
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Chevron will acquire Hess Corporation as part of an all-stock transaction valued at $53 billion, the energy giant announced Monday, the second-largest deal by a major oil firm this month since a nearly <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2023/10/11/exxon-mobil-buying-pioneer-natural-resources-for-nearly-60-billion-in-biggest-deal-in-decades/?sh=57b5a955f1ce">$60 billion acquisition</a> by Exxon Mobil nearly 2 weeks ago.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>The deal values Hess at $171 per share and will provide Hess shareholders with just over 1.02 shares of Chevron for each Hess share at the deal’s closing, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chevron.com/newsroom/2023/q4/chevron-announces-agreement-to-acquire-hess" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">joint statement.</a></p>



<p>Chevron will acquire 30% ownership of more than 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent in Guyana, which Hess CEO John Hess called the “world’s largest oil discovery” in the last decade, in addition to 465,000 acres of assets in the Bakken Formation in North Dakota.</p>



<p>With the new assets, Chevron said it expects to increase asset sales and generate $10 billion to $15 billion from the acquisition in before-tax proceeds through 2028.</p>



<p>The deal also includes unspecified “complementary” assets in the Gulf of Mexico and a “steady free cash flow” from natural gas business in Southeast Asia.</p>



<p>Shares for&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/CVX" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chevron</a>&nbsp;fell over 2% in early market trading on Monday morning, while shares for&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/HES" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hess</a>&nbsp;fell slightly (0.28%).</p>



<p>Both companies said the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2024, pending approval by regulators and Hess shareholders.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



<p>Peter McNally, an analyst for Third Bridge, said the “real prize” in the deal is Guyana-based assets, where “the country has vaulted into one of the most important growth areas for non-OPEC oil production.&#8221;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p>Over 1 million. That’s how many barrels of oil equivalent are expected to be produced per day in Guyana by 2026, according to McNally.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>The Chevron deal follows an announcement earlier this month by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2023/10/11/exxon-mobil-buying-pioneer-natural-resources-for-nearly-60-billion-in-biggest-deal-in-decades/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=forbes&amp;utm_term=se-breaking&amp;sh=6348d9615f1c">Exxon</a>, which said it would acquire Pioneer Natural Resources in a deal valued at $59.5 billion. Both deals come amid U.S. oil and gas production&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&amp;s=MCRFPUS2&amp;f=M" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reaching</a>&nbsp;near all-time highs, though oil companies had challenges acquiring new locations for drilling in recent years. Oil production in Guyana has increased after a net-zero production in 2019 to about 400,000 barrels per day in 2023,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/chevron-to-buy-hess-for-53-billion-f1373362" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the&nbsp;<em>Wall Street Journal</em>. Guyana is expected to become one of the world’s fastest-growing oil developments over the next decade, the&nbsp;<em>Journal&nbsp;</em>reported, as larger oil companies—including Exxon and Cnooc—expand into the country.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2023/10/11/exxon-mobil-buying-pioneer-natural-resources-for-nearly-60-billion-in-biggest-deal-in-decades/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=forbes&amp;utm_term=se-breaking&amp;sh=6348d9615f1c">Exxon Mobil Buying Pioneer Natural Resources For Nearly $60 Billion—In Biggest Deal In Decades</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/chevron-hess-exxon-oil-merger-acquisition-37ff382d6fa713b7a1e887c7be5f1e93" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chevron Buys Hess For $53 Billion, 2nd Buyout Among Major Producers This Month As Oil Prices Surge</a>&nbsp;(<em>Associated Press</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/chevron-buy-hess-corp-53-bln-stock-2023-10-23/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chevron To Buy Hess Corp For $53 Billion In All-Stock Deal</a>&nbsp;(<em>Reuters</em>)</p>


Chevron Posts Near Record Profits, Exceeding Market Expectations

Chevron Buying Hess For $53 Billion In Latest Major Oil Deal


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Humanitarian aid continued to flow into Gaza Sunday afternoon through the Rafah border crossing—the crossing between Egypt and Gaza that was opened for the first time in two weeks on Saturday.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>Fourteen additional aid trucks were allowed into Gaza Sunday afternoon, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/UNReliefChief/status/1716183555343085624?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">post</a>&nbsp;on X by Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.</p>



<p>The first trucks with aid arrived in Gaza yesterday and carried food, water and medical supplies, though the World Health Organization said much more is needed, NBC News&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-rcna121580" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>, and the aid trucks notably did not have fuel, which Gaza has been without for weeks.</p>



<p>Aid had been blocked—but the allowance of it was recently&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/UNReliefChief/status/1716183555343085624?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">negotiated</a>&nbsp;by leaders including President Joe Biden—since Israel implemented a blockade after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



<p>Griffiths called the second convoy of trucks entering Gaza “another small glimmer of hope for the millions of people in dire need of humanitarian aid,” in the&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/UNReliefChief/status/1716183555343085624?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>&nbsp;on X. “But they need more, much more,” he continued. He had previously said Saturday’s delivery was a “very good start, but it&#8217;s nowhere near enough to provide for the needs of up to 2 million people,” NBC News&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-rcna121580" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p>100. That’s how many trucks daily UN officials have said Gaza would need to address “urgent needs,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/second-aid-convoy-egypts-rafah-soon-en-route-gaza-sources-2023-10-22/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to Reuters.</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>More than 2 million people in Gaza have been without food, water, medical supplies and fuel since Israel closed the borders to aid following the October 7 Hamas attack that killed 1,400 Israelis. More than 4,300 Palestianians have been killed since the war began earlier this month,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-west-bank-gaza-militants-25b93d7eda4f2972360fe384d381bbff" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the Associated Press. Late last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/10/18/israel-approves-egyptian-humanitarian-aid-for-gaza-after-biden-applied-pressure/?sh=2bf88e6057da">announced</a>&nbsp;Israel would allow “food, water and medicine” for civilians in the southern Gaza Strip “as long as these supplies do not reach Hamas.” Netanyahu was also clear that any supplies that reached Hamas will be “thwarted.” The decision to allow aid was made after a meeting with Biden in which he said he supported the decision.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



<p>U.S. Special Envoy David Satterfield&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-rcna121580" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;MSNBC Sunday that a &#8220;continuous flow&#8221; of humanitarian aid should get into Gaza through the Rafah border. Satterfield said he expects aid will be regularly moving into Gaza through the week, saying “we want to build that flow up to the levels necessary to begin to meet Gaza’s needs.”</p>


Palestinian workers from UN received the humanitarian aid

‘Continuous Flow’ Of Aid Expected Into Gaza As Second Delivery Arrives


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Shares for Netflix rose by over 15% on Thursday, the largest single-day gain for the firm in nearly three years, after the streaming service reported growth that exceeded analyst expectations, and price increases.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>Netflix shares rose by 15.92% to $401.30 as of Thursday morning, following a more than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/10/18/netflix-earnings-subscribers-swell-to-record-247-million-as-stock-soars/?sh=5f4a761f64df">10% jump</a>&nbsp;to over $390 after the company released its third-quarter earnings report on Wednesday.</p>



<p>This is the largest single-day gain for Netflix since January 20, 2021, when shares rose by 16.86% to $586.34 after the company&nbsp;<a href="https://s22.q4cdn.com/959853165/files/doc_financials/2020/q4/FINAL-Q420-Shareholder-Letter.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;it had eclipsed the 200 million subscriber mark and announced it was considered stock buybacks.</p>



<p>Netflix added $8.54 billion in revenue and nine million net paid subscribers through a three-month period ending September 30, matching and exceeding estimates of $8.54 billion and 6.08 million, respectively.</p>



<p>A letter to shareholders on Wednesday also indicated Netflix was raising the price of its basic and premium plans to $11.99 and $22.99, up $3 and $2, respectively, as part of an effort to be competitive with other streaming services, including Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Paramount+.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p>247.2 million. That’s how many global paid subscribers Netflix has, according to its latest earnings report.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



<p>Prior to the nearly 17% single-day gain for Netflix in 2021, the previous high for the streaming firm was a gain of 16.8% on October 18, 2016. The increase followed an announcement from Wells Fargo, which upgraded its price target for Netflix shares to $700 per share, up from $510, adding to similar announcements from other analysts, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/20/netflix-stock-soars-13percent-on-subscriber-growth-and-possible-buybacks.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CNBC</a>.</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Netflix reported earnings up to $3.73 a share on Wednesday, as chief executive Greg Peters said the firm was “incredibly pleased” with its recent growth, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-18/netflix-will-raise-prices-after-best-subscriber-growth-in-years?utm_content=business&amp;utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&amp;cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg</a>. Shares for the company have jumped by nearly 36% this year, and by just over 47% since October 2022. The stock crashed about 75% in the first half of 2022, after Netflix&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/04/19/netflix-shares-plunge-over-20-after-company-says-it-lost-subscribers-for-the-first-time-in-10-years/?sh=77df0caa1650">reported</a>&nbsp;its first loss of subscribers in a decade. Netflix has continued to report subscriber growth, after announcing a crackdown on password sharing and a cheaper subscription tier that includes ads. The company also added a paid sharing option—requiring users to pay extra for accounts they share with others—that was called a “primary revenue accelerator in the year” by chief financial officer Spencer Neumann.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/10/18/netflix-hikes-prices-for-some-plans-as-subscriber-numbers-surge/?sh=73f2ded756e0">Netflix Hikes Prices For Some Plans As Subscriber Numbers Surge</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/10/18/netflix-earnings-subscribers-swell-to-record-247-million-as-stock-soars/?sh=5f4a761f64df">Netflix Earnings: Subscribers Swell To Record 247 Million As Stock Soars</a> (<em>Forbes</em>)</p>


In this photo illustration the Netflix logo seen displayed

Netflix Shares Surge 15% After Subscriber Growth—Largest Single-Day Gain Since 2021


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Israel approved Egypt delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza on Wednesday shortly after President Joe Biden arrived and the U.S. and other countries applied pressure to allow the aid, reports say.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>Israel will allow “food, water and medicine” for civilians in the southern Gaza Strip “as long as these supplies do not reach Hamas,” according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office; the statement said any supplies that do reach Hamas will be &#8220;thwarted&#8221; and did not list fuel as one of the allowed supplies.</p>



