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Nvidia forecast first-quarter revenue above market estimates on Wednesday, expecting robust demand for its leading AI chips to persist as businesses spend heavily to expand generative artificial intelligence infrastructure. Its shares rose about 1% in choppy extended trading, after closing up 3.7% in regular trading. Nvidia is the biggest beneficiary of a rally in AI-linked stocks, with its shares up more than 400% over the last two years. The company expects revenue of $43 billion, plus or minus 2% for the first quarter, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $41.78 billion according to data compiled by LSEG. Demand has grown unabated for Nvidia’s advanced chips that can speedily process the large amounts of data used by generative AI applications, as companies race each other to emerge as leaders of the new technology. Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can learn from data and improve over time. Nvidia’s optimistic forecast also helps allay doubts around a slowdown in spending on its hardware that emerged last month, following Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s claims that it had developed AI models rivaling Western counterparts at a fraction of their cost. This could add fuel to the sputtering AI rally after the Magnificent Seven stocks’ tumultuous retreat from their late-2024 peaks as Wall Street’s optimism waned under the shadow of DeepSeek’s innovations. Nvidia’s revenue for the fourth quarter grew 78% to $39.3 billion, beating estimates of $38.04 billion. Arsheeya Bajwa, Reuters
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E-Commerce
He’s not a movie buff, so New York musician Larry Saltzman doesn’t always watch the Oscars. This year, however, he’s got a rooting interest. Saltzman taught actor Timothée Chalamet how to play guitar for the role of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. In turn, Chalamet earned a best actor nomination and the film is also up for best picture at the Academy Awards on Sunday. A guitarist who’s performed with Simon & Garfunkel, Bette Midler and David Johansen, as well as in the pit at Broadway productions Hairspray and Ain’t Too Proud to Beg, Saltzman has developed a specialty in teaching actors how to play music for their roles. Besides Chalamet, recent pupils have included Adam Driver and Sadie Sink of Stranger Things. On a fellow musician’s recommendation, Saltzman first got a call from a movie studio about a decade ago. He admits to being cranky as discussions dragged on. I almost did everything to talk them out of hiring me, he said. Not until the fifth phone call did the studio identify the client: Meryl Streep. She needed to learn the electric guitar for her starring role in the 2015 film Ricki and the Flash, where she portrayed an aging rocker trying to keep her career and life together in the wake of a series of disappointments. Working with Streep is a little like a political consultant’s first client being elected president. If she likes you and word gets around, other students will follow. Teaching actors now represents about 40% of his business, the 69-year-old said. My time spent with her was excellent, he said of Streep. She’s smart. She knows how to learn things. There was a steady progress over three or four months. She did very well. Faking it just won’t do for serious actors and film directors. It’s like lip-syncing the audience is going to tell the difference, and the characters will be less believable. That was especially true with Chalamet, who needed to sing and play at the same time for a character whose artistry is the centerpiece of the film. When the actors come to you, they’re kind of vulnerable, Saltzman said. They want to do a great job. Saltzman had more than 50 sessions with Chalamet, starting in person and retreating to Zoom during the pandemic. It wasn’t easy. Chalamet had to learn some 25 songs in the script. Sometime in 2018 I had my first lesson with this great guitar teacher named Larry Saltzman who at some point became less of a teacher and more a co-sanity artist through COVID, Chalamet recalled during a recent interview with The Associated Press. I think we were keeping each other sane. We would Zoom three, four times a week and doing songs that never made it into the movie. It helped that Saltzman is a Dylan buff. Focusing on imparting the guitar playing of pre-electric Bob, he taught his charge so well that Chalamet was a musical guest as well as host on Saturday Night Live, performing obscure Dylan cuts last month. Saltzman says, in the course of their sessions, Chalamet went the extra mile and unearthed very early, obscure Dylan songs that weren’t even in the script. Saltzman generally likes teaching actors more than common folk, in part because there’s a specific goal: They need to learn certain songs to inhabit a particular character. When it’s open-ended someone just wants to learn the guitar it can be more of a challenge, he said. Saltzman also believes that it’s an advantage to not be a regular teacher, someone who may approach clients with a more rigid style. Actor Johnny Cannizzaro said he appreciated Saltzman’s calming bedside manner and felt welcome in an apartment filled with guitars. Cannizzaro has the role of E Street Band member Little Steven Van Zandt in the upcoming Bruce Springsteen biopic, Deliver Me From Nowhere. There was never really a moment where he expressed any sort of frustration or impatience with me during a session, said Cannizzaro, who has background playing keyboards but not guitar. If anything, he would express some excitement when you grasped something he was teaching. That put me at ease. Saltzman also studied films of Van Zandt so he wasn’t just teaching Cannizzaro guitar he was showing specifics of how Van Zandt plays, the actor said. Beyond teaching, Saltzman’s time is divided between studio work, playing in New York clubs accompanying different artists and Broadway he’s just about to begin Smash. It’s an eye-opening experience for him to later see his students on screen. That was particularly the case when he saw A Complete Unknown and marveled at Chalamet’s ability as an actor. All the more reason to watch the Oscars, and to take some pride in his own work. In my own humble way, I’m a small gear in that machinery, he said. What is rewarding is knowing that in some small way I’m contributing to making a better film. David Bauder, AP entertainment writer
