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It has been reported that Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, who have been engaged in a war of nerves, even sparking the ‘hyeonpi’ controversy, are now competing for collaboration with an AI chatbot company.

The British daily Financial Times (FT) reported on the 25th that Meta, the parent company of Facebook run by Zuckerberg, and xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) startup, are competing for collaboration with ‘Character.AI’. local time) reported. Character.

AI is a company founded in 2021 by Noam Sherzier, a former researcher at Google Brain, Google’s deep learning AI research team. It is an AI chatbot service that uses large language models (LLM) to provide conversations with various people and is gaining popularity among young Americans. It also received support from Andreessen Horowitz, a leading venture capital firm in Silicon Valley.

According to the FT, four people familiar with the matter said that Meta recently held initial discussions about a partnership with Character.AI. Multiple officials also mentioned that Character.AI had conducted similar discussions with Musk’s xAI. However, it has been reported that discussions between the companies have not yet led to an agreement.

FT pointed out that the interest in Character.AI clearly shows the recent trend in which tech companies are pursuing collaboration and investment with AI startups to develop cutting-edge technologies. In September of last year, Meta created a so-called ‘AI Persona’ chatbot that applied the personalities of celebrities and made it available on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.

xAI developed its own chatbot ‘Grok’ and provided it to premium subscribers of X (formerly Twitter). It is known that discussions on collaboration with Character.AI are focused on expanding research rather than acquisition. This is because big tech companies are hesitant to attempt to acquire AI startups due to the impact of global regulatory measures.

For example, Microsoft’s (MS) and OpenAI’s $13 billion collaboration was investigated by U.S. and European competition authorities over whether it was a merger or acquisition, despite both parties’ denials. In addition to Character.

AI, Meta is known to have discussed strategic partnerships with Open AI and Adept, a startup created by Google AI developers. Regarding the FT report, Character.AI and Meta declined to comment, and Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan reiterated his position against Israel on the 19th (local time) against a large-scale attack on Rafah, Gaza Strip. The White House reported in a press release that Sullivan met with Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and held a Strategic Consultative Group (SCG) meeting with Israel.

At the SCG, Advisor Sullivan discussed with Israel ways to defeat Hamas while minimizing civilian casualties and reaffirmed President Joe Biden’s long-standing position on Rafah. He also reaffirmed the need for Israel to link its military operations with political strategy. Previously, President Biden has repeatedly expressed his opposition to a large-scale military attack on Rafah, where 1 million Palestinians are sheltering.

Sullivan also proposed a series of concrete steps for Israel to send more aid to Gaza through all possible channels, the White House said. He also discussed measures to establish mechanisms to ensure the safety of Gaza activists and fixed channels for humanitarian assistance in Gaza, respectively. Previously, Aide Sullivan met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi de facto leader, in Saudi Arabia the day before and discussed the issue of concluding a mutual defence treaty.

The Saudi state-run SPA news agency reported the previous day that the two sides discussed the ‘just before finalization’ stage of the draft defence treaty. The White House said that Sullivan briefed Prime Minister Netanyahu and others on the “potential that could be helpful not only to Israel but also to the Palestinian people.” In this regard, CBS reported, citing sources, that the United States and Saudi Arabia are expected to complete the agreement within a few days.

The United States is pursuing the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia as part of the Middle East peace plan, including the Palestinian issue, and Saudi Arabia has requested that the United States sign a defence treaty as a condition for normalizing relations.

President Joe Biden, who is running for re-election in the November presidential election, criticized former Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant remarks at an Asian Pacific American event on the 13th. President Biden mentioned former President Trump at an event held at the White House on this day to commemorate ‘Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month’ and said, “While we fight for comprehensive immigration system reform, he “They are calling me a rapist and a murderer,” he said. “He (former President Trump) said, ‘They are not people, and they are polluting the blood of America,’” he said. “My predecessor wanted a country for only some of us. We want an America for all of us.” emphasized.

President Biden said, “There has been a continued conflict of values and vision in the United States,” and criticized former President Trump again for pursuing “revenge and retaliation.” “We are making history together,” he said, citing the signing of a bill establishing a committee to consider establishing a National Museum of Asian and Pacific American History and Culture in 2022.

