Business News

Google’s Gemini AI app to land on phones, making it easier for people to connect to a digital brain

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google has introduced a free artificial intelligence app that will implant the technology on smartphones. The app will enable people to quickly connect to a digital brain that can write for them, interpret what they’re reading and seeing, in addition to helping manage their lives. With the introduction of the Gemini app, Google will cast aside the Bard chatbot it introduced a year ago in an effort to catch up with ChatGPT, the chatbot unleashed by the Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI. Besides the free Gemini app, Google is selling an even smarter version for $20 per month that the company says will be able to outthink human experts in many complex topics.

China names a new stock regulator and reports new developer financing in a bid to soothe markets

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares have risen in China after Beijing ousted its top stock market regulator and announced more funding for hard-strapped property developers. Investors appeared to give a warm welcome to Wu Qing. The industry veteran has a reputation for being tough on market misbehavior. He was named chairman and Communist Party chief of the China Securities Regulatory Commission on Thursday. State media also reported that banks were extending nearly $2.5 billion in loans to 83 real estate projects chosen for support as part of measures to rescue the ailing property sector. Defaults among dozens of developers have undermined confidence in the government’s efforts to revive the economy following the pandemic.

Microsoft’s Nadella woos Indian developers to the company’s AI tools

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has urged more than a thousand Indian computer code developers to use the company’s artificial intelligence tools being deployed across its products. Speaking to the developers in Bengaluru, India’s “Silicon Valley,” Nadella noted that more than 13.2 million Indian developers are currently on GitHub, an internet hosting service for software development, second only to the number from the United States. Nadella said Microsoft Corp. expects that use of AI can help achieve 10%, or $500 billion, of India’s GDP target for 2025. Microsoft has announced a monthlong AI training program for 100,000 Indian developers and AI skills training for 2 million Indians by 2025.

Stock market today: Wall Street slightly inches lower, though S&P 500 is on the brink of 5,000

Wall Street edged lower before markets opened, one day after the S&P 500 came within a fraction of reaching 5,000 for the first time. Futures for the S&P 500 inched back 0.2% before the bell, while futures for the Dow were effectively unchanged. Markets remain mostly focused on corporate earnings, although more turbulence in the regional banking sector continues to rattle investors. New York Community Bancorp slid again early Thursday, falling 4.9%. About half its value has been wiped out since it surprised the industry last week with a loss. Disney jumped almost 8% in premarket after posting stronger-than-expected first-quarter earnings.

Turkey’s new central bank chief assures that work to combat inflation will press on

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s new central bank chief says the work to tame inflation — namely through interest rate hikes — will continue “with determination.” The comments Thursday by Fatih Karahan offer some certainty about efforts to right the battered economy following his precedessor’s surprise resignation. Speaking for the first time since taking the helm of the central bank on Saturday, Karahan said he expects inflation to drop considerably over this year and next. The bank’s former deputy governor, Karahan was part of a new team that have been tackling the country’s economic woes through higher borrowing costs. Karahan replaced Hafize Gaye Erkan, who resigned months into the job following accusations that her parents were exerting undue influence.

New indoor EV charging station in San Francisco offers a glimpse into the future

DETROIT (AP) — A couple of blocks from the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Electrify America is about to open an indoor charging station that lets drivers relax in a lounge while their electric vehicle batteries are being filled up. The 20-plug direct-current fast-charging station, which opens for business Friday near downtown San Francisco, is part of a trend toward more appealing neighborhood stations, designed to serve EV owners who can’t charge at their homes as well as travelers or commuters who are low on juice. It’s also designed to allay fears from potential EV buyers that charging stations are too scarce or that they will have no safe place to wait as their vehicles charge.

Mexico overtakes China as the leading source of goods imported by US

WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time in more than two decades, Mexico last year surpassed China as the leading source of goods imported by the United States. The shift reflects the growing tensions between Washington and Beijing as well as U.S. efforts to import from countries that are friendlier and closer to home. Figures released by the U.S. Commerce Department show that the value of goods imported by the United States from Mexico rose nearly 5% from 2022 to 2023, to more than $475 billion. At the same time, the value of Chinese imports imports tumbled 20%. The last time that Mexican goods imported by the United States exceeded the value of China’s imports was in 2002.

Treasury rolls out residential real estate transparency rules to combat money laundering

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration wants to make residential real estate transactions more transparent — by unmasking the owners of all-cash purchases as part of its ongoing effort to combat money laundering and the movement of dirty money through the American financial system. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed a regulation on Wednesday that would require some real estate professionals to report information to the agency about non-financed transfers of residential real estate to legal entities, trusts and shell companies.

Conflict in the Middle East is affecting a key energy lifeline for Europe. How big is the risk?

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Attacks on shipping in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels are disrupting a key trade route for energy supplies to Europe. Ships carrying liquefied natural gas are rerouting around the southern tip of Africa out of security concerns, lengthening the voyages for energy to Europe from the Middle East by a week or more and raising costs. That is raising concerns as Europe still grapples with the fallout from an energy crisis after Russia largely cut off natural gas to the continent over the invasion of Ukraine. Europe relies on imported natural gas to power factories, generate electricity and heat homes.

It’s a mismatch on the economy. Even as inflation wanes, voters still worry about getting by

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Bartender Catey Regis’s pricey misadventure of buying a used car recently speaks to why voters are worrying about the U.S. economy going into this year’s presidential election. Over three years at Founders Brewing, the 25-year-old saved enough money pouring IPAs, stouts and porters to pay cash for a 2009 Toyota Corolla. But then the car’s transmission went kaput and she had to take out a costly loan to fix it, and keep her toehold in the middle class. Conversations with dozens of voters around Grand Rapids, Michigan show they’re thinking about the economy through their own experiences. And they tell a story about an economy, a country and a world that seems to many to have spun out of control.