Things To Do In SW Florida

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

By ALAN SUDERMAN

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange based in the U.S., said Thursday that criminals had improperly obtained personal data on the exchange’s customers for use in crypto-stealing scams and were demanding a $20 million payment not to publicly release the info.

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  Recent Central Florida bankruptcies

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Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a social media post that criminals had bribed some of the company’s customer service agents who live outside the U.S. to hand over personal data on customers, like names, dates of birth and partial social security numbers.

“(The stolen data) allows them to conduct social engineering attacks where they can call our customers impersonating Coinbase customer support and try to trick them into sending their funds to the attackers,” Armstrong said. read more

Hospitality

Anne Fischer was appointed chief marketing officer for Schulte Hospitality Group.

Law

Declan McGinty has joined the law firm of Fisher Rushmer, P.A., Orlando, as an associate.

Utilities

Luz Aviles was appointed vice president of marketing and new products for the Orlando Utilities Commission.

Jenise Osani was appointed vice president of customer experience and sales for the Orlando Utilities Commission.

Other

Abel Pomar was appointed chief executive officer of Christian Care Ministry, Melbourne.

Submit professional appointments, management-level promotions and significant awards for individuals, along with photos as .jpg attachments, to peopleonmove@orlandosentinel.com.

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press

Business travel to the U.S. fell 9% in April as companies and workers grappled with economic uncertainty and anger over the Trump administration’s tariffs and border policies.

The National Travel and Tourism Office released preliminary figures Thursday showing the number of airline and ship passengers who entered the country last month using business visas.

The Middle East was the only region that saw higher business travel to the U.S., with arrivals up 9.4% compared to April 2024. But that didn’t make up for big losses from other regions; the number of business travelers from Western Europe fell 17.7%, for example.

The new government data didn’t include people coming from Canada for business or who traveled by land from Mexico. Mexican arrivals by air for those holding business visas were down 11.8%, the government said.

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National Guard helicopter crew landed on Montana ranch and trespassed to take antlers, citations say read more

Chapter 7

Central Florida individuals and businesses that have filed for liquidation under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code include:

DT Diesel LLC, 4550 Colony Road, New Smyrna Beach. Filed: May 8. Assets: $4,350. Liabilities: $146,039. Major creditors: TD Bank, Lewiston, Maine, $80,000; U.S. Small Business Administration, Fort Worth, Texas, $66,000; Florida Power & Light, Miami, $39. Creditors meeting: June 10.

TNLG LLC doing business as Nemetz Roofing, 215 Cessna Blvd., Port Orange. Filed: May 9. Assets: $274,190. Liabilities: $608,362. Major creditors: Altus Receivables Management, Itasca, Ill., $183,100; Samson MCA LLC, Pomona, N.Y., $142,000; American Builders & Contractors Supply Co., St. Petersburg,  $102,005. Creditors meeting: June 11.

Chapter 11

Central Florida individuals and businesses that have filed for reorganization and protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code include:

American Forklift Rental & Supply LLC, 5387 LB McLeod Road, Orlando. Filed: May 8. Assets: $1,280,342. Liabilities: $890,938. Major creditors: Florida Department of Revenue Bankruptcy Unit, Tallahassee, $35,000; Orange County Tax Collector, Orlando, $18,000. Creditors meeting: June 9. read more