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eBay has introduced a series of user experience (UX) enhancements designed to help shoppers find local listings and fast-shipping items more efficiently. The updates include improved delivery estimates, new search filters, and clearer retail standards, making it easier for customers to make informed purchasing decisions. eBay has leveraged artificial intelligence to improve the accuracy of delivery estimates, addressing the challenges posed by its decentralized seller network. By analyzing factors such as a customer’s proximity to an item, the chosen shipping service, the seller’s shipping history, and real-time data synchronization, eBay has enhanced its predictive capabilities for delivery times. Search item cards now prominently display estimated delivery ranges for both free and paid fast shipping options. This allows customers to quickly identify items that can arrive within their desired timeframe. To further streamline the shopping experience, eBay has introduced a “Shipping and pickup” filter. This feature enables customers to easily locate items with fast delivery options, categorized as: U.S.: 2-4 days UK & Germany: 1-3 days By consolidating multiple shipping options into a single filter, eBay aims to simplify the search process and provide greater transparency on delivery times. Recognizing the growing demand for local pickup and same-day options, eBay has enhanced its local pickup feature by displaying precise driving distance on item cards. This update helps buyers assess whether a local purchase is convenient before committing to a transaction. The Shipping and pickup filter, introduced earlier this year, has also been updated to integrate various delivery options, including Free shipping, Local pickup, and Click & Collect, into a single streamlined search tool. In an effort to simplify the shopping experience, eBay has launched the eBay Top-Service badge in Germany. This new designation highlights listings that meet high-quality retail standards, such as fast and free shipping, free returns, and trusted sellers. The initiative replaces overlapping labels like “eBay Plus” and “eBay Garantie,” providing clearer signals to buyers. This article, "eBay Enhances Local and Fast-Shipping Shopping Experience with New UX Updates" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

eBay has introduced a series of user experience (UX) enhancements designed to help shoppers find local listings and fast-shipping items more efficiently. The updates include improved delivery estimates, new search filters, and clearer retail standards, making it easier for customers to make informed purchasing decisions. eBay has leveraged artificial intelligence to improve the accuracy of delivery estimates, addressing the challenges posed by its decentralized seller network. By analyzing factors such as a customer’s proximity to an item, the chosen shipping service, the seller’s shipping history, and real-time data synchronization, eBay has enhanced its predictive capabilities for delivery times. Search item cards now prominently display estimated delivery ranges for both free and paid fast shipping options. This allows customers to quickly identify items that can arrive within their desired timeframe. To further streamline the shopping experience, eBay has introduced a “Shipping and pickup” filter. This feature enables customers to easily locate items with fast delivery options, categorized as: U.S.: 2-4 days UK & Germany: 1-3 days By consolidating multiple shipping options into a single filter, eBay aims to simplify the search process and provide greater transparency on delivery times. Recognizing the growing demand for local pickup and same-day options, eBay has enhanced its local pickup feature by displaying precise driving distance on item cards. This update helps buyers assess whether a local purchase is convenient before committing to a transaction. The Shipping and pickup filter, introduced earlier this year, has also been updated to integrate various delivery options, including Free shipping, Local pickup, and Click & Collect, into a single streamlined search tool. In an effort to simplify the shopping experience, eBay has launched the eBay Top-Service badge in Germany. This new designation highlights listings that meet high-quality retail standards, such as fast and free shipping, free returns, and trusted sellers. The initiative replaces overlapping labels like “eBay Plus” and “eBay Garantie,” providing clearer signals to buyers. This article, "eBay Enhances Local and Fast-Shipping Shopping Experience with New UX Updates" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Every quarter is a new nail-biter for the chipmakerView the full article

The AI start-up’s models are being rapidly adopted by state-owned enterprises, hospitals and local governments View the full article

The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more. AI and energy are two of the most critical forces shaping the future of our planet—and their relationship is impossible to ignore today. From the significant power consumption of data centers to the growing energy requirements of AI-driven applications, the rapid adoption of AI is driving a surge in global energy demand that is outpacing the growth of renewable energy sources. This presents a crucial challenge: How to balance the environmental impact of this technology with the transformative potential it holds? The solution is more AI. Transform the environmental impact of energy production As I explored in my recent article, technologies like cloud, edge computing, and AI are reducing the carbon intensity of oil and gas production today while helping to advance the new energy systems of tomorrow. For example, consider the parallels between data intelligence for energy operations and autonomous vehicles. Much like how self-driving cars interpret real-time data about other drivers and traffic conditions to make decisions, AI-enabled devices in the oil field interpret data from wells and facilities in the network to take proactive and autonomous actions. This ensures that operations stay in the “sweet spot,” unlocking significant productivity gains while reducing costs and carbon emissions. This is only the beginning. Soon, AI will enable optimization throughout the entire production life cycle—from subsurface exploration to field development and production operations. This will allow us to optimize assets in real time, marking a significant step forward in energy production while maximizing performance and sustainability. But to realize this vision, we must unleash the full potential of AI across our industry. It must evolve from a digital tool that supports individual tasks into a fundamental capability set woven into the very fabric of our planning, decision making, and operations. AI will be the X factor for our industry. It has the potential to fundamentally transform the environmental impact of energy production. But for this to happen, we can’t rely on traditional AI and machine learning workflows. We need tailor-made solutions to meet the unique demands of the energy industry. Enter engineered AI. Engineered AI: AI for the energy industry The AI lexicon is constantly expanding and now includes everything from narrow AI to general AI to superintelligent AI, alongside the now ubiquitous generative AI. However, the unique challenges of the energy industry demand a specialized approach. To address them effectively, we at SLB propose “engineered AI”—a specialized approach to AI development focused on solving the energy sector’s most pressing challenges. Now, you may ask, “Do we really need more AI?” Well, consider this: Before a single barrel of oil or cubic foot of gas is produced, vast amounts of data are generated, analyzed, and acted upon. In fact, a single well can produce more than 10 terabytes of data per day, roughly equivalent to half of the text content in the U.S. Library of Congress. Engineered AI is purpose-built to address these complexities. It combines machine learning and generative AI with energy-specific data, physics-based modeling, and the deep domain expertise of the scientists and engineers across our industry. With open, secure, and adaptable architectures, we can unlock decades of historical data to drive innovation across the industry. As engineered AI evolves, it will enable the industry to rapidly accelerate and derisk processes such as reservoir design and management, construction of wells and facilities, and asset maintenance and performance. Ultimately, this will result in greater efficiency, reduced costs, and lower carbon emissions across the entire energy value chain. AI for the energy transition While engineered AI will be critical for improving performance and reducing emissions in the oil and gas industry today, it will also play a key role in scaling the low carbon solutions of tomorrow. Leveraging decades of subsurface data, we are already developing engineered AI solutions to identify optimal locations for carbon capture and storage and geothermal energy developments. This represents a significant step forward in reducing industrial emissions and accelerating the transition to clean, renewable energy systems. And as engineered AI capabilities mature, its impact will continue to accelerate. So, while the rapid growth of AI undoubtedly introduces new complexities to the global energy mix, I believe AI will unlock new opportunities, becoming one of our most valuable tools in delivering secure, affordable, and sustainable energy for all. When we get it right, AI isn’t just technology. It’s the key to a world with more energy and less emissions. Rakesh Jaggi is president of Digital & Integration at SLB. View the full article

