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JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon speaks at the Boston College Chief Executives Club luncheon in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., November 23, 2021.
Hard Numbers: Jamie Dimon’s promise, The godmother of AI, Some Japanese companies ignore AI, College football doppelgangers
5,000: Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, said that he has about 2,000 employees working on data analytics, machine learning, and AI, and he predicts that number will blossom to 5,000 in the next few years. He also said the company has 400 AI-related projects, which should double to 800 in the next year alone.
1 billion: Computer scientist Fei-Fei Li, known as the “godmother of AI,” founded a startup called World Labs four months ago. It’s already valued at $1 billion. World Labs is a computer vision company, focused on understanding three-dimensional objects in the physical world. The company raised $100 million from Andreessen Horowitz and other venture capital firms in its latest funding round.
40: While nearly a quarter of Japanese companies have adopted AI, more than 40% told Reuters in a survey that they have no plans to do so. Another 35% say that they have plans to adopt the technology in the future. The AI industry is trying to prove itself not only to consumers but also businesses, so corporate adoption is key to its long-term success.
11,000: The college football video game “EA Sports College Football 25” is already a sensation in the US — a long-anticipated follow-up after the game studio ceased its college football title more than a decade ago. In order to build the real on-field players, EA used AI technology to turn 11,000 player headshots into in-game avatars in mere seconds.FILE PHOTO: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris campaigns at Westover High School in Fayetteville, North Carolina, U.S., July 18, 2024.
Hard Numbers: The Kamala Harris Edition
38: A FiveThirtyEight analysis of nationwide polls earlier this month found Kamala Harris had a 38% chance of winning the electoral college in November, slightly higher than Joe Biden’s 35%. In either scenario, Trump is still the heavy favorite, but there is a lot of campaigning to do before November.
95.9 million: The $95.9 million war chest the Biden campaign pulled together before his dropping out will now be the center of attention as the unprecedented decision to leave the top of the ticket this late in the game puts the funds in question. Legally speaking, it will be easiest for Kamala Harris to take control of the pot, another measure in her favor.
60: Kamala Harris turns 60 in October, which would make her the average age of presidents should she win. Donald Trump, on the other hand, at 78 years and 8 months, would become the oldest president ever inaugurated.
106: There are exactly 106 days left before the US general election on Nov. 5, and Kamala Harris will need every second to rally the party around her and fight for her shot at the Oval Office. Stay tuned to GZERO for the whole ride.Intuit logo displayed on a phone screen and a laptop keyboard are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on October 30, 2021.
Hard Numbers: Intuit’s mass layoff, Very expensive flip phone, AMD’s Finnish acquisition, Taiwan’s millionaire class
1,800: Intuit, the company behind popular financial software Quickbooks and Turbotax, announced a mass layoff of 1,800 employees — about 10% of the company — with plans to rehire the same number with a renewed focus on AI. The firm has an AI-powered financial advice tool, called Intuit Assist, in which it plans to invest heavily. That new investment might be necessary: A recent Washington Post review of Intuit’s AI assistant called it “awful” — not only “unhelpful” but also “wrong” much of the time.
1,899: Samsung has a new line of AI-powered foldable phones — and they’re extremely expensive. The Galaxy Z Fold starts at $1,899.99, a $100 increase from last year’s model. This nouveau flip phone boasts AI tools such as voice recording transcription, translation, and summarizing and text suggestions across email and social media apps. AI isn’t exactly a new thing on mobile phones, of course — so hopefully for this price, these new features make Siri look like a bot of the past.
665 million: The chip designer AMD is buying a Finnish startup called Silo AI for $665 million. Silo bills itself as “Europe’s largest private AI lab.” This deal will get AMD into the AI development business — an expansion from its hardware focus — as it tries to compete with industry leader Nvidia.
1.16 million: There are plenty of new millionaires in Taiwan, thanks to AI. Taiwan is a global hub for the semiconductor industry, which has boomed in recent years due to demand for AI. TSMC, its leading firm, is a key global fabricator for computer chips of all kinds. Taiwan’s total number of US dollar millionaires was 790,000 last year and could grow to 1.16 million by 2028, according to a new estimate by UBS.Chinese pilots deplane from a JH-7 fighter-bomber in preparation for the 9th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, known as Airshow China 2012, in Zhuhai city, south Chinas Guangdong province, 10 November 2012.
Hard Numbers: China rattles the saber, Egypt’s inflation falls, Japan props up yen, Spain wins Euros
30: Taiwan’s defense ministry recorded 30 Chinese combat jets and seven warships in the skies and waters around the islandon Saturday and said it was monitoring “waves” of missile tests in Inner Mongolia province. These are the third large-scale maneuvers around Taiwan this week.
27.5: Inflation rates in Egypt have dropped for the fourth straight month to 27.5%, down from an agonizing 38% peak in September. However, economists warn that fuel, medicine, fertilizer, and naturalgas markets remain volatile, and Egypt’s most needy families are smarting from a 300% increase in the price of subsidized bread.
22 billion: A Bloomberg analysis of the Bank of Japan’s accounts found it had likely spent approximately $22 billion propping up the anemic yen, which has lost 11% of its value this year, on Thursday. This would mark the third time the central bank has directly intervened in the currency market — an expensive practice, but Tokyo has few other options while the difference between US and Japanese interest rates remains so vast.
2-1: Spain beat England 2-1 in a thrilling final of the Euro 2024 championship on Sunday, marking their fourth time bringing home the cup. England, the country that invented modern football, has never won. In Miami, Argentina won the Copa America 1-0 against Colombia, but the event was marred by botched security that saw scenes of panic as unticketed fans rushed and overwhelmed barriers.Burkina Faso's junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore attends the first ordinary summit of heads of state and governments of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) in Niamey, Niger July 6, 2024.
