Samsung Electronics expects its profits for the three months to June 2024 to jump 15-fold compared to the same period last year. An artificial intelligence (AI) boom has lifted the prices of advanced chips, driving up the firm's forecast for the second quarter. The South Korean tech giant is the world's largest maker of memory chips, smartphones and televisions. The announcement pushed Samsung shares up more than 2% during early trading hours in Seoul. The firm also reported a more than 10-fold jump in its profits for the first three months of this year. In this quarter, it said it is expecting its profit to rise to 10.4tn won ($7.54bn; £5.9bn), from 670bn won last year. That surpasses analysts' forecasts of 8.8tn won, according to LSEG SmartEstimate. "Right now we are seeing skyrocketing demand for AI chips in data centers and smartphones," said Marc Einstein, chief analyst at Tokyo-based research and advisory firm ITR Corporation. Optimism about AI is one reason for the broader market rally over the last year, which pushed the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq in the United States to new records on Wednesday. The market value of chip-making giant Nvidia surged past $3tn last month, briefly holding the top spot as the world's most valuable company. "The AI boom which massively boosted Nvidia is also boosting Samsung's earnings and indeed those of the entire sector," Mr Einstein added. Samsung Electronics is the flagship unit of South Korean conglomerate Samsung Group. Next week, the tech company faces a possible three-day strike, which is expected to start on Monday. A union of workers is demanding a more transparent system for bonuses and time off.

In the past few weeks of anti-government activities in Kenya, AI tools have been creatively used by protesters to serve protests. According to the US "Flag" News Agency on July 5, protests in Kenya triggered by the 2024 fiscal bill are still continuing. In the past few weeks, Kenyan protesters, mainly young people, have creatively developed a series of AI tools to assist anti-government activities. The Kenyan government expressed concern about the risks associated with the use of AI tools in protests. Kelvin Onkundi, a software engineer in Kenya, developed the "Fiscal Bill GPT", which operates similarly to ChatGPT and can receive questions about the fiscal bill and generate responses. Martin Siele, a reporter from the "Flag" News Agency, analyzed: "The 'Fiscal Bill GPT' can convert professional terms in many legislative fields into easy-to-understand information for protesters, helping Kenyans understand the potential impact of the fiscal bill." Another software engineer, Marion Kavengi, developed the "SHIF GPT" to provide Kenyans with information about the upcoming Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF). In addition to AI tools designed to help people understand controversial policies, protesters have also developed "Corrupt Politicians GPT" to assist protest demonstrations. After entering the name of a politician on the platform, the platform will generate a list of corruption scandals about the politician in chronological order. Developer BenwithSon wrote on the social platform X on June 28: "'Corrupt Politicians GPT' allows people to search for any scandal related to any politician. I have seen some leaders stand at the forefront of the political arena, but they are corrupt behind the scenes." Kenyan Chief Minister and Foreign Minister Mudavadi issued a communiqué to ambassadors of various countries in Nairobi on July 2 local time on protests and relevant government measures, expressing concerns about the use of AI and false information in protests. Mudavadi said: "AI technology is used by people with ulterior motives, which will fill the global information system with false narratives." The Kenya Times reported on June 30 that AI technology enables people to force the government to increase transparency and strengthen accountability, and its role in Kenyan political activities is becoming increasingly prominent. Martin Siller believes that AI is reshaping African political behavior in many ways. AI is a new tool for both governments and opposition parties in Africa, but Kenya is one of the African countries with the most developers, and its young protesters are particularly good at using AI technology to fight the government. The 2024 fiscal bill voted and passed by the Kenyan National Assembly on June 25 clearly stated that additional taxes will be levied to repay the interest on high sovereign debt, triggering large-scale demonstrations. After President Ruto announced the withdrawal of the tax increase bill on the evening of the 26th, demonstrations in many parts of Kenya continued. According to Reuters on July 3, Kenyan anti-government protesters are re-adjusting their activities to prevent the protests from turning into violent incidents.

On June 27, the U.S. Space Command announced that a retired Russian satellite disintegrated in low Earth orbit on June 26, generating more than 100 pieces of debris, forcing astronauts on the International Space Station to hide for about an hour. The X-platform account of the International Space Station showed that shortly after 9 p.m. Eastern Time on June 26, NASA instructed the crew on the space station to hide in their respective spacecraft for safety because NASA learned in the morning of the 26th that a satellite disintegrated near the space station. About an hour later, the crew was allowed to leave the spacecraft and the space station resumed normal operation. There are rumors on social platforms that the satellite hit six U.S. GPS satellites after the disintegration and damaged 20 Starlink satellites developed by Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) led by Musk, triggering speculation that the relevant satellites were deliberately disintegrated.

