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Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Brian Eno Criticizes Microsoft for Support of Israeli Military
Brian Eno, February 2025 (Matthew Chattle/Future Publishing via Getty Images) Brian Eno, the composer of the Windows 95 startup sound, has penned an open letter calling for Microsoft to stop providing artificial intelligence and cloud services to the Israeli military. Titled 'Not in My Name,' the letter outlines the company's technological support for Israel's Ministry of Defense, as detailed in a Microsoft blog post last week. 'If you knowingly build systems that can enable war crimes, you inevitably become complicit in those crimes,' wrote Eno. In response, he pledges to donate his fee for the Windows 95 composition to victims of the attacks in Gaza. In the letter, Eno said his original work with Microsoft 'represented a gateway to a promising technological future.' He added, 'I never would have believed that the same company could one day be implicated in the machinery of oppression and war.' Eno cited the Microsoft blog post as evidence of its collaboration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, and the company's 'support of a regime,' he wrote, 'that is engaged in actions described by leading legal scholars and human rights organisations, the United Nations experts, and increasing numbers of governments from around the world, as genocidal.' Eno went on to express solidarity with Microsoft workers who have 'done something truly disruptive and refused to stay silent.' Find his full letter below. Brian Eno is a longtime critic of Israel and supporter of the pro-Palestine Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Through his support of the Palestinian people and the BDS movement, he has often urged musicians not to play concerts in Israel. Cease-Fire Now: 16 Benefit Compilations for Palestine Artists and labels around the world are protesting the war in Gaza by calling for action and donations, from Spain to Palestine to Jordan; from the New York DIY scene to the Italian avant-garde. Not in My Name: An Open Letter to Microsoft from Brian Eno In the mid-1990s, I was asked to compose a short piece of music for Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. Millions - possibly even billions - of people have since heard that short start-up chime—which represented a gateway to a promising technological future. I gladly took on the project as a creative challenge and enjoyed the interaction with my contacts at the company. I never would have believed that the same company could one day be implicated in the machinery of oppression and war. Today, I'm compelled to speak, not as a compser this time, but as a citizen by the role Microsoft is playing in a very different kind of composition: one that leads to surveillance, violence, and destruction in Palestine. In a blog post dated May 15, 2025, Microsoft acknowledged that it provides Israel's Ministry of Defence with 'software, professional services, Azure cloud services and Azure AI services, including language translation.' It went on to state that 'It is important to acknowledge that Microsoft does not have visibility into how customers use our software on their own servers or other devices'. These 'services' support a regime that is engaged in actions described by leading legal scholars and human rights organisations, the United Nations experts, and increasing numbers of governments from around the world, as genocidal. The collaboration between Microsoft and the Israeli government and army is no secret and involves the company's software being used in lethal technologies with 'funny' names like 'Where's Daddy?' (- guidance systems for tracking Palestinians in order to blow them up in their homes). Selling and facilitating advanced AI and cloud services to a government engaged in systemic ethnic cleansing is not 'business is usual'. It is complicity. If you knowingly build systems that can enable war crimes, you inevitably become complicit in those crimes. We now live in an age where corporations like Microsoft often command more influence than governments. I believe that with such a power comes an absolute ethical responsibility. Accordingly, I call on Microsoft to suspend all services that support any operations that contribute to violations of international law. My new start up chime is this: stand in solidarity with the brave Microsoft workers who have done something truly disruptive and refused to stay silent. They risk their livelihoods for people who have lost and will continue to lose their lives. I invite artists, technologists, musicians, and all people of conscience to join me in this call. I also pledge that the fee I originally received for that Windows 95 chime will now go towards helping the victims of the attacks on Gaza. If a sound can signal a real change then let it be this one. Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
