Month: August 2023

Some of company’s top products ‘were not first to market’

by  on  in Business Google News

Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at a panel at the CEO Summit of the Americas hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on June 09, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. The CEO Summit entered its second day of events with a formal signing for the “International Coalition to Connect Marine Protected Areas” and a speech from U.S. President Joe Biden. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees on Wednesday to take a few hours during the week to test the company’s artificial intelligence chat tool Bard as he faces criticism for leadership’s slow response to ChatGPT and rival Microsoft.

“I know this moment is uncomfortably exciting, and that’s to be expected: the underlying technology is evolving rapidly with so much potential,” Pichai wrote in a companywide email, which was viewed by CNBC.

Pichai asked employees to spend two to four hours of their time on Bard, adding that next week the company will send more detailed instructions. He reminded staffers that Google has not always been the first to release a product, but that hasn’t hampered its ability to win.

“Some of our most successful products were not first to market,” Pichai wrote. “They gained momentum because they solved important user needs and were built on deep technical insights.”

Numerous search engines existed before Google hit the market in 1996, and yet they almost all vanished as Google came to dominate the industry. In mobile, Google didn’t introduce Android until years after the BlackBerry existed, and it also followed companies like Palm. Now, Android is the most popular mobile operating system in the world.

Still, Google parent Alphabet was slammed by investors last week after the company was upstaged by Microsoft’s announcement of a ChatGPT-integrated Bing

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US Commerce Secretary Heads to China Amid Trade Disputes

by  on  in American Business News
WASHINGTON — 

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will start a four-day visit to China this weekend. The announcement came shortly after the Biden administration issued an executive order restricting certain U.S. investments in China.

The Department of Commerce said on Tuesday that Raimondo will visit Beijing and Shanghai from August 27 to 30 and meet with senior Chinese government officials and American business leaders.

The trip is intended to deepen communication between the U.S. and China on issues relating to the U.S.-China commercial relationship, challenges faced by U.S. businesses, and areas for potential cooperation, according to a press release from the Commerce Department.

Analysts said that as China’s economy may be in long-term trouble, Beijing hopes to use Raimondo’s visit to reverse the impression that China is no longer friendly to foreign companies. But the trip may not bring any breakthrough.

Gary Clyde Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told VOA that Beijing welcomes Raimondo’s visit because of her influence on several economic and trade issues that China cares about.

“Secretary Raimondo is a pretty big player in all transactions involving either trade in goods or services, electronic services of various kinds, technology flows and investment flows in both directions,” Hufbauer said.

“My guess is that the Chinese authorities will be interested and quiz her quite closely about what limits she sees on these restrictions that are being put in place, what kind of flows of goods, of technology, of investment are still permitted by the U.S., and what are basically either prohibited or very closely scrutinized.”

Move seen as goodwill gesture

Earlier this month, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order banning U.S. investments in sensitive technologies in China, aiming to restrict China’s ability to develop next-generation military and surveillance technologies.

However, right

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Google to remove news from search in Canada over new law | Internet News

by  on  in Business Google News

Google has announced plans to remove Canadian news articles from its search engine and other products in Canada when a law requiring major online platforms to pay news publishers takes effect in the country.

In a statement on Thursday, Google said Canada’s Bill C-18 – the so-called Online News Act, which was passed last week – “remains unworkable”.

“We have now informed the Government that when the law takes effect, we unfortunately will have to remove links to Canadian news from our Search, News and Discover products in Canada,” the company said.

“We’re disappointed it has come to this. We don’t take this decision or its impacts lightly and believe it’s important to be transparent with Canadian publishers and our users as early as possible.”

The move could have a devastating effect on Canadian news outlets, many of which are already struggling financially and have faced several rounds of job cuts in recent years.

 

Meta Platforms Inc also said last week that it would end news access for Canadian users on its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, over the new legislation.

“Today, we are confirming that news availability will be ended on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada prior to the Online News Act taking effect,” Meta said in a statement after the law was adopted on June 22.

