wild casino free A Hudson man was sentenced Monday to 21 months in federal prison after being convicted of stealing $342,650 in COVID-19 relief funds and attempting to steal $150,000 more, officials said. Matthew Dispensa, 58, was sentenced in U.S. District Court. In addition to the 21 months, he faces two years of supervised release and he was ordered to pay back the money he took plus an additional $150,000. Dispensa pleaded guilty in February to three counts of bank fraud and one count of attempted wire fraud. “The defendant lied to get hundreds of thousands of dollars in pandemic relief funds designed to mitigate the worst economic and public health crisis in decades,” U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young said. Dispensa fraudulently applied for multiple loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) programs. In May 2020, he applied for a $90,400 PPP loan from Primary Bank for an entity called Gateway Hills LLC. Gateway Hills LLC had no apparent operations separate from Dispensa’s gym in Nashua, which operated under the name Gateway Hills Club, officials said. In the application, Dispensa provided the bank false supporting documents, such as fraudulent annual and quarterly tax documents and a “management report” for the period ending Dec. 31, 2020, seven months into the future. Dispensa also provided a “payroll summary,” showing he was paid $8,700 per month through Gateway Hills LLC. The defendant’s true tax returns showed no income from that entity. In another application, Dispensa obtained a $146,650 PPP loan for the Gateway Hills Club entity. He claimed that annual payroll was more than $542,000 in 2020, but his real tax filings showed that payroll was only approximately $118,000 that year. Dispensa used the money for gambling on DraftKings, buying Tesla stock worth over $83,000, and purchasing 10,000 shares in a real estate investment trust. He falsely represented to the Small Business Administration that he used the funds for payroll and other approved expenses, officials said.The ChatGPT parent is reportedly weighing the possibility of introducing ads into its suite of AI products. Would such a change buoy the business as it transforms into a for-profit organization? OpenAI is reportedly considering debuting ads into its AI products, like ChatGPT / Matheus Bertelli OpenAI is weighing the possibility of integrating ads into ChatGPT and its other large language models, the Financial Times reports. It’s a possibility that experts say could help drive revenue and aid the company’s shift to a for-profit model – but, if deployed poorly, could damage user trust. The company’s chief financial officer Sarah Friar on Monday told the Financial Times that OpenAI is assessing the potential for an ads-based model and said that the company would be “thoughtful about when and where we implement [ads]”. Friar, who previously held posts at Salesforce and Square, noted that both she and the company’s chief product officer Kevin Weil, an ex-Instagram exec, bring significant advertising expertise to the table. The news comes at a critical juncture for the Microsoft-backed company, which in October secured $6.6bn in funding from Microsoft, Nvidia, Thrive Capital, Fidelity, Softbank and others. Now valued around $157bn, OpenAI is in the midst of a drastic transformation, considering becoming a public benefit corporation that would no longer be under the leadership of a nonprofit board. And as OpenAI pursues a profit-focused model, it’s facing the challenge of revenue generation. While the company’s monthly revenue reached $300m in August – a lift of 1700% since the start of 2023, according to the New York Times – it’s still burning through cash, projecting a loss of $5bn this year to operating costs and other expenses. More advanced models, like the premier version of ChatGPT – GPT-4o, released in May – require increased compute power, incurring ever higher costs for the company. Selling ads within ChatGPT and other OpenAI programs like DALL-E and the OpenAI o1 models could help advance the company’s goal of becoming profitable. “It’s long been known that OpenAI is burning cash at a crazy rate in order to keep up their operations,” says Christopher Penn, co-founder and chief data scientist at TrustInsights.ai, an analytics and AI firm for marketers. “When you think about it, ChatGPT as a tool is absurdly [low] priced for what it delivers. As they’ve debuted new models, like the [flagship] o1 model, it’s clear from the cost of tokens in that model that it is a crazy expensive model for them to run. The hardware requirements and the processing power point towards that model being the future of the company, but at a substantially increased price. Advertising allows someone else to pay the bill other than the users.” OpenAI wouldn’t be the first generative AI leader to pursue an ads-based model. Microsoft’s AI chatbot Copilot (previously called Bing Chat) and AI search engine Perplexity , for instance, have both introduced ads that appear in generated responses to user queries. Meanwhile, Google announced in October that it is debuting ads in its AI Overviews, which provide AI-generated summaries at the top of search results. While OpenAI is exploring the possibility, Friar caveated in a statement shared with The Drum that the company