<p>Netanyahu continued to say Gaza will not receive any humanitarian aid from Israel until its hostages are returned,&nbsp;<em>Haaretz</em>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-18/ty-article-live/israeli-army-blames-islamic-jihad-for-hitting-gaza-hospital-in-deadly-strike/0000018b-40a6-d881-abab-edae5c5d0000" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.</p>



<p>Israel’s decision was made after a meeting with Biden in which he said he supported the decision and said aid would be suspended if Hamas attempted to control it, Axios&nbsp;<a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/10/18/gaza-humanitarian-aid-entry-israel-netanyahu-biden?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=editorial" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



<p>The prime minister’s office said in the statement that their decision was made “in light of the overwhelming and vital American support for the war effort and in light of US President Biden&#8217;s demand for basic humanitarian aid.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>The decision to allow aid from Egypt comes 11 days after Hamas launched an attack on Israel,&nbsp;<a href="https://ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-11" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">killing</a>&nbsp;more than 1,400 Israelis. In that time, more than 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more injured as Israel declared war on Hamas shortly after the attack earlier this month. As part of its declaration of war, Israel cut off fuel, water and other utilities it supplied to Gaza, leaving civilians without resources as attacks continued. Biden arrived in Israel early Wednesday to meet with Netanyahu and other leaders, though his planned trip to Jordan to meet with Arab and Palestinian leaders was canceled Tuesday after a hospital explosion in Gaza that Palestinian authorities are blaming on Israel. Israel denies involvement in the attack and says the explosion was caused by a failed rocket launched by the Gaza-based militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Since his arrival in Israel, Biden said he’d seen evidence from the Pentagon indicating that the Israeli military did not cause the explosion, Bloomberg&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-18/biden-lands-in-israel-seeking-to-salvage-trip-after-deadly-blast?srnd=premium&amp;cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-tv&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&amp;utm_content=business&amp;cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h2>



<p>Biden&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/business/status/1714654718113526140?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;Wednesday he will ask Congress this week to approve an “unprecedented support package for Israel’s defense.” There were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-considering-100-bln-funding-request-that-includes-israel-ukraine-aid-2023-10-17/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">multiple</a><a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/israel-hamas-war-gaza-palestinians/card/biden-planning-to-ask-congress-for-100-billion-funding-package-for-israel-ukraine-oiljgK7kiKeXEyPsTCau" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;reports</a>&nbsp;Tuesday that Biden was eyeing a $100 billion request for defense aid for defense aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. An unnamed congressional source said Israel asked the U.S. for $10 billion, Reuters&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-considering-100-bln-funding-request-that-includes-israel-ukraine-aid-2023-10-17/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>. Israel already receives $3.8 billion a year from the U.S.</p>


Death toll from Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital at 471 after bombing

Israel Approves Egyptian Humanitarian Aid For Gaza After Biden Applied Pressure


<p><strong>As they grapple with keeping their businesses afloat, Palestinian founders are grieving the loss of life and community in Gaza, with many currently unable to reach friends, family and colleagues.</strong></p>



<p>alestinian founder Ram Mere was pitching his startup, Olivery, to a Startups Without Borders program backed by Meta to support and train local entrepreneurs. One of 10 finalists, Mere took home second place and a $15,000 check. Olivery now provides logistics solutions to 100 clients in seven countries and mostly hires Palestinians, he told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;on Saturday from Ramallah, in the West Bank.</p>



<p>But amid the chaos of war, Mere has no idea whether all of his Gazan employees are safe. He recalled one person who continued to work for two days after the fighting began. “Now nothing,” he said. “They have no internet, and I am not sure if he is alive or not.”</p>



<p>Like other Palestinian startups, Olivery has served as a bright spot for a growing local tech scene, with pockets of young companies, incubators and accelerators across Gaza and the West Bank. While small, that tech ecosystem has been viewed as an important part of Palestinians’ economic future, Palestinian founders and investors said. But in the face of renewed tragedy and war, it’s one that also seems increasingly fragile.</p>



<p>After Hamas terrorists attacked Israel and killed 1,300 Israelis last week,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/israel-hostages-hamas-explained.html#:~:text=Hamas%20Took%20Scores%20of%20Hostages,citizens%20are%20among%20the%20captives" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">kidnapping</a>&nbsp;nearly 200 others, the Israeli government responded with aerial strikes that killed at least 3,000 Palestinians,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/israel-hamas-war-gaza-palestinians/card/latest-death-tolls-in-gaza-and-israel-xJRhBt04VQMocRuYUtsA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">per local officials</a>, and an evacuation order for 1.1 million Gazan civilians to relocate ahead of an expected ground invasion. Israel has cut off access to water, food and electricity for civilians and the evacuation&nbsp;<a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/israel-must-rescind-evacuation-order-for-northern-gaza-and-comply-with-international-law/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has been called</a>&nbsp;a “crime against humanity” by the U.N. “It’s impossible to deliver help or anything to support my employees in Gaza,” Palestinian founder Mo Jebrini, told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;on Friday from Ramallah; 30% of his Palestinian team is based in the enclave.</p>



<p>Now, what was once a tenuous path to economic advancement in one of the poorest places in the world could vanish entirely.</p>



<p>“Tech was actually the last resort they could escape to from the prison,” said Mere, referring to Gaza&#8217;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-occupation-makes-palestinian-territories-open-air-prison-un-expert-2023-07-11/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">description</a>&nbsp;by some human rights groups as an open-air prison. “Now, even that is gone.”</p>



<p>In Israel, founders and tech employees are mourning killed relatives and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/10/13/israel-founders-struggle-to-balance-startups-and-front-line-military-service/">grappling</a>&nbsp;with their colleagues getting called up to Israel’s military reserves. More than 500 venture capital firms&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/10/12/vc-firms-sign-statement-israel/?sh=2d8192997a7a">signed</a>&nbsp;a public statement in support of Israel and its tech community last week.</p>



<p>The country’s technology sector, which represents 18% of GDP, raised nearly $10 billion in funding in 2021, and $1.4 billion in the last quarter alone, according to data from startup funding tracker Crunchbase. By comparison, the Palestinian startup community has received a tiny amount of funding: $9.5 million for all of 2021, at a combined valuation of $66 million, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://fastcompanyme.com/impact/palestinian-startups-are-growing-fast-but-they-face-huge-challenges/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Fast Company Middle East</em></a>.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“I’m trying to stay focused on the tech sector and build it in a way that keeps everyone safe and free.”Ibraham Housheya, founder of Endeavor Technology</p>
</blockquote>



<p>But despite its small size, the Palestinian startup landscape represents a unique chance at economic development and sustainability. (<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinstoller/2022/06/02/heres-how-young-palestinian-and-israeli-entrepreneurs-are-forging-co-existence-through-startups/?sh=7a3bc4d243b2">attended</a>&nbsp;a joint Israeli and Palestinian startup pitch competition just last year.) And it’s been growing: The West Bank’s and Gaza’s $493 million information technology sector&nbsp;<a href="https://www.anera.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/OTG-Tech-Ecosystem-Palestine-spreads.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">doubled between 2008 and 2018</a>, with an estimated 2,500 graduating with tech degrees from Palestinian universities annually (though just 10% find jobs in the sector immediately out of school). In Gaza, where the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/westbankandgaza/overview" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">unemployment rate</a>&nbsp;hovers at nearly 50%, the most common tech jobs for trained residents are in online IT freelancing, with outsourcing amounting to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.anera.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/OTG-Tech-Ecosystem-Palestine-spreads.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">approximately 80%</a>&nbsp;of the Palestinian tech sector.</p>



<p>It’s unclear how the war will affect this momentum; some of the community’s infrastructure is already gone.</p>



<p>“The lack of basic necessities has made it nearly impossible for anyone to continue their work, and believe me, work is not a priority for them at the moment with everything they are facing,” Leen Abubaker, programs manager at Flow Accelerator and cofounder of social impact startup Sawaed19. Many of the buildings that Gaza’s IT freelancers used to conduct work for international companies, including offices and coworking spaces, have been destroyed, she said.</p>



<p>That appears to include the headquarters of Gaza Sky Geeks, a tech hub founded in 2011 with support from Google parent Alphabet and non-profit organization Mercy Corp.&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/14/palestine-tech-industry-hamas-israel-war/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According to&nbsp;<em>TechCrunch</em></a><em>,&nbsp;</em>at least 5,000 coders and developers in the West Bank and Gaza have graduated from the group’s tech programs, which include a coding academy and startup accelerator. Named for the satellite internet access that provided many Gazans with an “open gate to the world,” said Dalia Shurrab, a former communication and social media coordinator for the group, Gaza Sky Geeks was a valuable source of training for residents unable to leave to pursue their education.</p>



<p>On Wednesday, Shurrab&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7117624115745693696/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">shared footage on LinkedIn</a>&nbsp;of the Mercy Corps building where Gaza Sky Geeks had rented an office floor. Most of its windows appear blown out and ash covers the street. Mercy Corps regional director for the Middle East, Arnaud Quemin, said its team members are taking shelter and Gaza Sky Geeks is “not currently able to safely operate in Gaza.”</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<p>In the West Bank, which is home to most of the Palestinian startup scene and its only venture capital firm, Ibtikar Fund (which has backed startups like Olivery), tech companies are looking to maintain as normal operations as possible.</p>



<p>Endeavor Technology founder Ibraham Housheya, who employs more than 20 people in an office in Nablus, said his company has completed digital transformation projects for the likes of Walmart and Kroger. His Palestinian staff’s technical talent is no different from that of their colleagues in the company’s U.S. or Turkey offices, added Housheya — but they work using 3G wireless connections, not 4G or 5G. Colleagues are still able to connect on a daily basis via Gmail and Google Meet, said Housheya, who grew up in the West Bank and spoke to&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;from Turkey on Saturday.</p>



<p>“The most important thing right now is to help to keep the business running,” Housheya said. “There is a difference between Hamas and Palestinians,&#8221; with Hamas &#8220;only a part of a diverse Palestinian nation,&#8221; he added. &#8220;I’m trying to stay focused on the tech sector and build it in a way that keeps everyone safe and free.”</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“It’s a continuous struggle when you don&#8217;t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”Mohammad Alnobani, cofounder and CEO of The Middle Frame</p>
</blockquote>