During his congratulatory address, President Biden personally called Cristeta Comerford, a Filipino American who was promoted to White House chef in 2005 under President George W. Bush, to the podium and publicly praised her. He added, “She’s amazing,” and joked, “In fact, when I first came (to the White House), I was 20 pounds (about 9 kg) lighter.”

Chinese American actress Lucy Liu attended the event. In his congratulatory address, he said his son was confident in his identity, adding, “This is surprising given the contrast with my own childhood, when I distanced myself from my heritage in order to feel a stronger sense of belonging.”

As competition in the search market heats up with the advent of generative artificial intelligence (AI), the market share of Google, the world’s largest search engine company, fell slightly, while Microsoft (MS) rose. According to Stat Counter, a global web traffic analysis site, on the 5th, Google’s global search market share as of last April was 90.91%.

This is a drop of about 2 percentage points (1.91 percentage points) from a year ago (92.82%) and 0.47 percentage points lower than last March (91.38%), a month ago. Compared to May of last year (93.11%), which had the highest market share over the past 12 months, it fell by 2.20 percentage points. Although Google still holds more than 90% of the search market share, its dominance has decreased slightly. On the other hand, Microsoft’s search engine Bing’s market share in April was 3.64%, up nearly 1% from a year ago (2.76%).

Yahoo’s search share was 1.13%, unchanged from April last year (1.11%). In the US search market, changes in market share were more evident. Google’s market share in April this year was 86.58%, down 2.3 percentage points from a year ago (88.88%). Most of Google’s decline was absorbed by MS Bing. Microsoft’s market share rose 2 percentage points from 6.43% to 8.24% during the same period, taking one step closer to 10%. Yahoo rose slightly from 2.33% to 2.59%. Since the advent of OpenAI’s ChatGPT,

MS has quickly incorporated it into its search engine, challenging the search market dominated by Google. In addition, in the ‘search antitrust lawsuit’ filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against Google, it is seeking to reorganize the market by defending the government’s claim that Google is illegally dominating the market. MS CEO Satya Nadella appeared as a witness in a trial held in October last year and expressed concern that allowing Google’s illegal monopoly in the search market could strengthen Google’s dominance in the AI market.

Reuters and CNN reported on the 26th that Republic First Bank, a local bank, was closed and sold to another bank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said Pennsylvania-based Fulton Bank will acquire substantially all of the deposits and assets of Philadelphia-based Republic First Bank. Previously, Pennsylvania state financial authorities closed Republic First Bank.

The FDIC took merger and acquisition actions against this bank to protect depositors. The bank faced a crisis due to management difficulties, including withdrawing from the mortgage (home loan) business early last year due to rising costs and worsening profitability.

As of the end of January, the bank’s total assets were about $6 billion, and deposits were $4 billion. Republic First Bank was the first bank to fail in the U.S. this year, raising concerns about the soundness of local banks again.

In the first half of last year, three local banks, including Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank, went bankrupt, and in November of the same year, Citizens Bank of Iowa and others went bankrupt. Last month, international credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Global downgraded the rating outlook for five U.S. regional banks, including First Commonwealth Financial, from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ due to concerns about commercial real estate (CRE) insolvency.

The Associated Press reported that in Tennessee, on Saturday the 20th, a shooting occurred in a park where a village festival was being held, killing at least two people, and injuring six others. Police in Memphis, southeastern Tennessee, said they received a report of gunfire at a park where a festival was being held at around 7:19 p.m. on this day, and that multiple casualties were found at the scene. Police said at a press conference, “Two people died instantly, and one of the injured is in critical condition.”

At the time of the incident, about 200 to 300 residents were gathering in the park and holding a festival, and prior permission from the city authorities was not obtained, the police added. It was not immediately known whether the criminal had been arrested.

There is a tense standoff between sexual minority groups, who say that the rights of transgender minors in California must be guaranteed, and parental rights, which require parents to know in advance about their children’s gender transition plans. The conflict between parents and sexual minority groups began when sexual minority minors were involved. It started with students changing their gender and changing their gender titles. The Chino School District required parents to be notified immediately when students change their gender identity on campus, but the court blocked that measure.

