AI Friends Are Not Your Friends, Here's Why
Science fiction prepared us for AI friends through films like 'Her' and 'Robot & Frank.' Now, that fictional portrayal is becoming a reality.
In a recent podcast, Mark Zuckerberg proposed and endorsed the idea that Americans are in dire need of social connection, and that bots could fill the need.
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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump is breaking up with the tech bros, here's why
As Elon Musk steps down from his role at the White House, there are signs Donald Trump's love affair with Silicon Valley could be on the rocks. The president sailed to election victory in November buoyed up by a wave of support from tech billionaires. But as his America First measures on immigration, university funding, tariffs and energy begin to bite, a tech bro break-up looms. 'There's definitely some buyer's remorse on the right,' said Nu Wexler, a former policy communications executive at Google. Having previously blocked the president from all Meta platforms, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg sought to make amends first by dining with Mr Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in November, and then by donating $1 million to his inauguration fund. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, caused outrage in February when he shook up The Washington Post's opinion section, ordering the paper to support 'personal liberties and free markets', in a move widely interpreted as a courtesy to Mr Trump. He also made overtures to the first lady, paying $40 million for a Melania Trump documentary – nearly three times the next highest bid. Meanwhile, Tim Cook, the Apple CEO, was hailed as tech's Trump whisperer after he donated $1 million and is said to have sweetened the deal with promises to start manufacturing products in the US. Their support for Mr Trump was not without reason. During the election campaign, the president promised to unleash innovation by stripping back regulations he said hindered the development of artificial intelligence (AI) under the Biden administration. Mr Trump is currently also making good on promises to make permanent the cuts to corporate tax rates, which he slashed from 35 per cent to 21 per cent in his first term. And he has set about implementing a bold programme of financial services deregulation, particularly around cryptocurrency. But the flattery of Mr Trump has not had the anticipated effect. It was widely expected that antitrust lawsuits against Facebook, Google and Amazon would soon disappear. Yet Mr Trump has so far declined to intervene. Meanwhile, his relationship with Mr Cook appears to have soured after Mr Trump criticised the Apple billionaire for building factories in India. At the same time, the knock-on effects of Mr Trump's broader policy agenda have sent Silicon Valley reeling. Mr Musk said this week he was 'disappointed' with the president's 'big, beautiful' spending bill, warning that it 'undermines' the work of the Department for Government Efficiency (Doge) to bring down the deficit. Despite Mr Musk's comment, the pair apparently remain great friends, with the president presenting the billionaire with a golden key to the White House during a farewell press conference on Friday. However, Mr Musk's concerns were echoed by Chamath Palihapita, a former Facebook senior executive and host of the All In podcast, who warned that the financial markets would 'punish' the Trump administration for driving up national debt. Immigration, too, has proved a dividing line between Mr Trump's Maga base and his Silicon Valley allies, with Mr Musk pledging to 'go to war' over visas for skilled immigrants. Around 70 per cent of H-1B visa holders in the US are employed in the tech industry, and the SpaceX founder has likened the need to attract engineering talent from overseas to a professional sports team bringing in foreign players. The president's repeated attacks on universities have also set pulses racing in Silicon Valley, with the scientific research programmes that transformed America into a technology superpower facing billions of dollars in cuts. For decades, the US has stood unrivalled as the world's leader in scientific discovery and technological innovation thanks to government-backed projects that have created everything from the internet to mRNA vaccines. However, the amount of money disbursed in grants by the National Science Foundation, which funds much of the scientific research at American universities, has plummeted by 51 per cent this year so far, compared to the average over the past 10 years. 'There are a lot of people in Silicon Valley who worry this is going to kill the golden goose,' said Darrell West, a senior fellow in the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings Institution. 'A lot of America's competitive advantage has been in digital technologies, and we're now making it difficult to finance the next generation.' Mr Trump's tariffs agenda has triggered widespread alarm in the tech sector as well. Having successfully won an exemption from a 145 per cent tariff on iPhones assembled in China, Apple was caught off guard last week by Mr Trump threatening 25 per cent tariffs on all iPhones made outside the US. 'I don't want you building in India,' the president warned Mr Cook during his recent Middle East tour. Moreover, Mr Trump's moratorium on new clean energy projects risks driving up energy prices in California, where renewables account for 54 per cent of the state's total electricity generation. Data centres – sprawling warehouses full of computer servers that power AI – are reliant on cheap electricity to keep them running, with experts warning that even small increases in energy prices could have 'catastrophic' consequences. His plan to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act also spells bad news for California's world-leading energy storage industry by removing tax cuts that spurred investment in the technology. From the moment Mr Musk pranced on stage at a Trump rally in October wearing an 'Occupy Mars' T-shirt, some critics said the president and Silicon Valley made strange bedfellows. A far cry from the casual-dressing tech bros of San Francisco, whom Mr Trump recently called 'these internet people', the president is rarely seen without a suit and tie (when he's not on the golf course). 'Tech investors are not a logical fit for the grassroots Maga movement. It is more a relationship of convenience right now,' said Mr Wexler. A loveless marriage it may be. But a messy divorce could have devastating consequences for the future of Mr Trump's coalition. 'He's tacked his administration to tech billionaires. They're a very powerful group and very well connected,' said Mr West. 'If they start to turn on him, that's a political nightmare.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. 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Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Should You Buy ChargePoint While It's Trading Below $1?
High prices could hurt electric vehicle adoption rates. Tariffs are adding more pressure to the electric vehicle (EV) industry. ChargePoint's sales are falling, and the company isn't profitable. 10 stocks we like better than ChargePoint › The electric vehicle (EV) industry is facing a multitude of headwinds right now. Tariffs, rising EV prices, and a worsening political environment for electric vehicles are causing turmoil among automakers. And the effects are being felt among the broader EV industry, including for electric vehicle charging company ChargePoint (NYSE: CHPT). The company's share price has fallen 60% over the past year and is now priced below $1. The pullback has some investors wondering whether they should buy the beaten-down EV stock. Here's why you shouldn't. EV sales are increasing in the U.S., but it's been slow going. Electric vehicles accounted for 8.1% of vehicle sales last year, a modest increase from 7.8% in 2023. One of the biggest hurdles to their adoption is that they're far too expensive for many buyers. The average transaction cost for a new electric vehicle was $59,200 in April, up nearly 4% from the same time last year, and 23% more expensive than the average selling price for gas-powered vehicles. ChargePoint doesn't sell EVs, but for the company's electric vehicle charging station business to do well, it needs Americans to begin adopting EVs at a much higher rate -- and they won't do that if prices continue rising. ChargePoint does operate in Europe, Mexico, and Canada, but the vast majority of its business is in the U.S., making it very dependent on American EV adoption rates. The political climate isn't exactly conducive to further EV growth, and as an EV investor myself, I think this is one of the biggest problems for the industry right now. Tariffs on automotive imports are already negatively impacting U.S.-based EV makers, including Rivian and Lucid. Both companies said on their recent earnings calls that tariffs are making the cost of vehicle production rise, sometimes by thousands of dollars. While some tariffs are paused and others are being negotiated, investors need to understand that uncertainty around them couldn't be any higher. Ford Motor Company, Stellantis, and General Motors all recently pulled their 2025 guidance because of uncertainty around tariffs. What's more is that Republicans in the House recently passed a bill that rolls back tax credit incentives for electric vehicle purchases, which are currently worth up to $7,500 for new bill is headed to the Senate, and there are differing views on whether it'll pass, but the point is that the party currently in power is inhospitable toward EV credits. With ChargePoint dependent on a strong EV industry, high tariffs, and the potential for EV tax credit elimination are significant problems. It's not just outside EV forces that are hurting ChargePoint; the company has its own problems as well. ChargePoint's sales dropped by 18% in fiscal 2025 to $417 million, and things don't seem to be getting better, considering that management says first-quarter 2026 sales will be $100 million at the midpoint of guidance, a nearly 7% drop from the year-ago quarter. ChargePoint was able to increase its subscription sales by 20% last year, but its largest revenue segment -- networked charging system sales -- fell by 35%. It's also important to note that ChargePoint isn't profitable. The company reported a non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) net loss of about $159 million last year. That was an improvement from its loss of about $297 million in 2024, but with sales falling, it's going to be very difficult for ChargePoint to continue narrowing its losses. ChargePoint's stock is technically cheap right now, with the company's price-to-sales multiple just 0.75. But just because it's cheap doesn't make it a good value. I think the company and the broader EV industry will continue to face serious headwinds over the next few years that could slow growth further. With ChargePoint already seeing sales falling before some of the outside hurdles like tariffs and political turmoil showed up, I think it has too many obstacles to overcome right now for investors to hope for market-beating returns from its stock any time soon. Before you buy stock in ChargePoint, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and ChargePoint wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $651,049!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $828,224!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 979% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 Chris Neiger has positions in Rivian Automotive. The Motley Fool recommends General Motors and Stellantis. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Should You Buy ChargePoint While It's Trading Below $1? was originally published by The Motley Fool 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
Forbes
10 hours ago
- Forbes
FBI And Police Warning—If You Get This Call, Hang Up Immediately
These calls are always dangerous Whether it comes by way of a text message or a call, Americans are under threat from a plague of attacks targeting their cell phones. Fueled by Chinese organized crime gangs and overseas scammers, warnings now come almost daily. It has prompted Google to update Android phones, warning that these cybercriminals 'act without fear of punishment when people are uninformed about fraud and scam tactics.' Nowhere is that lack of awareness more evident than with scammers pretending to be federal, state or local law enforcement officers, demanding payment for fines or to avoid arrest, or asking for personal information. Multiple warnings have appeared again in recent days, with reports (1,2,3) of such attacks targeting various U.S. states. The New York State Police warns there is 'an ongoing phone spoofing scam in which scammers impersonate members of law enforcement or government agencies in an attempt to solicit sensitive personal information from individuals across New York State and beyond.' These calls 'demand personal information such as Social Security numbers and have threatened punitive action against recipients who refuse to comply.' Attacks spoof real phone numbers 'to make it appear as if calls are coming from trusted agencies. These scams are designed to create confusion and fear, often leading victims to comply with demands or share information that can be used to commit further fraud.' If you receive any call purporting to be from law enforcement and making any kind of request, hang up right away and call back using a publicly available number. That same warning has been issued to citizens in Virginia: 'If you receive such a call, hang up immediately. Do not provide any personal or financial information. If you're ever unsure about the legitimacy of a call, you can always hang up and call us directly.' The FBI warns 'of fraud schemes in which scammers impersonate law enforcement or government officials in attempts to extort money or steal personally identifiable information.' Again, the bureau says 'scammers often spoof caller ID information, so fraudulent calls appear to be coming from an agency's legitimate phone number.' Their advice is just as clear cut. 'Be advised, law enforcement does not call or email individuals threatening arrest or demanding money.' If you ever receive such a call, 'cease all contact with the scammers immediately' and then 'contact your local law enforcement and file a police report.'