Business Mayor
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Business Mayor
Xpeng shares rise, adding to 66% rally after the Chinese EV maker's losses narrowed
An Xpeng booth at the 2025 Spring International Auto Show in Qingdao, Shandong province, China, on March 7, 2025. Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images Xpeng shares jumped as much as 6% in premarket trading in New York, after the Chinese electric vehicle upstart reported first quarter earnings that were ahead of expectations. The stock had pared gains to rise 5.23% at 12:44 p.m. London time. Here's how Xpeng did in the first quarter versus LSEG estimates: Revenue: 15.81 billion Chinese yuan ($2.18 billion), up 141.5% year-on-year and comparing with 15.1 billion yuan expected. 15.81 billion Chinese yuan ($2.18 billion), up 141.5% year-on-year and comparing with 15.1 billion yuan expected. Net loss: 660 million yuan, versus a 1.4 billion yuan loss expected and down from 1.37 billion yuan last year. Xpeng said it anticipates second-quarter revenue will come in between 17.5 billion yuan and 18.7 billion yuan, which was also surpassed consensus estimates. The Guangzhou-headquartered firm also said it expects to deliver between 102,000 and 108,000 of its electric cars in the second quarter of this year, representing a year-over-year increase of around 237.7% to 257.5%. Xpeng delivered 94,008 in the first three months of this year. The company contended with a difficult 2023, when it faced slowing growth and mounting losses because of rising competition in China's electric vehicle market and increasing economic uncertainty in its home market. But the company has been aggressive with new products, launching a mass market car last year and a refreshed version of its flagship X9 in April in 2025, helping to improve its fortunes over the last 18 months or so. That, along with strong deliveries this year, has helped fuel a 66% year-to-date rally in its share price, which has finally helped lift its stock above the $15 per share price that it went public with in 2020. Still, the stock is well off its record high of more than $50 per share hit in October 2021. Xpeng is now facing an even bigger raft of competition from new entrants like Xiaomi and from incumbents like BYD. Still, the company is maintaining momentum. Xpeng delivered 35,045 electric vehicles in April, sustaining its record of putting out more than 30,000 vehicles for the sixth consecutive month. READ SOURCE
Forbes
14-05-2025
- Forbes
5 Ways Sonos Can Fix The Mess
(Photo by Phil Barker/Future Publishing via Getty Images) Maybe I'm an idiot. Maybe my loyalty is misguided. But I still love my Sonos system, despite the last 12 months being an absolute dumpster fire for the multi-room audio specialist. Between a patent grudge match with Google, a revamped app that broke more than it fixed, and a sneaky privacy-policy edit that quietly dropped 'we won't sell your data' from the US rules, Sonos users have been pretty livid and pretty vocal. Well, the ones on the Sonos forums and subreddits have been, at least. However, Sonos isn't blind to all this; it's well aware it messed up big time; hence a new interim CEO being put in place, cancelled products, and regular updates to improve the Sonos experience. There's still a way to go though - one year on from the disastrous app rollout - so here are five moves Sonos must make to win back our trust and steady the ship. We're still suffering through the aftermath of last year's new Sonos app. As the new interim CEO Tom Conrad admitted in a recent interview with The Verge, if the Sonos board had known how bad the performance bugs were, 'we never would have shipped it'. That doesn't really help us users though, who've had to endure months of constant crashes, missing features and flaky connectivity. Sonos has spent a year 'righting the ship' according to Conrad, who claims dramatic progress has been made in the last few months especially. And yes, those improvements have been noticed. My system seems more stable than it has been in months and the regular updates have added a bunch of missing features back into the mix. But we're still not even at a level that we were with the 'old' app 12 months ago. So those improvements need to continue at pace. Our multi-room speakers worked perfectly for years… we just want them to work perfectly again. (Photo by Phil Barker/Future Publishing via Getty Images) Sonos, apparently, just canceled its 'Pinewood' streaming-TV box and, if the rumors surrounding it were true, that's a good thing. No one wanted a $400 streaming box powered by an ad-tech company. The good news is that Conrad knows this, he's clearly focused on launching gear that's much more in line with what made Sonos great in the first place. There is speculation on the tech rumor mill that both an Era 100 follow-up and dedicated AV receiver