What to expect from Amazon earnings | New nonprofit plans political deepfake detector

Xbox is bigger than Windows | $85M in Zulily inventory and assets up for grabs ADVERTISEMENT [GeekWire]( SPONSOR MESSAGE: Nominations are open for the 2024 GeekWire Awards: [Submit nominations now for the 2024 GeekWire Awards, taking place May 9th at the Showbox Sodo in Seattle.]( TODAY'S TOP STORIES Political disinformation wasn’t on Oren Etzioni’s personal to-do list of AI problems to solve until he participated in a meeting with President Biden and other tech leaders last summer. But the University of Washington professor and former Allen Institute for AI CEO came out of that session with a new calling. Etzioni is leading a new, nonpartisan nonprofit called TrueMedia, backed by Uber co-founder Garrett Camp, that is developing an AI tool to detect deepfake videos, photos, and audio. [Here’s how TrueMedia plans to address the problem](. - Related story: [The impact of AI and deepfakes on politics is worrying misinformation researchers]( Xbox is bigger than Windows. No, this isn’t some alternative technology universe, it’s [the reality in Redmond]( after the acquisition of video-game giant Activision Blizzard added more than $2 billion in quarterly revenue to the Microsoft Gaming business. See the numbers for yourself in our fancy chart above, and catch up on Microsoft’s earnings [in this recap](. - More from Microsoft’s earnings: The company [added 12,000 employees last quarter]( according to our calculations, based on comments from Microsoft CFO Amy Hood. But again, that was due to Activision. And it was before [the recent cuts](. - Did you catch Satya Nadella [on NBC Nightly News]( That was just part of the interview. Extended clips with Lester Holt and the Microsoft CEO can be seen [here]( and [here]( – including Nadella declining to say if Russian hackers infiltrated his email. - And speaking of Microsoft history, we recently resurrected a classic GeekWire Podcast episode, featuring members of the original Excel team, from the purgatory of our external backup drive at the urging of [a tech history aficionado](. You can [listen here](. Amazon earnings preview: Analysts will be watching growth rates from the company’s cloud and advertising businesses; potential impact from [faster shipping times]( and updates related to generative AI, [which was the big theme]( at the AWS re:Invent conference in November. [Read more](. Block layoffs hit workers in Washington: The fintech company co-founded by Jack Dorsey is laying off 43 workers in the state as part of deeper cuts at the Square and Cash App parent. [Read more.]( - Layoff tracker: [GeekWire’s list of tech job cuts in the Pacific Northwest.]( Want a conveyor belt? More than $85 million in assets from Zulily will be sold, including various products like clothes as well as warehouse equipment. It’s part of a wind-down process for the one-time Seattle stalwart that collapsed last year. [Read more](. Thanks for [subscribing]( to the GeekWire newsletter, and have a great day. — GeekWire managing editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com; GeekWire reporter Kurt Schlosser, kurt@geekwire.com; and GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop, todd@geekwire.com. SPONSOR MESSAGE [2024 GeekWire Awards nominations are open through February 29th!]( The 2024 GeekWire Awards, taking place May 9th at the Showbox SoDo in Seattle, recognize amazing entrepreneurs, innovators, educators, deal makers and non-profit leaders across more than a dozen categories. [Submit nominations here!]( LATEST HEADLINES [Cuts at Jack Dorsey’s fin-tech company Block impact 43 workers in Washington state]( [More than $85M in Zulily inventory and fulfillment center assets will be up for sale]( [Amazon earnings preview: AWS, advertising, AI in the spotlight for holiday quarter results]( [Seattle startup Protect AI acquires Laiyer AI, makers of LLM Guard]( [New nonpartisan AI nonprofit TrueMedia, led by Oren Etzioni, is making a political deepfake detector]( [Microsoft milestone: Games top Windows for first time, with addition of Activision Blizzard]( [Microsoft Azure revenue up 30%, with help from AI, as tech giant beats overall expectations]( [Washington governor signs executive order to develop guidelines for generative AI use]( GEEKWORK: TODAY'S TECH JOBS - [GeekWire: The Etzioni Internship in Climate Tech Journalism at GeekWire, Summer 2024]( - [City of Newport: Systems Administrator I or II]( - [INRIX: Chief Revenue Office]( - [Submittable: Director of Engineering]( - [BRINC: Senior/Principal Backend & Platform Software Engineer]( - [BRINC: Senior/Principal Full-Stack Software Engineer]( - [BRINC: Senior Computer Vision Engineer]( - [City of Redlands: IT Security Analyst]( - [BRINC: Senior HR Generalist]( - [BRINC: Head of Manufacturing & Supply Chain Operations]( [FIND MORE JOBS ON GEEKWORK]( [HIRING? 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