ReportWire

Tag: Information technology

  • Mistake-filled legal briefs show the limits of relying on AI tools at work

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Judges around the world are dealing with a growing problem: legal briefs that were generated with the help of artificial intelligence and submitted with errors such as citations to cases that don’t exist, according to attorneys and court documents.

    The trend serves as a cautionary tale for people who are learning to use AI tools at work. Many employers want to hire workers who can use the technology to help with tasks such as conducting research and drafting reports. As teachers, accountants and marketing professionals begin engaging with AI chatbots and assistants to generate ideas and improve productivity, they’re also discovering the programs can make mistakes.

    A French data scientist and lawyer, Damien Charlotin, has catalogued at least 490 court filings in the past six months that contained “hallucinations,” which are AI responses that contain false or misleading information. The pace is accelerating as more people use AI, he said.

    “Even the more sophisticated player can have an issue with this,” Charlotin said. “AI can be a boon. It’s wonderful, but also there are these pitfalls.”

    Charlotin, a senior research fellow at HEC Paris, a business school located just outside France’s capital city, created a database to track cases in which a judge ruled that generative AI produced hallucinated content such as fabricated case law and false quotes. The majority of rulings are from U.S. cases in which plaintiffs represented themselves without an attorney, he said. While most judges issued warnings about the errors, some levied fines.

    This article is part of AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health. Read more Be Well.

    But even high-profile companies have submitted problematic legal documents. A federal judge in Colorado ruled that a lawyer for MyPillow Inc., filed a brief containing nearly 30 defective citations as part of a defamation case against the company and founder Michael Lindell.

    The legal profession isn’t the only one wrestling with AI’s foibles. The AI overviews that appear at the top of web search result pages frequently contain errors.

    And AI tools also raise privacy concerns. Workers in all industries need to be cautious about the details they upload or put into prompts to ensure they’re safeguarding the confidential information of employers and clients.

    Legal and workplace experts share their experiences with AI’s mistakes and describe perils to avoid.

    Think of AI as an assistant

    Don’t trust AI to make big decisions for you. Some AI users treat the tool as an intern to whom you assign tasks and whose completed work you expect to check.

    “Think about AI as augmenting your workflow,” said Maria Flynn, CEO of Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit focused on workforce development. It can act as an assistant for tasks such as drafting an email or researching a travel itinerary, but don’t think of it as a substitute that can do all of the work, she said.

    When preparing for a meeting, Flynn experimented with an in-house AI tool, asking it to suggest discussion questions based on an article she shared with the team.

    “Some of the questions it proposed weren’t the right context really for our organization, so I was able to give it some of that feedback … and it came back with five very thoughtful questions,” she said.

    Check for accuracy

    Flynn also has found problems in the output of the AI tool, which still is in a pilot stage. She once asked it to compile information on work her organization had done in various states. But the AI tool was treating completed work and funding proposals as the same thing.

    “In that case, our AI tool was not able to identify the difference between something that had been proposed and something that had been completed,” Flynn said.

    Luckily, she had the institutional knowledge to recognize the errors. “If you’re new in an organization, ask coworkers if the results look accurate to them,” Flynn suggested.

    While AI can help with brainstorming, relying on it to provide factual information is risky. Take the time to check the accuracy of what AI generates, even if it’s tempting to skip that step.

    “People are making an assumption because it sounds so plausible that it’s right, and it’s convenient,” Justin Daniels, an Atlanta-based attorney and shareholder with the law firm Baker Donelson, said. “Having to go back and check all the cites, or when I look at a contract that AI has summarized, I have to go back and read what the contract says, that’s a little inconvenient and time-consuming, but that’s what you have to do. As much as you think the AI can substitute for that, it can’t.”

    Be careful with notetakers

    It can be tempting to use AI to record and take notes during meetings. Some tools generate useful summaries and outline action steps based on what was said.

    But many jurisdictions require the consent of participants prior to recording conversations. Before using AI to take notes, pause and consider whether the conversation should be kept privileged and confidential, said Danielle Kays, a Chicago-based partner at law firm Fisher Phillips.

    Consult with colleagues in the legal or human resources departments before deploying a notetaker in high-risk situations such as investigations, performance reviews or legal strategy discussions, she suggested.

    “People are claiming that with use of AI there should be various levels of consent, and that is something that is working its way through the courts,” Kays said. “That is an issue that I would say companies should continue to watch as it is litigated.”

    Protecting confidential information

    If you’re using free AI tools to draft a memo or marketing campaign, don’t tell it identifying information or corporate secrets. Once you’ve uploaded that information, it’s possible others using the same tool might find it.

    That’s because when other people ask an AI tool questions, it will search available information, including details you revealed, as it builds its answer, Flynn said. “It doesn’t discern whether something is public or private,” she added.

    Seek schooling

    If your employer doesn’t offer AI training, try experimenting with free tools such as ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot. Some universities and tech companies offer classes that can help you develop your understanding of how AI works and ways it can be useful.

    A course that teaches people how to construct the best AI prompts or hands-on courses that provide opportunities to practice are valuable, Flynn said.

    Despite potential problems with the tools, learning how they work can be beneficial at a time when they’re ubiquitous.

    “The largest potential pitfall in learning to use AI is not learning to use it at at all,” Flynn said. “We’re all going to need to become fluent in AI, and taking the early steps of building your familiarity, your literacy, your comfort with the tool is going to be critically important.”

    ___

    Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at [email protected]. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well

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  • Apple delivers strong quarter despite iPhone sales slowdown

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    SAN FRANCISCO — Apple’s iPhone sales growth decelerated during its summertime quarter, but the company still delivered financial results that exceeded analyst projections while the trendsetting company continued to catch up to its Big Tech peers in the artificial intelligence race.

    The performance announced Thursday was driven largely by strong initial demand for the premium models of the iPhone 17 lineup that went on sale last month.

    Although the iPhone 17 lacks the AI wizardry featured in rival devices recently introduced by Samsung and Google, Apple spruced up its latest models with a redesign highlighted by a sleek “liquid glass” appearance on the display screens.

    Apple also largely maintained its pricing on its latest iPhones, despite being squeezed by President Donald Trump’s trade war that imposed tariffs on the U.S. devices that the company mostly makes in India and China.

    The formula apparently was enough to win over consumers, particularly in the United States, and deliver iPhone sales totaling $49 billion during the July-September period, a 6% from the same time last year. That was slightly below the 8% increase in iPhone sales that had been anticipated by analysts, and less than the 13% bump in sales during the April-June period.

    Buoyed by the iPhone results, Apple earned $27.5 billion, or $1.85 per share, nearly doubling its profit from a year ago. Revenue climbed 8% from a year ago to $102.5 billion. Both the earnings and revenue eclipsed the analyst forecasts that steer the stock market.

    Apple shares surged 4% in extended trading after the numbers came out.

    Apple’s stock has been on a tear since a report earlier this month from the research firm International Data Corp. telegraphed the quarterly results with a preliminary analysis that concluded the company had set a new July-September record for iPhone sales. The rally catapulted Apple’s market value above $4 trillion for the first time earlier this week and now the stage is set for the shares to hit another new high during Friday’s regular trading session.

    But Apple has been widely seen as a laggard in the AI craze, one of the reasons that Nvidia — a chipmaker whose processors power the technology — became the first company to be valued at $5 trillion earlier this week.

    Apple had promised a wide array of AI features would be rolling out on last year’s iPhone models, but was only able to deliver a few of them. The missing upgrades included a smarter and more versatile version of its frequently flummoxed Siri virtual assistant – a makeover that Apple now doesn’t expect to complete until next year.