are on the roadmap, and the company has just announced Hugo Barra is joining the board, which can only mean good things from an ecosystem point of view. The Sonos and Ikea partnership, which brought us some weird and wonderful Symfonisk speakers over the past few years, is officially coming to an end. That's a real shame because it represented a cheaper ticket to the Sonos party. Sonos should pick up that torch though. It recently brought the price of the Era 100 down from $249 to $199 to hit a 'magic spot,' but a sub- $100 speaker would be a surefire way of getting more people invested in the Sonos ecosystem. Within hours of the revamped app going live in May last year the Sonos community was up in arms. Initially though, Sonos stuck to its guns over the new app, towing the company line that it was in the users' best interests in the long run, and a Sonos chief product officer even stated it took 'courage' to launch the new app. Two weeks after launch the then CEO of Sonos, Patrick Spence, told The Verge: 'Everybody at Sonos has been testing it for months. It has delivered - we know from data and from feedback - that it is easier to navigate.' It was a communication tactic from Sonos that spectacularly backfired - and not even a public apology in July was enough to calm the Sonos community down. However, the past few months have seen a huge improvement on clarity and communication from Sonos, in particular on the Community Forum and the Sonos subreddit, where Keith Nieves, Social Media Program Lead for Sonos, has been putting out fires right, left and center. He even set up a public Trello board so Sonos users could keep track of app improvement plans and progress. Keith has regularly updated Sonos users during Office Hour sessions on Reddit, and Tom Conrad will actually be joining him for the next one, giving users the chance to speak directly to the new boss. Conrad also did the rounds of the major tech press publications recently to provide an update of what he's been doing in his first 100 days as the Sonos top-dog. It's this sort of transparency, and owning past (and indeed future) mistakes, that will help to get the Sonos community back onside. Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg The Sonos Ace headphones deserved better. By almost any measure they're excellent hardware – great battery life, strong ANC and transparency modes – but they got buried in the app PR nightmare. Conrad has stated that software missteps have hurt Ace sales, but he's not given up on the company's first headphones, stating that 'there's a lot we can do with software experiences to further differentiate Ace from other things in the market.' The Sonos Ace headphones have great potential but, as Conrad alluded to, Sonos needs to do more to set them apart from similarly-priced rivals. And obviously they also need to fix the app issues that held them back.
New York Post
12-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Governor of Mexican border state, husband have US tourist visas revoked: ‘Conscience is clear'
The governor of the Mexican state of Baja and her husband had their tourist visas to the United States revoked by American officials, the according to the couple. Marina del Pilar Ávila — who has lead the border state under the leftist Morena party since 2021 — announced the situation on social media Sunday, but did not elaborate on what caused it. 'I fully trust that the situation will be satisfactorily clarified for both of us,' Ávila wrote on X. Advertisement Marina del Pilar Ávila has been governor of Baja since 2021. She and her husband had their US tourist visas revoked Future Publishing via Getty Images But her post seemed to hint that her husband Carlos Torres — also a Mexican politician in the Morena party — had something to do with the withdrawal. 'My husband, Carlos, has faced a situation, and as in every shared life, that circumstance has also reached me,' she wrote. Advertisement 'I say this with absolute clarity: Carlos has always acted with integrity, dedication, and a deep commitment to Baja California,' she added. Torres also defended himself after the visa news broke, writing on Facebook Sunday that his 'conscience is clear.' 'This proceeding does not represent a formal accusation, investigation or indictment by any authority in Mexico or the United States,' he said. US Embassy officials declined to comment on the withdrawal, explaining that visa proceedings are confidential. Advertisement Marina del Pilar Ávila and her husband Carolos Torres, who is also a politician X / @MarinadelPilar Baja comprises the upper half of the scenic peninsula extending from southern California into the Pacific Ocean, and its proximity to the US has created thriving cross-border commerce, tourism and close diplomatic ties. The governor's visa situation comes at a time of increased tensions between Mexico and the US, as President Trump has blamed Mexico for much of the region's migrant and drug crises — and targeted the Latin American country with increased tariffs before he extended them to the rest of the world. Advertisement Trump further prodded Mexico when he declared the Gulf of Mexico was to be the 'Gulf of America' after his inauguration. Mexico recently sued Google for complying with the order and renaming the Gulf on its map applications. With Post wires
