(VOR News) – Microsoft is planning to have its annual shareholder meeting on December 10th, which is set to take place as the year draws to a conclusion.

The meeting is slated to take place simultaneously. According to a document that was distributed by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, a proposal that would increase shareholder value and diversify Microsoft’s assets by investing in Bitcoin is put on the list of “voting items” for shareholders this year.

Investing in Bitcoin would diversify Microsoft’s assets.

By encouraging shareholders to vote against it, the board of directors of the relevant firm is encouraging shareholders to vote against it. The proposal that is titled “Assessment of Investing in Bitcoin” suggests that Microsoft should investigate the possibility of diversifying its assets using Bitcoin, which is described as a “excellent, if not the best, hedge against inflation.”

A further implication of the plan is that Microsoft’s current investment in corporate bonds is just marginally higher than the rate of global inflation.

The concept posits that during inflationary periods, organizations ought to diversify their balance sheets with assets that gain more than bonds, as they may have a fiduciary obligation to do so, despite the short-term volatility of those assets. This is because bonds often undergo a greater pace of appreciation than other investment forms.

After the proposal, there is a section that is titled “Board Recommendation” that may be found underneath it. When it comes to this particular matter, the board of directors of Microsoft suggests to shareholders that they vote against the plan.

According to the paper, the board of directors contends that the company does not have to consider investing in Bitcoin since “Microsoft’s management has already carefully considered this topic.” This is the reason why the company does not have to consider investing in Bitcoin.

Microsoft has a Global Treasury and Investment Services team that routinely examines a vast array of potential investments in order to effectively diversify Microsoft’s assets and protect stockholders from inflation, as stated by the technology giant, which has Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street as its largest shareholders.

This team is responsible for ensuring that Microsoft’s stockholders are protected from inflation.

The Microsoft report states that this group has assessed Bitcoin in the past.

According to the submission, it was said that “Microsoft has strong and appropriate processes in place to manage and diversify its corporate Treasury for the long-term benefit of shareholders,” along with the conclusion that “this requested public assessment is unwarranted.”

The National Center for Public Policy, which is a think tank that adheres to a conservative philosophy, was the one that presented the idea to the public.

Project 2025 is a policy project that is backed by the far right and has the objective of increasing the power of the president and imposing a conservative social order on the government of the next Republican president. One of the members of the advisory board for Project 2025 is from this particular group.

The proposal states that even if the firm ought to take into consideration investing in Bitcoin, it ought not to put the value of its shareholders at risk by spending an excessive portion of their assets in the cryptocurrency.

This is because the company would be putting the value of its shareholders at danger. The advice is that Microsoft should “evaluate the benefits of holding some, even just 1% of its assets in Bitcoin,” as stated by the organization.

At the same time that MicroStrategy, another big technology company, has reached a new high of $241 this year, this argument is being presented. This might be attributed to the fact that the company’s strategy shift toward investing in Bitcoin has been highly successful.

Starting from the year 2020, the company has gathered a total of 252,220 Bitcoins, which are estimated to be worth around $17 billion respectively.

Over the course of the past year, the stock of MicroStrategy has gained by around 250%, and the stock of Microsoft has increased by approximately 16%. Both corporations have witnessed an increase in the value of their stock.

SOURCE: FCN

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Spotify Is Facing Competition From Ad Giants On The New Ad Exchange.

Apple Unveiled A Fresh Glimpse Of Their AI Featuring ChatGPT Integration.

(VOR News) – Spotify is now running a pilot trial for a new ad exchange in an effort to improve its capabilities in the area of automated advertising.

Their goal is to increase their capabilities in this area. In the beginning, the application will have a key emphasis on the sharing of films as its primary emphasis Through the implementation of this project, Spotify is attempting to make a strategic move in order to compete more effectively with larger platforms such as Meta and Google for advertising revenue.

This action is being taken in order to provide Spotify with an advantage over its competitors. Prior to this point in time, a substantial chunk of Spotify’s programmatic advertising solutions had been limited to programmatic direct transactions. This restriction was lifted. The circumstances had been like this up until this point in time.

These deals buy Spotify advertising through salespeople rather than auctioning it.

This is in contrast to the traditional method of purchasing advertising. Spotify plans to expand the variety of automated advertising options it provides by utilizing SAX and establishing agreements with a large number of other digital service providers.

This will allow Spotify to fulfill its goal of expanding its advertising options. To add insult to injury, this will be in addition to the initial partnership that the company created with The Trade Desk.

According to Axios, a number of insiders who are familiar with the effort have informed the journal that the platform hopes to ease the process of advertising expenditures for both small and medium-sized businesses as well as for existing clients, which may include well-known brands.

This information was provided by insiders. The insiders were the ones who shared this knowledge with us. The freshly built exchange is capable of being integrated into a wide range of demand-side platforms, which will make it simpler for advertisers to establish direct relationships with Spotify’s advertising inventory.

This is because the exchange was recently developed. Because of this, there will be a greater possibility that marketers will utilize the advertising inventory provides. When it comes to the Spotify Ad Exchange, which is also referred to as SAX, The Trade Desk is the first content delivery platform (DSP) partner that Spotify has ever had. February of this year marked the beginning of this cooperation to be developed.

