On a call with investors last spring, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, said he believed that he had an opportunity to introduce artificially intelligent assistants “to billions of people in ways that will be useful and meaningful.” A year later, he is making good on his statement. On Thursday, Meta will begin incorporating…
Cryptocurrency enthusiasts have eagerly anticipated the third week of April, counting down the days until a potentially crucial moment in Bitcoin’s development called “the halving.” Essentially, the halving is a scheduled reduction in the number of new Bitcoin that go into circulation. As the supply falls, some analysts anticipate that the digital currency’s price will…
The Biden administration will give Micron up to $6.1 billion in grants to help build its semiconductor plants in New York and Idaho, the latest multibillion dollar award aimed at ramping up the nation’s production of vital semiconductors. Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, announced the grant on Thursday and…
Scotland’s National Health Service has stopped all new prescriptions of puberty-blocking drugs and other hormone treatments for minors, citing a sweeping review of youth gender services released in England last week. It is the sixth country in Europe to limit such treatments, and its changes are among the most restrictive. The review, commissioned by N.H.S….
When he flew to Nigeria for a business trip in late February, Tigran Gambaryan, a top compliance officer at the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, packed a small suitcase with just enough clothes for two days. A former U.S. law enforcement agent, Mr. Gambaryan knew the trip was risky. Only a few weeks earlier, he and a…
Hopie Stockman Hill and Grier Stockman grew up in an old farmhouse in a sylvan pocket of New Jersey. They played in wheat fields, craggy apple orchards and dense forests; built birdhouses and painted murals. The sisters’ childhood, spent merging art with nature, inspired their latest wallpaper collection from Block Shop, their textile, art and…
I think I owe frozen peas and carrots an apology. I’m always reaching past them for their sibling, frozen peas. My pea-and-carrot associations begin and end with Hungry-Man frozen dinners, chicken potpie (again, frozen) and fried rice. I know what to do with peas. I know what to do with carrots. But somehow I’m stuck…
In 2009, long before Jeff Yass became a Republican megadonor, his firm, Susquehanna International Group, invested in a Chinese real estate start-up that boasted a sophisticated search algorithm. The company, 99Fang, promised to help buyers find their perfect homes. Behind the scenes, employees of a Chinese subsidiary of Mr. Yass’s firm were so deeply involved,…
Alice McDermott, 70, writer There are three kinds of novels I’ve never taken to heart: science fiction, murder mysteries and novels about novelists. So I’ve decided to try my hand at each. If I fail, they’re probably not books I’d want to read anyway. Thurston Moore, 65, musician and author I’m putting the final touches…
Nearly 1.5 million teenage girls in some of the world’s poorest countries will miss the chance to be protected from cervical cancer because the drugmaker Merck has said it will not be able to deliver millions of promised doses of the HPV vaccine this year. Merck has notified Gavi, the international organization that helps low-…
