Investors were eyeing the firm for signs of slowing demand after revelation high-end chips not necessary, but found few
Nvidia surpassed investor expectations for the fourth quarter of 2024 with a 78% jump in revenue year over year.
The company reported $39.3bn in revenue, beating analyst projections of $38.25bn. It also reported $0.89 in earnings a share on Wednesday, beating expectations of $0.84.
Continue reading...Tech company blames ‘phonetic overlap’ for problem where US president’s name appears
Apple has promised to fix a bug in its iPhone automatic dictation tool after some users reported it had suggested to them “Trump” when they said the word “racist”.
The glitch was first highlighted in a viral post on TikTok, when the speech-to-text tool sometimes briefly flashed up the word “Trump” when they said “racist”, and was later repeated by others on social media.
Continue reading...Northvolt, which claims to run Europe’s first homegrown gigafactory, admits it depends on Chinese suppliers for cathode active material
The Swedish startup Northvolt has admitted that a vital component of its batteries is imported amid claims that the company, which claims to run Europe’s first homegrown gigafactory, depends on Chinese suppliers.
It comes as a documentary programme to be shown in Sweden on Wednesday by the national broadcaster SVT, exposes the company’s failure to build a truly homegrown battery after its attempts to produce its own cathode active material at its Northvolt Ett factory in Skellefteå, northern Sweden, were unsuccessful.
Continue reading...Government accepts advice of commission that also says children under 13 should not have their own smartphone
Denmark is to ban mobile phones in schools and after-school clubs on the recommendation of a government commission that also found that children under 13 should not have their own smartphone or tablet.
The government said it would change existing legislation to force all folkeskole – comprehensive primary and lower secondary schools – to become phone-free, meaning that almost all children aged between seven and 16-17 will be required by law not to bring their phones into school.
Continue reading...Appeal from officials, including two senior figures from Trump’s first term, comes amid reports National Science Foundation’s budget will be slashed
Chuck Hagel, the former US defense secretary, and other former US national security officials, including two senior figures from Donald Trump’s first term, on Tuesday warned that China was outpacing the US in critical technology fields and urged Congress to increase funding for federal scientific research.
The appeal comes a week after the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funds science research, fired 170 people in response to Donald Trump’s order to reduce the federal workforce. An NSF spokesman declined comment on reports that hundreds more layoffs were possible and that the agency’s budget could be slashed by billions.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Government reluctant to take action that could weaken UK’s attractiveness to AI firms, says Labour source
Ministers have delayed plans to regulate artificial intelligence as the UK government seeks to align itself with Donald Trump’s administration on the technology, the Guardian has learned.
A long-awaited AI bill, which ministers had originally intended to publish before Christmas, is not expected to appear in parliament before the summer, according to three Labour sources briefed on the plans.
Ministers had intended to publish a short bill within months of entering office that would have required companies to hand over large AI models such as ChatGPT for testing by the UK’s AI Security Institute.
The bill was intended to be the government’s answer to concerns that AI models could become so advanced that they pose a risk to humanity, and were different from separate proposals to clarify how AI companies can use copyrighted material.
Trump’s election has led to a rethink, however. A senior Labour source said the bill was “properly in the background” and that there were still “no hard proposals in terms of what the legislation looks like”. “They said let’s try and get it done before Christmas – now it’s summer,” the source added.
Another Labour source briefed on the legislation said an iteration of the bill had been prepared months ago but was now up in the air because of Trump, with ministers reluctant to take action that could weaken the UK’s attractiveness to AI companies.
Trump has torpedoed plans by his predecessor Joe Biden for regulating AI and revoked an executive order on making the technology safe and trustworthy. The future of the US AI Safety Institute, founded by Biden, is uncertain after its director resigned this month. At an AI summit hosted in Paris, JD Vance, the US vice-president, railed against Europe’s planned regulation of the technology.
The UK government chose to side with the US by refusing to sign the Paris declaration endorsed by 66 other countries at the summit. Peter Mandelson, the UK’s ambassador to Washington, has reportedly drafted proposals to make the UK the main hub for US AI investment.
More than 2,000 cultural figures challenge Whitehall’s eagerness ‘to wrap our lives’ work in attractive paper for automated competitors’
Original British art and creative skill is in peril thanks to the rise of AI and the government’s plans to loosen copyright rules, some of the UK’s leading cultural figures have said.
More than 2,000 people, including leading creative names such as Mark Haddon, Axel Scheffler, Benji Davies and Michael Rosen, have signed a letter published in the Observer today calling on the government to keep the legal safeguards that offer artists and writers the prospect of a sustainable income.
Continue reading...Prosecutors in England and Wales are failing to obtain orders requiring the deletion of intimate content shared without consent, analysis reveals
Perpetrators of “revenge porn” offences are being allowed to keep explicit images of their victims on their devices, after a failure by prosecutors to obtain orders requiring their deletion.
An Observer analysis of court records in intimate image abuse cases has found that orders for the offenders to give up their devices and delete photos and videos are rarely being made. Of 98 cases concluded in the magistrates courts in England and Wales in the past six months, just three resulted in a deprivation order.
Continue reading...Five-year-old platform intended to make drivers’ lives easier will only be supported until the end of March
It was hailed as “the future of UK parking”, intended to remove one of the bugbears of modern life: the need to sign up to a plethora of different apps in order to park your car.
But a big question mark now hangs over the future of the National Parking Platform (NPP), a government-funded scheme designed to make drivers’ lives easier by letting them use one app of their choice to pay for all their parking.