The Canadian government has defended Bill C-18, which is expected to come into effect in six months, as part of its effort to ensure “fair revenue sharing between digital platforms and news outlets”.

The act outlines rules to force online platforms to negotiate commercial deals

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What China’s Economic Woes May Mean for the U.S.

by  on  in American Business News

The news about China’s economy over the past few weeks has been daunting, to put it mildly.

The country’s growth has fallen from its usual brisk 8 percent annual pace to more like 3 percent. Real estate companies are imploding after a decade of overbuilding. And China’s citizens, frustrated by lengthy coronavirus lockdowns and losing confidence in the government, haven’t been able to consume their way out of the country’s pandemic-era malaise.

If the world’s second-largest economy is stumbling so badly, what does that mean for the biggest?

Short answer: At the moment, the implications for the United States are probably minor, given China’s limited role as a customer for American goods and the minor connections between the countries’ financial systems.

In a note published Thursday, Wells Fargo simulated a “hard landing” scenario for China in which output over the next three years would be 12.5 percent smaller than previous growth rates would achieve — similar to the impact of a slump from 1989 to 1991. Even under those conditions, the U.S. economy would shave only 0.1 percent off its inflation-adjusted growth in 2024, and 0.2 percent in 2025.

That could change, however, if China’s current shakiness deepens into a collapse that drags down an already slowing global economy.

“It doesn’t necessarily help things, but I don’t think it’s a major factor in determining the outlook in the next six months,” Neil Shearing, the chief economist at Capital Economics Group, an analysis and consulting firm, said in a recent webinar. “Unless the outlook for China becomes substantially worse.”

When considering the economic relationship between the two countries, it’s important to recognize that the United States has played some role in China’s troubles.

The United States is well past a boom

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ChatGPT turns to business as popularity wanes

by  on  in Business Breaking News

OpenAI on Monday said it was launching a business version of ChatGPT as its artificial intelligence sensation grapples with declining usership nine months after its historic debut.

ChatGPT Enterprise will offer business customers a premium version of the bot, with “enterprise grade” security and privacy enhancements from previous versions, OpenAI said in a blog post.

The question of data security has become an important one for OpenAI, with major companies, including Apple, Amazon and Samsung, blocking employees from using ChatGPT out of fear that sensitive information will be divulged.

“Today marks another step towards an AI assistant for work that helps with any task, is customized for your organization, and that protects your company data,” OpenAI said.

The ChatGPT business version resembles Bing Chat Enterprise, an offering by Microsoft, which uses the same OpenAI technology through a major partnership.

ChatGPT Enterprise will be powered by GPT-4, OpenAI’s highest performing model, much like ChatGPT Plus, the company’s subscription version for individuals, but business customers will have special perks, including better speed.

“We believe AI can assist and elevate every aspect of our working lives and make teams more creative and productive,” the company said. 

It added that companies including Carlyle, The Estée Lauder Companies and PwC were already early adopters of ChatGPT Enterprise. 

The release came as ChatGPT is struggling to maintain the excitement that made it the world’s fastest downloaded app in the weeks after its release.

That distinction was taken over last month by Threads, the Twitter rival from Facebook-owner Meta.

According to analytics company Similarweb, ChatGPT traffic dropped by nearly 10 percent in June and again in July, falls that could be attributed to school summer break, it said.

Similarweb estimates that roughly one quarter of ChatGPT’s users worldwide fall in the 18-24 demographic.

OpenAI is also facing

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Ministers want Musk to attend flagship investment summit | Business News

by  on  in Business Investment News

The government is courting Elon Musk, the Tesla billionaire and owner of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, to attend a flagship business summit in the autumn as they seek to bolster Britain’s claim to be a leading magnet for overseas investment.

Sky News has learnt that Rishi Sunak’s administration is keen to secure the attendance of Mr Musk at the Global Investment Summit (GIS) in late November.

Whitehall sources suggested Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was also likely to be invited.

It was unclear on Tuesday whether a formal invitation had been issued yet to either man, although other major investors in the British economy have told Sky News that they have already been asked to attend on 29 November.

