity to disaster regions in the past. In 2017, Google worked with AT&T and T-Mobile to deploy its Project Loon balloons to deliver internet service to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

    Project Loon has since shut down.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Snapchat users freak out over AI bot that had a mind of its own | CNN Business

    Snapchat users freak out over AI bot that had a mind of its own | CNN Business

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Snapchat users were alarmed on Tuesday night when the platform’s artificial intelligence chatbot posted a live update to its profile and stopped responding to messages.

    The Snapchat My AI feature — which is powered by the viral AI chatbot tool ChatGPT — typically offers recommendations, answers questions and converses with users. But posting a live Story (a short video of what appeared to be a wall) for all Snapchat users to see was a new one: It’s a capability typically reserved for only its human users.

    The app’s fans were quick to share their concerns on social media. “Why does My AI have a video of the wall and ceiling in their house as their story?” wrote one user. “This is very weird and honestly unsettling.” Another user wrote after the tool ignored his messages: “Even a robot ain’t got time for me.”

    Turns out, this wasn’t Snapchat working to make its My AI tool even more realistic. The company told CNN on Wednesday it was a glitch. “My AI experienced a temporary outage that’s now resolved,” a spokesperson said.

    Still, the strong reaction highlighted the fears many people have about the potential risks of artificial intelligence.

    Since launching in April, the tool has faced backlash not only from parents but from some Snapchat users with criticisms over privacy concerns, “creepy” exchanges and an inability to remove the feature from their chat feed unless they pay for a premium subscription.

    Unlike some other AI tools, Snapchat’s version has some key differences: Users can customize the chatbot’s name, design a custom Bitmoji avatar for it and bring it into conversations with friends. The net effect is that conversing with Snapchat’s chatbot may feel less transactional than visiting ChatGPT’s website. It also may be less clear that you’re talking to a computer.

    While some may find value in the tool, the mixed reaction hinted at the challenges companies face in rolling out new generative AI technology to their products, and particularly in products like Snapchat, whose users skew younger.

    Snapchat was an early launch partner when OpenAI opened up access to ChatGPT to third-party businesses, with many more expected to follow.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Appeals court says Biden admin likely violated First Amendment but narrows order blocking officials from communicating with social media companies | CNN Politics

    Appeals court says Biden admin likely violated First Amendment but narrows order blocking officials from communicating with social media companies | CNN Politics

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    A federal appeals court on Friday said the Biden administration likely violated the First Amendment in some of its communications with social media companies, but also narrowed a lower court judge’s order on the matter.

    The US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that certain administration officials – namely in the White House, the surgeon general, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation – likely “coerced or significantly encouraged social media platforms to moderate content” in violation of the First Amendment in its efforts to combat Covid-19 disinformation.

    But the three-judge panel said the preliminary injunction issued by US District Judge Terry Doughty in July, which ordered some Biden administration agencies and top officials not to communicate with social media companies about certain content, was “both vague and broader than necessary to remedy the Plaintiffs’ injuries, as shown at this preliminary juncture.”

    The Biden administration had previously argued in the lawsuit brought by Republican attorneys general claiming unconstitutional censorship that channels with social media companies must stay open so that the federal government can help protect the public from threats to election security, Covid-19 misinformation and other dangers.

    In briefs submitted earlier this summer, the administration wrote, “There is a categorical, well-settled distinction between persuasion and coercion,” adding that Doughty had “equated legitimate efforts at persuasion with illicit efforts to coerce.”

    The 5th Circuit left in place part of the injunction that barred certain Biden administration officials from “threatening, pressuring, or coercing social-media companies in any manner to remove, delete, suppress, or reduce posted content of postings containing protected free speech.”

    “But,” the appeals court said, “those terms could also capture otherwise legal speech. So, the injunction’s language must be further tailored to exclusively target illegal conduct and provide the officials with additional guidance or instruction on what behavior is prohibited.”

    The appeals court reversed several aspects of Doughty’s sweeping order, concluding that those pieces of it risked blocking the federal government “from engaging in legal conduct.”

    The 5th circuit left the order, which had been temporarily blocked earlier in the summer, on pause for 10 days so that the case can be appealed to the Supreme Court.

