Business

Bubble tea — which classically includes tapioca balls and comes in a wide range of flavours, with or without milk — has gained huge popularity in China (Jade Gao/barrons.com)  HANGZHOU — Sweet, milky and colorful — bubble tea is wildly popular in China, where people sipping through straws from large …

The majority of Canada’s electricity comes from hydropower, and 2023 was a bad year. In Quebec, The public utility’s reservoir levels fell far below average last year, during an unusually hot and dry year across the country, raising concern about the reliability of hydroelectricity in the face of climate change.  …

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Leading generative artificial intelligence (AI) developers OpenAI and Anthropic have agreed to give the US government access to their new models for safety testing as part of agreements announced on Thursday. The agreements were made with the US AI Safety Institute, which is part of the National …

WASHINGTON, D.C. — iPhone juggernaut Apple is in talks to invest in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT and the biggest name in generative artificial intelligence (AI), a news report said on Thursday. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company founded by Steve Jobs is at the funding table as …

SAN FRANCISCO, California — The world’s biggest AI companies are releasing new usage data showing significant growth as competition in the generative artificial intelligence sector heats up. The pressure to show that ChatGPT-style AI chatbots are being adopted by the wider public is significant given the huge costs of delivering …

Tokyo Smoke is the latest Canadian cannabis retailer to close some of its locations and seek creditor protection in an unpredictable industry grappling with too many stores, high overhead costs and ultra-low retail prices. Tokyo Smoke shutters 29 stores, seeks credit protection in latest cannabis shakeup Got a light? Canada’s …

TOKYO — Core inflation in Japan’s capital accelerated for a fourth straight month in August, data showed on Friday, tracking comfortably above the central bank’s 2-percent target and backing market expectations of more interest rate hikes ahead. The Tokyo core consumer price index, which excludes volatile fresh food costs, rose …

SAN FRANCISCO, California — Artificial intelligence (AI) behemoth Nvidia on Wednesday said quarterly sales reached a higher-than-expected $30 billion in the last quarter, though that growth was slower than the furious pace seen in previous quarters. Declared by Wall Street to be the world’s most important stock, the California-based AI …

Photo Credit: Bloomberg TOKYO — Japan’s Kirin Holdings has secured enough shares to take over supplement maker Fancl, its new president said, overcoming rival buying by an overseas fund and furthering the beermaker’s transition into health care. Takeshi Minakata, who rose to the top role in the company in March, …

Photo Credit: Reuters HP forecast fourth-quarter profit below Wall Street estimates and cut its expectations for the year on Wednesday, owing to choppy demand in the personal computers market and competitive pricing, even though revenue grew after more than eight quarters. Shares of the PC maker fell 3.7 percent in …