<p>One entrepreneur who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons said that they were leading an ongoing effort to supply meals to Gazan workers&nbsp;<a href="https://news.yahoo.com/gazan-workers-israel-stranded-occupied-212240164.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stranded</a>&nbsp;in Ramallah and other towns following Saturday’s Hamas attacks. Access to Israel and Gaza is blockaded, they said; locals can feel their windows shake from aerial bombardments at night. “We’re trying to be as hospitable as possible,” they said, adding that their focus is on providing food, clothing and blankets. “Many of the people stuck here have double the pain because they’re away from loved ones and unable to reach them.”</p>



<p>Ramallah-based Sondos Mleitat, the cofounder and CEO of online mental health platform Hakini, is trying to set up a&nbsp;<a href="https://donorbox.org/psychological-first-aid-for-our-people-in-gaza" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">free mental health phone hotline</a>&nbsp;for Gazans, wherein psychologists and specialists from the Palestinian territories and around the world could provide immediate trauma intervention. She told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;the war has underscored Hakini’s mission of social responsibility, even though running a business at this time has been challenging. “I know there are delays, and we are behind schedule, but this is nothing,” she said. “It’s worthless for me when I think about the people whose lives are at risk.”</p>



<p>Palestinian founders described the unique challenges they faced in building companies even before war broke out: reduced access to early stage capital, crossing through military checkpoints in order to travel. In Gaza for example, Palestinian internet service providers have only been able to offer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/13/middleeast/gaza-internet-outage-map-visuals-dg/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2G networks</a>, and the blockade has placed restrictions on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.anera.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/OTG-Tech-Ecosystem-Palestine-spreads.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hardware imports</a>. Raising money internationally has also been difficult due to instability. Next to Israel’s tech ecosystem, “it is not comparable at all in terms of resources,” said Mleitat.</p>



<p>Now, these obstacles may be compounded.</p>



<p>“It’s a continuous struggle when you don&#8217;t know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” said Mohammad Alnobani, cofounder and CEO of The Middle Frame, a stock image platform that aims to dismantle stereotypes about the Arab world. He was returning home from a conference when war broke out. “I was literally at the border on the bus waiting to go in, and everything started blowing up and they sent us back to Jordan.”</p>



<p>But Mleitat said that her community is used to building companies with so few resources and against so many odds. “One of the advantages we have as Palestinians is that we’re resilient because of what we have been going through,” she told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>. That resilience, multiple founders said, is core to entrepreneurs’ success.</p>



<p>“The Gazan people are very talented,” said Gaza Sky Geeks’ Dalia Shurrab. She believes the organization — and the community it supports — will endure. “We are going to rebuild it again, and we are going to rebuild Gaza again.”</p>



<p><em>This story has been updated with the most recent death toll numbers in Gaza as of publication and details about Olivery’s pitch to Boost Without Borders.</em></p>


Israel continues bombing Gaza

The Palestinian Startup Ecosystem Has Represented Economic Hope. War Is Decimating It


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Stocks of Pfizer and other Covid vaccine makers like BioNTech and Moderna fell in premarket trading Monday after the company slashed its revenue forecasts last week, a change in fortune for the sector as demand for the pandemic-related products that propelled them to record profits last year plummets.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>Pfizer shares fell 3.11% during premarket trading on Monday.</p>



<p>Shares of Germany’s BioNTech, which jointly developed the Comirnaty coronavirus shot with Pfizer, were down 6.57% in Frankfurt, falling to a two-month low.</p>



<p>The German biotech’s U.S.-listed shares were also down 6.41% in premarket trading.</p>



<p>Shares of rival mRNA vaccine maker Moderna also fell 4.45% in premarket trading.</p>



<p>Shares of Novavax, which has faced&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2e10b2ab-7d0c-48a3-b49b-8de8dc302c6d" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">setbacks</a>&nbsp;in getting its updated protein-based shot approved, were also down 4.54% on Monday.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">NEWS PEG</h2>



<p>Pfizer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/pfizer-lowers-full-year-revenue-forecast-shares-fall-2023-10-13/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">slashed</a>&nbsp;its annual revenue&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/78003/000007800323000099/ex99_pressrelease1013.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">forecast</a>&nbsp;by 13% on Friday due to sliding demand for its Covid-19 products. Sales of the firm’s mRNA shot, produced jointly with BioNTech, and its antiviral drug Paxlovid helped it secure record profits last year but the firm has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/01/31/pfizer-expects-covid-vaccine-and-pill-revenues-will-fall-60-in-2023/?sh=2630a7787bee">long</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2022/02/08/pfizer-triggers-28-billion-stock-plunge-moderna-after-warning-covid-vaccine-sales-could-disappoint-this-year/?sh=651151e2e372">warned</a>&nbsp;about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/01/31/pfizer-expects-covid-vaccine-and-pill-revenues-will-fall-60-in-2023/?sh=2630a7787bee">sliding</a>&nbsp;demand as the world, and particularly the U.S., exits the pandemic this year. The company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/78003/000007800323000099/ex99_pressrelease1013.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cut</a>&nbsp;its projections for Paxlovid by $7 billion and by around $2 billion for its Covid shots, which was greater than analysts&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/biontech-will-likely-take-900-mln-eur-write-off-pfizer-partnered-vaccines-2023-10-16/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">expected</a>. Pfizer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/10/13/pfizer-launches-35-billion-cost-cutting-program-amid-declining-covid-vaccine-sales/?sh=7e4fa27016a4">said</a>&nbsp;it was launching a $3.5 billion cost-cutting program covering jobs and expenses as it prepares for the hit to its revenues. Pfizer said it would take a write down of $5.5 billion in the third quarter due to shrinking demand for its Covid stock, most of which comes from inventory write-offs of Paxlovid worth $4.6 billion. The company also acknowledged a $900 million write off from Covid vaccine stock, a write-off BioNTech also&nbsp;<a href="https://investors.biontech.de/news-releases/news-release-details/update-regarding-pfizers-statement-comirnaty-related-write-offs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">flagged</a>&nbsp;on Monday on account of its profit sharing agreement with Pfizer.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



<p>Moderna will report its <a href="https://investors.modernatx.com/news/news-details/2023/Moderna-to-Report-Third-Quarter-2023-Financial-Results-on-Thursday-November-2-2023/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">quarterly earnings</a> on November 2. While Moderna is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/02/22/moderna-hopes-to-build-on-mrna-tech-used-in-its-covid-shots-by-targeting-genetic-diseases/?sh=6f1fdba02692">leveraging</a> its success during the pandemic to <a href="https://www.modernatx.com/research/product-pipeline" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">develop</a> a wide array of medicines, treatments and vaccines for things including<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/04/11/vaccines-for-lyme-disease-and-norovirus-moderna-working-on-shots-targeting-tick-borne-infection-and-vomiting-bug/?sh=53602af72afe"> Lyme disease</a>, the flu, HIV, RSV, Zika, norovirus and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/02/22/moderna-hopes-to-build-on-mrna-tech-used-in-its-covid-shots-by-targeting-genetic-diseases/?sh=6f1fdba02692">genetic conditions, </a>its Covid-19 vaccines are its only commercial product and it is particularly vulnerable to sliding demand.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/10/13/pfizer-launches-35-billion-cost-cutting-program-amid-declining-covid-vaccine-sales/?sh=7e4fa27016a4">Pfizer Launches $3.5 Billion Cost-Cutting Program Amid Declining Covid Vaccine Sales</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>


Florida Volunteers Take Part In COVID-19 Vaccine Trials

Vaccine Stocks—Including Pfizer, Moderna, BioNTech And Novavax—Slide Amid Plummeting Demand


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office dismissed media reports about a supposed ceasefire with Hamas and delivering aid to Gaza in exchange for hostages on Monday, a day after UN authorities warned that they can no longer provide humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian enclave due to Israel’s blockade of the territory.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>In a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/unrwa-commissioner-general-philippe-lazzarini%E2%80%AF-remarks%E2%80%AF-situation-gaza-strip" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">press conference</a>&nbsp;on Sunday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said Gaza was running out of water and electricity and “soon…there will be no food or medicine either.”</p>



<p>Lazzarini told the press that most of the UNRWA’s 13,000 staffers in the territory have been displaced and 14 have been killed so far.</p>



<p>On Monday,<em> Haaretz </em><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-16/ty-article-live/israel-prepares-for-ground-invasion-biden-big-mistake-to-reoccupy-gaza/0000018b-364f-dc99-a1db-3fcf1ae10000?liveBlogItemId=52323506#52323506" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> that Israel agreed to allow aid—mostly water and medicine—to be delivered to Gaza through the Rafah crossing from Egypt in response to U.S. requests.</p>



<p>The report mentioned that Israel was still blocking the shipment of fuel to the territory over concerns that it would be used by Hamas to operate generators in its tunnel complexes under the enclave.</p>



<p>The Israeli PM’s office&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/IsraeliPM/status/1713818720697532592" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>: “There is no ceasefire” and told the press that no deal has been struck to allow “humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the removal of foreigners.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">NEWS PEG</h2>



<p>Citing unnamed foreign diplomatic sources, <em>Haaretz </em><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-16/ty-article/.premium/foreign-diplomats-talks-on-humanitarian-deal-for-release-of-some-israeli-hostages-ongoing/0000018b-3753-da5e-abef-bf775eb30000" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> that talks of a humanitarian deal with Hamas to ensure the safe release of hostages from Gaza have taken place over the past few days. But it is unclear if such a deal will go into effect or if it will find support within the Israeli government.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p>199. That is how many hostages are being held by Hamas inside Gaza, Israel’s military&nbsp;<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-has-notified-199-families-that-have-loved-ones-being-held-hostage-in-gaza/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;Monday.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