The government claims the inaugural GIS, held in October 2021, secured £9.7bn of new foreign investment, creating over 30,000 new jobs “and supporting growth in vital sectors such as wind and hydrogen energy, sustainable homes, and carbon capture and storage”.

Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder, and Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, were among those who attended the 2021 event.

One government official said there was a particular desire to persuade Mr Musk to attend this year because of the maverick entrepreneur’s meetings earlier this year with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss potential Tesla investments in the country.

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Twitter sign removed in ‘X’ rebrand

A spokesman for the Department for Business and Trade declined to comment on individual delegates but said: “We look forward to welcoming around 200 CEOs and the world’s A-list investors to the second Global Investment Summit in November, to showcase why the UK is a top destination for international investment.

“Hosted by the PM and Business and Trade Secretary

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US Commerce chief seeks trade, tourism boost in China talks

by  on  in American Business News

BEIJING, Aug 27 (Reuters) – U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo arrived in Beijing late on Sunday for a four-day visit aimed at boosting business ties between the world’s two largest economies while declaring American national security trade measures off-limits for debate.

“If you wanted to put a tagline to the trip and the mission, it’s protect what we must and promote where we can,” Raimondo told reporters on Friday before departing for China. “I’m not going to pull my punches next week when I am there but I intend to be practical.”

Relations are tense as the United States works with allies to block China’s access to advanced semiconductors, while Beijing is restricting shipments from prominent chip company Micron Technology (MU.O) and raided and fined U.S. firm Mintz Group $1.5 million for doing “unapproved statistical work.”

Raimondo, who was greeted upon arrival by Chinese Commerce Ministry official Lin Feng, will hold bilateral meetings with Chinese officials on Monday and Tuesday in Beijing before she heads to Shanghai. She will be joined by U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns.

Raimondo spoke to President Joe Biden on Thursday about her visit and his message was enhanced dialogue with China can ease tensions.

“We want to have a stable commercial relationship, and core to that is regular communication,” Raimondo said. “We need to communicate to avoid conflict.”

Republicans in Congress have criticized the possibilityRaimondo will establish a working group with China during the visit to discuss U.S. semiconductor export controls.

Raimondo did not confirm plans for any working group but emphasized she would tell Chinese officials “when it comes to national security we don’t negotiate. We don’t give concessions. We don’t compromise.”

The United States is using government incentives and tax policy to wean American businesses off Chinese supply chains and ramp

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B20 Summit 2023: Top quotes from PM Modi’s speech at G20’s business forum

by  on  in Business Breaking News

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday addressed the B20 summit in Delhi. The three-day-long summit of G20’s business forum will come to an end today evening. The Business 20 Summit is the official G20 dialogue from the global business community.

“The stronger the friendship you will keep with India, the more prosperous your economy will get. India is building mutual trust among countries that was destroyed during the Covid pandemic,” PM Modi tells B20 Summit leaders.

Top quotes from PM Modi’s B20 address

1) “Businesses can transform potential into prosperity, obstacles into opportunities, aspirations into achievements, whether they are small or big.”

2) “India will have the biggest middle class in the coming years because of our government’s pro-poor policies.”

3) “India has launched a green credit system– a pro-planet approach which every nation should adopt. We need to create an ecosystem that will make the planet healthy. Being conscious about one’s health is important but one should also be concerned about the planet’s health.”

4) “India will try to repeat the success of solar energy in green hydrogen sector also. In global supply chain, India will play significant and efficient role.”

5) “India is building mutual trust among countries that was destroyed during Covid pandemic. During Covid pandemic, India supplied medicines to over 150 nations. The stronger the friendship you will keep with India, the more prosperous your economy will get.”

6) “ISRO played an important role but along with it, the Indian industry, MSMEs and private companies also contributed to this mission. This is a success of both science and industry.”

7) PM Modi asked business leaders to brainstorm on issues like cryptocurrency and Artificial Intelligence. He said a global framework is required for cryptocurrency. Besides, the PM said that technology disruption is happening at a rapid speed

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