Author: InfoForTech

OpenAI CTO of Applications Vijaye Raji, left, and GeekWire’s Todd Bishop on stage at the GeekWire AI summit, Agents of Transformation, in Seattle on March 24. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) This week on the GeekWire Podcast: Fresh off the big GeekWire AI summit, we unpack what they heard from Microsoft EVP Charles Lamanna, OpenAI applications CTO Vijaye Raji, and other speakers at the Agents of Transformation event in Seattle, presented by Accenture. The big thread: the economics of AI, from token budgets becoming a hiring negotiation point to startups running on subsidized credits that may not last. Plus, a…

The geopolitical dislocations ripping through the stock market are filtering down to information technology budgets in the form of increased uncertainty. It seems that every quarter of budget optimism is followed with some external event that causes organizations to tighten their belts. Specifically, we’ve seen the increased momentum from January’s chief information officer sentiment survey on spending, pull back from 4.6% growth to 3.6%. War, oil prices, the threat of inflation and even the prospect of Fed tightening now loom larger. Although big tech continues massive capital expenditures – and the genuine enthusiasm from this month’s Nvidia GTC and RSAC…

Big changes are happening at OpenAI. On Wednesday, the company announced that it would be shutting down their AI video creation app Sora only a couple months after its launch. In October, OpenAI completed a massive restructure of its organization that shakes the very foundations it was built on.OpenAI, which powers ChatGPT, among other AI products, was originally founded purely as a nonprofit. Now it has a for-profit arm. According to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the nonprofit will still guide the work of the for-profit side to ensure that artificial intelligence works for the “benefit of all humanity.” On top…

Jury verdicts against Meta and Google just bypassed the Section 230 shield. Is the “addictive design” legal strategy the beginning of the end for Big Tech? For decades, Section 230 has been the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card for Silicon Valley. It was a simple deal: platforms aren’t responsible for what users post. But two recent jury verdicts in California and New Mexico just flipped the script, and the implications are massive. By focusing on “product design” rather than “content,” plaintiffs have finally found a way to pierce the digital armor. In Los Angeles, jurors awarded $6 million to a young woman…

Apple just took an understated step that speaks volumes. No big event. No big announcement. A hiring.Apple hired a Google executive, Lilian Rincon, who previously worked on AI products at the tech giant. This comes after the Cupertino-based tech giant partnered with Google’s Gemini AI to improve its digital assistant, Siri.It does sound a little odd. Apple and Google. Working together? That’s not really Apple’s historical playbook.But, frankly, it kind of makes sense.AI has been a runaway train over the last year. Microsoft, Google, startups, etc., are all moving at a frenetic pace. Apple, not so much. Not “not at…

A new wave of Android flagships is on the horizon, and they’re not playing it safe. The biggest shift is that these phones are going all-in on cameras, while eclipsing the apex Android predators (read: Samsung and Google) in a few other ways, too. Weibo The specifications of the upcoming Vivo X300 Ultra were revealed on Weibo, and the device is confirmed to feature a 200MP periscope telephoto sensor (likely 1/1.4-inch class), paired with a large 1-inch-type primary sensor and an upgraded ultra-wide lens, along with advanced zoom systems and improved color science. That’s pushing smartphone photography closer to dedicated…

A new trailer has given us our best look yet at the upcoming The Ghost in the Shell anime. While it might not tell us all that much about the direction the show will go in plot-wise, it sure is aesthetically pleasing, with a throwback art style that looks a lot more like the original manga than we’ve seen with other adaptations. The series will be released on Prime Video this July.The Ghost in the Shell is being produced by Science Saru. The studio hasn’t revealed much about its story, only noting that it’s based on Masamune Shirow’s manga, so…

Last year, Garmin introduced a Pro version that incorporates the inReach’s satellite communications savvy. Not only does it cost at least $400 more than the Apple Watch Ultra and $200 more than the regular Fenix 8, but you also have to pay for the inReach subscription plan, which has several tiers and ranges from $8/month to $50/month depending on whether you want features like unlimited texting or sending photo messages.What you get for this mind-boggling price is a sports watch that can do anything and everything. It has best-in-class battery life (every Fenix can last for weeks on a single…

The ping or buzz of your phone that lets you know a new message has arrived is hard to ignore. But it can mean trouble when you’re trying to concentrate on a task, according to a new study that will be published in the June issue of the journal Computers in Human Behavior. The study found that whenever we receive a message notification, it interrupts our concentration for 7 seconds. It turns out that the type of information that we see in the notification also matters. The more personally relevant the notification, the larger the distraction.”This interruption likely arises from several…

An Iran-linked hacking group has compromised the personal email account of Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel. The breach came to light today. The hacking group, Handala Hack Team, gained access to photos and documents from the compromised account. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information, and we have taken all necessary steps to mitigate potential risks associated with this activity,” the FBI said in a statement. “The information in question is historical in nature and involves no government information.” The hackers have published some of the photos stolen from Patel’s account. They…