
Category: Tech Insider
Amazon is slashing 9,000 more workers amid a layoff wave that has expanded past tech to include bellwethers like Dow...
In a memo sent to employees on Monday, Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy said the company would be eliminating 9,000 positions from its ranks. Mike Blake/Reuters Amazon, Meta, and Twitter employees are the latest to be hit by a wave of layoffs. Over the past few months, layoffs have expanded outside of tech, media, and finance as Dow and 3M announced cuts. See the full list…
Bing AI’s celebrity mode helped me speak to 7 famous stars, politicians, and fictional characters. Some were too robotic, while...
Lucasfilm/”Attack of the Clones”// Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage // FOX via Getty Images Users of Microsoft’s Bing AI chatbot recently discovered that it has a celebrity mode. The celebrity mode allows users to impersonate celebrities. Insider tried the celeb mode on famous characters and people to test its accuracy. Users of Microsoft’s Bing AI chatbot recently discovered the application has a secret mode that can impersonate celebrities,…
SXSW may be in Texas, but Silicon Valley Bank’s implosion is casting an uneasy cloud over the tech festival
Silicon Valley Bank employees react to the bank’s collapse Getty Images As the South by Southwest tech conference began in Austin on Friday, Silicon Valley Bank failed. The annual festival is known for attracting hundreds of startup founders and tech investors. Attendees from startupland are privately scrambling to make sense of the news. As South By Southwest kicked off in earnest on Friday, many attendees…
More than 110 VC firms, led by General Catalyst, are banding together in support of Silicon Valley Bank
Hemant Taneja, the CEO and managing director of General Catalyst, which organized a statement in support of Silicon Valley Bank. General Catalyst More than 110 venture capital firms have signed a statement in support of Silicon Valley Bank. SVB was shut down by regulators on Friday after its losses on bond sales sparked a bank run. Some VCs at signatory firms have criticized investors who…
How much will Silicon Valley Bank customers get back from the money they deposited? They may not recover it all,...
The Silicon Valley Bank logo. Getty Images SVB was shut down by the FDIC on Friday. Depositors can’t withdraw their money yet. That’s creating a cash crunch across startups and other businesses in Silicon Valley and beyond. If you are a depositor of SVB, how much money will you get back in the end? Silicon Valley Bank was shut down on Friday and customers can’t…
An ex-Pornhub moderator said some videos that should’ve been taken down were missed and ‘stayed up for months’
Netflix is releasing its Money Shot: The Pornhub Story documentary on Wednesday. Netflix A former Pornhub video moderator said content that should’ve been removed “stayed up for months.” The ex-MindGeek worker made the claims in the new Netflix documentary Money Shot: The Pornhub Story. It explores the dark side of porn through interviews with performers and industry workers. Editor’s note: This article contains references to…
Mass layoffs including workers who are pregnant or on parental leave may seem unfair, but it’s not illegal in the...
Labor lawyers told Insider that people who are pregnant or on FMLA leave aren’t automatically protected from mass layoffs. Izusek/Getty Images Critics have slammed some companies for laying off US workers on parental leave in recent months. But staff on protected leave aren’t immune from mass layoffs, labor lawyers told Insider. It can be discriminatory, but only if companies target employees because of their leave…
Wondering what the hell just happened at SVB? Here’s everything you need to know
CEO of SVB Financial Greg Becker. Photo by Marla Aufmuth/Getty Images for Watermark Conference for Women 2018 Silicon Valley Bank, a once-trusted banker to startups, was closed down by regulators on Friday. The collapse sent shockwaves through the industry as startups worried about logistics and payroll. SVB became the latest casualty of a bank run as VCs and founders rushed to protect their funds. Only…
Elon Musk apologized after publicly accusing an employee of using their disability as an ‘excuse.’ An employment lawyer called the...
Elon Musk has apologized for his comments about a former Twitter employee with muscular dystrophy. Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images Elon Musk apologized on Tuesday for mocking a former Twitter employee who has muscular dystrophy. Musk had accused the employee of not doing “actual work” and told him to justify why he should keep his job. A lawyer told Insider Musk’s behavior shows a “hostile”…
Gen Z’s newest relationship trend: dating a friend
Instead of relying on dating apps or meeting a stranger, Gen Z is increasingly finding romance in their friend groups. Arif Qazi / Insider Young people are adopting an old-fashioned solution for the humiliation and hassle of dating apps Whether it’s a meetup at a dimly lit bar, an awkward blind date, a speed-dating event, or even an answer to a classified ad in the…
Google’s CEO touts desk-sharing, says the office can feel like a ‘ghost town’ with many employees in the office just...