Some precedents from Trump's first term do point to a scenario where depositories could re-enter the government mortgage market, according to one expert. View the full article

Pixel users will soon get an extra layer of protection against malicious calls and texts, as Google's AI-powered, real-time scam detection is rolling out widely next month. The Gemini Nano feature, which is coming to both Google Messages and Phone by Google, runs in the background and will alert you mid-call if it identifies "conversation patterns commonly associated with scammers." You'll hear a beep at the beginning of possible scam calls to indicate that the conversation is being monitored, with subsequent beeps sounding every few minutes. You'll also see an on-screen prompt when suspicious activity has been detected, with options to "End call" or mark "Not a scam." For messages, possible scam texts will be automatically moved to your Spam & blocked folder. Google says that the feature works on-device only and will not save or record any call or message content. Google rolled out live threat detection for spotting malicious apps on your Pixel late last year (the same time that Scam Detection launched in a public beta). That feature alerts you to suspicious apps—specifically, "stalkerware" that scrapes your personal data—in real time so you can evaluate and delete them if needed. How to enable scam detection on your PixelOnce scam detection is widely available in March, you can activate the feature for calls in your settings. Open Phone by Google Settings > Scam Detection and toggle scam detection on. To enable detection and filtering for spam texts in Google Messages, go to Messages Settings > Spam protection. Of course, threat and scam detection features don't absolve users of the responsibility to follow basic security best practices when it comes to calls, messages, and apps. Be wary of calls and texts from numbers you don't know, and don't engage with anyone requesting urgent action, such as providing sensitive information, sending money, or downloading software or apps to your devices. Don't click links in suspicious texts or emails, and always go directly to the website for the bank or institution to locate contact information. View the full article

Research suggests that Google doesn't index over 50% of pages, though indexing rates are improving The post Data Suggests Google Indexing Rates Are Improving appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Do you remember a time when the internet was a more chaotically personal place? When the experience of using social media wasn't so uniform? SkySpace seeks to recapture those days. The site transforms your Bluesky profile into a Myspace-esque page, complete with backgrounds, music, and a section for your top eight friends. I kind of love it. "I miss when social media was more about being social and less about media," wrote Ste Curran, who built the site, in the project's FAQ. "I miss the personality, the ugliness, the chaos, the feeling of planting a flag in tiny part of the internet and saying 'this is mine'." And SkySpace certainly delivers there, allowing you to customize basically every aspect of your profile page. Choose any image on the web as your background—including animated GIFs—and tweak the fonts, color scheme, and borders. Add a song to your profile using a Spotify, Soundcloud, or Apple Music link. List your interests. There's even a version of MySpace "friends"—complete with an optional top eight. You can view the SkySpace version of any Bluesky profile, but most of them are boring. To make yours interesting you need to sign in—head to the Skyspace homepage, type your Bluesky handle in the top-right corner, then click "Log In". You will be asked by Bluesky to authorize SkySpace; do that, and you're in. You can now click the various edit buttons to really tweak your profile. Credit: Justin Pot You can link to any image on the web to add it to the background, then choose how the image will be positioned. You can choose the color of each panel, and its transparency. You can choose the thickness and style of the line around each panel. You can even change the text font and color. Hit Submit, and the change will stick. (The way this happens is pretty interesting. Your options are actually turned into a Bluesky post as a reply. SkySpace doesn't store any of your settings on its own servers—the service just scans profiles for relevant posts and renders the page using them. As the FAQ explains it: "When you edit a section the site creates a new post tagged with #skyspace and sends it as a reply to a dead account, @skyspacenull. That effectively hides each post from your followers but SkySpace can see them, parse them and turn them into something beautiful/horrific/beautiful to you.") Explore the rest of your page and tweak everything you can. You can add a quote, a location, blurbs, a song, and even a list of interests. All of this will feel vary familiar to MySpace veterans, as will the friends section at the bottom: Credit: Justin Pot This is populated entirely from your mutuals on Bluesky—people you follow who also follow you back. You can optionally choose which eight people show up here, bringing back the most important decisions one could make on the internet in 2005: Who deserves a spot in your top eight? This site doesn't really return us to the friendlier, simpler internet of two decades ago—if only!—but it's a nice reminder of the chaos and customization we once took for granted. I recommend checking it out. View the full article

