Shares in Alphabet, the owner of Google and YouTube, surged after it issued its first ever dividend and revealed that profits had surged in the last quarter. Sundar Pichai, CEO, hailed the transition to artificial intelligence as a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" as his company races to integrate the technology across its business. Investors cheered the firm's earnings, and news of a 70bn stock buyback. Google posted 80.5bn in revenue for the first quarter of 2024, up 15% on the same period last year, and reported 1.89 in earnings per share, up from 1.17 – surpassing analysts' expectations on both counts. Shares in Alphabet were up roughly 15% in after-hours trading.

The world's fourth industrial revolution is ushering in big shifts in the workplace. Professor Steven Dhondt has a reassurance of sorts for people in the EU worried about losing their jobs to automation: relax. Dhondt, an expert in work and organisational change at the Catholic University Leuven in Belgium, has studied the impact of technology on jobs for the past four decades. Fresh from leading an EU research project on the issue, he stresses opportunities rather than threats. 'We need to develop new business practices and welfare support but, with the right vision, we shouldn't see technology as a threat,' Dhondt said.

The Federal Trade Commission is opening a dedicated technology office that will place Silicon Valley under more scrutiny and help it stay on top of emerging tech and trends in a fast-moving market. Commissioners voted 4-0 on Thursday to create the office. Under the direction of chair Lina Khan, the FTC has trained its focus on tech companies. Last year, Epic Games agreed to a record $520 million settlement following FTC allegations that it violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The agency has also attempted to block Microsoft's proposed takeover of Activision Blizzard and sued to stop NVIDIA from buying ARM (NVIDIA backed out of the deal).

Whether you are in manufacturing, retail, marketing, healthcare, or business, artificial intelligence and automation practices are starting to shift the way industries operate. A Deloitte study recently found that over 50% of organizations are planning on incorporating the use of AI and automation technologies in 2023. While many top executives are worried about the risks of AI usage, other high-achieving organizations are adopting new tech-savvy operational processes. A survey of Global 500 companies found that leaders choosing to invest in AI and automation business tools and software solutions expect to see significant growth within the next few years. How business practices are expected to change in the new year as artificial intelligence and ... [ ] automation continues to transform business operations.

The California Insurance Commissioner and the California Department of Insurance (CDI) recently issued a bulletin regarding industry bias and discrimination. The bulletin acknowledged allegations of bias and discrimination in the industry and gave notice to insurance players that the CDI is watching and that "bias and discrimination in any form will be investigated and will not be tolerated." The bulletin is addressed to "All Admitted and Non-Admitted Insurance Companies, Licensees, and Other Interested Parties" -- clearly intending to cause awareness and attention beyond the carrier ecosystem. So, what does this mean? California has been a leader in following Europe regarding consumer protection laws.

Meta's new AI chatbot BlenderBot 3 has some rather strong opinions about its boss, Mark Zuckerberg. In response to questions from journalists, the new chatbot described the CEO as'creepy and manipulative' and said that his business practices are'not always ethical'. BlenderBot 3, which gives answers by searching the internet, also said it's'funny' that Zuckerberg'still wears the same clothes'. Meta introduced BlenderBot 3 last week and let people try it out as part of a public demo, but it's since said the bot'can make untrue or offensive statements'. Meta's new AI chatbot BlenderBot 3 has some rather strong opinions about its boss, Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) Max Woolf, a data scientist at BuzzFeed, posted a screenshot to Twitter of his own conversation with BlenderBot 3. It said of Zuckerberg: 'He is a good businessman, but his business practices are not always ethical.

A model that never makes it into production is one that is incapable of producing value for a business or organization. Unfortunately, the percentage of models that make it out of development is still low. However, the field of MLOps is focused on this very problem and has come up with a number of solutions, best practices, and tools to help organizations effectively integrate machine learning and AI models into their business practices. These MLOps trends will be helpful beyond just 2022. To help you learn the tools and skills you need to implement MLOps in your organization, ODSC East 2022 will feature talks, workshops, and training sessions led by some of the best and brightest minds in the field.

Artificial Intelligence, is a simple thought of having machines imitating human behaviour. This harmless idea over years fueled research and development. Technology and innovation worked as'hand and glove' to bring AI to the forefront. Today, it is the leading generator of revenue. According to the research firm Gartner, AI will recover 6.2 billion productivity hours by 2021 and generate $2.9 trillion in the value of the business when combined with human intelligence.

A new year is approaching and, thanks to the pandemic, brings with it the prospect of New Year's Eve celebrations built around the video calls and digital health passes that became a norm in 2021"A lot of these technologies were initially adopted at a time when we thought this was a short emergency," Frederike Kaltheuner, tech policy analyst and Director of the European AI Fund, a philanthropic initiative focused on shaping the role of artificial intelligence in Europe, told DW. "And I think 2022 is the year we're going to realise that this isn't really going away." In practice, this means that, while lockdowns and tangled supply chains weighed on the retail, service and industry sectors, Big Tech players reported record profits and continued to grow. From tech hardware to digital advertising to self-driving cars, during the pandemic Silicon Valley giants like Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft have moved further into each other's turf. This is according to Alexander Fanta, an EU tech policy journalist for netzpolitik, a German news outlet that covers the digital sphere. "The power of these companies is that they're so multidimensional. They corner different markets and then leverage the power gained from one market to dominate another," he told DW.

Welcome to the bot-centric future, which is set to make smartphone users -- i.e. almost everyone in the Western hemisphere -- navigate the internet in a chit-chat fashion with a virtual assistant. But "assistant" will soon become too impersonal. Alexa, Siri and others will cross the line from impersonal robots to entities that know our habits, routines, hobbies and interests just as well as, if not better than, our closest friends and relatives. For companies, this is a winning formula. Smartphone users have proved they are only willing to download and spend time in a limited number of apps.