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The logo of telecoms giant Orange displayed at Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona, Spain.

Joan Cros | Nurphoto via Getty Images

French telecoms giant Orange on Tuesday said it’s partnering with Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Facebook-owner Meta to build custom artificial intelligence models designed to better understand regional African languages.

Orange said it’s working with OpenAI and Meta to develop custom AI models built on their respective Whisper and Llama open-source AI models — openly available systems that can be adapted to meet specific needs — that can understand West African languages not understood by most conversational systems.

Currently, much of the data major AI companies train their algorithms on originates in the United States, which means their models can lose important context, such as culture and language, when it comes to different regions like Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

That means it can be hard for those models to understand text and voice-based communications composed in less well-represented languages, according to Steve Jarrett, Orange’s chief AI officer.

“Having an open model, you’re able to do what’s called fine tuning, where you you introduce additional information to the model that wasn’t included when it was first trained,” Jarrett told CNBC in an interview. “We’re adding the recognition of West African regional languages that are not understood today by any AI.”

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Orange plans to start by rolling out AI models that incorporate two West African regional languages, Wolof and Pulaar, which are spoken by roughly 16 million people and six million people, respectively, in early 2025.

Wolof is a language spoken in Senegal, the Gambia and southern Mauritania, while Pulaar is mostly spoken in Senegal.

The open-source AI models will be provided externally by Orange with a free license for non-commercial uses including public health and education, the company said. Orange plans to expand its custom AI model initiative to eventually cover all 18 West African countries.

“We’re operating in West African countries where a lot of these regional languages are being spoken in our contact centers, but where the current AI models don’t understand what these people are typing or saying,” Jarrett told CNBC.

Major large language models like OpenAI’s GPT, Meta’s Llama and Anthropic’s Claude aren’t well suited to Africans’ needs as they weren’t trained specifically on data originating from the region, according to Orange’s AI chief.

‘Sovereign AI’ push

The term refers to the idea that individual countries and regions should seek greater control over the core technological infrastructure upon which AI systems are built, by localizing data storage and processing to ensure they represent specific languages, culture and history.

Orange is also looking to localize data processing and the hosting of OpenAI’s models in European data centers. This, Orange said, will give it early access to OpenAI’s latest and most advanced AI models and help it build new applications such as AI-powered voice systems for customer service.

Jarrett said Orange is committing to using AI “responsibly” and “not always using the massive, large language model [LLM] for every problem” given environmental concerns associated with the technology’s huge energy requirements.

In addition to using AI systems to improve customer service, Orange is also using the tech to improve a core part of its business: mobile networks.

“On the network side, we use [AI] to not only optimize how we plan the network, but also how we operate the network right,” Jarrett told CNBC.

“The volume of data is so large coming from all the network equipment that with AI systems, we can help identify those patterns in the data that could help us identify and predict failures even before the customer notices.”

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Crypto stocks tumble on Tuesday as investors go into risk-off mode

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Crypto stocks tumble on Tuesday as investors go into risk-off mode

The Coinbase logo is displayed on a mobile phone screen with stock market percentages in the background.

Idrees Abbas | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Crypto stocks suffered on Tuesday as investors fled tech stocks and riskier corners of the market.

Among crypto exchanges, Coinbase and eToro fell more than 5% each, while Robinhood and Bullish both dropped more than 6%. Crypto financial services firm Galaxy Digital dropped 11%. In the burgeoning sector of crypto treasury firms, Strategy lost 7%, SharpLink Gaming slid 8%, Bitmine Immersion slumped 12% and DeFi Development tumbled 15%. Stablecoin issuer Circle lost 5%.

Meanwhile, the price of bitcoin pulled back nearly 3% to just over $113,000. Ether was down more than 4% to the $4,100 level, according to Coin Metrics.

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Bitcoin over the past day

Investors appeared to rotate out of tech names on Tuesday. The sector had seen a boost last week as traders weighed the prospect of more interest rate cuts. Also, bitcoin touched an intraday all-time high near $125,000 last week.

On Tuesday, the Nasdaq Composite was down more than 1%, weighed down by declines in Nvidia and other tech heavyweights.

The crypto market tends to be vulnerable to moves in tech stocks due to their growth-oriented investor base, narrative-driven price action, speculative nature and tendency to thrive in low-interest rate environments.

This week, investors are watching the Federal Reserve’s annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo. for clues around what could happen at the central bank’s remaining policy meetings this year. If Fed Chair Jerome Powell signals more dovish policy could be ahead, crypto may bounce.

“With Powell speaking at Jackson Hole, we typically see profit-taking ahead of his remarks,” said Satraj Bambra, CEO of hybrid exchange Rails. “Any time there’s communication uncertainty from the Fed, you can generally expect some profit-taking as traders de-risk their positions.”

Crypto stocks have had a solid run in recent months — thanks to the addition of Coinbase in the benchmark S&P 500 index, the successful IPO of Circle and the GENIUS Act stablecoin framework becoming law. However, investors expect a pullback in August and through the September Fed meeting, where they hope to see central bank policymakers implement rate cuts.