    The opinion was handed down jointly by Circuit Judges Edith Clement, Jennifer Walker Elrod and Don Willett – all appointees of Republican presidents.

    The conservative appeals court sided with many of the arguments put forward by the plaintiffs, which included private individuals as well Missouri and Louisiana, but also narrowed the injunction’s scope so that it only applied to the White House, the surgeon general, the CDC and the FBI. Doughty had included other agencies in his July order.

    This story has been updated with additional information.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • The iPhone’s new Action Button is more than a one-trick pony | CNN Business

    The iPhone’s new Action Button is more than a one-trick pony | CNN Business

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    The new iPhone 15 Pro lineup offers the typical slate of new features designed to persuade customers to upgrade: They’re slimmer and thinner than last year’s crop. The new cameras are professional-grade and the switch to USB-C charging will make your life easier.

    But one new feature easily stands out: The Action Button.

    Apple has repurposed its physical mute button on the side of its high-end models into a more customizable tool, allowing users to carry out a handful of commands, from recording a voice memo and taking a picture to turning on the flashlight. The button can also be programmed to launch any app or shortcut, essentially turning it into a remote control or launching pad to gain quick access to something you want on demand.

    In the days since Apple’s iPhone 15 event at its Cupertino, California, headquarters, I’ve used it to load a variety of apps in a single press, including CNN, Amazon and Instagram. It’s certain the Action Button will become a viable resource for anyone who revisits an app time and time again throughout the day.

    But it also has the potential to become an even more powerful tool; you could program it to play your favorite playlist, turn on the smart lights in your living room or use it to open the garage door. You could even turn it into a dedicated button to call mom. It builds on iOS’s existing offering of ready-made or custom shortcuts, and Apple is encouraging developers to build other unique shortcuts that other users could activate on the Action Button.

    The change is subtle but it’s one of the few noticeable tweaks to the iPhone’s design this year. The Action Button is about the same size as the existing button, and users still hold it down to switch between muting and turning on the ringer. Commands are accompanied with visual feedback from the Dynamic Island bar — home to alerts and notifications at the top of the screen.

    The Action Button update, along with changes in the phone’s charging and camera systems, comes as Apple looks to give consumers more reasons to upgrade their iPhones. Last month, Apple’s sales fell for the third consecutive quarter. iPhone revenue came in at $39.7 billion for the quarter, marking an approximately 2% year-over-year decline, as people update their devices less often.

    Another selling point to splurge for the iPhone 15 Pro ($1,099) or iPhone 15 Pro Max ($1,199): The phones come with a titanium casing — the same alloy used to build the Mars Rover — making them what Apple calls the thinnest and lightest Pro models to date. Apple’s entry level iPhones, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, cost $799 and $899, respectively. The entire lineup starts shipping on Friday.

    To program the Action Button, iPhone 15 Pro users can visit the button’s section in Settings, scroll through and select from a series of functionalities — such as flashlight or camera. By picking the shortcuts option, however, users can sift through their list of apps or previously established commands.

    Once set, there’s a slight learning curve following years of falling into the habit of using the physical button to turn the volume on and off. For this reason, it could take quite a while for some of iPhone’s loyalists to change how they use the device.

    The Action Button isn’t entirely new; the company unveiled it last year on the Apple Watch Ultra. Apple told CNN it was inspired to bring it to the iPhone after hearing anecdotes from users who said they consistently leave their phone on silent, rendering that button essentially useless. Considering iPhone usage has changed a lot since the iPhone debuted 16 years ago, revisiting a hallmark feature like the mute button was only a matter of time, according to the company.

    Ramon Llamas, a director at market research firm IDC, believes last week’s announcement is only the first step toward making the Action Button more dynamic. “I’d like to think that the Action Button could be expanded a bit more, like one click will take you to one feature; two clicks takes you to another, and three clicks gets you something else,” Llamas said. “But I think that would be it. Any more than that and you risk launching the wrong app, like Wordle, at the wrong time (when you need your camera the most),” he said.

    It’s also a strategic way for Apple to make the most of already tight real estate on the device, according to Llamas. Annette Zimmerman, a VP analyst with market research firm Gartner, agrees, noting that “having one button to do exactly one thing isn’t really progressive in a time where everything has multi-functionality and can be programmed.”

