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Amazon (AMZN) shares gained more than 7% in premarket trading Friday after the e-commerce giant late Thursday released a blowout quarterly earnings report fueled by growth in its retail business and increasing demand for the cloud divisions artificial intelligence products.

The one-time online bookseller attributed a 14% year-over-year (YOY) jump in fourth quarter revenue to a bumper holiday shopping season and the companys October Prime Day event. This Q4 was a record-breaking Holiday shopping season and closed out a robust 2023 for Amazon, CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement accompanying the quarterly results.

During the earnings call, Jassy said the company will take a cautious approach when considering new opportunities but plans to continue investing in new areas that resonate with customers while keeping an eye on efficiency. Were going to continue to invest in new things and new areas and things that are resonating with customers. Where we can find efficiencies and do more with less, were going to do that as well, he explained.

On the AI front, Jassy said that while the companys generative AI services are a relatively small business, they have the potential to generate tens of billions of dollars over the next few years. Furthermore, CFO Brian Olsavsky told analysts that interest in Amazon Web Services (AWS) generative AI products, such as Amazon Q and AI chatbot for businesses, had accelerated during the quarter. In September last year, Amazon said it plans to invest up to $4 billion in startup chatbot-maker Anthropic to take on cloud rivals in the AI arms race.

The AMZN share price has coiled within a rising wedge pattern on declining volume over the past five months, with an earnings-driven breakout likely in todays trading session. If the stock continues to trend higher, its worth keeping an eye on the $188 levelan area on the chart where the price may encounter overhead resistance from a horizontal trendline connecting the July and November 2021 swing highs. However, a volume-backed breakout to a new all-time high (ATH) coinciding with the 50-day moving average crossing back above the 200-day moving averaging could mark the beginning of another leg higher for the e-commerce giants stock.

Amazon shares were up 7.1% at $170.56 about 45 minutes before the opening bell Friday.

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As of the date this article was written, the author does not own any of the above securities.

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Amazon Stock Jumps On Earnings Beat, Cloud AI Product GrowthKey Price Levels to Watch - Investopedia

In today's video, I discuss the recent updates affecting Nvidia (NVDA 4.97%). Check out the short video to learn more, consider subscribing, and click the special offer link below.

*Stock prices used were the market prices of Feb. 2, 2024. The video was published on Feb. 2, 2024.

Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Jose Najarro has positions in Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends Intel and recommends the following options: long January 2023 $57.50 calls on Intel, long January 2025 $45 calls on Intel, and short February 2024 $47 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Jose Najarro is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through their link they will earn some extra money that supports their channel. Their opinions remain their own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.

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Nvidia Stock Had an Amazing Week -- Here is What Artificial Intelligence (AI) Semiconductor Investors Should Know - The Motley Fool

For days, certain pictures of small children lying huddled together on muddy ground or in front of tents have been shared on social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter. They are often accompanied by a Palestinian flag or comments suggesting the children are located in the Gaza Strip.

That people in Gaza and children in particular are suffering in dire conditions without sufficient access to food, clean water and medical care has beenwell documented by the United Nations, human rights organizations, international mediaand the people themselves.

DW contacted several aid organizations with staff in the besieged territory and heard about living conditions for displaced people there. MattSugrue, Save the Children's director of program operations in Rafah, saidchildren and families were living in makeshift sheltersor struggling to find places to spend the night, and that there was a lack of toilets and clean water.

The UN has estimated that 85% of Gaza population of 2.2 million people have been displaced bythe Israeli military campaign against Hamas,which has been classified as a terrorist organizationby Germany and the European Union, along withthe United States and many other countries.Many of the displaced people currently live in emergency shelters.

Amid this suffering, unknown parties have chosen to create and circulate fake images about the situation on the ground usingartificial intelligence. DW Fact Check examined and concluded that the following three images had been created with the use of AI.

A picture of two boys wearing identical pajamas and huddled together under a turquoise blanket in a blue tent has been seen millions of times. They lie in mud, surrounded by brown puddles of water. But this image was generated by AI, and this is not clearly indicated in the post seen by DW, orin many similar posts.

DW Fact Check circled the parts where there is evidence that AI was used: The two boys each have a foot with only four toes, which is a characteristic AI mistake. The right foot of the boy on the left also appears quite large.

Furthermore, their interlocked fingers look too uniformand their wrists are not bent enough, and at the wrong angle. There is also something wrong with the back of the head and neck of the boy on the left. The body parts merge with the canvas of the tent and are pointed towardthe sternum.