At this point in time, the primary focus of the relationship is on the incorporation of The Trade Desk’s North American clients into the video ad inventory that Spotify offers. Because of this, the collaboration is of the utmost significance.

Plans are underway to add audio ads to Spotify’s partnership.

This matter is under consideration. One is considering this specific element. The link was tested for the first time the week before to last. It was rigorously tested.

In reaction to the continued success that YouTube has had in stealing the audience for the podcasts that are supplied by Spotify, the streaming service has been making attempts to improve the quality of the videos that it provides. This is a response to the fact that YouTube has been such a successful competitor.

According to Edison Podcast Metrics, thirty-one percent of weekly podcast listeners who are thirteen years old or older prefer to listen to their podcasts on YouTube. This information was obtained from data collected by Edison Podcast Metrics. On the other hand, only 15% of people listen to Apple Podcasts, whereas 27% of people subscribe to Spotify.

The popularity of Apple Podcasts is relatively high. When contrasted with the situation involving Apple Podcasts, there is a substantial difference.

During the same time period, Spotify has made the announcement that it will be expanding its capacity to include music videos to approximately one hundred regions across the globe. As a consequence of this, the company will have access to an even broader variety of choices in the field of video advertising than it did before.

SOURCE: RIN

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Apple Unveiled A Fresh Glimpse Of Their AI Featuring ChatGPT Integration.

Google Releases Software That Stamps Text Generated By Artificial Intelligence.

(VOR News) – On Wednesday, a beta version of many Apple Intelligence features was made available to the general public. One of these capabilities, ChatGPT, was something Apple had been looking forward to incorporating.

In the summer of this year, the business declared that it would be adjusting to rapid advancements in artificial intelligence. However, users are just gradually learning about the company’s capabilities. Because the technologies are only available on the latest iPhone models, investors expect the artificial intelligence capabilities will lead to a rise in the number of iPhone upgrades.

Apple has stated that the formal public release of Apple Intelligence will take place next week as part of the official release of iOS 18.1, despite the fact that it has already been made available in previews for developers and early adopters.

Despite the introduction of Apple Intelligence, this announcement took place.

Software developers were given access to a beta version of iOS 18.2, which was released on Wednesday. These latest changes are included in the software’s beta version. Apple developer betas often go through a cycle that lasts for a few weeks before they are made available to the public.

The iOS 18.2 preview includes the following features:

Thanks to its cutting-edge capabilities, Apple Intelligence allows users to select how they want a passage of text to be rewritten. One of the photo generators that uses to create new emoticons is called “Genmoji”.

Image Playground is the current name of Apple’s artificial intelligence-powered image creation tool. A software program called Image Wand lets users remove objects and other distractions from photos.

ChatGPT is currently integrated into the system and is managed by OpenAI. Although it is not included in this update, the long-awaited capability of Siri to carry out operations within programs is expected to be included soon. Siri would have the ability to carry out tasks inside such apps.

The organization that reacts to messages is ChatGPT.

In June, Apple declared its intention to merge with ChatGPT. At the time, the business said that OpenAI’s chatbot, not Apple Intelligence or Siri, could provide customers with answers to more complex questions or concerns.

This is true even though Siri and Apple Intelligence rely on semiconductors made and utilized in the company’s wide range of computing products. At its developer conference, Apple gave a presentation that showed off the ChatGPT integration’s potential future features.

When a user asks a question that Siri thinks is better suited for ChatGPT, it will ask for permission to pose the inquiry on the user’s behalf. OpenAI does not require users to have an OpenAI account in order to use it.

Additionally, users will be able to input text by using ChatGPT in text fields to create such content.

Furthermore, Apple plans to use ChatGPT as part of a feature it calls Visual Intelligence. This functionality will be implemented by Apple. This capability allows the phone’s camera to recognize text or objects and, in addition, translate signs in real time while doing so.

Collaboration between the two businesses allowed OpenAI, which is now valued at $157 billion after a funding round that was revealed earlier this month, to reach a notable level of success. Cooperation between the two groups made this possible.

When the connection was first revealed, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was reportedly wandering around Apple headquarters. This was developed as a result of Microsoft’s intention to significantly incorporate OpenAI models into its products. On the other hand, neither OpenAI nor have disclosed any information about the partnership’s financial situation to the public.

Additionally, OpenAI held a financing round in which did not participate. Executives at Apple have also hinted that other AI models, like those created by Google, might eventually be able to merge with Intelligence. Apple executives have made this claim.

The public has already tested a number of Apple Intelligence capabilities. By the start of the next week, these features are expected to be available to the general public as part of iOS 18.1.

A fresh look for Siri, the ability to edit text, and notification summaries that distill a mountain of push messages into a few sentences were among the first wave of tools to be made available. These were only a handful of the instruments that were made available.

SOURCE: CNBC

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Appeals Court Delays Order For Google To Open Its App Store In Antitrust Case

Reddit Will Expand Its AI Collaborations And Test Search Summaries Created By AI.

Google Releases Software That Stamps Text Generated By Artificial Intelligence.