Microsoft is trying out cross-laminated timber (CLT) material for building a new datacenter in Northern Virginia, to help reduce its carbon footprint. Instead of using the usual steel and concrete most commercial buildings are made of, the company decided to incorporate CLT in its latest data centers to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. [Reported:

Tom

Microsoft claims timber-built datacenters can reduce its carbon footprint by up to 65%

Less concrete and steel for more wood.

]

Canvassers for Elon Musk’s America PAC Were Fired and Stranded in Michigan After Speaking Out. A dozen Black canvassers were tricked, threatened, and driven in seatless U-Haul vans. They were fired after WIRED reported on their plight—some without full pay or a way back home. [Reported:

WIRED

Canvassers for Elon Musk’s America PAC Were Fired and Stranded in Michigan After Speaking Out

A dozen Black canvassers were tricked, threatened, and driven in seatless U-Haul vans. They were fired after WIRED reported on their plight—some ...

]

OPEC+ has agreed to delay a planned December oil output increase by one month, the group said on Sunday, as weak demand notably from China and rising supply outside the group maintain downward pressure on the oil market. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/opec-agrees-delay-december-output-hike-one-month-sources-say-2024-11-03/

The Russian Ministry of Digital Development has sprung into action with plans to create its own Linux community. Admitting that the decision was precipitated by the recent expelling of 11 Russian developers involved in the development of the Linux kernel. [Reported:

Tom

Linus Torvalds kicked the Russians out of Linux, now they

Kneejerk announcement or a serious plan, time will tell.

]

Berkshire Hathaway reduced its holdings in the iPhone maker to just under $70 billion, according to its third-quarter earnings report, which was published Saturday Reported:

Business Insider Africa

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has reduced its big stake in Apple by two-thirds in the last year

Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway has cut its stake in Apple — again

The chief of the US Space Force has warned that China is putting military capabilities into space at a “mind-boggling” pace, significantly increasing the risk of warfare in orbit. [Reported:

Ars Technica

US Space Force warns of “mind-boggling” build-up of Chinese capabilities

Russia and China "have developed and demonstrated the ability to conduct war fighting in space."

]

A remote-controlled robot has safely returned with a tiny piece of melted fuel it collected from inside one of three damaged reactors at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant for the first time since the 2011 meltdown. [Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/robot-retrieves-melted-fuel-fukushima-nuclear-reactor-11542253192ea69088e03fbe0bd0fe62c33c769682f7a3d19 ]

U.S. regulators raise questions about siting data centers at power plants. Costs and reliability concerns related to the burgeoning trend of building energy-intensive data centers next to U.S. power plants were the focus of a technical conference held on Friday by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. [reported: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-regulators-mull-issues-around-siting-data-centers-power-plants-2024-11-01/]

Intel will be replaced by Nvidia on the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average index (.DJI), opens new tab after a 25-year run, underscoring the shift in the chipmaking market and marking another setback for the struggling semiconductor firm. Intel worst performer on the Dow this year Nvidia stock rises 2.2% after hours, Intel down 1.6%

Walt Disney is forming a new group to coordinate the company's use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and mixed reality, as the media giant explores applications across its film, television and theme park divisions. https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/walt-disney-forms-business-unit-coordinate-use-ai-augmented-reality-2024-11-01/

OpenAI has just launched its new ChatGPT Search service, which offers a novel way to use the AI chatbot to find relevant information on the web. According to OpenAI, ChatGPT is now significantly more proficient at internet searching, offering "fast, timely" answers to users' questions. [Source:https://www.techspot.com/news/105401-chatgpt-now-has-own-web-search-engine.html]

A new app launches to help keep voters informed for elections. In a very Silicon Valley way, there is an app looking to help with that called MyBallot AI, an interactive mobile platform to help make voting information more accessible. [Source: https://yakihonne.com/notes/nevent1qqsd4lxmwt5whrn8uue3f0ccmr20lm9s6v4un5usdn6wsygwresyjegzyzkk4yym3h7kufu0jjypmq7m6kk4lynqcagzzag9nv5sgtjcn7uncqcyqqqqqqg6zwx6z]

Thousands of people took to the streets in Dublin to attend a Halloween parade that never came, according to reporting by The Independent. Why did they do such a thing? It was all due to an AI-generated ad that promoted the fake event. [Source:

Engadget

An AI-generated ad left thousands of Dubliners waiting for a Halloween parade that never came

Thousands of people took to the streets after being duped by an AI-generated ad for a parade. The My Spirit Halloween website advertised the fake e...

Top Chinese research institutions linked to the People's Liberation Army have used Meta's publicly available Llama model to develop an AI tool for potential military applications, according to three academic papers and analysts. https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/chinese-researchers-develop-ai-model-military-use-back-metas-llama-2024-11-01/

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says he has a secret weapon in the AI wars. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said AWS gives the company a leg up in the AI race. Jassy said AWS has shown that Amazon can handle the logistics for scaling AI. Amazon's Q3 earnings beat expectations, with its stock rising 6% after hours.

Business Insider Africa

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says he has a secret weapon in the AI wars

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on Thursday explained why he thinks the company is well-positioned to excel in AI: Amazon Web Services

Apple snapped out of a recent iPhone sales slump during its summer quarter, an early sign that its recent efforts to revive demand for its marquee product with an infusion of artificial intelligence are paying off. Sales of the iPhone totaled $46.22 billion for the July-September period, a 6% increase from the same time last year, according to Apple’s fiscal fourth-quarter report released Thursday. https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/apples-iphone-sales-bounce-back-recent-slump-amid-115370996502175059b29042e589fb93c

OpenAI on Thursday added a set of new search functions to its popular large language model ChatGPT, opting to integrate the feature into the chatbot instead of launching a separate product. https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/openai-adds-new-search-function-chatgpt-2024-10-31/

Alphabet's Google on Thursday announced a set of features that incorporated Gemini, its artificial intelligence chatbot, into its suite of mapping applications. https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/google-brings-ai-answers-map-applications-2024-10-31/

Toyota Motor and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone plan to invest a total 500 billion yen ($3.27 billion) by 2030 into an infrastructure and software platform using artificial intelligence to reduce traffic accidents. https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/toyota-ntt-invest-33-bln-development-ai-platform-2024-10-31/

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