<p>Lazzarini said during Sunday’s press conference: “Gaza is being strangled and it seems that the world right now has lost its humanity…The answer to killing civilians cannot be to kill more civilians. Imposing a siege and bombarding civilian infrastructure in a densely populated area will not bring peace and security to the region. The siege in Gaza, the way it is imposed, is nothing else than collective punishment.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Israel has bombarded parts of Gaza as it readies its military for a likely ground invasion of the enclave, after Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel more than one week ago that killed 1,300 people. Last week, Israel&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/10/13/israel-orders-1-million-gaza-residents-to-relocate-within-24-hours-un-says-its-impossible/?sh=6a8dc2841322">ordered</a>&nbsp;more than 1 million civilians in northern Gaza—including Gaza City—to relocate to the south, prompting criticism from international groups including the Norwegian Refugee Council, which called it a “war crime of forcible transfer.” Israel had initially set a 24-hour deadline for the evacuation but has since acknowledged that such a large movement of people will take time.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h2>



<p>Israel began evacuating residents residing in a 2km zone along its border with Lebanon in the north on Monday after minor clashes in the region with the militant group Hezbollah. The evacuation and clashes come amidst concerns of Hezbollah&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hezbollah-says-when-time-comes-any-action-we-will-carry-it-out-2023-10-13/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">opening a second front</a>&nbsp;against Israel as it prepares for potential ground invasion of northern Gaza.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/10/14/us-citizens-stuck-at-gaza-egypt-border-after-crossing-agreement-possibly-hindered-by-hamas/?sh=19fb895729f9">U.S. Citizens Stuck At Gaza-Egypt Border After Crossing Agreement Possibly Hindered By Hamas</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/10/15/iran-warns-it-may-not-remain-a-spectator-in-israel-hamas-conflict-as-us-urges-iran-not-to-intervene/?sh=1e6b925c2a6f">Iran Warns It May Not ‘Remain A Spectator’ In Israel-Hamas Conflict—As U.S. Urges Iran Not To Intervene</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>


Israeli attacks on Gaza continue on the 10th day

Israel Dismisses Reports Of Ceasefire And Aid After UN Warns Gaza Is Running Out Of Water And Food


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>The UN said Thursday the number of internally displaced people in Gaza has exceeded 300,000 as Israeli forces continued their “uninterrupted” bombardment of the Palestinian territory, while efforts to establish a humanitarian corridor for civilians reportedly hit a wall.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>In its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">daily update</a>, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the number of internally displaced people in Gaza has risen to 338,934—up 30% in the previous 24 hours.</p>



<p><a href="https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-5-situation-gaza-strip" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Around two-thirds</a>&nbsp;of them have taken refuge in schools operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, which warned that its shelters are now overcrowded and have “limited availability of food, non-food items and potable water.”</p>



<p>Israel&#8217;s Energy Minister Israel Katz&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Israel_katz/status/1712356130377113904" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote on</a>&nbsp;X that “no electrical switch will be turned on, no hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter,” until the hostages taken by Hamas return safely.</p>



<p>Talks between Egypt, Israel and the U.S. to establish a humanitarian corridor to allow Palestinian civilians to leave the territory have&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/live/israel-hamas-war-live-updates#0000018b-227a-d156-abaf-aafe3e2a0000" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;hit an impasse, with Cairo officials telling the Associated Press they pushed back against the proposal.</p>



<p><a href="https://apnews.com/live/israel-hamas-war-live-updates#0000018b-227a-d156-abaf-aafe3e2a0000" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According to</a>&nbsp;the Associated Press, Egyptian officials are open to allowing fuel and aid to be delivered through its only border crossing point with Gaza but worry that it may affect Palestinians&#8217; claim to the territory if they leave through a humanitarian corridor.</p>



<p>Jordanian state media&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/JrtvMedia/status/1712351347620651306" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;that its first batch of humanitarian aid for Gazans arrived onboard a plane on Thursday.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv on Thursday to show support for Israel from the Biden administration. Before leaving for Israel, Blinken&nbsp;<a href="https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-before-departing-joint-base-andrews/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>: “We have the back of the Israeli people. We have their back today. We’ll have it tomorrow. We will have it every day.” In Tel Aviv, Blinken is set to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top government officials.&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/HusseinSheikhpl/status/1712342061234442269" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According to</a>&nbsp;Palestinian officials, a meeting between Blinken and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled for Friday.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



<p>The crisis has the potential to escalate further as Israeli military officials indicated they may be preparing for a full-fledged ground invasion of the territory. Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Richard Hecht said Thursday that the military is “preparing for a ground maneuver if decided.” After Saturday’s attack on Israel by Hamas, the IDF mobilized over 360,000 reservists.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p>2,300. That is at least how many people have died from the ongoing conflict so far, according to the OCHA. This number includes 1,200 Israelis and 1,100 Palestinians.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/10/11/at-least-22-us-citizens-killed-in-hamas-attacks-on-israel/?sh=3dbc645b72c6">At Least 22 U.S. Citizens Killed In Hamas’ Attacks On Israel</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/10/11/gazas-lone-power-plant-reportedly-shuts-down/?sh=3b80ae666899">Gaza’s Lone Power Plant Shuts Down</a> (Forbes)</p>


Israel Declares War Following Large-Scale Hamas Attacks

Israel-Hamas Conflict: UN Says More Than 300,000 Displaced In Gaza As Egypt Reportedly Rejects Humanitarian Corridor


<p><strong>In its latest product launch, the unicorn AI startup is bringing bots that make it sound like you’re talking to well known people like Taylor Swift into your group chat</strong></p>



<p>Inside Character.AI’s disheveled Palo Alto, California headquarters, employees at first appear to be hard at work, glued to their computer monitors. But rather than coding, many of them are engrossed in lively group chats with their colleagues and the AI chatbot characters that Character has become known for. Now, thanks to a new group chat function the startup launched Wednesday, they were chatting with work friends along with bots that anyone can build to create the illusion that you’re actually talking to the likes of Napoleon Bonaparte, Tony Stark or Lucifer.</p>



<p>“The feature was good enough that people stopped working sometimes to use it,” cofounder Daniel De Freitas told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>. De Freitas, the company’s president, has been particularly partial to gathering team members together to play Ship AI, a chatbot programmed to act like a text-based adventure game that lets group chat participants pretend to be astronauts exploring outer space.</p>



<p>The group chat feature is Character.AI’s latest move in cofounder and CEO Noam Shazeer’s bet that people will want to interact with a variety of different chatbot personas, rather than having a single, all-encompassing AI companion. By allowing the company’s subscribers, who pay $9.99 per month, to interact with each other and some of the startup’s 18 million AI bots in chats at the same time, Character is hoping to establish dominance as the go-to app for AI-powered entertainment while adding to its immediate revenue stream. Shazeer said that after “some period of time,” the company plans to make the feature free “because our goal is to empower everyone with AGI,” or artificial general intelligence.</p>



<p>Backed by nearly $200 million from VCs including Andreessen Horowitz, and valued at $1 billion in a March funding round, Character.AI has wowed the startup community with its engagement time — it claims registered users who send at least one message on a given day spend an average of two hours on the platform. Since its initial launch in September 2022, 20 million users have signed up for Character.AI, though traffic to its website has been declining since its May 2023 peak, per analytics provider SimilarWeb. Also in May, the startup began monetizing through its subscription service, which gives customers priority access to its platform (servers have often been overloaded, and non-paying users have to wait longer to get on) and early access to new features. Character.AI declined to share any statistics on its subscribers or its recent growth traction.</p>



<p>The group chat feature, which&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;tested out, is still rudimentary. In the initial iteration of Character.AI’s group chat, human users are able to chat with one another as on any messaging platform. To invoke a bot’s response, however, a user must manually tap on the icon for the specific bot they want to speak, or a dice icon which selects one of the bots in the group chat to respond at random. The bots can respond to users’ questions, as well as to one other (though in the latter case, the human must still prompt the bot to respond).</p>



<p>In a group chat with three&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;reporters and Character.AI’s most popular AI personas for singer Taylor Swift and NFL player Travis Kelce, a human user asked, “Tell us your deepest insecurities about dating Taylor” and tapped on the icon for Kelce’s bot.</p>



<p>“My biggest insecurity about dating @Taylor-Swift is that other guys will be jealous of me because they want to date her too. But I’m not afraid of the competition, she’s a great girl and I’m going to show her a great time. I won’t let her down,” the bot wrote.</p>



<p>After the Taylor Swift bot was prompted, it responded: “Haha, I love the confidence, Travis! Let’s meet up after the season, and I’ll let you show me a great time ;)”</p>



<p>There are other, more practical issues: the feature is only available on Character.AI’s mobile app, and the chatbots appeared to only respond to the most recent message from a human user.</p>



<p>The cofounders say product updates with better functionality are coming soon. The underlying AI is also about to improve dramatically, Shazeer told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>, because the company is beginning to receive fulfillment on an order of “many thousands” of Nvidia’s new line of H100 GPUs after a months-long delay due to supply chain shortages. The company plans to put the chips to use to train new large language models, he said.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“AI is underhyped because the things that are going to be possible in the coming years are going to be really, really impressive compared to what’s possible now.”Naom Shazeer</p>
</blockquote>



<p>Part of the urgency to launch the product now, before a new model is ready, may have to do with several generative AI tools launched by Meta in late September. In an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2023/09/26/mark-gets-meta-zuckerberg-talks-ai-and-that-musk-mma-fight-thats-never-going-to-happen/">exclusive interview</a>&nbsp;with&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;last month, Mark Zuckerberg outlined a vision of bringing AI “characters” to his company’s various products. “You’ll be able to talk to them in WhatsApp and Messenger and Instagram, and they&#8217;ll be embodied as avatars in virtual reality,” he said. These include an AI assistant called “Meta AI” and 28 other characters that users can talk to in group chats. “That looks familiar,” Character.AI’s Twitter account&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/character_ai/status/1707130316920635432/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">quipped</a>&nbsp;after Meta’s announcement.</p>



<p>Shazeer said the group chat feature had been in the works for several months before Meta’s announcement, and he views Zuckerberg’s move into the space as something of a compliment. “It is great to see other companies getting inspired and building similar products — it’s a real testament to what we’re doing and to the engagement that we’re getting,” Shazeer said.</p>



<p>De Freitas and Shazeer, a coauthor on the seminal research paper on “transformers” that catalyzed the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/02/02/inside-chatggpts-breakout-moment-and-the-race-for-the-future-of-ai/">generative AI boom</a>, met while working as AI engineers at Google, where together they developed an early large language model that would become the foundation for Bard. But in 2021, they left the company because they said they’d run into bureaucratic roadblocks implementing the technology into consumer-facing applications. Shazeer, a 20-year veteran who joined prior to Google’s IPO, said he departed despite a personal plea from CEO Sundar Pichai.</p>