Don’t miss these cryptocurrency insights from CNBC Pro:

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Lutnick says Intel has to give government equity in return for CHIPS Act funds

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Lutnick says Intel has to give government equity in return for CHIPS Act funds

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick: Intel has to give gov. equity in return for CHIPS funding

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday that Intel must give the U.S. government an equity stake in the company in return for CHIPS Act funds.

“We should get an equity stake for our money,” Lutnick said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “So we’ll deliver the money, which was already committed under the Biden administration. We’ll get equity in return for it.”

Shares of the struggling chipmaker climbed 7% Tuesday, continuing to rally on recent reports that the Trump administration is weighing different ways to get involved with the company.

Bloomberg reported Monday that the White House was discussing a 10% stake in Intel, in a deal that could see the U.S. government become the chipmaker’s largest shareholder.

Intel and SoftBank announced on Monday that the Japanese conglomerate will make a $2 billion investment in the chipmaker. The investment, equal to about 2% of Intel, makes SoftBank the fifth-biggest shareholder, according to FactSet.

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Lutnick said any potential arrangement wouldn’t provide the government with voting or governance rights in Intel.

“It’s not governance, we’re just converting what was a grant under Biden into equity for the Trump administration, for the American people,” Lutnick said. “Non-voting.”

Intel declined to comment.

Lutnick also suggested that President Donald Trump could seek out similar deals with other CHIPS recipients.

Intel said last fall that it had finalized a nearly $8 billion grant from the law to build its factories. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. was awarded $6.6 billion under the legislation to boost chip fabrication at its Arizona facilities.

US President Joe Biden, second left, tours the site of the new Intel semiconductor manufacturing facility near New Albany, Ohio, US, on Friday, Sept. 9, 2022.

Gaelen Morse | Bloomberg | Getty Images

‘Silicon Heartland’

Trump has called for more reshoring of U.S. manufacturing to reduce the country’s reliance on companies like Samsung and TSMC to manufacture chips.

Intel has been spending billions near Columbus, Ohio, to build a series of chip factories that the company previously called the “Silicon Heartland.” Intel has said that the factory complex would be able to produce the most advanced chips, including AI chips.

But in July, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in a memo to employees that there would be “no more blank checks,” and that it was slowing down the construction of its Ohio factory complex, depending on market conditions.

The first factory is now scheduled to start operations in 2030.

The Ohio factory was one of the most public projects funded by the CHIPS and Science Act, which became law in 2022. The law committed the U.S. government to fund chip development and research and was estimated to cost about $53 billion.

“The Biden administration literally was giving Intel for free, and giving TSMC money for free, and all these companies just giving them money for free,” Lutnick said. “Donald Trump turns that into saying, ‘Hey, we want equity for the money. If we’re going to give you the money, we want a piece of the action.’ “

Intel has struggled to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom in advanced semiconductors and has spent heavily to stand up a manufacturing business that’s yet to secure a significant customer. Intel tapped Lip-Bu Tan to be its CEO in March after his predecessor, Pat Gelsinger, was ousted in December.

Tan met with Trump at the White House last week after the president called for his resignation, alleging he had ties to China.

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Intel 5-day stock chart.

— CNBC’s Kif Leswing contributed to this report.

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Apple reportedly ups iPhone production in India as country’s Russia ties roil White House

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Apple reportedly ups iPhone production in India as country's Russia ties roil White House

Treasury Secretary Bessent: India is profiteering from Russian oil

Apple has reportedly boosted iPhone production in India as the country faces pressure from the White House over its Russian oil purchases.

“We have planned to up the tariffs on India,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday. “These are secondary tariffs for buying the sanctioned Russian oil.”

Bessent accused India of “profiteering” by purchasing cheap Russian oil and reselling it during the Ukraine war, “which is unacceptable.”

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump hiked tariffs on India to 50%. The president said in July that he would impose secondary tariffs “at about 100%” on Russia’s trading partners if a peace deal isn’t reached with Ukraine by September.

His comments came as Bloomberg reported that technology giant Apple has reportedly upped production at five of its factories in India as it readies for the launch of its new iPhone 17 models.

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The expansion includes some new plants and factories belonging to the Tata Group and contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn Technology, according to the report, citing people familiar with the matter. Apple is also looking to create a new iPhone 17e in India next year, according to the report.

In recent years, Apple has shifted more production to India as it looks to reduce its reliance on China, especially in the wake of recent trade tensions.

Data from Canalys in May estimated that iPhone shipments from India to the U.S. grew 76% in May as trade restrictions loomed.

At the same time, Apple has committed to investing over $600 billion in the U.S. over the next four years to improve American manufacturing production.

That includes a $100 billion spending expansion this month, which included a $2.5 billion investment to expand iPhone glass maker Corning’s production.

This commitment to building in the U.S. should put Apple in the clear on India-related tariffs.

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