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Amazon Invests up to $4 Billion in OpenAI Rival Anthropic in Exchange for Minority Stake

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On Monday, Amazon announced it will invest up to $4 billion into the artificial intelligence company Anthropic. In exchange, Amazon will gain partial ownership, and Anthropic will use the company’s cloud computing platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), more widely.

The growing relationship between the two firms is an example of how some large tech companies with extensive cloud computing resources are using those assets to strengthen their position in the artificial intelligence industry.

According to a statement released by Amazon, Anthropic will use AWS as its primary cloud provider, using the cloud platform to do most of its AI model development and research into AI safety. Anthropic will also have access to Amazon’s suite of in-house AI chips.

“AWS will become Anthropic’s primary cloud provider for mission-critical workloads, including safety research and future foundation model development. Anthropic plans to run the majority of its workloads on AWS, further providing Anthropic with the advanced technology of the world’s leading cloud provider.”

In addition, Anthropic has committed to making its AI models available to AWS users long-term, providing them with early access to features, including the ability to customize Anthropic models for their own purposes.

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“With today’s announcement, customers will have early access to features for customizing Anthropic models, using their own proprietary data to create their own private models, and will be able to utilize fine-tuning capabilities via a self-service feature.”

Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers already have access to Anthropic’s AI models through Amazon Bedrock, the tech giant’s storefront for AI goods. Bedrock not only supports Amazon’s own models but also those from third-party developers such as  Stability AI and AI21 Labs.

In a press release, the co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, said that his company is “excited to use AWS’s Trainium chips to develop future foundation models.”

“Since announcing our support of Amazon Bedrock in April, Claude has seen significant organic adoption from AWS customers. By significantly expanding our partnership, we can unlock new possibilities for organizations of all sizes as they deploy Anthropic’s safe, state-of-the-art AI systems together with AWS’s leading cloud technology.”

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Anthropic stated that Amazon’s minority stake would not alter the company’s corporate governance structure or its dedication to the ethical advancement of artificial intelligence.

“Our corporate governance structure remains unchanged, with the Long Term Benefit Trust continuing to guide Anthropic in accordance with our Responsible Scaling Policy. As outlined in this policy, we will conduct pre-deployment tests of new models to help us manage the risks of increasingly capable AI systems.”

Several cloud market leaders, like Microsoft and now Amazon, have made investments into artificial intelligence technology. OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, received $1 billion from Microsoft in 2019. Microsoft recently also invested $10 billion in OpenAI and is striving to integrate OpenAI’s technology into consumer-facing Microsoft products such as Bing.

This deal is Amazon’s most recent push into the artificial intelligence space to compete with industry leaders like Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google.

Elon Musk’s New Biography Details ‘Feud’ With Bill Gates

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A long-winded feud between billionaires Elon Musk and Bill Gates has been detailed in a new biography by Walter Isaacson titled “Elon Musk.”

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Elon Musk Says X ‘May Fail’ 

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Elon Musk said in a post on X, formally known as Twitter, that the social media may fail after a glitch caused pictures posted before December 2014 to be deleted.

“The sad truth is that there are no great ‘social networks’ right now. We may fail, as so many have predicted, but we will try our best to make there be at least one.”

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Over the weekend, a glitch on the platform caused all pictures and links on posts for pictures and videos to be removed if they were posted before December 2014. 

The posts made before December 2014 showed broken links instead of the pictures and videos that were previously there. 

Many users noticed the glitch almost immediately after. Technologist Tom Coates referred to the glitch as an “epic vandalism by Musk,” suggesting that it could’ve been a cost-saving exercise. 

One of the biggest tweets that suffered from the glitch was the famous Oscar selfie from 2014 posted by Ellen DeGeneres. The picture became the platform’s most retweeted photo, with more than 2 million shares on the social network. 

Some X users are speculating that the glitch was caused by an effort to save money on storage data, while others have said the 2016 changes where “enhanced URL enrichment” was implemented, could’ve attributed, as the change was meant to show previews for linked websites and attachments beyond the company’s previous 140 character limit, according to The Verge. 

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This particular malfunction also came after reports last week that suggested access from X to other social networks had been slowed down. The 5-second delay that users reported also appeared on links to news sites. 

Earlier this year, X users also experienced a daily limit on the amount of tweets they could see in a day while direct messages temporarily stopped working. The company has since apologized for this “glitch” and others that left users locked out of their accounts. 

Since Musk took over the platform, thousands of jobs have been cut, massively reducing the workforce since November. 