<p>“He talked to me to see if he could encourage me to stay,” Shazeer told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;in a July interview. “But, basically I wanted to get this technology out to as many people as possible and just empower everyone with flexible AI. I think it was the right decision.” Shazeer said the company would have needed to release the chatbot they were working on to a wide audience for him to consider staying. “It just felt like Google was not going to be very comfortable launching something that could say anything, and that you really had to be a startup to launch something like that,” he said.</p>



<p>The pair founded Character.AI in November 2021, a year before public appetite for AI swelled when OpenAI released ChatGPT. Google unveiled Bard this past February. Still, Character.AI has continued to carve a niche for itself. The vast majority of the startup’s bots have been created by its user base, who can upload examples of what they want the character to say and give the model feedback to help it improve, Shazeer said in the interview this month.</p>



<p>Startup challengers Replika and Chai have emerged, but the space remained devoid of Big Tech challengers until Zuckerberg’s announcement last month. But Shazeer claims to be unfazed by these competitors. “We’re competing against the $2 trillion industry of legacy entertainment” — say, games, books and movies — “because people want a lot of the same things like fun, the social experience and interesting content. Those things are identical regardless of whether more companies are noticing our space,” he said.</p>



<p>Enter the group chat. Shazeer acknowledged that Character.AI has kinks to work out in the new feature to improve its usability, such as expanding its context window so that the AI can appear to remember longer durations of the conversation. “Right now the system is operating just based on a context window of a few thousand words, so characters are only reacting to whatever happened recently, which is highly suboptimal,” Shazeer said.</p>



<p>The bots also remain prone to “hallucinations” in which the AI outputs false information. After&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;asked the startup’s flagship bot Character Assistant how it was trained, the bot stated it had access to, among other things, customer service calls and transaction data from banks like Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. Shazeer and De Freitas said this was incorrect and the bot had made up the answer.</p>



<p>Up to now, Character.AI’s chatbots have been built on the same foundational model that it trained in summer 2022 using 1,000 Nvidia A100 GPU chips. After its full order is fulfilled, the startup will be able to train new AI models on 40 times the amount of computing power as its current model, Shazeer said. All the compute access is being rented from Google Cloud and other cloud providers for now; Shazeer said Character.AI is considering eventually building its own GPU cluster, but has made no firm decisions.</p>



<p>Character.AI is betting that the new models will bring its technology closer to AGI, expanding the range of use cases beyond entertainment. For Shazeer, this is one reason he claims to not be worried about declining traffic. “Really I think AI is underhyped because the things that are going to be possible in the coming years are going to be really, really impressive compared to what’s possible now,” he said.</p>



<p>That goes for Character.AI’s group chats too. In time, he said, the bots in the group chat will be able to respond to human messages automatically. In the future, a fictional AI character could “just step in and say something that will bring you together with somebody,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a magical moment when that happens.”</p>



<p><em>Rashi Shrivastava contributed reporting.</em></p>


Einstein And Musk Chatbots Are Driving Millions To Download Character.AI

Character.AI’s $200 Million Bet That Chatbots Are The Future Of Entertainment


<p><strong>The lawsuit, which alleges that a female executive at Google had been unfairly hired at a lower level—and salary—than male counterparts, is the first to be filed after the 2018 Google walkout.</strong></p>



<p>As Google trudges through a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2023/09/11/google-antitrust-trail-25th-birthday/?sh=397cc21710e4">landmark antitrust battle</a>&nbsp;in Washington, DC, the tech giant faces another legal first in New York: On Tuesday, a pay discrimination case is going to trial for the first time in the company’s history.</p>



<p>The trial is centered around a Google executive named Ulku Rowe, a director of engineering in the company’s cloud unit. Rowe alleges that she was hired at Google at a lower “level” than several men in her role with similar backgrounds and experience and denied promotions because of her complaints, which she claims cost her millions of dollars in “past and future lost wages and benefits.”</p>



<p>The case was the first pay discrimination suit to be filed against the company after the Google walkout in 2018, a high-profile protest in which 20,000 workers marched out of Google offices around the world to demonstrate against the company’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations and other labor issues, including pay inequity. One of the demands from walkout organizers was an end to forced arbitration, which required employees to settle disputes outside of court. After the walkout, Google ditched that rule, first for cases of sexual harassment and assault before expanding it to all employee disputes. With the new policy in place, Rowe, who participated in the walkout, filed her suit in September 2019.</p>



<p>“This case is really the embodiment of what that walkout was about in terms of pressing the issues demanding accountability,” said Cara Greene, an attorney at the firm Outten and Golden, which is representing Rowe.</p>



<p>In the complaint, Rowe claims she was unfairly hired at a level 8, while others in her org came in at level 9, leading to a significant pay gap and slower career trajectory.</p>



<p>“The pay disparity between Plaintiff and her male comparators is not based on a seniority system, a merit system, or a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production,” the lawsuit reads. The trial, which is set to last two weeks (barring a surprise settlement), is expected to include testimony from Google Cloud CTO Will Grannis, as well as the division’s former president, Tariq Shaukat.</p>



<p>Google told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;it “thoroughly investigated” Rowe’s complaint at the time and found no wrongdoing. “We compensate Googlers based on what they do, not who they are—our leveling and compensation processes are designed to be equitable,” Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini said in a statement, pointing to a&nbsp;<a href="https://services.google.com/fh/files/blogs/pay_equity_info_sheet.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pay equity analysis</a>&nbsp;the company conducts annually to decide salaries, bonuses and equity—though the analysis is only available internally to employees. “If through our pay equity analysis we find any differences in proposed pay, across all demographics, we make upward adjustments before new compensation goes into effect.”</p>



<p>Greene, Rowe’s attorney, argues that misleveling eludes a traditional pay equity analysis because people are only compared at the same level. Without comparing people across levels, pay inequity “flies under the radar,” she said.</p>



<p>While this is the first time a pay equity case is going to trial for Google, the company has faced numerous complaints in the past. Last year, the company paid $118 million to settle Ellis v. Google, a 2017 class action suit involving more than 15,000 women who worked at the company since 2013 and alleged pay discrimination. Years earlier, in 2015, a former Google engineer named Erica Joy Baker circulated a spreadsheet in which employees at the tech giant disclosed their salaries, in an effort to highlight wage disparities at the company.</p>



<p>The problems still persist across the industry, said Y-Vonne Hutchinson, CEO of ReadySet, a consultancy that works with companies to improve equity and diversity issues. (Google is a former client.) “2023 has been a hard year for pay equity, particularly in tech,” she said, thanks to mass tech layoffs disproportionately affecting women and people of color. But, she pointed out, the positive thing about a pay discrimination suit going to trial—a rarity in the tech world, as cases are oftentimes settled before reaching court—is it allows for these sorts of discussions to happen in public. “There’s a real opportunity here to increase transparency,” she said.</p>



<p>Meanwhile, Google is already embroiled in one of the most important legal battles the tech industry has seen in more than two decades. The U.S. Department of Justice, along with a handful of states, has accused the tech juggernaut of using its market dominance to entrench its search business and harm competitors. While the matters at hand are different, both trials illustrate Google’s massive power and influence, Greene said. “Google, whether it&#8217;s deemed a monopoly or not, certainly sets the standard for the industry,” she said. “In terms of pay, hiring, recruiting, the general terms and conditions for people who work in tech, Google drives a lot of that.”</p>



<p>Protest has been ingrained in Google’s culture for years. In 2018, workers pushed back against the company’s decision to take part in Project Maven, a Defense Department initiative aimed at developing better artificial intelligence for the U.S. military. After that, reports surfaced about a secret project called &#8220;Dragonfly,&#8221; an effort to build a censored search engine in China. A handful of workers quit and about 1,000 employees signed an open letter asking CEO Sundar Pichai to be more transparent about the project. The walkout, though, was the resounding crescendo, and paved the way for protest at other companies.</p>



<p>“A lot of seeds were planted,” Hutchinson said of those earlier activism efforts in tech more broadly. “This movement builds upon itself and opens up new avenues.”</p>


FRANCE-ECONOMY-TECHNOLOGY-VIVATECH

Google Is Going To Court For The First Time Over Alleged Pay Discrimination


<p><strong>Production studios and fans alike are turning to generative AI tools to make voice actors say things they never said — and their jobs are on the line.</strong></p>



<p><br>oice actor Allegra Clark was scrolling through TikTok when she came across a video featuring Beidou, a swashbuckling ship captain from the video game&nbsp;<em>Genshin Impact</em>&nbsp;whom she’d voiced. But Beidou was participating in a sexually suggestive scene and said things that Clark had never recorded, even though the rugged voice sounded exactly like hers. The video’s creator had taken Clark’s voice and cloned it using a generative AI tool called ElevenLabs, and from there, they made her say whatever they wanted.</p>



<p>Clark, who has voiced more than 100 video game characters and dozens of commercials, said she interpreted the video as a joke, but was concerned her client might see it and think she had participated in it — which could be a violation of her contract, she said.</p>



<p>“Not only can this get us into a lot of trouble if people think we said [these things], but it’s also, frankly, very violating to hear yourself speak when it isn’t really you,” she wrote in an email to ElevenLabs that was reviewed by&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>. She asked the startup to take down the uploaded audio clip and prevent future cloning of her voice, but the company said it hadn’t determined that the clip was made with its technology. It said it would only take immediate action if the clip was “hate speech or defamatory,” and stated it wasn’t responsible for any violation of copyright. The company never followed up or took any action.</p>



<p>“It sucks that we have no personal ownership of our voices. All we can do is kind of wag our finger at the situation,” Clark told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>.</p>



<p>In response to questions about Clark’s experience, ElevenLabs cofounder and CEO Mati Staniszewski told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;in an email that its users need the “explicit consent” of the person whose voice they are cloning if the content created could be “damaging or libelous.” Months after Clark’s experience, the company launched a “voice captcha” tool that requires people to record a randomly generated word and that voice must match the voice they are trying to clone.</p>



