Nvidia earnings clear lofty hurdle set by analysts amid fears about an AI bubble

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Nvidia’s sales of the computing chips powering the artificial intelligence craze surged beyond the lofty bar set by stock market analysts in a performance that may ease recent jitters about a Big Tech boom turning into a bust that topples the world’s most valuable company. The results announced late Wednesday provided a pulse check on the frenzied spending on AI technology that has been fueling both the stock market and much of the overall economy since OpenAI released its ChatGPT three years ago. Nvidia has been by far the biggest beneficiary of the run-up because its processors have become indispensable part of AI technology. The company's stock price rose more than 5% after the quarterly numbers came out.

Meta's chief AI scientist Yann LeCun to leave Meta and start new AI research company

Yann LeCun, a pioneer in artificial intelligence, has announced he will leave his role as Meta's chief AI scientist at the end of the year. He plans to start a new company focused on advanced AI research. This research aims to develop AI that can understand the physical world, have memory, reason, and plan complex actions. Meta will partner with the new startup, with some research overlapping with its commercial interests. LeCun joined Facebook in 2013 and co-founded Meta’s AI research division. He also teaches part-time at New York University and won the Turing Award in 2019.

Trump's economy depends on AI for growth, a reality made clear in Saudi crown prince's US visit

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is counting on the tech sector and artificial intelligence to drive his economic agenda. This week, he hosted Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has pledged to invest $1 trillion with U.S. companies. The crown prince is focused on using Saudi Arabia's energy resources to turn it into an AI data hub. But there are growing political risks for Trump if the AI buildout further pushes up utility prices for American consumers or if the jobs he promises in the sector fail to materialize.

Nvidia's earnings attest to its leadership in the AI race. By the numbers

Nvidia reported more eye-catching numbers for its fiscal third quarter Wednesday, with net income jumping 65% and revenue increasing 62% from a year earlier. Nvidia last month became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023. A look at some of the numbers behind the company's rise.

Meta prevails in historic FTC antitrust case, won't have to break off WhatsApp, Instagram

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Meta has prevailed over an existential challenge to its business that could have forced the tech giant to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp after a judge ruled that the company does not hold a monopoly in social networking. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued his ruling Tuesday after the historic antitrust trial wrapped up in late May. His decision follows two separate rulings that branded Google an illegal monopoly in both search and online advertising, dealing yet another regulatory blow to the tech industry that for years enjoyed nearly unbridled growth.

Cloudflare resolves outage that impacted thousands, ChatGPT, X and more

A widely used Internet infrastructure company said that it has resolved an issue that led to outages impacting users of everything from ChatGPT and the online game, “League of Legends,” to the New Jersey Transit system early Tuesday. Around 10 a.m. ET, Cloudflare said it was “continuing to monitor for errors to ensure all services are back to normal.” Others platforms that experienced outages Tuesday included the social media site X, Shopify, Dropbox, Coinbase, and the Moody’s credit ratings service. Moody’s website displayed an Error Code 500 and instructed individuals to visit Cloudflare’s website for more information.

Meta alerts young Australians to download their data before a social media ban

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Meta has started notifying young Australians to download their digital histories and delete their accounts from Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. This comes ahead of a new law banning social media for those under 16. The Australian government announced that platforms including Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube must comply with age resrictions by Dec. 10. Meta on Thursday became the first to outline its compliance plan, contacting young users via SMS and email. The messages warn that access will be denied from Dec. 4. Users mistakenly flagged can verify their age through Yoti Age Verification, which uses selfies to estimate a person's age for online and in-person services. Failure to comply could result in hefty fines for the platforms.

New sanctions target Russian web hosting service over suspected ransomware operations

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States, Britain and Australia have announced sanctions against a Russia-based web hosting service for allegedly running ransomware operations. Officials say Media Land is among the companies that sell access to servers and other computer infrastructure and enable such criminal activity. The Treasury Department says Media Land was penalized along with three members of its leadership team and three affiliated business in an operation coordinated with the FBI. Ransomware can severely disrupt local governments, court systems, hospitals and schools as well as businesses. Most gangs are based in former Soviet states and are out of the reach of Western courts.

What does 'agentic' AI mean? Tech's newest buzzword is a mix of marketing fluff and real promise

For technology adopters looking for the next big thing, “agentic AI” is the future. At least, that’s what the marketing pitches and tech industry T-shirts say. What makes an artificial intelligence product “agentic” depends on who’s selling it. But the promise is usually that it’s something beyond generative AI chatbots that answer questions, retrieve and summarize information, write papers and generate images, music, code and video. Chatbots, however useful, are all talk and no action. AI agents, by contrast, are supposed to be all about taking actions, on their own, on a person’s behalf.

Google unveils Gemini's next generation, aiming to turn its search engine into a 'thought partner'

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is unleashing Gemini’s next generation of artificial intelligence in its dominant search engine and other popular online services in the high-stakes battle to create technology that people can trust to enlighten them and manage tedious tasks. The Gemini 3 model unveiled Tuesday comes nearly two years after Google took the wraps off the first iteration of the technology in response to a competitive threat posed by OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Google’s latest AI features initially will be rolled out to Gemini Pro and Ultra subscribers in the U.S. before coming to a wider audience around the world.