Columbia University graduate calls school's multi-million dollar deal with the Trump admin a 'great starting point'
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TechCrunch
a minute ago
- TechCrunch
Google CEO adds a new calendar feature at Stripe co-founder's request
Talk about customer service. On Wednesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai posted on X about Google Calendar's new feature to duplicate events — an addition that was specifically requested by Stripe co-founder John Collison last month, also via an X post. On July 5, Collison asked if Google Calendar users could get a Ctrl-click option that would allow them to easily duplicate events, similar to the feature that many native calendar applications already have. Collison tagged Pichai in his post at the time. While users often tag companies and CEOs with online feedback and complaints, you know you've made it when the CEO not only replies to you, but also implements the change you've asked for. That's the case for Collison, at least. Wrote Pichai, 'This feature is now live for everyone on Google Calendar on the web — thanks for the suggestion!' Naturally, some X users began to poke fun at Collison's seeming influence by asking him to help with their own specific concerns, too. Joked Box CEO Aaron Levie, for example, referring to the notoriously congested highway that runs through Silicon Valley, where Waymo's self-driving cars currently have limited availability, 'John, can you ask Waymo to work on El Camino through the peninsula? Thanks!' Techcrunch event Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital, Elad Gil — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $600+ before prices rise. Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. San Francisco | REGISTER NOW
Forbes
a minute ago
- Forbes
Meet The Tech Billionaire Giving Students A Boost
This is a published version of Forbes' Careers Newsletter. Click here to subscribe and get it in your inbox every Tuesday. It's not often that college undergraduates are taught by tech billionaires. But this fall, computer science students at UC Berkeley will have the option to take a class on operating systems and system programming with Professor Ion Stoica, the billionaire cofounder of four startups, including unicorns Databricks and Anyscale—the latter of which he started with former students. It's Stoica's emphasis on real-life applications that has made him popular amongst Berkeley students, reports Forbes' Martina Di Licosa, and his emphasis on private funding helps, too. While the federal government is cutting down on research funding, Stoica's lab has not suffered, thanks to being privately funded by big tech companies, including Google and IBM. Still, he believes universities are the key to solving problems practically. 'Everyone can use [university research]. Compare this with a company,' Stoica tells Forbes. 'They are not going to publish… They are not going to open-source their best systems.' Both Databricks' Spark and Anyscale's Ray started as open-source projects and are available to the public to this day. Stoica, worth $2.5 billion, is now chairing a task force to address the widespread research cuts, helping both his students and fellow professors seek out private funding to fill in the gaps left by the government. It's been helpful for the entrepreneurs in his class who are seeking venture capital funding. And his connections in the industry have been valuable to graduating students, especially in today's tough tech job landscape. Happy reading, and hope you have a lovely week! WORK SMARTER Practical insights and advice from Forbes staff and contributors to help you succeed in your job, accelerate your career and lead smarter. Managers: These are the three ChatGPT prompts you should be using. Don't let the increased flexibility of remote work prevent you from standing out. Participating in an office fantasy football league this year? Here's how to draft the perfect team. REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Why Cognizant Decided To Launch A Weeks-Long Vibe Coding Event Employees want more upskilling opportunities. Employers want their workforces to use AI. Cognizant decided to take a stab at pleasing both in the last two weeks, recruiting its 330,000 workers to join a 'vibe coding' week to test out the technology with low stakes. I spoke with Cognizant's CTO Babak Hodjat to speak about the company's effort. Ever participated in a company-wide hackathon? Cognizant wants all its employees to do so. The information and technology consultant launched its vibe-coding event last week to encourage employees to 'play around' with vibe coding software, partnering with almost all major vibe coding companies, including Lovable, Windsurf, Google's Gemini Code Assist and Github Copilot. 'The number one priority for us was upskilling, training, educating and helping nurture our employee base in adopting vibe coding,' says Hodjat. Employees across all departments have already participated, with an average of 20,000 employees a day experimenting with the software. As of Monday, nearly 20,000 projects had already been submitted from employees across a number of departments, including human resources, marketing and IT. Beyond the productivity gains Cognizant is piloting with this program, Hodjat is really focusing on employee education, a win that goes beyond their engagement and satisfaction scores. It's a selling point to their clients: Cognizant employees not only know their customers, but also know how to use AI to best serve their needs. 'In many cases, we know our clients better than the clients know themselves because we've built their data systems, their processes. We know them holistically, with an added value on top of the AI,' he adds. It's why Cognizant partnered with a number of different vibe coding companies. 