Tech billionaire Elon Musk met with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) at the Capitol on Wednesday to discuss artificial intelligence.
Why it matters: The meeting comes as the New York senator is shopping a proposed framework laying the groundwork for legislation to regulate AI, which was first reported by Axios.
Shares for Facebook parent Meta spiked more than 9% in after-hours trading Wednesday, after the tech giant beat Wall Street expectations on revenue, earnings and user growth for the first quarter of the year.
Why it matters: It's the first quarter that Meta's year-over-year revenue grew after three consecutive quarters of year-over-year quarterly revenue declines.
A group of contractors who work on YouTube Music have voted overwhelmingly to unionize, Alphabet Workers Union said Wednesday, citing votes counted Wednesday by the National Labor Relations Board.
Nintendo’s next big Switch game, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, is exhilarating but dauntingly complex, Axios found after an hour of hands-on time with the massive game at a New York City showcase this week.
Driving the news: Tears of the Kingdom, announced in 2019, is the sprawling sequel to 2017 hit The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The highly anticipated game has been shown in trailers ahead of its May 12 release, but Wednesday is the first day Nintendo is letting people outside of the company talk about how it plays.
PwC US plans to devote $1 billion over the next three years to AI projects for both its clients and its own operations, including upskilling its 65,000 workers.
Why it matters: Companies are grappling with the best way to use AI to improve their businesses.
British antitrust regulators on Wednesday said they'll seek to block Microsoft's $69 billion takeover of video game giant Activision Blizzard, citing how the merger could hinder competition in the emerging cloud gaming market.
Why it matters: This would be the largest gaming merger of all time, but now is being opposed by both U.S. and U.K. regulators, with European Union regulators continuing to investigate.
Several startups working on self-driving trucks — viewed by many as an easier challenge than autonomous passenger cars — have stalled in recent months, leaving only a handful of players aiming to deliver on a huge promise.
Why it matters: Autonomous trucks could help freight companies meet increased demand amid a nationwide driver shortage, while lowering costs, reducing fuel consumption and boosting safety.
But it's not easy to commercialize self-driving 18-wheelers — especially as investment capital dries up amid rising interest rates.
That's left some to wonder whether autonomous trucks will ever arrive.
Microsoft announced better-than-expected quarterly results on Tuesday, with strength in its cloud business offsetting weak demand for new computers.
Why it matters: Microsoft has been riding a wave of enthusiasm over AI, but its business is still heavily tied to corporate and consumer computing trends.
OpenAI is adding new options to ChatGPT for those who want to ensure their data isn't being used to train the company's algorithms.
Why it matters: Privacy is a key concern with AI, and one big early worry in the generative AI boom has been that data users give to AI engines can then be used to train those same engines, potentially exposing sensitive information.
A little-known partnership between the country's military cyber forces and homeland defenders has stymied the impact of two state-linked attacks, senior officials disclosed at the RSA Conference.
Why it matters: With so many cyber-related agencies in the U.S., it's often difficult for anyone outside of the government to understand which office is responsible for what during an attack.
The co-creator of a popular app that turns real-life running into an audio-assisted game has a new one on the way featuring Marvel superheroes. But Six to Start CEO Adrian Hon is also advising caution about the so-called gamification of real-life activities, saying much of it is executed poorly.
Why it matters: The application of points and unlockable badges to leisure and work has become common in recent years, deployed as a motivational tool to keep users engaged.
Most venture capitalists seem to believe that artificial intelligence is the most transformative tech innovation — and investment opportunity — since mobile. Or, in some cases, since the wheel.
The big picture: Their certainty doesn't extend much further.
Before anyone zips high above congested cities in a Joby electric air taxi, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) will be putting the revolutionary aircraft to work moving cargo and people at California's Edwards Air Force Base.
The big picture: The U.S. government is often the first customer for new technologies, such as microprocessors and jet turbine engines. Now the Defense Department is helping to usher in a new era of electric aviation.
Spotify on Tuesday reported double-digit percentage gains for both monthly active users and premium subscribers for the first quarter of 2023. CEO Daniel Ek told Axios in an interview that the blockbuster numbers "even surprised us."
Why it matters: The numbers helped Spotify beat Wall Street expectations on gross profit margins, a key metric that investors are watching closely for signs the Swedish audio giant's operations can become more efficient.
The first large electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft approved for commercial deployment in the U.S. isn't an urban air taxi or a cargo shuttle. It's an aerial crop-spraying machine for farm fields.
Why it matters: Commercial farmers have been moving away from tractor sprayers, which can damage crops, to autonomous aerial systems. But most crop-spraying drones are too small to cover enough acreage.
/2023/04/25/1682437122042.gif?w=3840)
/2023/04/25/1682432277137.gif?w=3840)