As the debate continues over the rights of teenagers and their parents’ right to know, surrounding the gender identity issue of teenagers. A proposal to expand the right to know of sexual minority parents is being promoted. The gist of the child protection initiative, called the ‘Protect Kids of California Act’, is that schools must notify parents if a minor student wishes to change gender.

Additionally, male-to-female male-to-female youth athletes are banned from participating in female sports games, transgender students are banned from using restrooms of the gender they are transitioned into, and students who wish to transition from gender to child are prohibited from performing physical examinations without parental consent. They are protesting against it, saying it is an invasion of students’ privacy. They pointed out that in many cases, sexual minority students want to hide the fact that they are sexual minorities even from their families, but parents’ right to know forces sexual minority students to come out.

The Korean community in Southern California is actively campaigning for signatures for a child protection bill, saying that the right to know of sexual minority parents must be protected, and the Korean missionary group TEXT is taking the lead. Sara Kim, CEO of the group Text, said that currently in California, children under the age of 18 are It is possible for adolescents to change their gender without parental consent, but it has too many side effects, and pointed out that California law needs to be changed.

In order to put a child protection initiative that guarantees parents’ right to know up for election, it is necessary to secure signatures from residents, and in a recent signature campaign, Although the response was low, many Koreans wishing to sign the child protection initiative to the election said there were many invalid votes and requested that they check the relevant information to avoid invalid votes. T

he deadline for the proposition to be included in the November election is May 5. It has been extended to the 28th of February. The Korean missionary group TEXT announced that it will continue to collect signatures at LA’s Hannam Chain and Zion Market for the next five weeks.

President Joe Biden additionally announced a plan to cancel student loan debt, one of his major pledges ahead of the November presidential election. President Biden announced a new student loan forgiveness plan in a speech on the 8th in Madison, Wisconsin, a battleground state for the presidential election, on the topic of ‘lowering the cost of living for Americans.’

According to this, those earning less than $120,000 per year ($240,000 or less for married couples combined) will have up to $20,000 of interest accumulated due to failure to repay loans on time be forgiven. In addition, through various other measures, the debt of more than 4 million people will be completely written off, and the debt of 10 million people will be reduced by at least $5,000. In addition, a plan to cancel the debt of borrowers who have repaid loans for more than 20 years (more than 25 years for graduate school) was also included in the plan announced by President Biden on this day.

The decision was made to ease the burden of student loans even in cases where a university suddenly closes, a student loses eligibility to participate in the federal student loan program, or a student is unable to repay student loans due to high other costs such as medical expenses and childcare.\

In addition, loans can be forgiven according to the already announced policy, but debts of borrowers who do not apply for this are automatically forgiven. It is estimated that the number of beneficiaries from this forgiveness plan will reach at least 23 million. Additionally, the White House explained that if beneficiaries of the forgiveness plan previously announced by the Biden administration are included, the debt burden of a total of more than 30 million borrowers can be reduced.

In his speech, President Biden diagnosed, “Too many Americans today, especially young people, are saddled with unsustainable debt in exchange for a college degree, and paying off student loans has become too burdensome for working- and middle-class people.” President Biden then pointed out that the burden of student loan repayment ultimately hinders the economy by acting as a burden on marriage, childbirth, home purchase, and starting a business.

At the same time, President Biden emphasized, “We will not stop cancelling student loan debt for hard-working Americans,” and added, “That is good for our economy.” President Biden’s student loan forgiveness is evaluated as considering the votes of young voters, such as those in their 20s and 30s who have just graduated from college and still have a lot of loans, and people of colour.

President Biden won the 2020 presidential election over former President Donald Trump based on the full support of young people and people of colour, but public opinion has shown that their support for Biden has decreased significantly compared to four years ago ahead of the rematch with Trump in November. It has been shown in the survey.