The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, first introduced during the Obama administration and brought back by Biden, was unworkable, opponents said. View the full article

Treasuries gained for a sixth straight session. Morgan Stanley say the 10-year has scope to fall back below 4% if the prevailing view on the Fed shifts. View the full article

Suzy Levian, founder of Suzy Levian New York, has announced the launch of EmpowerHer, a new initiative designed to provide financial and mentorship support to female entrepreneurs. Timed to coincide with Women’s History Month, the program aims to remove financial barriers and help women grow their businesses through grants, scholarships, and networking opportunities. Breaking Barriers for Women in Business Levian, a self-made entrepreneur in the jewelry industry, created EmpowerHer to give back to women facing the same challenges she once overcame. “Amidst the hardships of founding my own business while raising my six children, I found strength in the confidence of all the women who supported me and had faith in my success,” said Suzy Levian. “Now, I want to do the same for others.” The initiative goes beyond financial assistance, offering mentorship programs, business development resources, and networking support to women across various industries. Whether launching a startup, expanding a business, or pursuing financial independence, EmpowerHer seeks to equip women with the resources they need to succeed. A Commitment to Lasting Change EmpowerHer reflects Levian’s broader mission of empowering women to embrace their strength, pursue their goals, and overcome industry barriers. By fostering a network of female entrepreneurs, the program aims to encourage collaboration, create business growth, and inspire the next generation of women leaders. For more information on EmpowerHer, including application details, visit www.suzylevian.com. About Suzy Levian Levian, the first woman in her family’s 500-year-old jewelry legacy to establish her own business, has built a brand centered on empowerment and resilience. Known for her designs featuring The Secret Diamond, a hidden gem symbolizing inner beauty and strength, Levian’s work extends beyond jewelry into home décor and fashion. Her brand, Suzy Levian New York, is available in major department stores and top retailers nationwide. This article, "Suzy Levian Launches EmpowerHer to Support Women Entrepreneurs" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Suzy Levian, founder of Suzy Levian New York, has announced the launch of EmpowerHer, a new initiative designed to provide financial and mentorship support to female entrepreneurs. Timed to coincide with Women’s History Month, the program aims to remove financial barriers and help women grow their businesses through grants, scholarships, and networking opportunities. Breaking Barriers for Women in Business Levian, a self-made entrepreneur in the jewelry industry, created EmpowerHer to give back to women facing the same challenges she once overcame. “Amidst the hardships of founding my own business while raising my six children, I found strength in the confidence of all the women who supported me and had faith in my success,” said Suzy Levian. “Now, I want to do the same for others.” The initiative goes beyond financial assistance, offering mentorship programs, business development resources, and networking support to women across various industries. Whether launching a startup, expanding a business, or pursuing financial independence, EmpowerHer seeks to equip women with the resources they need to succeed. A Commitment to Lasting Change EmpowerHer reflects Levian’s broader mission of empowering women to embrace their strength, pursue their goals, and overcome industry barriers. By fostering a network of female entrepreneurs, the program aims to encourage collaboration, create business growth, and inspire the next generation of women leaders. For more information on EmpowerHer, including application details, visit www.suzylevian.com. About Suzy Levian Levian, the first woman in her family’s 500-year-old jewelry legacy to establish her own business, has built a brand centered on empowerment and resilience. Known for her designs featuring The Secret Diamond, a hidden gem symbolizing inner beauty and strength, Levian’s work extends beyond jewelry into home décor and fashion. Her brand, Suzy Levian New York, is available in major department stores and top retailers nationwide. This article, "Suzy Levian Launches EmpowerHer to Support Women Entrepreneurs" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Google just announced that its “loss of pulse dectection” feature for the Pixel Watch 3 has received FDA clearance and will be available to U.S. users by the end of March. Read on for more on what this feature does, how well it works (according to one early study), and how you’ll be able to enable it. The feature has been available in several European countries since late 2024. According to a Google help page on the feature, it’s currently available in “Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.” Google - Pixel Watch 3 (41mm) Smartwatch with Porcelain Band - LTE - Polished Silver $449.99 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg Get Deal Get Deal $449.99 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg What is “loss of pulse detection”? According to documents from Google, the feature is meant to sound an alarm and contact emergency services whenever the person wearing the watch loses their pulse. This could be from a heart attack, poisoning, overdose, or other cause of respiratory or circulatory failure, according to Google’s documents on what they had in mind when developing the feature. When the watch detects a “loss of pulse event” (it thinks you are wearing the watch but cannot detect a pulse with the regular heart rate sensor), the watch is programmed to do the following, in order: Perform additional checks (taking about 20 seconds) to be sure that it’s not detecting movement or a pulse. For example, it can use brighter lights in the optical heart rate sensor, and check for movement from accelerometers. Buzz your wrist and ask if you are OK. You can tap an “I’m OK” button to clear the alert. This phase lasts for 15 seconds. Play an audible alarm while displaying a 20-second countdown stating that it will place an emergency call (“No pulse detected / Calling 911 in…”) Call 911 through the watch’s LTE connection, or through a connected phone, and play a recorded message to them (not audible to you or to bystanders). The message states that your watch detected a loss of pulse and that you are unresponsive, and it gives your approximate location. While the call is ongoing, there is a “talk to 911” button displayed on the watch. You (or a bystander) can tap that button to interrupt the recorded message and speak to emergency services as a regular phone call. What is (and isn’t) loss of pulse detection good for? The loss of pulse detection feature is promising for what are sometimes called “unwitnessed” cardiac arrests, as a group of Italian healthcare professionals wrote in the journal Resuscitation. I wasn’t able to find any real-world accounts of this feature saving someone’s life, but to be fair it’s only been available for a few months. Google emphasizes that the feature is not intended to provide any treatment or be expected to save your life, and definitely cannot replace medical monitoring devices that may have been prescribed or recommended to you by your provider. It can’t prevent a loss of pulse, or determine the cause of a loss of pulse, and it can’t even be sure that its emergency calls will go through. Importantly, the loss of pulse detection process has not been tested in a variety of real-world situations that may increase the risk of false alarms, or of missing a real event. These are some of the people who might be most interested in this feature, so it’s worth noting that the feature has not been tested for people identified as high risk for sudden cardiac death, or for people who are pregnant, under 22 years of age, who have chronic pain, poor blood flow to the wrist, peripheral nerve conditions, cognitive impairment, sickle cell disease, or who have a tattoo on their wrist that may interfere with the sensor. How well does loss of pulse detection work on the Pixel Watch 3?Google has published a brief summary of the results of their testing from the watch, as part of this document that gives instructions for use. They tested the feature on 135 volunteers, including—according to a press release—stunt actors who simulated falls while wearing a tourniquet. The sensitivity in a clinical trial was 69.3%, meaning that the feature was activated 69.3% of the time that a person had an actual loss of pulse. The other 30.7% of the time, it didn’t activate. That’s not great, but the idea seems to be that it’s a lot better than nothing. The other metric of accuracy, specificity, Google described as amounting to “1 false positive call over 7.75 user-years” with 131 of their users. (That would be compatible with 131 users wearing the watch for about three weeks each, resulting in one person getting a false positive, but Google didn’t release the full results so we can’t say whether that’s exactly how the study went, or how their use compared to what you might be doing with your watch over the next 7.75 years.) If you do get a false positive, you’ll have a few chances to cancel the alert before it gets as far as calling emergency services. If you tap that “I’m OK” button, the watch will ask if you were doing anything innocuous that may have triggered it. Sleeping on your arm is one of the options; so are a loose fit on the watch band, and not wearing the watch at all. Google also notes that other factors like ambient light, or pressure on the skin, may sometimes result in false positives. How to enable (or disable) loss of pulse detection on the Pixel Watch 3Once the feature is available here, it will be an option when you're setting up a new watch. (So far it hasn't been announced for any Fitbit models or older Pixel watches, just the Pixel Watch 3 in both sizes.) To turn on loss of pulse detection for the Pixel Watch 3 that you already have, go into the Pixel Watch app, tap Safety & Emergency, and look for Loss of Pulse Detection. There is a switch that allows you to turn the feature on or off. View the full article