    But Apple has a long history of late starts when technology starts to head in another direction before it finally catches up and emerges as a front-runner.

    If Apple can pull it off again by eventually implanting more AI features on the iPhone, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives believes those breakthroughs could boost the company’s market share by another $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, translating into $75 to $100 per share.

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  • Microsoft prepares to spend more on AI as its sales and profit surge

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    Microsoft on Wednesday reported its quarterly sales grew 18% to $77.7 billion, beating Wall Street expectations while also surprising some investors with the huge amounts of money it is spending to expand its cloud computing infrastructure and meet demand for artificial intelligence tools.

    The software maker said it spent nearly $35 billion in the July-September quarter on capital expenditures to support AI and cloud demand, nearly half of that on computer chips and much of the rest related to data center real estate.

    That overshadowed Microsoft’s report of a 22% increase in quarterly profit to $30.8 billion, or $4.13 per share, which easily beat Wall Street expectations for the period. Microsoft said those results excluded the impacts of money it invested in OpenAI, in an attempt to “help clarify” how those losses affected Microsoft’s core business.

    Microsoft was expected to earn $3.67 per share on revenue of $75.38 billion, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet Research.

    The results came a day after a new deal with OpenAI pushed Microsoft to $4 trillion in valuation for the second time this year. But shares in Microsoft then dropped in the hours before it disclosed its earnings Wednesday as the company battled an outage affecting its Azure cloud computing platform. They dropped even more — about 1% — in after-hours trading Wednesday as investors considered the significance of the earnings report.

    Driving investor enthusiasm on Tuesday was the announcement of Microsoft’s revised business deal with its longtime partner OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT and now the world’s most valuable startup. While no longer OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider, a relationship that helped bankroll the startup’s early growth, Microsoft will retain commercial rights to OpenAI products through 2032 and get a roughly 27% stake in OpenAI’s new for-profit arm.

    Microsoft also said Wednesday that it has already invested $11.6 billion of the total $13 billion it has committed to OpenAI.

    Microsoft’s valuation previously passed $4 trillion in July, making it the second company after Nvidia to reach the milestone. Microsoft again and Apple for the first time crossed $4 trillion this week, while Nvidia went on to achieve a different milestone: the first $5 trillion company.

    The sky-high valuations highlight the investor frenzy around artificial intelligence, which some fear could turn into a bust if AI products aren’t as transformative or profitable as promised.

    Quarterly revenue from Microsoft’s cloud-focused business segment was $30.9 billion, up 28% from the same time last year and just slightly above what analysts were expecting. Revenue from Microsoft’s workplace software, which includes its email and word processing tools, was up 17% to $33 billion.

    Microsoft’s recent focus has centered around pitching its flagship AI assistant Copilot to help with a variety of work tasks, and last week gave it a new animated avatar exterior called Mico.

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  • Google’s corporate parent posts first-ever quarter with $100B in revenue in latest show of its power

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    SAN FRANCISCO — Google’s corporate parent on Wednesday announced its first-ever quarter with more than $100 billion in revenue, a milestone that illustrates the unwavering power of its internet empire amid legal and competitive threats.

    The news of Alphabet Inc.’s accelerating growth in revenue and profit comes on the heels of a court ruling in the U.S. Justice Department’s landmark monopoly case against Google’s dominant search engine that was widely seen as a mild rebuke that wouldn’t hobble the company.

    Alphabet performed like a powerhouse during the July-September period, delivering a profit of nearly $35 billion, or $2.87 per share, a 33% increase from the same time last year. Revenue rose 16% from last year to $102.3 billion. Both figures easily exceeded the analysts’ projections that steer the stock market.

    Investors celebrated the third-quarter numbers by driving up Alphabet’s stock price nearly 5% in Wednesday’s extended trading.

    That’s on top of a 30% surge in Alphabet’s shares that has created nearly $770 billion in stockholder wealth since early September. That’s when U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rejected a Justice Department proposal to break up Google to curb the abuses of a search engine that was declared an illegal monopoly last year.

    Mehta’s cautious handling of Google’s search monopoly largely reflected his belief that rapid advances in artificial intelligence technology have already been spawning conversational “answer engines” from rising tech stars such as ChatGPT and Perplexity that are giving consumers more options.

    ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI and Perplexity have released AI-powered web browsers to compete against Google’s industry-leading Chrome browser that the Justice Department had unsuccessfully tried to persuade Mehta to order to be sold.

    But Google has been implanting more AI features into both its search engine and Chrome, as well as its other products, as part of its effort to protect its turf while also expanding into new technological frontiers. In a sign of the inroads those efforts are making, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai disclosed Wednesday that Google’s AI-powered Gemini app now has 650 million monthly users.

    Like other major tech companies, Google has been bankrolling its AI ambitions with a spending spree that has raised worries about a potential bubble that will eventually burst. Alphabet now expects to budget $91 billion to $93 billion for capital expenditures this year, up from $85 billion in its previous quarterly report issued in July, with most of the money earmarked for the massive data centers needed to power AI.

    Alphabet has the luxury of drawing upon a lucrative ad network that Google has spent a quarter century building. Google’s ad sales totaled $74.2 billion in the third quarter, a 13% increase from last year.

    The AI craze has been a boon for Google’s Cloud division that oversees data centers for other companies, an endeavor that has turned into the fastest growing part of Alphabet. Google Cloud posted revenue of $15.2 billion in the past quarter, up 34% from last year.

    Although Google appears to have fared relatively well in the legal attack on its search engine, it still faces a potentially damaging blow in another case brought by the Justice Department against the technology underlying its ad network.

    After condemning parts of Google’s ad technology as an illegal monopoly earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema is considering ways to handcuff the company in the future. The Justice Department is seeking a court order to force Google to sell pieces of its ad network — an issue that Brinkema isn’t expected to rule on until early next year.

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  • Meta shares slide after company projects higher expenses for 2026

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    Meta’s stock slid in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the tech giant posted strong third-quarter results but warned that its expenses will be significantly higher in 2026 than this year.

    Like its rivals, Meta Platforms Inc. has been on an artificial intelligence spending spree and said its costs will grow much faster next year, driven by infrastructure costs and employee compensation as it has hired AI experts at eye-popping compensation levels.

    “Employee compensation costs will be the second largest contributor to growth, as we recognize a full year of compensation for employees hired throughout 2025, particularly AI talent, and add technical talent in priority areas,” Meta said.

    Menlo Park, California-based Meta Platforms Inc. earned $2.71 billion, or $1.05 per share, in the July-September period. Excluding tax-related special expenses, the company would have earned $7.25. Revenue rose 26% to $51.42 billion from $40.59 billion.

    Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $6.72 per share on revenue of $49.51 billion, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet Research.

    Meta’s daily active user base on its apps — Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram and Threads — was 3.54 billion on average for September, up 8% year-over-year.

    For the current quarter, Meta is forecasting revenue in the range of $56 billion to $59 billion. Analysts are forecasting $57.36 billion for the October-December quarter.

    Despite the stock drop, analysts were less concerned about Meta’s spending spree than shareholders appeared to be.

    “For Meta, advertising is the foundation; AI is the growth engine,” said Debra Aho Williamson, founder and chief analyst at Sonata Insights. “There’s a lot of focus on Meta’s capital expenditures related to AI, which is completely warranted. The spending is absolutely massive. But with 26% growth in revenue in Q3, it’s clear that what Meta is doing to integrate AI into its ad products is working.”

    Andrew Rocco, stock strategist at Zacks Investment Research, said “the quarter was not terrible, and forward statements continue to be positive. Most importantly, management confirmed that they expect ad revenue to remain strong.”

