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On Tuesday, SoftBank, the Japanese financial giant, announced plans to dump all 32 million of its shares in Nvidia, the AI chip maker. The news wont be the needle that pops the AI bubble, but it did cause enough of a stir to make Nvidias shares drop 2% Tuesday morning. The bad vibes were muted somewhat by news of what SoftBank says it will do with the proceeds of the sell off, along with those from the sale of some of its $9.17 billion T-Mobile stake: The firm will double down on another big bet in the AI spaceOpenAI. SoftBank expects to directly invest $30 billion in OpenAI this year, according to its second-quarter financial statement in September. And it had already committed $19 billion to the $500 billion Project Stargate infrastructure initiative (with OpenAI and Oracle). To bankroll these commitments, Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s CEO, likely needed to free up funds. Hence the Nvidia sell-off. For years, Son has talked about SoftBank’s strategy to invest in the computing platforms of the future, including AI. His firm amassed a reported $4 billion stake in Nvidia back in 2017, only to dump the shares in 2019. At the time Son had called Nvidia the the core company of the AI revolution. He now believes that OpenAI will be that core company. During SoftBanks annual general meeting in June, Son declared he is all in on OpenAI. Hed always wanted to be an early major investor in the AI super-startup, he said, but Microsoft beat him to the punch. OpenAI, he predicted, will one day go public and eventually become the most valuable company in the world, he said. Nvidia reported $46.7 billion in revenues during its July-ending quarter (and crossed $4 trillion in market cap), while OpenAI doesnt expect to turn a profit until 2029. But by divesting of Nvidia and doubling down on OpenAI, Son can play a more active role in the platforms expansion via initiatives like the Stargate Project, which will finance a major buildout of AI infrastructure. SoftBank is still indirectly entwined in Nvidias fortunes, which also rest on the broad expansion of AI. The entire stock market is being propped up by confidence in big tech companies that are investing huge amounts in AI. Investors are placing a lot of faith in the idea that generative AI, a mostly unproven technology, will create valuable new efficiencies for businesses in the coming years. Compounding the concern is the fact that a relatively small group of wealthy companiesSoftBank, Nvidia, and OpenAIare investing in each other, which has fed fears that theyre involved in a sort of self-inflating bubble. Its unclear if or when that bubble will popThat bubble may well pop at some point. For nowUntil then, Son has made his preference clear: software over hardware, a bet that feels like a big vote of confidence for AI.
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E-Commerce
When Amazon proposed building its Project Blue data center in Tucson, Arizona, the company faced intense pushback. Residents raised concerns about the enormous amounts of water and electricity that the data center would need, two major ways such projects impact the environment, especially in a desert city. Ultimately, Tucsons town council rejected the proposal (though its developer hasnt given up). But the story highlights both the growing environmental impacts of data centers, and how location matters to that impact. A study published this week in the journal Nature Sustainability makes that connection even clearer. Led by researchers at Cornell University, the study analyzed the environmental impact that data centers could have in the U.S. as their growth continues, and created a state-by-state look at where those data centers should go to avoid the worst effects. The growing impact of AI Data centers demand a lot of electricity, so much so that they are straining our energy grid. In order to quickly meet that growing energy demand, developers are building more fossil fuel infrastructure, like natural gas power plants. The data center surge has also delayed the planned retirements of coal plants. The current rate of AI growth in the U.S. would put 24 to 44 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by 2030, the study authors found. Thats equivalent to adding 5 to 10 million cars to the countrys roads. That growth would also drain 731 to 1,125 million cubic meters of water every yearas much as 6 to 10 million Americans annual average household water usage. All together, that means the AI industry is unlikely to meet its net-zero aspirations by 2030, the study reads, without massively relying on carbon offsetswhich the researchers call highly uncertainor water restoration efforts. Still, researchers didnt only want to see the environmental trajectory that this AI boom would take. They also wanted to figure out what choices could steer it toward sustainability, Fengqi You, a Cornell engineering professor who led the study, said in a statement. How location matters The location of data centers matters to those impacts, and developers could cut data centers environmental footprints by building them in different places, the researchers found. Some data centers are being planned in regions that are already water scarce, like Arizona or Nevada, even though data centers require a lot of water themselves. Instead, locating projects in regions with lower water-stress and improving cooling efficiency could cut water demands by 52%, per the study. In other places, the massive surge of data centers can strain the grid or water resources; Virginia, for example, is the biggest data center market in the world, with more than 600 facilities clustered around Washington, D.C., and Richmond. Data center companies have wanted to be close to workers in D.C., but continuing to build data centers there just adds to that strain. What powers the grid that supports a data center matters too. Some states like New York may have energy grids powered by more renewables or may be investing in more clean energy, which means fewer carbon emissions. But just focusing on reducing a projects carbon footprint could actually increase its water footprint, the researchers found. Conversely, putting data centers in the best locations for water use reduced their overall carbon footprint, too. Researchers used a combined carbon- and water-focused strategy to find the best places to build data centers to minimize their environmental impact. And those states are clustered in the midwest, specifically Texas, Montana, Nebraska, and South Dakota. The researchers acknowledge that certain technologies, like better liquid cooling and improved server utilization, could bring down data centers environmental impact toopotentially removing 7% of carbon dioxide and lowering water use by 29%. Those are just more decisions, like location, that companies could consider when building more data centers. This is the build-out moment, You said. The AI infrastructure choices we make this decade will decide whether AI accelerates climate progress or becomes a new environmental burden.