UK prime minister heads for Washington as president reiterates need for Europe to provide the security for KyivView the full article

A child who wasn’t vaccinated died in a measles outbreak in rural West Texas, officials there said Wednesday, the first U.S. death from the highly contagious respiratory disease since 2015. The school-aged child had been hospitalized and died Tuesday night, state officials said, amid the widespread outbreak, Texas’ largest in nearly 30 years. Since it began last month, a rash of 124 cases has erupted across nine counties. The Texas Department of State Health Services and Lubbock health officials confirmed the death to The Associated Press. The Lubbock hospital where the child had been treated didn’t respond to a request for comment. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official and a vaccine critic, said Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is “watching” cases, though he did not provide specifics on how the federal agency is assisting. He dismissed Texas’ outbreak as “not unusual” during a Wednesday meeting of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet members. “We’re following the measles epidemic every day,” Kennedy said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has told the AP it is providing vaccines as well as technical and laboratory support in West Texas, but the state health department is leading the response. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said through a spokesman that his office is in regular communication with the state health department and epidemiologists, and that vaccination teams are in the “affected area.” “The state will deploy all necessary resources to ensure the safety and health of Texans,” said spokesman Andrew Mahaleris, calling the child’s death a tragedy. The CDC has said it will only provide weekly updates on the measles outbreak, and has not yet updated its public webpage to reflect the child’s death. Texas health department data shows that a majority of the reported measles cases are in children. The virus has largely spread among rural, oil rig-dotted towns in West Texas, with cases concentrated in a “close-knit, undervaccinated” Mennonite community, health department spokesperson Lara Anton said. Gaines County, which has reported 80 cases so far, has a strong homeschooling and private school community. It is also home to one of the highest rates of school-aged children in Texas who have opted out of at least one required vaccine, with nearly 14% skipping a required dose last school year. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine — which is safe and highly effective at preventing infection and severe cases — is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old for the first shot, with the second coming between 4 and 6 years old. Vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic, and most states are below the 95% vaccination threshold for kindergartners — the level needed to protect communities against measles outbreaks. The vaccine series is required for kids before entering kindergarten in public schools nationwide. Last week, Secretary Kennedy vowed to investigate the childhood vaccine schedule that prevents measles, polio and other dangerous diseases, despite promises not to change it during his confirmation hearings. Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours. Up to 9 out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most kids will recover from the measles if they get it, but infection can lead to dangerous complications like pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death. Measles cases rose in 2024, including a Chicago outbreak that sickened more than 60. —Devi Shastri, AP health writer AP writers Amanda Seitz, Jim Vertuno, and JoNel Aleccia contributed to this report. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The market for earbuds can be hectic if you're not on top of it, with many brands and new models coming out regularly. I do keep up with them, though, and can tell you which ones are worth your money. The Sennheiser Accentum earbuds are a great value right now, after a 50% discount that lowers their price to $99.95 (originally $199.95), the lowest price they've ever been, according to price-tracking tools. Sennheiser Accentum Earbuds ANC: Yes, Battery Life: 28 hours, Interface: Touch, Microphone: Dual, IP Rating: IP54. $99.95 at Amazon $199.95 Save $100.00 Get Deal Get Deal $99.95 at Amazon $199.95 Save $100.00 The Sennheiser Accentum earbuds came out in the summer of 2024 with an "excellent" review from PCMag. They stand out in their bass frequency and sound quality as well as their ANC performance, and they use tap controls that are fully customizable in their companion app. There is also a customizable EQ in case you like your sound signature to sound a certain way. If you're not sure how to choose your EQ, there is a feature that lets you choose while you listen to different media or genres of music so you can have a set EQ profile for every scenario (like a preset for podcasts, the gym, running outdoors, etc). Combine that with the Sound Zone feature, which automatically chooses an EQ preset depending on your location, and you have yourself a sound set just for you no matter where you go (picture walking into your office and automatically blocking out noise with ANC and setting your preferred EQ automatically). The earbuds have an IP54 rating for water- and dust-resistance, so you can take them outdoors. Just be aware that these earbuds are bigger than most (some people might find that uncomfortable). The earbuds automatically pause when you take them out of your ears, which is always a nice feature. They have Bluetooth 5.3 with Appex, AAC, and SBC codecs and you can expect about six hours of battery life and 20 hours from the carrying case. For $100, these earbuds are a great value, and perfect for people who value ANC and like bass. View the full article