    Although it’s unclear if the Action Button will come to more devices in the future, Apple continues its sweep to create a uniform ecosystem for its consumers. Similarly, Apple is adding a Double Tap feature that allows people to use a finger feature to control the Apple Watch, just months after it showed off a similar gesture on its upcoming Vision Pro mixed reality headset.

    For now, iPhone 15 Pro users will enjoy playing with the new Action Button. While the feature is not worth the upgrade to iPhone 15 alone, the switch to universal charging, a faster processor and advanced camera capabilities make it a solid package, especially if you haven’t upgraded in the last few years.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Indonesia bans e-commerce transactions on social media in major blow to TikTok | CNN Business

    Indonesia bans e-commerce transactions on social media in major blow to TikTok | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    Jakarta
    Reuters
     — 

    Indonesia has banned e-commerce transactions on social media platforms, the trade minister said on Wednesday, in a blow to short video app TikTok, which is doubling down on Southeast Asia’s biggest economy to boost its e-commerce business.

    The government said the move, which takes effect immediately, is aimed at protecting offline merchants and marketplaces, adding that predatory pricing on social media platforms is threatening small and medium-sized enterprises.

    The move comes just three months after TikTok pledged to invest billion of dollars in Southeast Asia, mainly in Indonesia, over the next few years in a major push to build its e-commerce platform TikTok Shop.

    TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, has 125 million active monthly users in Indonesia and has been looking to translate the large user base into a major e-commerce revenue source.

    A TikTok Indonesia spokesperson said it would pursue a constructive path forward and was “deeply concerned” with the announcement, “particularly how it would impact the livelihoods of the 6 million” local sellers active on TikTok Shop.

    Indonesia Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan on Wednesday told reporters that the regulation is intended to ensure “fair and just” business competition, adding that it was also intended to ensure data protection of users.

    He warned of letting social media become an e-commerce platform, shop and bank all at the same time.

    The new regulation also requires e-commerce platforms in Indonesia to set a minimum price of $100 for certain items that are directly purchased from abroad, according to the regulation document reviewed by Reuters, and that all products offered should meet local standards.

    Zulkifli said TikTok had one week to comply with the regulation or face the threat of closure. Indonesia Deputy Trade Minister Jerry Sambuaga earlier this month named TikTok’s live streaming features as an example of people selling goods on social media.

    Research firm BMI said TikTok would be the only business affected by the transaction ban and the move was unlikely to harm the digital marketplace industry’s growth.

    Indonesia’s e-commerce market is dominated by the likes of homegrown tech firm GoTo’s Tokopedia, Sea’s Shopee and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s Lazada.

    E-commerce transactions in Indonesia amounted to nearly $52 billion last year and of that, 5% took place on TikTok, according to data from consultancy Momentum Works.

    Indonesia is among the few markets where TikTok has launched TikTok Shop, as it seeks to leverage its large user base in the country.

    Its 125 million active monthly users in Indonesia is almost on par with its user figures for Europe and behind US users of more than 150 million. TikTok launched an online shopping service in the United States earlier this month.

    Reactions from retailers were mixed.

    Fahmi Ridho, a vendor selling clothes on TikTok, said the platform was a way for stores to recover from the blow dealt by the Covid-19 pandemic.

    “Sales don’t have to be necessarily through [brick and mortar] shops, you can do it online or wherever,” he said “Everything will still have a portion.”

    But Edri, who goes by one name only and sells clothes at a major wholesale market in Jakarta, agreed with the regulation and stressed that there should be limits on items sold online.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • SoftBank CEO says artificial general intelligence will come within 10 years | CNN Business

    SoftBank CEO says artificial general intelligence will come within 10 years | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    Tokyo
    Reuters
     — 

    SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said he believes artificial general intelligence (AGI), artificial intelligence that surpasses human intelligence in almost all areas, will be realized within 10 years.

    Speaking at the SoftBank World corporate conference, Son said he believes AGI will be ten times more intelligent than the sum total of all human intelligence. He noted the rapid progress in generative AI that he said has already exceeded human intelligence in certain areas.

    “It is wrong to say that AI cannot be smarter than humans as it is created by humans,” he said. “AI is now self learning, self training, and self inferencing, just like human beings.”