has no “active plans to pursue advertising.” A boon to business? Experts believe that the addition of ad products could be advantageous to OpenAI as it battles rising operational costs. “It’s hardly surprising that OpenAI would go down the advertising route. Since they announced their for-profit overturn, there’s no question that introducing ads into their products is one of the most straightforward ways to monetize any free software-as-a-service product,” says Eli Goodman, CEO and co-founder at Datos, a Semrush-owned clickstream data provider. He points to Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram as prime examples of the success of ad-based models. Both platforms introduced ads a few years after their respective launches, when they had already developed dedicated user bases. Since OpenAI, too, has a highly engaged user base – now tallying around 200 million active weekly users and more than a million paid business users – the company isn’t likely to repel users with the addition of ads, Goodman suggests. Others agree with the assessment that ads will prove a promising route for the developer. Dustin Engel, the CEO and founder of marketing consultancy Elegant Disruption, for example, says it would be “hard to imagine a scenario where ads aren’t a critical part of OpenAI’s business model,” especially considering that it needs to compete with other platforms that have already embraced ad-based models. Advertisement Engel and others argue that OpenAI’s access to vast swaths of user intent data could potentially offer more precise targeting for advertisers, and more relevant recommendations for users. If a language model like ChatGPT can effectively identify where a user is at in their customer journey – and their level of intent – it will likely be able to surface ads at an opportune moment. But the success of this approach, some experts warn, hinges on the platform’s willingness to establish responsible, privacy-conscious policies for data sharing. OpenAI could follow the lead of Perplexity, for instance, which includes ads in responses to user searches, but promises to never share users’ personal information with advertisers. Will transparency butt heads with user experience? Despite the promise of an ad-supported model, a number of hurdles remain. For one, OpenAI will need to be mindful to disclose advertisements explicitly – and not disguise them as organic responses to prompts. “Consumers generally don’t have a problem with ads as long as the ads are not deceptive and they’re clearly marked,” says TrustInsights.ai’s Penn. “If OpenAI, in the ChatGPT interface, has a response and then there’s a big, bright yellow ‘here’s an ad’ block that clearly denotes where the generated answer and the advertising-placed answer are, that would be [good]. If, on the other hand, the user can’t tell the difference between a purely generated answer and an advertising-placed answer, that would substantially impact trust because you don’t know whether the answer is actually correct or was paid to be correct. In today’s media environment, where trust is at all-time lows for everything, that could be substantially harmful to their business.” Advertisement But other experts argue that ads shouldn’t be highly disruptive – a position that might come into conflict with calls for clear disclosure. Users don’t want to be thrown off by blaring ads that detract from their experience – on the contrary, ads embedded in generated responses should be additive, argues Craig Elimeliah, chief creative officer at Code and Theory, a digital-focused creative agency. “If OpenAI does include ads, it is important that they don’t feel like ads,” he says. “They have to improve the experience, not [just] ‘dis-interrupt’ it.” Elimeliah goes so far as to argue that OpenAI should “consider rethinking ads altogether, blending them into what utility users have come to expect.” He urges OpenAI to ditch traditional ad banners, and instead embrace “tools or experiences that serve the user.” An example he offers are “curated recommendations that feel anticipatory, personal, helpful and aligned with the prompt.” In his view, “the magic is in making ads feel like they belong, and are useful and smart.” It’s a view shared by Greg Swan, senior partner at marketing agency Finn Partners, who says: “The challenge – and the opportunity – is to ensure that these ads enhance the experience rather than detract from it. If AI ads can be contextually relevant, helpful or even entertaining, they could feel like a natural extension of the platform’s capabilities, much like search ads did for Google, Yahoo and others.” Like Penn, Swan emphasizes the importance of maintaining user trust through transparency – ensuring that users are never in the dark about whether they’re being served an ad. Of course, ensuring ads are clearly disclosed while maintaining a seamless user experience is a fine line to toe. And even if OpenAI is able to develop compelling ad products, winning over ad dollars may prove challenging. OpenAI won’t just have to supply audiences – it will also have to prove out its performance potential. “Most advertisers are used to paying for eyeballs, or tonnage,” says Penn. “OpenAI would have to convince advertisers that their product performs better not on a traffic perspective, but on a performance