Continue reading...Platform cites ‘legal requirements around when we remove data’ after lawsuit filed over deaths of children attempting ‘blackout challenge’
Four British parents who are suing TikTok for the alleged wrongful deaths of their children say they are “suspicious” about the social media platform’s claim to have deleted their children’s data.
The parents have filed a lawsuit in the US that claims that their four children died in 2022 as a result of attempting the “blackout challenge”, a viral trend that circulated on social media in 2021.
Continue reading...Authorities blame crypto exchange, already facing four counts of tax evasion in the country, for currency woes
Nigeria has filed a lawsuit seeking to compel Binance to pay $79.5bn for economic losses the country’s government says were caused by the cryptocurrency exchange’s operations there and $2bn in back taxes, court documents showed on Wednesday.
Authorities blame Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, for Nigeria’s currency woes and detained two of its executives in 2024 after crypto websites emerged as platforms of choice for trading the local naira currency.
Continue reading...Architect of copyright law says EU is ‘supporting big tech instead of protecting European creative ideas’
An architect of EU copyright law has said legislation is needed to protect writers, musicians and creatives left exposed by an “irresponsible” legal gap in the bloc’s Artificial Intelligence Act.
The intervention came as 15 cultural organisations wrote to the European Commission this week warning that draft rules to implement the AI Act were “taking several steps backwards” on copyright, while one writer spoke of a “devastating” loophole.
Continue reading...Project Waterworth, which involves cable longer than Earth’s circumference, to also reach South Africa and Brazil
Meta has announced plans to build the world’s longest underwater cable project, which aims to connect the US, India, South Africa, Brazil and other regions.
The tech company said Project Waterworth involved a 50,000km (31,000-mile) subsea cable, which is longer than the Earth’s circumference.
Continue reading...Demonstrations across the US against tycoon’s ties to Trump highlight potential risks to firm’s reputation and sales
Protesters gathered outside Tesla dealerships across the US on Saturday in response to Elon Musk’s efforts to shred government spending under the president, Donald Trump.
Groups of demonstrators up to 100-strong gathered outside the electric carmaker’s showrooms in cities including New York, Seattle, Kansas City and across California. Organisers said the protests took place in dozens of locations.
Continue reading...Defense and tech firms – including Musk’s own – await potential contracts as Doge decimates US agencies
The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has vowed to oversee a radical hollowing out of government agencies, asserting this week that some should be “deleted entirely” as he defunds public programs and lays off federal workers. While the immense cuts are framed as a means of removing waste, they may also become a boon to private companies – including Musk’s own businesses – that the government increasingly relies on for many of its key initiatives.
Musk and his allies in the “department of government efficiency” (Doge), the unofficial committee acting as the operations arm of his cost-cutting efforts, have targeted a range of major government departments. They have moved to close the United States Agency for International Development, slashed the Department of Education and taken over the General Services Administration that controls federal IT structures. Doge staffers have also gained access to the treasury department, as well as set their sights on the Department of Defense, energy department, Environmental Protection Agency and at least a dozen others.
Continue reading...Maker of ChatGPT rebuffs consortium led by Tesla owner and rejects ‘latest attempt to disrupt his competition’
OpenAI on Friday rejected a $97.4bn bid from a consortium led by billionaire Elon Musk for the ChatGPT maker, saying the startup is not for sale.
The unsolicited approach is Musk’s latest attempt to block the startup he co-founded with CEO Sam Altman – but later left – from becoming a for-profit firm, as it looks to secure more capital and stay ahead in the AI race.
Continue reading...Billionaire’s lawyers say offer will be withdrawn if firm he helped found a decade ago ‘preserves the charity’s mission’
Elon Musk says he will abandon his $97.4bn offer to buy the non-profit behind OpenAI if the ChatGPT maker drops its plan to convert into a for-profit company.
“If OpenAI, Inc’s Board is prepared to preserve the charity’s mission and stipulate to take the ‘for sale’ sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid,” lawyers for the billionaire said in a filing to a California court on Wednesday. “Otherwise, the charity must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets.”
Continue reading...President brought suit under X’s previous leadership after he was banned from platform following January 6 events
Elon Musk’s social media platform X will pay Donald Trump $10m to settle a lawsuit the president filed after he was banned from the platform following the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, according to a report.
The lawsuit was filed against X under the leadership of its previous CEO, Jack Dorsey. After Musk purchased X, reinstated Trump’s account, began developing a relationship with the president and spent $250m on his re-election campaign, Trump’s legal team considered abandoning the lawsuit, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the case.
Continue reading...Key presidential ally, whose agency has operated in secrecy, also makes claim – without evidence – of fraud at USAid
Elon Musk claimed in the Oval Office on Tuesday that his so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) was providing maximum transparency as it bulldozed its way through the federal government, remarks contradicted by the reality of how he has operated in deep secrecy.
The appearance from Musk was the first time he had taken questions from the news media since his arrival in Washington, and he used his time standing next to Donald Trump at the Resolute Desk to defend the aggressive cost-cutting measures the Doge team has pursued.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Tom Cotton, Senate intelligence chair, risks angering key Trump ally with harsh words for ‘tech titans’
In a new book, the Arkansas senator Tom Cotton condemns Elon Musk for “chasing Chinese dollars” and having “shamefully supplicated China’s Communist rulers”, in order to advance his own interests as chief executive of companies including Tesla and SpaceX.
It’s an explosive charge from the Republican chair of the powerful Senate intelligence committee, given that Musk, the world’s richest person, is a major donor and close adviser to Donald Trump, now working at the heart of the president’s administration to slash costs and reshape the federal government.
Continue reading...