US e-commerce giant Amazon’s investment could create up to 3,000 jobs, said the Elysee. US e-commerce giant Amazon will invest more than 1.2 billion euros in France, creating more than 3,000 jobs, French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said on Sunday. The money will help develop Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) cloud infrastructure, mainly generative artificial intelligence, […]
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Boeing’s problems rattle US aviation regulator as well
This Boeing 737 MAX 9 airplane of Alaska Airlines lost a side panel during a flight on January 5, 2024. The US Federal Aviation Administration, sharply criticized after the crashes of two Boeing planes in 2018 and 2019, is again being dragged into a maelstrom surrounding the major American aerospace manufacturer. The dramatic mid-flight blowout […]
Unionized US Apple store votes to authorize strike
Credit: Armand Valendez from Pexels Unionized workers at a Maryland Apple store voted on Saturday to authorize a strike, which would mark the first such labor action against the retailer in the United States if it goes forward. Employees at the Apple store in the town of Towson, outside of Baltimore, voted to unionize in […]
Musk says Tesla charger network will grow, days after layoffs
A Tesla Supercharger station in Petaluma, California. Tesla boss Elon Musk said Friday the electric vehicle manufacturer would invest over $500 million this year to install new superchargers, just days after a report of massive layoffs in this branch of the company. “Just to reiterate: Tesla will spend well over $500M expanding our Supercharger network […]
Blockchain could offer a solution to the UK’s transport ticketing systems
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A new approach to transport ticketing offers a step towards an integrated, transparent system that works efficiently for both ticket providers and passengers across all modes of transport. Traditional ticketing systems are based on solutions that are vulnerable to issues, including a lack of transferability across multi-modal transport networks and an […]
Biden’s clean energy tax credits likely to remain ‘law of the land’: Brainard
White House national economic advisor Lael Brainard said the IRA clean energy tax credits were now the law of the land. Most of Joe Biden’s clean energy tax credits are now law and are unlikely to be reversed by Donald Trump if he wins November’s presidential election, a senior administration official said Friday. The 2022 […]
The end of the package holiday provider? Blockchain technology could revolutionize travel experiences
Credit: Tourism Management (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2023.104871 Forget the middleman—blockchain technology could lead to the end of the traditional package holiday provider, putting power back into the hands of customers, according to a new study from the University of Surrey. The research looked into user acceptance of blockchain-based sharing platforms similar to Airbnb. The study found […]
Environmentalists battle to get Peco to increase its use of green energy, but the oil industry calls it a job killer
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain The nation is in the middle of a contentious transformation from fossil fuels to renewable energy. It’s a change either hailed by environmentalists for addressing climate change and public health or loathed by the oil and gas industry for killing jobs and being less reliable, efficient and affordable. And what the […]
Honda posts record profit, issues cautious forecasts
Honda has made big outlays as it aggressively pursues an ambitious target of acheiving 100 percent electric vehicle sales. Japanese auto giant Honda on Friday logged a record annual profit thanks to improving global vehicle sales, but issued a cautious outlook for the current fiscal year. The company said net profit for the year to […]
Chip giant TSMC’s April revenue jumps 60% on-year
TSMC is one of the world’s leading semiconductor companies. Taiwanese chip giant TSMC said on Friday that April revenue jumped nearly 60 percent on-year, riding a huge wave of demand for the advanced semiconductors used in AI hardware. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company controls more than half the world’s output of chips, and supplies them for […]
Opinion: OpenAI’s content deal with Financial Times is an attempt to avoid legal challenges—and an AI ‘data apocalypse’
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain OpenAI’s new “strategic partnership” and licensing agreement with the Financial Times (FT) follows similar deals between the US tech company and publishers such as Associated Press, German media giant Axel Springer and French newspaper Le Monde. OpenAI will license the FT’s content to use as training data for its products, including […]
Why US offshore wind energy is struggling—the good, the bad and the opportunity
Continental shelf areas leased for wind power development along the Atlantic coast. Credit: U.S. Department of the Interior, 2024 America’s first large-scale offshore wind farms began sending power to the Northeast in early 2024, but a wave of wind farm project cancellations and rising costs have left many people with doubts about the industry’s future […]
Judge grills Apple exec about whether company is defying order to enable more iPhone payment options
People try out iPhone products at an Apple Store in Beijing, Sept. 28, 2021. A federal judge on Wednesday questioned whether Apple has set up a gauntlet of exasperating hurdles to discourage the use of alternative payment options in iPhone apps, despite a court order seeking to create more ways for consumers to pay for […]
