Shares of Facebook parent Meta rose in after-hours trading Wednesday, after the company beat Wall Street’s second-quarter expectations on revenue, earnings and user growth, Axios reports.
Meta shares are now up more than 160 percent for the year—in large part, CNBC notes, because of its rebound in advertising revenues. Meta, like rival Snap, was hit hard by Apple’s iOS privacy change in late 2021 and the broader economic tumult last year. But unlike Snap, whose outlook disappointed investors, Meta issued rosy guidance for the third quarter.
Other tech titans also posted strong second-quarter results, AP reports. Google parent Alphabet reported profits rose 15 percent, also fueled by an ad rebound, and Microsoft logged a 20 percent spike in quarterly profits.
Wikipedia, which marked its 22nd anniversary in January, consistently ranks among the world’s 10 most-visited websites. The online encyclopedia also is probably the most important single source in the training of artificial intelligence models. Now, the New York Times reports, it faces an existential crossroads: Can it help teach AI chatbots to get their facts right—without destroying itself in the process?
President Joe Biden said the U.S. must guard against threats from AI as he detailed new company safeguards and promised additional government actions, Government Technology reports. Executives from Amazon.com, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and Inflection AI—all of which committed to adopting transparency and security measures—joined Biden at the White House for the announcement last Friday.
Bitwise Industries started in Fresno with a grand vision: to uplift marginalized communities through technology education. As it expanded to cities including Buffalo, Bitwise garnered glowing attention—and then everything unraveled. The Washington Post reports the story of how a once-heralded startup went bust.
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“Virtually everything associated with the internet, smartphones, and digital applications was made possible by the American taxpayer, yet the government that created the revolution has failed to meaningfully oversee the results."
—Tom Wheeler, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission