Some A.I. Companies Face a New Accusation: ‘Open Washing’
SHOP TALK /ō-pən-wä-shĭng/ An accusation against some A.I. companies that they are using the “open source” label too loosely. By Sarah Kessler Shop Talk explores the idioms of the business world: the insider jargon, the newly coined terms, the unfortunate or overused phrases. There’s a big debate in the tech world over whether artificial intelligence […]
China Says It Will Start Buying Apartments as Housing Slump Worsens
Chinese officials signaled their growing alarm over the country’s worsening property market on Friday, unveiling a plan to step in to buy up some of the vast housing stock and announcing even looser rules for mortgages. The flurry of activity came just hours after new economic data revealed that Chinese authorities are staring at a […]
Teen Who Died After Spicy ‘One Chip Challenge’ Had Enlarged Heart
A 14-year-old whose family said he had eaten a chip made with two of the hottest peppers in the world died of cardiopulmonary arrest, according to a medical examiner’s report released on Thursday, which noted that he had eaten a spicy substance and had an enlarged heart. The report found that the teenager, Harris Wolobah […]
Taiwan, on China’s Doorstep, Is Dealing With TikTok Its Own Way
As it is in the United States, TikTok is popular in Taiwan, used by a quarter of the island’s 23 million residents. People post videos of themselves shopping for trendy clothes, dressing up as video game characters and playing pranks on their roommates. Influencers share their choreographed dances and debate whether the sticky rice dumplings […]
Inside NPR, New Editing Layer Adds Angst Among Employees
One of NPR’s most prominent hosts asked the company’s top editor on Thursday to disclose the identity of an anonymous funder who is helping pay for a new layer of editing several weeks after the radio network faced a prominent accusation of having a liberal bias in its coverage. Michel Martin, a host of NPR’s […]
Robert Dennard, IBM Inventor Whose Chip Changed Computing, Dies at 91
Robert H. Dennard, an engineer who invented the silicon memory technology that plays an indispensable role in every smartphone, laptop and tablet computer, died on April 23 in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. He was 91. The cause of death, at a hospital, was a bacterial infection, said his daughter, Holly Dennard. Mr. Dennard’s pioneering work began […]
FDA Approves Amgen Drug for Persistently Deadly Form of Lung Cancer
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved an innovative new treatment for patients with a form of lung cancer. It is to be used only by patients who have exhausted all other options to treat small cell lung cancer, and have a life expectancy of four to five months. The drug tarlatamab, or Imdelltra, […]
Walmart Stock Hits Record Close on Strong Quarter
The Numbers: Sales growth in stores and especially online. Walmart said its comparable-store sales in the United States rose 3.8 percent from the quarter a year earlier. Its U.S. e-commerce business jumped 22 percent. Walmart has performed better than retailers dependent on apparel sales, in part because it also sells essential goods like groceries. Consumers, […]
U.A.W. Effort to Organize Mercedes Workers in Alabama Has High Stakes
More than 5,000 Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama are voting this week on whether to join the United Automobile Workers union, a decision both supporters and opponents say will have consequences far beyond two factories near Tuscaloosa where the German carmaker churns out luxury sport utility vehicles and batteries for electric cars. Conservative political leaders have […]
How Media Outlets Are Covering Michael Cohen’s Testimony
The country’s liberal and conservative media outlets seemed to agree on one thing this week: Michael D. Cohen, the government’s star witness in its case against former President Donald J. Trump, was worth belittling. But they made that argument in far different ways. Conservative outlets painted Mr. Cohen, a former lawyer for Mr. Trump, as […]