Amazon hits $3 trillion | New leadership at UW's Allen School

Leadership change at UW’s Allen School: Magdalena Balazinska, director of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, is shifting gears after nearly seven years at the helm, taking a long-awaited sabbatical before returning to teaching. Dan Grossman, the school’s vice director and a long-time faculty member, will take over as interim director, effective Aug. 17.

• The leadership structure with Grossman will remain in place for roughly a year while UW leadership considers recommendations from a Provost task force on how the institution should organize its broader computing, data science, and AI initiatives.

• "It has been my professional home since I completed my Ph.D. 23 years ago,” Grossman said of the Allen School. “It was my dream job then, and it’s my dream job now." Read more.

Amazon tops $3 trillion: Amazon passed the market-value milestone for the first time Monday and Microsoft rose 5%, extending a rally that began with last week's earnings. Both companies are spending more on AI than ever, and investors bought anyway, apparently encouraged by their cloud growth and signs of future demand. Read more.

The AI pamphleteer: Viet Nguyen, a veteran Seattle communications executive and non-coder, used AI to build Culliton2026.org, a site that assesses how Washington Supreme Court candidates might rule on the state's new millionaires' tax. The site calls itself nonpartisan, though Nguyen opposes the tax. Critics such as the Northwest Progressive Institute challenge the premise and say predicting how judges will rule is questionable, at best. Read more. 

Hot Links:

• Microsoft has released its annual bug bounty review, marking its biggest year yet with over $20 million awarded to security researchers worldwide. (Microsoft)

• Visa is laying off dozens of workers at its Bellevue office, as the financial services giant restructures operations and increasingly relies on AI technology. (PSBJ)

• Microsoft is reportedly planning to bring Xbox 360 games to PC while also testing a new "disc-to-digital" program that gives players digital licenses for their physical game discs. (The Verge)

Thanks for subscribing, and have a great week. — GeekWire editor Todd Bishop, [email protected], and reporter Kurt Schlosser, [email protected].