    Meta also cautioned that it is facing a slew of legal and regulatory issues in the U.S. and the European Union that could hurt its bottom line.

    “In the U.S., a number of youth-related trials are scheduled for 2026, and may ultimately result in a material loss,” the company said.

    In the U.S., Meta is facing an antitrust case that’s now awaiting a judge’s decision and could force the company to break off WhatsApp and Instagram, startups Meta bought more than a decade ago that have since grown into social media powerhouses.

    Meta’s shares fell $57.67, or 7.7%, to $694 in after-hours trading. The stock had closed up slightly at $751.67.

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  • Microsoft shares once again surpass $4 trillion valuation, joining Nvidia

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    Microsoft Corp. once again surpassed $4 trillion in valuation, joining artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia in the exclusive club that also briefly included Apple on Tuesday. The sky-high valuations highlight the investor frenzy around artificial intelligence.

    Earlier in the day, OpenAI said it has reorganized its ownership structure and converted its business into a public benefit corporation after two crucial regulators, the Delaware and California attorneys general, said they would not oppose the plan. It also said has signed a new agreement with its longtime backer Microsoft that gives the software giant a roughly 27% stake in OpenAI’s new for-profit corporation.

    The news gave Microsoft’s shares a boost as the stock closed up 2% at $542.07, valuing the technology giant at $4.04 trillion. Microsoft’s valuation previously passed $4 trillion in July, making it the second company after Nvidia to reach the milestone.

    Apple’s shares, meanwhile, crossed the $4 trillion line earlier Tuesday before closing up slightly at $269 and a total valuation of $3.99 trillion. Thanks to the iPhone’s success, Apple was the the first publicly traded company to valued at $1 trillion, $2 trillion and eventually, $3 trillion.

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  • Amazon cuts 14,000 corporate jobs as spending on artificial intelligence accelerates

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    Amazon will cut about 14,000 corporate jobs as the online retail giant ramps up spending on artificial intelligence while cutting costs elsewhere.

    Teams and individuals impacted by the job cuts will be notified on Tuesday. Most workers will be given 90 days to look for a new position internally, Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, wrote in a letter to employees on Tuesday. Those who can’t find a new role at the company or who opt not to look for one will be provided transitional support including severance pay, outplacement services and health insurance benefits.

    Amazon has about 350,000 corporate employees and a total workforce of approximately 1.56 million. The cuts announced Tuesday amount to about a 4% reduction in its corporate workforce.

    In June CEO Andy Jassy, who has aggressively sought to cut costs since becoming CEO in 2021, said that he anticipated generative AI would reduce Amazon’s corporate workforce in the next few years.

    Jassy said at the time that Amazon had more than 1,000 generative AI services and applications in progress or built, but that figure was a “small fraction” of what it plans to build.

    Amazon has announced plans to invest $10 billion building a campus in North Carolina to expand its cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure.

    Since 2024 started, Amazon has committed to about $10 billion apiece to data center projects in Mississippi, Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina as it builds up its infrastructure to try to keep up with other tech giants making leaps in AI. Amazon is competing with OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta and others. In a conference call with industry analysts in May, Jassy said that the potential for growth in the company’s AWS business is massive.

    “If you believe your mission is to make customers’ lives easier and better every day, and you believe that every customer experience will be reinvented with AI, you’re going to invest very aggressively in AI, and that’s what we’re doing. You can see that in the 1,000-plus AI applications we’re building across Amazon. You can see that with our next generation of Alexa, named Alexa+,” he said.

    Amazon’s workforce doubled during the pandemic as millions stayed home and boosted online spending. In the following years, big tech and retail companies cut thousands of jobs to bring spending back in line.

    The cuts announced Tuesday suggests Amazon is still trying to get the size of its workforce right and it may not be over. It was the biggest culling at Amazon since 2023, when the company cut 27,000 jobs. Those cuts came in waves, with 9,000 jobs trimmed in March of that year, and another 18,000 employees two months later. Amazon has not said if more job cuts are on the way.

    Yet the jobs market which has for years been a pillar in the U.S. economy, is showing signs of weakening. Layoffs have been limited, but the same can be said for hiring.

    Government hiring data is on hold during the government shut down, but earlier this month a survey by payroll company ADP showed a surprising loss of 32,000 jobs losses in the private sector in September.

    Many retailers are pulling back on seasonal hiring this year due to uncertainty over the U.S. economy and tariffs. Amazon Inc. said this month, however, that it would hire 250,000 seasonal workers, the same as last year’s holiday season.

    Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said in a statement that the layoffs “represent a deep cleaning of Amazon’s corporate workforce.”

    “Unlike the Target layoffs, Amazon is operating from a position of strength,” he said. “The company has been producing good growth, and it still has a lot of headroom for further expansion in both the U.S. and overseas.”

    But Saunders noted that Amazon is not immune to outside factors, as global markets tighten and underlying costs climb.

    “It needs to act if it wants to continue with a good bottom-line performance. This is especially so given the amount of investment the company is making in areas like logistics and AI. In some ways, this is a tipping point away from human capital to technological infrastructure,” he said.

    Amazon will post quarterly financial results on Thursday. During its most recent quarter, the company reported 17.5% growth for its cloud computing arm Amazon Web Services.

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  • OpenAI may move forward with new business structure, partnership with Microsoft, regulators say

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    OpenAI said Tuesday it has reorganized its ownership structure and converted its business into a public benefit corporation and two crucial regulators, the Delaware and California attorneys general, said they would not oppose the plan.

    The restructuring paves the way for the ChatGPT maker to more easily profit off its artificial intelligence technology even as it remains technically under the control of a nonprofit.

    Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings and California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in separate statements that they would not object to the proposal, seemingly bringing to an end more than a year of negotiations and announcements about the future of OpenAI’s governance and the power that for-profit investors and its nonprofit board will have over the organization’s technology.

    The company also said it has signed a new agreement with its longtime backer Microsoft that gives the software giant a roughly 27% stake in OpenAI’s new for-profit corporation but changes some of the details of their close partnership.

    The attorneys general of Delaware, where OpenAI is incorporated, and California, where it is headquartered, had both said they’re investigating the proposed changes.

    “We will be keeping a close eye on OpenAI to ensure ongoing adherence to its charitable mission and the protection of the safety of all Californians,” said Bonta.

    OpenAI said it completed its restructuring “after nearly a year of engaging in constructive dialogue” with the offices in both states.

    “OpenAI has completed its recapitalization, simplifying its corporate structure,” said a blog post Tuesday from Bret Taylor, the chair of OpenAI’s board of directors. “The nonprofit remains in control of the for-profit, and now has a direct path to major resources before AGI arrives.”

    AGI stands for artificial general intelligence, which OpenAI defines as “highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work.” OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit in 2015 with a mission to safely build AGI for humanity’s benefit. It later started a for-profit arm.

    Microsoft invested its first $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019 and the two companies formed an agreement that made Microsoft the exclusive provider of the computing power needed to build OpenAI’s technology. In turn, Microsoft heavily used the technology behind ChatGPT to enhance its own AI products.

    The two companies first revealed in January that they were altering that agreement, enabling San Francisco-based OpenAI to build its own computing capacity, “primarily for research and training of models.” That coincided with OpenAI’s announcements of a partnership with Oracle and SoftBank to build a massive new data center in Abilene, Texas. It’s since announced more such projects planned in the U.S., Asia, Europe and South America, along with big deals with chipmakers like Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom.

    But other parts of its agreements with Microsoft remained up in the air as the two companies appeared to veer further apart before reaching a tentative new agreement in September.

