The Qatari royal family has proposed gifting President Donald Trump a luxury Boeing 747-8 plane to use as a temporary Air Force One during his remaining time in the White House. The aircraft would then be donated to his presidential foundation after he leaves office, opening up the possibility of Trump using it for personal travel. (While the New York Times reported that a Qatari official said the proposal is still being discussed, Trump plans to accept the gift — though he told reporters on Monday that he would not use the plane once his presidency ends.)The plane is estimated to cost around $400 million, and Democrats have criticized the idea of the president receiving such an expensive gift. “This is not normal. This is blatant corruption,” Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts wrote on X. “Trump First, America Last.”Trump defended the plan, saying he would be a “stupid person” if he declined the gesture. “So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!!”But it’s not just Democrats who are worried about the transaction. Some Republican senators have also raised security and legal concerns, with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia saying that the White House would “need to look at the constitutionality” of the gift.It’s true that part of the job of being president of the United States is to engage in diplomacy, and that very often includes exchanging gifts with foreign dignitaries and governments. Many of these gifts are symbolic gestures, like the pair of pandas China presented to President Richard Nixon in 1972. Other gifts are luxurious and intended to impress, like the $20,000, 7.5-carat diamond India presented to former first lady Jill Biden in 2023. Presidents have also received gifts in the form of 300 pounds of raw lamb, a puppy, oriental rugs, a gold mechanical bird, swords, and a Burberry coat. So what’s different this time? And why should we care about what other countries give to the president? How presidents are supposed to accept giftsAs past administrations have shown, it’s typical for presidents to accept gifts. But there are still laws in place to ensure that governments, be they foreign or domestic, can’t curry favor with presidents this way. In 1966, Congress passed a law — the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act — to cap the monetary value of a gift the president is allowed to personally accept. As of 2023, that amount is $480. This means that the president can accept gifts of any amount on behalf of the country but, after leaving office, they can only keep the gifts that are worth less than $480. If they want to hold on to a more expensive gift, they have to buy it themselves from the government at the estimated market rate. Otherwise, these gifts are typically sent to the National Archives, ultimately transferring ownership to the American people, not any specific individual. That’s why the Bidens didn’t take home the diamond from India and instead left it behind in the East Wing for official use. And the puppy was given to a family in Maryland because, per Axios, it “couldn’t be archived.” And it’s probably safe to say that no president has ever accepted a gift worth $400 million. In addition to the Foreign Gifts and Declarations Act, the US Constitution also has two emoluments clauses. These bar presidents from receiving money or gifts from foreign governments, as well as other branches of the US government, to prevent special interests from having undue influence over the president’s decision-making. So before the 1966 reforms, per the Constitution, Congress had to approve every gift that a president received if they were to keep it personally — something that became harder and harder to do as the United States’ influence grew and gifts became more commonplace. Trump was sued for violating the emoluments during his first term, though the Supreme Court ultimately dismissed the cases in 2021.Why this mattersThe first and perhaps most important question you should ask about the whole plane gifting controversy is this: Why would a foreign government even want to give the president a gift worth $400 million? Sure, it might be intended as a good gesture, but a gesture that pricey almost certainly comes with the expectation that the president will give Qatar something in return. There doesn’t need to be an explicit quid pro quo to assume that the gift might be more of an investment — just like those looking to buy influence in the Trump White House might flock to buy stock in his media company or some of his meme coins. The fact that this proposed gift comes at the heels of the Trump Organization striking a deal to build a luxury golf resort in Qatar should also raise eyebrows.But while the plan to gift Trump the plane is not finalized and might not happen, the fact that Trump considered and defended the idea is still concerning, even if his past history shows that it’s entirely unsurprising. After all, in his first term, foreign governments spent millions of dollars on his private businesses. Last year, his media company went public, making his conflicts of interest even worse by allowing anyone to buy shares in his business. And just last month, he offered to host a dinner for the top investors in his crypto meme coin — which he launched days before the start of his second term — calling it “the most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the World.” That Trump is not only open to receiving a $400 million plane but also argues that it’s a prudent move clearly shows that the US president is more than willing to accept extravagant gifts. That’s a problem in and of itself because it encourages other foreign governments to offer similar gifts in the hopes of currying favor with Trump or generating goodwill. This will only add to the many conflicts of interest Trump already has, making it even harder to understand where his loyalties stand and whom he might be beholden to.It’s likely that Trump will run into a legal headache trying to accept this particular gift, especially because of his desire to transfer it over to his presidential library. House Democrats are already seeking a probe into the potential jet, and some have argued that it’s outright unconstitutional. “A gift you use for four years and then deposit in your library is still a gift (and a grift),” Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland wrote on X.In theory, if the president accepts the plane and the government maintains ownership of it — be it through the National Archives or keeping it operational for future presidents or some other official use — then it wouldn’t necessarily violate any ethics laws.But even if Trump can find a technical legal argument for why he can accept the gift, the question is whether he should given the conflicts of interest it raises. And it would be hard to find an ethics expert who would not raise concerns. See More: Source: https://www.vox.com/politics/412901/trump-qatar-plane-gift-air-force-one #how #corrupt #trumpampamp8217s #plan #accept #qatari #plane