perspective – that their language model successfully identifies commercial intent and directs the user when the user is ready to make a purchase. If [OpenAI] can do that, they will [prove to be better for brands than] spending a huge amount on impression-based advertising, say, on Instagram.” The brand safety conundrum Another hurdle for OpenAI is ensuring brand safety. Platforms like ChatGPT can produce unpredictable and controversial content. Further, misinformation and ‘hallucination’ remain unsolved problems in generative AI. In October, Dow Jones and the New York Post filed a lawsuit against Perplexity, alleging that the platform generated fake bits of news reporting and incorrectly attributed the text to the publishers. This phenomenon presents serious concerns for many brands. “If an ad appears in an inappropriate or poorly contextualized AI output, it could backfire,” says Swan. “OpenAI will need robust brand safety mechanisms and clear content guidelines to mitigate this.” Catch up on the most important stories of the day, curated by our editorial team. Stay up to date with a curated digest of the most important marketing stories and expert insights from our global team. Learn how to pitch to our editors and get published on The Drum. The sophistication of OpenAI’s brand safety guardrails may depend on the level of integration between the model in question and the ad products. “If the language model can understand intent and make recommendations at the right time based on the conversation, [OpenAI] will do well. If it just is flinging ads on a primitive keyword basis, it’s going to do poorly, because that’s no better than what you can get in traditional search,” says Penn. Ultimately, however, the onus for managing brand safety will remain on the advertisers themselves. Max Kalehoff, chief growth officer at Realeyes, an ad testing firm that uses AI and computer vision to measure attention and engagement, advises that advertisers “closely monitor their presence and reputations, and develop strategies and tools to proactively manage them.” Of course, once advertisers are enticed, they’ll demand granular performance reporting to justify their spend. OpenAI will also need to grapple with the task of providing focused metrics and proof of return on ad spend to maintain brand investments. A new era of AI’s interplay with adland Should OpenAI choose to invest in a hybrid ad- and subscription-based model, it may establish a precedent in the industry. “The key will be execution,” says Elegant Disruption’s Engel. “If OpenAI missteps and alienates users, others may hesitate to follow suit. Conversely, a well-implemented ad strategy could set the standard and drive broader adoption. Competitors like Anthropic or MidJourney may feel pressure to adopt similar strategies to remain competitive.” Realeyes’ Kalehoff is more bullish. “I expect the trend to gain steam. Advertising has long been a large, resilient component of our world economy. The players who dominate control and benefit from advertising come and go, though the advertising economy itself has proven its sustainability over and over again for well over 100 years. AI companies need to make money somehow.” And as AI capabilities expand, so too do the possibilities – and the risks – for brands. For example, the novel proliferation of AI agents – who can make decisions and take actions on behalf of users, like, say, making salon appointments or booking dinner reservations – is unleashing new opportunities. For instance, says Penn, “If you’re on a recipe website and you want to have AI generate a recipe, there are opportunities within that workflow to use [both] AI agents and traditional code to introduce products. If you’re asking for a recipe for a Christmas ham and your language model understands that named entity and you have an advertiser – Honey Baked Ham or whoever – that could be injected in.” But the possibilities are greater still. As AI agents become increasingly common, brands may be able to market or advertise directly to agents rather than to real users. In response, the agent could organically recommend a product or service to its user. In Engel’s view, “that’s the holy grail – getting your product recommended by an AI that knows its user inside out.” Meanwhile, the generative AI boom is reshaping the media landscape at large by empowering users to create their own personalized content on demand, from stories to films, in mere seconds. It’s a shift that’s increasingly threatening traditional media’s relevance and challenging advertisers to adapt to a world where broad-reach strategies no longer apply. With users engaging privately with AI platforms to create their own content, ad opportunities tied to public media consumption are shrinking. In this paradigm, Penn predicts, the brands that come out on top will be those that build loyal, direct audiences and work to get their messages seamlessly embedded in personalized AI experiences. If one thing is clear, it’s that the tides are changing dramatically. “This shift will push the industry to rethink how advertising and AI coexist, balancing monetization with user trust and creative integrity,” says Engel. “For OpenAI and others, the opportunity is immense – but so are the stakes.” For more, sign up for The Drum’s daily newsletter here .