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E-Commerce
All the recent aviation disasters and close calls have people worried about the safety of flying. The midair collision that killed 67 near Washington, D.C., last month was the worst disaster. But there was also the plane that crashed and flipped over upon landing in Toronto, the fiery plane crash in Philadelphia and a plane crash in Alaska that killed 10, as well as two small planes that collided in Arizona. Those all came before the scary moment this week in Chicago when a Southwest Airlines plane had to abort its landing to avoid crashing into another plane crossing the runway. A plane landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport also had to perform a go-around maneuver Tuesday to avoid getting too close to another aircraft departing from the same runway. That’s not to mention the time earlier this month when a Japan Airlines plane clipped a parked Delta plane while it was taxiing at the Seattle airport, or the security concerns that arose after stowaways were found dead inside the wheel wells of two planes and aboard two other flights. In addition, a United Airlines plane caught fire during takeoff at the Houston airport and a passenger opened an emergency exit door on a plane while it was taxiing for takeoff in Boston. So of course people are wondering whether their flight is safe? What happened in the worst cases? The Jan. 29 collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army helicopter killed everyone aboard both aircraft. It was the deadliest plane crash in the U.S. since Nov. 12, 2001, when a jet slammed into a New York City neighborhood just after takeoff, killing all 260 people on board and five on the ground. After that, there hadn’t been a deadly crash of any kind involving a U.S. airliner since February 2009. crasd Everyone survived that crash. Crashes are more common involving smaller planes, like the single-engine Cessna that crashed in Alaska on Feb. 6, or the two small planes that collided in Arizona on Feb. 19. Ten people including the pilot were killed in the Alaska crash, and two died in the Arizona one. A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on Jan. 31, killing the six people onboard and another person on the ground. That Learjet generated a massive fireball when it smashed into the ground in a neighborhood not long after taking off from a small airport nearby. How worried should I be? Fatal crashes attract extraordinary attention partly because they are rare. The track record of U.S. airlines is remarkably safe, as demonstrated by the long stretch between fatal crashes. But deadly crashes have happened more recently elsewhere around the world, including one in South Korea that killed all 179 people aboard in December. There were also two fatal crashes involving Boeings troubled 737 Max jetliner in 2018 and 2019. And last January, a door plug blew off a 737 Max while it was in flight, raising more questions about the plane. Federal officials have been raising concerns about an overtaxed and understaffed air traffic control system for years, especially after a series of close calls between planes at U.S. airports. Among the reasons they have cited for staffing shortages are uncompetitive pay, long shifts, intensive training and mandatory retirements. President Donald Trump added to those concerns when he blamed the midair collision over Washington D.C. on the obsolete air traffic control system that airports rely on and promised to replace it. Even with all that, officials have tried to reassure travelers that flying is the safest mode of transportation. And statistics back that up. The National Safety Council estimates that Americans have a 1-in-93 chance of dying in a motor vehicle crash, while deaths on airplanes are too rare to calculate the odds. Figures from the U.S. Department of Transportation tell a similar story. What is being done? The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating these recent crashes and close calls to determine what caused them and look for ways to prevent recurrences. There have already been troubling revelations about the midair collision, but it will take more than a year to get the full report on what happened. The NTSB always recommends steps that could be taken to prevent crashes from happening again, but the agency has a long list of hundreds of previous recommendations that have been ignored by other government agencies and the industries it investigates. