 |
|
|
|||||
The world is bracing for impact as the so-called “Liberation Day” arrives Wednesdaythe latest installment of President Trump’s tariff announcements since his return to office in January. In a Rose Garden address at 4 p.m. ET, the president is set to unveil a sweeping “reciprocal tariff” plan, targeting not only Mexico, Canada, and China, but also other countries in a trade surplus with the U.S. or those holding tariffs on American products. It is still unclear what countries and industries will be impacted by today’s announcement, as well as the rate of tariffs imposed, and if they will be imposed universally or by country. However, the policy changes are said to go into effect after his speech. While much is still uncertain, here is how many world leaders are reacting ahead of Trump’s “Liberation Day” speech. Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum’s “cool head” approach has helped Mexico evade some of Trump’s tariffs since he first announced 25% levies on Mexican exports in early February. Sheinbaum said Wednesday in her daily morning briefing that she would announce an “integral plan” on Thursday. “Our interest is to strengthen the Mexican economy,” Sheinbaum said. “It’s not an issue of if you tariff me, I tariff you.” Canada Following on-again-off-again tariffs between the U.S. and Canadathe country America long considered its closest allyCanadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned Trump that Canada will impose retaliatory tariffs on American exports, although no specifics have been revealed yet. China In early February, Trump imposed a 10% tariff on all Chinese imports, upending a tariff war between the world’s two largest economies. After the U.S. raised tariffs to 20% in early March, China responded with retaliatory tariffs, with 10% and 15% levies on various food and agricultural goods. Ahead of “Liberation Day,” China held economic dialogue with Japan and South Korea, seeking a coordinated response among the three nations. However, Japanese and South Korean officials said that decision was not taken. EU Ahead of the April 2 announcement, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, “Europe did not start this confrontation, we do not necessarily want to retaliate, but if it is necessary, we have a strong plan to retaliate and we will use it.” In early March, the European Commission responded to Trump’s tariffs on aluminum and steel by launching “swift and proportionate countermeasures on U.S. imports into the EU,” a statement read. Countermeasures included tariffs on American goods such as bourbon and motorbikes worth up to $28 billion in exports.
Category:
E-Commerce
An artificial intelligence watchdog is accusing OpenAI of training its default ChatGPT model on copyrighted book content without permission. In a new paper published this week, the AI Disclosures Project alleges that OpenAI likely trained its GPT-4o model using non-public material from OReilly Media. The researchers used a legally obtained dataset of 34 copyrighted OReilly books and found that GPT-4o showed strong recognition of the company’s paywalled content. By contrast, GPT-3.5 Turbo appeared more familiar with publicly accessible OReilly book samples. “These results highlight the urgent need for increased corporate transparency regarding pre-training data sources as a means to develop formal licensing frameworks for AI content training,” the authors wrote in the paper. One of the nonprofit’s founders and paper’s authors, Tim O’Reilly, is the CEO of O’Reilly Media. An OpenAI spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to Fast Company‘s request for comment. Training data lies at the heart of all artificial intelligence models. Large language models require an incredible amount of information that it uses to guide back on when it churns out text or images for users. OpenAI has struck up some licensing deals to be able to train their models on certain content. But the company, which recently fundraised and is worth $300 billion, has also come under fire for sourcing certain content. The New York Times, for example, is leading a charge against OpenAI and minority owner Microsoft over alleged copyright infringement. The researchers acknowledged limitations in their study but argued the issue is likely part of a broader systemic problem in how large language models are developed. “Sustainable ecosystems need to be designed so that both creators and developers can benefit from generative AI,” the authors said. “Otherwise, model developers are likely to rapidly plateau in their progress, especially as newer content becomes produced less and less by humans.”
Category:
E-Commerce
On Wednesday, Tesla reported its largest drop in delivery numbers to date, and a 13% drop in sales since the beginning of the year, in part due to backlash against CEO Elon Musk’s role in the U.S. government, coupled with growing competition in the EV market. However, by midday, shares of the EV maker started moving higher following an unconfirmed Politico report that Musk may soon step away from his role in the Trump administration. That report said Trump insiders and allies have become increasingly “frustrated with his unpredictability” and see him as a “political liability,” but the retreat is also likely the result of the hit his businesses have taken. Heres what to know about the latest Tesla delivery numbers and sales, as well as how the companys stock is doing today. Tesla first-quarter sales and delivery numbers plummet A look at the numbers shows Tesla posted its worst sales in nearly three years. It delivered 336,681 cars in the first quarter, down from 387,000 in the first three months of 2024 and less than in any period since the second quarter of 2022. The EV maker missed analyst estimates of as low as 350,000 vehicles. Analysts had predicted lower sales following poor European numbers, and because Tesla temporarily closed some factories to update the new Model Y. On Tuesday, Electrek reported Tesla has $200 million worth of unsold Cybertrucks sitting in its inventory. Tesla sales in Europe and China are down Wednesday’s sales report follows data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association that confirm Tesla sales fell 49% in Europe in the first two months of the quarter, despite the fact that overall EV sales in Europe were up 28%, pointing to a loss of the electric vehicle market share. Another reason for the drop can be attributed to European Tesla boycotts over Musk’s controversial political views, including his support for Europe’s far-right parties. While Europe isn’t the largest market for electric vehicles, China is. China is also Tesla’s second largest market after the U.S., where it now faces growing competition from other EV automakers. Chinese automaker BYD reported sales of more than 416,000 fully electric passenger vehicles in the quarter, up 39% from the previous year, overtaking Tesla as the worlds largest seller of EVs. What does this mean for TSLA stock? Shares of Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) fell about 2% in early trading and are now up about 4% in midday trading at the time of this writing due in part to that Politico report that Musk may be moving on from the White House. While the Tesla stock started the year strong, and nearly doubled after the presidential election, it has lost 44% since December’s all-time high. In 2025, the stock is down over 35% year-to-date, taking a major hit due to the Musk backlash, including protests at Tesla dealerships in the form of Tesla Takedowns. A recent CNN poll found 53% of Americans rate Musk negatively, with only 35% giving him a positive rating, making him even more unpopular than Vice President JD Vance (who has a 44% unfavorable rating.)
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||