The White House said it expects this policy to greatly help blacks and Latinos, saying they tend to take out more loans and fail to repay their loans than white people. The New York Times assessed that if President Biden succeeds in implementing the new plan before the November presidential election, it could help win the support of voters who were greatly disappointed by the failure of President Biden’s first attempt to cancel student loan debt.

In August 2022, President Biden announced a policy to waive up to $20,000 of student loan debt for households with an annual income of less than $125,000 ($250,000 for married couples). However, in June of last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the president did not have the legal authority to do so, and about 4 million people received benefits until the policy was suspended. Since then, President Biden has been seeking ways to eliminate student loan debt to the extent legally permitted.

The NYT reported that only part of the new plan is expected to be implemented before the presidential election, and that the Republican Party, which has opposed student loan forgiveness, may file another lawsuit.

Amid growing concerns about the killing of Palestinian civilians, it has been reported that the U.S. government will soon approve the largest amount of weapons support to Israel since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas. Citing multiple officials, CNN reported on the 1st that the Biden administration has decided on a policy to sell 50 F-15 fighter jets to Israel and plans to request related approval from Congress soon. The sales volume is $18 billion, the largest since the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas.

The U.S. government reportedly plans to notify Congress of new sales of large-scale precision-guided munitions to Israel. CNN said, “The United States’ decision to sell cutting-edge weapons was made amid growing criticism of Israel over the killing of civilians in the Gaza Strip. Even Biden administration officials are raising voices of criticism about Israel’s killing of civilians.”

According to Gaza health authorities, more than 32,000 Palestinians have died in Israeli attacks to date. Since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 last year, the United States has continued to sell more than 100 weapons to Israel. Most of these were promoted privately without approval from Congress. The reason was that it was not subject to congressional approval because it did not exceed a certain amount. The Biden administration also recently approved providing Israel with 1,800 2,000-pound MK84 bombs and 500 500-pound MK82 bombs.

A plan to provide Israel with weapons worth $2.5 billion, including 25 F-35A fighter jets and engines, was also approved. There is a strong possibility that strong opposition will be raised in Congress regarding the sale of the F-15 fighter jet.

In particular, it is expected that criticism will boil down to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, the ruling party of President Joe Biden. Democratic lawmakers are weighing the argument that Israel should limit arms support before expanding humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. President Biden has voiced opposition to Israel’s all-out attack on Gaza, but he has continued to fully support Israel since the outbreak of war.

For this reason, President Biden had to face a serious division of supporters within the Democratic Party, mainly among Middle Easterners, progressives, and young people, ahead of the presidential election in November. In fact, in some primaries (primary elections) where many Arabs live, including in Michigan, a large number of votes were poured in saying ‘no candidate supported’ as a sign of opposition to President Biden.

All public schools in Washington state will teach LGBTQ+ history to students as a regular subject in accordance with the related law (SB-5462), which Governor Jay Inslee signed into effect on the 18th. Public schools already teach historical perspectives on marginalized groups, such as Native American tribes and blacks under slavery, but this is the first time that this education explicitly includes sexual minorities.

SB-5462, a bill passed by the state Legislature this year, requires all school districts to adopt “diverse, equitable, inclusive and age-appropriate” curriculum to teach the history and perspectives of underrepresented groups. Senator Marco Rias (D-Edmonds), who introduced the bill, pointed out that homosexuals also deserve to be recognized for their contributions and that homosexual students have the right to be proud in school life, and that under this law, the attendance rate and grades of sexual minority students will be reduced.

He emphasized that this would improve, and the overall quality of life will also improve.

Washington State becomes the 7th state in the country to teach LGBT-related subjects in public schools, following six states including California, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, and Oregon. As this law goes into effect, the Washington State Association of Public-School Districts, with the cooperation of the State Superintendent of Education’s Office, will complete preparatory work such as drafting an education policy for sexual minority subjects, setting curriculum for each grade, and adopting related textbooks by June next year, and then 10 It must be reflected in existing policies before March.

SB-5462 was passed in both the Senate and House of Representatives with all Republican lawmakers opposing it. Republican and conservative groups argued that each school district and parents have the authority to decide what to teach their students, and that this bill infringes on their rights.