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ILLUSTRATION BY ALBERT RODRIGUEZ It’s been six months since President Marcos was sworn into office. If we liken Mr. Marcos’ six-year term to the well-loved game of basketball, we are now in the second half of the first of six games. The first half of Game 1 was filled with many challenges. A Pulse Asia survey last September 2022 showed that the top concerns of Filipinos are controlling inflation, increasing the pay of workers and creating more jobs. Unfortunately, these continue to burden Filipinos into halftime of Game 1. Before the first “game” ends on June 30, 2023, we’d like to share some of the administration’s notable wins during its first six months and some reflections on how to sustain the fight against these challenges. Wins First among Mr. Marcos’ wins is the appointment of credible and experienced economic managers. This means that we have a strong team to overcome the pandemic’s lingering effects on the economy. Second, several executive actions were made … [Read more...] about Reflections on Marcos’ 1st 6 months

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) services have become increasingly popular as a payment method for online shopping and even travel, and major players are creeping into the world of health care. But while breaking up medical bills can provide some short-term relief, critics worry about the lack of protections in the BNPL industry and the threat of overextending patients' budgets. Key Takeaways BNPL services can break up payments into installments over the course of six weeks or longer. The approach can make medical bills feel more manageable for patients, but it can still overextend their finances. Critics also worry about the lack of consumer protections offered by BNPL services compared to traditional financial products. BNPL Services Present an Inexpensive But Complicated Alternative to Pay Medical Bills BNPL services like Afterpay, Affirm, and Sezzle offer consumers the chance to pay off online purchases, travel, and other major purchases over time. In some cases, … [Read more...] about Buy Now, Pay Later Firms Entering the Health Care Space

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin They’re all closed. Movie Theaters. Bars. Nightclubs. Arenas. Cafes. In New York, Broadway and museums are shuttered. In San Francisco it’s even more dire. Across the country and the world, cities are shutting down, leaving humans from Seattle to Shanghai without traditional ways of finding distraction. The mandate for social distancing that has proven essential at slowing the spread of the coronavirus will cut about $12 billion of entertainment revenue from the U.S. if the shutdown lasts until July, as President Trump signaled . Billions more are not being spent on creating new content as film and television production is frozen. Things could get a lot worse. “ This is definitely unprecedented and turning everyone's lives completely upside down,” says Ryan Borba, managing editor at concert tracker Pollstar. The concert and live event industry brought in $34 billion last year, according to … [Read more...] about Coronavirus Could Be A $12 Billion Hit To Entertainment And Audiences May Never Be The Same

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The government of Pakistan has blocked access to Wikipedia from within the country over so-called “sacrilegious content,” according to the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that oversees the website and its community-edited content. Pakistan asked Wikipedia to either block or remove “sacrilegious” and “blasphemous” content from the online encyclopedia, though it’s not yet clear what content the government found objectionable. “As of Friday, February 3, our internal traffic reports indicate that Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects are no longer accessible to users in Pakistan,” the Wikimedia Foundation said in a statement published online late Friday . The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) announced on its website on Wednesday that it had “downgraded” Wikipedia, meaning the online encyclopedia was running incredibly slow for anyone trying to access it in Pakistan. The PTA said the downgrading would remain in … [Read more...] about Pakistan Blocks Wikipedia Over ‘Sacrilegious Content’

Larry Page (Image: Reuters) Last month, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google’s founders, held several meetings with company executives. The topic: a rival’s new chatbot, a clever A.I. product that looked as if it could be the first notable threat in decades to Google’s $149 billion search business. Mr. Page and Mr. Brin, who had not spent much time at Google since they left their daily roles with the company in 2019, reviewed Google’s artificial intelligence product strategy, according to two people with knowledge of the meetings who were not allowed to discuss them. They approved plans and pitched ideas to put more chatbot features into Google’s search engine. And they offered advice to company leaders, who have put A.I. front and center in their plans. The re-engagement of Google’s founders, at the invitation of the company’s current chief executive, Sundar Pichai, emphasized the urgency felt among many Google executives about artificial intelligence and that chatbot, … [Read more...] about Google calls in help from Larry Page and Sergey Brin for A.I. fight

Microsoft Microsoft Corp on Wednesday rolled out a premium Teams messaging offering powered by ChatGPT to simplify meetings using the AI chatbot that has taken Silicon Valley by a storm. The premium service will cost $7 per month in June before increasing to $10 in July, Microsoft said. OpenAI-owned ChatGPT will generate automatic meeting notes, recommend tasks and help create meeting templates for Teams users. Microsoft, which announced a multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI earlier this month, has said it aims to add ChatGPT's technology into all its products, setting the stage for more competition with rival Alphabet Inc's Google. The chatbot, which can produce prose or poetry on command, is at the forefront of generative AI, a space where more and more big tech companies are funneling their resources in. Read More ChatGPT on Wednesday announced a $20 per-month subscription plan, which will let subscribers receive access to faster responses and … [Read more...] about Microsoft rolls out ChatGPT-powered Teams Premium

Representative image The Indian fintech ecosystem is perhaps the most unique in the world, with hyperscale payment infrastructure, thriving lending innovations, digitally savvy banks, and market-driven open-banking frameworks. This has helped the country achieve a scale of unheard levels — 71 billion digital payment transactions, Rs 11.8 trillion lent to retail and SME customers, and 55 million active neobank (online bank) accounts. The Indian fintech ecosystem has broken the barriers of language, location, and illiteracy. Fintech firms have helped onboard new-to-credit as well as sub-prime customers. Jan Dhan and neobanking are helping ensure that every citizen has access to banking. A case in point is the high penetration of UPI. Earlier, Indian fintech would imitate developments abroad, but now the reverse has begun. With a focus on speed, cost, and scalability, homegrown innovations like UPI, the India stack, and lending frameworks have become global benchmarks. Indian … [Read more...] about The Indian fintech ecosystem is setting global benchmarks