Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

Privacy will be a major theme when Apple unveils a new version of Siri at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The Siri relaunch is widely seen as Apple’s big chance to reestablish its relevance in artificial intelligence. As part of that effort, company executives will argue that they’re taking a more privacy-friendly approach than most other AI companies, Gurman said. Apple will reportedly launch the first standalone Siri app, powered by Google Gemini and offering users a chatbot experience reminiscent of ChatGPT.  But compared to those other chatbots, the app is supposed to have…

Lawyers for Elon Musk and OpenAI made their closing arguments this week, and now it’s up to jurors to decide whether OpenAI did anything wrong as it’s transformed into a slightly-more-for-profit organization.  But as Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and I noted on the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, a big theme in the trial’s final days was whether OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is trustworthy — for example, Musk’s attorney Steve Molo grilled Altman about whether statements he’d made during congressional testimony were truthful. Kirsten noted that Musk has made plenty of misleading statements of his own, and that trust…

In San Francisco, the AI boom is creating fame, fortune — and existential dread. Loading audio narration… As rapid technological development widens the gap between the haves and the have-nots, a sort of machine-age ennui has set across San Francisco, says Deedy Das, a partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures.Das said in a post on X, which had almost a thousand responses by Sunday afternoon, that over the past five years, the fortunes of a small group of employees at leading AI companies, like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Nvidia, as well as some smaller startups, have “skyrocketed.”Money, however, it seems,…

It’s commencement season at American universities — and this year, at least a couple speakers have discovered that it’s tough to get graduating students excited about a future shaped by artificial intelligence. Last week, Gloria Caulfield, an executive at real estate firm Tavistock Development Company, gave a speech at the University of Central Florida acknowledging that we’re living in a time of “profound change,” which can be both “exciting” and “daunting.” “The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution,” Caulfield declared — prompting the students in the audience to begin booing, getting louder and louder until Caulfield chuckled, turned…

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! There is a bit of a theme emerging in transportation — and really every industry: AI is creating jobs for some at the loss of others.  General Motors, for instance, laid off more than 10% of its IT department, or about 600 salaried employees — in a deliberate skills swap. This won’t translate into a one-to-one exchange, which means there will likely be a net-negative job…

In an era of rampant layoffs, it can feel like no job is safe. Loading audio narration… Except, perhaps, elevator mechanics.Judy Marks is the CEO of elevator giant Otis and oversees a workforce of roughly 72,000 employees. That includes about 45,000 mechanics — and she says the company can’t hire them fast enough.”The demand is high,” Marks told Business Insider.When Otis spun off from its parent company in April 2020, it employed about 40,000 of these field professionals. Today, that number has increased by about 12.5% to 45,000, Otis said. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projected that elevator and escalator…

The iPhone 17 is on a hot streak for Apple while competitors cool down. Loading audio narration… Apple’s iPhone sales volume in the US grew 1.3% year over year in the first quarter, while the broader smartphone market fell 5.7%, according to market research firm Counterpoint Research. Samsung’s later-than-usual launch of the Galaxy S26 helped give the iPhone a leg up.Samsung’s Galaxy S26 series was delayed from a typical January release to March 11, giving Apple a head start in smartphone sales for the quarter, market research firm Counterpoint Research said. Last year, the Galaxy S25 was unveiled in January…

Amazon’s “Day 1” culture primes employees for constant change. And there’s been plenty of it lately: a five-day return-to-office mandate, an AI push, and mass layoffs. Business Insider interviewed 12 current and recent employees about how it’s going.Here’s what they told us. The responses have been edited for length and clarity.AI is now central to my workAndrew Z. Chen is in his early 20s and lives in New York City. He began working for Amazon last year as a software development engineer.As a software engineer, AI has become a big part of my day-to-day job. I spend most of my…

The next time you’re at a networking event, don’t be thrown if you spot new job titles on people’s name tags. Loading audio narration… AI companies aren’t just changing the way people work. They’re changing the kinds of roles being hired, including within their own companies.The wider jobs marketplace is responding, with org charts morphing as a new class of jobs emerge.In some cases, companies are creating new job titles altogether; in others, existing roles are seeing a resurgence in value — or a rebranding for the AI age.The hiring sprees and the creation of new positions stand in stark…

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Growing up, Mikala Sposito dreamed of being a trailblazer.“I always wanted to be the first female to do something,” she said.That dream is about to be realized.The 21-year-old from Dexter, Michigan, will be the first woman to represent the United States in welding at the WorldSkills Competition in China.Sposito, a student at Washtenaw Community College, earned the coveted spot by winning the USA Weld Trials in Huntsville, Alabama, earlier this year.“It was very, very close the whole time, but I was the one who made it to Shanghai,” Sposito said.Described as the Olympics of the…