    Son has spoken of the potential of AGI — typically using the term “singularity” — to transform business and society for some years, but this is the first time he has given a timeline for its development.

    He also introduced the idea of “Artificial Super Intelligence” at the conference which he claimed would be realized in 20 years and would surpass human intelligence by a factor of 10,000.

    Son is known for several canny bets that have turned SoftBank into a tech investment giant as well as some bets that have spectacularly flopped.

    He’s also prone to making strident claims about the transformative impact of new technologies. His predictions about the mobile internet have been largely borne out while those about the Internet of Things have not.

    Son called upon Japanese companies to “wake up” to the promise of AI, arguing they had increasingly fallen behind in the internet age and reiterated his belief in chip designer Arm as core to the “AI revolution.”

    Arm CEO Rene Haas, speaking at the conference via video, touted the energy efficiency of Arm’s designs, saying they would become increasingly sought after to power artificial intelligence.

    Son said he thinks he is the only person who believes AGI will come within a decade. Haas said he thought it would come in his lifetime.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • TikTok steps up efforts to counter misinformation about Israel-Hamas war | CNN Business

    TikTok steps up efforts to counter misinformation about Israel-Hamas war | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    London
    CNN
     — 

    TikTok is stepping up efforts to counter misinformation, incitement to violence and hate relating to the Israel-Hamas war on its online platform, it announced Sunday, days after the European Union (EU) warned social media companies they risked falling foul of the bloc’s content moderation laws.

    As part of its measures, TikTok is launching a command center to coordinate the work of its “safety professionals” around the world, improving the software it uses to automatically detect and remove graphic and violent content, and hiring more Arabic and Hebrew speakers to moderate content.

    TikTok said in a statement that, following the brutal attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians on October 7, it had “immediately mobilized significant resources and personnel to help maintain the safety of [its] community and integrity of [its] platform.”

    “We do not tolerate attempts to incite violence or spread hateful ideologies,” it added. “We have a zero-tolerance policy for content praising violent and hateful organizations and individuals.”

    The firm, owned by China’s ByteDance, said it had already removed more than 500,000 videos and shut down 8,000 livestream videos from the “impacted region” since the Hamas attack.

    As the conflict escalates — Israel has blocked the provision of electricity, food, fuel and water to Gaza, and has been signaling it is preparing for a ground invasion of the area — millions have turned to social media for updates, while misinformation has proliferated on these sites.

    One recent TikTok video, seen by more than 300,000 users and reviewed by CNN, promoted conspiracy theories about the origins of the Hamas attack, including false claims that it was orchestrated by the media.

    Last week, the EU told social media companies they needed to better protect “children and teenagers from violent content and terrorist propaganda” on their platforms.

    EU Commissioner Thierry Breton wrote to TikTok Thursday, in a letter shared on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, saying the company had 24 hours to detail the steps it was taking to comply with EU rules on content moderation. Breton has sent similar letters to X, Google and Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Biden administration defends communications with social media companies in high-stakes court fight | CNN Business

    Biden administration defends communications with social media companies in high-stakes court fight | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    Washington, DC
    CNN
     — 

    The Biden administration on Thursday defended its communications with social media giants in court, arguing those channels must stay open so that the federal government can help protect the public from threats to election security, Covid-19 misinformation and other dangers.

    The closely watched court fight reflects how social media has become an informational battleground for major social issues. It has revealed the messy challenges for social media companies as they try to manage the massive amounts of information on their platforms.

    And it has highlighted warnings by independent researchers, watchdog groups and government officials that malicious actors will continue to try to disrupt the country’s democracy by flooding the internet with bogus and divisive material ahead of the 2024 elections.

    In oral arguments before a New Orleans-based federal appeals court, the US government challenged a July injunction that blocked several federal agencies from discussing certain social media posts and sharing other information with online platforms, amid allegations by state governments that those communications amounted to a form of unconstitutional censorship.

    The appeals court last month temporarily blocked the injunction from taking effect. But the outcome of Thursday’s arguments will determine the ultimate fate of the order, which placed new limits on the Departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services and other federal agencies’ ability to coordinate with tech companies and civil society groups.

