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Meta AI arrives in the Middle East and Africa with support for Arabic

Meta has formally expanded Meta AI to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), opening the AI-enabled chatbot to millions more people. Back in October, Meta announced it was launching Meta AI in six additional markets, including Brazil and the U.K. At the same time, the company teased gradual rollout plans for additional markets around […]

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What’s the deal with all these airplane crashes?

Investigators examine the wreckage of a Delta Air Lines plane a day after it crashed upon landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Ontario. | Image: AFP via Getty Images

First, let’s lay out the facts.

Four commercial jet crashes have occurred in the last 10 weeks: Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 on Christmas Day; Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 on December 29th; American Airlines Flight 5342 on January 29th; and Delta Connection Flight 4819 on February 17th.

There have been several private airplane crashes in the news recently, too, from the air ambulance crash in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, just before the Super Bowl to the mid-air collision in Scottsdale, Arizona, only last week. In fact, data from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) shows that there have been 13 fatal airplane crashes in the United States alone since the beginning of the year, including both private and commercial aviation. 

That’s just what is happening in the sky. On the ground, things appear just as chaotic.

On the ground, things appear just as chaotic

The Federal Aviation Administration announced that it was laying off around 400 employees starting on Valentine’s Day, just two weeks after the mid-air collision above Ronald Reagan National Airport. In a combative post on X, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said that all laid-off workers were “probati …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple to invest $500 billion in the U.S., hire 20,000

Apple is doubling down its presence in the U.S. with a massive $500 billion investment plan that includes expanding manufacturing, hiring 20,000 people, and strengthening its chip and server production. Announced on Monday, the initiative will roll out over the next […]

The post Apple to invest $500 billion in the U.S., hire 20,000 first appeared on Tech Startups.

Do you have a YouTube Music library?

More specifically, do you curate a music library in the streaming era? For the past few years, I’ve lived entirely in YouTube Music’s Home feed and rarely visit the dedicated Library tab. At this point, it doesn’t feel like I have a music collection anymore.

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Apple commits $500B to US manufacturing, including a new AI server facility in Houston

The U.S. government is leaning hard on tech companies to make more commitments to building their businesses in the country, and Big Tech is falling in line. On Monday, Apple laid out its own plans in that area: it will spend $500 billion over the next four years in areas like high-end manufacturing, engineering, and […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Apple responds to tariff threat with a $500 billion US investment

US President Donald Trump speaks with Tim Cook in 2019.

Apple has announced plans to invest more than $500 billion in the US over the next four years, including hiring 20,000 new employees and launching a new server factory in Texas. The announcement was teased after a meeting last week between CEO Tim Cook and President Donald Trump, and comes as the company tries to mitigate the business impact of Trump’s trade tariffs, with a 10 percent tariff already in effect on goods imported from China, and a 25 percent tariff threatened for chips.

The announcement echoes one Apple made in early 2018, during the first Trump administration. At that point Apple also promised 20,000 new jobs as part of a $350 billion spend in the US, alongside a new campus in Austin which is still under construction. The company successfully appealed for tariff exemptions for some of its products, and a new US investment may be a way to secure further protection from Trump’s new charges. Apple has not confirmed how many of the new investments were already planned before Trump took office.

The company announced a few concrete elements of the increased US spend. The most significant is a new factory in Houston, set to open next year, which will produce servers to power Apple Intelligence, the company’s suite of AI features. Apple says that this factory alone will “create thousands of jobs.”

In addition, Apple is doubling its $5 billion US Advanced Manufacturing Fund to $10 billion. Launched in 2017, the fund is intended to “support world-class innovation and high-skilled manufacturing jobs across America.” In this case, it means Apple making a multibillion-dollar order for chips from a TSMC factory in Arizona.

More generally, Apple says that over the term of the Trump administration it will hire 20,000 new employees, with the majority focused on “R&D, silicon engineering, software development, and AI and machine learning.” It will also open an Apple Manufacturing Academy in Detroit in which Apple engineers and other experts will offer consultations to local businesses on “implementing AI and smart manufacturing techniques,” along with free classes for workers.

“We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we’re proud to build on our long-standing U.S. investments with this $500 billion commitment to our country’s future,” said Cook in a statement. “From doubling our Advanced Manufacturing Fund, to building advanced technology in Texas, we’re thrilled to expand our support for American manufacturing. And we’ll keep working with people and companies across this country to help write an extraordinary new chapter in the history of American innovation.”

Apple’s most recent announcement on US investment was a 2021 promise to spend $430 billion over the following five years, including a 3,000-employee campus in North Carolina, though development on that project has since paused.

ISPs fear wave of state laws after New York’s $15 broadband mandate

New York's law requiring Internet service providers to offer broadband for $15 or $20 a month has spurred legislative efforts in other states to guarantee affordable service for people with low incomes. So far, legislators in Vermont, Massachusetts, and California have proposed laws inspired by the New York requirement.

Christopher Morrow, a newly elected Democratic state legislator in Vermont, introduced a bill on January 29 that is modeled on New York's law. "Affordability is a big issue in Vermont and there are many stories of children who couldn't study properly during COVID for lack of Internet," Morrow told Ars. "It exposed the digital divide. This is a small gesture to help folks out."

Despite industry attempts to block the New York law and other broadband regulations, courts have made it clear that states can impose stricter requirements on Internet service when the Federal Communications Commission isn't regulating Internet providers as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act. That's the situation right now after a federal appeals court blocked a Biden-era FCC order that classified ISPs as common carriers and imposed net neutrality rules.

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How Horizon Media Cut Carbon Emissions in Half While Boosting Performance

Horizon Media is all in on green media. Starting May 2024, the agency shifted all of the programmatic campaigns that were running through supply-side platform Sharethrough to the adtech firm's green private marketplaces, trademarked as GreenPMPs. The product is designed to reduce the carbon emissions associated with ad campaigns by identifying and removing "climate risk"...

New York Liberty CEO Keia Clarke Builds Women’s Sports Legacy in Brooklyn

New York Liberty CEO Keia Clarke lived through her team's past and celebrated its championship present. Now, she's ready to build its legacy. During a panel hosted by The Female Quotient at Google Pixel's Player's Lounge on NBA All-Star Weekend, Clarke addressed the audience in a Liberty varsity jacket from the team's partners at fashion...

As Trump tariffs loom, Apple pledges more than $500bn in US investment, new Texas factory

Apple has today announced that it is committed to invest more than $500 billion in the United States over the next four years, including 20,000 U.S. jobs and a new factory in Houston, Texas.

The $500 billion headline figure is not all new, with much of what is promised in the announcement having been pledged before. The news is clearly aimed at satiating the Trump administration, with Apple perhaps hoping it will be enough to get tariff exemptions on its products.

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