The tech industry has been hit with a wave of layoffs in 2024, with over 130,000 job cuts across 457 companies. Major players like Tesla, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have all conducted significant layoffs, while smaller startups have also been impacted. The layoffs are a result of a combination of factors, including economic uncertainty, increased…
industry on The Soothsayer / page 13
A looming patent cliff threatens to disrupt the pharmaceutical industry, with over $200 billion in annual revenue at risk through 2030. However, this presents a significant opportunity for biosimilar developers to capitalize on the transition to more affordable treatments. Several companies, including Alvotech, Biocon Biologics, Celltrion, Formycon, and Samsung Bioepis, are already making strides in…
Muslim and immigrant-owned businesses are facing a growing threat of financial exclusion due to the practice of “de-risking” by financial institutions. This has resulted in the closure of bank accounts and restrictions on transactions, making it difficult for these businesses to access essential banking services. The issue is particularly acute for charities and organizations working…
A recent survey of academics worldwide has revealed a significant gap in computing power between researchers in universities and those in large technology companies. This disparity hinders the development of large language models and other AI research, with many academics lacking access to powerful graphics processing units (GPUs). The study suggests that academics could make…
The crypto market is experiencing a historic comeback, driven by unprecedented political shifts and bold new ambitions from tech world leaders. President-elect Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance and Elon Musk’s vision for X as a crypto-powered payment network are sparking a surge in interest in cryptocurrencies, particularly meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. This shift…
A computer game, Operation al-Aqsa Flood, that allowed users to recreate aspects of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel has been removed from the popular gaming platform Steam in the UK at the request of counterterrorism police. The game’s distributor cited compliance with UK authorities’ requests as the reason for the removal. The game’s creator,…
The Canadian Competition Bureau has filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging anti-competitive conduct in online advertising. The watchdog is seeking an order that requires Google to sell two of its advertisement tech tools and a penalty to promote compliance with Canada’s competition laws. This move follows a similar investigation in the United States, where the…
The chair of Australia’s national broadcaster, Kim Williams, has accused popular podcaster Joe Rogan of preying on people’s vulnerabilities and treating the public as “plunder.” Williams’ comments sparked a heated debate, with Rogan responding with a dismissive tweet and conservative voices defending the podcaster. The controversy highlights the growing influence of social media and podcasting…
Alibaba’s Qwen team has released a new reasoning AI model, QwQ-32B-Preview, which has 32.5 billion parameters and can consider prompts up to 32,000 words in length. The model performs better on certain benchmarks than OpenAI’s o1-preview and o1-mini models and is available for download under a permissive license. QwQ-32B-Preview has shown promising results in solving…
Walt Disney has agreed to pay $43.3 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that its female employees in California earned $150 million less than their male counterparts over an eight-year period. The settlement requires Disney to retain a labor economist for three years to analyze pay equity among full-time, non-union California employees. The lawsuit was…
