Latest news with #Goodger
NZ Herald
3 days ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
Watch out, Google: OpenAI's browser and its Kiwi creator are coming for Chrome
Operator, which is only available for those on a US$200 ($334) per month ChatGPT Pro account, handles 'repetitive tasks such as filling out forms, ordering groceries'. OpenAI has not commented. But we do know that Kiwi Ben Goodger is at or near the centre of its plans. Comet is here. A web browser built for today's — Perplexity (@perplexity_ai) July 9, 2025 After creating several core features for Netscape (kids, ask your parents), he was the lead developer for the Firefox browser in the 2000s, from his new home base of San Francisco. After moving to Google, where he would become a vice-president, Goodger co-founded the team who created the Chrome web browser that would knock Microsoft's Internet Explorer off its perch. Google Chrome's Kiwi creator, Ben Goodger, has posted about joining OpenAI, but – riffing on the Apple TV series Severance – will only say his work for the ChatGPT maker is "mysterious and important'. Images / Ben Goodger, Open AI A few months ago, Goodger jumped ship to ChatGPT maker OpenAI, where he is listed simply as a 'member of technical staff' – a job description so intensely nondescript that it screams secret. Goodger posted to social media: 'I'm thrilled to be working at the frontier of technology, helping to develop products that benefit everyone!' How exactly? It's still under wraps. Goodger wouldn't comment. On X, formerly Twitter, he posted a screengrab from Apple TV series Severance with the caption 'The work is mysterious and important'. Is it a Chrome-killer? We'll see over the next few weeks. Two AI browsers have just hit the market. They can 'see' what's on your screen, in various browser tabs, by taking screenshots then interacting with content. The Browser Company's AI-powered web browser, Dia, being used to summarise a 20-minute YouTube video in which several products were compared. Image / New York Times One is from AI start-up Perplexity, which features its own search engine and AI assistant. With a US$200 per month subscription required, reviews have been thin on the ground. ZDNet found Comet Assistant is context-aware, able to reference open tabs for research, summarise content inline – without you having to switch browser tabs or to a chatbot app – and answer questions about web pages without copy-pasting. 'This is especially useful for tasks such as comparing products across sites or analysing information on the fly ... [but] Like all LLMs [large language models], Perplexity still frequently gets facts wrong. Always, always double-check its responses,' ZDNet said. And the New York Times recently reviewed a second newcomer, Dia – from a start-up called the Browser Company. While AI bots like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude require opening a separate tab or app and pasting in content, Dia's web browser integrates its chatbot – so you can ask questions about a website's content without leaving your current browser tab. Dia can pull tricks like summarising a 20-minute video, so you don't have to watch it. The New York Times used it to shortcut a clip that compared various products. The new browser performed well. But there's no unique AI. Instead, Dia works with several LLMs. Dia is currently free, but Apple-only (a Windows version is coming) and there's a waitlist. The firm says it will ultimately charge for a range of versions costing between US$5 and 'hundreds of dollars per month'. Why all the monthly subscription charges from the start-ups (and the top-tier versions of LLMs from OpenAI, Microsoft, Google and other Big Techs)? Searches via Google Chrome are cheap to run and bring in hundreds of billions of revenue as punters click on search ad links (Google's highly-profitable search ad business had US$237 billion in revenue last year). AI queries are a lot more power-intensive, which makes them much more expensive to run, with self-contained answers. King of the artificial intelligence hill OpenAI lost money on a reported US$10b revenue last year. Someone's got to pay the bills. There are other possible twists. Google is facing an antitrust case brought by the US Department of Justice. During an initial hearing in May, both OpenAI and Perplexity said they were open to buying Chrome, if that formed part of a settlement or court-mandated outcome. And Apple, which is already adding AI smarts to its Safari web browser and is unencumbered by the need for search ad revenue, has in turn been reportedly sniffing around Perplexity. Beam me down Beam Mobility e-scooters have been spotted this month. Is the beleaguered rideshare operator making a comeback? Last year, Beam was kicked out of Auckland and several other Australasian cities after breaching licence terms. In Auckland, it put hundreds more scooters on the city's streets than its licence allowed, according to the council. The council referred Beam's conduct to the police. The police told the Herald it was a civil matter and sent it back in the council's court. An Auckland Council spokeswoman told Tech Insider today: 'The council was offered a settlement, which we declined.' The amount Beam offered was not disclosed. The cash settlement offer was made in January. On July 2, Beam said it has reached a preliminary agreement to merge with a second Singapore-owned e-scooter rental operator, Neuron – and it was a Neuron warehouse where Beam e-scooters were recently spotted. A merger can be a way back on to a city's streets. After being exiled over glitches and its inadequate response, Lime returned to Auckland after it was merged with Jump (both players had a common major investor, Uber; Lime subsequently won a licence in its own right). But while Neuron has at times operated in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin, it does not currently hold a licence in any New Zealand city. The back door is shut. ComCom boss takes to Uber on LinkedIn Commerce Commission John Small has taken to LinkedIn to recommend people 'switch' to Uber rivals Bolt or Didi to 'be kind to your driver', whom he says will get a bigger clip of the ticket. Uber is fighting, in the Supreme Court, to overturn a 2022 Court of Appeal ruling that classified four drivers as employees. Bolt recently launched in NZ against Uber and Didi. In his post, Small says Uber has a higher 'tax' (taking a bigger cut of the fare) but also - perhaps ironically - boosts one of the pro-Uber talking points by reiterating a point made earlier by the Herald that the tech giant's contractor-only arrangement provides new market entrants with a readymade pool of drivers. And here's one from me: Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald's business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
