OpenAI-backed nuclear startup receives DOE approval on new project
Nuclear power startup Oklo has made new progress toward its goal of reshaping the energy industry by advancing small modular reactor technology. The company finalized an agreement during the week of Sept. 22 with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), allowing it to move forward with plans for its first commercial microreactor, expected to be located in Idaho.
“As the only advanced fission company with a DOE site use permit, along with substantial regulatory progress and a secured fuel supply, Oklo is uniquely positioned to deploy the first commercial advanced fission power plant in the U.S.,” the company said in a statement.
Microreactors, like the one Oklo plans to develop, are seen as a more efficient alternative to traditional nuclear power plants. They are designed to be smaller, making them quicker and cheaper to both build and operate, while providing constant energy, unlike other renewables.
Oklo’s chairman, Sam Altman — CEO of OpenAI, a major player in artificial intelligence — reflects a growing trend of tech companies supporting nuclear power.
With increasing electricity demands on the horizon, particularly from data centers and AI operations, tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon are exploring nuclear energy as a dependable source to meet their needs.
Oklo must still obtain a permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before construction on its project can begin. However, with the DOE agreement in place, the company is now able to start crucial groundwork, including geotechnical assessments, environmental surveys, and infrastructure planning at the proposed Idaho site. Oklo aims to break ground in 2026, with plans to have the microreactor operational by 2027.
Amazon faces challenges in AI race amid growing competition
Amazon is working to regain its position in the rapidly advancing artificial intelligence landscape as it faces increasing competition from tech giants like Microsoft, Google and OpenAI. While Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant once dominated the market, the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT has reshaped the AI race, leaving the company working to catch up.
Amazon’s AI team has focused on developing large language models and generative AI technology to enhance Alexa and other products. However, the company’s efforts have encountered significant challenges.
Getty Images
Delays in development, shifting priorities, and tight timelines have slowed progress. As new AI models were integrated into Alexa, the assistant became less reliable for basic tasks, like turning on lights, which it once performed with over 90% accuracy.
Amazon remains optimistic, expecting AI to drive significant revenue growth in the coming years, particularly through its cloud services.
The company has also invested in partnerships and AI startups to bolster its capabilities. Despite these efforts, competitors like Google and Apple have introduced advanced AI assistants, intensifying the pressure on Amazon to innovate.
Amazon is set to reveal an upgraded version of Alexa as early as October, with new conversational abilities and enhanced functionality. However, questions remain about whether the company can close the gap with its rivals in the competitive AI landscape.
Americans trust Elon Musk’s X as little as US government
In a recent digital privacy survey, Elon Musk’s platform X, formerly known as Twitter, ranked last among major tech companies in terms of public trust. The data revealed that only 28% of Americans said they trust X — a figure equal to the percentage of respondents who trust the U.S. government.
Other tech giants, such as Amazon and Google, fared much better in the survey. Seventy percent of respondents expressed trust in Amazon, while 65% indicated they trust Google.
Reuters
TikTok, another platform facing scrutiny over data security and potential ties to China, scored just above X, with 29% of respondents saying they trusted the app.
Reuters
The low trust in X follows a series of controversies since Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the platform. His restructuring of content moderation policies, mass layoffs in the trust and safety departments, and his own often provocative posts have drawn widespread criticism.
As public trust in X continues to decline, questions remain about how these controversies will impact the platform’s future.
Who’s Larry Ellison and what’s Oracle? Bezos challenged as No. 2 richest
Oracle chairman and co-founder Larry Ellison is making moves near the top of the list of the world’s richest people. The tech billionaire recently surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to take over the No. 2 slot, although there is now back-and-forth for the position.
Ellison has an estimated net worth of just over $200 billion as of Wednesday, Sept. 18. But how did he amass such a fortune? Of the Top 10 richest people on the planet, chances are most people could identify the rest of their names or at the very least, know their companies.
Ellison is the chairman and chief technology officer at Oracle. According to the 80–year–old’s biography, he also races sailboats, flies planes, and plays tennis and guitar. He founded the tech company back in 1977, and it appears he knew exactly what he was doing.
“I decided on the computer business in college,” the entrepreneur said during an interview with the Academy of Achievement in 1997. “I started working part-time programming. I found that in a very short period of time, I could make more money writing programs than a tenured professor at the University of Chicago was making. And I was a teenager, and I said, ‘This is kind of cool,’ and it was also fun. It was like a big game. It was like working on puzzles. So I enjoyed it. [And] it paid extremely well.”
Oracle made headlines when it made a deal to store TikTok’s U.S. data. It was a concession Chinese parent company ByteDance made to try to prevent TikTok from being banned in the U.S. The move has so far not calmed concerns; TikTok was in court the week of Sept. 15, arguing its case against an app ban.