Nvidia forecast first-quarter revenue above market estimates on Wednesday, expecting robust demand for its leading AI chips to persist as businesses spend heavily to expand generative artificial intelligence infrastructure. Its shares rose about 1% in choppy extended trading, after closing up 3.7% in regular trading. Nvidia is the biggest beneficiary of a rally in AI-linked stocks, with its shares up more than 400% over the last two years. The company expects revenue of $43 billion, plus or minus 2% for the first quarter, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $41.78 billion according to data compiled by LSEG. Demand has grown unabated for Nvidia’s advanced chips that can speedily process the large amounts of data used by generative AI applications, as companies race each other to emerge as leaders of the new technology. Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can learn from data and improve over time. Nvidia’s optimistic forecast also helps allay doubts around a slowdown in spending on its hardware that emerged last month, following Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s claims that it had developed AI models rivaling Western counterparts at a fraction of their cost. This could add fuel to the sputtering AI rally after the Magnificent Seven stocks’ tumultuous retreat from their late-2024 peaks as Wall Street’s optimism waned under the shadow of DeepSeek’s innovations. Nvidia’s revenue for the fourth quarter grew 78% to $39.3 billion, beating estimates of $38.04 billion. —Arsheeya Bajwa, Reuters View the full article

He’s not a movie buff, so New York musician Larry Saltzman doesn’t always watch the Oscars. This year, however, he’s got a rooting interest. Saltzman taught actor Timothée Chalamet how to play guitar for the role of Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown.” In turn, Chalamet earned a best actor nomination and the film is also up for best picture at the Academy Awards on Sunday. A guitarist who’s performed with Simon & Garfunkel, Bette Midler and David Johansen, as well as in the pit at Broadway productions “Hairspray” and “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” Saltzman has developed a specialty in teaching actors how to play music for their roles. Besides Chalamet, recent pupils have included Adam Driver and Sadie Sink of “Stranger Things.” On a fellow musician’s recommendation, Saltzman first got a call from a movie studio about a decade ago. He admits to being cranky as discussions dragged on. “I almost did everything to talk them out of hiring me,” he said. Not until the fifth phone call did the studio identify the client: Meryl Streep. She needed to learn the electric guitar for her starring role in the 2015 film “Ricki and the Flash,” where she portrayed an aging rocker trying to keep her career and life together in the wake of a series of disappointments. Working with Streep is a little like a political consultant’s first client being elected president. If she likes you and word gets around, other students will follow. Teaching actors now represents about 40% of his business, the 69-year-old said. “My time spent with her was excellent,” he said of Streep. “She’s smart. She knows how to learn things. There was a steady progress over three or four months. She did very well.” Faking it just won’t do for serious actors and film directors. It’s like lip-syncing — the audience is going to tell the difference, and the characters will be less believable. That was especially true with Chalamet, who needed to sing and play at the same time for a character whose artistry is the centerpiece of the film. “When the actors come to you, they’re kind of vulnerable,” Saltzman said. “They want to do a great job.” Saltzman had more than 50 sessions with Chalamet, starting in person and retreating to Zoom during the pandemic. It wasn’t easy. Chalamet had to learn some 25 songs in the script. “Sometime in 2018 I had my first lesson with this great guitar teacher named Larry Saltzman who at some point became less of a teacher and more a co-sanity artist through COVID,” Chalamet recalled during a recent interview with The Associated Press. “I think we were keeping each other sane. We would Zoom three, four times a week and doing songs that never made it into the movie.” It helped that Saltzman is a Dylan buff. Focusing on imparting “the guitar playing of ‘pre-electric Bob,’” he taught his charge so well that Chalamet was a musical guest as well as host on “Saturday Night Live,” performing obscure Dylan cuts last month. Saltzman says, in the course of their sessions, Chalamet “went the extra mile” and unearthed “very early, obscure” Dylan songs that weren’t even in the script. Saltzman generally likes teaching actors more than common folk, in part because there’s a specific goal: They need to learn certain songs to inhabit a particular character. When it’s open-ended — someone just wants to learn the guitar — it can be more of a challenge, he said. Saltzman also believes that it’s an advantage to not be a regular teacher, someone who may approach clients with a more rigid style. Actor Johnny Cannizzaro said he appreciated Saltzman’s calming “bedside manner” and felt welcome in an apartment filled with guitars. Cannizzaro has the role of E Street Band member “Little Steven” Van Zandt in the upcoming Bruce Springsteen biopic, “Deliver Me From Nowhere.” “There was never really a moment where he expressed any sort of frustration or impatience with me during a session,” said Cannizzaro, who has background playing keyboards but not guitar. “If anything, he would express some excitement when you grasped something he was teaching. That put me at ease.” Saltzman also studied films of Van Zandt so he wasn’t just teaching Cannizzaro guitar — he was showing specifics of how Van Zandt plays, the actor said. Beyond teaching, Saltzman’s time is divided between studio work, playing in New York clubs accompanying different artists and Broadway — he’s just about to begin “Smash.” It’s an eye-opening experience for him to later see his students on screen. That was particularly the case when he saw “A Complete Unknown” and marveled at Chalamet’s ability as an actor. All the more reason to watch the Oscars, and to take some pride in his own work. “In my own humble way, I’m a small gear in that machinery,” he said. “What is rewarding is knowing that in some small way I’m contributing to making a better film.” —David Bauder, AP entertainment writer View the full article

