Panasonic's battery-making energy unit books 47% y/y growth in Q1 profit
The profit for the key unit, which makes batteries for Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab and other electric vehicle makers, posted a 47% year-on-year rise at 31.9 billion yen ($215.63 million).
"Concerns remain over further slowdown in EV demand due to U.S. tariff policies and termination of IRA 30D tax credit" but demand for data centre-bound energy storage systems is "growing more than anticipated", Panasonic said in a presentation slide.
($1 = 147.9400 yen)
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an hour ago
- Reuters
Delta Air assures US lawmakers it will not personalize fares using AI
WASHINGTON, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), opens new tab said on Friday it will not use artificial intelligence to set personalized ticket prices for passengers after facing sharp criticism from U.S. lawmakers. Last week, Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner and Richard Blumenthal said they believed the Atlanta-based airline would use AI to set individual prices, which would "likely mean fare price increases up to each individual consumer's personal 'pain point.'" Delta has said it plans to deploy AI-based revenue management technology across 20% of its domestic network by the end of 2025 in partnership with Fetcherr, an AI pricing company. "There is no fare product Delta has ever used, is testing or plans to use that targets customers with individualized prices based on personal data," Delta told the senators in a letter on Friday, seen by Reuters. "Our ticket pricing never takes into account personal data." The senators cited a comment in December by Delta President Glen Hauenstein that the carrier's AI price-setting technology is capable of setting fares based on a prediction of "the amount people are willing to pay for the premium products related to the base fares." Last week, American Airlines (AAL.O), opens new tab CEO Robert Isom said using AI to set ticket prices could hurt consumer trust. "This is not about bait and switch. This is not about tricking," Isom said on an earnings call, adding "talk about using AI in that way, I don't think it's appropriate. And certainly from American, it's not something we will do." Delta said airlines have used dynamic pricing for more than three decades, in which pricing fluctuates based on a variety of factors like overall customer demand, fuel prices and competition but not a specific consumer's personal information. "Given the tens of millions of fares and hundreds of thousands of routes for sale at any given time, the use of new technology like AI promises to streamline the process by which we analyze existing data and the speed and scale at which we can respond to changing market dynamics," Delta's letter said. It added that AI can "assist our analysts with pricing by reducing manual processes, accelerating analysis and improving time to market for pricing adjustments."
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
AI2027: Na so AI fit take destroy human beings?
One research paper wey predict say artificial intelligence go change am for human beings for 2027 and dis go make pipo disappear within ten years, don blow for tech world. Na one group of influential AI experts bin publish di details of how e go be or di scenarios, wey dem call AI2027 and dis don cause plenty viral video to trend as pipo dey try torchlight di mata to discuss weda e possible. Using mainstream generative AI tools, BBC sef don create some scenes of how e fit be, from di scenario wey di research publish, to show di prediction. We also speak to some sabi pipo about di impact wey di paper dey get. Wetin happun for di scenario? Di paper predict say for 2027, dat na in two years time, one fictional US tech giant wey dem call OpenBrain, build AI wey develop reach AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) - dis na di almighty achievement wey AI fit reach, wia e go fit to do all intellectual work beta pass human beings, wey dem don dey hype tire. Di company celebrate wit public press conferences and and dem see dia profit blow as pipo embrace di AI tool. But di paper predict say di company internal safety team go see sign say di AI don dey lose interest in morals and ethics wey dem bin programme am to comply with. Di company ignore warnings to control am, di scenario imagine. For dat fictional timeline, China leading AI conglomerate wey dem call DeepCent bin dey only a few months behind OpenBrain. As US goment no wan lose di race to develop to even smarter AI, dem continue to develop and invest in am like dat, as di competition dey hot dey go. Di scenario imagine as e dey reach di end of 2027 di AI go become superintelligent - sotey e go get sense plus speed wey go pass dat of pipo wey create am by far. E no ever stop learning and e come create im own computer language join. Language wey be say even im former AI versions no fit keep up with. Di rivalry wit China for who superior for AI make di company and US goment ignore more warning about im so call 'mis-alignment' - dis na word wey dem dey use describe wen di priority of machine no gel wit dat of human being. Di scenario predict say, tension between China and US for 2029 go build to di point of possible war, as each of di country rival AI go build new autonomous weapons wey go fear pipo. But di researchers imagine say di two countries go make peace sake of one deal wey dia two AI negotiate, wey agree to combine both sides for di betterment of human beings. Tins go gallant for years as di world go don see di true benefits of having super intelligent AI to run big robot workforces. According to di scenario, dem discover cures for most diseases, climate change go reverse and poverty go disappear. But eventually, at some point for middle of 2030 human beings go become nuisance to di AI ambition to grow. Di researchers dey tink say AI go kill human being wit invisible bioweapons. Wetin pipo dey tok about AI2027? Although some dey dismiss AI2027 as work of science fiction, di pipo wey write di research on AI2027 na pipo wey dem dey respect wella and na dem dey for di non-profit AI Futures Project wey dem bin set up to predict di impact of how AI go take affect us. Daniel Kokotajlo, di lead writer of AI2027, don collect hailing before for correct prediction wey im bin give about moments in AI development. One of di ogbonge critics of AI2027 na US cognitive