US revokes some licenses for exports to China’s Huawei
The US Commerce Department confirmed that it has revoked some licenses allowing companies to ship tech to sanctioned Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. The United States has revoked some export licenses that allowed companies such as US chip firm Qualcomm to supply Chinese tech giant Huawei, the Commerce Department confirmed on Wednesday. The move adds pressure […]
Airbnb shares slide on lower revenue forecast despite a doubling of net income
The Airbnb app icon is seen on an iPad screen on May 8, 2021, in Washington. Airbnb reports earnings on Wednesday, April 8, 2024. Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File Airbnb’s profit more than doubled last quarter, but management’s disappointing revenue forecast sparked a roughly 7% drop fort its stock in after-market trading Wednesday. The San […]
Tesla fires team expanding Supercharger network. Expert explains why it was a good move for Elon Musk—and consumers
Fernando Suarez, the Jean C. Tempel professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at Northeastern, says Tesla’s decision “makes sense” for the car company. Credit: Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University Last week, Tesla fired 500 employees responsible for expanding its Supercharger network. The layoffs caught many by surprise, considering Tesla’s Supercharger network is dominant in the United States, often […]
Q&A: How advanced chip packaging can help redesign the future of semiconductors
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The phrase “advanced chip packaging” might conjure images of a fancy Pringles can. For those who manufacture semiconductors—also known as integrated circuits, chips or microchips—it represents a new frontier, a race to design and mass produce the next generation of semiconductors that use less energy while delivering more computing power. Traditionally […]
Dove’s latest ‘Real Beauty’ drive—and why AI will be harder to ditch than it thinks
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Beauty brand Dove recently announced it would not use models generated by artificial intelligence (AI) in its advertising campaigns. But is this really an anti-AI stance or merely the marketing of “inclusive” and “realistic” AI-generated images? In other words, is Dove attempting to shape the beauty ideals AI shows consumers, rather […]
EU queries X over cut to content moderation resources
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The EU on Wednesday told digital platform X to explain a cut to content moderation resources, amid concerns over disinformation ahead of European elections in June. The demand is part of the EU’s probe into US tech billionaire Elon Musk’s X, the former Twitter, that was launched in December under a […]
Samsung to buy French medical AI firm Sonio
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain South Korean tech giant Samsung said Wednesday it will buy French artificial intelligence company Sonio to boost its cutting-edge medical diagnostic systems. The use of AI has exploded in recent years in a wide range of disciplines and industries, including medical care, and firms around the world are investing heavily to […]
Amazon says will invest $9 billion in Singapore
The Amazon announcement follows a multi-billion-dollar investment in Southeast Asia by Microsoft. Amazon said Tuesday it would invest US$9 billion in Singapore over the next four years to expand its cloud computing capabilities in the city. The announcement comes after fellow tech titan Microsoft unveiled billions of dollars of investment in the same sectors in […]
Since Tesla recalled its vehicles in 2023, there have been 20 accidents and investigators are asking why
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Tesla is yet again undergoing scrutiny from federal regulators in the United States. The issue at hand now is whether the automotive company did enough in response to the 2023 recalls by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Transport Canada. The recalls were issued after several collisions resulting […]
The scaling back of Saudi Arabia’s proposed urban mega-project sends a clear warning to other would-be utopias
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain There is a long history of planned city building by both governments and the private sector from Brasilia to Islamabad. More recently, two trends have come together in a new wave of visionary urban planning. On the one hand, there are the neoliberal “special economic zone” policies that accelerated in the […]
Can I take your order—and your data? The hidden reason retailers are replacing staff with AI bots
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain You might have seen viral videos of Wendy’s drive-thru customers in the United States ordering their fast food from the firm’s generative AI bot Wendy’s FreshAI. Most show a very human-like transaction punctuated with cries of amazement at how fast, accurate and polite the system is. While the system and others […]
How the EU transformed tech
Credit: CC0 Public Domain As millions of voters prepare for next month’s European Parliament elections, AFP explores some of the deep transformations the 27-member bloc has made in the field of technology. Goodbye cookies, hello pop-ups For years, any website aiming to make money through advertising relied upon cookies. The tiny programmes installed themselves on […]