Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon's cloud computing business, has confirmed further details of its European "sovereign cloud" which is designed to enable greater data residency across the region. The company said that the first AWS sovereign cloud region will be in the German state of Brandenburg, and will go live by the end of 2025. AWS added that it plans to invest €7.8 billion ($8.5 billion) in the facility through 2040.
Accion, a global nonprofit, announced on Tuesday the launch of the Accion Digital Transformation Fund, a $152.5 million fund for large financial institutions, including microfinance serving small businesses currently excluded from the world’s financial system. The firm said in a statement that it will provide growth capital and strategic support to these companies for “digital transformation.” For over six decades, the nonprofit has been active in the financial services sector: first, by developing and scaling solutions tailored to small business orders, smallholder farmers, and women; second, by providing investments and advisory services to traditional financial institutions and microfinance companies, which in turn create accessible products.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket will take a crew to suborbital space for the first time in nearly two years later this month, the company announced on Tuesday. The NS-25 mission will launch from Blue’s launch site in West Texas on May 19. The launch window opens at 8:30 a.m. The six-person crew includes Ed Dwight, the first Black astronaut candidate (but for whom this would be the first visit to space), along with investor Mason Angel, who founded the space- and defense-focused Industrious Ventures.
Intuitive Machines is looking to help reshape the Mars Sample Return mission architecture with its own technology, based on architecture it has been developing for the moon, executives told investors during a quarterly earnings call Tuesday. “Intuitive Machines has engaged the agency and intends to provide a solution set based on technology architecture we have been developing for lunar material return,” Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said. The Mars Sample Return (MSR) program is the agency’s $11 billion, 15-year mission to collect and return samples from the red planet, but NASA administrators finally admitted last month that the architecture had become too complex and too expensive.
At the Google I/O 2024 developer conference on Tuesday, Google announced that it plans to use generative AI to organize the entire search results page for some search results. The AI Overview feature becomes generally available Tuesday, after a stint in Google's AI Labs program. A search results page using generative AI for its ranking mechanism will have wide-reaching consequences for online publishers.
Gottlieb's repeatedly courted controversy in his media role and will reportedly continue to host his nationally syndicated radio show while coaching Green Bay.
At the Google I/O developer conference on Tuesday, Google announced an addition to its Firebase platform that aims to make it easier for developers to build AI-powered applications in JavaScript/TypeScript, with Go support coming soon. Firebase Genkit is an open source framework, using the Apache 2.0 license, that enables developers to quickly build AI into new and existing applications. "Powerful large language models put AI-powered app features within reach, but building and refining these features beyond a prototype is hard," Google product manager Chris Gill and developer advocate Peter Friese wrote in Tuesday's announcement.
Reddit announced on Tuesday the launch of five new tools for AMA (Ask Me Anything), its Q&A feature where celebrities, public figures, organizations and Redditors engage with community members and provide answers about a certain topic. As part of the update, Reddit also launched a dedicated AMA tab within the web post composer. This tab allows users to create an AMA session the same way they would a regular post.
Mobile app developers, including Patreon and Grammarly, are already integrating with Gemini Nano, its smallest AI model, the company announced during the Google I/O 2024 developer keynote on Tuesday. The companies, along with other select developers, were invited to work with Gemini Nano through an early access program announced last year, the company said. In the coming months, Google says it will open up the Gemini Nano model to more developers.