BREAKING: Willie O'Dea takes first seat in Limerick City constituency

Vikings waive former starting cornerback Akayleb Evans in another blow to 2022 draft classMaximus contract with CMS for Medicare services cancelled; shares dropAustralian PM ready to 'engage' with Musk on social media teen banBy Baba Martins The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the last election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has expressed joy over the reappointment of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as Director-General (DG) of World Trade Organisation (WTO). Adebayo described the new four-year tenure which will begin in September next year as well deserved. Writing on his official X, @Pres_Adebayo, the SDP chieftain thanked President Bola Tinubu and other global stakeholders at WTO for making her reappointment possible. He also expressed hope that her reappointment would improve global trade, which will, in turn, foster social justice, international friendship and sustainable development. “I am most delighted to congratulate our dear sister and one of the world’s finest public servants @NOIweala on her reappointment for a second term as the Director-General of the World Trade Organization. I thank @officialABAT and other global stakeholders of the @wto for their support for a most deserving candidate. “It is my hope that global trade will become a means of fostering social justice, international friendship and sustainable development in our time to bid farewell to poverty and insecurity in a world awash with capital, technology and enterprise,” he wrote. Join Daily Trust WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You. NEWS UPDATE: Nigerians have been finally approved to earn Dollars from home, acquire premium domains for as low as $1500, profit as much as $22,000 (₦37million+). Click here to start.

How major US stock indexes fared Monday, 12/2/2024Texas A&M-CC takes down Prairie View A&M 109-74

Australian PM ready to 'engage' with Musk on social media teen banST.PAUL — Gov. Tim Walz, alongside the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association, presented Minnesota’s official Thanksgiving turkey on Tuesday, Nov. 26, in the Minnesota State Capitol reception room. The tom presented by Walz on Tuesday weighed in at 41.8 pounds. Paisley VonBerge, who has helped raise the bird since it was six weeks old, said the turkey will return back to her family’s farm in Hutchinson “to be enjoyed the way that turkeys are intended to be enjoyed.” ADVERTISEMENT President Joe Biden pardoned two Minnesota turkeys, Peach and Blossom, on Monday, Nov. 26, a contrast to Minnesota’s tradition of selecting a turkey to celebrate before it heads to the Thanksgiving dinner table. “We do it differently than in D.C. because here in Minnesota, we know turkeys are delicious, and we do not hide that fact, we celebrate that fact,” Walz said. During the presentation, Walz touted Minnesota’s turkey industry, which, with 600 farms, 40 million birds and 450 turkey farmers across the state, is number one in the nation, according to the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association (MTGA). MTGA President Jake Vlaminck said that the turkey industry in Minnesota has generated $16.5 billion for the state of Minnesota. Vlaminck said Minnesota’s rich industry is what allowed MTGA, alongside Walz, to donate $10,000 worth of turkey to Minnesota families ahead of Thanksgiving this year. “We delivered hundreds of turkeys last week to a long line of people waiting in the cold waiting for their Thanksgiving meal,” Second Harvest Heartland CEO Allison O’Toole said. “We could see the difference in their faces. It's moments like this that give Minnesota its reputation for a uniquely generous spirit.” Regarding the new administration of President-elect Donald Trump, his proposed tariff increases and their potential effect on some of Minnesota’s agriculture sectors like the turkey Industry, Walz