    OpenAI had previously said its own nonprofit board will decide when AGI is reached, effectively ending its Microsoft partnership. But it now says that “once AGI is declared by OpenAI, that declaration will now be verified by an independent expert panel,” and that Microsoft’s rights to OpenAI’s confidential research methods “will remain until either the expert panel verifies AGI or through 2030, whichever is first.” Microsoft will also retain some commercial rights to OpenAI products “post-AGI” and through 2032.

    Microsoft put out the same joint announcement about the revised partnership Tuesday but declined further comment. Its shares spiked 2% on Tuesday.

    Going forward, the nonprofit will be called the OpenAI Foundation and Taylor said it would grant out $25 billion toward health and curing diseases and protecting against the cybersecurity risks of AI. He did not say over what time period those funds would be dispersed.

    Robert Weissman, co-president of the nonprofit Public Citizen, said this arrangement does not guarantee the nonprofit independence, likening it to a corporate foundation that will serve the interests of the for profit.

    Even as the nonprofit’s board may technically remain in control, Weissman said that control “is illusory because there is no evidence of the nonprofit ever imposing its values on the for profit.”

    The Delaware attorney general’s investigation focused on ensuring OpenAI put its commitment to safety first and before any financial interests. Jennings also said OpenAI promised to keep its nonprofit in control of the public benefit corporation, including the right to appoint and remove its board members.

    The removal of OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman in Nov. 2023 by the nonprofit’s board at the time — and his subsequent reappointment — kicked off the company’s effort to restructure.

    The nonprofit’s board will continue to include a Safety and Security Committee, which will have the power “to oversee and review” OpenAI’s technology development. It will even have the power to stop the release of a new product, according to the Delaware attorney general’s statement.

    Additionally, within a year, the nonprofit’s board will include at least two members who do not also serve on the public benefit corporation’s board.

    OpenAI still faces a legal challenge from billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk, an early OpenAI investor who now runs his own AI firm, xAI, and has accused the startup he co-founded of betraying its original mission.

    A federal judge in March denied Musk’s request for a court order blocking OpenAI from converting itself to a for-profit company but said she could expedite a trial to consider Musk’s claims.

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  • Amazon cuts 14,000 corporate jobs as spending on artificial intelligence accelerates

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    Amazon will cut about 14,000 corporate jobs as the online retail giant ramps up spending on artificial intelligence.

    “The reductions we’re sharing today are a continuation of this work to get even stronger by further reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources to ensure we’re investing in our biggest bets and what matters most to our customers’ current and future needs,” Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology at Amazon said in message to employees Tuesday.

    Included in the letter was a memo to Amazon staff last year from CEO Andy Jassy,

    Teams and individuals impacted by the job cuts will be notified on Tuesday.

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  • Anthropic inks multibillion-dollar deal with Google for AI chips

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    SAN FRANCISCO — SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has signed a multibillion-dollar deal with Google to acquire more of the computing power needed for the startup’s chatbot, Claude.

    Anthropic said Thursday the deal will give it access to up to 1 million of Google’s AI computer chips and is “worth tens of billions of dollars and is expected to bring well over a gigawatt of capacity online in 2026.”

    A gigawatt, when used in reference to a power plant, is enough to power roughly 350,000 homes, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

    Google calls its specialized AI chips Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs. Anthropic’s AI systems also run on chips from Nvidia and the cloud computing division of Amazon, Anthropic’s first big investor and its primary cloud provider.

    The privately held Anthropic, founded by ex-OpenAI leaders in 2021, last month put its value at $183 billion after raising another $13 billion in investments. Its AI assistant Claude competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and others in appealing to business customers using it to assist with coding and other tasks.

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  • Intel posts profit even as it struggles to regain market share

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    NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Intel has posted a profit in its first quarterly report since the U.S. government became a major shareholder in the struggling chipmaker.

    The one-time American tech icon reported a net income of $4.1 billion, or 90 cents per share, in the three months ending in September, up from a loss of $17 billion, or $3.88 per share, a year earlier. Revenue climbed 3% from last year to $13.7 billion.

    Stock in the company rose nearly 8% in after-hours trading to $41.10, adding to strong gains since the United States invested in the summer.

    Recently installed CEO Lip-Bu Tan has been slashing thousands of jobs and mothballing projects to shore up the company’s finances and better compete with domestic and foreign rivals that have since overtaken it.

    President Donald Trump announced in August that the U.S. government would take a 10% stake in the Intel as part of his effort to bolster companies deemed vital to national security. It was a startling move for a Republican leader, bucking the party’s long-held belief that governments shouldn’t try to pick corporate winners and losers with taxpayer money.

    Intel handed over the shares in exchange for nearly $9 billion that had already been granted to it under the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. Intel had agreed to make major investments in U.S. manufacturing facilities in exchange for the funds.

    Intel also received $5 billion from rival Nvidia in September. Earlier this year, it received $2 billion from Japanese technology giant SoftBank.

    Founded in 1968 at the start of the personal computer revolution, Intel missed the shift to mobile computing triggered by Apple’s 2007 release of the iPhone. The company’s troubles have been magnified since then by the advent of artificial intelligence — a booming field where Nvidia’s chips have become tech’s hottest commodity.

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  • Meta cutting 600 AI jobs even as it continues to hire more for its superintelligence lab

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    MENLO PARK, Calif. — MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Meta Platforms is cutting roughly 600 artificial intelligence jobs even as it continues to hire more workers for its superintelligence lab, the company confirmed on Wednesday.

    Axios first reported the cuts, which will affect Meta’s Fundamental AI Research, or FAIR unit, as well as product-related AI and AI infrastructure units.

    Its newer TBD Lab unit won’t be affected. Citing a memo sent to workers by chief AI officer Alexandr Wang, Axios said the company is encouraging employees affected to apply for other jobs at Meta, with most expected to find other roles. The Menlo Park, California-based company is also still recruiting and hiring for TBD Lab, which is developing Meta’s latest large language models. Large language models are the technology behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini — and Meta’s Llama.

    Meta has taken a different approach to AI than many of its rivals, releasing its flagship Llama system for free as an open-source product that enables people to use and modify some of its key components. Meta says more than a billion people use its AI products each month, but it’s also widely seen as lagging behind competitors such as OpenAI and Google in encouraging consumer use of large language models, also known as LLMs.

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  • Google and Apple face extra UK scrutiny over ‘strategic’ role in mobile platforms

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    LONDON — LONDON (AP) — Britain’s antitrust watchdog on Wednesday targeted Google and Apple for their “strategic” roles in mobile ecosystems, opening the door for regulators to impose changes to their business practices to improve competition.

    The Competition and Markets Authority escalated scrutiny of the two U.S. tech companies by labeling them with “strategic market status.” It follows separate investigations that the CMA opened at the start of the year into Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS using newly acquired digital market regulations designed to protect consumers and businesses from unfair practices by Big Tech companies.

    The regulator’s decision was expected. It proposed the classifications in July but sought feedback before releasing its final decision.

    Google called the decision “disappointing, disproportionate and unwarranted,” and has contended previously that Android has saved app developers money because they didn’t have to adapt to different operating models for each smartphone.

    “Following the CMA’s decision today, our mobile business in the UK faces a set of new – and, as of yet, uncertain – rules,” said Oliver Bethell, senior competition director at Google. “The CMA’s next steps will be crucial if the UK’s digital markets regime is to meet its promise of being pro-growth and pro-innovation.”

    Google was already given the “strategic market status” designation earlier this month, when the CMA wielded its new powers for the first time by targeting the company’s role in a separate investigation into the online search advertising market.

