Author: Reuters
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Robust consumer spending boosts third-quarter economic growth
WASHINGTON – The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in two years in the third quarter, fueled by robust consumer spending, though momentum appears to have faded amid the rising cost of living and recent government shutdown. The stronger-than-expected increase in gross domestic product last quarter, which was reported by the Commerce Department on…
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Reporter sues Google, xAI, OpenAI over chatbot training
An investigative reporter best known for exposing fraud at Silicon Valley blood-testing startup Theranos sued Elon Musk’s xAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Meta Platforms and Perplexity on Monday for using copyrighted books without permission to train their artificial intelligence systems. New York Times reporter and “Bad Blood” author John Carreyrou filed the lawsuit in California federal court with five other…
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Ellison offers $40.4 billion guarantee to beef up Paramount’s Warner Bros bid
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has stepped in to personally guarantee $40.4 billion in Paramount Skydance’s latest effort to pry Warner Bros. Discovery away from selling its prized Hollywood assets to streaming giant Netflix. The guarantee, disclosed in a filing on Monday, seeks to allay the Warner Bros. board’s doubts about Paramount’s financing and the lack…
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Mercedes reaches $150 million settlement with states over diesel scandal
Mercedes-Benz has reached a $149.6 million settlement with U.S. states to resolve a long-running investigation into allegations of diesel emissions cheating by the German automaker, New York Attorney General Letitia James said Monday. The automaker said the deal effectively ends its legal issues in the United States over dieselgate – the emissions scandal first uncovered…
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U.S. freezes five big offshore wind projects
The Trump administration suspended leases on Monday for five large offshore wind projects that are under construction off the East Coast over what it called national security concerns, sending shares of offshore wind companies plunging. The suspension was the latest blow for offshore wind developers that have faced repeated disruptions to their multi-billion-dollar projects under…
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Brazil’s ex-president to leave prison for surgical procedure
Reuters SAO PAULO • Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Friday authorized former President Jair Bolsonaro to leave the Federal Police Superintendency in Brasilia, where he is serving a 27-year prison sentence, for a surgical procedure to treat a hernia. Moraes’ decision follows a request from Bolsonaro’s defense lawyers last week, when they…
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UPS company deploys AI to spot fakes amid surge in holiday returns
LOS ANGELES – Nearly one in every 10 retail items that are returned for a refund in the U.S. is fraudulent, according to a UPS-owned reverse logistics company that says it plans to combat the $76.5 billion problem for the country’s retailers with artificial intelligence. This holiday season, UPS-owned boxless returns processing company Happy Returns is testing its AI fraud detection tool…
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Trump highlights accomplishments in White House speech
By Steve Holland, Jeff Mason and Trevor Hunnicutt, Reuters WASHINGTON • In a rare evening address from the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday touted his accomplishments, saying his administration has ended wars, drastically reduced illegal border crossings and brought down the prices of some consumer goods. America is now poised for a full comeback as…
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Business leaders wish AI’s future was now
Last spring, CellarTracker, a wine-collection app, built an AI-powered sommelier to make unvarnished wine recommendations based on a person’s palate. The problem was the chatbot was too nice. “It’s just very polite, instead of just saying, ‘It’s really unlikely you’ll like the wine,’” CellarTracker CEO Eric LeVine said. It took six weeks of trial and…
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Warner Bros Discovery board rejects rival bid from Paramount
LOS ANGELES – Warner Bros. Discovery’s board spurned Paramount Skydance’s $108.4 billion hostile takeover bid on Wednesday, calling the offer “illusory” as it accused the studio giant of misleading shareholders about its financing. Paramount has been in a race with Netflix to win control of Warner Bros., and with it, its prized film and television…