Things To Do In SW Florida

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer sentiment fell slightly in May for the fifth straight month, surprising economists, as Americans increasingly worry that President Donald Trump’s trade war will worsen inflation.

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The preliminary reading of the University of Michigan’s closely watched consumer sentiment index, released Friday, declined 2.7% on a monthly basis to 50.8, the second-lowest level in the nearly 75-year history of the survey. The only lower reading was in June 2022. Since January, sentiment has tumbled nearly 30%. read more

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS and MICHAEL LIEDTKE, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Fortnite says it’s now unavailable on Apple’s iOS globally because the tech giant blocked a bid to rerelease the popular video game for iPhone users in the U.S. and Europe.

“Apple has blocked our Fortnite submission so we cannot release to the U.S. App Store or to the Epic Games Store for iOS in the European Union,” Epic Games-owned Fortnite wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, early Friday — claiming that Apple’s move would now prevent the game’s iOS availability around the world.

“Sadly, Fortnite on iOS will be offline worldwide until Apple unblocks it,” Fortnite said.

In a statement sent to The Associated Press, Apple said it had specifically asked Epic Sweden to resubmit the app update “without including the U.S. storefront of the App Store so as not to impact Fortnite in other geographies.” But, the company added, it “did not take any action to remove the live version of Fortnite from alternative distribution marketplaces.” read more

Falcon’s Beyond Global, an attractions and experiences developer, has completed the purchase of Oceaneering Entertainment Systems, a designer of ride systems.

Both businesses are based in Orlando and have been in operation for more than two decades.

“We started our companies almost simultaneously. We opened our doors in downtown Windermere more than 25 years ago,” said Cecil D. Magpuri, CEO and co-founder of Falcon’s Beyond. Collaboration with OES began within months, he said.

“We had this opportunity to now leverage 25 years of history of Oceaneering Entertainment Systems and their capabilities of creating some of the most profound and innovative attractions to be now merged into Falcon’s Beyond and our specific division of Falcon’s Attractions of which we’re known for developing attractions ourselves as well,” Magpuri said.

“This has basically boosted and accelerated that growth of our Falcon’s Attractions division and expanded its reach with client base and capabilities,” he said. read more

By MATT O’BRIEN, Associated Press Technology Writer

Much like its creator, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok was preoccupied with South African racial politics on social media this week, posting unsolicited claims about the persecution and “genocide” of white people.

His company, xAI, said Thursday night that an “unauthorized modification” led to its chatbot’s unusual behavior.

That means someone — the company didn’t say who — made a change that “directed Grok to provide a specific response on a political topic,” which “violated xAI’s internal policies and core values,” the company said.

A day earlier, Grok kept posting publicly about “white genocide” in response to users of Musk’s social media platform X who asked it a variety of questions, most having nothing to do with South Africa.

One exchange was about streaming service Max reviving the HBO name. Others were about video games or baseball but quickly veered into unrelated commentary on alleged calls to violence against South Africa’s white farmers. Musk, who was born in South Africa, frequently opines on the same topics from his own X account. read more

By MATT O’BRIEN

Much like its creator, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok was preoccupied with South African racial politics on social media this week, posting unsolicited claims about the persecution and “genocide” of white people.

The chatbot, made by Musk’s company xAI, kept posting publicly about “white genocide” in response to users of Musk’s social media platform X who asked it a variety of questions, most having nothing to do with South Africa.

One exchange was about streaming service Max reviving the HBO name. Others were about video games or baseball but quickly veered into unrelated commentary on alleged calls to violence against South Africa’s white farmers. Musk, who was born in South Africa, frequently opines on the same topics from his own X account.

Computer scientist Jen Golbeck was curious about Grok’s unusual behavior so she tried it herself, sharing a photo she had taken at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show and asking, “is this true?” read more