Forbes
07-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Long Before AGI: Three AI Milestones That Will Challenge You
SUQIAN, CHINA - MARCH 4, 2024 - Illustration Musk says GPT4 is AGI, Suqian, Jiangsu province, China, ... More March 4, 2024. (Photo credit should read CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images) Future Publishing via Getty Images The increasing talk of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) has led many to ponder what will occur when AI surpasses human intelligence. Whether this moment is near or far depends on who you ask, but I would argue it is not the most relevant milestone we should be aware of. What are the important earlier AI milestones that will affect every human being, and which ones have already been reached? Here are three that I would argue are already upon us. AI Surpasses Human Weakness In the 2022 movie 'The Social Dilemma', Tristan Harris of The Center for Humane Technology pointed out that AI has already surpassed human weakness. What does this mean? It means that AI can already apply patterns of human psychology and human behavior to generate cues that trigger desired outcomes. Does this mean that AI understands psychology? No. It simply means that enough data exists on human behavior, concerning responses to cues, that AI programs can generate inputs that are probabilistically likely to cause humans to react in desired ways. This aspect of AI is already well in place in everything from online marketing to social media. AI Changes The Job Market AI is expected to have a fundamental impact on the workforce. This impact is already underway, with companies reporting intentions to restrict their human workforce and drive AI leverage for productivity, to new jobs emerging as a result of new AI-driven industries or AI adoption by existing industries. While the potential workforce impact of AGI is likely greater, it is worth noting that most jobs require specialized skills and knowledge. AIs that are capable of mimicking these skills, and regurgitating this knowledge in useful forms - such as emails, written reports and answers to questions, can easily reduce the number of required humans for a task, long before AGI comes to effect. AI Changes Human Education In my opinion, this is by far the most impactful of pre-AGI AI changes. AI has already exceeded many human students in standard tests, ranging from high school Advanced Placement exams to the US Medical Licensing Exam. These data points suggest that what humans need to learn in the age of AI, or at the very least how we assess human intelligence, needs to be revisited. To further complicate this situation, AI tutors are emerging, with a school of thought that AI may be a suitable or even preferred teacher for certain human learners. This development should cause us to seriously consider the value of human engagement in human learning, and articulate it much more crisply than we have been required to do before. Otherwise, there is a risk that learners will be stratified, with the most fortunate receiving both AI and human guidance, and the less resourced having to rely on AI guidance alone. Back To The Singularity - What about AGI? Given the magniture of the impacts already occuring with AI, what can we expect AGI to do? My personal view is that theGeneral in AGI implies that AIs that are closer to AGI will have a greater ability to bridge domains, and bridge modalities (such as voice, video, etc.). As such AGI can be expected to complete with humans on much more complex tasks than AI does today. Looking at the above three challenges, one can imagine that AGI will exacerbate them all from a human perspective, creating new technologies that can exploit human weakness, new job roles that AI can fill, and greater difficulties in crisply identifying the role of humans in human education. What Should You Do? I see AGI as a process and not a binary event. As the above examples show, there will be intermediate events with significant impact. Since AGI has no universally agreed-upon definition, we may also never agree on whether it was been reached. As such, the best way, in my view, to prepare for AGI is to understand the challenges and opportunities that AI already presents, and 'surf the wave', adapting to new developments as they occur. This requires building AI skills as they are relevant to your professional role, staying aware of new AI developments in your domain, and adapting your skills as AI evolves.
