Can Microsoft show AI’s potential upside for its business? | Amazon axes $1.4B iRobot acquisition

Some of the downsides of artificial intelligence have come into clearer focus for Microsoft recently. Can the Redmond tech giant show AI’s potential upside for its business??The quarterly report Tuesday afternoon by Satya Nadella & Co. will be the first to reflect initial sales of Microsoft 365 Copilot, the company’s flagship AI tool for businesses. Here’s what analysts are expecting from the company.

• It’s part of a big week for tech earnings. Amazon, Apple, Alphabet and Meta are also slated to report their quarterly results .?

Amazon terminates iRobot deal: The $1.4 billion acquisition of the Roomba maker was getting pushback from regulators in the European Union. In a statement, Amazon called out “undue and disproportionate regulatory hurdles.” Read more .

Seattle-area startup makes ad splash in San Francisco: Bellevue, Wash.-based Statsig , which?builds tools to help product teams experiment with new features,?is doing some experimenting away from home. The company is buying up billboards in SF to show that Seattle startups have reach beyond the Pacific Northwest. Read more.

On a new episode of the GeekWire Podcast, our guest is someone who is experimenting every day with AI, pushing the capabilities of emerging tools and technologies: Kevin Leneway , principal software engineer at the Pioneer Square Labs startup incubator in Seattle. He has also developed an AI tool of his own, a coding assistant dubbed JACoB .?

• Read more and listen here , and subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , Spotify or wherever you listen.

Pandemic-fueled shutdowns, labor shortages, supply-chain issues, and more managed to rock and nearly sink Zin Boats Inc. But now the Seattle startup is recharging plans for its high-performance electric speed boat. GeekWire reporter Kurt Schlosser stopped by the company’s headquarters in Seattle, which has a growing electric boating scene. Above, Zin Boats President and COO David Donovick , left, and founder and CEO Piotr Zin . Read more .

Nominations open for 2024 GeekWire Awards: The annual event returns to Seattle’s Showbox SoDo on May 9, honoring the leading entrepreneurs, innovators, deal makers and non-profit leaders across more than a dozen categories. Cast your ballot and get your table reserved today!

Hot Links:

• Amazon Prime Video shows and movies now have commercials — unless you pay more money to make them go away. (The Verge )
• Jeff Bezos still works at his original Amazon door desk, where “countless hours of hard work meet the heart of Day One,” as fiancèe Lauren Sanchez put it. (Instagram )?
• Chess Club, the grassroots phenom profiled in GeekWire in 2022, continues to fill Seattle bars with beginner and expert players. (Seattle Met )
• “We can grow new life after we’ve died”: Katrina Spade , founder of Seattle human composting startup Recompose , on what inspired her to start the company. (Crosscut )

• Brian Heywood , a hedge fund manager who manages investments in Japanese companies, is pouring millions of dollars into initiatives that aim to repeal Washington state laws related to the capital gains tax, a climate law, and more. (Seattle Times )

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