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The AI talent wars show no signs of slowing, with companies making headlines weekly for their latest high-profile hires. This includes engineers they are poaching from each other or acqui-hiring but also, increasingly, senior executives that can support them as they scale up. Less than 10 days after Slack CEO Denise Dresser became OpenAI’s chief revenue officer, former British finance minister George Osborne announced he was joining Sam Altman’s company. Shortly thereafter, the crypto exchange Coinbase separately appointed Osborne to lead its internal advisory council. The announcements drew particular attention in the U.K., where commenters noted that Osborne joins a…
Two of the largest low-cost carriers in the United States are once again discussing the possibility of combining into a single airline. As it navigates a second bankruptcy restructuring in 2025, Spirit Airlines has resumed talks with Frontier Airlines about a potential merger, according to a recent Bloomberg report. The two budget airlines first floated the idea of a merger back in 2022, but before that deal could be completed, JetBlue swept in with a competing offer and won approval from Spirit’s shareholders. The deal between JetBlue and Spirit, however, was ultimately blocked by federal courts in 2024 due to antitrust concerns. …
Pickle Robot, which builds autonomous unloading robots for warehouses and distribution centers, announced a new chief financial officer just days after a report of a major deal with UPS. The Charlestown, Massachusetts-based company announced that it hired Jeff Evanson as its CFO on Thursday. Evanson had been consulting for the company since September and recently joined full time. Evanson previously served as the vice president of global investor relations and strategy at Tesla from 2011 to 2017. In that role, he worked directly with Elon Musk and helped the company raise debt and equity financing to support the launch of…
President Donald Trump’s new “Gold Card” visa program uses a novel definition of wealth as a job skill to allow the overseas wealthy to bypass immigration rules and secure citizenship, according to immigration attorneys.Trump last week announced the start of applications for the “Trump Gold Card,” a new investment visa for foreign nationals. In exchange for $1 million and a $15,000 processing fee, “Gold Card” applicants will get full-time residency in the U.S. in “record time,” according to the program’s website. The website also offers a “Corporate Gold Card,” allowing companies to pay $2 million to secure a “Gold Card”…
App developers looking to launch their programs in ChatGPT can now submit them for review and potential publication, OpenAI said Wednesday. The company also introduced a new app directory within Chat’s tools menu that has swiftly been dubbed an “app store.” In October, the company announced the arrival of apps in its chatbot, explaining that the move would bring a broader suite of capabilities to ChatGPT users. Major platforms — including Expedia, Spotify, Zillow, and Canva — announced integrations that would allow users to access their services directly from Chat conversations. Now, the company is opening up the field to a…
Instacart will pay $60 million in refunds to settle allegations by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that it deceived consumers with false advertising. The federal agency alleged Instacart misled consumers with unlawful tactics, causing them to pay higher fees while also denying refunds. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stated Instacart’s “free delivery” claims are misleading because customers are still required to pay a mandatory service fee, which can add up to 15% to their total order. The agency also said the delivery platform’s “100% satisfaction guarantee” promise is false because it implies it will provide full refunds when consumers are…
Apple on Wednesday released an updated developer license agreement that gives the company permission to recoup unpaid funds, such as commissions or any other fees, by deducting them from in-app purchases it processes on developers’ behalf, among other methods. The change will impact developers in regions where local law allows them to link to external payment systems. In these cases, developers must report those payments back to Apple to pay the required commissions or fees. The changed agreement seemingly gives Apple a way to collect what it believes is the correct fee if the company determines a developer has underreported…
TikTok has reached a deal to cede a substantial portion of its U.S. operation to a group of American investors, thus ending a years-long tussle in which the federal government has sought to force the platform to do just that. The new partnership is described as a “new TikTok U.S. joint venture” in an internal memo from ByteDance CEO Shou Chew, which was viewed by TechCrunch. That arrangement will see major American investors take over significant control of the U.S.-based business. The newly formed investor group includes cloud giant Oracle, the tech-focused private equity firm Silverlake, and MGX, an Abu…
A frantic search for the suspect in last weekend’s mass shooting at Brown University ended at a New Hampshire storage facility where authorities discovered the man dead inside and then revealed he also was suspected of killing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a former Brown student and Portuguese national, was found dead Thursday night from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Col. Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief. Investigators believe he is responsible for fatally shooting two students and wounding nine other people in a Brown lecture hall last Saturday, then killing MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro…
Amazon is adding a new feature to Alexa+ that adds a conversational AI to Ring doorbells, letting users manage deliveries, turn down sales folks, and let family or friends leave a message when they are not around. Called Greetings, the feature helps Ring determine who is visiting your house based on their apparel, actions, and what they are holding, and responds accordingly. For example, if the system sees a person in a delivery uniform dropping off a package, it will respond based on your instructions. The feature adds settings that let you specify where delivery people can leave packages, and…