Results slightly exceed Wall Street expectations View the full article

"Don't Google yourself" is terrible advice. If there's personal information about you floating around on the web, you should be aware of it—because, despite common misconceptions, the internet is not written in ink. If your info is popping up on Google Search, you might be able to get rid of it. On Wednesday, Google announced its redesigned "Results about you" tool. This feature, first rolled out in 2023, looks out for your personal information on Google Search, including your name, phone number, email addresses, and home addresses. The tool then tries to remove any information it does find. Note that this doesn't necessarily delete that information from the website in question; rather, it affects outdated info that appears in Search. For example, you requested a site take down your address, or you edited a webpage to reflect your new phone number, but that deleted data still shows up when people search your name. Using Google's "Results about you" toolHere's how the tool works. First, head to the "Results about you" website. If this is your initial experience with Results about you, click Get started. You'll be presented with a series of pop-ups, walking you through what to expect: You share your personal info, and Google scans the web looking for that info. If Google finds that info, you can ask the company to remove it. Click Next through each pop-up, then punch in your personal information, which includes your full name, nicknames, home address, phone number, and email. For example, I included my full name, a nickname, two recent addresses, my phone number, and three email addresses. Confirm you are indeed the person who this contact info belongs to, then hit Continue. From here, you'll have the option to choose how you want to receive alerts if Google finds your information on the web. You can have Google email you, send you push notifications through the Google app, or both. Once these settings are confirmed, you're done! Google says the process usually takes a few hours, and the company will notify you when it is finished—presumably via the alert method you previously chose. Heading back to the Results about you dashboard, you'll find a "Results found" section, which will list any personal information Google happened to find in its search. There are two categories: "Results to review," which lists any data Google returns, and "Reviewed," which stores any results you've already checked out. Under Settings, you can change how Google notifies you with its results, as well as any of the data you want Google looking for. When you do ask Google to remove a piece of personal information from Search, you'll find that inquiry is added to a section beneath "Results found" called "Removal requests." Here, you'll see whether your requests are in progress, approved, denied, or undone (if you decide to undo a request). You can also send a request to remove a result from the search page itself. Just click the three dots next to any given search result, and choose "Remove this result." Then, select the reason why—likely, "It shows my personal info and I don't want it there." View the full article

All the recent aviation disasters and close calls have people worried about the safety of flying. The midair collision that killed 67 near Washington, D.C., last month was the worst disaster. But there was also the plane that crashed and flipped over upon landing in Toronto, the fiery plane crash in Philadelphia and a plane crash in Alaska that killed 10, as well as two small planes that collided in Arizona. Those all came before the scary moment this week in Chicago when a Southwest Airlines plane had to abort its landing to avoid crashing into another plane crossing the runway. A plane landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport also had to perform a go-around maneuver Tuesday to avoid getting too close to another aircraft departing from the same runway. That’s not to mention the time earlier this month when a Japan Airlines plane clipped a parked Delta plane while it was taxiing at the Seattle airport, or the security concerns that arose after stowaways were found dead inside the wheel wells of two planes and aboard two other flights. In addition, a United Airlines plane caught fire during takeoff at the Houston airport and a passenger opened an emergency exit door on a plane while it was taxiing for takeoff in Boston. So of course people are wondering whether their flight is safe? What happened in the worst cases? The Jan. 29 collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army helicopter killed everyone aboard both aircraft. It was the deadliest plane crash in the U.S. since Nov. 12, 2001, when a jet slammed into a New York City neighborhood just after takeoff, killing all 260 people on board and five on the ground. After that, there hadn’t been a deadly crash of any kind involving a U.S. airliner since February 2009. crasd Everyone survived that crash. Crashes are more common involving smaller planes, like the single-engine Cessna that crashed in Alaska on Feb. 6, or the two small planes that collided in Arizona on Feb. 19. Ten people including the pilot were killed in the Alaska crash, and two died in the Arizona one. A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on Jan. 31, killing the six people onboard and another person on the ground. That Learjet generated a massive fireball when it smashed into the ground in a neighborhood not long after taking off from a small airport nearby. How worried should I be? Fatal crashes attract extraordinary attention partly because they are rare. The track record of U.S. airlines is remarkably safe, as demonstrated by the long stretch between fatal crashes. But deadly crashes have happened more recently elsewhere around the world, including one in South Korea that killed all 179 people aboard in December. There were also two fatal crashes involving Boeing’s troubled 737 Max jetliner in 2018 and 2019. And last January, a door plug blew off a 737 Max while it was in flight, raising more questions about the plane. Federal officials have been raising concerns about an overtaxed and understaffed air traffic control system for years, especially after a series of close calls between planes at U.S. airports. Among the reasons they have cited for staffing shortages are uncompetitive pay, long shifts, intensive training and mandatory retirements. President Donald Trump added to those concerns when he blamed the midair collision over Washington D.C. on the “obsolete” air traffic control system that airports rely on and promised to replace it. Even with all that, officials have tried to reassure travelers that flying is the safest mode of transportation. And statistics back that up. The National Safety Council estimates that Americans have a 1-in-93 chance of dying in a motor vehicle crash, while deaths on airplanes are too rare to calculate the odds. Figures from the U.S. Department of Transportation tell a similar story. What is being done? The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating these recent crashes and close calls to determine what caused them and look for ways to prevent recurrences. There have already been troubling revelations about the midair collision, but it will take more than a year to get the full report on what happened. The NTSB always recommends steps that could be taken to prevent crashes from happening again, but the agency has a long list of hundreds of previous recommendations that have been ignored by other government agencies and the industries it investigates. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said the public is right to say that crashes like the recent ones are unacceptable. That is why he plans to make sure “safety is paramount” as he leads the agency that regulates all modes of transportation. “I feel really good about where we’re at and where we’re going and the plans we have in place to make sure we even make the system safer and more efficient than it is today,” Duffy said in a Fox News interview. —Josh Funk, Associated Press View the full article

