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At a time when Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have shown that the whims of one person can upend an entire social network, Mastodons CEO and creator, Eugen Rochko, is heading the opposite direction. In a blog post published today, the Mastodon team announced its intention to let a new nonprofit organization take over the company. In other words, Rochko is voluntarily handing over the reins to the service he founded almost a decade ago. The company took some actions towards forming a US-based non-profit itself a year ago, and that entity will continue to exist as a "fundraising hub." However, the company as a whole will continue to headquarter its operations overseas. "We are taking the time to select the appropriate jurisdiction and structure in Europe," the company wrote, "Then we will determine which other (subsidiary) legal structures are needed to support operations and sustainability." Mastodon says the restructuring will take place within the next six months. Rochko has made his stance against Musk clear. He told Musk to get off the internet two years ago. He has also called the recent Meta moderation changes deeply troubling. While Mastodon has not been as obvious a player in terms of raw user numbers as, say, Threads or Bluesky in the post-X restructuring of social media, Mastodon might still find the most moral path forward.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/mastodon-will-soon-be-owned-by-a-nonprofit-entity-170009789.html?src=rss
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Amid signs of a stagnating economy, the UK is going all-in on AI. On Monday, British Minister Keir Starmer announced a new AI Opportunities Action Plan. At the center of the initiative are AI Growth Zones, which the government plans to establish in de-industrialized areas throughout the country. In these areas, the Labour government will fast-track planning approvals for data centers and offer better access to the national energy grid. Starmer said the UKs first AI Growth Zone would be established in Culham, Oxfordshire, home to the countrys Atomic Energy Authority. More zones will be announced in the summer. At the same time, Starmers government plans to increase state-owned compute capacity by a factor of 20, starting with the immediate construction of a new supercomputer with enough AI power to play itself at chess half a million times a second. As of November 2024, the UK has 14 supercomputers on the TOP500 list, putting it behind by a significant margin the US and China. Additionally, the plan will see the government establish a National Data Library, which it says will make the country more attractive to investors by allowing private industry to safely and securely unlock the value of public data. Finally, a new AI Energy Council will work with energy companies to meet the power demands of the AI industry in a way thats in line with the governments clean energy strategy. Artificial Intelligence will drive incredible change in our country. From teachers personalising lessons, to supporting small businesses with their record-keeping, to speeding up planning applications, it has the potential to transform the lives of working people, Starmer said. But the AI industry needs a government that is on their side, one that wont sit back and let opportunities slip through its fingers. And in a world of fierce competition, we cannot stand by. Over the next 10 years, Starmers government estimates that its strategy could generate as much as 47 billion ($57 billion) in annual economic growth. The announcement comes after the UK economy failed to grow in the third quarter of last year. From that perspective, making the country more attractive to outside investment isnt the worst idea especially with companies like Microsoft planning to spend $80 billion on new data centers this year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/uk-to-fast-track-data-center-approvals-as-part-of-ai-action-plan-163753744.html?src=rss
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Sonos CEO Patrick Spence is stepping down from the company after eight years on the job, according to reporting by Bloomberg. This follows last years disastrous app launch, in which a redesign was missing core features and was broken in nearly every major way. The company has tasked Tom Conrad to steer the ship as interim CEO. Conrad is a current member of the Sonos board, but was a co-founder of Pandora, VP at Snap and product chief at, wait for it, the short-lived video streaming platform Quibi. He also reportedly has a Sonos tattoo. The board has hired a firm to find a new long-term leader. I think well all agree that this year weve let far too many people down, Conrad wrote employees in a letter. Getting back to basics is necessary, but clearly not enough to unlock the future we all envision for Sonos. He also suggested that he wants the company to expand well beyond home speakers and related gear. As for Spence, hell be just fine. His payout package includes $7,500 per month until June, a cash severance of $1.9 million and his unvested shares in Sonos will vest. He was with Sonos for more than a decade. The decision to swap leadership comes after months of turmoil at the company. It rolled out a mobile app back in May that was absolutely rife with bugs and missing key features like alarms and sleep timers. Some customers even complained that entire speaker systems would no longer work after updating to the new app. It was a whole thing. Sonos tried to win back customer trust by extending the manufacturer warranty for home speaker products and creating an advisory board that would provide the company with "feedback and insights from a customer perspective to help shape and improve our software and products before they are launched. That didnt ease the financial burden faced by the company. The stock price has fallen by around 13 percent since the app launched. Sonos laid off over 100 people in August as it tried to fix the software and revenue fell 16 percent in the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended on September 28. Analysts project an additional 15 percent decline throughout the holiday period.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/sonos-ceo-patrick-spence-falls-on-his-sword-after-horrible-app-launch-160704330.html?src=rss
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