Opinion: Big Tech Should Engage Communities About Data Centers
Data center operators need to talk proactively about their approach to building responsibly, and address community concerns without relying on local government bureaucracy as a buffer.
FT AI·
US tech giants including Alphabet and Amazon are tapping foreign debt market at an unprecedented rate
Read full articleData center operators need to talk proactively about their approach to building responsibly, and address community concerns without relying on local government bureaucracy as a buffer.
Alexa Plus, Amazon's upgraded AI assistant, can now generate podcasts on "virtually any topic," according to an announcement on Monday. With the update, Amazon says you can give Alexa Plus a topic, and the AI assistant will offer an overview of what its AI hosts plan to talk about, allowing you to steer the conversation and adjust its length before it starts generating the episode. Some "Alexa Podcast" examples shared by Amazon have two AI-generated hosts talking about the history of the Roman Empire, new music, and expectations for the World Cup. Amazon says you can also ask Alexa Plus to generate audio lessons about the Apollo missions, o … Read the full story at The Verge.
Amazon’s Alexa+ can now generate custom AI podcasts on demand, as the company expands its assistant into a personalized AI content platform.
Amazon has introduced Alexa for Shopping, combining its Rufus shopping chatbot with Alexa+ across its app, website, and Echo Show devices. The assistant can answer product questions, compare items, track prices, and support shopping reminders. It can also handle scheduled shopping actions and eligible automated purchases. The company said Alexa for Shopping combines Rufus’ product […] The post Amazon launches Alexa for Shopping as Rufus moves behind the scenes appeared first on AI News.
Insider Brief PRESS RELEASE — Graphon AI emerged from stealth with $8.3 million in seed funding to build a new class of AI infrastructure: a pre-model intelligence layer that captures how data connects — making foundation models more accurate and capable of reasoning over unlimited multimodal data. The round was led by Arvind Gupta of Novera Ventures, with participation from […]
Jess Phillips’ frustration about online safety highlights the alarming reluctance to confront big tech The £950,000 fine imposed by Ofcom on a US-based suicide forum that is implicated in over 160 UK deaths marks an intensification of the regulator’s efforts to make the internet safer. Campaigners against online harms, including relatives of people who have taken their own lives, are justifiably angry that it has taken so long to get to this point. Even now, Ofcom is giving the website’s operator the chance to address “concerns” and avoid a court order that would ban access to it. But if enforcement remains a tortuous process, at least the principle is clear. It is illegal to encourage or assist a suicide in England and Wales (in Scotland, such actions could lead to prosecution as reckless endangerment or a range of other offences). A situation whereby behaviour is tolerated online, when it would carry criminal penalties if carried out in person, cannot be allowed. Continue reading...
Berkshire's investment in Alphabet signals a strategic shift towards tech diversification, potentially influencing other investors' tech allocations. The post Berkshire Hathaway buys into Google parent Alphabet in landmark 13F filing appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
The post Iran Demands Payment from Tech Giants for Strait of Hormuz Internet Cables appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. TLDR Tehran is developing an official framework to regulate and monetize maritime passage through the Strait of Hormuz Access will be restricted to vessels aligned with Iranian interests; ships connected to Washington’s “Project Freedom” will be denied passage Major technology corporations including Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon face potential charges for subsea cable infrastructure traversing the waterway Iranian government-affiliated outlets have suggested possible interference with cable systems if payment demands are ignored Earlier reports indicated Tehran might accept cryptocurrency, particularly Bitcoin, for transit fees Tehran is positioning itself to capitalize financially on its strategic hold over the Strait of Hormuz, rolling out initiatives to extract fees from both maritime traffic and international technology corporations for passage through this