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Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke shared an internal memo on X on Monday that stressed the importance of using AI effectively in daily tasks. In fact, he wrote, using AI is now a fundamental expectation of Shopify employees. Spotify product designers are now expected to use AI tools to do all platform feature prototypes. The results, Lutke says, are more exploratory and faster to produce and share. Shopify already provides employees with access to various AI coding tools from Github (Copilot), Cursor, and Anthropic (Claude code). Our task here at Shopify is to make our software unquestionably the best canvas on which to develop the best businesses of the future, Lutke wrote in the memo, which he said he posted to X because he believed it was about to be leaked anyhow. We do this by keeping everyone cutting edge and bringing all the best tools to bear . . . for that we need to be absolutely ahead. Lutke says his company will judge employees in performance reviews on how well they know and use AI tools. Employees are expected to continue to learn about and experiment with new AI tools, and share their findings within the company. Spotify product designers are now expected to use AI tools to do all platform feature prototypes. The results, Lutke says, are more exploratory and faster to produce and share. Shopify already provides employees with access to various AI coding tools from Github (Copilot), Cursor, and Anthropic (Claude code). But the new focus on AI tools such as Anthropics Claude and Githubs Copilot may not end at helping clients. Lutke says that before Shopify hires any more humans to work at the company, the hiring managers must explain why an AI tool couldnt do the job. [T]eams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using AI, he wrote. What would this area look like if autonomous AI agents were already part of the team? Shopify has been a boon for merchants by providing a comprehensive, user-friendly platform that streamlines the process of establishing and managing online stores. Our job is to figure out what entrepreneurship looks like in a world where AI is universally available, Lutke wrote in the memo. And I intend for us to do the best possible job of that, and to do that I need everyones help.
Category:
E-Commerce
For the second time in more than 20 years, the Mega Millions lottery is getting a facelift. Tickets will now be twice as expensive, but prizes will also be biggerand the odds of winning the jackpot have gone up (though your chances of taking home the prize are still infinitesimal). The new version of Mega Millions rolled out on Saturday, and the updated game will see its first drawing tomorrow. Heres what you need to know about how the game has changed (and what it means for your wallet): How much are tickets? As of this Saturday, ticket prices for the Mega Millions have gone from $2 to $5 apiece. According to a press release, the price hike will lead to better odds overall, larger starting jackpots, and faster-growing jackpotsessentially, the more money players pour into tickets, the larger the communal payout pool becomes. Tickets are sold in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (The five holdouts are Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah.) This is the second time the Mega Millions has adjusted its game matrix since its inception in 2002. In 2017, ticket prices doubled from $1 to $2, and, per the release, more than 1,200 players have become millionaires since that last change. How does this change my odds of winning a prize? The updated game parameters increase players odds of winning any prize from 1 in 24 to 1 in 23. For those who do win, they can expect an increased payout. A new built-in multiplier feature will automatically increase every non-jackpot win by 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X, or 10X its base price. Now, non-jackpot prizes will range from $10 to $10 million, compared to the $2 to $1 million scale in the previous game. Beyond big jackpots, players told us they want bigger non-jackpot prizes and that’s exactly what this new game delivers, Joshua Johnston, lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, said in the press release. Players who had won $2 in the old game will now take home $10, $15, $20, $25 or $50 under this game. What will happen to the size of the jackpot? A few important tweaks have been made to the jackpot. To begin with, every starting jackpot will now reset to $50 million instead of the former $20 million. In addition, the Mega Millions Consortium predicts that jackpots will grow faster under the new guidelines, estimating that the average jackpot win in the new game will be more than $800 million vs. approximately $450 million in the current game. This set-up might mean more jackpot wins passing the billion dollar threshold going forward, a payout phenomenon thats happened just seven times since the lotterys creation. How does this change my odds of winning the jackpot? Your odds of winning the jackpot have just jumped from 1 in 302,575,350 to 1 in 290,472,336. That might seem like a fairly sizable increase, but its less impressive when you realize that your chances of getting struck by lightning within the year are 1 in 700,000. In other words, dont get your hopes up. When is the first drawing under the new structure? Mega Millions drawings take place every Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. ET, meaning the first drawing under the new game structure is tomorrow night. You can catch the drawing live on TV stations including ABC, CBS, and NBC or on the Mega Millions website, and past recordings are posted to the Mega Millions YouTube channel.
Category:
E-Commerce
As the European Union looks at how best to respond to Donald Trump’s trade war, officials are considering further escalating things, taking them to a point where it could really hurt Big Tech companies. Sophie Primas, a spokesperson for the French government, said the EU is deciding on its response to Trump’s blanket tariffs that would include not just tech goods, but tech services as well, an area where the U.S. enjoys a massive trade surplus. That would potentially target companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and X. Apple is already under pressure as tariffs on imported goods will likely result in higher prices for the company’s products, such as the iPhone and iPad, but Microsoft’s stock has largely escaped the drubbing other tech companies have seen on Wall Street since Trump announced the tariffs. (Shares are down just 5% in the past five days vs. 10% for Nvidia and 18% for Apple.) That’s because Microsoft’s chief products are software and services, such as cloud storage and Microsoft 365. Should the EU place tariffs on those, it would cause more pain for tech companies, which are already sore after a series of tariff-inspired body blows in recent days. Other examples of tech services include Googles ad and cloud network; Meta’s ad network as well as the Quest (and digital store); Apple’s Music, Arcade and TV+ offerings; Amazon’s Web Services and Prime loyalty program; and X’s AI offering and planned financial services unit. The nuclear option The EU, it’s important to note, has not imposed these reciprocal tariffs yet. On Monday, the European Commission said it had offered a “zero-for-zero” tariff proposal to Washington. Michal Baranowski, deputy economy minister of Poland, following a meeting by the Commission Monday, said EU officials did not want to be “trigger-happy.” (Elon Musk has espoused a similar zero tariff proposal, in a video call to Italy’s right-wing, co-ruling League Party.) The White House has, so far, shrugged off talk of “zero tariffs,” with Peter Navarro, Trump’s top trade advisor who is seen as the architect of the tariff plan, dismissing Musk as a “car assembler” that relies on parts from other countries. “When it comes to tariffs and trade, we all understand in the White Houseand the American people understandthat Elon is a car manufacturer, but he’s not a car manufacturer. He’s a car assembler,” Navarro said. “He’s a car person. That’s what he does, and he wants the cheap foreign parts.” Should the Trump administration refuse to deal, which has not yet been discussed, EU officials said nothing was off the table, though there appears to be different schools of thought among members about whether placing a tariff on services would be wise. Irish Foreign Minister Simon Harris said doing so would be “very much the nuclear option.” The likelihood of putting tariffs on services is part of what the EU calls the anti-coercion instrument (ACI). Adopted in 2023, it was designed to defend the EU against a trade war with China, but now it’s being seen as a tool to battle Trump, if necessary. Some EU officials refer to it as the “bazooka”. The ACI has wide ranging potential powers. It can be used to limit American banks’ access to certain EU markets or it could also increase tax and regulatory pressure on American digital platforms, said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen last week. Talk that the EU could be considering a tariff on services from U.S tech companies comes as the market continues to show extreme volatility. On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average saw trading range from 36,705 to 39,198- a nearly 2,500-point swing.
Category:
E-Commerce
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