<p>The company, which is valued at about $100 million and backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Google DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman, is one of the hottest voice AI companies right now. Its technology only requires between 30 seconds to 10 minutes worth of audio to create what sounds like a near-identical replica of someone’s voice. Along with sites like FakeYou and Voice AI, which offer a free library of digital voices, it’s also at the center of generative AI’s impact on voice actors.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“There’s no legal protection for voice like there is for your face or for your fingerprint.”Jennifer Roberts, voice actor</p>
</blockquote>



<p>Interviews with 10 voice actors revealed an already precarious industry on the brink of widespread change as employers begin to experiment with these text-to-speech tools. One voice actor&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;spoke to said an employer told her she would not be hired to finish narrating a series of audiobooks the day after it announced a partnership with ElevenLabs, leading her to fear she would be replaced with AI. Another said her employer told her that they wanted to use ElevenLabs’ AI to speed up retake sessions, a standard part of recording audio that voice actors are paid for. When she told her employer she didn’t consent to her voice being uploaded to any AI site, the employer agreed, but she said she hasn&#8217;t been called in to do any retakes.</p>



<p>The community of voice actors first noticed an influx of AI generated voices after Apple Books launched&nbsp;<a href="https://authors.apple.com/support/4519-digital-narration-audiobooks" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">digital narration</a>&nbsp;of audiobooks with a suite of soprano and baritone voices in January 2023, said Tim Friedlander, the president of NAVA. Actors began discovering thousands of audio files of familiar voices being uploaded to various sites mostly by fans, he said. Most recently, famed actor Stephen Fry said that his voice was scraped from his narration of the Harry Potter books and cloned using AI. In a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZfS8uk70Zc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">talk</a>&nbsp;at CogX festival, Fry said the experience “shocked” him.</p>



<p>In a public&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/1n6KZpcahyckjmzgsH90ghgNs5pcEQ57baavbjAI_ed8/edit#gid=0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">spreadsheet</a>, hundreds of voice actors have requested to have their voices purged from AI voice generators Uberduck and FakeYou.ai, which have said they will take voices down from their sites if the voice’s owner reaches out. While FakeYou.ai still provides thousands of popular voices like those of John Cena and Kanye West that anyone can use, Uberduck removed user-contributed voices from its platform in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.uberduck.ai/post/new-voice-hosting-policy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">July</a>. Uberduck and FakeYou.ai didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.</p>



<p>One of the voice actors who has publicly requested his voice be removed from voice generators is Jim Cummings, the voice behind characters like Winnie-the-Pooh and Taz from Looney Tunes. He told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;he would only agree to users templating his voice if he and his family received royalties for it. “Keep your paws off my voice,” he said.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-legal-dilemma"><strong>A Legal Dilemma</strong></h2>



<p>Like striking film actors, who are sounding the alarm about the coming of AI and how it could affect their jobs, voice actors are on the front lines of technological change. But unlike other creative fields, where&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/cyrusfarivar/2023/09/11/michael-chabon-other-literary-giants-sue-openai-over-alleged-copyright-infringement/?sh=4d2b431e66a4">authors</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/16/23557098/generative-ai-art-copyright-legal-lawsuit-stable-diffusion-midjourney-deviantart" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">artists</a>&nbsp;are banding together in class-action lawsuits to push back against their copyrighted work being used to train AI models, voice actors are uniquely vulnerable. Even though voices are inherently distinguishable, they aren’t protected as intellectual property. “There’s no legal protection for voice like there is for your face or for your fingerprint,” said Jennifer Roberts, the voice behind several video game characters. “Our hands are tied.”</p>



<p>A recording of a voice, however, can be copyrighted, and according to Jeanne Hamburg, an attorney for law firm Norris McLaughen, using a voice for commercial purposes can be protected by “rights of publicity,” which prevents celebrities&#8217; likenesses from being exploited. That’s in theory, though: Most contracts signed by voice actors don’t stop recordings of their voices from being used to train AI systems. For more than a decade, contracts have stated that producers “own the recording in perpetuity, throughout the known universe, in any technology currently existing or to be developed,&#8221; said Cissy Jones, a voice actor who is part of the founding team at National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA), a newly formed union for voice actors.</p>



<p>Those contracts were largely written and signed before the advent of AI systems. “Voice actors have not provided informed consent to the future use of an audio recording and haven&#8217;t been fairly compensated for it,” said Scott Mortman, an attorney for NAVA. “And so protections need to be strengthened significantly in the wake of AI.”</p>



<p>That’s why NAVA, and the actors union SAG-AFTRA, are working to strike verbiage from&nbsp;<a href="https://navavoices.org/synth-ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">contracts</a>&nbsp;that allows employers to use an actor’s voice to create a “digital double,” or “synthesize” their voice through machine learning. The organizations have also developed new boilerplate language to add into contracts that would protect voice actors from losing the rights to their voices.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-myriad-of-misuses"><strong>A Myriad of Misuses</strong></h2>



<p>Like Clark, numerous voice actors have experienced fans manipulating their voices using generative AI tools to create&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/voice-actors-speak-out-on-nsfw-skyrim-mods-nexus-mods" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pornographic</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy7mww/ai-voice-firm-4chan-celebrity-voices-emma-watson-joe-rogan-elevenlabs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">racist and violent</a>&nbsp;content. Even when fans use AI voices to create innocuous memes or other kinds of fan content, voice actors have spoken up on social media,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.themarysue.com/voice-actors-dont-want-you-using-ai-to-copy-their-voices/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">forbidding</a>&nbsp;people from fabricating their voices.</p>



<p>NAVA member Jones, whose voice has been featured in Disney shows and Netflix documentaries, found TikTok videos in which fans had used Uberduck to create clones of her voice saying inappropriate things. “Not only is my voice saying something I would never say, that stuff is out there in the world,” Jones told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>. “If potential buyers hear our voices saying that, how will that affect my future work?” After she reached out, Uberduck removed her voice from the platform, Jones said.</p>



<p>AI generated voices have also become a new medium for harassment. Abbey Veffer, whose voice has been featured in games like&nbsp;<em>Genshin Impact</em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>The Elder Scrolls</em>, said she was doxed by someone who had created a clone of her voice in February. The person created a Twitter account with her address as the username, generated an AI clone of Veffer’s voice and then made the clone say racist and violent things. The anonymous user directly messaged the recording to Veffer and pinned it at the top of the Twitter account. They claimed to have used ElevenLabs’ technology. The experience, Veffer told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>, was “intense” and “very upsetting.”<em>.</em></p>



<p>But when Veffer reached out to ElevenLabs with her concerns, the company said that the clone was not created using its software and was part of an “organized smear campaign” against the startup, according to messages reviewed by&nbsp;<em>Forbes.&nbsp;</em>Three days after Veffer reached out to Twitter, the account was suspended and the video was taken down but her residential address remained on the site for three months, she said.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“Controlling how our voice gets used and where it gets used is very important to us.”Tim Friedlander, president of National Association of Voice Actors</p>
</blockquote>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<p>After ElevenLabs rolled out the beta version of its text-to-speech AI tool in January, the startup&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elevenlabsio/status/1620032627075063811" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;that it was struggling with people misusing its technology. A day later, Vice’s Motherboard&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy7mww/ai-voice-firm-4chan-celebrity-voices-emma-watson-joe-rogan-elevenlabs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">found</a>&nbsp;that anonymous 4Chan posters used ElevenLabs’ then free cloning tool to generate racist, transphobic and violent remarks with the voices of celebrities like Joe Rogan and Emma Watson.</p>



<p>AI’s ability to closely mimic people’s voices has also created opportunities for scammers. The FTC has issued&nbsp;<a href="https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/03/scammers-use-ai-enhance-their-family-emergency-schemes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">warnings</a>&nbsp;this year that criminals are using AI voice clones to impersonate loved ones as a way to convince their targets to send them money. One journalist was able to use ElevenLabs’ tool to create an AI-generated version of his voice that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy7axa/how-i-broke-into-a-bank-account-with-an-ai-generated-voice" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">successfully</a>&nbsp;logged into his own bank account.</p>



<p>ElevenLabs did not comment on any of these specific instances, but CEO Staniszewski said in an email, “If someone is using our tool to clone voices for which they don’t have permission and which contravene fair use cases, we will ban the account and prevent new accounts from being set up with the same details.” Along with a “voice captcha” tool to ensure people have that permission, the company says it has also developed an AI speech classifier that can detect with more than 90% accuracy whether an audio clip that contains AI was made using its tools.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-consent-and-control"><strong>Consent And Control</strong></h2>



<p>In response to misuse, voice generation sites are adding restrictive measures to police their technologies. Speechify, which licenses the voices of celebrity narrators like Snoop Dog and Gwyneth Paltrow (with full permission), doesn’t allow people to upload content to create customized voices without the active participation of the person whose voice they want to use. Similar to ElevenLabs, it presents a unique text that the user, or someone who is physically present with them, has to read aloud in their own voice. “I think it is short sighted to take shortcuts and my goal is to put content owners in the driver&#8217;s seat,” said founder Cliff Weitzman, who first started Speechify to convert his textbooks into audiobooks using machine learning in 2012.</p>



<p>And at Resemble AI, which touts enterprise customers like Netflix and World Bank Group, people can only create a customized AI-generated voice after recording a consent statement in the voice they want to generate. Resemble AI founder and CEO Zohaib Ahmed said that implementing safe ways to deploy the technology has been integral to his startup because he believes the onus of preventing misuse should fall on the vendors making the tools rather than on the end user.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“It sucks that we have no personal ownership of our voices.”Allegra Clark, voice actor</p>
</blockquote>



<p>These kinds of verification checks, however, don’t address higher level ethical questions around consent. Actors, for instance, don’t really have control over how their voices will be used posthumously. Voice actors were enraged when&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gamesradar.com/after-backlash-over-using-ai-to-clone-dead-voice-actors-smite-and-paladins-studio-says-it-will-change-its-contract/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">gaming studio</a>&nbsp;Hi-Rez Studios added a clause that would allow it to clone a voice using AI after the owner of the voice died (the clause was removed after the uproar). “If an actor passes away, it’s better to replace them with another human than create some artificial performance because it&#8217;s not them and it doesn&#8217;t bring them back,” said voice actor Clark.</p>



<p>The big concern hovering over all of this is whether there’s a future for voice actors. With employers and fans turning to synthesized voices, many are concerned about finding their next gig or keeping the ones they have. “Controlling how our voice gets used and where it gets used, and how much we&#8217;re paid for that usage is very important to us,” said NAVA’s Friedlander.</p>


Voiceover artist voice actor in vocal recording studio with larg diaphragm microphone and antipop shield.