Google CEO Sundar Pichai reminded Google employees to be mindful of spending. Brandon Wade/Reuters Google CEO Sundar Pichai justified a new desk-sharing program at the company’s cloud unit, per CNBC. This was after employees taunted the “corpspeak” used while announcing the new program. Pichai said many staffers work in the office two days just a week, so it can feel like a “ghost town.” Sundar…
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Cortana were ‘dumb as a rock’
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said voice assistants like Siri, Cortana and Alexa ‘just don’t work.’ Brad Barket/Getty Images Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella said voice assistants like Siri and Alexa were “dumb as a rock.” His comments come as excitement around generative AI has reached a fever pitch. Microsoft has poured more than $10 billion into ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called the first…
Hershey says it stands by its International Women’s Day campaign featuring a trans woman even after calls to boycott the...
Hershey is facing calls for a boycott over its International Womens’ Day campaign. Angus Mordant/Bloomberg/Getty Images Hershey says it stands by its International Women’s Day campaign featuring a trans woman. The campaign featured Fae Johnstone, a trans woman, on chocolate-bar wrappers. The campaign triggered conservatives on social media who are calling for a boycott of the company. Chocolate company Hershey said it stands by its…
Meet the 52 Black women who raised $1 million or more in VC funding since 2021
Ami Colé founder Diarrha N’Diaye Katherine Pekala Before 2021, only 93 Black female founders had raised $1 million or more in venture capital. Companies led by Black women typically receive less than 1% of all venture capital funding. Insider is compiling a list of Black female founders who’ve raised $1 million or more in VC since 2021. See more stories on Insider’s business page. Black…
Twitter employees’ Google Chat service was disabled without explanation before the new round of layoffs, report says
Elon Musk took over Twitter on October 27. Muhammed Selim Korkutata / Anadolu Agency The Google Chat service used by Twitter staff was disabled last week, The Verge reported. The company’s Slack also went down on Wednesday, per previous reports. Some employees think the move was intended to limit internal communication, per The Verge. Twitter employees found themselves with fewer options to communicate after their…
Check out the new Nokia G22 that you can repair at home using a guitar pick and screwdriver — without...
The Nokia G22, built with repairability in its DNA. HMD Global The new Nokia G22, which was rolled out Feb. 25, is designed to be repaired at home. Its battery can be replaced in 5 minutes with a guitar pick, OO screwdriver, and sim card tray pin. The device comes in two colors, has a battery life of up to three days, and starts at…
The housing market’s biggest shocker: Your rent may actually fall this year
The apartment market is “rapidly shifting in favor of renters,” and that means tenants can expect lower rent and a lot of new perks. Robyn Phelps/Insider Tenants are finally gaining power in the housing market It’s been a painful couple of years for renters. Discounts from early in the pandemic, for those lucky enough to nab them, eventually gave way to hefty rent hikes. Lines…
Tesla lost its edge — and Elon Musk has no one but himself to blame
Tesla spent the past two decades defying expectations and disrupting the automotive industry, but now it’s starting to fall behind the rest of the auto industry. Getty; Marianne Ayala/Insider How Elon Musk turned his crown jewel into an overpriced jalopy Mark has been driving a Tesla since 2014. But after almost a decade of loyalty to Elon Musk’s electric-car company, his faith is starting to…
It’s not just you: Cybercriminals are also using ChatGPT to make their jobs easier
Tyler Le/Insider The cybersecurity industry is already seeing evidence of ChatGPT’s use by criminals. ChatGPT can quickly generate targeted phishing emails or malicious code for malware attacks. AI companies could be held liable for chatbots counseling criminals since Section 230 may not apply. Whether it is writing essays or analyzing data, ChatGPT can be used to lighten a person’s workload. That goes for cybercriminals too….
Microsoft is using ChatGPT to teach robots how to get you a soda and warm up your lunch
Microsoft’s researchers think about a day when people can provide directions to at-home robots using ChatGPT. Sean Gallup/Getty Images Microsoft is testing what occurs when ChatGPT takes management of small robots. Researchers at Microsoft think about a day when people can provide directions like “heat up my lunch” to at-home robots. Though the corporate cautions that the tech should not be deployed with out “careful…
‘It’s clear that Mark Zuckerberg idolizes Elon Musk,’ Wall Street analyst says
Mark Zuckerberg (left) and Elon Musk. Kevin Dietsch/Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images Mark Zuckerberg said Meta is including a verification subscription service to Facebook and Instagram. Meta’s new product mirrors Twitter’s verification subscription enterprise launched under Elon Musk. Wall Street analyst Mark Schilsky says idolatry is at play. Elon Musk’s possession of social media giant Twitter could also be altering his relationship with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg….
Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates says the rise of AI poses a threat to Google’s search engine profit
Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates said AI is the “biggest thing in this decade” Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Bill Gates said in a podcast Google’s search engine earnings might fall as Microsoft strikes into AI. Gates said AI is the “biggest thing in this decade” and will reshuffle the tech house. Microsoft unveiled an AI-powered Bing in a problem to Google’s search engine dominance. Bill Gates —…
Uber is cutting some employees as part of a ‘more rigorous strategy’ to performance reviews
Dara Khosrowshahi, Chief Executive Officer, Uber, speaks onstage through the 2021 Concordia Annual Summit on September 22, 2021 in New York City. A consultant for Uber told Insider the corporate is conducting “even more rigorous” performance reviews this year. Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Concordia Summit Uber is conducting “even more rigorous” performance reviews this year, a consultant told Insider. The firm plans to backfill the…
Why flying has turned into a nightmare of delayed flights, lost luggage, and tiny seats
Shortsighted choices that prioritized effectivity and price cuts over high quality and consolation have made air journey and airline customer support a complete mess. Getty; Marianne Ayala/Insider It all began with one dumb regulation An opulent resort in New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport appears to be haunted by the ghost of aviation’s good occasions. The TWA Hotel provides visitors a luxurious keep, with 500…
Mark Zuckerberg announces a paid subscription model for Instagram called ‘Meta Verified’
Meta Verified will cost $11.99 on the net. Getty Images Mark Zuckerberg announced a Instagram paid subscription called Meta Verified. Meta Verified will cost $11.99 for internet users or $14.99 on iOS. It will launch subsequent week in Australia and New Zealand and in more nations quickly. Mark Zuckerberg announced a new paid subscription service called Meta Verified that can give verified badges to paying…
Twitter will reserve text-message authentication for Twitter Blue subscribers because it’s being ‘abused’ by ‘unhealthy actors’
Twitter is looking for new income streams since being purchased by Elon Musk. Getty Images Twitter said only Twitter Blue subscribers can use textual content messages to secure accounts from March 20. Text message two-factor authentication was being “abused” by “bad actors,” the corporate said. A Twitter Blue subscription prices $11 a month on Android or iOS. Twitter is proscribing using textual content messages for…
A $400 sweater tricks facial-recognition cameras into thinking you’re a zebra or a giraffe to protect your privateness, its maker...
The Manifesto Collection was designed to spotlight the value of privateness. Cap-able An Italian startup has created a clothes line that aims to trick facial-recognition cameras. It makes use of patterns created by algorithms to idiot cameras into thinking the wearer will not be human. The garments could make you look like a giraffe, zebra, or canine in the eyes of surveillance cameras. Facial-recognition expertise…
Elon Musk says the end of 2023 is a ‘good timing’ to find a new CEO for Twitter because the...
Elon Musk. Susan Walsh/AP Elon Musk says he plans to have somebody take over his job as Twitter CEO close to the end of 2023. He said end-2023 would be “good timing” to hand over the reins because Twitter ought to be “stable” then. Musk said he nonetheless wants to be sure Twitter is “financially healthy.” Elon Musk says he plans to find another person…
Billionaire investor Marc Andreessen warns remote work is ‘not a good life’ for young workers
Andreessen Horowitz’s Marc Andreessen says remote work is “not a good life” for young workers. Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch Marc Andreessen said remote work has “detonated” the role of office relationships in people’s lives. The billionaire said throughout a summit that young remote workers are “cut off from everything.” Andreessen used the dialogue to advertise Adam Neumann’s new housing startup, Flow. Billionaire…
Google didn’t think its Bard AI was ‘actually prepared’ for a product but, says Alphabet chairman, days after the chatbot’s...
John Hennessy, Alphabet’s chairman, cautioned that AI chatbots are nonetheless in their early days. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images John Hennessy, the chairman of Alphabet, said Google was hesitant to make use of its Bard AI in a product because it wasn’t “really ready,” per CNBC. Google unveiled its Bard AI last week amid intense curiosity in competitor ChatGPT. But a promo for Google Bard featured a…