    If upheld by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the injunction would suppress a broad range of public-private partnerships and undermine the US government’s mission to protect the public, the Biden administration argued.

    “For example, if there were a natural disaster, and there were untrue statements circulating on social media that were damaging to the public interest, the government would be powerless under the injunction to discourage social media companies from further disseminating those incorrect statements,” said Daniel Tenny, a Justice Department lawyer.

    Now, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit is set to decide how executive agencies may respond to those threats.

    At issue is whether the US government unconstitutionally pressured social media platforms into censoring users’ speech, particularly when the government flagged posts to the platforms that it believed violated the companies’ own terms of service.

    During more than an hour of oral arguments Thursday, the three judges handling the appeal gave little indication of how they would rule in the case, with one judge asking just a couple of questions during the hearing. The other two spent much of the time pressing attorneys for the Biden administration and the plaintiffs in the case on issues concerning the scope of the injunction and whether the states even had the legal right – or standing – to bring the lawsuit.

    Before them is not only the request to reverse the lower court injunction, but also one from the administration to issue a more lasting pause on that injunction while the judges weigh the challenge to it.

    In briefs submitted to the court ahead of Thursday’s hearing, the Biden administration argued that a lower court judge was wrong to have identified the government communications with social media companies as potentially, in his words, “the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ [sic] history.”

    “There is a categorical, well-settled distinction between persuasion and coercion,” the administration’s lawyers wrote, adding that the lower court “equated legitimate efforts at persuasion with illicit efforts to coerce.”

    The administration’s opponents in the case, which include the states of Missouri and Louisiana, have argued that the federal government’s communications with social media companies are a violation of the First Amendment because even “‘encouragement short of compulsion’ can transform private conduct [by social media companies] into government action” that infringes on users’ speech rights.

    “Every one of these federal agencies has insinuated themselves into the content moderation decisions of major social media platforms,” D. John Sauer, an attorney representing the state of Louisiana, told the judges on Thursday. Hypothetically speaking, he added: “The Surgeon General can say, ‘All this speech is terrible, it’s awful.’ …. But what he can’t do is pick up the phone and say, ‘Take it down.’”

    In addition to the states, five individuals are also plaintiffs in the suit. They include three doctors who have been critical of state and federal pandemic-era restrictions, a Louisiana woman who claims she was censored by social media companies for her online criticisms of Covid health measures and a man who runs a far-right website known for pushing conspiracy theories.

    Much of Thursday’s oral arguments hinged on the definition of coercive communication and how courts have analyzed government pressure against private parties in past cases.

    But the states also claimed that there could be a pathway to finding a constitutional violation if the court agreed that social media companies, in heeding the administration’s calls to action, had been effectively turned into agents of the US government.

    In the past month, after District Judge Terry Doughty issued his injunction, current and former US officials, along with outside researchers and academics, have worried that the order could lead to a chilling effect for efforts to protect US elections.

    “There is no serious dispute that foreign adversaries have and continue to attempt to interfere in our elections and that they use social media to do it,” FBI Director Christopher Wray testified to the House Judiciary Committee in July. “President Trump himself in 2018 declared a national emergency to that very effect, and the Senate Intelligence Committee — in a bipartisan, overwhelmingly bipartisan way — not only found the same thing but called for more information-sharing between us and the social media.”

    Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, the panel’s chair, remains unconvinced. Earlier this week, he and other Republican lawmakers filed their own brief to the appeals court, accusing the Biden administration of a campaign to stifle speech.

    “On issue after issue, the Biden Administration has distorted the free marketplace of ideas promised by the First Amendment, bringing the weight of federal authority to bear on any speech it dislikes—including memes and jokes,” Jordan and the other lawmakers wrote. “Of course, Big Tech companies often required little coercion to do the Administration’s bidding on some issues. Generally eager to please their ideological allies and overseers in the federal government, these companies and other private entities have repeatedly censored accurate speech on important public issues.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Schools are teaching ChatGPT, so students aren’t left behind | CNN Business

    Schools are teaching ChatGPT, so students aren’t left behind | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    When college administrator Lance Eaton created a working spreadsheet about the generative AI policies adopted by universities last spring, it was mostly filled with entries about how to ban tools like ChatGPT.

