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7 minutes ago
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Bodega Ai and SignaPay Launch Strategic Partnership to Empower Small Business Owners with Smarter, Faster, More Profitable POS Solutions
DALLAS, July 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SignaPay, the leader in Dual Pricing technology, is thrilled to announce its partnership with Bodega Ai, an intelligent, all-in-one point-of-sale platform that's redefining how small businesses launch, grow, and thrive. Built from the ground up with entrepreneurs in mind, Bodega Ai fuses cutting-edge AI technology with PayLo Dual Pricing to deliver a smarter POS system—designed to simplify operations, eliminate pricing confusion, and maximize profit margins. "Bodega Ai isn't just another POS—it's your smartest employee, ready on day one," said Jason Diaz, Founder of Bodega Ai. "From Ai-powered revenue generation, instant language adaption, and frictionless onboarding, we're giving small retailers the kind of power the big chains take for granted." At the core of Bodega Ai is its adaptive AI engine—offering real-time inventory suggestions, customer behavior analysis, and automated sales reporting that helps business owners make sharper decisions, faster. The platform is currently available in over 12 languages, with the ability to add more as needed, making it a go-to solution for diverse, multilingual communities. To ease startup pains, Bodega Ai comes pre-loaded with more than 200,000 of the most sold retail SKUs, allowing new merchants to hit the ground running—no tedious data entry required. "This is the most intelligent and accessible POS solution we've ever brought to market," said Matt Nern, Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer at SignaPay. "Pairing AI-driven insights with PayLo Dual Pricing gives merchants an unbeatable edge from day one—better tools, faster setup, and stronger profits." Limited-Time Offer: Free POS System As part of the national rollout, qualifying SignaPay Partners are eligible to place a Bodega Ai POS system free of charge to the merchants they serve. For details and eligibility, interested SignaPay Partners are encouraged to connect with a SignaPay Relationship Manager to learn more about this exclusive opportunity. Not a SignaPay Partner? Reach out to Matt Nern today at mattn@ or call today 877-751-2891 to learn more. About Bodega Ai Bodega Ai is an advanced, AI-powered point-of-sale system designed for the modern entrepreneur. With multilingual support, smart inventory tools, and intuitive reporting, Bodega Ai empowers merchants to launch and grow with confidence. About SignaPay SignaPay is a payment technology provider and the pioneer of PayLo Dual Pricing, the most trusted and compliant dual pricing solution in the U.S. SignaPay helps businesses improve profitability with innovative, transparent payment systems tailored for small business success. Media Contact: Sean Martillo Marketing Manager, SignaPay marketing@ 800-944-1399 View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE SignaPay Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
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Mike Rowe says US in a ‘modern-day Manhattan project' after scrapping shop class — is it time to ditch your desk job?
With billions of dollars pouring in to fuel America's contributions to the ongoing Artificial Intelligence race, Mike Rowe believes we are living through what he calls a 'modern-day Manhattan Project.' However, America's AI efforts face their own set of hurdles, including a lack of skilled tradespeople to build the energy and data center infrastructure needed to power AI. Don't miss Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now become a landlord for as little as $100 — and no, you don't have to deal with tenants or fix freezers. Here's how I'm 49 years old and have nothing saved for retirement — what should I do? Don't panic. Here are 6 of the easiest ways you can catch up (and fast) You don't have to be a millionaire to gain access to this $1B private real estate fund. In fact, you can get started with as little as $10 — here's how 'When we took shop class out of high school, we sent a pretty clear message to the workforce," Rowe, the host of Dirty Jobs, told Fox News. "We put our thumb on the scale, we made a real judgement call. Consequently, we have 7.6 million open jobs right now in those [skilled labor] fields.' And Rowe isn't the only one ringing this alarm bell. Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton — often called the 'Godfather of AI' — also recommended blue collar skills as a way to prepare for the age of automation. 