Major news, including events around the U.S. presidential election and the Olympics, have been disrupting consumer spending patterns, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said Thursday afternoon.
Why it matters: Retail experts in January anticipated that politics would have an impact on businesses this year.
Music software startup Suno accused the world's largest record labels of using copyright lawsuits to fend off competition from music written by generative AI, according to a Thursday court filing.
Why it matters: Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Warner Music havealleged that Suno exploits copyrighted sounds and songs without permission to train its AI models to generate new songs.
Intel plans to cut more than 15% of its workforce, the tech giant announced Thursday.
Why it matters: The company faces intense competition in the AI chip wars against companies like Nvidia, which has boomed alongside the demand for generative AI.
The big picture: While her campaign has embraced the platform, the U.S. government is pursuing a lawsuit alleging that TikTok's ties to China represent a national security threat.
Former CNN anchor Don Lemon sued Elon Musk and X Thursday, alleging the tech mogul refused to pay him after the contract for his show for the social media platform was canceled.
Why it matters: A tense interview between Musk and Lemon earlier this year preceded the show's cancellation, sparking further scrutiny of the billionaire's controversial leadership of the platform formerly known as Twitter.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has named Lisa Einstein as its first-ever chief artificial intelligence officer, the agency exclusively shared with Axios.
Why it matters: Creating this new senior-level position underscores just how seriously the country's top cybersecurity officials view both artificial intelligence tools' opportunities and threats.
Retired Gen. Paul Nakasone, the former leader of the National Security Agency and Cyber Command and current OpenAI board member, is joining Ballistic Ventures as a strategic adviser, the firm exclusively shared with Axios.
Why it matters: Cybersecurity startups increasingly need advice not only about business operations, but also about the national security threats their products are designed to fight.
Nvidia stock was in something of a short-term slump on Tuesday, closing the day at $103.73, down 26% from the all-time high set in June. Then Microsoft released its quarterly earnings.
The big picture: Microsoft announced a larger-than-expected $19 billion of capital expenditures in Q2 — that's $300 million per business day — and said "nearly all" of that was spent on building cloud and AI infrastructure.
Artificial intelligence is making its presence felt at the Paris Games, but mostly in a supporting role.
Our thought bubble: While it is tempting to cast this year as "The first AI Olympics," it's more accurate to think of it as the last Games in which the technology remains confined to the sidelines.
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