    But now the list, which is updated by educators at both small and large US and international universities, is considerably different: Schools are encouraging and even teaching students how to best use these tools.

    “Earlier on, we saw a knee–jerk reaction to AI by banning it going into spring semester, but now the talk is about why it makes sense for students to use it,” Eaton, an administrator at Rhode Island-based College Unbound, told CNN.

    He said his growing list continues to be discussed and shared in popular AI-focused Facebook groups, such as Higher Ed Discussions of Writing and AI, and the Google group AI in Education.

    “It’s really helped educators see how others are adapting to and framing AI in the classroom,” Eaton said. “AI is still going to feel uncomfortable, but now they can now go in and see how a university or a range of different courses, from coding to sociology, are approaching it.”

    With more experts expecting the continued application of artificial intelligence, professors now fear ignoring or discouraging the use of it will be a disservice to students and leave many behind when entering the workforce.

    Since it was made available in late November, ChatGPT has been used to generate original essays, stories and song lyrics in response to user prompts. It has drafted research paper abstracts that fooled some scientists and passed exams at esteemed universities. The technology, and similar tools such as Google’s Bard, is trained on vast amounts of online data in order to generate responses to user prompts. While they gained traction among users, the tools also raised some concerns about inaccuracies, cheating, the spreading of misinformation and the potential to perpetuate biases.

    According to a study conducted by higher education research group Intelligent.com, about 30% of college students used ChatGPT for schoolwork this past academic year and it was used most in English classes.

    Jules White, an associate professor of computer science at Vanderbilt University, believes professors should be explicit in the first few days of school about the course’s stance on using AI and that it should be included it in the syllabus.

    “It cannot be ignored,” he said. “I think it’s incredibly important for students, faculty and alumni to become experts in AI because it will be so transformative across every industry in demand so we provide the right training.”

    Vanderbilt is among the early leaders taking a strong stance in support of generative AI by offering university-wide training and workshops to faculty and students. A three-week 18-hour online course taught by White this summer was taken by over 90,000 students, and his paper on “prompt engineering” best practices is routinely cited among academics.

    “The biggest challenge is with how you frame the instructions, or ‘prompts,’” he said. “It has a profound impact on the quality of the response and asking the same thing in various ways can get dramatically different results. We want to make sure our community knows how to effectively leverage this.”

    Prompt engineering jobs, which typically require basic programming experience, can pay up to $300,000.

    Although White said concerns around cheating still exist, he believes students who want to plagiarize can still seek out other methods such as Wikipedia or Google searches. Instead, students should be taught that “if they use it in other ways, they will be far more successful.”

    Diane Gayeski, a professor of communications at Ithaca College, said she plans to incorporate ChatGPT and other tools in her fall curriculum, similar to her approach in the spring. She previously asked students to collaborate with the tool to come up with interview questions for assignments, write social media posts and critique the output based on the prompts given.

    “My job is to prepare students for PR, communications and social media managers, and people in these fields are already using AI tools as part of their everyday work to be more efficient,” she said. “I need to make sure they understand how they work, but I do want them to cite when ChatGPT is being used.”

    Gayeski added that as long as there is transparency, there should be no shame in adopting the technology.

    Some schools are hiring outside experts to teach both faculty and students about how to use AI tools. Tyler Tarver, a former high school principal who now teaches educators about tech tool strategies, said he’s made over 50 speeches at schools and conferences across Texas, Arkansas and Illinois over the past few months. He also offers an online three-hour training for educators.

    “Teachers need to learn how to use it because even if they never use it, their students will,” Tarver said.

    Tarver said that he teaches students, for example, how the tools can be used to catch grammar mistakes, and how teachers can use it to assist with grading. “It can cut down on teacher bias,” Tarver said.

    He argues teachers could grade students a certain way even if they’ve improved over time. By running an assignment through ChatGPT, and asking it to grade the sentence structure on a scale from one to 10, the response could “service as a second pair of eyes to make sure they’re not missing anything,” Tarver said.

    “That shouldn’t be the final grade — teachers shouldn’t use it to cheat or cut corners either — but it can help inform grading,” he said. “The bottom line is that this is like when the car was invented. You don’t want to be the last person in the horse and buggy.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link