    The CMA says being labeled with “strategic market status” doesn’t imply any wrongdoing. But it means the watchdog has the power to use targeted measures to open up competition and ensure consumers and businesses are treated fairly.

    The watchdog has said Apple and Google hold an “effective duopoly,” with 90-100% of mobile devices in Britain running on either mobile platform. Its investigation found a range of concerns affecting businesses and consumers such as unpredictable app reviews, inconsistent app store search rankings and commissions on in-app purchases of as much as 30%.

    The CMA had unveiled separate “road maps” for each company outlining possible measures to improve competition, including “fair and transparent” app reviews and app store rankings to give British app developers “certainty.”

    The watchdog had also recommended letting app developers “steer” users to channels outside of app stores where users can make purchases, mirroring similar efforts by the European Union.

    Apple has said it was worried the CMA’s moves could pose increase risks for users and jeopardize the U.K.’s “developer economy.”

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  • 5 ways AI can help the environment, even though it uses tremendous energy

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    Artificial intelligence has caused concern for its tremendous consumption of water and power. But scientists are also experimenting with ways that AI can help people and businesses use energy more efficiently and pollute less.

    Data centers needed to fuel AI accounted for about 1.5% of the world’s electricity consumption last year, and those facilities’ energy consumption is predicted to more than double by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency. That increase could lead to burning more fossil fuels such as coal and gas, which release greenhouse gases that contribute to warming temperatures, sea level rise and extreme weather.

    But when AI’s computing power is used to analyze energy usage and pollution, it can also make buildings more efficient, charge devices at optimal times, make oil and gas production less polluting and schedule traffic lights to reduce vehicle emissions.

    Experts say that if uses like these continue to grow, they could help offset the energy consumed by AI.

    “I am pretty optimistic that while more and more AI use is going to continue to increase,” said Alexis Abramson, dean of the Columbia University Climate School, “we’re going to see our ability to process be much more efficient and as a result, the energy consumption won’t go up as much as some are predicting.”

    AI can be used to make buildings more energy-efficient by automatically adjusting lighting, ventilation, heating and cooling based on weather data, electricity usage and other factors, said Bob French, chief evangelist at the building automation company 75F. Around one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution comes from homes and buildings.

    Letting AI schedule air conditioning and heating around workers’ arrivals and departures can be more efficient than manually adjusting the thermostat. Otherwise, a worker’s instinct might be to blast the air to quickly adjust the temperature. Automated thermostats can be particularly useful for smaller buildings where it’s not cost-effective to overhaul the entire heating and cooling system.

    For building ventilation, automation can balance the intake of outside air against how much heating or cooling is needed to maintain indoor temperatures.

    AI can also monitor the maintenance needs of HVAC systems and other equipment to predict and detect failures before they lead to costlier repairs.

    Combined, these automations can reduce a building’s energy consumption by between 10% and 30%, experts said.

    “That’s literally a super low-hanging fruit,” said Zoltan Nagy, professor of building services at Eindhoven University of Technology.

    AI can schedule the most efficient charging of electric vehicles and other devices such as smartphones.

    This means setting a schedule for when it is best to draw power from the grid, such as overnight, when demand and rates are lower so it’s less likely to make the grid burn more fossil fuels.

    “Let’s say it’s a peak period when everybody’s got their air conditioning on, and I walk in my house and I plug in my car and I have it set up such that my car doesn’t start charging right away because it’s peak period time,” Abramson said.

    In California, a pilot program shifted charging to times where there was more renewable energy available, and saved customers money.

    AI can also help optimize how homeowners with solar panels store excess energy in batteries.

    Boston-based Geminus AI uses deep learning and advanced reasoning to help oil and gas companies reduce methane flaring and venting, and reduce the amount of energy they use in extracting and refining.

    Reducing methane emissions is among the fastest pathways to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas responsible for about 30% of today’s global warming.

    When pressure in oil and gas pipes builds up, some of the gas is released and burned to relieve the pressure, harming the planet and wasting money.

    Geminus CEO Greg Fallon said they can monitor the network of wells and pipes and use AI-driven simulations to suggest changes to compressor and pump settings that eliminate the need for venting and flaring. Geminus does this in seconds. Traditionally it takes engineers about 36 hours to run simulations that make similar recommendations, Fallon added.

    “As we scale this across the industry, there’s a massive opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Fallon said.

    Salt Lake City-based geothermal energy startup Zanskar has built AI models to understand the Earth’s subsurface. It’s using that modeling to find overlooked geothermal hot spots and target drilling.

    Geothermal creates electricity cleanly by making steam from the Earth’s natural heat and using it to spin a turbine. It’s one renewable energy the Trump administration favors.

    Zanskar co-founders Carl Hoiland and Joel Edwards say they simulate and assess a huge number of possible subsurface scenarios to estimate where there are pockets of very hot water. From this, they pick optimal locations and drilling directions.

    “AI is becoming the solution to its own energy problem,” Hoiland, the CEO, said. “It’s showing us a way to unlock resources that weren’t possible without it.”

    Last year, Zanskar purchased an underperforming geothermal power plant in New Mexico. Their AI modeling successfully indicated there was an untapped geothermal reservoir that could repower the facility.

    Next, Hoiland and Edwards focused on another site in Nevada, despite industry experts telling them it was too cold to support a utility-scale power plant. They drilled and announced their second geothermal discovery in September at that site.

    Google is using artificial intelligence and Google Maps data to identify traffic light adjustments that can reduce stop-and-go traffic to lower pollution. Passenger cars and small trucks account for about 16% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to Environmental Protection Agency data.

    Launched in 2023, Project Green Light is now in 20 cities on four continents. The most recent is Boston, which has notoriously bad traffic.

    Each city gets AI-generated recommendations. City engineers determine which to implement. Google says Project Green Light can reduce stop-and-go traffic by up to 30%, which cuts emissions by 10% and improves air quality.

    “We’re just scratching the surface of what AI can do,” said Juliet Rothenberg, Google’s product director of Earth and resilience AI.

    ___

    Read more of AP’s climate coverage.

    ___

    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • Citi Foundation is putting $25M toward tackling young adults’ unemployment and AI labor disruptions

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    NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Young jobseekers, challenged by a rapidly changing labor market, are having a tough time.

    The U.S. unemployment rate for 22- to 27-year-old degree holders is the highest in a dozen years outside of the pandemic. Companies are reluctant to add staff amid so much economic uncertainty. The hiring slump is especially hitting professions such as information technology that employ more college graduates, creating nightmarish job hunts for the increasingly smaller number who do complete college. Not to mention fears that artificial intelligence will replace entry-level roles.

    So, Citi Foundation identified youth employability as the theme for its $25 million Global Innovation Challenge this year. The banking group’s philanthropic arm is donating a half million dollars to each of 50 groups worldwide that provide digital literacy skills, technical training and career guidance for low-income youth.

    “What we want to do is make sure young people are as prepared as possible to find employment in a world that’s moving really quickly,” said Ed Skyler, Citi Head of Enterprise Services and Public Affairs.

    Employer feedback suggested to Citi that early career applicants lacked the technical skills necessary for roles many had long prepared to fill, highlighting the need for continued vocational training and the importance of soft skills.

    Skyler pointed to the World Economic Forum’s recent survey of more than 1,000 companies that together employ millions of people. Skills gaps were considered the biggest barrier to business transformation over the next five years. Two-thirds of respondents reported planning to hire people with specific AI skills and 40% of them anticipated eliminating jobs AI could complete.

    Some of Citi’s grantees are responding by teaching people how to prompt AI chatbots to do work that can be automated. But Skyler emphasized it was equally important that Citi fund efforts to impart qualities AI lacks such as teamwork, empathy, judgment and communication.