As a major city in the United States and even the global film industry, Hollywood has gathered a large number of veteran film and television production companies, including Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Disney Pictures, MGM Pictures, etc. In addition, new streaming forces such as Netflix have also entered in recent years. When the new generation of technology represented by generative AI sweeps the world, the movie "dream factory" is also experiencing a transformative moment. In early May last year, the US film and television industry launched a series of strikes that lasted for five months. Two labor disputes, led by the Writers Guild and the Screen Actors Guild, have caused the worst industry disruption since the 2020 pandemic, forcing many film projects and TV shows to halt or delay production. The strike has been costly, with Kevin Klowden, chief global strategist at the Milken Institute think tank, estimating it has cost the U.S. economy more than $5 billion, affecting not only film and television production companies, but also surrounding service industries such as catering, trucking and dry cleaning. One of the main conflicts between labor and management is that many actors and screenwriters have expressed concerns about "unemployment" due to the "invasion" of artificial intelligence. Luo Chenya has been working in the film and television industry for more than 10 years, including scriptwriter, documentary photographer and assistant director. She told the first financial reporter that after ChatGPT became popular, she also tried to use chatbots to assist script creation. "I can talk to the AI about my ideas and ideas, and it will help analyze and refine my ideas, and even make some suggestions that I think are quite effective." But on the execution level, the idea of writing it down into a very specific scene, character action, it doesn't really help me." Luo Chenya said that AI still needs more training and evolution in script writing, but the ability to present images is amazing. "AI can directly generate images, which can indeed save labor to a great extent, and may even replace photographers in the future." In post-production, AI can beautify images and modify flaws." A place to be fought over Earlier this year, OpenAI released the Vincennes video model Sora on its website, which can create videos up to a minute long, generating complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of movement, and precise theme and background details. In addition to being able to generate video from text, the model can also generate video from still images, precisely animating the image content. "Vincennes Video can quickly produce high-quality video content, greatly improving production efficiency, and generative AI helps to improve the analysis of user preferences and personalized recommendations, and enhance the attractiveness of content." These technologies will disrupt traditional video production and content distribution models, and media companies need to adapt and change their operating models." Wang Haoyu, CEO of Mairui Asset Management, said in an interview with the first financial reporter. For this reason, Hollywood giants have long made big bets and stepped up their layout.

Apple is planning to revamp its smartwatch as its 10th birthday nears. The improvements include larger displays and thinner builds, Bloomberg reported. The revamped watches may also get a new chip, which could enable some AI enhancements. The Apple Watch is about to turn 10, so Apple is planning a birthday revamp, including larger displays and thinner builds, Bloomberg reported. Both versions of the new Series 10 watches will have screens similar to the large displays found on the Apple Watch Ultra, the report said. The revamped watches are also expected to contain a new chip that may permit some AI enhancements later on. Last month, Apple pulled back the curtain on its generative-AI plans with Apple Intelligence. Advertisement It hopes the artificial-intelligence features will prove alluring enough to persuade consumers to buy new Apple products. The announcement has been generally well received by Wall Street. Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities wrote in a Monday note that the "iPhone 16 AI-driven upgrade could represent a golden upgrade cycle for Cupertino." "We believe AI technology being introduced into the Apple ecosystem will bring monetization opportunities on both the services as well as iPhone/hardware front and adds $30 to $40 per share," he added. Apple's stock closed on Friday at just over $226 a share, up 22% this year and valuing the company at $3.47 trillion. That puts it just behind Microsoft, which was worth $3.48 trillion at Friday's close. The tech giants have been vying for the title of the world's most valuable company in recent months — with the chipmaker Nvidia briefing claiming the crown last month. Apple also announced some software updates for the watch at its Worldwide Developers Conference last month. The latest version of the device's software, watchOS 11, emphasizes fitness and health, introducing tools that allow users to rate workouts and adjust effort ratings. WatchOS 11 will also use machine learning to curate the best photos for users' displays. Apple has previously used product birthdays to release new versions of devices. The iPhone X's release marked the 10th anniversary of the smartphone. However, it's not clear exactly when Apple plans to release the revamped watches, Bloomberg said. The company announced the Apple Watch in September 2014, with CEO Tim Cook calling it "the most personal product we've ever made." Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment made outside normal working hours.