An $11 billion acquisition that backfired on Silicon Valley pioneer Hewlett Packard more than a decade ago will be resurrected Monday during a trial that will explore whether the deal was an illegal rip-off or a case of botched management.The criminal trial in San Francisco federal court revolves around HP’s acquisition of British software maker Autonomy, a deal that was celebrated as coup when it was announced in 2011, only to blow up into a costly debacle.Before HP wrapped up the dea
The details of a group of Silicon Valley titans’ secretive land grab in Solano County, California are starting to come into focus, even as residents say a lot is still up in the air.
VC giant Marc Andreessen, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, and Laurene Powell Jobs are among the tech giants who banded together to purchase over 60,000 acres of land about 60 miles northeast of San Francisco. California Forever, as the group calls itself, revealed last year that it hopes to crea
A new chapter in the Sam Bankman-Fried saga: On Friday, federal prosecutors asked a New York judge to sentence the founder and former head of cryptocurrency exchange FTX to between 40 and 50 years in prison. They cited claims that Bankman-Fried participated in a “historic fraud” and cost customers and investors at least $10 billion as the rationale behind the hefty jail time. Bankman Fried’s lawyers have argued that five or six years behind bars would be appropriate, main
Apple has held talks with both OpenAI and Google to use their chatbot technology to power some of iOS 18’s upcoming artificial intelligence features, according to a report from Bloomberg. If a deal goes through, Apple could use ChatGPT or Gemini for cloud-based AI features as part of the next operating system for the iPhone.
The reported discussions between Apple, Google, and OpenAI are notable for a few reasons. First, it suggests that Apple is further behind than thought in
Large online platforms have largely given up on the news business. Meta finally removed its dedicated tools for news publishers. Google is experimenting with removing the news tab from search results. AI chatbots are eating the last remaining ways that publishers can drive traffic to their sites. And Elon Musk, the owner of X, the site formerly known as Twitter, spends most of his days railing against the mainstream media.
All of this has led to some pretty serious soul-searching am
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Version 3 of Claude launched this month. It’s a powerful new alternative to ChatGPT.
AI tools are evolving quickly. Claude, Google’s improved Gemini and Microsoft’s new Copilot have joined ChatGPT in creating a remarkably competitive AI arena. Read
Advertising and disruptive technologies. In many ways, you can’t have one without the other. In past years, disruptive technology meant programmatic media buying, SEO, and mobile. Today, it means artificial intelligence— more specifically, generative AI. Brands and consumers expect the industry to remain two steps ahead of the digital curve and while AI is not new to the industry, generative AI has caused many agencies to shift priorities and the way they operate. In 2024, it wi
Is or was there life on Mars? That profound question is so complex that it will not be fully answered by the two NASA rovers now exploring it.
But because of the literal groundwork the rovers are performing, scientists are finally investigating, in-depth and in unprecedented detail, the planet’s evidence for life, known as its “biosignatures.” This search is remarkably complicated, and in the case of Mars, it is spanning decades.
As a geologist, I have had t
Don’t be surprised if your doctors start writing you overly friendly messages. They could be getting some help from artificial intelligence.
New AI tools are helping doctors communicate with their patients, some by answering messages and others by taking notes during exams. It’s been 15 months since OpenAI released ChatGPT. Already thousands of doctors are using similar products based on large language models. One company says its tool works in 14 languages.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve dreamed of owning a large-screen MacBook Air. I was always stuck buying a MacBook Pro, however, due to it being the only Apple laptop with a screen size larger than 14 inches. I write for a living, and in my experience, typing lengthy works on anything less than a 15-inch screen just feels too cramped. That’s why I was thrilled when last year Apple released a 15-inch MacBook Air with an M2 chipset. I decided then that, as soon as Apple release