    “It’s not a one-size-fits-all effort where we think every young person needs to be able to code or interface with AI,” Skyler said. “What is consistent throughout the programs is we want to develop the soft skills.”

    Among the recipients is NPower, a national nonprofit that seeks to improve economic opportunity in underinvested communities by making digital careers more accessible. Most of their students are young adults between the ages of 18 and 26.

    NPower Chief Innovation Officer Robert Vaughn said Citi’s grant will at least double the spaces available in a program for “green students” with no tech background and oftentimes no college degree.

    Considering the tech industry’s ever-changing requirements for skills and certifications, he said, applicants need to demonstrate wide-ranging capabilities both in cloud computing and artificial intelligence as well as project management and emotional intelligence.

    As some entry-level roles get automated and outsourced, Vaughn said companies aren’t necessarily looking for college degrees and specialized skillsets, but AI comfortability and general competency.

    “It is more now about being able to be more than just an isolated, siloed technical person,” he said. “You have to actually be a customer service person.”

    Per Scholas, a tuition-free technology training nonprofit, is another one of the grantees announced Tuesday. Caitlyn Brazill, its president, said the funds will help develop careers for about 600 young adults across Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Chicago and the greater Washington, D.C area.

    To keep their classes relevant, she spends a lot of time strategizing with small businesses and huge enterprises alike. Citi’s focus on youth employability is especially important, she said, because she hears often that AI’s productivity gains have forced companies to rethink entry-level roles.

    Dwindling early career opportunities have forced workforce development nonprofits like hers to provide enough hands-on training to secure jobs that previously would have required much more experience.

    “But if there’s no bottom rung on the ladder, it’s really hard to leap up, right?” Brazill said.

    She warned that failing to develop new career pathways could hurt the economy in the long run by blocking young people from high growth careers.

    Brookings Institution senior fellow Martha Ross said Citi was certainly right to focus on technology’s disruption of the labor market. But she said the scale of that disruption is “too big for philanthropy” alone.

    “We did not handle previous displacements due to automation very well,” Ross said. “We left a lot of people behind. And we now have to decide if we’re going to replicate that or not.”

    ___

    Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

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  • Citi Foundation putting $25M toward tackling unemployment and AI labor disruptions

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    NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Young jobseekers, challenged by a rapidly changing labor market, are having a tough time.

    The U.S. unemployment rate for 22- to 27-year-old degree holders is the highest in a dozen years outside of the pandemic. Companies are reluctant to add staff amid so much economic uncertainty. The hiring slump is especially hitting professions such as information technology that employ more college graduates, creating nightmarish job hunts for the increasingly smaller number who do complete college. Not to mention fears that artificial intelligence will replace entry-level roles.

    So, Citi Foundation identified youth employability as the theme for its $25 million Global Innovation Challenge this year. The banking group’s philanthropic arm is donating a half million dollars to each of 50 groups worldwide that provide digital literacy skills, technical training and career guidance for low-income youth.

    “What we want to do is make sure young people are as prepared as possible to find employment in a world that’s moving really quickly,” said Ed Skyler, Citi Head of Enterprise Services and Public Affairs Ed Skyler.

    Employer feedback suggested to Citi that early career applicants lacked the technical skills necessary for roles many had long prepared to fill, highlighting the need for continued vocational training and the importance of soft skills.

    Skyler pointed to the World Economic Forum’s recent survey of more than 1,000 companies that together employ millions of people. Skills gaps were considered the biggest barrier to business transformation over the next five years. Two-thirds of respondents reported planning to hire people with specific AI skills and 40% of them anticipated eliminating jobs AI could complete.

    Some of Citi’s grantees are responding by teaching people how to prompt AI chatbots to do work that can be automated. But Skyler emphasized it was equally important that Citi fund efforts to impart qualities AI lacks such as teamwork, empathy, judgment and communication.

    “It’s not a one-size-fits-all effort where we think every young person needs to be able to code or interface with AI,” Skyler said. “What is consistent throughout the programs is we want to develop the soft skills.”

    Among the recipients is NPower, a national nonprofit that seeks to improve economic opportunity in underinvested communities by making digital careers more accessible. Most of their students are young adults between the ages of 18 and 26.

    NPower Chief Innovation Officer Robert Vaughn said Citi’s grant will at least double the spaces available in a program for “green students” with no tech background and oftentimes no college degree.

    Considering the tech industry’s ever-changing requirements for skills and certifications, he said, applicants need to demonstrate wide-ranging capabilities both in cloud computing and artificial intelligence as well as project management and emotional intelligence.

    As some entry-level roles get automated and outsourced, Vaughn said companies aren’t necessarily looking for college degrees and specialized skillsets, but AI comfortability and general competency.

    “It is more now about being able to be more than just an isolated, siloed technical person,” he said. “You have to actually be a customer service person.”

    Per Scholas, a tuition-free technology training nonprofit, is another one of the grantees announced Tuesday. Caitlyn Brazill, its president, said the funds will help develop careers for about 600 young adults across Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Chicago and the greater Washington, D.C area.

    To keep their classes relevant, she spends a lot of time strategizing with small businesses and huge enterprises alike. Citi’s focus on youth employability is especially important, she said, because she hears often that AI’s productivity gains have forced companies to rethink entry-level roles.

    Dwindling early career opportunities have forced workforce development nonprofits like hers to provide enough hands-on training to secure jobs that previously would have required much more experience.

    “But if there’s no bottom rung on the ladder, it’s really hard to leap up, right?” Brazill said.

    She warned that failing to develop new career pathways could hurt the economy in the long run by blocking young people from high growth careers.

    Brookings Institution senior fellow Martha Ross said Citi was certainly right to focus on technology’s disruption of the labor market. But she said the scale of that disruption is “too big for philanthropy” alone.

    “We did not handle previous displacements due to automation very well,” Ross said. “We left a lot of people behind. And we now have to decide if we’re going to replicate that or not.”

    ___

    Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

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  • Apple’s new five-year deal with Formula 1: What it means for US fans

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    Formula 1 announced a five-year deal Friday with Apple, which will be the global motorsports series’ U.S. broadcast partner beginning next season.

    ESPN had been the broadcast partner since 2018 and through the explosion of popularity of F1 in the United States, but notified the series at the start of this year it would not be extending its deal.

    At the same time, Apple was working with the series on “F1 The Movie,” an original film released internationally in cinemas and IMAX in June. It will make its global streaming debut on Apple TV in December, has already grossed nearly $630 million globally as both the most successful sports movie in history and most lucrative of Brad Pitt’s career.

    The relationship made Apple the frontrunner to land the U.S. broadcast rights. Financial terms were not released.

    “I feel like I am on the podium, this is amazing,” said Eddy Cue, Apple‘s senior vice president of services. “Our vision for Apple TV, we wanted to deliver customers the best story from the most creative storytellers. We launched in 2019, we started with nine original series, and now we’ve got a deep library of over 300 shows and movies and 1000s of hours.

    “And everyone on Apple TV in the US will now get Formula 1,” he added. “They’re going to get everything that Formula 1 has to offer.”

    Apple plans to air F1 on Apple TV as well as amplify the series across Apple News, Apple Maps, Apple Music, Apple Sports and Apple Fitness+. Apple TV will also host all practice, qualifying, sprint sessions and races.

    Select races and all practice sessions throughout the season will also be available to watch for free in the Apple TV app. F1 TV Premium, F1’s own premier content offering, will continue to be available in the U.S. via an Apple TV subscription and will be free to Apple subscribers.

    Apple TV is available in over 100 countries and regions on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone and other products, including PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles.