Like most successful tech companies, in 2024 Oracle is making a huge play in the artificial intelligence space. Ellison said the company is building data centers to meet the booming demand for generative AI.
“So we are literally building the smallest, most portable, most affordable cloud data centers all the way up to 200-megawatt data centers, ideal for training very large language models and keeping them up to date. This AI race is going to go on for a long time,” he said during Oracle’s fiscal fourth quarter earnings call in June.
Oracle announced data partnerships with some of the biggest names in AI, including Amazon, Microsoft and Google. As the AI race ramps up, one major problem in need of a solution is storage. Generative AI requires huge amounts of data for teaching the technology. And that’s where Oracle hopes to step in.
MrBeast, Amazon sued for alleged ‘Beast Games’ reality show abuses
A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Amazon and YouTube star MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, by participants of the reality competition show “Beast Games,” citing severe mistreatment and unsafe working conditions. The lawsuit, lodged in Los Angeles Superior Court, involves allegations ranging from insufficient wages and unpaid overtime, to physical injuries and sexual harassment during the show’s production in Las Vegas.
“Beast Games,” designed for Amazon Prime, features contestants engaged in a series of challenges with a chance to win a $5 million prize, marketed as the largest in the history of television and streaming. The show draws on the format that has catapulted MrBeast to internet fame, involving high-stakes stunts and substantial rewards.
According to the lawsuit, the production allegedly failed to meet basic care standards for participants, some of whom were hospitalized due to the show’s extreme physical demands.
The complaint further alleges that the show’s environment perpetuated sexism and allowed sexual harassment to occur unchecked, particularly affecting female contestants. Specific details of these incidents remain under wraps due to confidentiality agreements.
The plaintiffs also claim they were deceived about their odds of winning the grand prize and were compelled to cover their own travel expenses without reimbursement. Moreover, the lawsuit accuses the defendants of providing false information to the State of Nevada to secure unearned tax benefits.
The lawsuit is seeking class-action status to represent all Beast Games contestants, demanding that Amazon and MrBeast’s company cover unpaid wages and other expenses. It also seeks unspecified punitive damages. As of the latest updates, representatives for MrBeast and Amazon have not responded to media inquiries for comments.
Amazon ending remote work starting next year
Amazon is ending remote work almost five years after the COVID-19 pandemic swept and ravaged the nation, as well as the world, and led to many people working from their homes. Starting next year, corporate employees will be required to be back in the office five days a week.
This is the latest update to Amazon’s rules regarding remote work. Last year, the company changed its policy to mandate employees come back to the office at least three days a week.
Amazon has supposedly been marred by an inability to get things done with lots of meetings and layers of approval.
CEO Andy Jassy called out that culture in a note to workers saying, in part, there are “pre-meetings for the pre-meetings for the decision meetings, a longer line of managers feeling like they need to review a topic before it moves forward.”
Suspect in Trump apparent assassination attempt went undetected for 12 hours
New details emerge on the suspect in the second apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump, including how long he went undetected near the former president’s golf club. And Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has been arrested on federal charges. We have the latest on what’s ahead for the hip hop mogul. These stories and more highlight your Unbiased Updates for Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024.
Suspect in apparent assassination attempt went undetected for 12 hours
Authorities said the suspect in this past weekend’s apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump went undetected near Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida for 12 hours before being noticed by a Secret Service agent. The suspect was caught pointing a rifle through the bushes.
The agent fired at the suspect, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, who fled the scene only to be taken into custody a short time later. A local sheriff’s office released body camera video showing his arrest.
Routh was charged Monday, Sept. 16, with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He did not enter a plea during an appearance in a federal courtroom.
In a Monday afternoon press conference, Secret Service Acting Director Ron Rowe, Jr. said Routh did not fire any shots at the agent and never had Trump in his line of sight.
Rowe and the FBI agent in charge, Jeffrey Veltri, said so far, there is no evidence showing the suspect knew Trump would be golfing that day. Veltri went into detail about the suspect’s criminal past.
“In 2002, as the United States attorney mentioned, the subject was charged and convicted in North Carolina for possession of a weapon of mass destruction,” Veltri said. “Law enforcement checks also revealed that from 1997 to 2010, the subject had numerous felony charges for stolen goods. I can also share with you that he was the subject of a previously closed 2019 tip to the FBI where it was alleged he was a felon in possession of a firearm.”
Veltri said the FBI passed along that information to authorities in Hawaii, where Routh lived. Rowe told reporters Trump’s plans to play golf on Sunday were “off-the-record” – meaning it was not part of the former president’s official schedule.
As new questions emerge about the Secret Service’s effectiveness following the second assassination attempt in just over two months, Rowe defended his agents, saying they were “rising for this moment.”