'I'd say it's going to be a long time before [AI] is as good at physical manipulation as us, and so a good bet would be to be a plumber,' Hinton said on The Diary of a CEO podcast. As more experts urge Americans to rethink their career paths, could now be the moment to consider rolling up your sleeves and going to trade school? Here's what you need to know. The pros Perhaps the best reason to consider a career in the trades is the projected shortage of skilled labor workers in the near future. Nearly 1.9 million manufacturing jobs could go unfilled over the next decade, according to a study from the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte. Meanwhile, America could be short about 550,000 plumbers by 2027, according to The Hill. Put simply, there's growing demand for blue collar workers while white collar staffers face dwindling demand and potential layoffs. As a consequence, skilled trade workers have more bargaining power to achieve better wages. Between 2020 and 2024, average wages across the skilled trades sectors grew 20%, according to McKinsey & Company. Experienced electricians, elevator installers, construction managers and HVAC technicians can earn $100,000 or more per year, according to the Philadelphia Technician Training Institute. And the fact that these trades do not require an advanced college degree also reduces the burden on young people willing to acquire these skills. Trade schools are relatively inexpensive, and organizations such as Rowe's mikeroweWORKS Foundation have helped thousands of young professionals achieve six-figure salaries without taking on massive student debt. However, before you ditch your cubicle for a construction site, it's worth considering some of the drawbacks of this bold career move. Read more: Want an extra $1,300,000 when you retire? Dave Ramsey says — and that 'anyone' can do it The Cons Being a blue collar worker could be lucrative, but only after you've gained sufficient skills and experience. For instance, the average apprenticeship for construction workers could be slightly longer than four years, according to the American Apprenticeship Initiative. Making matters worse, your earnings are likely to start relatively low during your apprenticeship, which means it could be several years before you crack the six-figure threshold. Another disadvantage with blue collar work is that it is highly physical and may be better suited for younger workers. Mining, construction and agricultural workers have relatively high rates of workplace injuries, according to the AFL-CIO. These risks are higher for older workers, which could push tradespeople to consider earlier retirement than their white collar peers. Finally, the current lack of automation in the trades might be temporary. Several tech giants and startups are working on humanoid robots and there are already prototypes of autonomous machines for construction, as well as shipbuilding and welding. Amazon already has roughly a million robots in its warehouses and the company's workforce could be more robotic than human in the near future, according to the Wall Street Journal. The bottom line There are plenty of advantages and disadvantages to switching your career to the trades. If you're young and enthusiastic about gaining hands-on experience, this could be the right move. But if you've already built soft skills over several years and don't find physical labor enjoyable, this might not be the best move for you. What to read next Robert Kiyosaki warns of a 'Greater Depression' coming to the US — with millions of Americans going poor. But he says these 2 'easy-money' assets will bring in 'great wealth'. How to get in now Accredited investors can now buy into this $22 trillion asset class once reserved for elites – and become the landlord of Walmart, Whole Foods or Kroger without lifting a finger. Here's how Rich, young Americans are ditching the stormy stock market — here are the alternative assets they're banking on instead Here are 5 'must have' items that Americans (almost) always overpay for — and very quickly regret. How many are hurting you? Stay in the know. Join 200,000+ readers and get the best of Moneywise sent straight to your inbox every week for free. This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Creating realistic deepfakes is getting easier than ever. Fighting back may take even more AI
WASHINGTON (AP) — The phone rings. It's the secretary of state calling. Or is it? For Washington insiders, seeing and hearing is no longer believing, thanks to a spate of recent incidents involving deepfakes impersonating top officials in President Donald Trump's administration. Digital fakes are coming for corporate America, too, as criminal gangs and hackers associated with adversaries including North Korea use synthetic video and audio to impersonate CEOs and low-level job candidates to gain access to critical systems or business secrets. Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, creating realistic deepfakes is easier than ever, causing security problems for governments, businesses and private individuals and making trust the most valuable currency of the digital age. Responding to the challenge will require laws, better digital literacy and technical solutions that fight AI with more AI. 