    Cue said Apple’s reach will only help grow F1 in the United States, which currently hosts races in Miami, Las Vegas and this weekend in Austin, Texas.

    “The many millions of Apple TV viewers that we have in the U.S., we know many of them are Formula 1 fans, hopefully, and we know that many of them are not yet,” he said. “We’re going to be able to bring (new fans) to the table right away, that’s very much low-hanging fruit.”

    Stefano Domenicali, F1 president and CEO, noted the potential for growth.

    “This is an incredibly exciting partnership for both Formula 1 and Apple that will ensure we can continue to maximize our growth potential in the U.S. with the right content and innovative distribution channels,” Domenicali said. “We have a shared vision to bring this amazing sport to our fans in the U.S. and entice new fans through live broadcasts, engaging content, and a year-round approach to keep them hooked.”

    ___

    AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

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  • Big Tech is paying millions to train teachers on AI

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    SAN ANTONIO — SAN ANTONIO (AP) — On a scorching hot Saturday in San Antonio, dozens of teachers traded a day off for a glimpse of the future. The topic of the day’s workshop: enhancing instruction with artificial intelligence.

    After marveling as AI graded classwork instantly and turned lesson plans into podcasts or online storybooks, one high school English teacher raised a concern that was on the minds of many: “Are we going to be replaced with AI?”

    That remains to be seen. But for the nation’s 4 million teachers to stay relevant and help students use the technology wisely, teachers unions have forged an unlikely partnership with the world’s largest technology companies. The two groups don’t always see eye to eye but say they share a common goal: training the future workforce of America.

    Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic are providing millions of dollars for AI training to the American Federation of Teachers, the country’s second-largest teachers union. In exchange, the tech companies have an opportunity to make inroads into schools and win over students in the race for AI dominance.

    AFT President Randi Weingarten said skepticism guided her negotiations, but the tech industry has something schools lack: deep pockets.

    “There is no one else who is helping us with this. That’s why we felt we needed to work with the largest corporations in the world,” Weingarten said. “We went to them — they didn’t come to us.”

    Weingarten first met with Microsoft CEO Brad Smith in 2023 to discuss a partnership. She later reached out to OpenAI to pursue an “agnostic” approach that means any company’s AI tools could be used in a training session.

    Under the arrangement announced in July, Microsoft is contributing $12.5 million to AFT over five years. OpenAI is providing $8 million in funding and $2 million in technical resources, and Anthropic has offered $500,000.

    With the money, AFT is planning to build an AI training hub in New York City that will offer virtual and in-person workshops for teachers. The goal is to open at least two more hubs and train 400,000 teachers over the next five years.

    The National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union, announced its own partnership with Microsoft last month. The company has provided a $325,000 grant to help the NEA develop AI trainings in the form of “microcredentials” — online trainings open to the union’s 3 million members, said Daaiyah Bilal, NEA’s senior director of education policy. The goal is to train at least 10,000 members this school year.

    “We tailored our partnership very surgically,” Bilal said. “We are very mindful of what a technology company stands to gain by spreading information about the products they develop.”

    Both unions set similar terms: Educators, not the private funders, would design and lead trainings that include AI tools from multiple companies. The unions own the intellectual property for the trainings, which cover safety and privacy concerns alongside AI skills.

    The Trump administration has encouraged the private investment, recently creating an AI Education Task Force as part of an effort to achieve “global dominance in artificial intelligence.” The federal government urged tech companies and other organizations to foot the bill. So far, more than 100 companies have signed up.

    Tech companies see opportunities in education beyond training teachers. Microsoft unveiled a $4 billion initiative for AI training, research and the gifting of its AI tools to teachers and students. It includes the AFT grant and a program that will give all school districts and community colleges in Washington, Microsoft’s home state, free access to Microsoft CoPilot tools. Google says it will commit $1 billion for AI education and job training programs, including free access to its Gemini for Education platform for U.S. high schools.

    Several recent studies have found that AI use in schools is rapidly increasing but training and guidance are lagging.

    The industry offers resources that can help scale AI literacy efforts quickly. But educators should ensure any partnership focuses on what’s best for teachers and students, said Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education.

    “These are private initiatives, and they are run by companies that have a stake,” Lake said.

    Microsoft CEO Brad Smith agrees that teachers should have a “healthy dose of skepticism” about the role of tech companies.

    “While it’s easy to see the benefits right now, we should always be mindful of the potential for unintended consequences,” Smith said in an interview, pointing to concerns such as AI’s possible impact on critical thinking. “We have to be careful. It’s early days.”

    At the San Antonio AFT training, about 50 educators turned up for the three-hour workshop for teachers in the Northside Independent School District. It is the city’s largest, employing about 7,000 teachers.

    The day started with a pep talk.

    “We all know, when we talk about AI, teachers say, ‘Nah, I’m not doing that,’” trainer Kathleen Torregrossa told the room. “But we are preparing kids for the future. That is our primary job. And AI, like it or not, is part of our world.”

    Attendees generated lesson plans using ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft CoPilot and two AI tools designed for schools, Khanmingo and Colorín Colorado.

    Gabriela Aguirre, a 1st grade dual language teacher, repeatedly used the word “amazing” to describe what she saw.

    “It can save you so much time,” she said, and add visual flair to lessons. She walked away with a plan to use AI tools to make illustrated flashcards in English and Spanish to teach vocabulary.

    “With all the video games, the cellphones you have to compete against, the kids are always saying, ‘I’m bored.’ Everything is boring,” Aguirre said. “If you can find ways to engage them with new technology, you’ve just got to do that.”

    Middle school teacher Celeste Simone said there is no turning back to how she taught before.

    As a teacher for English language learners, Simone can now ask AI tools to generate pictures alongside vocabulary words and create illustrated storybooks that use students’ names as characters. She can take a difficult reading passage and ask a chatbot to translate it into Spanish, Pashto or other languages. And she can ask AI to rewrite difficult passages at any grade level to match her students’ reading levels. All in a matter of seconds.

    “I can give my students access to things that never existed before,” Simone said. “As a teacher, once you’ve used it and see how helpful it is, I don’t think I could go back to the way I did things before.”

    ____

    The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • Big Tech is paying millions to train teachers on AI, in a push to bring chatbots into classrooms

    [ad_1]

    SAN ANTONIO — SAN ANTONIO (AP) — On a scorching hot Saturday in San Antonio, dozens of teachers traded a day off for a glimpse of the future. The topic of the day’s workshop: enhancing instruction with artificial intelligence.

    After marveling as AI graded classwork instantly and turned lesson plans into podcasts or online storybooks, one high school English teacher raised a concern that was on the minds of many: “Are we going to be replaced with AI?”

    That remains to be seen. But for the nation’s 4 million teachers to stay relevant and help students use the technology wisely, teachers unions have forged an unlikely partnership with the world’s largest technology companies. The two groups don’t always see eye to eye but say they share a common goal: training the future workforce of America.

    Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic are providing millions of dollars for AI training to the American Federation of Teachers, the country’s second-largest teachers union. In exchange, the tech companies have an opportunity to make inroads into schools and win over students in the race for AI dominance.

    AFT President Randi Weingarten said skepticism guided her negotiations, but the tech industry has something schools lack: deep pockets.

    “There is no one else who is helping us with this. That’s why we felt we needed to work with the largest corporations in the world,” Weingarten said. “We went to them — they didn’t come to us.”

    Weingarten first met with Microsoft CEO Brad Smith in 2023 to discuss a partnership. She later reached out to OpenAI to pursue an “agnostic” approach that means any company’s AI tools could be used in a training session.