The lighting in the photo also seems staged.Considering that the lamp lighting up the scene is presumably hanging from the ceiling, it provides a very even light, as seen in the reflections. Photo editing software can help achieve such effects, but the original shot must have good lighting conditions, which would require the use of complex equipment.

The same applies to this picture, which has appeared on X, Instagram, TikTok and other platforms. The reflections on the bottom of the bottle in the bottom-right corner of the picture seem particularly unnatural. However, generally, the typical AI mistakes often found on the body's extremitiesare more subtle.

On close inspection, the second toe of the lower foot of thegirl on the rightseems very large. And the bottoms of both girls' left feet are unusually straight, as if they were standing on the ground or were extremely flat-footed. Moreover, the girls' skin seems flawless, as is often the case in AI-generated images.

In the third picture that DW examined, the light seems quite natural, and the skin of the girls appears realistic. In this photo, the girls don't seem to resemble each other as much as the children in the other two pictures.

But obvious errors highlight the use of AI:their bodies seem to be fused together, and the girl in front appears to have no legs. This could be the case in reality, particularly after months of bombing by the Israeli military, but the patterns of the fabrics are also blurred in the encircled area. DW has concluded that this could also be an AI-generated mistake.

It's highly questionable to use AI imagery to illustrate real events, such as those happening in the Israel-Hamas war, especially if pictures aren't labeled as such. Such pictures have not only appeared on social media platforms, but also on certain news sites like The Palestinian Information Centerand Nordhessen-Journal,a regional German news outlet.

AI images don't document objective facts they are computer-generated images created according to parameters set by a person. DW categorizes such images, that are published and disseminated without being labeled as being generated by AI,as fake.

This article was originally written inGerman.

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Fact check: AI-generated images of children in Gaza DW 02/02/2024 - DW (English)

Amazon entered the consumer chatbot fray on Thursday, announcing a new artificial intelligence personal shopping assistant as the company races to catch up with other tech giants.

Customers can ask the tool, Rufus, product questions directly in the search bar of the companys mobile app, Amazon said in a blog post. The A.I. will then provide answers in a conversational tone. The examples provided in the announcement included comparing different kinds of coffee makers, recommendations for gifts and a follow-up question about the durability of running shoes.

Rufus will be available starting on Thursday to a small subset of customers, according to the post, and it will be rolled out to additional customers in the coming weeks. Amazon declined to provide more details about how many people will be part of the tools initial release.

Amazon allows its employees to bring their dogs to work, and a dog named Rufus was one of the first to roam its offices in the companys early days.

Amazon has been racing to shake off the perception that it is behind on the wave of A.I. tools unleashed more than a year ago, when the start-up OpenAI released its ChatGPT chatbot. If customers find Rufus helpful and popular, Amazon could shake up the business of searching for products and control even more of the experience of shopping online.

Rufus lets customers discover items in a very different way than they have been able to on e-commerce websites, Andy Jassy, the companys chief executive, said on a call with investors. Its seamlessly integrated in the Amazon experience that customers are used to and love to be able to take action, he said.

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Amazon Introduces Rufus, an AI Shopping Tool, and Reports Earnings - The New York Times

During Apples quarterly earnings call on Thursday afternoon, CEO Tim Cook mentioned that the company is working on generative AI software features that will make their way to customers later this year. That aligns with reporting from Bloombergs Mark Gurman, who said recently that iOS 18 could be the biggest update in the operating systems history. Cooks teases he mentioned generative AI several times, but never got specific seem to confirm that were in for a big release this fall.

As we look ahead, we will continue to invest in these and other technologies that will shape the future. That includes artificial intelligence, where we continue to spend a tremendous amount of time and effort, and were excited to share the details of our ongoing work in that space later this year, Cook said in his prepared remarks.

Analysts tried to press Cook for more details, but he didnt offer much. Our M.O., if you will, has always been to to do work and then talk about work, and not to get out in front of ourselves. And so were going to hold that to this as well. But we have got some things that were incredibly excited about, that well be talking about later this year.

AI software features ranging from advanced photo manipulation to word processing enhancements have been a major selling point of smartphones from Google and Samsung in recent months. Its rare for Apple to telegraph its upcoming moves, so you can take this as a sign that the company has ambitious plans to integrate AI into its software platforms iOS, iPadOS, and macOS later this year.

Let me just say that I think theres a huge opportunity for Apple with generative AI and with AI, without getting into many more details or getting out ahead of myself, Cook said to conclude the call.

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Tim Cook confirms Apple's generative AI features are coming later this year - The Verge