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said the public is right to say that crashes like the recent ones are unacceptable. That is why he plans to make sure safety is paramount as he leads the agency that regulates all modes of transportation. I feel really good about where were at and where were going and the plans we have in place to make sure we een make the system safer and more efficient than it is today, Duffy said in a Fox News interview. Josh Funk, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Amazon on Wednesday unveiled a generative-AI infused Alexa that it says will allow the popular voice assistant to have more personality, check a users tone and even plan romantic dates. But unlike before, when Alexa was offered for free on any Alexa-enabled devices, customers will have to pay Amazon a monthly fee of $19.99 for the revamped voice assistant, which it calls Alexa+. However, the generative-AI powered Alexa will be free for Prime members, who pay the company a monthly or annual fee for free delivery and other perks. At a media event held in New York City, Amazon executives showed off the update to the ten-year old digital assistant with the new features aimed at boosting sales and interactions with Alexa-enabled devices. The company says Alexa+ is able to have conversations with a more natural, humanlike flow and can learn more about a user such as dietary preferences or allergies the more its used. Im not just an assistant, Im your new best friend in the digital world, Alexa+ said during an onstage demo on Wednesday. At the event, Panos Panay, Amazons vice president of devices & services, listed off the other things the voice assistant can now do, such as create study plans, text a babysitter and call an Uber ride for a friend. He and other company executives also said Alexa can fetch videos from Ring cameras such as checking whether a user’s dog was walked that day and is able to remember handwritten recipes, emails and other documents shared with it. Shes smarter than shes ever been before, but shes also approachable, Panay said. Alexa is built into products such as smart speakers, Amazons Fire TVs and earbuds. The Seattle-based tech giant launched its popular voice assistant in 2014 alongside its first Echo device, which responds to voice commands. Panay said Amazon has sold more than 600 million Alexa-enabled devices and that user engagement grew 20% last year compared to 2023. Some market estimates have shown Alexa holds the largest market share among voice assistants. The revamped Alexa uses large language models, including some developed by Amazon and others by Anthropic, the generative AI startup the tech giant has poured billions into. Alexa+ has a model-agnostic system, allowing it to select the best AI model for the tasks it wants to complete, said Daniel Rausch, Amazons vice president for Alexa and Echo. Amazon says it will start rolling out early access to Alexa+ in the U.S. next month. It will then roll it out in waves internationally, starting with certain Echo devices. The upgraded assistant will be available across Alexa-supported devices, but some features are only built for products with screens. Amazons announcement came more than a year after the company teased an early version of an AI-infused Alexa at a media event held to show off new devices. At the time, Amazon had said it was working on a speech-to-speech model that would allow Alexa to exhibit humanlike attributes, such as laughter and phrases like uh-huh during conversations. During the demo on Wednesday, Amazon highlighted features it had previously kept under lid. In one exchange, Panay showed the new Alexa a video of the crowd in the room to test a feature that apparently allows it to sense the surrounding mood. Panay asked Alexa+ if the crowed looked pumped to which it responded the room full of journalists were paying attention to you and excited. Like its predecessor, Alexa+ is enabled when users say the voice assistant’s name but executives on Wednesday said users now only have to say that wake word once before having a prolonged, back and forth exchange. Still, demonstrators would occasionally say Alexa again if it seemed like the voice assistant didn’t catch something. Amazon competes in the smart speaker market with other tech giants, including Apple and Google. Though it has had success in selling devices, the companys other goal driving Amazon purchases through Alexa has been more challenging to pull off. Amazon has said Alexa customers have used their device to shop. However, many rely on it mostly for menial tasks, such as playing music, asking questions or checking the weather. A subscription fee for the revamped Alexa will allow the company to offset costs related to AI development and help its devices operations become more profitable. Haleluya Hadero and Wyatte Grantham-Philips, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Deere investors voted overwhelmingly against a resolution aimed at its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on Wednesday, continuing a pattern of shareholder distaste for anti-DEI measures despite Republican political pressure on executives. During a webcast of its annual meeting, executives with the farm equipment maker said only 1.3% of votes cast were in support of a resolution calling on the company to report on racial and gender hiring statistics “to prove it does not practice discrimination.” The resolution was filed by the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative-leaning Washington think tank that has opposed many corporate diversity efforts. Two other resolutions aimed at restricting social action by Deere won similarly low levels of support. Deere’s meeting was closely watched because in July it became one of the first major U.S. companies to back away from supporting programs such as LGBTQ+ pride events. Numerous other U.S. companies have retreated from DEI in recent months, particularly as the Trump administration has stepped up threats to companies and institutions that engage in those efforts. But many investors and executives see DEI efforts as necessary to address underrepresentation of certain populations in management roles. On Tuesday, Apple investors voted in defense of the company’s DEI policies, as did Costco investors in January. Ross Kerber and Utkarsh Shetti, Reuters
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E-Commerce
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