Shoppers expect fast, accurate, and personalized search results—but many retailers still struggle with product discovery. The State of Product Discovery in Digital Commerce 2025 report, based on insights from 200+ retailers, reveals how AI-driven search is transforming ecommerce. Conducted by London Research in partnership with Crownpeak, this report reveals how leading brands are: Optimizing site search with AI to improve relevance and reduce friction Personalizing results in real-time to increase conversions Investing in smarter product discovery tools to stay ahead in 2025 Download the full report to discover the product discovery strategies driving retail success. View the full article

If you’ve tried to buy or sell a house, you probably worked with a licensed real estate professional—there are more than 3 million of them in the U.S., and their advice and assistance are often invaluable. Real estate agents know the properties in their area and can help you locate them (and weed out deceptive listings) and guide you through every step of the process. A good real estate agent who has your best interests at heart is worth their commission and then some. But not everyone who has a real estate license is a good agent—or an ethical one. Sometimes the red flags around an agent are big and obvious, but sometimes real estate pros engage in subtle little scams that aren’t obvious at all. These down-low tricks aren’t always illegal, but they’re unethical—and they can cost you big time when it comes to what’s likely the biggest financial purchase in your life. If you’re looking for a real estate pro to help you with your house hunt or sale, watch out for these subtle scams. Sketchy referralsOne of the most subtly unethical things a real estate agent can do is push sketchy referrals on you. It’s normal for an agent to help you find a mortgage broker, a home inspector, or even a contractor to help you figure out if a house is a good fit for you. It crosses into unethical territory, though, if they try to insist you use their referrals or even push you to use them. You can defend yourself from this simply by getting other referrals for any services you need, especially when it comes to mortgage brokers. Real estate agents sometimes have what are called “preferred lenders,” and there can be benefits to using them (like a smoother process)—but you never have to use them. Getting a few other quotes will help you figure out if the person your agent suggests is doing right by you. Buying a listingIf you’re selling a house, you know that one of the trickiest aspects is choosing which real estate agent to work with. Agents know there’s competition for that commission, so there’s always a sales pitch. One subtle little scam some agents pull is simply telling you what you want to hear: That your house will sell for a higher price than what other property experts are telling you. It’s called “buying a listing.” They know that if they confidently assure you that your house will sell for significantly more, you’ll be enticed to sign with them. And they know that when offers come in lower than they promised they can blame the shifting market or some aspect of the property for the discrepancy—and you will probably not be willing to walk away from an offer even if it’s not as high as you were led to expect. A good way to avoid this trap is to do your own research. Get several estimates on what your property could sell for, and look for comparable properties in your area that have recently sold. If an agent comes back with a suggested listing price that is way out of line with the rest, be suspicious. SteeringIf you’re working with a real estate agent and you notice that they never show you homes in specific areas, or ignore your preferences and only show you homes in certain areas, you might be the victim of “steering.” Steering is the practice of trying to steer you into a certain neighborhood or area based entirely on some attribute like race, religion, or gender. It can be very subtle—the homes you’re seeing are in your price range and match your list of must-haves, they’re just always in the same area. Steering isn’t always obvious, either—if you’re single and your agent never seems to show you a large house in a family-oriented neighborhood despite your stated preference for just that, they might be steering you toward what they think of as a more “appropriate” property, your desires be damned. Some signs that you’re being steered include a lot of personal opinions from your agent on who should live in certain properties and a pattern of ignoring your preferences in terms of property size, type, and location. Personal propertyIf your agent sweetens a deal by helping you reduce your future tax burden with a lower official price on the home, you might think you’ve found the brilliant real estate hustler of your dreams. This is usually done by suggesting that a portion of the sales price be listed as payment for “personal property” and not the house itself. This reduces the actual price of the house, which in turn will reduce future tax payments. It’s true that it’s not uncommon to buy stuff like furniture or appliances from a seller, and these items are usually considered personal property and a separate sale. But lying about this is, of course, illegal, and opens you up to a long list of potential consequences. Lax marketingWhen you hire an agent to help sell your house, they’re not just someone to rubber-stamp paperwork and be there for open houses. They’re supposed to market your home to prospective buyers. When you sign with a real estate agent, they should detail what they’re going to do in that department—from advertising to web listings, staging, and even video brochures or virtual tours. Some agents will promise the moon when closing you as a client, then actually do very little in terms of marketing, which saves them time and money. They might still sell your home, of course, but they won’t work as hard for that commission as you expected. Your best practice is to make the marketing plan part of the contract—and then follow up to make sure the plan is being followed. Bait listingsIf you landed with your current real estate agent because you spied a listing for a house that was absolutely perfect and much cheaper than you expected—only to be told that the house had already sold—you may have been the victim of a bait listing. Bait listings are sometimes old listings that saw a lot of interest, so the agent leaves them up in order to attract latecomers, but they can also be deceptive listings designed to lure interest. Once the agent has you in their office or on the phone, they admit the listing is gone—but assure you they can find the right property for you regardless. Off-marketIf your real estate agent tells you that your house isn’t in prime condition and suggests you sell it off-market—without listing it publicly on the multiple listing service (MLS)—they might be setting you up for a subtle scam involving a property investor they already have a relationship with. Once you agree to sell off-market (because the agent has convinced you that sprucing the place up properly is prohibitively expensive), the investor magically appears, offering to buy the place as-is. You wind up selling at a discount, the investor does the sprucing up you could have done, and sells it for a profit—a profit that could have been yours. Meanwhile, the agent may have gotten away with a triple commission: From you and the investor on your home’s sale, then later when the investor sells the house again. Always be skeptical of an off-market suggestion and drill down into how it helps you to have fewer potential buyers—and get your own estimates on repairs and improvements that will make your home more marketable. The ghost buyerSketchy real estate agents sometimes invent phantom buyers when it serves them. There are usually two basic scenarios: When you’re selling your house and looking for an agent, they contact you and tell you they have an interested buyer, or your property fits the bill for someone they know of. Then they push for you to hire them as your agent. That interest buyer probably vanishes—they were just a way to get the agent’s foot in your door. When you’re buying a house and you’ve found a property you want to make an offer on, suddenly there’s another interested buyer, and you’re advised to improve your offer on the house to ensure you get the property. It’s entirely possible there is another buyer, of course, but it’s also an effective (if unethical) way of getting you to pay a higher price, with a higher commission. The best way to defend against ghost buyers is to choose your listing agent according to your needs, and not just because they rang you up out of the blue, and to know at the outset how much you’re willing to pay for a house—and commit to sticking to that. View the full article

