Snap-On Inc. stock underperforms Monday when compared to competitors
ATLANTA (AP) — Even the woeful NFC South, where no team has a winning record, can't hide the Atlanta Falcons' offensive shortcomings. Three straight setbacks, including an ugly 17-13 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, has left the Falcons 6-6 and feeling the pressure. Only a tiebreaker advantage over Tampa Bay has kept the Falcons atop the division. Now the Falcons must prepare to visit streaking Minnesota, which has won five straight . Veteran defensive tackle Grady Jarrett knows the Falcons must solve the flaws which have been exposed in the losing streak. “It’s now or never,” Jarrett said. “You have to flip the mindset fast.” Kirk Cousins threw four interceptions in the loss, matching his career high. Coach Raheem Morris said he didn't consider playing rookie Michael Penix Jr. against the Chargers and won't think about benching Cousins this week. Morris acknowledged the Falcons can't expect to win when turning the ball over four times. It was the latest example of Atlanta's offensive decline. In the three-game losing streak, Cousins has thrown six interceptions with no touchdowns. The Falcons were held under 20 points in each loss. If not for the rash of interceptions which has contributed to the scoring problems, more attention would be devoted to the surge of big plays on defense. The defense forced two fumbles and set a season high with five sacks, including two by Arnold Ebiketie. The Falcons ranked last in the league with only 10 sacks before finding success with their pass rush against Justin Herbert. Herbert was forced to hold the ball while looking for an open receiver, so some credit for the pass-rush success belongs to Atlanta's secondary. The Falcons gave up only two first downs in the second half and 187 yards for the game. Cousins, 36, was expected to be the reliable leader on offense after he signed a four-year, $180 million contract. The four interceptions were his most since 2014 with Washington. Cousins now will be in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons as he returns to Minnesota, his NFL home from 2018-23. Cousins has thrown 13 interceptions, one shy of his career high set in 2022. His passer rating of 90.8 is his lowest since his 86.4 mark as a part-time starter in 2014 with Washington. “Certainly when you haven’t played at the standard you want to a few weeks in a row, you know, you do want to change that, turn it around,” Cousins said. Running back Bijan Robinson had his busiest day of the season, perhaps in an attempt to take heat off Cousins. Robinson's 26 carries set a career high. He ran for 102 yards with a touchdown, his third 100-yard game of the season. He also was heavily involved as a receiver with six catches for 33 yards. With 135 yards from scrimmage, Robinson has eight games this season with more than 100 yards combined as a rusher and receiver, the second-most in the league. Tight end Kyle Pitts had no catches on only two targets. He has only six catches in the last four games after appearing to establish momentum for a big season with two seven-catch games in a span of three weeks in October. Morris noted the Falcons have “so many people that we've got to get the ball to” but noted he'd like to see Pitts more involved. Younghoe Koo's hip issues were such a concern that kicker Riley Patterson was signed to the practice squad on Friday and added to the active roster Saturday. Patterson was on the inactive list as Koo was good on two of three field goals, missing from 35 yards. Koo has made 21 of 29 attempts this season. He did not have more than five misses in any of his first five seasons with Atlanta. 70 — WR Drake London had nine receptions for 86 yards, giving him 70 catches for the season. London, a 2022 first-round draft pick, is the first player in team history with at least 65 receptions in each of his first three seasons. While Ray-Ray McCloud III led the team with a career-best 95 yards on four catches against the Chargers and Darnell Mooney has had some big games, London has been the most consistent receiver. The Falcons face a difficult test Sunday in their visit to Minnesota (10-2), which has five straight wins and is 5-1 at home. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nflA 7-year-old rivalry between tech leaders Elon Musk and Sam Altman over who should run OpenAI and prevent an artificial intelligence "dictatorship" is now heading to a federal judge as Musk seeks to halt the ChatGPT maker's ongoing shift into a for-profit company. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company earlier this year alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAI’s plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. The world's richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and social media platform X, last year started his own rival AI company, xAI. Musk says it faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which has supplied the huge computing resources needed to build AI systems such as ChatGPT. “OpenAI and Microsoft together exploiting Musk’s donations so they can build a for-profit monopoly, one now specifically targeting xAI, is just too much,” says Musk's filing that alleges the companies are violating the terms of Musk’s foundational contributions to the charity. OpenAI filed a response Friday opposing Musk’s requested order, saying it would “debilitate OpenAI’s business” and mission to the advantage of Musk and his own AI company and is based on “far-fetched” legal claims. A hearing is set for January before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California. At the heart of the dispute is a 2017 internal power struggle at the fledgling startup that led to Altman becoming OpenAI's CEO. Musk also sought to be CEO and in an email outlined a plan where he would “unequivocally have initial control of the company” but said that would be temporary. He grew frustrated after two other OpenAI co-founders said he would hold too much power as a major shareholder and chief executive if the startup succeeded in its goal to achieve better-than-human AI known as artificial general intelligence , or AGI. Musk has long voiced concerns about how advanced forms of AI could threaten humanity. “The current structure provides you with a path where you end up with unilateral absolute control over the AGI," said a 2017 email to Musk from co-founders Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman. “You stated that you don't want to control the final AGI, but during this negotiation, you've shown to us that absolute control is extremely important to you.” In the same email, titled “Honest Thoughts,” Sutskever and Brockman also voiced concerns about Altman's desire to be CEO and whether he was motivated by “political goals.” Altman eventually succeeded in becoming CEO, and has remained so except for a period last year when he was fired and then reinstated days later after the board that ousted him was replaced. OpenAI published the messages Friday in a blog post meant to show its side of the story, particularly Musk's early support for the idea of making OpenAI a for-profit business so it could raise money for the hardware and computer power that AI needs. It was Musk, through his wealth manager Jared Birchall, who first registered “Open Artificial Intelligence Technologies, Inc.,” a public benefit corporation, in September 2017. Then came the “Honest Thoughts” email that Musk described as the “final straw.” “Either go do something on your own or continue with OpenAI as a nonprofit,” Musk wrote back. OpenAI said Musk later proposed merging the startup into Tesla before resigning as the co-chair of OpenAI's board in early 2018. Musk didn't respond to emailed requests for comment sent to his companies Friday. Asked about his frayed relationship with Musk at a New York Times conference last week, Altman said he felt “tremendously sad” but also characterized Musk’s legal fight as one about business competition. “He’s a competitor and we’re doing well,” Altman said. He also said at the conference that he is “not that worried” about the Tesla CEO’s influence with President-elect Donald Trump. OpenAI said Friday that Altman plans to make a $1 million personal donation to Trump’s inauguration fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships with the incoming administration. —————————— The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP’s text archives. This story has been updated to correct the name of the company registered in 2017. It was Open Artificial Intelligence Technologies, Inc., not Open Artificial Technologies Technologies, Inc.
Time magazine gave Donald Trump something it has never done for a designee: a lengthy fact-check of claims he made in an accompanying interview. The accompanies a transcript of what the president-elect told the newsmagazine’s journalists. Described as a “12 minute read,” it calls into question 15 separate statements that Trump made. It was the second time Trump earned the Time accolade; he also won in 2016, the first year he was elected president. Time editors said it wasn’t a particularly hard choice over other finalists Kamala Harris, Elon Musk, Benjamin Netanyahu and Kate Middleton. Time said Friday that no other Person of the Year has been fact-checked in the near-century that the magazine has annually written about the figure that has had the greatest impact on the news. But it has done the same for past interviews with the likes of Joe Biden, Netanyahu and Trump. Such corrections have been a sticking point for Trump and his team in the past, most notably when ABC News did it with Democrat Kamala Harris this fall. There was no immediate response to a request for comment on Friday. In the piece, Time called into question statements Trump made about border security, autism and the size of a crowd at one of his rallies. When the president-elect talked about the “massive” mandate he had received from voters, Time pointed out that former President Barack Obama won more electoral votes the two times he had run for president. The magazine also questioned Trump’s claim that he would do interviews with anyone who asked during the campaign, if he had the time. The candidate rejected a request to speak the magazine said. “In the final months of his campaign, Trump prioritized interviews with podcasts over mainstream media,” reporters Simmone Shah and Leslie Dickstein wrote.None