Key Takeaways The US and China have agreed to lower tariffs, with the US now charging a 30% tariff, whereas China will charge 10%. Actual prices may not come down in the long run, but we may see an increase at a much lower pace. Lower tariffs may also not see massive domestic production shifts, so the trade deficit may close more slowly than expected. After a long-fought tariff war, the US and China seem to have reached an understanding. The two countries’ representatives met at Geneva and decided to lower the tariffs for 90 days. The US agreed to bring down its tariffs from 145% to 30%, while China will now only impose a 10% tariff on US goods instead of the previous 125%. It’s worth noting that the 30% tariff by the US comprises a 10% universal tariff imposed by Trump on all countries and an additional 20% tariff for failing to curb fentanyl flows by the Chinese. Trump used the entire tariff weapon to reduce the US’s massive $295.4B trade deficit with China as of 2024. He accused China of taking ‘unfair advantage’ of the US for years. This is also the largest trade deficit the US has had with any trading partner. Will Lower Tariffs Lead to Lower Prices? One important thing to understand is that while the tariffs have been reduced, the overall average effective tariff still stands at 17.8%, which is the highest since 1934. Even if you consider the shift in consumption due to the increased tariffs, the average tariff rate would come to 16.4%, the highest since 1937.  This means that consumers might not actually see lower prices. At most, we might see slower price increases. Companies like Nvidia have already pumped up the prices of their components and products by 10 to 15%. Acer has also announced a 10% price increase as a result of the tariffs. Also, a lot of products have already been shipped to the US, effective with the 145% tariff rates. Almost 12,000 containers with products for companies like Amazon, Ikea, Tractor Supply, and Home Depot have hit the shores of the US. The PC hardware inventory turnover is 30-90 days on average, which means that the price changes may be deferred by almost six weeks. So, it might take some time for the reduced tariffs to come into effect. Even then, you can expect the prices to be more than in the pre-tariff era. This will also depend on the time required to get rid of the high-tariffed inventory sitting on the US shelves. Fast-moving consumer goods usually have a faster inventory turnover, which means you can expect a price drop soon. However, high-value products like PCs may sit on the shelves for a good couple of months. The expectation of reduced prices is also based on the assumption that no further escalations will occur. This is only a 90-day pause, and the tariff scenario remains somewhat uncertain. The overall average price levels are expected to increase by 1.7% in the short run. This means that the average American household may lose $2,800 in purchasing power when compared to 2024. Even after consumption adjustment, the loss stands at around $2,300. Production Moving Back to the US? In the wake of increasing tariffs, several companies have announced moving production back to the US to save costs. For instance, Nvidia said that it will move $500 billion worth of AI server supply chain to the US. Along with partners like TSMC, Foxconn, Wistron, Amkor, and SPIL, Nvidia plans to set up AI servers and server assembly plants in the US. Apple, too, has announced a $500 billion investment in the U.S., including a Houston manufacturing facility. Trump even went on to say that he talked with Tim Cook after the tariff reduction announcement, and ‘he’s going to be building a lot of plants in the United States for Apple.’ Trump also hinted that the actual value of these investments may be way more than $500 billion. It’s worth noting that these announcements were made when the tariffs were as high as 145%. In such a situation, it wasn’t possible for these companies to shift the entire increase in cost to the customers through price hikes. For instance, Apple said that it would lose $900 million as a result of the tariffs. However, now the situation has eased off massively, with the tariffs standing at just 30%. So, do these manufacturers still have the motivation to shift production units to domestic shores? Sure, 30% is still nothing to sniff at, but a part of this cost can be passed on to the customers while the rest can be recovered through better production planning and cost-cutting. Bottom Line All in all, this seems to be a Catch-22 situation for Trump. The entire point of imposing heavy tariffs was to lower imports and encourage domestic production. While tariffs as high as 145% met these purposes, a 30% tariff may not deter the US manufacturers. However, increasing tariffs beyond a certain point would essentially bring trading to a halt between the US and China, which doesn’t serve the purpose either. So, it now all comes down to how well Trump can negotiate with the US companies. His talks with Cook seem to be reassuring as of now. We’ll know in due course whether production sees a ‘differentiable’ shift in the next few months. Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide. A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors. Source: https://techreport.com/news/us-china-tariff-understanding-price-impact/ #and #china #reach #tariff #understanding #but #prices #may #not #decrease #immediately

Both Canada and the United States have deep-seated affordability problems, but only the former is doing anything substantial about it. Forthcoming housing cooperatives at 2444 Eglinton Avenue in Toronto, and in Upper Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia, are helping put a dent in Canada’s affordable housing shortage. Vancouver’s home prices today are close to $1 million, and rental prices in Toronto are equally astronomical. To buck this trend, Canada’s Co-operative Housing Development Program (CHDP) unlocked $1.5 billion in federal financing to support new cooperative housing. This is all happening as part of Canada’s National Housing Strategy, a $115 billion plan to boost affordability.  “In Toronto, the housing crisis is as severe as it’s ever been,” UT Daniels professor Keisha St. Louis-McBurnie, a Toronto-based urban planner at Monumental, told AN.  “We’ve seen real growth in housing encampments, especially during COVID-19,” St. Louis-McBurnie said. “There’s been very limited new transitional and supportive housing across [Toronto]. Households are getting priced out of the market, including professional middle-income ones. Folks who are low-income that require the most housing support are not able to access new affordable housing, especially in consideration to what’s getting built in Toronto.” A Brutalist housing co-op on Eglinton Avenue in Toronto (Ken Lund/Flickr/CC BY 2.0) Claire Weisz’s office, WXY, as of this year has locations in New York and Toronto. Weisz recently spoke at the Canadian Club Toronto, in a round table moderated by Alex Bozikovic, about urbanism. “Huge troves of affordable housing in New York has, in recent years, been taken from people who can’t afford down payments on co-ops,” Weisz told AN. “We’ve sacrificed so much. Some organizations have tried to stop this, but without policy support from the city, it’s really in vain.” “My big worry is that right now, like Toronto, New York is starting to be like the rest of the U.S. and rely on developer-led for-profits, versus not-for-profits,” Weisz added. “There needs to be a reawakening of not-for-profit development coalitions.” “The Co-operative Housing Sector is Booming” The Canadian National Housing Strategy’s longterm goal is to build 156,000 affordable units and repair over 298,000 existing ones. Housing cooperatives are getting built all over Canada as part of the program, from British Columbia, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. Planning departments are prioritizing the needs of First Nations communities and Black Canadians to help rectify past injustices. This is happening as rent prices skyrocket, and Toronto’s skyline is populated with new landmarks by Frank Gehry, Studio Gang, BIG, and others. Cooperative housing was first built in Canada in the 1930s. Regent Park in Toronto was the country’s first public housing campus, finished in 1949. This legacy continued through the 1960s and ’70s, when radical co-ops like Rochdale College and Neill-Wycik were built for University of Toronto students. Willow Park Housing Co-op (1966) went up in Winnipeg thanks to CHF Canada, a joint initiative by the Canadian Labour Congress and the Co-operative Union of Canada. The New Democratic Party (NDP) constructed abundant cooperative housing in Vancouver. Milton Park got built in Montreal in the 1980s. Between 1973 and 1993, CHF Canada built a total 92,000 cooperatively-owned units. (This history was captured by Leslie Coles in Under Construction: A History of Co-operative Housing in Canada.) All this momentum was brought to a halt during successive Brian Mulroney and Jean Chrétien Premierships, however, when government support for supportive housing was cut, much like what was happening in the U.S. at that time under the Clinton administration with the Faircloth Amendment. Regent Park’s original architecture was demolished in 2005 as part of the Regent Park Revitalization Plan, and replaced with a private, mixed-income community. (Kevin Costain/Wikimedia Commons /CC BY 2.0) A regime of state-imposed austerity ensued, leading up to the affordability crisis both Canada and the U.S. have today. Unlike the United States, however, Canada seems to have learned from its past mistakes. Thanks to Canada’s Co-operative Housing Development Program, eight co-ops are getting built right now. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has prioritized new affordable housing construction and land trusts, and is doing much to fight gentrification. BC Builds is an initiative helping fast track cooperative housing in Vancouver City Council. “Since the 1990s there’s been a shift in liberal to conservative and neoliberal federal governments,” St. Louis-McBurnie said. “This resulted in reduced public investment in significant social programs, including public and not-for-profit housing. These successive governments devolved responsibility for funding affordable housing to provincial governments across the country, Ontario in particular. Places like Regent Park now have a public-private partnership model, meaning it’s now on the private market. Alexandra Park is going through a similar privatization process.” “But now, there’s interest in alternatives” to market rate development St. Louis-McBurnie affirmed, “and the co-operative housing sector is booming.” Provinces and cities are also implementing “communal land trust models to support the scaling and retaining of assets,” she said. “They’re trying to figure out ways for bringing independently-owned co-ops into the land trust model.” Housing as Human Right The largest co-op underway in Canada today is 2444 Eglinton Avenue by Henriquez Partners and Claude Cormier + Associés. The Toronto development will yield 918 homes, including 612 affordable, rent-geared-to-income (RGI) units. Retail offerings will be sited at the base level. From afar, 2444 Eglinton Avenue will stand out thanks to its polychromatic porthole windows. Further afield in Perth, Ontario, 38 new cooperative units will be built. Farther east in Upper Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia, a co-operative housing development will yield 136 row house units primarily for Black Canadians. That project is happening through a partnership between the Upper Hammonds Plains Community Land Trust and the Upper Hammonds Plains Housing Co-operative. Curtis Whiley, a sixth-generation African Nova Scotian, is steering the housing cooperative project in Upper Hammonds. Meanwhile in New Minas, Nova Scotia, there will be 32 more cooperative homes. Rendering of 2444 Eglinton Avenue Co-ops (Courtesy Henriquez Partners) Africville was a close-knit Black community in Halifax located on Treat 1 territory destroyed by the City of Halifax in the 1960s. Today, land trusts like the one in Nova Scotia are effective means for establishing housing secure communities of color. The Toronto Chinatown Land Trust likewise empowers people to stay in place, an outfit helmed by Chiyi Tam who is a planner and UT Daniels faculty member. “We have not seen any investment like this, I would say, in terms of housing development almost exclusively for Black communities in Canada’s history,” St. Louis-McBurnie said. Hogan’s Alley’s Black community was displaced by the Vancouver government to make way for the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts in 1971. Now, members of the NDP and Hogan’s Alley Society—a Black-led, not-for-profit developer of Afrocentric affordable housing—are working together to shore up Black land stewardship in the old neighborhood and help rectify the past injustice. “Transferring land over to the Hogan Alley land trust will allow for the Black community to return and for greater autonomy in housing construction,” St. Louis-McBurnie added. “What If We Built a New Co-op City in Brooklyn?” Federal spending was allocated in the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to dismantle highways that ripped through inner cities and destroyed African American neighborhoods, like I-81 in Syracuse, New York. But this week, House GOP members moved to cancel the I-81 highway removal project. The Trump administration’s proposed 2026 national budget has slashed spending on projects that “fall outside [the President’s] new priorities” and “promote radical equity policies,” the White House said. Is it possible for architects, politicians, and planners in the U.S. to replicate Canada’s success given the current political climate?  