Business

Christine Li is a model and influencer, but not an actor, so when she saw herself playing a cruel character in a Chinese microdrama she felt bewildered, then angry and afraid.... Read more

Trying to book a flight right now can feel absurd. Qantas and Virgin Australia are warning that higher fuel costs and disruption linked to the Middle East conflict are putting pressure on fares and forcing capacity cuts.... Read more

If you give artificial intelligence a goal of maximizing profit, how far will it go? AI agents appear capable of lying, concealing, and colluding, according to new research from Harvard Business School.... Read more

The development of batteries for electric vehicles has progressed much faster than experts and policymakers had anticipated. New research shows that the market is well equipped to cope with both raw material shortages and price increases. This raises questions about which materials are actually critical to the energy transition, according... Read more

Generative AI is best known for creating images and text. Now, it is helping industries make better planning decisions. Georgia Tech researchers have created a new AI model for decision-focused learning (DFL), called Diffusion-DFL. Recent tests showed it makes more accurate decisions than current approaches. Along with optimizing industrial output,... Read more

Before big tech engineers can improve the fairness of recommendation systems, such as social media feeds and online shopping results, they need to define what "fairness" even means. Should an app show people only the content it predicts they will like most, or should it boost newer creators, small businesses... Read more

Many consumers—and state policymakers and even utility companies—are worried about the possibility of large numbers of data centers raising electricity demand and power prices.... Read more

Apple's next CEO John Ternus is a company veteran who rose through the iPhone maker's hardware engineering ranks but until now has maintained a low profile.... Read more

An Alabama-born engineer seen as a supply-chain savant, Tim Cook took on the daunting challenge of succeeding Apple's iconic boss Steve Jobs 15 years ago.... Read more

Amazon on Monday said it pumped another $5 billion into Anthropic as it ramps up its collaboration with the startup behind Claude artificial intelligence.... Read more

Apple CEO Tim Cook is stepping down from the job that he inherited from the late Steve Jobs, ending a 15-year reign that saw the company's market value soar by more than $3.6 trillion during an iPhone-fueled era of prosperity.... Read more

Fusion power plants are sites at which electricity could be generated via a process known as nuclear fusion, which entails the merging of two atomic nuclei into a single heavier nucleus. This process is known to generate very high amounts of energy, such as the energy required to light up... Read more

It's a bitter pill for video gamers: a growing number of older but still-popular titles are being dropped by publishers—with servers going dark overnight—in a practice the EU is being urged to outlaw.... Read more

Research published in the Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis has reviewed the potential for microwave assisted pyrolysis (MAP) to convert problematic waste materials such as tires, plastics and fiber, into fuels and high-end carbon materials.... Read more

The European Commission set out Thursday how it wants Google to make a wide range of data accessible to rival search engines in order to comply with the bloc's digital rules.... Read more

Cozy is a vibe. So much so that even video games have been getting cozy.... Read more

European Union regulators have threatened to force WhatsApp parent Meta Platforms to reverse a move that they say effectively limits the AI chatbots of rival companies from accessing the messaging app.... Read more

A new study by SIEPR's Michael Blank is among the first to examine an overlooked effect of generative AI: it's significantly boosting how much people get done at home. Barely a day goes by when there isn't a story about generative AI and what it means for companies and worker... Read more

Digital platforms such as Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb are playing an increasingly important role in how markets function and how people find information, products and services online. This is the conclusion of a new review study by, among others, Shrabastee Banerjee and Hannes Datta. According to the researchers,... Read more

More American workers are experimenting with artificial intelligence in their jobs, but skepticism is still widespread.... Read more

Not long ago, if you needed a speech polished, a document translated or a logo designed, you would probably have hired a freelancer online. Millions of people did exactly that. They went to platforms such as Fiverr and Upwork and paid someone (maybe on the other side of the world)... Read more

AI industry insiders want workers to code smarter, think harder and lean into their humanity—but still dodge the question of how many jobs artificial intelligence will destroy.... Read more

In an era when most TikTok videos are prerecorded, can a band with a new single create a tighter bond with fans by debuting via livestream instead? Can a business do the same when promoting a new product?... Read more

A US appeals court on Wednesday denied Anthropic's request to put on hold a move by the Pentagon to label it a supply chain risk, but ordered the AI startup's legal battle with the Department of War to be put on a fast track.... Read more

Your browsing history, your location, your political preferences. For years, tech companies have found ways to turn personal data into profit. Now, a new and far more intimate frontier is opening: the electrical signals produced by your brain.... Read more

A new study finds that the global shift to electric vehicles (EVs) could significantly reduce energy use and carbon emissions, but only if governments act aggressively to lower costs and align policies across regions. Published in Resources, Environment and Sustainability, the paper, "Future Changes in CO2 Emissions in the Shift... Read more

