Cable television has long been viewed as a stagnant business, showing little promise for growth over the years. However, Comcast believes it has found a new growth opportunity.On Wednesday, the company announced that it’s spinning off NBCUniversal’s cable television networks — such as CNBC, E!, Golf Channel, MSNBC, Oxygen, SYFY, and USA Network — into a separate publicly traded company. It’s also including digital assets like GolfNow, Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, and Sports Engine. This bold spin-off strate ...

Meta hired Salesforce’s CEO of AI, Clara Shih, to lead a new organization building AI tools for businesses that use Meta’s apps to reach consumers, according to a LinkedIn post from Shih on Tuesday. Meta confirmed the appointment and the new Business AI group in a statement to TechCrunch.“I’m thrilled to share today that I’ve joined Meta to lead a new Business AI group,” said Shih in a LinkedIn post. “Our vision for this new product group is to make cutting-edge AI accessible to every business, empowering a ...

Microsoft on Tuesday revealed new custom chips aimed at powering workloads on its Azure cloud and bolstering security, particularly a new hardware accelerator that can manage data processing, networking and storage-related tasks.The Azure Boost DPU is Microsoft’s first data processing unit, designed for “data-centric workloads with high efficiency and low power,” the company said. Microsoft expects future DPU-equipped Azure servers to run storage workloads at four times the performance of existing servers w ...

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has okayed Alphabet’s partnership and investment in AI rival Anthropic, concluding that it doesn’t qualify for investigation under current merger regulations. The announcement comes a month after the CMA revealed it was launching a formal “stage 1” probe into Google’s parent’s various investments in Anthropic, a three-year-old San Francisco-based startup that develops large language models (LLMs) and an associated chatbot called Claude, which is something a ...

In Brief The Department of Justice is reportedly pushing to force Google to spin off its Chrome browser business.That’s according to Bloomberg, which reports that the Justice Department is also planning to recommend to a federal judge that Google face antitrust requirements related to AI and its Android mobile operating system. The enforcement actions are the product of the Justice Department’s historic multi-year case against Google, which sought to prove that the tech giant has a web search monopoly in t ...

Core Viewpoint - ServiceTitan's IPO filing highlights significant risks associated with its use of generative AI, particularly large language models (LLMs), which could adversely impact its business operations and data security [1][2][3] Group 1: AI Risks - ServiceTitan's S-1 prospectus includes a detailed 1,150-word section on risks related to AI, warning that LLMs may produce inaccurate information and engage in discriminatory behaviors [2] - The company cautions that reliance on LLMs could lead to copyright infringements and increased exposure to data breaches [2][3] - There is a concern that if ServiceTitan cannot gather sufficient data, it may struggle to maintain or develop its AI products [2] Group 2: Ethical and Regulatory Concerns - ServiceTitan expresses worries about potential social and ethical issues arising from its AI usage, as well as the financial implications of future regulations [3] - The company also fears challenges in hiring AI experts, which could be costly, impacting its ability to innovate [3] Group 3: Dependency on Third-Party Services - ServiceTitan's AI products depend on third-party services, specifically naming Microsoft and OpenAI, which poses a risk if these services become unavailable or face issues [3] Group 4: Industry Context - ServiceTitan operates in the field service industry, providing software solutions for small businesses, including marketing and customer relationship management [4] - The company has been offering AI-powered services since at least 2023, with the launch of Titan Intelligence and a suite of AI agents for various business functions [5] Group 5: Market Trends - The rapid advancement of AI agents in sales, marketing, and customer relationship management is noted, with Salesforce's CEO predicting a billion AI agents could be deployed within a year [4] - The reliability of LLMs for business applications is expected to improve over time, but current AI adoption may present as many challenges as it resolves [7]

India’s competition watchdog has ordered WhatsApp to stop sharing data with other Meta companies for advertising purposes for five years and also levied a fine of $25.4 million for antitrust violations related to WhatsApp’s controversial 2021 privacy policy.The Competition Commission of India, which began the investigation in 2021, found that WhatsApp’s “take-it-or-leave-it” privacy update constituted an abuse of Meta’s dominant position by forcing users to accept expanded data collection without an opt-out ...

Core Points - T-Mobile has confirmed it was hacked as part of a broader "industry-wide attack" targeting U.S. and international telecom companies [1][4] - The company stated that its systems and data have not been significantly impacted, and there is no evidence of customer information being compromised [2] - This incident marks the ninth known cyberattack against T-Mobile in recent years, with the most recent breach in 2023 resulting in the theft of personal information from 37 million customers [6] Industry Context - The cyberattacks are linked to a group of hackers associated with the Chinese government, known as Salt Typhoon, which targeted wiretap systems mandated by U.S. federal law [4] - The FBI and U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA have publicly warned the industry about these cyberattacks, accusing China of conducting a significant cyber espionage campaign aimed at high-ranking American officials [5]

In Brief General Motors is laying off nearly 1,000 workers in the U.S. as part of a cost-cutting bid, just three months after cutting 1,000 software jobs.The company told TechCrunch that cuts won’t affect hourly workers at any of its factories, but declined to specify what teams were affected. A significant majority of the layoffs were salaried employees. “In order to win in this competitive market, we need to optimize for speed and excellence. This includes operating with efficiency, ensuring we have the ...

Cruise, the autonomous vehicle unit of General Motors, has admitted to submitting a false report with the goal of influencing a federal investigation into a safety incident last year. In penance, the company will pay a $500,000 criminal fine as part of a deferred prosecution agreement, per the Department of Justice (DOJ). This is one of several state and federal fines Cruise has been hit with after omitting crucial information related to that October incident, during which a Cruise robotaxi ran over a pedes ...