Sony Group reported a strong quarter ending September 30, with its semiconductor unit reaching an operating profit of nearly $900 million, up almost 50 percent year-over-year as the company’s most profitable segment for the quarter. The music group was another bright spot, with sales up 21 percent to $3.51 billion, and operating income a healthy $749 million. Consumer electronics and gaming were softer sectors. But overall revenue of $20.14 billion far surpassed the expected $19.36 billion, prompting Sony to raise its forecast by 3 percent. The company also announced a repurchase plan for $648 million worth of stock. Read more

Sony AI has introduced the Fair Human-Centric Image Benchmark (FHIBE, pronounced “Fee-bee”), a new global benchmark for fairness evaluation in computer vision models. FHIBE addresses the industry challenge of identifying biased and ethically compromised training data for AI, aiming to trigger “industry-wide improvements for responsible and ethical protocols throughout the entire life span of data — from sourcing and management to utilization — including fair compensation for participants and clear consent mechanisms,” Sony AI says. The FHIBE dataset is publicly available now, following publication in the science journal Nature. Read more

Amazon announced yesterday that its Prime Video service is introducing location-based interactive video advertisements in the U.S., allowing local businesses to reach target audiences in specific areas. The ad unit, Interactive Video Ads (IVA), will help advertisers customize national TV commercials with location-specific content such as local pricing and nearest business details based on state data and ZIP codes. The new format, expected to intensify the growing competition between streaming services and broadcasters, is part of a larger effort to bring more small businesses and local buyers to CTV. It also arrives as major streamers, including Prime Video, are pursuing new models such as pause ads. Read more

Amazon Music announced a new beta feature called “Fan Groups” that enables users to build their own communities for sharing information and opinions about their favorite music genres and artists. The feature, testing now in Canada on iOS and Android, encourages music fans to listen to songs shared within the groups and interact via chat threads and user posts, while driving new music discovery in the process. Artists will also have the ability to join groups, providing an opportunity to share exclusive content and interact directly with their fans. “The new destination transforms music listening into an interactive community for fans without having to leave the app,” explains Amazon. Read more

Microsoft has laid out an ambitious plan to develop its own AI superintelligence as it moves to separate its artificial intelligence plans from those of OpenAI, the startup it has financed to the tune of $13 billion, an investment valued at $135 billion following OpenAI’s restructuring as a for-profit public benefit company structure. Microsoft has reorganized to concentrate internal AI efforts under a unit called the MAI Superintelligence Team led by group CEO Mustafa Suleyman. MAI will work towards “Humanist Superintelligence (HSI): incredibly advanced AI capabilities that always work for, in service of, people and humanity more generally,” Suleyman says. Read more