Banks puts up 22 in UMBC's 84-71 win against Towson
1 Unstoppable Vanguard ETF I'm Stocking Up On in 2025A new venture aiming to connect AI services across platforms could transform everyday commerce by letting virtual shopping agents compare prices, schedule deliveries and handle customer service across multiple retailers and websites. The vision of /dev/agents, which just landed $56 million in funding at a $500 million valuation, points to a future where artificial intelligence (AI) helpers could independently manage tasks from restocking office supplies to scheduling home repairs — provided the startup succeeds in its ambitious goal of creating an operating system that lets different companies’ AI agents work together like apps on a smartphone. While tech giants like Microsoft and OpenAI are already rolling out specialized AI agents for tasks like healthcare scheduling and marketing, the lack of a common framework has limited their ability to coordinate across services. “If the system is open and allows seamless integration of tools, it could drive down costs by reducing duplication of effort and making it easier for businesses to adopt AI,” Kevin Baragona , founder of DeepAI , told PYMNTS. “For example, instead of paying for multiple disconnected AI services, businesses could manage everything under one unified platform. But if it becomes a closed ecosystem controlled by a few players, they might charge premium prices, locking smaller businesses out. It really hinges on whether it’s built to serve the whole industry or just the creators’ bottom line.” The startup, led by former Google VP David Singleton and other Android veterans, wants to create a foundation to let AI agents talk to each other. Right now, AI assistants from different companies work in isolation — imagine if apps on your phone couldn’t share information or work together. The operating system /dev/agents plans to build would work like Android does for mobile apps, providing the basic rules and tools that let different AI services coordinate their actions. For instance, if you’re shopping online, one company’s AI assistant could smoothly connect with others, handling shipping, customer service and payments across different stores. The hefty $56 million in startup funding suggests investors see this as a crucial piece of infrastructure for AI’s future. The AI Agent Surge Interest in AI agents is booming. OpenAI revealed “Operator,” an AI agent launching in January to tackle complex tasks. Microsoft’s Ignite 2024 showcased agents for automating customer returns and shipping. Anthropic debuted the Model Context Protocol, linking AI assistants to live data. Samsung is integrating ChatGPT into Galaxy devices, enhancing AI capabilities. Andrew Brooks , who runs the AI platform Contextual.io , told PYMNTS that AI agents are crossing a major threshold — moving beyond giving recommendations to making real-world decisions. His examples paint the picture: Instead of flagging angry customers for human review, AI agents can now read the situation across emails and chats and issue refunds directly. In warehouses, they don’t just predict inventory shortages — they place the orders themselves. The shift marks a fundamental change from AI that merely suggests solutions to systems that can independently execute complex business tasks. “A specific live example for our clients is an AI Agent that can automatically approve pricing based on a prediction of wage rates in a given location,” he said. “This spans local job data and a Salesforce quotation process. Because these AI Agents are automating actions that would otherwise at least require a human, the impact is a reduction in staff required to perform the same decision-making process. Note that it is less about the action itself (approving a quote is a simple step) but rather about advanced decision-making incorporating multiple data sources that are being eliminated.” As AI takes over more complex decisions, the debate shifts to who will shape how these tools work together. According to Andrey Meshcheryakov of consulting firm Recombinators , it will likely come down to one key question: Will major tech companies dominate the development of AI operating systems, or will open-source initiatives take the lead? He suggests that Big Tech firms could set the standards and use their vast resources and existing ecosystems to lock users into proprietary systems — much like how OpenAI has focused on consumer products. “However, open systems, like the microagent projects, could push for decentralized, collaborative frameworks,” he said. “The balance will hinge on market demand for openness versus convenience and the willingness of smaller players to rally around open standards.”
