A cheaper model of Tesla electric vehicle is coming late next year, CEO Elon Musk told investors today. If it launches on Musk’s ambitious timeline, it might arrive in time to help Tesla parry the growing might of Chinese EV makers. The “next generation” compact vehicle Musk mentioned could represent …
Read More »Etching AI Controls Into Silicon Could Keep Doomsday at Bay
Even the cleverest, most cunning artificial intelligence algorithm will presumably have to obey the laws of silicon. Its capabilities will be constrained by the hardware that it’s running on. Some researchers are exploring ways to exploit that connection to limit the potential of AI systems to cause harm. The idea …
Read More »OpenAI Quietly Scrapped a Promise to Disclose Key Documents to the Public
Wealthy tech entrepreneurs including Elon Musk launched OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab that they said would involve society and the public in the development of powerful AI, unlike Google and other giant tech companies working behind closed doors. In line with that spirit, OpenAI’s reports to US …
Read More »Most Top News Sites Block AI Bots. Right-Wing Media Welcomes Them
As media companies haggle licensing deals with artificial intelligence powerhouses like OpenAI that are hungry for training data, they’re also throwing up a digital blockade. New data shows that over 88 percent of top-ranked news outlets in the US now block web crawlers used by artificial intelligence companies to collect …
Read More »This Chinese Startup Is Winning the Open Source AI Race
Meta shook up the race to build more powerful artificial intelligence last July by releasing Llama 2, an AI model similar to the one behind ChatGPT, for anyone to download and use. In November, a little-known startup from Beijing, 01.AI, released its own open source model that outperforms Llama 2 …
Read More »Apple Shares the Secret of Why the 40-Year-Old Mac Still Rules
On January 24, Apple’s Macintosh computer turns 40. Normally that number is an inexorable milestone of middle age. Indeed, in the last reported sales year, Macintosh sales dipped below $30 billion, more than a 25 percent drop from the previous year’s $40 billion. But unlike an aging person, Macs now …
Read More »How the Mighty Heat Pump Helps EVs in the Cold
Perhaps you’ve heard: In many places, it’s really very cold out. Deep freezes hit wide bands of the US this week; snow and freezing rain have swept across northern Europe. This is all less than ideal for electric vehicles, which historically have not loved the cold. A handful of Chicago …
Read More »ChatGPT's Hunger for Energy Could Trigger a GPU Revolution
The cost of making further progress in artificial intelligence is becoming as startling as a hallucination by ChatGPT. Demand for the graphics chips known as GPUs needed for large-scale AI training has driven prices of the crucial components through the roof. OpenAI has said that training the algorithm that now …
Read More »Cable Firms to FTC: We Shouldn’t Have to Let Users Cancel Service With a Click
Lobbyists for cable companies and advertisers yesterday expressed their displeasure with a proposed “click-to-cancel” regulation that aims to make it easier for consumers to cancel services. Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan has said that changes are needed because “some businesses too often trick consumers into paying for subscriptions they …
Read More »Apple Turned Its Epic Defeat Into Another App Store Victory
What can $83 million in legal defense fees buy? In Apple’s case, billions of dollars in annual App Store revenue that had been under threat until this week. While the iPhone maker’s costly legal battle started by developer Epic Games technically isn’t quite over, Apple looks mighty victorious after the …
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