All posts tagged: money

Social media ‘soft girls’ depend on men for money – but Sweden once used state ‘influencers’ to urge women to get jobs

Social media ‘soft girls’ depend on men for money – but Sweden once used state ‘influencers’ to urge women to get jobs

Published by skeptic

The idea of becoming a “soft girl” – a woman who embrace values that are seen as soft, such as beauty and family life, at the expense of a career – is an emerging trend among some social media influencers. Soft girls often opt to be financially supported by a boyfriend or husband. In this way, the soft girl can be seen as similar to an aspiring housewife or “trad wife”, another popular role on social media. Even in Sweden, a country famous for its gender equality policies and repeatedly ranked as number one among countries in the Gender Equality Index, soft girls are reportedly on the rise. This has lead to a heated debate in the country over the past year. Soft girl was even recognised as a “new word” by a Swedish government authority, the Institute for Language and Folklore, in December 2024. The influence of this social media trend stands in stark contrast to the movement that stopped housewife from being a common role for women in Sweden by the 1980s, after …

It Costs So Much to Run ChatGPT That OpenAI Is Losing Money on 0 ChatGPT Pro Subscriptions

It Costs So Much to Run ChatGPT That OpenAI Is Losing Money on $200 ChatGPT Pro Subscriptions

Published by José

“People use it much more than we expected.” Fiscal Shortage While trying its darndest to become profitable, OpenAI is still falling comically short — which, since it’s the 800-pound gorilla in the nascent AI industry, should probably give pause to its rivals both large and small. In a post on X-formerly-Twitter, CEO Sam Altman admitted an “insane” fact: that the company is “currently losing money” on ChatGPT Pro subscriptions, which run $200 per month and give users access to its suite of products including its o1 “reasoning” model. “People use it much more than we expected,” the cofounder wrote, later adding in response to another user that he “personally chose the price and thought we would make some money.” Though Altman didn’t explicitly say why OpenAI is losing money on these premium subscriptions, the issue almost certainly comes down to the enormous expense of running AI infrastructure: the massive and increasing amounts of electricity needed to power the facilities that power AI, not to mention the cost of building and maintaining those data centers. Way back …

Could this be the future of farming? Inside Europe’s biggest vertical farm | Money News

Could this be the future of farming? Inside Europe’s biggest vertical farm | Money News

Published by skeptic

Outside it is the bleak midwinter. We are smack bang in the middle of some of the country’s best agricultural land. But inside the cavernous warehouse where we’ve come, you wouldn’t have a clue about any of that: there is no daylight; it feels like it could be any time of the day, any season of the year. We are at Fischer Farms – Europe’s biggest vertical farm. The whole point of a vertical farm is to create an environment where you can grow plants, stacked on top of each other (hence: vertical) in high density. The idea being that you can grow your salads or peas somewhere close to the cities where they’re consumed rather than hundreds of miles away. Location is not supposed to matter. Image: The main growing tunnels are the beating heart of the vertical farm Image: Farm 2 of Fischer Farms So the fact that this particular one is to be found amid the fields a few miles outside Norwich is somewhat irrelevant. It could be anywhere. Indeed, unlike most …

OpenAI Admits It Needs Vastly More Money Than It Thought

OpenAI Admits It Needs Vastly More Money Than It Thought

Published by José

Of course it does. Fund and Games The former entirely-nonprofit-company known as OpenAI says it needs a boatload of more cash as it plans to transform its corporate structure to prioritize making money. In an announcement Friday, the ChatGPT maker argued that by creating a for-profit corporation to control its commercial enterprises, it can make the dough it needs to keep up with other leading AI developers. “The hundreds of billions of dollars that major companies are now investing into AI development show what it will really take for OpenAI to continue pursuing the mission,” OpenAI’s board of directors wrote in a blog post. “We once again need to raise more capital than we’d imagined,” they continued. “Investors want to back us but, at this scale of capital, need conventional equity and less structural bespokeness.” Altruism Truant The announcement confirms reports in September from the Financial Times and others that OpenAI was finally moving to drop its original nonprofit status that it was founded with. At the time, OpenAI denied the reports and upheld the nonprofit …