‘Keep Your Paws Off My Voice’: Voice Actors Worry Generative AI Will Steal Their Livelihoods


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>An outdoor concert and dance party in a rural area near the Gaza-Israel border turned into tragedy Saturday, when many attendees were killed or taken hostage by Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip, adding to hundreds of Israeli casualties in the unprecedented attack.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>About 260 bodies were recovered from the festival grounds, though it’s expected the toll will rise, a spokesperson for ZAKA, an Israeli non-governmental rescue and recovery organization, told&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/music-festival-revelers-israeli-desert-became-victims-hamas-militants-rcna119394" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">multiple</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-rockets-airstrikes-tel-aviv-ca7903976387cfc1e1011ce9ea805a71" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">outlets</a>&nbsp;Sunday.</p>



<p>The SuperNova Festival—which celebrated the Jewish holiday Sukkot—took place in the Negev Desert near Urim, a kibbutz about 13 miles from the Gaza Strip.</p>



<p>Attendees&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/07/middleeast/israel-gaza-fighting-hamas-attack-music-festival-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;CNN that once they heard the gunshots early Saturday morning they tried to flee, but cars were at a standstill and gunmen were still shooting, so some ran into nearby forests and hid.</p>



<p>One attendee described the scene to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mako.co.il/news-military/2023_q3/Article-f88c2856ee80b81026.htm?Partner=interlink" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">local media</a>&nbsp;as “four-five hours of a horror movie” and another described hearing sirens before the gunshots started, saying there were gunmen in every direction shooting at the concert-goers.</p>



<p>One festival-goer called it a “battlefield,” telling Israeli newspaper&nbsp;<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-07/ty-article/.premium/survivors-of-massacre-at-israeli-outdoor-rave-describe-battlefield/0000018b-0a85-dae9-adcb-abbfa4990000" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Haaretz</em></a><em>&nbsp;</em>they saw gunmen firing from all directions and burnt-out cars on the street.</p>



<p>“Everyone just started running in all directions,” attendee Eliav Klein&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/music-festival-revelers-israeli-desert-became-victims-hamas-militants-rcna119394" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;NBC News, adding his friend jumped off a 25-foot cliff; Klein estimated there were thousands at the festival, though there is not yet an official count of attendees.</p>



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<p>By signing up, you accept and agree to our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/terms-and-conditions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Terms of Service</a>&nbsp;(including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and you acknowledge our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Privacy Statement</a>.</p>



<p>Some attendees were seen in social media videos being taken hostage by militants—CNN&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/07/middleeast/israel-gaza-fighting-hamas-attack-music-festival-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;the details of a viral video in which an Israeli woman and her boyfriend were shown being kidnapped, and the woman’s family has since&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67047034" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">confirmed</a>&nbsp;to BBC they believe she was taken hostage.</p>



<p>Jake Marlowe, a 26-year-old British man who was working security at the festival, is missing and hasn’t been heard from since Saturday, when he texted his mother about the attack, Sky News&nbsp;<a href="https://news.sky.com/story/british-citizen-jake-marlowe-missing-after-hamas-attack-on-music-festival-in-israel-says-embassy-12979858#:~:text=A%20British%20citizen%20is%20missing,the%20festival%20in%20southern%20Israel" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



<p>“We are doing the best we can to help the security forces, maintaining constant contact with them and are positioned in the area taking part in searches in order to locate the missing,” Nova Festival said in a Hebrew&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/TRIBEofNOVA/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>&nbsp;on social media translated by CNN, adding they “share the sorrow” of the missing and killed.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p>1,100. That’s at least how many Israeli and Palestinian people have died since Hamas fighters entered Israel on Saturday. The Israeli death toll is past 700,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/IsraelMFA/status/1711091937514492031?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1711091937514492031%7Ctwgr%5E82081fcc6e897c4ff5356e244afd539a6f0eb034%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Flive%2F2023%2F10%2F08%2Fworld%2Fisrael-gaza-attack-hamas-news" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the Israel Foreign Ministry, and the Palestinian Ministry of Health&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/10/08/americans-taken-hostage-in-hamas-attack-on-israel-as-death-toll-passes-1000/?sh=28673215239b">said</a>&nbsp;there were about 413 Palestinians who had been killed.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>On Saturday, Gaza-based militant group Hamas launched an attack on Israel from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/barrage-of-rockets-fired-at-israel-from-gaza-strip-d5b2f05f" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">air, land and sea</a>, with militants crossing the Gaza Strip border into southern Israel while Hamas fired rockets toward Israeli cities, leading to one of the worst attacks on Israel in decades. The festival grounds were reportedly one of the first places gunmen attacked, capturing and killing civilians. Throughout Saturday night into Sunday, residents of Gaza faced Israeli airstrikes, while sirens to warn of potential attacks rang through the night in Israel. The Israeli military is widely expected to launch a large-scale counterattack on Gaza: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/10/07/israel-vows-mighty-vengeance-unprecedented-hamas-attack-leaves-at-least-200-dead/?sh=e0f214d688dd">said</a>&nbsp;the scale of the attack “has never been seen in Israel,” and vowed to “take mighty vengeance for this black day.” Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif called the attack the “day of the greatest battle to end the last occupation on earth,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/07/israel-declares-state-of-war-alert-after-surprise-hamas-attack.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">multiple</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-762052" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">outlets</a>&nbsp;reported. Throughout Sunday, death and injury tolls have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/10/08/americans-taken-hostage-in-hamas-attack-on-israel-as-death-toll-passes-1000/?sh=28673215239b">continued to rise</a>&nbsp;and more information about hostages has been released, as well. Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, after Israeli forces withdrew from the occupied territory two years prior, and the narrow, densely populated coastal territory has remained under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since then, with occasional flare-ups between Hamas and Israel’s military.</p>


Israeli airstrikes continue in Gaza

At Least 260 Killed At Israeli Music Festival In Hamas Attack—Attendees Describe ‘Horror Movie’


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Elon Musk, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/?sh=5b8ba5487999">the world’s richest man</a>, grew his net worth by $10.5 billion Wednesday, a 4.2% increase, on the back of an approximately 6% jump in Tesla’s stock, which comprises a vast majority of his wealth—putting his total riches at $260.4 billion.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>Tesla’s 5.9% increase brought the share price to about $261 for the stock when markets closed Wednesday afternoon.</p>



<p>This comes despite a&nbsp;<a href="https://ir.tesla.com/press-release/tesla-vehicle-production-deliveries-and-date-financial-results-webcast-third-quarter-2023" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;released Monday that showed a 7% decline in vehicle deliveries during the third quarter, something the company blamed on factories being temporarily shut down for upgrades.</p>



<p>Still, investors bet on a fourth-quarter rebound with the launch of a revamped Model 3 car in China and the expected launch of the Cybertruck, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.investors.com/news/tesla-stock-flashes-buy-signal-leads-sp-500-bulls-shrug-off-bad-news/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Investor’s Business Daily</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Musk first&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeswealthteam/article/elon-musk/?sh=27503b4726af">jumped</a>&nbsp;into the top spot on&nbsp;<em>Forbes’&nbsp;</em>Billionaires List in September 2021. “I’m sending a giant statue of the digit ‘2’ to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal,” he told&nbsp;<em>Forbes&nbsp;</em>after&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/?sh=4ffe328c1b23">overtaking Amazon’s Jeff Bezos</a>—who, with a $149.8 billion estimated net worth, is now No. 3—for the spot. Recently, he and French fashion mogul&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bernard-arnault/?list=rtb/&amp;sh=25a8e88f66fa">Bernard Arnault</a>&nbsp;have been flipping back and forth between the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, though Musk has maintained his spot as No. 1 in recent weeks. Around $170.6 billion of his $260.4 billion net worth comes in the form of Tesla stock. Other significant assets include his 42% stake in SpaceX, which amounts to $60.2 billion, and his acquisition of Twitter in October 2022, which is now worth $8.9 billion (he purchased the social media platform for $44 billion).&nbsp;<em>Forbes&nbsp;</em>estimates he has $5.2 billion in cash and other liquid assets.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h2>



<p>Musk has given away a meager fraction of his wealth to charitable causes,&nbsp;<em>Forbes&nbsp;</em>has found.&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeswealthteam/article/elon-musk/?sh=27503b4726af">estimates</a>&nbsp;Musk, who signed the Giving Pledge in 2012, has donated $281 million over his lifetime to charitable causes, which is less than 1% of his net worth as of September 2023. Though, he’s not alone among America’s richest in his lack of philanthropy. Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, Nvidia cofounder Jensen Huang and 124 others on&nbsp;<em>Forbes’&nbsp;</em>400 list have all given away&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/2023/10/03/the-forbes-philanthropy-score-2023-how-charitable-are-the-richest-americans/?sh=51f3f084eccc">less than 1%</a>&nbsp;of their wealth. Of the 400 richest Americans, only a handful have given away&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/2023/10/03/the-forbes-philanthropy-score-2023-how-charitable-are-the-richest-americans/?sh=51f3f084eccc">more than 20%</a>&nbsp;of their wealth: John Arnold, Edythe Broad, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, Amos Hostetter Jr., Pierre Omidyar, MacKenzie Scott, Lynn Schusterman, Jeff Skoll and George Soros.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeswealthteam/article/elon-musk/?sh=27503b4726af">Elon Musk’s Road To Riches: Behind The Billions</a> (Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/10/03/grimes-reportedly-sues-elon-musk-over-parental-rights-to-child/?sh=3131bc3421ed">Grimes Reportedly Sues Elon Musk Over Parental Rights To Child</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/willskipworth/2023/09/12/musk-bio-bombshells-secret-child-techno-mechanicus-and-rocky-romantic-relationships-among-these-explosive-revelations/?sh=4322672b17b4">Musk Bio Bombshells: Secret Child Techno Mechanicus And Rocky Romantic Relationships Among These Explosive Revelations</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/willskipworth/2023/10/02/elon-musk-sued-for-falsely-linking-man-to-neo-nazi-group-and-federal-agency/?sh=3cc354ea7956">Elon Musk Sued For Falsely Linking Man To Neo-Nazi Group—And Federal Agency</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/willskipworth/2023/09/18/elon-musk-says-he-might-put-xtwitter-behind-a-paywall/?sh=639508407209">Elon Musk Says He Might Put X/Twitter Behind A Paywall</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>