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A pair of conservative groups on Friday challenged a Maine law that limits donations to political action committees that spend independently in candidate elections, arguing that money spent to support political expression is "a vital feature of our democracy.” Supporters of the referendum overwhelmingly approved on Election Day fully expected a legal showdown over caps on individual contributions to so-called super PACs. They hoped the referendum would trigger a case and ultimately prompt the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify the matter of donor limits after the court opened the floodgates to independent spending in its 2010 Citizens United decision. The lawsuit brought by Dinner Table Action and For Our Future, and supported by the Institute for Free Speech, contends the state law limiting individual super PAC donations to $5,000 and requiring disclosure of donor names runs afoul of that Citizens United legal precedent. “All Americans, not just those running for office, have a fundamental First Amendment right to talk about political campaigns,” lawyers wrote in the lawsuit in federal court. “Their ‘independent expenditures,’ payments that fund political expression by those who are not running for office but nonetheless have something to say about a campaign, are a vital feature of our democracy.” Cara McCormick, leader of the Maine Citizens to End Super PACs, which pressed for the referendum, said the lawsuit attempts to undermine the will of the people after an overwhelming majority — 74% of voters — approved the referendum last month. “Super PACs are killing the country and in Maine we decided to do something about it. We want to restore public trust in the political process,” she said. “We want to say that in Maine we are not resigned to the tide of big money. We are the tide.” But Alex Titcomb, executive director of Dinner Table Action, argued Friday that the government “cannot restrict independent political speech simply because some voters wish to limit the voices of their fellow citizens.” Named in the lawsuit are Maine’s attorney general and the state’s campaign spending watchdog, the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices. The ethics commission is reviewing the complaint, said Jonathan Wayne, executive director. The Maine referendum didn’t attempt to limit spending on behalf of candidates. Instead, it focused on limits on individual donations to super PACS, an area the Supreme Court has not ruled on, observers say. Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig, a longtime advocate for campaign finance reform, contends the U.S. Supreme Court has not ruled on the issue of individual contributions to PACs, and long-established case law supports the notion that states can limit individual contributions to PACs despite a decision to the contrary by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Lessig, whose Equal Citizens nonprofit backed the Maine referendum, previously said the cap on donations imposed by the referendum "is not asking the Supreme Court to change its jurisprudence, not asking them to overturn Citizens United.”Founder of Go Daddy shares life, legacy in new bookSaturday, December 14, 2024 Turkish Airlines will be among the first carriers to operate from John F. Kennedy International Airport’s New Terminal One when it opens in 2026. The airline will also unveil an exclusive, state-of-the-art lounge for its premium passengers, a key part of its ongoing expansion at this major U.S. hub. The New Terminal One, set to be the largest international terminal in the U.S., promises world-class amenities and cutting-edge technology, ensuring a superior travel experience. This major terminal development is part of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s ambitious $19 billion overhaul of JFK Airport, which includes two new terminals, the modernization of existing ones, a new ground transportation center, and a streamlined roadway network for improved passenger flow. Currently operating 19 flights weekly between JFK and its Istanbul hub, Turkish Airlines will continue offering seamless connections to its global network from the new terminal. The airline’s 11,000-square-foot lounge will be twice the size of its existing space, featuring premium services, panoramic airfield views, and direct boarding access for business class passengers and top-tier frequent flyers. Recognized for its exceptional service, Turkish Airlines has recently earned the World Class Award from the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) for the fourth consecutive year, joining just 10 airlines worldwide to receive this honor. “We are thrilled to welcome Turkish Airlines to the New Terminal One at JFK, where their commitment to world-class customer service aligns perfectly with our mission to provide an unparalleled customer experience,” said The New Terminal One Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Aument. “We look forward to working closely with our colleagues at Turkish Airlines to elevate the travel experience for customers from 2026 and beyond.” Turkish Airlines Chairman of the Board and Executive Committee, Prof. Ahmet Bolat, expressed his enthusiasm for the airline’s new partnership with JFK’s New Terminal One: “We are thrilled to bring Turkish Airlines’ world-class service to this state-of-the-art facility, enhancing our passengers’ travel experience with a luxurious new lounge. This move highlights our ongoing commitment to expanding our presence in the U.S. market.” The New Terminal One has also secured partnerships with several leading global carriers, including Air France, KLM, Etihad, LOT Polish Airlines, Korean Air, EVA Air, Air Serbia, SAS, Neos, and Philippine Airlines. In addition, Air China is joining forces with the terminal to elevate the experience for Chinese visitors to New York. Focused on enhancing the overall customer journey, the New Terminal One aims to deliver a seamless and exceptional experience by collaborating closely with airline partners across all passenger touchpoints. Once complete, the terminal will be JFK’s largest and will significantly increase widebody aircraft gate capacity, offering international airlines a unique opportunity to expand their services at this premier global gateway to the U.S.
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