It seems, for now, it would have to happen with aggressive leadership at the city and state levels—trade unions and nonprofits would also have to step up. This is already taking place, for instance, at Penn South, a sprawling Mitchell-Lama housing cooperative in Manhattan by the United Housing Foundation (UHF). Today, Bernheimer Architecture (BA) and the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust are helping upgrade the handsome midcentury campus. Penn South’s rehabilitation is in conjunction with BA, the AFL-CIO, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). “Penn South is a very unique campus, and its needs are different from most other campuses in New York City,” Andy Bernheimer told AN. “NYSERDA is helping us inform design and construction moving forward, which will entail reskinning the buildings and making them more energy efficient.” Co-op City is situated on a sprawling 320-acre site in the north Bronx. (Zara Pfeifer) Co-op City shopping plaza (Zara Pfeifer) In New York today, mayoral candidates are increasingly interested in revisiting the Mitchell-Lama Program’s success, a UHF campaign that built 135,000 cooperative housing units between 1955 and 1978, like Penn South and the Bronx’s Co-op City, another historic campus by Herman Jessor. In Albany, New York State elected officials have proposed a new Social Housing Development Authority, which would allocate government spending toward public housing, co-ops, and land trusts to battle gentrification. “I don’t think there’s enough money to simply restart a program like Mitchell-Lama, as far as I can tell,” Weisz told AN. “But if you look at all of the older Mitchell-Lamas flipping to the market, it’s clear we need to preserve the ones that are left, and there needs to be a new generation of co-ops. All over the city, when people have to pay market rates instead of mortgages, they’re rent burdened.” Homes for Living is a new book by Jonathan Tarleton that speaks to the tumultuous privatization of New York’s cooperative housing stock, a burgeoning problem. “Maybe there’s a way to build a funding and oversight mechanism for existing co-ops worried about going under water, and for households to sign up for a program that helps them to stay in [Mitchell-Lama],” Weisz elaborated. “Maybe there could even be a program for rental apartments to get into that program?” WXY is currently working on a Mitchell-Lama campus in the Bronx, Stevenson Commons, together with Habitat for Humanity. The goal is to maintain Stevenson Common’s affordability with rent-stabilized flats at very low rates. Parking lots at Stevenson Commons were rezoned to allow for new housing, which helps maintain affordability, while new public spaces and tennis clubs were added. There will be incentives to help seniors age in place, and for multigenerational households. Rochdale Village in Queens (Zara Pfeifer) Weisz sees opportunities to finance cooperative housing with ulterior means, like capital raised from Habitat for Humanity, but also congestion pricing. “We should be using new lines and TOD to actually support neighborhoods and co-ops, and people that are ultimately the ones who stay and support neighborhoods,” she said. “Why not subsidize co-op structures? The only way to do that is if there’s city-owned land, because, otherwise, the land cost is so expensive, you have to develop it at market rate.” “There’s a lot of city sites that have been identified for housing,” Weisz noted. “There’s all sorts of sites in the city’s hands right beside the Manhattan Bridge, for instance, or along the BQE. All of those sites could become new co-ops. What if we built a new Co-op City in Brooklyn?” Source: https://www.archpaper.com/2025/05/canada-cooperative-housing/ #the #canadian #government #building #housing #cooperatives #again #can #follow #suit

Fabled startup investor and accelerator Y Combinator has some choice words for Google in an amicus brief it just submitted in the U.S.’s monopoly case against the search giant. In the brief, YC charged that Google is a “monopolist” that has “stunted” the U.S. startup ecosystem by making VC firms like itself hesitate to fund web search and AI startups in what it calls a “kill zone” around Google. “Google has chilled independent firms like YC from funding and accelerating innovative startups that could otherwise have challenged Google’s dominance,” YC wrote in the filing. “The result is a landscape that has been artificially stunted and stagnant.” YC’s brief says it’s currently seeking to fund startups developing question-based and agentic AI tools that could transform how people interact with information on the internet. But YC says there’s a “clear risk” that Google will use its monopoly power to slow down the future of those markets.  “Google has effectively frozen the web search and text advertising markets for over a decade,” YC wrote. The brief, filed May 9, was spotted on X by VC Sheel Mohnot, the general partner of Better Tomorrow Ventures and a prolific social media poster. But YC isn’t calling for an immediate breakup of Google, as its CEO Garry Tan made clear in a reply to Mohnot. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW Rather, YC is arguing Google should curb practices it considers anti-competitive, like paying Apple billions of dollars to make Google the iPhone’s default search engine. It also wants Google to do things it argues would help startups, like opening up Google’s search index so others can train LLMs on it. For perspective, Google’s search algorithms have been its highly prized secret since its inception. For YC to ask the government to force Google to open it up to competitive LLMs is almost like demanding the government make Microsoft Windows open source, or forcing Amazon to freely deliver packages for competitors. If Google doesn’t implement such changes within a five year timeframe, then YC advocates for the government to force Google to divest or spin out parts of itself. YC CEO Tan characterized this idea in an X post as a “spinoff hammer” threat. He also posted that “we love Google” but wants “little tech” to succeed, too, in a separate X thread. To recap, last year Google lost a massive antitrust case over its dominance of the search market. While Google appeals the decision, the U.S. government is mulling potential punishments (‘remedies’) that Google might be required to implement, such as spinning off Chrome. Those remedies are expected to be delivered by August 2025. YC’s stance may come as a surprise to those who have followed its latest partnerships with Google: most notably, Google Cloud gave YC startups access to a dedicated cluster of Nvidia GPUs last year. Google co-founder Larry Page also made a rare in-person appearance to speak at a YC event in December.  