'If a client comes in and says, 'Hey, I want that software,' we can say we've got it.' Not all the projects submitted by the end of the Vibe Coding week will result in improving actual systems. A number of privacy restrictions—including a strict no-client data rule—restrict the realistic results of the projects submitted, especially since the hackathon-esque nature of the week was designed to allow employees to play around and experiment with different software systems and requests, more so than improve productivity. That analysis will come by the end of the week. 'Part of this whole exercise is for us to actually then look at what is coming out of it,' says Hodjat, including preferences between the different providers. TOUCH BASE News from the world of work. 'Fake it 'till you make it' will only get you so far in corporate America. Entrepreneur Daniella Pierson cozied up to everyone from designer Diane von Furstenberg to actor Selena Gomez, touting millions in net-worth and growing subscriber numbers for her lifestyle newsletter The Newsette. But a new Forbes investigation found that her so-called business empire was just 'smoke and mirrors,' with a reputation built on Pierson's exaggerations and self-promotion. Fear of superintelligent AI is driving a number of Harvard and MIT students to drop out of the prestigious institutions, reports Forbes' Victoria Feng. Some are scared that generative AI will take away many entry-level roles, while others are more worried about the technology's potential devastating effects on humanity. But their response is the same: leave school and start pursuing a career before it's too late. U.S. manufacturing contracted at its fastest pace in nine months in July, as overall hiring slowed, according to Bloomberg. While President Donald Trump has made reshoring American jobs a key part of his administration's goals, companies are still weary of hiring amid tariff negotiations. Some subindustries, however, did grow—most notably data center construction. As federal employees struggle to find jobs after taking Trump's deferred resignation offer or being fired, one segment may find ample employment in the private sector: tax lawyers. Tax law firms are busier than ever, reports Forbes' Kelly Phillips Erb, especially in the areas of employment, crypto and state and local taxes. Former federal lawyers could be the perfect next hire for a number of firms. A majority of U.S. employers are not planning on increasing their salary budgets for next year, according to Payscale's latest pay report, showing that a cooling labor market and economic jitters will likely continue to keep wage growth relatively flat. NUMBER TO NOTE 9-9-6 VIDEO How The South Park Creators Became Billionaires QUIZ The head of which government agency was recently ousted just weeks after being officially sworn in? A. IRS B. CDC C. Environmental Protection Agency D. Bureau of Labor Statistics Check if you got it right here.
Associated Press
2 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Mexico says 26 capos extradited to US were requested by Trump administration
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico sent 26 alleged cartel figures to face justice in the United States because the Trump administration requested them and Mexico did not want them to continue running their illicit businesses from Mexican prisons, officials said Wednesday. The mass transfer was not, however, part of wider negotiations as Mexico seeks to avoid higher tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump, they said. 'These transfers are not only a strategic measure to ensure public safety, but also reflect a firm determination to prevent these criminals from continuing to operate from within prisons and to break up their networks of influence,' Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said in a news conference on Wednesday. The 26 prisoners handed over to American authorities on Tuesday included figures aligned with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel among others. They were wanted by American authorities for their roles in drug trafficking and other crimes. It comes months after 29 other cartel leaders were sent to the U.S. in February. In the exchange, the U.S. Justice Department promised it would not seek the death penalty against any of the 55 people included in the two transfers, which experts say may help avoid any violent outburst by the cartels in response. Authorities said the operation involved nearly a thousand law enforcement officers, 90 vehicles and a dozen military aircraft. Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said earlier Wednesday that the transfers were 'sovereign decisions,' but the move comes as the Mexican leader faces mounting pressure by the Trump administration to crack down on cartels and fentanyl production. García Harfuch also confirmed Wednesday that a U.S. government drone — non-military — was flying over central Mexico, but at the request of Mexican authorities as part of an ongoing investigation. So far, Sheinbaum has tried to show the Trump administration a greater willingness to pursue the cartels than her predecessor — a change that has been acknowledged by U.S. officials — and continued to slow migration to the U.S. border, in an effort to avoid the worst of Trump's tariff threats. Two weeks ago, the two leaders spoke and agreed to give their teams another 90 days to negotiate to avoid threatened 30% tariffs on imports from Mexico. 'Little by little, Mexico is following through with this demand by the Americans to deliver drug capos,' said Mexican security analyst David Saucedo. 'It's buying (the Mexican government) time.' Saucedo said the Mexican government has been able to avoid a burst of violence by cartels – a reaction often seen when capos are captured – in part, because Ovidio Guzmán, a son of infamous capo Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, showed it's possible to negotiate with U.S. prosecutors. Ovidio Guzmán pleaded guilty last month to drug trafficking and other charges and hopes for a lighter sentence in exchange for his cooperation. But Saucedo warned that if such mass prisoner transfers continue, the Latin American country is bound to see another outburst of violence in the future.
