Seeking Alpha’s roundup of statements, announcements, and remarks that could impact the technology sector.
- Meta (NASDAQ:META) has unveiled an AI chatbot called Business AI aimed at helping companies offer customers more personalized recommendations and speedier transactions.
“We are going beyond ads and beyond Meta to help businesses drive impact across their customer experiences and customer operations,” said Clara Shih, Meta’s head of business AI, during a press briefing, according to CNBC.
In addition to Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, Business AI can also be used on company websites powered by Shopify (SHOP).
- Taiwanese Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun said her country won’t agree to a U.S. proposal that half of the chips Taiwan manufactures for the U.S. market be manufactured in the U.S.
Cheng, who is also serving as Taiwan’s chief trade negotiator, told reporters late Wednesday that the proposal, which was suggested by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, wasn’t even discussed during the latest round of trade talks. Instead, the talks focused on lowering tariffs and exempting certain goods from tariff stacking, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.
The news outlet added that the Executive Yuan, Taiwan’s executive branch, issued a statement on Wednesday stating that the proposal “goes against Taiwan-U.S. supply chain cooperation.”
The current U.S. “reciprocal” tariff rate on goods imported from Taiwan is 20%.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) is a leading chip manufacturer for the U.S. market.
- Perplexity AI is making its AI-powered Comet web browser available worldwide for free.
The browser was first launched in July to the company’s Perplexity Max subscribers for $200 per month. The product competes against AI-powered web browsers developed by Anthropic, which is backed by Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet’s Google (GOOG) (GOOGL); OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft (MSFT); and Google, according to CNBC.
Perplexity’s investors include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Nvidia (NVDA), and Databricks.
In August, Perplexity made a bid to buy Alphabet’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Google Chrome browser for $34.5 billion.