IBM is buying Confluent for $11 billion in a major push to own real-time data streaming infrastructure essential for enterprise AI workloads. It marks Big Blue's biggest acquisition since Red Hat in 2019. Bloomberg reports: The AI boom has touched off billions of dollars in deals for businesses that build, train or leverage the technology, propelling the value of an entire ecosystem of data center developers, software makers, generative AI tool developers and data management firms. Mountain View, California-based Confluent sits in the data corner of that world, providing a platform for companies to gather -- or "stream" -- and analyze data in real time as opposed to shipping data in clunkier batches.

Manufacturers such as Michelin, for example, have used Confluent's platform to optimize their inventories of raw and semi-finished materials live. Instacart adopted Confluent to develop real-time fraud detection systems and gain more visibility into the availability of products sold on its grocery delivery platform. Businesses are increasingly tapping AI systems that manage tasks like this in real-time and require live flows of data to do so. IBM, which pioneered mainframe computers, has been trying to reposition its business around AI over the past few years. Under Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna, it's been buying software companies and selling generative AI-related services to enterprise clients. Software now makes up almost half its total revenue and continues to grow at a steady rate.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Meta's proposal to use less personal data for targeted advertising in its pay-or-consent model that will be rolled out next month won the approval of EU antitrust regulators on Monday, signaling the company will not face daily fines after all. [...] The U.S. tech giant has been locked in discussions with the European Commission after getting hit with a $233 million fine in April for breaching the Digital Markets Act aimed at reining in the power of Big Tech. The violation covered Facebook and Instagram in the period from November 2023 to November 2024, after which Meta tweaked its pay-or-consent model to use less personal data for targeted advertising.

The EU executive has been examining the changes to see if they comply with the DMA, with Meta risking daily fines of as much as 5% of its average daily worldwide turnover if found to be still in breach of the law. The tweaks are in wording, design and transparency to remind users of the two options. Meta did not plan on any substantial changes to its November proposal despite the risk of EU fines, people with direct knowledge of the matter had told Reuters. The Commission, which acts as the EU competition enforcer, acknowledged Meta's November proposal, saying that it will monitor the new ad model and seek feedback, with no more talk of periodic fines. "Meta will give users the effective choice between consenting to share all their data and seeing fully personalized advertising, and opting to share less personal data for an experience with more limited personalized advertising," the Commission said in a statement.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

mikeleonardvisualarts posted a photo:

ajpscs posted a photo:

NOIR
© ajpscs

uchi uchi has added a photo to the pool:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

uchi uchi has added a photo to the pool:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Stueyman has added a photo to the pool:

Looking down to Mushroom Ro k across the beach

Stueyman has added a photo to the pool:

Grain being loaded at Kwinana Terminal, WA

Zo’n 30 jaar geleden heb ik een aantal jaren in hartje Parijs gewoond en gewerkt. Elk jaar ga ik weer een paar dagen naar Parijs om mijn vrienden van vroeger daar te zien.

De slagschaduw van de zelfgekozen dood en zijn „donkere kanten” hing over de presentatie van Zwaag, Maria Vlaars imposante biografie van Joost Zwagerman (1963-2015). Van sommige kennissen en lezers is kritiek gekomen op de biografie, die juist die donkere kanten teveel zou uitlichten.