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E-Commerce
Just when you thought youd seen it all on Capitol Hill, reopening the federal government appears to have hit yet another roadblock: Hemp. A day after Democratic Senators reached a deal with their Republican counterparts in the Senate to end the longest government shutdown in history, a vote on the agreement was held up by a provision in the bill that would ban the unregulated sale of hemp-based or derived products. The provision relates to funding for the Department of Agriculture, and was flagged by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, home to a burgeoning hemp industry. Paul introduced an amendment to strip the language on Monday, but the amendment failed. Subsequently, the Senate passed the bill with the prohibitive language intact. However, the bill, which would impact everything from smokable hemp products to hemp-derived THC drinks, wont take effect until 365 days after it is signed into law. Sales of hemp and hemp-derived products were allowed under the 2018 Farm Bill, and thats led to the sale of certain cannabis-derived products around the country, sometimes in contrast to state laws. The new language would ban sales of any products containing THC, of which hemp may contain trace amounts, effectively outlawing it. On X, Paul defended his amendment, even if it slowed the reopening process, saying that protecting constituents jobs is under his purview. Just to be clear: I am not delaying this bill, he wrote on Monday. The timing is already fixed under Senate procedure. But there is extraneous language in this package that has nothing to do with reopening the government and would harm Kentuckys hemp farmers and small businesses. Standing up for Kentucky jobs is part of my job. Notably, Kentuckys other Senator, Mitch McConnell, was at odds with Paul over his proposed amendment. The hemp industry in Kentucky employs roughly 3,500 people, and worries about a potential ban have been floating around since earlier this year. A statement released in June by the Kentucky Hemp Association seemingly preempted this weeks action in the Senate, too. Kentucky has emerged as a national leader in hemp production and innovation, it reads. Now is not the time for the federal government to impose arbitrary changes that disrupt this progress. The hemp industry has consistently called for thoughtful regulation that protects consumers while preserving economic opportunities for farmers, it continues. Rather than rolling back years of responsible development, federal policy should reinforce this thriving sectornot seek to recriminalize it.
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E-Commerce
Apple said it has pulled two of Chinas biggest gay dating apps, Blued and Finka, under pressure from Chinese authorities, in the latest sign of a tightening grip on the LGBTQ+ community. An Apple spokesperson said in a statement that the company removed the two dating apps from China based on an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China, without further elaborating. We follow the laws in the countries where we operate, the spokesperson told The Associated Press. A check by The Associated Press on Tuesday found that the two apps are not available on Apples app store in China, although an express version of Blued could still be found. It was unclear what the difference is between the full and express versions or if an Android version might be available. Blued was available only in China, Apple said. Finkas developer elected to remove the app outside of China earlier this year, the company added. Another popular gay dating app, Grindr, was pulled from Apples app store in China in 2022. Chinas LGBTQ+ community and advocacy groups are under intensifying pressure from authorities, even though the country decriminalized homosexuality in 1997. Some LGBTQ+ groups have been forced to cease operations in recent years in China and activism has been constrained. Blued and Finka have the same parent company, BlueCity, a China-founded company that focuses on the LGBTQ+ community in China and abroad. BlueCity was delisted from the Nasdaq in 2022, when it was taken private. Last year, Apple also reportedly removed apps including WhatsApp and Threads from its app store in China under an order by the Cyberspace Administration of China. Among all foreign tech companies that provide services to Chinese users, Apple is probably the one which is most willing to comply with Chinese internet regulations, said George Chen, partner and co-chair of digital practice at The Asia Group. Apple rarely pushes back on Chinese governments takedown requests as Chinese markets, including sales of iPhones, is too important for them, Chen added. Chan Ho-Him, AP business writer AP writers Kelvin Chan and Kanis Leung contributed to this story.
