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Many of America’s top figure skaters will gather in Washington, D.C., for a live “Legacy on Ice” tribute show to support families impacted by the January 29 plane crash that killed young skaters returning home from a training camp. Cohosted by Olympic champion Brian Boitano, the March 2 event at Capital One Arena will feature current U.S. champions Ilia Malinin, Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, plus retired U.S. gold medallists Tara Lipinski, Kristi Yamaguchi, Scott Hamilton and Johnny Weir. “As we begin to heal from this devastating loss, we look forward to honouring the enduring memories of these athletes, coaches and family members who represented the best of the figure skating community,” U.S. Figure Skating interim CEO Samuel Auxier said in a statement. “We can think of no better way of celebrating their legacies than through the sport they loved.” All proceeds will be collected by the Monumental Sports & Entertainment Foundation and distributed equally between the U.S. Figure Skating Family Support Fund, Greater Washington Community Foundation’s “DCA Together Relief Fund” and DC Fire & EMS Foundation. There were 64 people on board the commercial flight that crashed after colliding with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter, including many young Olympic hopefuls. U.S. Figure Skating said a total of 28 people on the plane were connected to the sport, including coaches, athletes and their relatives. World figure skating champions and coaching pair Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were among the passengers killed. Lori Ewing, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Amazon-owned Whole Foods is asking the National Labor Relations Board to set aside the results of a union election in which the first group of the companys employees voted in favor of collective bargaining. In a filing submitted to the agency this week, attorneys for Whole Foods Market argued the union involved with the election, held last week at a store in Philadelphia, interfered in the process by promising employees a 30% wage increase if they unionized and providing free transportation to them the day of the vote. The company also accused The United Food and Commercial Workers International Unionwhich worked to unionize workers through a local chapterof intimidating employees who supported Whole Foods. The company did not provide specific details on its allegations, which the union disputes. Pro-union workers prevailed last week after 130 employees in the store or about 57% of the ballots castvoted in favor of organizing. The election results still need be certified by a regional director of the NLRB, which Whole Foods says can’t lawfully be done since the agency currently does not have a third board member in Washington. Gynne A. Wilcox, one of the agency’s board members, was fired last week by the Trump administration. In a statement, UFCW Local 1776, the local union that pulled off the labor win, called the companys allegations baseless. It also said the objections filed by Whole Foods was a legal maneuvering done to delay the bargaining process. We fully expected Whole Foods to try to stall this process,” said Wendell Young IV, the president of the local union. “Amazon has a well-documented history of using baseless objections to undermine the rights of workers seeking representation, and this case is no different. In its objection to the election, the upscale grocery chain also accused the NLRB of tainting the process by restraining the company from communicating its views on unionization to employees through required meetings held during work hours. In November, the agencys board had issued a decision that found these meetings commonly known as captive audience meetings were unlawful because they forced employees to attend gatherings that they may otherwise choose to skip. Companies typically use these meetings to deter employees from unionizing. The board said employers may still hold meetings about unions for their workers. But they must make attendance voluntary with no adverse consequences for employees who fail to show up. The union election in Philadelphia marked the first successful entry of organized labor into Amazons grocery business, which includes Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh and the Amazon Go convenience stores. Amazon, which purchased Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.7 billion, has tried to fend off organizing efforts by delivery drivers and warehouse workers. Haleluya Hader, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Amazon is set to release its long-awaitedand delayedAlexa generative artificial intelligence voice service, said three people familiar with the matter, and has scheduled a press event for later this month to preview it. Once released, it would mark the most significant upgrade to the product since its initial introduction accelerated a wave of digital assistants more than a decade ago. Amazon on Wednesday sent press invites to an event to be held on February 26 in New York featuring the head of its devices and services team, Panos Panay. A spokesperson said the event is Alexa-focused, while declining to elaborate. The new generative AI-powered Alexa represents at once a huge opportunity for Amazon, which counts more than half a billion Alexa-enabled devices in the market, and a tremendous risk. Amazon is hoping the revamp, designed to be able to converse with users, can convert some of its hundreds of millions of users into paying customers in an effort to generate a return for the unprofitable business. The AI service will be able to respond to multiple prompts in sequence and, company executives have said, even act as an agent on behalf of users by taking actions for them without their direct involvement. That contrasts with the current iteration, which generally handles only a single request at a time. Executives have scheduled a meeting, known as a “Go/No-go,” for February 14. There they will make a final decision on the “street readiness” of Alexa’s generative AI revamp, according to the people and an internal planning document seen by Reuters. Alexa’s revamp carries with it all the challenges inherent in now-familiar generative AI chatbots from OpenAI, Alphabet and others including the possibility of fabricated answers, known as hallucinations. With access to Alexa available in cars, televisions, thermostats and mobile phones, it could become an essential daily tool for scheduling and even shopping. Initially, Amazon plans to roll out the new Alexa service to a limited number of users and will not charge for it, the people said, though it has considered a $5 to $10 monthly fee. The company will also continue to offer what it is calling Classic Alexa, the version broadly available today for free. One of the people said Amazon has discontinued adding new offerings to Classic Alexa. Bezos’ vision While Apple’s Siri voice assistant preceded Alexa’s 2014 release by three years, the Amazon service supercharged the acceptance of voice assistants. But for many people, Alexa is now used for little more than kitchen timers and weather updates due to its lack of significant overhauls in the last few years. Alexa is the brainchild of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who envisioned a service that would resemble the voice-activated computers on TV’s “Star Trek.” The hope was that once perfected, users would turn to the voice assistant for hundreds of everyday tasks like turning on lights, preheating the oven, accessing the internet, playing music, writing emails and summoning taxis. Someday in the future – that might be years or decades away – it could answer everything that you would ever ask it, Amazons then chief of devices, Dave Limp, said nearly a decade ago. With those weighty expectations, the move to upgrade Alexa has suffered delays over concerns around the quality and speed of its responses, people familiar with the matter have told Reuters. Amazon dubbed the new service Banyan internally, as well as Remarkable Alexa, though it was not immediately clear if the Seattle company planned on using either as a new product name. In a January Financial Times interview, Amazon executive Rohit Prasad acknowledged some of the obstacles in developing what is effectively an entirely new service, including the work to eliminate hallucinations. Analysts at Bank of America estimate Amazon could generate $600 million annually if 10% of active users, which it estimates at around 100 million devices, pay $5 per month for the service. Greg Bensinger, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
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