Google has also acquired at least two YC-backed startups: Flutter in 2014, and Fridge in 2011. It also invested in YC startup Infisical through its Gradient fund in 2023.  However, YC is also closely tied to OpenAI, which is now directly competing against Google on search. OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman used to run YC, while OpenAI was the first group affiliated with YC Research.  That’s something Mohnot pointed to on X, writing that the biggest beneficiary of YC’s proposed remedies, by far, would be OpenAI, rather than YC’s famously early stage startups, while commenting that the amicus brief “paints Google as more powerful than it is.” TechCrunch asked YC how it would respond to this critique, and whether it has any specific examples of areas that it probably would have funded had it not been for Google. So far, YC hasn’t responded to our comment request.  Google didn’t respond to a request for comment about YC’s amicus brief, either. However, it argued in a blog post last year that the DOJ’s proposals are “radical and sweeping” and would hurt consumers, business, and developers. Source: https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/13/y-combinator-says-google-is-a-monopolist-that-has-stunted-the-startup-ecosystem/ #combinator #says #google #monopolist #that #has #stunted #the #startup #ecosystem

“Wherever I go, the wind follows. And the wind smells like rain.” If those words came from the mouth of Humphrey Bogart or Edward G. Robinson in a crime flick from the 1930s or ’40s, they would sound like the cry of a tortured soul, living in the dregs of society. But because they come from the mouth of Nicolas Cage in the movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, they sound like melodramatic jokes, just as silly as anything said by the Looney Tunes-esque Spider-Ham, voiced by John Mulaney. And Cage is now reprising his role as Spider-Man Noir for the upcoming series Spider-Noir. But as the show’s first teaser reveals, the live-action Amazon MGM series has done away with the goofy tone of the movie that preceded it. Presented in black and white, the show is all moody visuals and implications of violence, in which a morally conflicted Spider-Man, still in his fedora and trench coat, does battle with the 1930s criminal underworld. As surprising as this shift may be to those who love the Spider-Verse movies, Spider-Noir is drawing its inspiration from the comics, and that’s a good thing. Marvel’s Great Depression The first issue of the 2008-2009 miniseries Spider-Man: Noir, written by David Hine and Fabrice Sapolsky and illustrated by Carmine Di Giandomenico, sees the police busting into the offices of Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson, only to find Spider-Man standing over him. Images such as this are well-known to fans of the wallcrawler, but this one is different. It’s not just that this scene takes place in 1933, nearly 30 full years before Spider-Man makes his first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15. It’s also that Jameson has been shot to death and Spider-Man, dressed in a black trench coat (no fedora here), is holding the gun. Of course Spidey didn’t do it, and the series follows his investigation into Jameson’s murder. But the very shock of the image does underscore the tone of Spider-Man: Noir. Gone is the quippy Spidey, with his relationship problems and lovable hard-luck. In its place is a Spidey who dwells on the edges of society. He’s still Peter Parker, but he now lives among the downtrodden who lost everything in the Great Depression, listening to the socialist speeches delivered by his Aunt May, reimagined here as an Emma Goldman-type figure. Surprising as that description sounds, it follows the original appeal of Marvel Comics, described by Stan Lee as taking place in “the world outside your window.” 1933 was a period of great social change, with the excesses of the Roaring ’20s still enjoyed by some while others were consumed by the ravages of the stock market crash. Hitler has just become the German Chancellor, but a mistrust of the institutions that had failed them and a general nativism and xenophobia kept most Americans from seeing yet another world war on the horizon. Instead most Americans turned their attention to more immediate enemies, which include the upper classes who wanted to cling to Gilded Age power (and the institutions who supported them), as well as immigrants who continue to make their way to the U.S. All of those tensions inform Spider-Man: Noir, making for a more morally complex story than one would expect. The teenage Peter Parker is still the pure-hearted kid we know and love, but the general cynicism of the world gives him no clear moral standing as he fights Norman Osborn, aka the Goblin, and his thugs. Seriously Dark The Spider-Man Noir of Into the Spider-Verse played more like a parody of a film noir, which literally translates to “black film,” as coined by French critics analyzing moody American crime pictures of the 1940s and ’50s made in the wake of this era. In those films, the hero was a a hardboiled cynic, a la the detectives in The Big Heat or The Maltese Falcon. But in Spider-Verse, he’s a buffoon to be laughed at for his melodrama and inability to understand color. It’s a good joke, but not the sort of thing that can sustain an entire television series. So it’s a good thing that Spider-Noir seems to be taking its cues from the comics instead of the movie. Granted, though, that some things need to be changed. Even if Spidey remains masked, Cage sounds every bit like the 61-year-old he is, and no amount of digital de-aging will make him into the young teen from the comics. Thus he can’t quite be the same innocent he was in the comics, nor can he have a firebrand Aunt May. She and Ben would be long gone by the time sexagenarian Spidey is working. However, she could still have been a leftist, perhaps a union organizer or suffragist. More than a matter of political preference, though, the depiction of Spider-Noir’s Aunt May matters because the series cannot be a bunch of winking nods at movies and literature of the ’30s and ’40s. That worked for maybe 10 minutes of screen time in Spider-Verse, but it won’t hold a series—in part because modern audiences don’t know enough about film noir to get the reference. Instead it needs to be a story grounded in a type of reality, especially because it has a fantasy character at the center. Spider-Man: Noir and its sequel miniseries The Eye of the Beholder are a great model for the show and, if this first teaser is any indication, the model that Spider-Noir intends to follow. Spider-Noir will stream on MGM+ in 2026. Source: https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/spider-noir-teaser-retains-the-spirit-of-the-marvel-comics/ #spidernoir #teaser #retains #the #spirit #marvel #comics