gettyimages-490597722-594×594

Elon Musk Becomes $10 Billion Richer After Tesla Stock Shoots Up 6%


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>The Food and Drug Administration gave&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/coronavirus-covid-19-cber-regulated-biologics/novavax-covid-19-vaccine-adjuvanted#:~:text=Novavax%20COVID-19%20Vaccine%2C%20Adjuvanted%20is%20available%20under%20emergency%20use,years%20of%20age%20and%20older" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">emergency use authorization</a>&nbsp;on Tuesday to Novavax’s new Covid vaccine designed to target the coronavirus’ dominant XBB sublineage, which is fueling a spike in cases, hospitalizations and deaths across the country.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>At&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/updated-covid-vaccine-who-should-get-it-and-when-it-will-be-available" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$130</a>&nbsp;a dose, the vaccine was approved for those 12 years and older—for those already vaccinated with any vaccine, one dose can be given at least two months after a person’s last Covid shot, and two doses administered three months apart can be given to the unvaccinated.</p>



<p>Novavax’s approval follows the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/willskipworth/2023/09/11/fda-approves-new-covid-vaccines-to-target-latest-strains/?sh=1be38e906e09">approval</a>&nbsp;of Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s monovalent vaccines targeting new coronavirus variant, which were also given emergency use authorization last month by the FDA for those six months and older.</p>



<p>This comes after the agency&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/169591/download?attachment" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">encouraged</a>&nbsp;Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax to create new monovalent vaccines that target the XBB lineage, which makes up the majority of the variants circulating in the U.S.</p>



<p>The Novavax vaccine&nbsp;<a href="https://ir.novavax.com/press-releases/US-CDC-and-Advisory-Committee-Recommend-Use-of-Authorized-and-Approved-2023-2024-Monovalent-XBB-COVID-19-Vaccines" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">received approval</a>&nbsp;from an advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month, though it still awaits approval from the agency’s director.</p>



<p>This is the first time since the shots were commercialized that they won’t be free, and both&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-health-business-covid-medicare-1a5d65356ebc7b5bc76524ae99deb55e" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pfizer</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/moderna-expects-price-its-covid-vaccine-about-130-us-2023-03-20/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Moderna</a>&nbsp;estimate their shots will cost between $110 and $130 a dose.</p>



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<p>By signing up, you accept and agree to our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/terms-and-conditions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Terms of Service</a>&nbsp;(including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Privacy Statement</a>.</p>



<p>Though most insurance companies are expected to cover the cost of Covid boosters, the CDC’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/07/13/cdc-launch-bridge-access-program-fall-2023-provide-free-covid-19-vaccines-treatments-uninsured-underinsured-adults.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bridge Program</a>&nbsp;is set to launch this fall, providing Covid vaccine coverage to the uninsured.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Covid-related deaths and hospitalizations have increased since the start of the summer and are expected to keep rising as fall and winter kick into gear. Deaths increased by 8% between September 17 and September 23, and hospitalizations stood at 19,079 during this period, according to the CDC’s most recent data. EG.5, or the “Eris” variant—part of the XBB lineage—is the dominant strain in the U.S., making up 29.4% of all cases between September 17 and September 30. As of June, the XBB omicron subvariants made up 95% of all Covid cases in the U.S., according to an FDA&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/169591/download?attachment" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>. The existing bivalent boosters offer about 50% protection against XBB variants in most adults and about 33% protection in those 65 years and older, according to a January&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7205e1.htm?s_cid=mm7205e1_w" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;conducted by the CDC. Moderna&nbsp;<a href="https://investors.modernatx.com/news/news-details/2023/Moderna-Clinical-Trial-Data-Confirm-Its-Updated-COVID-19-Vaccine-Generates-Robust-Immune-Response-in-Humans-Against-Widely-Circulating-Variants/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;its new booster may be effective at protecting against the Eris variant, Novavax&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/22/covid-novavax-vaccine-eris-variant.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;its shot provided a broad immune response against Eris in small animals and Pfizer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/pfizers-updated-covid-shot-effective-against-eris-variant-mice-study-2023-08-17/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;its new shot protected against the variant when tested on mice. Because the current bivalent boosters don’t specifically protect against XBB, some experts&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/08/21/new-covid-boosters-expected-this-fall-why-some-doctors-suggest-holding-off-on-getting-your-next-booster-until-then/?sh=447d21af438b">recommend</a>&nbsp;waiting until the new monovalent boosters release before getting an updated shot.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-contra">CONTRA</h2>



<p>An earlier round of updated Covid boosters provided additional protection against previous variants, but only&nbsp;<a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccination-states-jurisdictions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">17%</a>&nbsp;of the U.S. has received at least one booster.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>A new Covid variant called BA.2.86, or “Pirola,” is a descendant of the BA sublineage and has begun circulating in the U.S. Although there aren’t enough cases for it to appear on the CDC’s variant tracker, the World Health Organization has&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1692255671687794902" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">labeled</a>&nbsp;it as a variant under monitoring. This is because Pirola has 36 more&nbsp;<a href="https://slides.com/jbloom/new_2nd_gen_ba2_variant?ftag=YHF4eb9d17#/3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mutation spikes</a>&nbsp;than XBB.1.5—the dominant strain in the U.S. earlier this year—and 34 additional mutations compared to BA.2. Pirola isn’t a descendant of the XBB sublineages, so there may be concern they won’t protect against Pirola. However, Moderna&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/09/06/modernas-updated-covid-vaccine-is-effective-against-pirola-variant-as-concern-over-new-strain-grows/?sh=3f334501a06c">said</a>&nbsp;Wednesday its new booster provided an 8.7-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies against Pirola in its clinical trial.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-green-light-new-covid-boosters-early-friday-rcna103379" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FDA could green light new Covid boosters as early as Friday</a>&nbsp;(NBC)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/09/06/modernas-updated-covid-vaccine-is-effective-against-pirola-variant-as-concern-over-new-strain-grows/?sh=3f334501a06c">Moderna’s Updated Covid Vaccine Is Effective Against Pirola Variant—As Concern Over New Strain Grows</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/08/21/new-covid-boosters-expected-this-fall-why-some-doctors-suggest-holding-off-on-getting-your-next-booster-until-then/?sh=447d21af438b">New Covid Boosters Expected This Fall: Why Some Doctors Suggest Holding Off On Getting Your Next Booster Until Then</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/09/01/its-ok-to-get-your-covid-flu-and-rsv-shots-at-the-same-time-experts-say/?sh=486139df3099">It’s Okay To Get Your Covid, Flu And RSV Shots At The Same Time, Experts Say</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)</p>


Vaccinations at Egoli Township as Omicron Cases Spread

FDA Approves Novavax’s New Covid Vaccine Designed To Protect Against The Latest Strain


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that Microsoft can’t compete with Google and that the search engine’s market share is so large the internet has basically become the “Google web” Monday during more than three-and-a-half hours of testimony in Google’s antitrust trial, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/02/technology/microsoft-ceo-testifies-google-search.html?smtyp=cur&amp;smid=tw-nytimes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">multiple</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/02/microsoft-ceo-google-antitrust-trial/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">news</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/microsoft-ceo-testifies-about-limits-of-ai-at-google-antitrust-trial-32d032a9?mod=hp_lead_pos5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">organizations</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>Nadella reportedly testified that Microsoft and Bing, its search engine, was unable to compete with Google because of deals Google has made with partners like Apple and Samsung to make Google the default search engine on their devices and browsers.</p>



<p>Nadella described Google’s deal with Apple in particular as “oligopolistic,” and said the deals in sum amount to a “vicious cycle” for Microsoft, according to reports.</p>



<p>He also said that at one point Microsoft was willing to pay “north of 10 plus billion a year” to convince companies to make Bing the default over Google, but companies wouldn’t give in (equity firm Sanford Bernstein estimated Google is paying Apple $18 billion to $19 billion this year to make Google the default on iPhones and other Apple products, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/02/microsoft-ceo-google-antitrust-trial/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Washington Post</em></a>).</p>



<p>Google’s lawyers continually argued that Microsoft’s lack of ability to compete was because it had an inferior product, not because of the default agreements.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



<p>“The entire notion that users have choice, and they go from one website to another website … is completely bogus,” Nadella testified Monday. “Defaults is the only thing that matters in changing search behavior.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



<p>“Google” is the most searched for word on Bing, John Schmidtlein, Google’s lead litigator, pointed out as he cross-examined Nadella.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>When this trial began earlier this month, it became the biggest antitrust trial in more than two decades. The trial revolves around these agreements Google’s made with Apple, Samsung and other partners. The Department of Justice, which brought the case, argues that they constitute illegal means of creating and maintaining a monopoly. Google has continually argued that it is the default search engine on so many products, as well as most users’ preferred search engine, because it is simply a superior product.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/02/technology/microsoft-ceo-testifies-google-search.html?smtyp=cur&amp;smid=tw-nytimes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microsoft C.E.O. Testifies That Google’s Power in Search Is Ubiquitous</a>&nbsp;(New York Times)</p>



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<p>By signing up, you accept and agree to our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/terms-and-conditions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Terms of Service</a>&nbsp;(including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Privacy Statement</a>.</p>



<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/02/microsoft-ceo-google-antitrust-trial/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microsoft CEO says Google’s deals with Apple led to its dominance</a>&nbsp;(Washington Post)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/microsoft-ceo-testifies-about-limits-of-ai-at-google-antitrust-trial-32d032a9?mod=hp_lead_pos5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microsoft CEO Says Google’s Agreements With Apple Unfairly Harmed Bing</a> (Wall Street Journal)</p>


Author: Forbes

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