TECHNOLOGY

Google search engine’s latest AI injection will answer voiced questions about video and photos

Google is injecting its search engine with more artificial intelligence that will enable people to voice questions about images and occasionally organize an entire page of results, despite the technology’s past misadventures with misleading information. The latest changes announced Thursday herald the next step in an AI-driven makeover that Google launched in mid-May when it began responding to some queries with summaries written by the technology at the top of its influential results page. Those summaries, dubbed “AI Overviews,” raised fears among publishers that fewer people would click on search links to their websites and undercut the traffic needed to sell digital ads that help finance their operations. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

RETAIL

Amazon is hiring 250,000 for holiday season, unchanged from 2023

Amazon.com Inc. will bring on about 250,000 people in the United States for the holiday shopping rush, unchanged from last year and an indication that the company expects steady demand in its biggest market. The online retailer, which typically announces its fall hiring binge to attract new recruits, recently said it was raising hourly pay by at least $1.50 to more than $22 an hour for its 800,000 US transportation and warehousing workers. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

TECHNOLOGY

Starbucks buys research farms as climate change threatens coffee supply

Starbucks Corp. is buying two new research farms that will test everything from drones to microbes as it seeks to make coffee more resilient to climate change, which has already constricted availability and driven up prices. A farm in Costa Rica will look at solutions including how technology can help growers. In Guatemala — a key supply region — Starbucks will replicate the challenges facing the small farms that make up 97 percent of its supply chain. Both locations will also study new coffee varieties as climate change shifts where the crop can thrive. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

DEALS

US Steel CEO pressed by two senators to defend Nippon Steel deal payout

Two prominent Democratic senators are criticizing United States Steel Corp. chief executive David Burritt over his potential $72 million “golden parachute” if the sale to a Japanese company goes through — while President Biden’s decision on the takeover hangs in the air. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, whose race for reelection is one of the closest in the chamber this year, wrote to Burritt Wednesday regarding financial incentives offered to him and other US Steel executives if Nippon Steel Corp. acquires the company in a $14.1 billion deal. The executives would be eligible for the incentives if they’re terminated following a takeover, according to a March filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

DRUGS

Lilly weight-loss drug copycats dealt blow as shortage ends

Eli Lilly & Co.’s blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes drugs are no longer considered to be in shortage in the United States, threatening to upend the many knockoffs that became popular when patients couldn’t find the brand-name medicines. The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that the shortage of Lilly’s Zepbound and Mounjaro is resolved. The agency added that there are “legal restrictions on making copies of FDA-approved drugs” when there isn’t a shortage. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

WALL STREET

Oil prices jump again on worries about the Middle East as Wall Street fades

Crude prices jumped Thursday on worries that worsening tensions in the Middle East could disrupt the global flow of oil, while US stocks pulled back further from their records. The S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent amid a shaky week that’s knocked the index off its all-time high set on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 184 points, or 0.4 percent, and the Nasdaq composite edged down by less than 0.1 percent. Stocks sank as oil prices kept rising amid the world’s wait to see how Israel will respond to Iran’s missile attack from Tuesday. A barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, leaped 5 percent to settle at $77.62 after starting the week below $72. It’s potentially on track for its biggest weekly percentage gain in nearly two years. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

FINANCE

Fidelity plans latest mutual fund-to-ETF flip in muni market

Fidelity Investments is looking to convert two of its municipal-bond mutual funds into exchange-traded funds, a move that underscores the popularity of the $10 trillion US arena. The two funds impacted are the $170 million Fidelity Municipal Bond Index Fund and the Fidelity Municipal Core Plus Bond Fund, which has less than $70 million in assets. Both are expected to be converted next year, according to two separate regulatory filings. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

BIOSCIENCE

‘Lord of the Rings’ director piles $10 million into dodo de-extinction startup

Film director Peter Jackson and his partner, producer Fran Walsh, are the latest wealthy celebrities to throw support behind de-extinction startup Colossal Biosciences Inc. The couple invested $10 million in the company known for trying to bring back animals from the dodo to the woolly mammoth. The filmmaker, famed for making the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, is backing the biotechnology company as he seeks to prevent species from extinction in his native New Zealand, according to his publicist. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

CORPORATE CULTURE

Toyota curbs DEI policy after activist attack over LGBTQ support

Toyota Motor Corp., will refocus DEI programs and halt sponsorship of LGBTQ events, citing “a highly politicized discussion” around corporate commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion. The Japanese carmaker told employees it will also end participation in notable rankings by LGBTQ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign and other corporate culture surveys. The company will “narrow our community activities to align with STEM education and workforce readiness,” it said in a memo Thursday to its 50,000 US employees and 1,500 dealers. The note comes a week after anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck started a social media campaign against the company, calling for customer boycotts because of its support for LGBTQ events and other initiatives. Toyota said at the time that the LGBTQ programs targeted were led by employee groups, not the company directly. — BLOOMBERG NEWS