Amazon on Wednesday unveiled a generative-AI infused Alexa that it says will allow the popular voice assistant to have more personality, check a user’s tone and even plan romantic dates. But unlike before, when Alexa was offered for free on any Alexa-enabled devices, customers will have to pay Amazon a monthly fee of $19.99 for the revamped voice assistant, which it calls “Alexa+”. However, the generative-AI powered Alexa will be free for Prime members, who pay the company a monthly or annual fee for free delivery and other perks. At a media event held in New York City, Amazon executives showed off the update to the ten-year old digital assistant with the new features aimed at boosting sales and interactions with Alexa-enabled devices. The company says Alexa+ is able to have conversations with a more natural, humanlike flow and can learn more about a user — such as dietary preferences or allergies — the more it’s used. “I’m not just an assistant, I’m your new best friend in the digital world,” Alexa+ said during an onstage demo on Wednesday. At the event, Panos Panay, Amazon’s vice president of devices & services, listed off the other things the voice assistant can now do, such as create study plans, text a babysitter and call an Uber ride for a friend. He and other company executives also said Alexa can fetch videos from Ring cameras — such as checking whether a user’s dog was walked that day — and is able to remember handwritten recipes, emails and other documents shared with it. “She’s smarter than she’s ever been before, but she’s also approachable,” Panay said. Alexa is built into products such as smart speakers, Amazon’s Fire TVs and earbuds. The Seattle-based tech giant launched its popular voice assistant in 2014 alongside its first Echo device, which responds to voice commands. Panay said Amazon has sold more than 600 million Alexa-enabled devices and that user engagement grew 20% last year compared to 2023. Some market estimates have shown Alexa holds the largest market share among voice assistants. The revamped Alexa uses large language models, including some developed by Amazon and others by Anthropic, the generative AI startup the tech giant has poured billions into. Alexa+ has a “model-agnostic system,” allowing it to select the best AI model for the tasks it wants to complete, said Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s vice president for Alexa and Echo. Amazon says it will start rolling out “early access” to Alexa+ in the U.S. next month. It will then roll it out “in waves” internationally, starting with certain Echo devices. The upgraded assistant will be available across Alexa-supported devices, but some features are only built for products with screens. Amazon’s announcement came more than a year after the company teased an early version of an AI-infused Alexa at a media event held to show off new devices. At the time, Amazon had said it was working on a “speech-to-speech” model that would allow Alexa to exhibit humanlike attributes, such as laughter and phrases like “uh-huh” during conversations. During the demo on Wednesday, Amazon highlighted features it had previously kept under lid. In one exchange, Panay showed the new Alexa a video of the crowd in the room to test a feature that apparently allows it to sense the surrounding mood. Panay asked Alexa+ if the crowed “looked pumped” to which it responded the room full of journalists were “paying attention to you and excited.” Like its predecessor, Alexa+ is enabled when users say the voice assistant’s name — but executives on Wednesday said users now only have to say that wake word once before having a prolonged, back and forth exchange. Still, demonstrators would occasionally say “Alexa” again if it seemed like the voice assistant didn’t catch something. Amazon competes in the smart speaker market with other tech giants, including Apple and Google. Though it has had success in selling devices, the company’s other goal — driving Amazon purchases through Alexa — has been more challenging to pull off. Amazon has said Alexa customers have used their device to shop. However, many rely on it mostly for menial tasks, such as playing music, asking questions or checking the weather. A subscription fee for the revamped Alexa will allow the company to offset costs related to AI development and help its devices operations become more profitable. —Haleluya Hadero and Wyatte Grantham-Philips, Associated Press View the full article