Musk’s initial plans for the platform were to cut down on costs, however, he reported a 50% drop in advertising revenue last month, as well as heavy debt. 

Currently, X faces annual interest payments of $1.5 billion due to the debt it took on when Musk acquired the platform for $44 billion.

inflation

Wholesale Inflation In The US Rose More Than Expected In July 

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According to reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US wholesale inflation rose more than it was expected to throughout the month of July, reversing the yearlong trend of cooling. 

According to consensus estimates on Refinitiv, the Producer Price Index (PPI), which tracks the average change in prices that businesses pay to their suppliers, rose by 0.8% annually, which is above June’s increase of just 0.2%. The expected rise was 0.7%. 

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“Services and demand for services were the primary culprits behind the lift higher for producer prices. Services prices rose 0.5% from June, the highest monthly increase since March 2022 for the category,” said Kurt Rankin, senior economist for PNC Financial Services.

“The inflation story now, be it for producers or consumers, is demand. Mainly that’s consumers still spending money on services. The food index, which had declined for three straight months, rose 0.5% in July, suggesting a 6.3% annualized pace of inflation,” he told CNN.

“Consumers continue to go out and spend money, and as long as consumers are spending money, that’s going to create demand from producers, so that’s going to drive up their costs for their raw materials, for their transportation needs, etc. and they’re going to pass those prices on to consumers,” he added.

“The numbers over the past six months have been much more encouraging, but it’s a reminder that the Federal Reserve has an eye toward the possibility of inflation flaring up again,” he said.

The Consumer Price Index showed that prices rose by 3.2% annually in July, which is below the 3.2% increase that economists were expecting. 

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“Similar base effects played their role in the headline PPI increase as well. The tick upward to 0.8% doesn’t tell the whole story, because the index decreased in five of the previous seven months. 

Annualizing the 0.3% monthly gain, however, would put the PPI rate at about 3.6% and core at 3.8%. So the July number does suggest that there’s still some producer cost pressures,” said Rankin.

“The underlying trends show that PPI inflation is reverting to its pre-pandemic run rate, though progress is likely to be slower in [the second half of 2023] than [the first half]. While this data will comfort Fed officials, policymakers will likely maintain a hawkish tone and keep a close eye on whether last month’s jump in services prices persists in the months ahead,” Oxford Economics economists Matthew Martin and Oren Klachkin wrote.

Ranking said “We’re seeing energy prices, oil prices, rising over the past few weeks. Any flareup in oil prices goes straight through to not only manufacturing costs, but transportation of goods to market, even transportation of food to restaurants. So even services, leisure and hospitality get hit when energy prices spike, so that possibility is always there.”

“So the fact that energy prices were not a contributor to this month’s reading makes this number jumping a bit a stark reminder that the Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation and their rhetoric regarding that fight is going to remain hawkish in the near term.”

twitter

Police Halt Elon Musk’s Attempt to Remove Twitter Sign From HQ After Rebranding

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Elon Musk’s efforts to rebrand Twitter as X are not going as smoothly as planned. While workers were trying to remove the company’s old name and famed bird logo from the front face of its headquarters, police intervened.

The local police department stopped the impromptu renovation Monday afternoon, citing the act as “unauthorized work.” The authorities say the social media company failed to notify the building’s owner and security about its intention to remove the sign from its San Francisco headquarters.

After the incident, a representative for the police department shared with The Associated Press in an email that no crime had been committed. The police were trying to ascertain if Twitter had a permit to close Market Street and block a lane of traffic.

“Officers assigned to Tenderloin Station responded to the area of 10th and Market streets regarding a report of a possible unpermitted street closure. Through their investigation, officers were able to determine that no crime was committed and this incident was not a police matter.”

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By the time the work had been interrupted, only the old Twitter logo and the letters “er” remained. On Sunday, Musk had tweeted, “And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and gradually, all the birds.” Later that day, he shared on the platform that the bird logo would be replaced with the letter X.

“X.com now points to https://twitter.com/. Interim X logo goes live later today.”

However, users like NYTimes Tech Reporter @Rmac18 tweeted, the hyperlink redirected many users to a GoDaddy landing page.

“Despite this, X dot com is still redirecting some people (including myself) to a GoDaddy site with ads for sectional sofas.”

The New York Times reported that Musk renamed conference rooms in the building, incorporating the letter X. Some titles seen in photos include “s3Xy,” “eXposure,” and “eXult.” The letter X was also projected into the cafeteria.

Musk has made a number of controversial changes to the site since he purchased the social media platform for $44 billion last year, the most recent being the name change to X. Many of these amendments to the platform, with its lax moderation policies, have driven advertisers off the website.

