Anthropic, a leading AI startup, has secured an additional $4 billion from Amazon, solidifying their partnership and cementing Amazon’s position as a minority investor. The deal requires Anthropic to train its flagship generative AI models primarily on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing division. This strategic move is expected to accelerate the development of…
IT on The Soothsayer / page 19
In a surprising turn of events, OpenAI has accidentally deleted data potentially relevant to a copyright lawsuit filed by The New York Times and Daily News. The lawsuit alleges that OpenAI scraped their works to train its AI models without permission. OpenAI engineers erased the data, but were able to recover most of it, albeit…
San Francisco’s mayor-elect, Daniel Lurie, has appointed OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to help lead his transition team. Altman will provide guidance on how the city can innovate and develop relationships with key partners. This move is seen as an effort to attract young professionals and convince current tech entrepreneurs to stay in the city. In…
Partiful, a New York-based event-planning app, has been named Google’s app of the year. Founded in 2020 by Palantir alums Joy Tao and Shreya Murthy, Partiful has gained popularity among Gen Z users for its user-friendly interface and features such as designing event pages, managing RSVPs, and tracking party invites. The app has seen significant…
Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine, has ventured into e-commerce by introducing a new shopping feature for its paid customers in the U.S. This feature offers shopping recommendations within search results and allows users to place orders without visiting a retailer’s website. The move aims to capture a portion of shopping search results, taking on big…
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the company of abandoning its original mission as a nonprofit organization. Despite this, Josh Kushner, a key investor in OpenAI, has expressed admiration and respect for Musk, praising his intentions to do right by everyone. The lawsuit has sparked concerns over the…
Bluesky, a decentralized social app conceptualized by Jack Dorsey, has gained significant traction since its open beta launch in February 2024. With over 16 million users, Bluesky has become a major competitor to Twitter, now rebranded as X. The app’s growth can be attributed to its unique features, such as custom feeds and a more…
Amazon has launched a new store called Amazon Haul, which offers discounted, mass-produced items, mostly shipped from China. This move is seen as a response to the popularity of low-cost retailers like Temu and Shein. Despite controversy surrounding these companies, they remain popular among Gen Z consumers. Amazon claims to screen sellers and offer free…
A massive data breach at American retailer Hot Topic has compromised the personal data of 57 million customers. The stolen information includes email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, purchases, genders, and dates of birth, as well as partial credit card data. The breach occurred on October 19 and was claimed by a threat actor operating…
The tech industry is experiencing a significant wave of layoffs, with over 130,000 job cuts across 457 companies in 2024 alone. Major players like Tesla, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have all conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of the year. Smaller startups have also seen significant cuts, with some even shutting down operations altogether….