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

Several of Kosti Ruohomaa’s haunting and desolate, yet often beautiful and welcoming photographs of Maine in an earlier time are included in Nocturne, the current exhibit at the Maine Art Gallery. But we will have an opportunity to view a wide range of the photographer’s work during an Art Talk at the gallery on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 3 p.m.

Kevin Johnson, photo archivist for the Penobscot Marine Museum (PMM) in Searsport, Maine will present “Kosti Ruohomaa: A LIFE Behind the Lens.” The slide show and talk focuses on the Rockland photographer, Ruohomaa, a photography rock star during the era of photo magazines such as “LIFE.”

The Ruohomaa Collection of photographs has come home to Maine through a generous donation to PMM by Black Star of New York, Ruohomaa’s photography agency, and it consists of thousands of medium and large format negatives, 35 mm negatives and slides, as well as contact sheets and vintage prints. His photographs graced the cover of “Life” magazine numerous times. Other major magazines such as “Look,” “National Geographic,” and “Down East” used his photos regularly. 

While he photographed around the world, Maine was Kosti’s favorite subject. Kosti was a storyteller with a camera. He captured the spirit and culture of Maine through its people and landscape as few other photographers have ever done. He died prematurely in 1961 at the age of 47. 

The collection is now part of the archives of the Penobscot Marine Museum and is currently being digitized and cataloged. PMM has more than 500,0000 thousand images from their various collections that can be viewed on the museum’s website in their online database. www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org

The gallery thanks season sponsor Sherri Dunbar of Tim Dunham Realty, capital sponsor, Islebrook Villages at Wiscasset, and Nocturne exhibit sponsor J. Edward Knight Insurance.

The Maine Art Gallery, located at 15 Warren St. in Wiscasset. Gallery hours are Thursday – Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. during shows.

More information can be found at www.maineartgallerywiscasset.org.

Avery Dull left her apartment in Hendersonville, North Carolina with her baby daughter a day after she made a TikTok showing brown floodwater from Hurricane Helene swelling beneath her second-floor balcony. Staying with friends two hours away and her life in limbo, Dull has been spending a lot of time online.

“Usually I’m in bed by 10 p.m. I haven’t gone to bed till 3 a.m. since this happened,” she told NPR. “I mean, I’ve been up all day and night just trying to find any, any information I can whatsoever. It has been consuming me.”

Having evacuated, Dull is turning to videos on TikTok to keep her up to date on her community.

“This is my hometown. And to see these places just water up to the roof, I can’t even comprehend it…I walked those streets and they’re just, I mean, sunk.”

She constantly watches for death toll updates. “I want to know if any of my family members who I haven’t heard from are alive and well…And every time I update, it goes up, like, five people.”

People like Dull, as well as those still in their storm-damaged communities, are hungry for reliable information. When they turn to social media, they’re finding mixed results. Some platforms don’t have much news at all. Other platforms have enabled them to form groups that provide information and companionship.

And then there is X, formerly known as Twitter, where politically charged rumors flow freely. Emergency management researchers lament that the platform owned by Elon Musk, which was once considered a useful source of information in a disaster, is instead contributing to the chaos in Helene’s wake.

The disaster became fodder for political attacks

The storm hit two swing states just a month before a close election, making criticisms about the response a tempting political line of attack.

On X, the top results for “Helene” have millions of views but are not always reliable.

“‘$2.4 billion aid to Ukraine’ vs ‘No more aid for Hurricane Helene’ – 3 days apart” pro-Trump account End Wokeness wrote alongside video clips of President Joe Biden speaking on two occasions. The post received over 5 million views.

The text misrepresents one of the Biden videos. In it, Biden responds “no” when asked if more federal resources will be directed to disaster relief and says that local governments have yet to ask for what has already been allocated. The video also shows Biden saying the federal government had already pre-planned hurricane relief even before states had asked for disaster aid.

Former president Donald Trump claimed without evidence that Democrats were withholding aid from Republican areas. Trump also falsely claimed that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp had not been able to speak to Biden, even though both confirmed they had spoken to one another.

There’s no evidence the federal government is withholding aid from affected states. The Republican governors of South Carolina and Georgia have praised the federal government’s support.

Other videos on X made wilder claims.

“Don’t worry guys, weather modification isn’t real! It’s just a coincidence that Hurricane Helene is one of the most devastating ‘inland damage storms’ in history and that hundreds of pro-Trump counties are being massively impacted during the most important election of our lifetimes,” influencer Matt Wallace posted alongside video footage of flooding. The post received 11 million views.

False claims about weather-altering tools have become common in the aftermath of major storms, said Amber Silver, who teaches emergency management at the University of Albany. “And there’s always questions about…is this storm, you know, man-made or is it natural?”

“But the scale of that amount of chatter with Helene was unexpected for this event,” she said.

Twitter was useful for disaster response, X less so

While X’s predecessor, Twitter, has always had fewer users than other major social media platforms, “it has been historically very influential in disaster preparedness [and] response,” Silver said.

In a recent study, Silver and her colleagues surveyed people about how they used social media after Hurricane Dorian in 2019.

“When people were sharing pictures of themselves at the grocery stores with carts full of supplies, or standing in line to get gas, or standing in line at Home Depot buying a generator, people felt internal pressure to prepare for the storm, too,” she said.

After a disaster struck, people used the platform to spread information that helped first responders plan and call for help, Silver said.

But since Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter in 2022 and its subsequent transformation into X, all that has shifted. A blue check mark used to mean that the company had verified a user’s identity. Now it just means the user has paid for a subscription, which makes identifying which accounts are trustworthy more difficult. The company also raised the cost of access to analyze its data, making rumor-monitoring efforts prohibitively expensive for many researchers.

“The kind of difference here that we’re experiencing is just the amount of kind of maybe unuseful tweets that you have to dig through to be able to find the useful, actionable ones,” said Samantha Montano, an assistant professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. “And that’s a real challenge because in a disaster, you don’t necessarily have time to be digging through all of that.”

Researchers have not yet looked at whether the effects of X’s changes under Musk are negative for disaster response. Silver is applying for funding to answer the question.

“I do still think that there are real benefits to using social media in disasters — whether it’s Twitter, Tik Tok or something else — as a way for people to organize among themselves and work directly with survivors,” Montano said.

Dull says she has been relying on TikTok and a neighborhood Facebook group as well as family and friends in the area. She wants to know both what’s happening now and what’s happening next.

“I would like to hear updates on the people that are trapped on top of mountains right now. I would like to know what steps they’re going to take to move forward and start rebuilding,” said Dull. “I want to know how they’re going to help us feel a sense of normalcy again.”

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