He has also been accused of not holding up his alleged “free-speech absolutist” philosophy. Aside from his supporters, users claim that the new paid Twitter Blue subscription directly puts a price on speech, amplifying his supporters while dampening the reach of his opponents or those who cannot afford it.

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Users with left-wing views and progressive activists are seeing their accounts suspended with no explanation. He was recently accused of removing the community-based fact-check under one of his tweets inciting vaccine hesitancy.

Earlier this month, Musk told CNN that the company was struggling with its finances, citing a 50% drop in advertising revenue and a negative cash flow.

In a tweet about the rebranding, Twitter’s new chief executive Linda Yaccarino praised taking the platform in a new direction.

“It’s an exceptionally rare thing – in life or in business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression. Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.”

However, analysts say that this move could end up costing Twitter. Mike Proulx, research director and vice president at Forrester, said in a blog post that given the drop in revenue and negative cash flow, ditching the Twitter name will damage the platform further.

“This is far from a position of strength from which to attempt what is essentially an app relaunch — a move that will only alienate more users and more advertisers. While Musk’s vision is to turn “X” into an “everything app,” this takes time, money, and people — three things that the company no longer has. Disenfranchised Twitter users will increasingly turn to Threads while Musk’s company continues to lose money. Simply put, X’s runway is coming to an end.”

Teamsters President Gearing Up For Potential UPS Strike

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Sean O’Brien, the president of the Teamsters Union, is gearing up for what could be the biggest, and costliest, strike from a single private employer in US history for UPS; the single largest employer within the Teamsters Union.

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threads

Threads Reaches 100 Million Sign-Ups As Twitter’s Traffic Falls

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In just five days, 100 million users have signed up for Twitter’s rival app, Threads. Meanwhile, Twitter’s user traffic has dropped as the platform continues to battle outages and controversies over its lax moderation policies.

The new platform’s rapid expansion has already outpaced that of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s viral chatbot, which had reached 10 million users in 40 days.

Due to Europe’s intricate regulatory systems, the app has not yet been released there. If it does launch there, it can potentially pose a serious threat to Twitter, which has 238 million daily active users.

Threads’s success can largely be traced to its integration with Meta’s Instagram service. New users can sign up using their already established Instagram handle.

In a post on the platform, Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, shared his excitement for the speed of the app’s growth.

“Threads reached 100 million sign-ups over the weekend. That’s mostly organic demand and we haven’t even turned on many promotions yet. Can’t believe it’s only been 5 days!”

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Similarweb, a data company specializing in web analytics, found that in the first two full days Threads was generally available, web traffic to Twitter was down 5 percent compared to the previous week. According to the company, Twitter has seen an 11% drop in website traffic compared to the same period in 2022.

A letter from Elon Musk’s longtime attorney Alex Spiro to Meta alleging “unlawful misappropriation” of trade secrets shows that Musk, Twitter’s owner, is already concerned about Threads.

The letter accuses Threads of hiring former Twitter employees to build a “copycat” platform using confidential information. In a tweet, Elon Musk acknowledged the letter, stating, “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”

Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a Threads post that Meta’s purpose is not to replace Twitter but rather “to create a public square for communities on Instagram that never really embraced Twitter.”

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“The goal isn’t to replace Twitter. The goal is to create a public square for communities on Instagram that never really embraced Twitter and for communities on Twitter (and other platforms) that are interested in a less angry place for conversations, but not all of Twitter. Politics and hard news are inevitably going to show up on Threads – they have on Instagram as well to some extent – but we’re not going to do anything to encourage those verticals.”

Messages posted on Threads will have a 500-character limit. Like on Twitter, users can reply to, repost and quote other user posts. The app has a similar aesthetic to Instagram and also allows users to share posts from Threads directly to their Instagram stories.

Accounts can be public or private, and verification on Instagram carries over to Threads. Mark Zuckerberg also called the app a “public space” in a Threads post after its launch.

“The vision for Threads is to create an option and friendly public space for conversation. We hope to take what Instagram does best and create a new experience around text, ideas, and discussing what’s on your mind.”

Central Bankers Around The World Claim The Fight Against Inflation Will Continue To Get Worse

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Central bankers from all over the world are claiming that the fight against high inflation rates will only continue to get more “serious and painful” if certain rates remain how they are currently.

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JPMorgan Reaches $290 Million Settlement For Jeffrey Epstein Victims 

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JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay $290 million in settlement money for a class-action lawsuit from Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse victims. The victims had accused the company of enabling sex trafficking from Epstein when he was a client, according to one of the victims’ attorneys David Boies. 