“Yesterday afternoon, this country was reminded of the heightened and dynamic threat environment that the United States Secret Service and its protectees face on a daily basis,” Rowe said. “Immediately following the assassination attempt of former President Donald J. Trump on July 13th, the Secret Service moved to increase assets to an already enhanced security posture for the former president.”
Rowe said the “highest levels of protection” were in place for the former president – as directed by President Joe Biden – including “counter-sniper team elements.”
Speaking to reporters on his way to an event in Philadelphia Monday, Biden said the Secret Service “needs more help.” A White House official said President Biden spoke to Trump on the phone Monday, conveying his relief that the former president was safe.
During an appearance on the social media site X Monday night, Trump spoke about hearing the gunshots fired by the Secret Service. He said the agent did a “fantastic job” and joked that he “would have liked to have sank that last putt.”
Routh’s next court appearance is set for Sept. 23 for a pre-detention hearing. His arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 30. Routh remains in custody as authorities continue their investigation.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs arrested on federal charges in New York
Hip hop mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was arrested on federal charges on Monday night. Sources close to the matter tell media outlets Diddy was not expecting the arrest.
Homeland Security took him into custody at the Park Hyatt Hotel on 57th Street in Manhattan.
It’s not yet clear what federal charges he’s facing. The indictment is expected to be unsealed Tuesday, Sept. 17, at his arraignment.
Combs is facing multiple sexual assault lawsuits and has been the subject of a federal human trafficking probe in the last year, which is why Homeland Security is involved. His lawyers said he has been cooperating with investigators.
Former lead engineer felt pressure to get ‘Titan’ ready
Tuesday is day two of the Coast Guard’s hearing into the Titan submersible implosion that killed all five people on board.
Monday, we learned one of the last messages sent from the doomed vessel, indicated there were no concerns. It read “all good here.” That text message was shown during a recreation of the submersible’s trip to the Titanic wreckage at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in June 2023.
It came not long before the watercraft imploded, leaving all five people on board dead, including Stockton Rush — the co-founder of OceanGate, the company that owned the Titan.
The lead engineer for the vessel testified at Monday’s hearing saying he felt pressured by Rush to get it ready for the trip.
Former OceanGate Engineering Director Tony Nissen testified he stopped the submersible from going to the Titanic in 2019, telling Rush it was “not working like we thought it would.” Nissen was fired that year.
OceanGate’s co-founder, former operations director, and former scientific director are also supposed to testify in the hearing, which is expected to last about two weeks.
Meta bans Russian state media over ‘foreign interference activity’
Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta has banned Russian state media broadcaster RT, along with several other Kremlin-controlled outlets. Meta accuses them of using deceptive tactics to covertly influence operations online.
Before it was banned on Monday, RT had 7.2 followers on Facebook and one million on Instagram.
Meta’s move comes days after the Justice Department announced charges against two RT employees for funneling nearly $10 million into a U.S. company to create and promote content aligning with Russian interests.
Amazon ending remote work starting next year
Almost five years after the COVID-19 pandemic swept and ravaged the nation, as well as the world, and led to many people working from their homes, Amazon is ending remote work. Starting next year, corporate employees will be required to be back in the office five days a week.
This is the latest update to Amazon’s rules regarding remote work. Last year, the company changed its policy to mandate employees come back to the office at least three days a week.
Amazon has supposedly been marred by an inability to get things done with lots of meetings and layers of approval. CEO Andy Jassy called out that culture in a note to workers saying there are “pre-meetings for the pre-meetings for the decision meetings, a longer line of managers feeling like they need to review a topic before it moves forward.”
Jordan Chiles files appeal after being stripped of bronze medal
Chiles’ first individual Olympic medal was rescinded after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that her coach filed an inquiry during the floor exercises, which propelled Chiles to third place. But it was a few seconds too late.
Chiles has now appealed her case to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland.
The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee supports Chiles and said they are determined to see she gets the recognition she deserves.
Boeing: The perfect story of what’s wrong with America’s economy?
Boeing’s bright spot this year was the hiring of its new CEO, an engineer and aerospace chief named Kelly Ortberg, after years of finance men at the helm. But Ortberg’s arrival is clouded by the controversies hanging over Boeing, from hours-long hearings on safety issues to a fraud charge to the first worker strike in 16 years.
Let’s not forget the stranded astronauts at the International Space Station.
Boeing’s troubles started long before two 737 MAX planes crashed in less than five months between 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. Several experts point to the 1997 merger between McDonnell Douglas and Boeing as the trigger.
Their focus was on making numbers, not making planes.
Gautam Mukunda, leadership expert
What followed was a series of leadership decisions that prioritized profits and quarterly earnings over planes, according to Gautam Mukunda, a leadership expert, Harvard fellow and author of “Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter.”
