Home Living Beyond Borders GZERO World Signal In 60 Seconds Puppet Regime GZERO World Podcast Contact Us About Us Careers Privacy Policy Terms

Hard Numbers: Not-so-Swift, Job cuts, Microsoft’s milestone, Meta goes to Indiana, Blocking bots

January 30, 2024

Scott Nover

Taylor Swift at a premiere of "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" in Los Angeles, California, in October 2023.

REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

45 million: AI-generated pornographic images of Taylor Swift circulated around social media sites last week, spurring Swift’s team to contemplate legal action. On X, formerly Twitter, one such post had 45 million views before it was finally removed for violating the site’s rules.

8,000: Tech companies are slashing jobs to invest in AI. The German software firm SAP announced it plans to cut or restructure 8,000 jobs — training some of the employees to work alongside AI.

3 trillion: SAP isn’t alone: Microsoft cut 1,900 jobs from its video game business just as AI has pushed its market capitalization past the $3 trillion mark. Yes, Microsoft, which has spent $13 billion investing in OpenAI in addition to its internal work on AI, is the most valuable company in the world.

800 million: Facebook parent company Meta announced it is building an $800 million data center in Jeffersonville, Indiana, to support its AI efforts. We detailed Meta’s controversial ambitions to build open-source AGI, or artificial general intelligence, in last week’s newsletter.

90: News companies are pushing back against AI companies training their models on their articles — at least not without proper payment. More than 90% of top news organizations, according to one estimate, have protections in place to stop data collection bots.

GZEROMEDIA

Podcast: The Top Geopolitical Risks of 2025, a live conversation with Ian Bremmer and global experts

Listen: It's officially the new year, and 2025 will bring a whole new set of challenges as governments react to the shifting policies of the incoming Trump administration, instability in the Middle East, China’s economic weakness, and a world where the global order feels increasingly tenuous. 2025 will be a year of heightened geopolitical risks and global disorder, with the world no longer aligned with the balance of power. So what should we be paying attention to, and what’s the world’s #1 concern for the year ahead? Ian Bremmer analyzes the Eurasia Group's Top Risks of 2025 report with a panel of global experts.

About Us Careers Press Contact Us Privacy Policy Terms of Use

Hard Numbers: Not-so-Swift, Job cuts, Microsoft’s milestone, Meta goes to Indiana, Blocking bots

GZEROMEDIA

More from GZERO Media

Wildfires are raging in Los Angeles. So is their politicization.

As wildfires scorched Los Angeles for a second day on Wednesday, hurricane-strength winds and limited water supplies complicated efforts to contain the flames.

Graphic Truth: Where the US government gets its revenue

The US government currently raises about $5 trillion a year in revenue. But where does it come from? Here’s a look at the breakdown.

Will Turkey attack Syria’s Kurds?

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan threatened this week to launch attacks against Kurdish-led forces in northeastern Syria.

Hard Numbers: Fleeing Mozambique, Trump’s fine, Tremor rescues, Haiti death toll, Journalist freed

13,000: About 13,000 Mozambican refugees have fled to neighboring Malawi to escape post-election violence that has been growing since Mozambique’s general elections in October.

“Zangezur” you say? The strip of land that could spark Europe’s next war

Azerbaijan's president has threatened Armenia with war over a small sliver of territory.

GZEROMEDIA

Lebanon tries, yet again, to elect a president

The crisis-wracked country needs a stable government in order to secure aid.

Podcast: The Top Geopolitical Risks of 2025, a live conversation with Ian Bremmer and global experts

Trump vs. world

President-elect Donald Trump is doubling down on threats that the US should take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, and he isn’t ruling out the use of force to accomplish this. He's also taking swipes at Canada. But the relevant foreign leaders are having none of it.

What happens when no one’s in charge

BofA report shares new insights on US business owners

The 2024 Bank of America Women and Minority Business Owner Spotlight explores business owners' outlooks, with insights from women, Hispanic-Latino, Black/African American, and AAPI entrepreneurs. To learn about their perspectives, read the report.

Hard Numbers: Not-so-Swift, Job cuts, Microsoft’s milestone, Meta goes to Indiana, Blocking bots

GZEROMEDIA

Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

More from GZERO Media

As wildfires scorched Los Angeles for a second day on Wednesday, hurricane-strength winds and limited water supplies complicated efforts to contain the flames.

The US government currently raises about $5 trillion a year in revenue. But where does it come from? Here’s a look at the breakdown.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan threatened this week to launch attacks against Kurdish-led forces in northeastern Syria.

13,000: About 13,000 Mozambican refugees have fled to neighboring Malawi to escape post-election violence that has been growing since Mozambique’s general elections in October.

Azerbaijan's president has threatened Armenia with war over a small sliver of territory.

GZEROMEDIA

Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

The crisis-wracked country needs a stable government in order to secure aid.

President-elect Donald Trump is doubling down on threats that the US should take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, and he isn’t ruling out the use of force to accomplish this. He's also taking swipes at Canada. But the relevant foreign leaders are having none of it.

The 2024 Bank of America Women and Minority Business Owner Spotlight explores business owners' outlooks, with insights from women, Hispanic-Latino, Black/African American, and AAPI entrepreneurs. To learn about their perspectives, read the report.