WizardLM, a Beijing-based Microsoft AI research group, appears to have joined Tencent, the Chinese company that owns WeChat and blockbuster games like PUBG Mobile. In a post on X on Tuesday, Can Xu, a senior AI researcher who led a number of projects within WizardLM, said that he and the team left Microsoft to join Hunyuan, one of Tencent’s AI development orgs. Over the past few months, Hunyuan has released AI models, including video and 3D object generators. WizardLM has already released a Hunyuan-branded model, in fact: Hunyuan-TurboS 0416. In an X post, Qingfeng Sun, who claims to be a “co-founder” of WizardLM, says that Hunyuan-TurboS 0416 outperforms “open” AI models like Google’s Gemma 3 series. It’s not clear how many researchers are still a part of WizardLM or when the team might’ve left Microsoft. We’ve reached out to both Tencent and Microsoft for comment. WizardLM, formed several years ago, has a bit of a strange history. Last April, the team, then under Microsoft, released a family of AI models, WizardLM-2, that it said was competitive with OpenAI’s GPT-4. But after only a day, Microsoft pulled WizardLM-2 from the web, saying that the models hadn’t undergone “toxicity testing.” “We accidentally missed an item required in the model release process — toxicity testing,” the WizardLM team wrote in a post on X on April 16, 2024. “We are currently completing this test quickly and then will re-release our model as soon as possible.” Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW The deletion came a little too late. Users quickly reuploaded the original WizardLM-2 models as well as customized, fine-tuned versions. Meanwhile, in a post on the AI dev platform Hugging Face, Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue said that Microsoft’s move, which also wiped out other WizardLM models, harmed the Hugging Face community by breaking a number of open source projects. “[The WizardLM] models were collectively downloaded over a hundred thousand times a month,” Delangue wrote at the time. “We apologize for the inconvenience & are trying to get in touch with the author [and] Microsoft in order to try to find a good resolution for community members.” At Tencent, it seems WizardLM will keep doing what it was doing, more or less: developing and releasing AI models. Tencent recently restructured its Hunyuan team, establishing two new units and upping its AI infrastructure spending. Tencent attributed its 8% year-over-year growth in Q1 2025 to the company’s AI investments. Tencent has said that it plans to put 90 billion yuan, or around $12.49 billion, toward capital expenditures this year, much of which will fuel its AI efforts. Source: https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/13/tencent-hires-wizardlm-team-a-microsoft-ai-group-with-an-odd-history/ #tencent #hires #wizardlm #team #microsoft #group #with #odd #history

AI agents powered by large language models (LLMs) have grown past their FAQ chatbot beginnings to become true digital teammates capable of planning, reasoning and taking action — and taking in corrective feedback along the way. Thanks to reasoning AI models, agents can learn how to think critically and tackle complex tasks. This new class of “reasoning agents” can break down complicated problems, weigh options and make informed decisions — while using only as much compute and as many tokens as needed. Reasoning agents are making a splash in industries where decisions rely on multiple factors. Such industries range from customer service and healthcare to manufacturing and financial services. Reasoning On vs. Reasoning Off Modern AI agents can toggle reasoning on and off, allowing them to efficiently use compute and tokens. A full chain‑of‑thought pass performed during reasoning can take up to 100x more compute and tokens than a quick, single‑shot reply — so it should only be used when needed. Think of it like turning on headlights — switching on high beams only when it’s dark and turning them back to low when it’s bright enough out. Single-shot responses are great for simple queries — like checking an order number, resetting a password or answering a quick FAQ. Reasoning might be needed for complex, multistep tasks such as reconciling tax depreciation schedules or orchestrating the seating at a 120‑guest wedding. New NVIDIA Llama Nemotron models, featuring advanced reasoning capabilities, expose a simple system‑prompt flag to enable or disable reasoning, so developers can programmatically decide per query. This allows agents to perform reasoning only when the stakes demand it — saving users wait times and minimizing costs. Reasoning AI Agents in Action Reasoning AI agents are already being used for complex problem-solving across industries, including: Healthcare: Enhancing diagnostics and treatment planning. Customer Service: Automating and personalizing complex customer interactions, from resolving billing disputes to recommending tailored products. Finance: Autonomously analyzing market data and providing investment strategies. Logistics and Supply Chain: Optimizing delivery routes, rerouting shipments in response to disruptions and simulating possible scenarios to anticipate and mitigate risks. Robotics: Powering warehouse robots and autonomous vehicles, enabling them to plan, adapt and safely navigate dynamic environments. Many customers are already experiencing enhanced workflows and benefits using reasoning agents. Amdocs uses reasoning-powered AI agents to transform customer engagement for telecom operators. Its amAIz GenAI platform, enhanced with advanced reasoning models such as NVIDIA Llama Nemotron and amAIz Telco verticalization, enables agents to autonomously handle complex, multistep customer journeys — spanning customer sales, billing and care. EY is using reasoning agents to significantly improve the quality of responses to tax-related queries. The company compared generic models to tax-specific reasoning models, which revealed up to an 86% improvement in response quality for tax questions when using a reasoning approach. SAP’s Joule agents — which will be equipped with reasoning capabilities from Llama Nemotron –– can interpret complex user requests, surface relevant insights from enterprise data and execute cross-functional business processes autonomously. Designing an AI Reasoning Agent A few key components are required to build an AI agent, including tools, memory and planning modules. Each of these components augments the agent’s ability to interact with the outside world, create and execute detailed plans, and otherwise act semi- or fully autonomously. Reasoning