2024 review: Some of the year’s big moments in eight charts | Money News

2024 review: Some of the year’s big moments in eight charts | Money News

Published by Sam

What a year 2024 was. A massive election – well, two massive elections on either side of the Atlantic, and more elsewhere around the planet – followed by changes of government and plenty of economic milestones along the way. So let’s remind ourselves of some of the big moments of the year, in chart form. We begin with the big economic picture. Growth. This time last year, the UK was (unbeknownst to us at the time) actually in recession. The news was only confirmed in the spring of this year, but for two successive quarters in the second half of last year, economic growth fell. What’s equally intriguing is what happened next: a rapid bounce-back as gross domestic product increased by more than expected in the first two quarters of the year. Since then, it has tailed off markedly, causing some consternation in the Treasury. Indeed, an initial estimate of 0.1 per cent growth in the third quarter of 2024 was revised down to zero growth – stagnation. Still, interest rates are now finally on …

Elon Musk’s “Charity” Is Hoarding Money Instead of Giving It to the Needy

Elon Musk’s “Charity” Is Hoarding Money Instead of Giving It to the Needy

Published by José

“It is clear that the organization is not in a hurry to spend its money.” Mr. Miser The holidays may be approaching, but it appears that SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is remaining a total scrooge. The New York Times reports that the centibillionaire’s charity, the Musk Foundation, failed to give away the minimum amount of money it was supposed to last year by a stupendous margin of $421 million. This continues Musk’s pattern of shadily managing his ostensibly philanthropic efforts, such as when he made it seem like he was donating billions of dollars to the United Nations to combat world hunger but instead funneled that money to his own charity. Now, if Musk doesn’t give away that sum by the end of 2024, he will be forced to pay a “sizable penalty” to the Internal Revenue Service, according to NYT‘s reporting. Pocket Change According to the NYT, Musk’s charity has increasingly fallen behind on payments despite possessing some $9 billion in assets today. It was $41 million short in 2021, $234 million in …

People in the UK: tell us what your hopes and concerns are for your finances in 2025 | Money

People in the UK: tell us what your hopes and concerns are for your finances in 2025 | Money

Published by Sam

We want to find out more about how people in the UK feel about the state of their finances and what the new year might bring for them. What are your hopes and concerns for your finances in 2025? Are you hoping to get promoted or change jobs? Are you starting a family and worried about how you will manage? Perhaps you have been unemployed and will be returning to work next year. What will this mean for you? Share your experience You can tell us your hopes and concerns for your finances next year by filling in the form below.  Your responses, which can be anonymous, are secure as the form is encrypted and only the Guardian has access to your contributions. We will only use the data you provide us for the purpose of the feature and we will delete any personal data when we no longer require it for this purpose. For true anonymity please use our SecureDrop service instead. Source link

IP Group plots sale of tech stake portfolio to Lexham | Money News

IP Group plots sale of tech stake portfolio to Lexham | Money News

Published by skeptic

An investment vehicle founded by one of Britain’s most prominent venture capitalists is in advanced talks to buy a portfolio of stakes in some of the country’s most promising technology companies. Sky News has learnt that Lexham Partners, which was established this year by Dominic Perks, is close to agreeing a deal to acquire shareholdings in companies including Paragraf, the graphene-based electronic device company, and Nexeon, a battery technology specialist, from London-listed IP Group. A person close to IP Group said a transaction could be agreed as soon as this week. Money latest: Drivers could save £50 on cover after compensation changes Lexham would acquire part of IP Group’s stakes in about ten companies, although IP would retain part of its existing shareholdings, the person added. Among the other companies included in the deal is said to be Istesso, which Mr Perks came close to taking public through a special purpose acquisition company in 2022. A sale would generate cash for IP Group, which has endured a period of difficult performance only partly offset by …

AI Founder Promised Amazing Chatbot to Public Schools, Then Allegedly Spent the Money on a Lavish Wedding and Mansion

AI Founder Promised Amazing Chatbot to Public Schools, Then Allegedly Spent the Money on a Lavish Wedding and Mansion

Published by José

“A disturbing and disappointing house of cards that deceived and victimized many across the country.” AllFake After duping the Los Angeles school system into giving her gobs of money, the founder of an AI ed tech firm allegedly spent a lot of it on herself. As the LA Times reports, 33-year-old Joanna Smith-Griffin, the founder of an AI startup called AllHere, has been charged by federal prosecutors with identity theft and multiple counts of fraud after her alleged web of lies regarding her company’s sketchy wares came tumbling down. Earlier this year, the same newspaper reported that after being contracted to build out a chatbot connecting families with information from the Los Angeles Unified School District, AllHere filed for bankruptcy despite tens of millions of dollars in public and private investment. Now, the reason why seems to be emerging, per the allegations: that the founder’s repeated lies about the company’s worth, and dips into its investments for her own personal gain, led it to ruin. Double Dipping Prosecutors maintain in their indictment against Smith-Griffin that the …