Hard Numbers: Coup bloc, Gaza school bombed, Ukraine in the dark, Tesla in China, Six days in Greece
3: Junta leaders from Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso announced Saturday they would form their own international bloc and “irrevocably” turn away from ECOWAS, just ahead of the latter’s summit on Sunday. Burkina Faso’s President Ibrahim Traoré claimed the new alliance would stand up to Western influence in Africa, saying “These imperialists have only one cliché in mind: ‘Africa is the empire of slaves’.”
16: An Israeli attack on a UNRWA school in Gaza killed at least 16 people and wounded 50 on Saturday, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. UNRWA officials said at least 500 people have now been killed while sheltering in its facilities in Gaza, but Israel claims Hamas often uses the facilities as operating bases, essentially positioning civilians as human shields.
100,000: Russian airstrikes on power infrastructure in northern Ukraine left over 100,000 households in the dark on Saturday night. Targeting energy plants and transmission equipment has become a key strategy for Russia in its attempts to damage civilian morale in Ukraine, and the country’s energy utility says it has lost nine gigawatts of power capacity over the last three months — enough to power the entire Netherlands.
947,000: Tesla has officially been added to a list of approved government vehicle purchases in the Chinese province of Jiangsu, the only foreign-owned EV manufacturer on the list. However, the company manufactured over 947,000 cars at its Shanghai factory last year, most of which were sold in China.
6: Greece is experimenting with a six-day workweek, which allows firms that operate 24 hours a day to schedule employees to work up to eight hours at 40% overtime on the sixth day after a regular 40-hour workweek. They also have the option to spread 40 hours across six 6.5-hour work days. Workers are critical of the new rules, which seem to run against positive experiences some countries have had with four-day workweeks.Hard Numbers: Professor ChatGPT, SoftBank’s search engine play, Nokia goes shopping, Voice actors are worried
10: Generative AI is sweeping academic research. According to one estimate, about 10% of all academic articles published this year will contain some artificial intelligence-generated text. That’s about 150,000 papers per year.
3 billion: The AI startup Perplexity is getting a cash infusion. The Japanese investment company SoftBank is investing $10-20 million based on a $3 billion valuation. The company, which styles its product as a search engine, has recently come under fire for allegations of ripping off news articles without permission.
2.3 billion: Finnish telecommunications company Nokia has bought into the AI race with a $2.3 billion purchase of California-based Infinera, whose technology helps power data centers crucial for running and training AI applications.
5,000: The Australian Association of Voice Actors told a parliamentary committee that AI could put more than 5,000 voice actors in the country out of work. The group called for fair rules and protections for its members. In the US, voice actors have already sued AI firms for improperly using their voices.Hurricane Beryl makes its way to the Caribbean's Windward Islands, in a composite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) GOES-East weather satellite June 30, 2024.
Hard Numbers: Beryl barrels toward land, Deadly bombings hit Nigeria, Incumbent leads in Mauritania, India beats South Africa at cricket
1st: Hurricane season’s first big storm has a name: Beryl. Strengthening into a Category 4 storm on Sunday, Beryl is rolling into the Caribbean with 130-mph winds and is expected to reach the Windward Islands in the West Indies early Monday.
18: Suicide bombings have killed at least 18, and possibly as many as 30, people in northeastern Nigeria. No group has claimed responsibility yet, but police say that female bombers struck a wedding and a funeral in Gwoza, in Borno State on Saturday. The region is home to Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency, which has displaced more than two million people, and Islamic State West Africa Province has carried out similar bombings in Borno state.
55: The West African nation of Mauritania also went to the polls on Saturday, and by Sunday, President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani had was leading with 56% of the vote, according to results from more than 90% of polling stations. His closest rival had garnered just 23% of the vote, so the pro-Western Ghazouani – whose election in 2019 was the country’s first peaceful transition of power since independence in 1960 – looks set for another five-year term.
13: Indian cricket fans are celebrating after the country’s triumph Saturday in the Cricket World Cup, where it beat South Africa by seven runs to end a 13-year dry spell, in a dramatic display of bowling and fielding. This was India’s second T20 World Cup win – the last time it won was in 2007 – and its first international cricket win since clinching the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup.French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during the Global Forum on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity (GFAIH) at the Institut de France in Paris, France October 30, 2019.
Hard Numbers: France forges ahead, Crushing consulting, Say hi to my AI avatar, OpenAI’s big buy, Stability finds some cash
21 billion: Accenture’s generative AI business is booming. The consulting firm’s practice, which helps companies use AI technology to become more efficient, now has $21 billion worth of contracts, up from $17 billion this time last year. It’s a business that’s booming as companies try to cut their costs.
500 million: An AI video startup called HeyGen raised a new funding round, valuing it at $500 million. The company offers AI avatars and voice-cloning services, giving people a photorealistic online version of themselves for virtual meetings, marketing, or whatever they can dream up. And it can translate their speech into various languages. Should we test it out for a future edition? Email us here if you like the idea.
105 million: OpenAI bought a search and analytics startup called Rockset for $105 million, the biggest purchase to date for the ChatGPT maker. Rockset is an enterprise-focused company and, as such, OpenAI said it wants to use its software to improve its data offerings for business customers.
80 million: Stability AI, the beleaguered company behind the popular image generator Stable Diffusion, has secured an $80 million recapitalization with existing investors, which they hope will help set the company back on stable footing.