said he will “watch those moves closely.” “Agriculture pays the heaviest price, states like Minnesota pay the heaviest price for that,” Walz said. “And I think at this time we're waiting to see what the forecast comes in.” ADVERTISEMENT Thom Peterson, Minnesota Department of Agriculture commissioner, said Mexico and Canada are some of Minnesota’s biggest markets and that 74% of Minnesota’s exports go to Mexico. Peterson said he and Gov. Walz are already beginning to have conversations with federal officials on how new trade agreements or tariffs could affect Minnesota. “When we were in D.C. yesterday with Peach and Blossom, we were honored to be joined by both Mexican and Canadian embassies,” Peterson said. “Trade is a lot of our [Minnesota’s] relationships. We're going to be active and engaged in that, those conversations. So we we do a lot of that ourselves, but we also have to partner with the federal government if they have a trade agreement.” After the formal presentation of the tom, Walz took a few off-turkey-topic questions — his longest stretch of answering questions from the press since returning from Minnesota. When asked if he regretted running with Vice President Kamala Harris, Walz said his only regret in life is not getting a dog sooner. “I'm proud to have been part of that. I think we put a message out that 75 million Americans liked, but not quite enough,” Walz said. “I was just glad to be out there, to be honest, glad to tell the Minnesota story, that we get things done together.” Walz said after coming home to a split legislature, he is hopeful leaders will be able to work things out and that he expects productivity from his partnered branch of government. ADVERTISEMENT “Look, we are in a split legislature like we were in 2019 and we got a lot done during that time, and it’s my expectation that we can do it, that we will compromise, we will continue to focus,” Walz said.

Trump has promised again to release the last JFK files. But experts say don’t expect big revelationsPatriots turn their attention to the future after being eliminated from playoff contention

Australian PM ready to 'engage' with Musk on social media teen banThe Carolina Panthers are in line for a top-five pick in the 2025 NFL Draft ( per Tankathon ), yet aren't out of the NFC playoff race. Thanks to the ineptitude of the NFC South, there is a pathway for the Panthers to make the playoffs -- even though Carolina will finish with a losing record this season. The Panthers can still win the NFC South with an 8-9 record, even after their loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday. How can they win the NFC South with a losing record? Thanks to the Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons both being 6-6, there is a way. Here's what has to happen for the Panthers to win the division: Win each of their last five games Falcons go 1-4 or 0-5 in their last five games Buccaneers go 2-3 or worse in their last five games -- and must lose to Panthers and Saints Saints go 3-2 or worse If all three teams tie with an 8-9 record -- and the Buccaneers lose to the Saints in Week 18 -- the Panthers would make the playoffs by virtue of the division record tiebreaker over Tampa Bay. Carolina would go 3-3 in the NFC South while Tampa Bay would finish 2-4 in the division. The Falcons would have to go 1-4 or 0-5, since Atlanta would win the division at 8-9 (the Falcons play the Panthers in Week 18 anyway, so that would eliminate the Panthers if Atlanta won). The Saints would also have to finish 7-10 or worse (currently 4-8), since they have a 2-3 division record (and finish with the Buccaneers), and would have the tiebreaker over Carolina. The Panthers' remaining schedule includes the Eagles (10-2), Cowboys (5-7), Cardinals (6-6), Buccaneers (6-6) and Falcons (6-6) -- so there isn't an easy path toward winning the NFC South. Carolina needs a lot of help to win the division, but there is a path. A lot of things need to go right.