capabilities can be added to AI agents at various places in the development process. The most natural way to do so is by augmenting planning modules with a large reasoning model, like Llama Nemotron Ultra or DeepSeek-R1. This allows more time and reasoning effort to be used during the initial planning phase of the agentic workflow, which has a direct impact on the overall outcomes of systems. The AI-Q NVIDIA AI Blueprint and the NVIDIA Agent Intelligence toolkit can help enterprises break down silos, streamline complex workflows and optimize agentic AI performance at scale. The AI-Q blueprint provides a reference workflow for building advanced agentic AI systems, making it easy to connect to NVIDIA accelerated computing, storage and tools for high-accuracy, high-speed digital workforces. AI-Q integrates fast multimodal data extraction and retrieval using NVIDIA NeMo Retriever, NIM microservices and AI agents. In addition, the open-source NVIDIA Agent Intelligence toolkit enables seamless connectivity between agents, tools and data. Available on GitHub, this toolkit lets users connect, profile and optimize teams of AI agents, with full system traceability and performance profiling to identify inefficiencies and improve outcomes. It’s framework-agnostic, simple to onboard and can be integrated into existing multi-agent systems as needed. Build and Test Reasoning Agents With Llama Nemotron Learn more about Llama Nemotron, which recently was at the top of industry benchmark leaderboards for advanced science, coding and math tasks. Join the community shaping the future of agentic, reasoning-powered AI. Plus, explore and fine-tune using the open Llama Nemotron post-training dataset to build custom reasoning agents. Experiment with toggling reasoning on and off to optimize for cost and performance. And test NIM-powered agentic workflows, including retrieval-augmented generation and the NVIDIA AI Blueprint for video search and summarization, to quickly prototype and deploy advanced AI solutions. Source: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/reasoning-ai-agents-decision-making/ #how #reasoning #agents #transform #highstakes #decision #making

RandomlyRandom67 Member Jul 7, 2023 2,535 Was the rumoured Switch Pro actually Switch 2 all along? The Switch 2's main processor has been analysed - and its design is older than you might imagine. www.eurogamer.net Remember the discourse surrounding a proposed Switch Pro? Rumours of an upgraded Switch model began as early as 2018, but it wasn't until 2020 that the Pro's attributes including "more computing power and 4K high definition graphics" were reported on by Bloomberg. Simultaneously, it was understood that the Pro would also feature a seven-inch OLED panel. Of course, the OLED upgrade happened for the original Switch but the Pro did not. However, recent coverage of the Switch 2's main processor may provide a partial explanation. Forensic analysis of a final Switch 2 chip by Geekerwan and Kurnal suggests that the hardware was finalised way back in 2021. With the benefit of hindsight, it now seems plausible that the Switch Pro was an amalgamation of rumours: a combination of the Switch OLED model and formative work on the console that'll finally hit stores on June 5th this year. Click to expand... Click to shrink... .... Even more telling is that both analyses reveal that the chip was "taped out" - basically meaning the design was complete - in 2021. Geekerwan compares this to Nvidia's GA107 processor - another 8nm product, taped out in 2020 and released in the form of various GPUs (RTX 3050, for example) in 2021. The implication is that Nintendo had the new Switch 2 processor ready up to four years ago and could conceivably have released a Switch successor in 2022. Bearing in mind that processors take some time to create, it's very likely that leaks from Nintendo in Japan, or via its partners, could have started in 2020 when the Switch Pro reports began - at the same time as the platform holder was planning its OLED upgrade. However, it wasn't until June 2021 that noted leaker kopite7kimi named the new processor as T239 and stated that it would sit at the heart of the next Nintendo console. It seems as though the leaker got wind of the project just as T239 completed development at the taping out stage. So, the question is why it has taken so long for Switch 2 to arrive, bearing in mind that Nintendo would have had final silicon in 2021. Being familiar with console design having spoken to console system architects in the past, final silicon does typically arrive a year before a console releases. Bearing in mind that T239 was ready in 2021, it would have taken years to get to that point. Maybe an earlier Switch 2 was considered - but of course, plans can change. At the beginning of the project, one might imagine that Nintendo would still not understand just how long-lived the original Switch would be and the extent to which the Covid pandemic would elevate its sales. In turn, game development for the older system would continue. In the meantime, one might imagine that the production cost for the new T239 processor would have decreased - the 8nm process is old technology now, but thanks to Nintendo and Nvidia, the production lines can still continue with a brand new console to sustain them. The firm didn't release Switch 2 any earlier because there was no business case for doing so: the original model was still wildly popular. Then there's the fact that development resources were still invested in the existing Switch - the transition period to Switch 2 and the need to build up enough software for a new console would obviously delay the release of the machine. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Ultimately, the controversy surrounding the make-up of the Switch 2 processor comes from a good place - the desire for the new Nintendo hardware to be the best it can be - but perhaps this idea misses the point. Developers work with what they're given, often delivering remarkable results. We were concerned about the Tegra X1 powering the original Switch based on its showing in the Nvidia Shield Android TV micro-console - and yet developers delivered miracles from its relatively meagre capabilities. Click to expand... Click to shrink...   SharpX68K Member Nov 10, 2017 11,781 Chicagoland Oh boy. This is gonna be one for the ages...  DC5remy Member Jan 20, 2018 9,751 Texas lol. First reply nails it   ConflictResolver Member Jan 1, 2024 4,726 Midgar No they cancelled Pro because of Covid.   Ant_17 Member Oct 28, 2017 2,889 Greece Yes.   tucah Member Oct 25, 2017 1,488 maybe!   BabyDontHurtMe Member Dec 9, 2018 30,627 New Jersey Wouldn't be surprised   YuriLowell Member Oct 26, 2017 4,477 Yes.   Jswanko Member Oct 26, 2017 43 ConflictResolver said: No they cancelled Pro because of Covid. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Ant_17 said: tucah said: There you have it!  yap Avenger Oct 25, 2017 10,779 why not   OP OP RandomlyRandom67 Member Jul 7, 2023 2,535 ConflictResolver said: No they cancelled Pro because of Covid. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I think the implication being made here is the Switch OLED and Switch 2 rumors collided to form an amalgamation rumor of a "Switch Pro." Switch Pro might have never existed, it was just the fact that a Switch OLED revision was coming while T239 was deep into design phase and presumably taped out in 2021   Homura ▲ Legend ▲ Member Aug 20, 2019 6,940 Of course. Leakers assumed around 2020-2021 all the T239 information was about a Pro version, not realizing Nintendo was just planning the successor all the way back then.  Kouriozan Member Oct 25, 2017 24,678 Oh I so wished Switch Pro was real, years and years of bad performances and I had enough, can't really fucking wait to get a Switch 2 lmao. iirc Switch Pro rumors did start to appear around 2020, so it could line up and people mistakenly thinking Switch 2 preps was a Pro model.  Glio Member Oct 27, 2017 27,708 Spain Sometimes you get a rumor wrong and that's it.   natestellar Member Sep 16, 2018 853 It seems to be the case.   RivalGT Member Dec 13, 2017 7,449 Probably not related to a switch pro, but DF is likely right. Why release the switch 2 when switch 1 was selling amazingly well.   Source: https://www.resetera.com/threads/digital-foundry-was-the-rumoured-switch-pro-actually-switch-2-all-along.1188360/ #digital #foundry #was #the #rumoured #switch #pro #actually #all #along

Google’s recent announcement of an AI Futures Fund shows the company wants to invest in AI startups. It sees itself as providing capital, early access to AI models yet to reach production, and support for startups from experts at the company.This is not Google’s first rodeo. To date, Alphabet (Google’s parent company) has invested in 38 AI companies. Big name acquisitions to date include the UK’s DeepMind, Waymo, the autonomous vehicle intelligence company, and home automation specialist Nest.While such investments signal a broad intent to at least associate Google with startups coming to market with a smart idea (if not necessarily to swallow up smaller companies), the current situation regarding the US courts’ attitude to monopolistic behaviour by Google questions just how far any relationship may go in the longer term.If Google faces increased scrutiny in the next few years on the back of any eventual ruling the US Department of Justice makes, having what might be interpreted as a monopolistic position in AI could bring down the ire of the judiciary.On the other hand, if Google is forced to divest itself of some of its more profitable divisions – the Chrome browser, the Android mobile operating system, some or all of its ad networks – the company may have to double down on its other sources of revenue; and AI could become its favoured métier.If the board at Alphabet decide to bet large stakes on AI, one core aspect of doing so will need clear and definite resolution: the economic viability of continuing AI implementation in the forms that users have become familiar with in the last couple of years. According to some industry commentators, the AI ‘whale’, OpenAI, is struggling to monetise its operations to the extent that will satisfy its investors. Google’s share of the AI market is tiny in comparison with OpenAI’s, but it suffers from the same potential financial issues.Google’s way through may be to continue its original role as provider of information searched for on the internet, and use its models to improve the search results given to online queries, and perhaps monetise around that transaction: either charging end-users for AI-powered search, or having advertisers pay for top spots in AI-generated search results.In that role, Google would be returning to its original function, but with the addition of AI algorithms under the surface – AI that improves a service that’s proven to be in massive demand, rather than AI being the main focus of user activity.Meta’s latest earnings call signalled that Mark Zuckerberg wants to do just that: return to the roots of the Facebook platform as a social connector, but have AI improve users’ experiences.It’s proposed that any acquisitions by Google of AI companies in the future would have to get the approval of the US Department of Justice. The company says such a move would limit investment in future AI technologies, a sentiment echoed by Anthropic representatives during the anti-monopolistic search practices court case brought against Google by the DOJ.If such a government approval edict were in place for Google, it would change the nature of companies that Google might fund via the AI Futures Fund or similar scheme. Rather than risking censure by appearing to add companies to the Alphabet stable that are in line with Google’s AI offerings, those benefiting from the company’s largess would be more likely to be niche players, bringing unique products to sectors of the economy where Google doesn’t already hold sway.Amazon’s acquisitions have been, at first glance, more in line with that seeking out of niche products to snap up. The Ring home smart device company (acquired in 2018 for $1bn) and One Medical (2022, $3.9bn) were purchases well outside of Amazon’s core cloud and retail verticals. Both, however, are prime sources of training data for AI models – consumer behaviour metrics and healthcare information are prime data real-estate.Google’s strategy for investment in smaller companies will need to be similarly canny, given that whatever the outcome of the DOJ case, its activities will be subject to intense scrutiny by the courts, end-users, and the press.No article discussing the activities of US big tech companies would be complete in 2025 without the addition of caveats around the present American leadership’s attitude to competition in the sector. The elephant in the room is the real possibility of executive veto of, or significant amendment to, any judicial ruling. Those potential game-changing elements could affect Google and Alphabet’s investment plans with little notice and less reason.(Image source: “Dallas DA LGBT Task Force visits DOJ FBP” by Dallas County DA is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.)See also: Apple AI stresses privacy with synthetic and anonymised dataWant to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is co-located with other leading events including Intelligent Automation Conference, BlockX, Digital Transformation Week, and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo.Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here. Source: https://www.artificialintelligence-news.com/news/google-ai-futures-fund-doj-ruling-unclear-undecided/ #googles #futures #fund #may #have #tread #carefully