    Under the arrangement announced in July, Microsoft is contributing $12.5 million to AFT over five years. OpenAI is providing $8 million in funding and $2 million in technical resources, and Anthropic has offered $500,000.

    With the money, AFT is planning to build an AI training hub in New York City that will offer virtual and in-person workshops for teachers. The goal is to open at least two more hubs and train 400,000 teachers over the next five years.

    The National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union, announced its own partnership with Microsoft last month. The company has provided a $325,000 grant to help the NEA develop AI trainings in the form of “microcredentials” — online trainings open to the union’s 3 million members, said Daaiyah Bilal, NEA’s senior director of education policy. The goal is to train at least 10,000 members this school year.

    “We tailored our partnership very surgically,” Bilal said. “We are very mindful of what a technology company stands to gain by spreading information about the products they develop.”

    Both unions set similar terms: Educators, not the private funders, would design and lead trainings that include AI tools from multiple companies. The unions own the intellectual property for the trainings, which cover safety and privacy concerns alongside AI skills.

    The Trump administration has encouraged the private investment, recently creating an AI Education Task Force as part of an effort to achieve “global dominance in artificial intelligence.” The federal government urged tech companies and other organizations to foot the bill. So far, more than 100 companies have signed up.

    Tech companies see opportunities in education beyond training teachers. Microsoft unveiled a $4 billion initiative for AI training, research and the gifting of its AI tools to teachers and students. It includes the AFT grant and a program that will give all school districts and community colleges in Washington, Microsoft’s home state, free access to Microsoft CoPilot tools. Google says it will commit $1 billion for AI education and job training programs, including free access to its Gemini for Education platform for U.S. high schools.

    Several recent studies have found that AI use in schools is rapidly increasing but training and guidance are lagging.

    The industry offers resources that can help scale AI literacy efforts quickly. But educators should ensure any partnership focuses on what’s best for teachers and students, said Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education.

    “These are private initiatives, and they are run by companies that have a stake,” Lake said.

    Microsoft CEO Brad Smith agrees that teachers should have a “healthy dose of skepticism” about the role of tech companies.

    “While it’s easy to see the benefits right now, we should always be mindful of the potential for unintended consequences,” Smith said in an interview, pointing to concerns such as AI’s possible impact on critical thinking. “We have to be careful. It’s early days.”

    At the San Antonio AFT training, about 50 educators turned up for the three-hour workshop for teachers in the Northside Independent School District. It is the city’s largest, employing about 7,000 teachers.

    The day started with a pep talk.

    “We all know, when we talk about AI, teachers say, ‘Nah, I’m not doing that,’” trainer Kathleen Torregrossa told the room. “But we are preparing kids for the future. That is our primary job. And AI, like it or not, is part of our world.”

    Attendees generated lesson plans using ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft CoPilot and two AI tools designed for schools, Khanmingo and Colorín Colorado.

    Gabriela Aguirre, a 1st grade dual language teacher, repeatedly used the word “amazing” to describe what she saw.

    “It can save you so much time,” she said, and add visual flair to lessons. She walked away with a plan to use AI tools to make illustrated flashcards in English and Spanish to teach vocabulary.

    “With all the video games, the cellphones you have to compete against, the kids are always saying, ‘I’m bored.’ Everything is boring,” Aguirre said. “If you can find ways to engage them with new technology, you’ve just got to do that.”

    Middle school teacher Celeste Simone said there is no turning back to how she taught before.

    As a teacher for English language learners, Simone can now ask AI tools to generate pictures alongside vocabulary words and create illustrated storybooks that use students’ names as characters. She can take a difficult reading passage and ask a chatbot to translate it into Spanish, Pashto or other languages. And she can ask AI to rewrite difficult passages at any grade level to match her students’ reading levels. All in a matter of seconds.

    “I can give my students access to things that never existed before,” Simone said. “As a teacher, once you’ve used it and see how helpful it is, I don’t think I could go back to the way I did things before.”

    ____

    The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • Energy Department offers $1.6 billion loan guarantee to upgrade transmission lines across Midwest

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    WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Energy said Thursday it has finalized a $1.6 billion loan guarantee to a subsidiary of one of the nation’s largest power companies to upgrade nearly 5,000 miles of transmission lines across five states, mostly in the Midwest, for largely fossil fuel-run energy.

    AEP Transmission will upgrade power lines in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma and West Virginia, primarily to enhance enhance grid reliability and capacity, the Energy Department said. The project by AEP Transmission, a subsidiary of Ohio-based American Electric Power, is meant to help meet surging electricity demand from data centers and artificial intelligence.

    AEP primarily produces electricity from coal, natural gas and nuclear power, along with renewable resources such as wind and hydroelectric power.

    Thursday’s announcement deepens the Trump administration’s commitment to traditional, polluting energy sources even as it works to discourage the U.S. from clean energy use.

    The move comes as the Trump administration has moved to cancel $7.6 billion in grants that supported hundreds of clean energy projects in 16 states, all of which voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election. A total of 223 projects were terminated after a review determined they did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs or were not economically viable, the Energy Department said.

    The cancellations include up to $1.2 billion for California’s hydrogen hub aimed at producing clean-burning hydrogen fuels to power ships and heavy-duty trucks. A hydrogen project costing up to $1 billion in the Pacific Northwest also was cancelled.

    The loan guarantee finalized Thursday is the first offered by the Trump administration under the recently renamed Energy Dominance Financing program created by the massive tax-and-spending law approved this summer by congressional Republicans and signed by President Donald Trump. Electric utilities that receive loans through the program must provide assurances to the government that financial benefits from the financing will be passed on to customers, the Energy Department said.

    The project and others being considered will help ensure that Americans “will have access to affordable, reliable and secure energy for decades to come,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement.

    “The president has been clear: America must reverse course from the energy subtraction agenda of past administrations and strengthen our electrical grid,” Wright said, adding that modernizing the grid and expanding transmission capacity “will help position the United States to win the AI race and grow our manufacturing base.”

    The upgrades supported by the federal financing will replace existing transmission lines in existing rights-of-way with new lines capable of carrying more energy, the power company said.

    More than 2,000 miles of transmission lines in Ohio serving 1.5 million people will be replaced, along with more than 1,400 miles in Indiana and Michigan serving 600,000 customers, the company said. An additional 1,400 miles in Oklahoma, serving about 1.2 million people and 26 miles in West Virginia, serving 460,000 people, will be replaced.

    The projects will create about 1,100 construction jobs, the company said.

    The loan guarantee will save customers money and improve reliability while supporting economic growth in the five states, said Bill Fehrman, AEP’s chairman, president and chief executive officer. “The funds we will save through this program enable us to make additional investments to enhance service for our customers,” he added.

    Wright, in a conference call with reporters, distinguished the AEP loan guarantee from a $4.9 billion federal loan guarantee the department cancelled in July. That money would have boosted the planned Grain Belt Express, a new high-voltage transmission line set to deliver solar and wind-generated electricity from the Midwest to eastern states.

    The Energy Department said at the time it was “not critical for the federal government to have a role” in the first phase of the $11 billion project planned by Chicago-based Invenergy. The department also questioned whether the project could meet strict financial conditions required, a claim Wright repeated Thursday.

    “Ultimately that is a commercial enterprise that needs private developers,” Wright said. The company has indicated the Grain Belt project will go forward.

    Trump and Wright have repeatedly derided wind and solar energy as unreliable and opposed efforts to combat climate change by moving away from fossil fuels. Wright said the Grain Belt Express loan was among billions of dollars worth of commitments “rushed out the doors” by former President Joe Biden’s administration after the 2024 election.

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