Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Mindaugas Petrutis, a 43-year-old content creator and consultant based in Dublin. His former employment and identity have been confirmed by Business Insider. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Loading audio narration… I’m a free agent. I do content creation, build products with AI for people in fashion and music, and do some consulting for startups on influencer marketing.I discovered Lovable around August 2024, when they were still in the very early stages. I was completely non-technical and couldn’t write a line of code, but I started playing around…

Software engineers are still important to Amazon, according to AWS CEO Matt Garman. Loading audio narration… At Amazon’s What’s Next with AWS event on Tuesday, Garman said Amazon is continuing to hire developers, even as AI tools reshape how they work.”I can tell you we are hiring just as many software developers as we ever had inside of Amazon,” he said. “And in fact, I see the demand for that really accelerating.”Garman said Amazon plans to bring on 11,000 software engineering interns in 2026 — a figure an Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider is in line with previous years.While Garman…

AI might finally be paying off. Loading audio narration… For all the hype, there’s been lingering skepticism about whether AI is actually delivering financial returns. Companies have adopted all sorts of creative metrics to measure — or at least approximate — the potential gains from AI adoption. Some are tracking the number of users a particular AI tool has, or the amount of time workers are saving using AI.To most companies, though, it’s the bottom line that matters most — and McKinsey & Company says the numbers are starting to look promising.Among a group of top-performing companies, the firm found…

One Elon Musk company made over half a billion dollars selling to two other companies in the Musk universe. Loading audio narration… Tesla generated $573 million in revenue last year, selling cars and battery systems to SpaceX and xAI, according to a regulatory filing uploaded on Thursday.Tesla said it made about $430 million last year by selling Megapack products — a lithium-ion battery system — to xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence company, and the maker of Grok. It added that it made about $143 million, mostly from selling vehicles to SpaceX, the billionaire’s rocket company, last year.The carmaker did not disclose…

India has emerged as the largest user base for ChatGPT Images 2.0 since its launch last week, OpenAI said on Thursday. However, third-party data reviewed by TechCrunch points to a more measured global response, with limited overall growth alongside sharp spikes in select emerging markets. ChatGPT Images 2.0, OpenAI’s latest image-generation upgrade, is designed to handle more complex prompts and produce detailed visuals, including accurate text across multiple languages. Early patterns from the company suggest users — especially in India, its largest market — are using it to create personal visuals such as avatars, stylized portraits, and fantasy-themed images. Data…

Steve Jobs once left salient advice for Tim Cook as the Apple cofounder prepared to hand over the reins 15 years ago. Loading audio narration… Now, the outgoing CEO has some wisdom to impart to his new successor, John Ternus.”What I’ve told him is that one of the most important decisions he’ll make is where to spend his time, and I would spend it where the greatest benefit to the company and the users are,” Cook said during Apple’s second-quarter earnings call on Thursday.”And never forget the North Star for the company. We’re about making the best products in the…

Tim Cook is positioning Apple to take advantage of tariff refunds as Donald Trump watches closely. Loading audio narration… The outgoing Apple CEO said on Thursday during the company’s Q2 earnings call that Apple is “following the established processes” to apply for tariff refunds and plans to reinvest any money it recoups into US innovation and manufacturing. Those investments, he added, would be “in addition to our prior commitments in the US.”Cook’s comments show how Apple is navigating tariffs that have become both a cost issue and a political one — and underscore why he’s earned a reputation as the…

Day Four of the blockbuster civil trial in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Sam Altman began Thursday with Musk returning to the witness stand. Loading audio narration… Musk faced grilling by OpenAI and Altman’s lead lawyer, William Savitt, and a brief round of questioning by an attorney representing OpenAI backer Microsoft, also a defendant.Jared Birchall, a former Morgan Stanley banker and Musk’s money manager, was the second witness called by Musk’s legal team.Here are the biggest takeaways from the trial, drawn from witness testimony and evidence presented in the California federal court.Musk said xAI is no threatMusk owns xAI, the maker…

Anthropic is asking investors to submit allocations for the AI company’s latest fundraise within the next 48 hours, according to sources familiar with the matter. The round, which TechCrunch reported is expected to be roughly $50 billion, is estimated to close within two weeks, the sources said. As we previously reported, Anthropic is targeting a valuation of about $900 billion. However, given the soaring demand from investors seeking a stake in the company, the final valuation may well exceed that figure, our sources said. Anthropic declined to comment. Despite the intense demand, some early backers — particularly those who invested…

Apple’s iPhone sales and Services revenue were the stars of the show in the tech giant’s most recent quarter, but the Mac quietly outperformed — helped by growing demand for AI workloads. Wall Street investors had expected to see Mac revenue in the low $8 billion range, but Apple reported $8.4 billion in the second quarter ended March 28 — a notable beat for a non-core segment of the tech giant’s business. In addition, investors ahead of earnings believed that Mac sales would be essentially flat year-over-year. Instead, Mac sales were up 6% on an annual basis, the company told…