In a joint statement from JPMorgan and the attorneys for the victims, they stated that they “have informed the court that they have reached an agreement in principle to settle the putative class action lawsuit related to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.” 

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Boies told CNN that “the agreement is subject to court approval. Under terms of the settlement, JPMorgan Chase will not admit liability in the case, but upon the settlement’s approval the bank will put out a statement regretting its association with Epstein.”

“The settlement is in the best interests of all parties, especially the survivors who were the victims of Epstein’s terrible abuse,” according to the joint statement.

“It’s hard to say how many victims will ultimately benefit from the settlement funds, but more than 100 women are expected to seek compensation. Many women who filed a claim with Epstein’s estate through the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program are likely to be included in the two pending bank settlements,” Boies said.

“Money, which for far too long flowed with impunity between Jeffrey Epstein’s global sex trafficking enterprise and Wall Street’s leading banks, is decisively being used for good. The settlements signal that financial institutions have an important role to play in spotting and shutting down sex trafficking,” said Sigrid McCawley, managing partner at the firm Boies Schiller Flexner. 

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“It has taken a long time, too long, but today is a great day for Jeffrey Epstein survivors, and a great day for justice.”

Federal Judge Jed Rakoff, who is hearing the case, approved a class of eligible victims defined as “all women who were sexually abused or trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein during the time when JP Morgan maintained [accounts] for Epstein and/or Epstein-related entities. That period runs from January 1, 1998, through August 19, 2013, as well as the subsequent period until his death on August 10, 2019.”

There is also ongoing litigation still pending between JPMorgan and the US Virgin Islands, where Epstein’s home was located. Additionally, the bank is continuing to pursue its case against Jes Staley, a former JPMorgan executive who is cited in the lawsuit as someone who’s largely responsible for the bank’s relationship with Epstein for 15 years. 

“The information and support the US Virgin Islands and its legal team provided to the survivors was enormously valuable, and we recognize the importance of the government’s continued litigation against JPMorgan Chase to prevent future crimes,” Brad Edwards, the victims’ attorney, told CNN.

“The US Virgin Islands will continue to proceed with its enforcement action to ensure full accountability for JPMorgan’s violations of law and prevent the bank from assisting and profiting from human trafficking in the future. The attorney general’s office is committed to protecting women and girls who could otherwise become victims going forward,” a spokesperson for the US Virgin Islands’ attorney general said.

pride

LGBTQ+ Activists Want Better From Companies Who Promote Equality During Pride Month

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After Target announced that it would be removing products from their Pride collections and moving the displays in other stores throughout the South, LGBTQ+ activist groups have been calling out large companies and corporations to establish campaigns without caving to anti-LGBTQ+ groups. 

California state senator Scott Wiener, a member of the LGBTQ legislative caucus, stated “we need a strategy on how to deal with corporations that are experiencing enormous pressure to throw LGBTQ people under the bus.” 

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“We need to send a clear message to corporate America that if you’re our ally – if you are truly our ally – you need to be our ally, not just when it’s easy but also when it’s hard.”

Target stated their decision to remove displays were made to ensure their employees safety after multiple protestors knocked over Pride displays and confronted workers in stores. However, activists are stating this isn’t the time to back down from hatred, as the nation is in the midst of multiple battles with the community and its rights. 

This year alone in America, there have been nearly 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced in state legislatures, and at least 18 states have enacted laws that restrict and/or ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth. 

“We are forced to think differently about how we handle security at our events and whether or not we can post our staff’s names and emails on our website,” said Janson Wu, executive director of LGBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders.

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Bud Light has made headlines as well recently after their partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who posted a picture of a Bud Light can with her face on it, which led to a lot of hateful transphobic backlash. 

Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light’s parent company, stated it “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people,” signaling no clear support of Mulvaney or the LGBTQ+ community. Several gay bars in Chicago specifically responded by refusing to sell Anheuser-Busch products since they went back on their pride campaign. 

“Since Anheuser-Busch does not support us, we will not support it,” said the company.

The largest gay bar in the Midwest, Sidetrack, also made a statement regarding Anheuser-Busch “wrongfully validating the position that it is acceptable to acquiesce to the demands of those who do not support the trans community and wish to erase LGBTQ+ visibility.”

“Now’s not the time to back down. I think both business and us as citizens need to look within ourselves into new strategies. The old models aren’t necessarily working,” said Brian K. Bond, executive director of PFLAG, an organization advocating for LGBTQ+ people and their families.