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E-Commerce
The tech industry is moving fast and breaking things againand this time it is humanitys shared reality and control of our likeness before and after deaththanks to artificial intelligence image-generation platforms like OpenAIs Sora 2. The typical Sora video, made on OpenAIs app and spread onto TikTok, Instagram, X, and Facebook, is designed to be amusing enough for you to click and share. It could be Queen Elizabeth II rapping or something more ordinary and believable. One popular Sora genre is fake doorbell camera footage capturing something slightly uncanny say, a boa constrictor on the porch or an alligator approaching an unfazed childand ends with a mild shock, like a grandma shouting as she beats the animal with a broom. But a growing chorus of advocacy groups, academics, and experts is raising alarms about the dangers of letting people create AI videos on just about anything they can type into a prompt, leading to the proliferation of nonconsensual images and realistic deepfakes in a sea of less harmful AI slop. OpenAI has cracked down on AI creations of public figuresamong them, Michael Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mister Rogersdoing outlandish things, but only after an outcry from family estates and an actors’ union. The nonprofit Public Citizen is now demanding OpenAI withdraw Sora 2 from the public, writing in a Tuesday letter to the company and CEO Sam Altman that the apps hasty release so that it could launch ahead of competitors shows a consistent and dangerous pattern of OpenAI rushing to market with a product that is either inherently unsafe or lacking in needed guardrails. Sora 2, the letter says, shows a reckless disregard for product safety, as well as people’s rights to their own likeness and the stability of democracy. The group also sent the letter to the U.S. Congress. OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Our biggest concern is the potential threat to democracy, said Public Citizen tech policy advocate J.B. Branch in an interview. I think were entering a world in which people cant really trust what they see. And were starting to see strategies in politics where the first image, the first video that gets released, is what people remember. Branch, author of Tuesday’s letter, also sees broader concerns to people’s privacy that disproportionately impact vulnerable populations online. OpenAI blocks nudity but Branch said that women are seeing themselves being harassed online in other ways, such as with fetishized niche content that makes it through the apps’ restrictions. The news outlet 404 Media on Friday reported on a flood of Sora-made videos of women being strangled. OpenAI introduced its new Sora app on iPhones more than a month ago. It launched on Android phones last week in the U.S., Canada and several Asian countries, including Japan and South Korea. Much of the strongest pushback has come from Hollywood and other entertainment interests, including the Japanese manga industry. OpenAI announced its first big changes just days after the release, saying overmoderation is super frustrating for users but that its important to be conservative while the world is still adjusting to this new technology. That was followed by publicly announced agreements with Martin Luther King Jr.’s family on Oct. 16, preventing disrespectful depictions of the civil rights leader while the company worked on better safeguards, and another on Oct. 20 with Breaking Bad actor Bryan Cranston, the SAG-AFTRA union and talent agencies. Thats all well and good if youre famous, Branch said. Its sort of just a pattern that OpenAI has where theyre willing to respond to the outrage of a very small population. Theyre willing to release something and apologize afterwards. But a lot of these issues are design choices that they can make before releasing.” OpenAI has faced similar complaints about its flagship product, ChatGPT. Seven new lawsuits filed last week in California courts claim the chatbot drove people to suicide and harmful delusions even when they had no prior mental health issues. Filed on behalf of six adults and one teenager by the Social Media Victims Law Center and Tech Justice Law Project, the lawsuits claim that OpenAI knowingly released GPT-4o prematurely last year, despite internal warnings that it was dangerously sycophantic and psychologically manipulative. Four of the victims died by suicide. Public Citizen was not involved in the lawsuits, but Branch said he sees parallels in Sora’s hasty release. He said theyre putting the pedal to the floor without regard for harms. Much of this seems foreseeable. But theyd rather get a product out there, get people downloading it, get people who are addicted to it rather than doing the right thing and stress-testing these things beforehand and worrying about the plight of everyday users. OpenAI spent last week responding to complaints from a Japanese trade association representing famed animators like Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli and video game makers like Bandai Namco and Square Enix. OpenAI said many anime fans want to interact with their favorite characters, but the company has also set guardrails in place to prevent well-known characters from being generated without the consent of the people who own the copyrights. Were engaging directly with studios and rightsholders, listening to feedback, and learning from how people are using Sora 2, including in Japan, where cultural and creative industries are deeply valued,” OpenAI said in a statement about the trade group’s letter last week. Barbara Ortutay and Matt O’Brien, AP technology writers
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E-Commerce
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