Fossil fuel companies say that they want to be on the front lines of renewable energy, with advertisements, social media, and even their own shareholder corporate reports espousing their commitment to green energy and combating climate change. However, research out of Northeastern University says otherwise.... Read more

When OpenAI acquired the tech podcast TBPN this week, it wasn't just buying a show—it was buying a message.... Read more

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has said that AI could surpass "almost all humans at almost everything" shortly after 2027. While AI's capabilities are certainly improving, such rapid progress might seem at odds with findings that show AI is still failing at 95%+ of remote freelance projects, and continues to struggle... Read more

When a customer calls to complain about a billing error or a delayed package, the person on the other end of the line is doing more than answering questions.... Read more

OpenAI on Tuesday said that the startup was valued at $852 billion in a freshly closed funding round that raised $122 billion.... Read more

Britain's competition watchdog announced plans on Tuesday to launch an investigation into Microsoft's business software systems, under new measures targeting the dominance of technology giants.... Read more

Juries in federal and state courts said this week in a pair of bellwether cases that tech companies are liable for public health harms to young users on their platforms. The decisions represent a blow to the broad protections long enjoyed by firms against legal liability for user content posted... Read more

Apple celebrates its 50th anniversary as artificial intelligence challenges the Silicon Valley legend to prove it can deliver yet another culture-changing innovation.... Read more

For years, Washington has been debating who gets to regulate cryptocurrency. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says many tokens are securities, like stocks, and should fall under its authority. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) says many are commodities, like gold, and belong in its jurisdiction. The crypto industry,... Read more

Soft, dark-gray graphite is not just useful in pencils: The highly conductive and heat-resistant mineral is uniquely suited for advanced manufacturing. Yet the United States imports nearly half of the graphite it needs to forge steel, batteries, and manufacturing equipment from China, which currently supplies the majority of global graphite.... Read more

Amid the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence and the debate on how it should be regulated, research by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) examines a key question: who sets the rules and through what infrastructure. The article, published in the journal AI & SOCIETY, is authored by UOC doctoral... Read more

Irrespective of the ethics and the apocalyptic predictions, artificial intelligence (AI) has already become a central component of economic and institutional decision-making. Research in the International Journal of Intelligent Systems Design and Computing has gone beyond an industry-specific analysis of the state-of-the-AI-art and offers a detailed framework of how the... Read more

In the high-stakes world of product innovation, companies often face a paradox: adopting cutting-edge technology—such as biosensors that monitor heart rate and stress or energy-efficient chips that enable continuous health tracking in wearable devices—can make or break a product, but the methods used to evaluate these decisions are often outdated,... Read more

The way we watch TV, listen to music, order groceries and take photos has changed in the past decade or so. For many of us, all of these activities involve a monthly payment.... Read more

In a span of two days following news that the Tumbler Ridge perpetrator's ChatGPT account had been flagged prior to the shooting, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met with Federal AI Minister Evan Solomon and British Columbia Premier David Eby.... Read more

A question by jurors in a landmark social media addiction trial on Friday signaled Meta or YouTube may have to pay for letting a girl get hooked onto their platforms.... Read more

Amanda Bankel's doctoral thesis explores why low-carbon technologies like solar panels do not spread as quickly as expected, even when they are affordable and technologically mature. The study shows that the problem is often not the technology itself, but rather how markets develop in practice.... Read more

In the iconic Star Wars series, captain Han Solo and humanoid droid C-3PO boast drastically contrasting personalities. Driven by emotions and swashbuckling confidence, Han Solo often ignores C-3PO's logic-driven caution. That human-droid relationship is exemplified in Solo's famous statement, "Never tell me the odds!" as he dismisses C-3PO's advice against... Read more

Tencent wants to bring artificial intelligence agents into its WeChat social media app, the Chinese tech firm's president said on Wednesday, a move that could change how hundreds of millions of users interact with the platform in the Asian nation and beyond.... Read more

New research led by the University of Portsmouth uncovers how scammers operate worldwide, dividing them into five "monstrous" categories. Published in the International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, the study explores how the size of scam groups, specialized roles, and involvement of corrupt actors help scams work more effectively.... Read more

Amazon said Tuesday that it has started offering faster U.S. deliveries of selected products for a fee, including pantry staples, clothing, over-the-counter medications, cleaning supplies and electronics.... Read more

Digital transport technology is catching on, from apps that let you buy train tickets with a single swipe to sophisticated car-sharing systems. They may be easy to use, but such transport services often mask an array of complex technical, financial, and public-policy decisions.... Read more

In the past few months, a wave of tech corporations have announced significant staff cuts and attributed them to efficiency gains driven by artificial intelligence (AI).... Read more

Children today can encounter harmful material online with alarming ease, including violent, sexual and self-harm content. While this is often treated as a moderation failure, the deeper cause is economic.... Read more