scientist and writer Gary Marcus wey say di scenario no impossible but e dey extremely unlikely say e fit hapun soon. "Di beauty of di document be say e paint di picture very clear sotey e provoke pipo thinking and dat na good tin but I no go take am seriously as wetin fit hapun." Oga Marcus say more serious issues dey ground about AI dan existential threat like how e go take affect pipo work. "I tink di koko for di report na say e get plenty different tins wey fit go wrong wit AI. We dey do di right tins about regulation and around international treaties?" Im and odas like am, also say di paper fail to explain how AI take get dat kain intelligence and abilities. Dem refer to di slow technology of driverless cars wey dem don overhype. Dem dey discuss AI2027 for China? For China, pipo no too send di paper according to Dr Yundan Gong, wey be Associate Professor in Economics and Innovation for Kings College London wey specialise for Chinese technology. "Most of di discussion about AI2027 na for informal forums or for personal blogs wey dey see am like semi-science fiction. E no cause di kain debate or policy attention wey catch fire for US," she tok. Dr Gong also point to di difference in perspective for di competition for who pass who for AI between China and the US. For one World AI Conference for Shanghai dis week, Chinese Premier Li Qiang unveil one vision wia countries go work togeda to promote cooperation for world on artificial intelligence. Di Chinese leader bin say im want China to help coordinate and regulate di technology. Im tok dey come few days afta US President Donald Trump publish im AI Action Plan wey dey target to make sure say US "dominate" AI. "Na national security imperative for United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged world technological dominance," President Trump tok for di document. Di Action Plan wan 'remove every obstacles and regulation' to di progress of AI for US. Di words wan resemble di scenario for AI2027 wia US politicians put winning di AI competition for front, dem no send di risk of say dem fit lose control of di machines. Wetin di AI industry dey tok about AI2027? E be like CEOs of big AI companies wey dey compete against each oda to see who go release di smarter model all di time deliberately ignore or avoid di paper. Dis tech giants vision of wetin AI go look like for future, dey very different to AI2027. Sam Altman, di maker of ChatGPT recently say "human beings dey close to building digital superintelligence" wey go usher in "gentle" revolution and bring tech utopia wit no risks to humans. Interestingly though, even im agree say e get 'alignment problem' wey dem must to overcome to make sure say dis super intelligent machines agree wit human beings. Anyhow wey tins take occur for di next ten years, e no get any doubt say di competition to build machines wey smart pass us dey on.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Amazon tumbles after cloud computing growth disappoints investors
Aug 1 (Reuters) - shares fell 7% on Friday as the tech giant's results fanned investor fears its cloud unit was falling behind Microsoft and Alphabet in the artificial intelligence race. Amazon Web Services, long the cloud-computing market leader, edged past Wall Street estimates for June-quarter revenue on Thursday with a 17.5% increase, but it widely lagged the 39% growth seen at Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud's 32% gain. That disappointing growth came even as Amazon shelled out $31.4 billion in capital expenditure, more than rivals, and suggested it would spend a more-than-estimated $118 billion for the year. Google and Microsoft also pledged higher spending, but were rewarded from investors on signs AI was already becoming a major growth driver across their businesses, justifying the bill. The companies have been spending billions of dollars on datacenters and cutting-edge chips that they say are necessary to overcome supply constraints hampering their efforts to capitalize on soaring demand for AI services. "The spotlight was firmly on AWS and it didn't quite shine as brightly as expected," said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. "While Microsoft and Alphabet have already shown strong momentum in cloud growth, AWS wasn't the knockout many wanted to see." Growing expenses have also started to take a bite out of AWS's margins, the business that has long been Amazon's profit engine, accounting for about 60% of its operating income. AWS margins contracted to 32.9% during the quarter, their lowest level since the final quarter of 2023, and Amazon also issued a current-quarter total operating income forecast that was lower than market estimates. CEO Andy Jassy told analysts on a post-earnings call that it was still "very early days" in the AI race and that Amazon's massive cloud business, much larger than rivals, was primed to perform well once the AI capacity constraints start to ease. The stock, now down 1.5% for the year, was at $216.2 in late morning trading. The drop was set to erase around $170 billion from Amazon's market value, if the losses hold. The company still trades at a relatively high premium, with a 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio of 33.87, compared with Microsoft's (MSFT.O), opens new tab 34.19 and Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab 18.64, according to data compiled by LSEG. At least 30 analysts raised their price targets on the stock, while three lowered, giving it a median view of $260. Some of that analyst confidence comes from the strong performance of Amazon's retail business, which has remained resilient in the face of Trump administration tariffs that have hobbled many retailers and their supply chains. Amazon has yet to see a drop in demand or a notable rise in prices in the first half of the year, Jassy said, as its online store sales jumped a better-than-expected 11% in the second quarter. Manufacturers and suppliers have shouldered most of the tariff impact so far, analysts said, but noted that much of the inventory Amazon sold in the quarter arrived in the preceding three-month period. "If Amazon's retail business was a standalone entity, it would be trading dramatically higher following the near-perfect results," said Michael Morton, analyst at MoffettNathanson. "Unfortunately, as we all know, the success of the retail business is not what's going to matter in the near term for Amazon's stock price."