'As humans, we are remarkably susceptible to deception,' said Vijay Balasubramaniyan, CEO and founder of the tech firm Pindrop Security. But he believes solutions to the challenge of deepfakes may be within reach: 'We are going to fight back.' AI deepfakes become a national security threat This summer, someone used AI to create a deepfake of Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an attempt to reach out to foreign ministers, a U.S. senator and a governor over text, voice mail and the Signal messaging app. In May someone impersonated Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Another phony Rubio had popped up in a deepfake earlier this year, saying he wanted to cut off Ukraine's access to Elon Musk's Starlink internet service. Ukraine's government later rebutted the false claim. The national security implications are huge: People who think they're chatting with Rubio or Wiles, for instance, might discuss sensitive information about diplomatic negotiations or military strategy. 'You're either trying to extract sensitive secrets or competitive information or you're going after access, to an email server or other sensitive network," Kinny Chan, CEO of the cybersecurity firm QiD, said of the possible motivations. Synthetic media can also aim to alter behavior. Last year, Democratic voters in New Hampshire received a robocall urging them not to vote in the state's upcoming primary. The voice on the call sounded suspiciously like then-President Joe Biden but was actually created using AI. Their ability to deceive makes AI deepfakes a potent weapon for foreign actors. Both Russia and China have used disinformation and propaganda directed at Americans as a way of undermining trust in democratic alliances and institutions. Steven Kramer, the political consultant who admitted sending the fake Biden robocalls, said he wanted to send a message of the dangers deepfakes pose to the American political system. Kramer was acquitted last month of charges of voter suppression and impersonating a candidate. 'I did what I did for $500,' Kramer said. 'Can you imagine what would happen if the Chinese government decided to do this?' Scammers target the financial industry with deepfakes The greater availability and sophistication of the programs mean deepfakes are increasingly used for corporate espionage and garden variety fraud. 'The financial industry is right in the crosshairs," said Jennifer Ewbank, a former deputy director of the CIA who worked on cybersecurity and digital threats. 'Even individuals who know each other have been convinced to transfer vast sums of money.' In the context of corporate espionage, they can be used to impersonate CEOs asking employees to hand over passwords or routing numbers. Deepfakes can also allow scammers to apply for jobs — and even do them — under an assumed or fake identity. For some this is a way to access sensitive networks, to steal secrets or to install ransomware. Others just want the work and may be working a few similar jobs at different companies at the same time. Authorities in the U.S. have said that thousands of North Koreans with information technology skills have been dispatched to live abroad, using stolen identities to obtain jobs at tech firms in the U.S. and elsewhere. The workers get access to company networks as well as a paycheck. In some cases, the workers install ransomware that can be later used to extort even more money. The schemes have generated billions of dollars for the North Korean government. Within three years, as many as 1 in 4 job applications is expected to be fake, according to research from Adaptive Security, a cybersecurity company. 'We've entered an era where anyone with a laptop and access to an open-source model can convincingly impersonate a real person,' said Brian Long, Adaptive's CEO. 'It's no longer about hacking systems — it's about hacking trust.' Experts deploy AI to fight back against AI Researchers, public policy experts and technology companies are now investigating the best ways of addressing the economic, political and social challenges posed by deepfakes. New regulations could require tech companies to do more to identify, label and potentially remove deepfakes on their platforms. Lawmakers could also impose greater penalties on those who use digital technology to deceive others — if they can be caught. Greater investments in digital literacy could also boost people's immunity to online deception by teaching them ways to spot fake media and avoid falling prey to scammers. The best tool for catching AI may be another AI program, one trained to sniff out the tiny flaws in deepfakes that would go unnoticed by a person. Systems like Pindrop's analyze millions of datapoints in any person's speech to quickly identify irregularities. The system can be used during job interviews or other video conferences to detect if the person is using voice cloning software, for instance. Similar programs may one day be commonplace, running in the background as people chat with colleagues and loved ones online. Someday, deepfakes may go the way of email spam, a technological challenge that once threatened to upend the usefulness of email, said Balasubramaniyan, Pindrop's CEO. 'You can take the defeatist view and say we're going to be subservient to disinformation," he said. 'But that's not going to happen.' David Klepper, The Associated Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
