Author: Arabian Media staff
Is Luis von Ahn’s job as chief executive of Duolingo vulnerable to displacement by artificial intelligence?“I’m not going to claim CEOs are that special,” he says. “It’s just somebody has to tell others . . . ‘This is where we’re going.’ And AI is not particularly good at that yet.”Judging by recent controversy around the gamified language-learning app he co-founded, it is not just AI that can misjudge communication. Last month, von Ahn shared on LinkedIn an email he had sent to all staff announcing Duolingo was going “AI-first”. “I did not expect the amount of blowback,” he admits.“Unbelievable,” wrote one LinkedIn commenter, “Cancelling…
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The Japanese biotech behind Eli Lilly’s new blockbuster obesity pill believes it could be used with an anti-muscle wasting drug it has developed to create a new standard of patient care for weight loss.Hitoshi Iikura, a senior executive at Chugai Pharmaceutical, told the Financial Times that the business had “high expectations” that its drug to treat spinal muscular atrophy could be combined with orforglipron, the once-daily weight-loss pill it has licensed to Lilly, or other similar treatments. Muscle loss is a common…
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Apple is struggling to deliver upgrades to its artificial intelligence voice assistant for the iPhone, with investors downbeat about the potential for major AI announcements at its flagship annual event next week.Recently departed employees told the Financial Times that the Silicon Valley giant has been hit by challenges with updating Siri using cutting-edge large language models that can deliver more sophisticated responses to spoken prompts.Apple has been attempting to build its own LLMs over the machine learning technology that currently powers Siri,…
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.In the world of K-pop, tattle about the latest scandal or rumour involving a Korean pop star is not just light entertainment — it’s market-moving information. Even the smallest details of a star’s personal life can affect share prices of South Korean entertainment companies. Yet, there is a risk greater than celebrity drama: political tensions.For K-pop entertainment companies, fandom has become as valuable as album sales and streaming revenue. K-pop groups make their fortune through a combination of concerts, brand endorsements, merchandise…
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Europe’s best-known artificial intelligence start-up Mistral AI has secured new contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, driving an upturn in its business that could help fuel a potential $1bn fundraising this year. Paris-based Mistral faces intense competition from US and Chinese competitors but is starting to benefit from a European push to establish regional champions. According to people familiar with its finances, its revenues have increased several times over since its last funding round a year ago and are on track…
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Half of rich millennials moved their principal tax residence last year or intend to do so this year, adding to the challenge faced by wealth managers seeking to retain lucrative younger clients.A quarter of millennials with more than $1mn in investable assets said they had moved in 2024 and a further quarter had plans to relocate in 2025, according to a survey of 3,400 people aged 28-43 in 2025 by consultancy Capgemini. The heightened international mobility of wealthy younger people poses a…
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Anglo American is set to start the formal sale process for De Beers within weeks, forging ahead with its plan despite a dismal diamonds market that could see the business fetch less than half its paper valuation.Two former chief executives of De Beers were putting together separate bids for the company, but people familiar with the process cautioned that they had not secured financing for a deal, casting doubt on whether their interest will translate to formal offers.De Beers has a book…
The rapid deployment of autonomous driving features on Chinese cars has sparked alarm among regulators in Beijing, who have made the industry tap on the brakes while they assess questions over safety and liability. Despite an unclear legal framework for new assisted-driving technologies, nearly one in five new cars sold in China is now equipped with high-level autonomous functions.Beijing officials, caught on the back foot, are expected to slow the rollout as they develop a regulatory framework for the new suite of technologies, where China is rapidly becoming a world leader.“The cat is already out of the bag; they’re not…
Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldThe gulf between borrowing costs in the US and Eurozone has reached the greatest level since before the Covid-19 pandemic and is set to widen further, just as Donald Trump grows increasingly frustrated at the US Federal Reserve’s wait-and-see approach to rate cuts.The difference in interest rates has increased to over 225 basis points — the biggest divide since September 2019 — after the European Central Bank on Thursday lowered borrowing costs by a quarter-point to 2 per cent.As the…
Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldThe Trump administration has reversed its opposition to a $5bn offshore wind farm to protect jobs, but also as part of a political deal over a long-stalled gas pipeline, according to the boss of the energy group behind the project.The White House issued a surprise order in April to halt work on Equinor’s Empire Wind development, an 84-turbine, 2.1 gigawatt project, 30 miles off the New York coast, even though construction was already under way and all permits had been…