💲 Tax change impacts small businesses

Plus: Microsoft's Copilot AI technology, TikTok faces divestment, and more…

Mar 17, 2023

Today’s pick

Small Businesses Face Big Tax Bills From Research-Deduction Change. Laura Lynn Gonzalez expected a tax refund this year, after her two-employee data-visualization company experienced a $30,000 loss. Instead, she said, she is facing a $100,000 federal tax bill that is about as large as her 2022 salary. Ms. (Richard Rubin / Wall Street Journal)

Richard Rubin @RichardRubinDC

New from me: Congress is at a stalemate over research tax deductions, and it’s wreaking havoc in small businesses, with some facing tax bills that far exceed their actual profits.

wsj.comSmall Businesses Face Big Tax Bills From Research-Deduction ChangeA piece of the 2017 tax law requiring companies to spread deductions for research costs over five years instead of taking them immediately is going into effect now, leaving some small firms owing the IRS outsize amounts.

Microsoft tries to justify AI's tendency to give wrong answers by saying they're 'usefully wrong. Microsoft debuted ChatGPT-like features dubbed Copilot that will eventually come to its business apps like Word and Excel. Current AI technologies like ChatGPT can often produce inaccurate responses, and some technologists are fretting over the… (Jonathan Vanian / CNBC)

Jonathan Vanian @JonathanVanian

Microsoft tries to justify AI's tendency to give wrong answers by saying they're 'usefully wrong'

cnb.cxMicrosoft tries to justify A.I.‘s tendency to give wrong answers by saying they’re ‘usefully wrong’Current AI technologies like ChatGPT can often produce inaccurate responses, which presents a problem as Microsoft adds AI to Word, Excel, and other products.

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TikTok nears the endgame. After months of silence, and a multi-billion-dollar effort from ByteDance to avoid this scenario, the Biden administration is picking up where its predecessor left off: attempting to force the company to divest itself of TikTok in the name of… (Casey Newton / Platformer)

Casey Newton @CaseyNewton

There are good reasons to force the divestiture of TikTok from ByteDance — but it could come at a very high cost, especially if China won't agree to a sale. I tried to sort through my very mixed feelings: platformer.news/p/tiktok-nears…

One, it will prove hugely disruptive to thousands of Americans who now make their living, either in whole or part, as TikTok creators. Two, it eliminates a huge amount of speech — including political speech — from the internet.

Three, it will massively benefit YouTube and Meta, delivering them billions in advertising revenue and millions of new users at the same time the government’s antitrust enforcers are working to reduce the size of those giants.

Four, it seems likely to further splinter the internet, as more governments threaten to ban foreign apps in the name of national security, whether they have been found to pose a legitimate risk or not. (What’s to stop India, which banned TikTok before anyone else, to ban Facebook or Twitter on similar grounds? What if that serves as a pretext for suppressing internal dissent?)

Pornhub owner sold to Canadian private equity firm. MindGeek acquired by Ethical Capital Partners for undisclosed sum We'll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest MindGeek news every morning. MindGeek, one of the world's largest and most controversial porn companies and the parent… (Patricia Nilsson / Financial Times)

Financial Times @FinancialTimes

MindGeek, one of the world’s largest and most controversial porn companies and the parent company of Pornhub, has been acquired by Ethical Capital Partners, a newly set up Canadian private equity firm

on.ft.comSubscribe to read | Financial TimesNews, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication

Microsoft announces Copilot: the AI-powered future of Office documents. Microsoft is announcing a new AI-powered Copilot for its Microsoft 365 apps and services today, designed to assist people with generating documents, emails, presentations, and much more. The Copilot will sit alongside Microsoft 365 apps much like… (Tom Warren / The Verge)

Tom Warren @tomwarren

Microsoft has just unveiled Copilot, the AI-powered future of Office and Microsoft 365. This is a big deal and will change the way we create documents, presentations, and organize meetings. Full details here: theverge.com/2023/3/16/2364…

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