Author: Editor

When Rishub Jain worked on safety at Google DeepMind, he held one of the most coveted jobs in tech. He was among a small group of researchers working to mitigate the most consequential risks of AI.But he left to cofound a nonprofit, Sampura Research. Jain traded the prestige and access that come with a Google job because he feels he can have a sharper, more profound impact on AI safety from the outside. Jain says he wants the autonomy to pursue research on a specific issue in AI alignment, which he felt had been deprioritized.”All the top AI companies do…

Six days a week, Kengo Ohama is up before the sun. He takes 5 minutes to get ready, and is soon out the door for an hourlong motorbike ride to the neighboring town of Mihara in Hiroshima, Japan.By 6 a.m., he pulls up outside a log-cabin-style building, home to Country Road, the café and roastery that he’s been managing with his wife since April. Kengo Ohama took over Countryroad, a café in Hiroshima, Japan, early this year.  Provided by Kengo Ohama. He cleans the space, makes pastries, roasts coffee beans, and serves guests throughout the day. After the last table…

Knowing how to use AI is only enough to get a foot in the door for interviews, according to a Box executive.Rand Wacker, Box’s vice president of product strategy, said that for candidates applying for a job at Box, AI literacy is a bare-minimum requirement. Having a fully developed side hustle or project — something he practices himself — is what gives potential hires a leg up in interviews.Case studies, which he said used to be a staple in Box interviews, are now a relic of the past. Now, he expects candidates to be prototyping out their ideas.What he really likes…

Last summer, I left my life in Connecticut behind and moved to Montreal on a whim, without a plan.People told me I was brave.Really? I’m a travel journalist. I’ve followed a snow leopard expert across Nepal; I’ve lived with a family in Uzbekistan who didn’t speak English; and I’ve had a private encounter with the King of Bhutan. Montreal is only a 6-hour drive from my hometown in Connecticut. It didn’t seem brave to me. It seemed, frankly, safe.Yet moving here at 42 gave me a panic attack. I hadn’t been to Canada in more than 12 years and barely…

Meta says some of its biggest cash incinerators could finally start turning profits.The social media giant, which generated over 97% of its quarterly revenue from ads, has faced persistent questions from investors about the lack of profitability in its AI and hardware initiatives.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed those concerns head-on during its third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.Zuckerberg said that Muse, the AI assistant it launched last month, is unprofitable since it’s “very compute intensive to run.” Meta expects to start turning that around next year by massively improving Muse’s efficiency.”If compute efficiency continues improving quickly for another few years, which we think is…

Walmart wants your bot to shop.The retail giant said Wednesday that it has two new tools to help third-party AI agents shop on customers’ behalf: agent profiles and an agent gateway.The agent profiles link all transactions to the bot that performed them, and allow Walmart customers to manage authorizations and spending limits as they would for an additional user on their credit card account, the company said.With agent gateways, bots no longer have to navigate a website that is designed for humans. Instead, Walmart is granting access through a model text protocol that it says will help agents work more…

David Tykocinski thinks the artificial intelligence cycle is entering a phase that will boost the fortunes of one of the oldest chipmakers.The co-chief investment officer of $16 billion hedge fund Maverick Capital pitched Intel as an investment at the Robin Hood investor conference, according to people present at the closed-door event.His prediction for the company: It’s the next trillion-dollar semiconductor manufacturer.His rationale is that the explosion of AI agent usage in recent months will be a boon for companies like Intel and AMD, similar to how the initial model-testing phase of the AI cycle fueled Nvidia’s rapid growth.Compared to text…

Student-loan borrowers pursuing a major forgiveness program got a rare legal win.On Wednesday, the Trump administration agreed to drop two of its appeals of a June ruling that had blocked its plan to narrow eligibility for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which forgives student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years.The Education Department intended to implement a plan on July 1 to exclude employers from PSLF who did not align with the administration’s definition of “public service,” listing actions like assisting with gender-affirming care or ‘acts of terrorism.A judge ruled at the end of June that the…

Southwest Airlines became the third major U.S. airline this month to cut its 2026 profit forecast due to higher fuel prices, but CEO Bob Jordan said travelers continue to book despite higher fares.The carrier expects to earn between $2.60 and $2.85 a share on an adjusted basis this year, down from its forecast in July of between $3.25 to as much as $4.25 a share.Here’s what Southwest reported for third quarter compared with Wall Street expectations, according to consensus estimates from LSEG:Earnings per share: 66 cents adjusted vs. 58 cents expectedRevenue: $8.42 billion adjusted vs. $8.25 billion expectedSouthwest forecast per-share adjusted earnings of…

The Netflix logo is seen at the Egyptian Theatre ahead of the premiere for Netflix’s “Running Point,” Season 2, in Hollywood on April 15, 2026. Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty ImagesNetflix is making itself clear: It’s a streaming-first business.During the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, co-CEO Ted Sarandos reiterated the streaming giant’s long-held stance that its content, which it spent $20 billion on last year, is meant for its subscribers and, therefore, should be delivered to customers on its streaming platform as quickly as possible.Yet, the company is set to have 30 theatrical releases in 2027, on…