Town Hall News

By Sheila Dang (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google will begin experimenting with advertising within search results powered by generative artificial intelligence, the tech giant announced on Tuesday, as it seeks to fend off rival Microsoft in the lucrative search ads market. Over the past few months, Google and Microsoft have supercharged a race to change how people search for information by infusing their search engines with generative AI, which can […]

By Foo Yun Chee LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) -EU competition regulators appealed to the bloc’s highest court on Tuesday to override a lower tribunal and make Apple pay a record 13 billion euros ($14.3 billion) in Irish back taxes. The case, which has far-reaching implications for corporate tax bills, is the most high-profile of EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager’s campaign against sweetheart deals between multinationals and European Union states. “Its outcome will […]

DOHA (Reuters) -TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said on Tuesday the U.S. state of Montana’s ban of the app was unconstitutional and that he was confident his company will prevail in a lawsuit challenging the decision. The Chinese-owned company filed a lawsuit on Monday against Montana’s decision to ban TikTok from operating in the state to protect residents from alleged intelligence gathering by China. “We believe that the Montana bill […]

(Reuters) – Arsenal forward Bukayo Saka has signed a new long-term deal at the club, the Premier League side said on Tuesday. The 21-year-old England international, who joined the north London side’s academy as an eight-year-old, has been a key figure in the last two campaigns, having already made 178 first-team appearances. Saka scored 14 goals and registered 11 assists in all competitions for Arsenal this season. He was also […]

By Yuvraj Malik and Jeffrey Dastin (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp on Tuesday started making available to users a host of AI upgrades, including to ChatGPT, its search engine Bing as well as to cloud services – an expansive launch that seeks to narrow the gap with Alphabet Inc’s Google. Among key changes is the rollout of live search results from Bing to ChatGPT, the viral chatbot from its partner OpenAI […]

By Aditya Soni and Yuvraj Malik (Reuters) – An Indian research group backed by Microsoft and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani is using generative AI, the technology behind chatbot sensation ChatGPT, for a mobile assistant that aims to make information on government schemes accessible in multiple languages. The Jugalbandi bot, named after a duet where two musicians riff off each other, uses language models from government-backed AI4Bharat and artificial intelligence tech […]

By Jennifer Rigby LONDON (Reuters) – Richer countries should be asked to better pull their weight in helping the world cope with pandemics, according to a new draft of a treaty being negotiated at the World Health Organization. Countries with more “capacities and resources” should bear a “commensurate degree” of responsibility for preparing for and responding to global health threats, the draft, seen by Reuters on Tuesday, suggests. The treaty, […]

By Jason Lange WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. government could fall behind on its bills next month – and even default on its debt – if Congress doesn’t raise a $31.4 trillion cap on government borrowing, a failure that could trigger economic calamity and panic on global financial markets. What follows is a timeline showing how a cascade of missed payments could unfold, based on the U.S. Treasury’s warning that it […]

ROME (Reuters) – Italy plans to impose restrictions on athletes from Russia and Belarus who will be allowed to compete at the fencing world championships in Milan in July, the head of its National Olympic Committee (CONI) said on Tuesday. Sofia Pozdniakova, the Olympic champion daughter of Russia’s Olympic Committee president, will be one of those to face exclusion under the restrictions, which are prompted by advice from the Italian […]