Science and Technology

In the dizzying race to build generative A.I. systems, the tech industry’s mantra has been bigger is better, no matter the price tag.Now tech companies are starting to embrace smaller A.I. technologies that are not as powerful but cost a lot less. And for many customers, that may be a good trade-off.On Tuesday, Microsoft introduced three smaller A.I. models that are part of a technology family the company has named Phi-3. The company said even the smallest of the three performed almost as well as GPT-3.5, the much larger system that underpinned OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot when it stunned the world…

Mr. Doctorow noted that, just as the internet has made routine tasks less burdensome, it has also made scams much easier to pull off. Picture an old-school boiler room in which fast-talking con artists place hundreds of phone calls in an effort to fleece strangers out of their savings, he said. Now fast forward to 2024, when scammers can send out millions of phishing texts and emails with the help of bots.“If you can automate parts of it,” Mr. Doctorow said, “you can cast a much wider net.”Text scams tricked Americans out of $300 million in 2022, the Federal Trade…

In a time when the headlines are dominated by wars and a divisive presidential campaign, the magazine-world rivalry between The Atlantic and The New Yorker doesn’t amount to much.So you might have missed it when, on April 2, The Atlantic beat The New Yorker in three big categories at the 2024 National Magazine Awards.But to Rusty Foster, who chronicles the media industry and internet culture in his daily newsletter, Today in Tabs, The Atlantic’s victory was big news.Shortly after the awards ceremony, which took place at Terminal 5 in Manhattan, Mr. Foster tapped out a fanciful report for his audience…

Google on Wednesday fired 28 workers after dozens of employees participated in sit-ins at the company’s New York and Sunnyvale, Calif., offices to protest the company’s cloud computing contract with the Israeli government.A day earlier, nine employees were arrested on charges of trespassing at the two offices.“Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior,” a Google spokeswoman said in a statement.Years before the dismissals, tensions had been simmering between the company’s management and some activist employees over Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion Google and Amazon…

In his office on one of the upper floors of the headquarters of the Paris Olympic organizing committee, Franz Regul has no doubt what is coming.“We will be attacked,” said Mr. Regul, who leads the team responsible for warding off cyberthreats against this year’s Summer Games in Paris.Companies and governments around the world now all have teams like Mr. Regul’s that operate in spartan rooms equipped with banks of computer servers and screens with indicator lights that warn of incoming hacking attacks. In the Paris operations center, there is even a red light to alert the staff to the most…

Unlike the consumer goods, beverage or retail sectors, the note continued, there are no large consultancies publishing market share data on the Swiss watch sector. “This is due to the impracticality of conducting such surveys and the discreet nature of the Swiss watch industry,” it said.Perhaps no brand is more discreet, nor influential, than Rolex, which continues to dominate the market. According to Morgan Stanley’s seventh annual report, released in February, Rolex’s share is said to have grown — to 30.3 percent — on the strength of its 2023 sales, estimated to have topped 10 billion Swiss francs.Yet, because the…

Endorsing an antisemitic post on X. Withholding Starlink satellite internet service from Ukraine to prevent a drone attack on Russian forces. Reposting conspiracy theorists who claim that the Biden administration’s immigration policies are part of a plot to increase the number of people who vote Democrat.Elon Musk’s behavior and public statements have clearly offended many people, especially left-leaning consumers who are the most likely to buy an electric vehicle.As a business reporter who covers Tesla, the company that Mr. Musk is chief executive of, I’m exploring to what extent his public persona is damaging the company’s brand and hurting sales.…

On a recent afternoon, I held a bagel in front of me and said: “Look and tell me if this is healthy.”A monotone voice responded that the bagel was unhealthy because it was high in carbohydrates, which could contribute to weight gain.I wasn’t talking to a tech bro obsessed with the ketogenic diet. This was the Ai Pin, a $700 tiny computer featuring a virtual assistant pulling data from OpenAI (the research firm behind the ChatGPT chatbot), Google, Microsoft and others to answer questions and perform tasks.Shaped like a lapel pin that may be a throwback to “Star Trek,” it…

Zwickau, a city in Germany’s east, may not be as famous as Detroit, but its economy has revolved around internal combustion engines since August Horch established Audi here at the beginning of the 20th century.So when Volkswagen announced in 2018 that it would convert its Zwickau factory, the largest private employer in the area, to manufacture nothing but electric vehicles, it was a big deal.“A lot of people were skeptical,” said Michael Fuchs, who has worked at the factory for more than a quarter century. They wondered, “What’s going to happen?” he said.Volkswagen shut down assembly lines churning out its…

The Maryland Legislature this weekend passed two sweeping privacy bills that aim to restrict how powerful tech platforms can harvest and use the personal data of consumers and young people — despite strong objections from industry trade groups representing giants like Amazon, Google and Meta.One bill, the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act, would impose wide-ranging restrictions on how companies may collect and use the personal data of consumers in the state. The other, the Maryland Kids Code, would prohibit certain social media, video game and other online platforms from tracking people under 18 and from using manipulative techniques — like…