“It is a story about a larger pathology in the American corporate sector that just devastated the American economy and turned it from an economy that was focused on making things to an economy that was focused on playing games with spreadsheets,” Mukunda said. “And that story is why Boeing is the perfect example of everything that’s gone wrong.”
There is no alternative but to fix Boeing.
Gautam Mukunda, leadership expert
In the video above, Mukunda delivers a master class on Boeing’s history and leadership decisions that have steered this American company to its current crossroads.
Is Ortberg the right guy to fix Boeing’s problems? Should the company move its headquarters back to the Seattle area? What are Boeing workers saying in private about the culture at Boeing? What companies are most at risk of following Boeing’s path? Mukunda answers these questions and more in this Straight Arrow News interview. Watch the video above.
Apple and Google lose billions in back taxes, EU fines across the pond
The European Commission scored two big wins against major U.S. tech companies on Tuesday, Sept. 10. Both Apple and Google will have to pay billions of euros after nearly a decade of fighting in EU courts.
Apple lost its final appeal to avoid paying $14.34 billion in back taxes to Ireland. The European Court of Justice ruled the iPhone-maker received too sweet of a deal to make Ireland its European headquarters.
The ruling stems from a practice known as a “Double Irish” scheme.
For U.S. companies that operate in multiple countries, it was a way for them to shield non-U.S. profits from U.S. corporate tax. But they didn’t pay much in Ireland either; the money would get funneled from Ireland to a tax haven.
The tax loophole was used by Ireland to attract major tech companies to its shores for European headquarters. After pressure from the EU and U.S., Ireland was forced to close the loophole in 2014. However, existing companies like Apple were grandfathered in and could take advantage of the law until 2020.
In 2016, the European Commission ruled Ireland provided illegal state aid to Apple by not collecting 13 billion euros in taxes from 2004 to 2014.
“No one did anything wrong here and we need to stand together,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told the Irish Independent back in 2016. “Ireland is being picked on and this is unacceptable.”
Cook also called claims made by European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager that the company only paid 0.005% in taxes “total political crap.” He said the company paid $400 million in taxes in 2014, making Apple the highest taxpayer in Ireland that year.
Eight years later, Vestager said winning the final appeal against Apple made her cry.
“Today marks a step forward and it’s encouraging,” Vestager said Tuesday. “It’s encouraging for us to do more. The commission will continue its work on harmful tax competition and aggressive tax planning, both in terms of legislative proposals but also enforcement.”
Other major multinational companies, like Amazon and Starbucks, have avoided paying back taxes, unlike Apple. But the commission’s case against Ireland and Apple proved stronger after getting documents where Irish officials were upfront about just how good of a deal they gave Apple.
The Luxembourg-based court also upheld a $2.7 billion antitrust fine against Google on the same day, giving the commission its second victory in 24 hours.
The Google fine has been in limbo since it was levied back in 2017. At the time, the commission accused Google of giving prominent placement to its own comparison shopping service and burying its rivals in the same results. Google had a 90% market share for search in the EU when the case first started.
“The Google shopping case is a landmark in the history of regulatory actions against Big Tech companies,” Vestager said. “It was one of the first significant antitrust cases brought by a competition agency against a major digital company. And I think this case marked a pivotal shift in how digital companies were regulated and also perceived.”
“In essence, the Google shopping case was a catalyst for change, inspiring a more vigilant and proactive approach to regulating Big Tech and of course, ensuring also a fairer digital marketplace,” she added.
Google is a frequent target of the competition committee and has been fined more than 8 billion euros in the last 10 years. Google is still waiting for final rulings on challenges to cases involving the Android operating system for mobile phones and its advertising platform.
Google also has antitrust concerns to deal with in the U.S. In a trial that started Monday, Sept. 9, over its advertising practices, the Department of Justice argued, “Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies.”
Amazon says ‘error’ led Alexa to biased responses to Trump, Harris questions
Amazon’s Alexa is facing scrutiny after a reported malfunction led to biased responses when asked about former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Amazon has since addressed the issue, stating that it has fixed the error. However, the incident has sparked significant online reaction.
Users have been recording themselves asking Alexa political questions. Tests confirmed by Fox Business before the changes were made showed that Alexa refused to answer questions about why someone should vote for Trump.
In contrast, Alexa’s response was notably different when asked why someone should vote for Kamala Harris.
According to multiple news outlets, Alexa highlighted Harris’ status as a female of color who has “overcome numerous obstacles” to become a leader.
Alexa described her as a “compelling candidate” with a plan to address racial injustice and detailed her experience as a prosecutor and attorney general.
Amazon has acknowledged the discrepancy, calling it an “error” that has been corrected. The company told The New York Post that Alexa does not hold political biases and that measures are in place to prevent similar issues in the future.
Trump’s campaign staff criticized the inconsistent answers, calling it the latest example of “Big Tech’s censorship.”