Daily Mirror
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Lauren Goodger shares huge milestone after suffering severe trauma and anxiety
ITVBe's The Only Way Is Essex star Lauren Goodger has teased a return to the reality show with a trip overseas for the first time since the tragic death of her second daughter Lauren Goodger has confirmed she will be travelling abroad for the first time in five years soon as she joins the cast of The Only Way is Essex on a filming trip to Portugal. The 37-year-old reality star, who rose to fame on the 2010 series of the ITVBe show, shared the news about this personal milestone on Instagram. Goodger posted a glam selfie to her story, gushing: "I am going on my first TOWIE away trip to Portugal very soon!! My first TOWIE trip in 10 years – I'm so excited! This is a huge deal for me but this is the perfect timing. "I've not been away on holiday abroad in five years, due to my severe trauma and anxiety. However, the TOWIE bosses are who I feel most comfortable with to be going abroad to help with this." The reality star was last spotted abroad in 2019, when she was photographed on holiday in Marbella. Her decision to join the cast overseas has come after a difficult few years that were marked by personal traumas such as the tragic loss of her second daughter, a serious accident, and ongoing mental health struggles. In July 2022 Goodger's second child tragically died two days after being born. Lauren has spoken publicly about the profound impact Lorena's death had on her, describing herself as a "grieving mother" and regularly sharing how the experience has affected her mental health. The TV personality currently shares her three-year-old daughter Larose with ex-partner Charles Drury. In May last year she was left in a state of panic when the girl came down with a virus, leaving Lauren unable to sleep for three nights out of fear that she would lose Larose, too. She described the incident as "three days and three nights of hell", telling followers: "I am full of anxiety when my baby is not well. In constant fear of the worst." In May 2024, Goodger also revealed she had been involved in an accident where she tripped and fell in the middle of a busy road. The incident left her with multiple injuries and made her decide to take a break from social media. "Today I had a horrible accident. Got seven wounds on my body," she wrote at the time in a concerning Instagram post. "Luckily the cars stopped and I sat in the road while strangers came to help me." The former TOWIE star later said that the fall happened during a week when she was very emotionally distressed after being triggered by several personal issues and ongoing anxiety. She described her mental state at the time as "running on empty" and said she was struggling to sleep through the night and felt emotionally exhausted. Thankfully Goodger seems to be healing from these painful experiences now, and has spoken about using exercise and therapy to help her recover from the trauma of losing her daughter.
Al Etihad
29-04-2025
- Business
- Al Etihad
UAE to remain a top travel destination through 2030
30 Apr 2025 00:12 MAYS IBRAHIM (DUBAI)The UAE is expected to remain among the top destinations for travel and tourism spending in the Middle East through 2030, according to new projections unveiled at the Arabian Travel Market 2024 in 2025 ATM Trends Report data presented by Dave Goodger, Managing Director for EMEA at Tourism Economics, shows that the UAE and Saudi Arabia are set to exceed $50 billion in total travel expenditure by the end of the decade. Both countries are also forecast to witness sustained growth across all travel segments - including leisure, business, and inbound UAE is on track to achieve annual growth rates of 9% in business travel spending and 5% in both leisure and inbound travel through the end of the decade, the report Middle East's tourism volume will more than double from 2019 levels by 2030, Goodger said, citing Tourism Economics than 85% of the region's tourism growth over the next five years will come from international visitors, he added. Younger, Wealthier Travellers Outbound travel from the Middle East is also booming. Travellers from the GCC have one of the highest propensities globally to travel abroad, with average outbound trip durations of 7.6 nights - well above the global average of travellers also spend more per day, with the region becoming a vital source market for destinations worldwide, from Morocco and Turkey to Thailand and the key driver of this growth in the region is the rise of younger, wealthier travellers with a high appetite for luxury and authentic experiences, according to travellers are significantly more likely to use advanced technology such as AI chatbots and travel planning tools, he to 60% of UAE travellers now rely on AI for all aspects of their trip planning - a figure much higher than the global average. Growth Drivers Goodger also noted that cultural and entertainment events, including concerts, festivals, and major sporting competitions, are attracting tourists to the travel, particularly the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) sector, is also seeing rapid growth, he like the ATM itself – which last year generated $2.5 billion in business deals and welcomed 45,000 attendees – demonstrate the strong ROI such gatherings bring to key enablers of the tourism surge in the region include technology and pointed out that Gulf carriers account for 12% of all global aircraft orders – a figure that far exceeds the region's share of international air restrictive visa policies could boost visitor numbers from some markets by up to 40%, he cruise sector is also seeing growth, which bolsters regional connectivity. Goodger noted that Middle East ports are expected to record more than 300,000 cruise visits in 2025. The report's data shows that Dubai and Abu Dhabi enjoy the highest share of regional passenger days in the Middle East.
