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Showing posts from February 13, 2023

Amazon Zoox Robotaxi With Employees as Passengers Tested on Public Road Ahead of Commercial Launch

Amazon.com Inc's self-driving vehicle unit, Zoox, said on Monday it has successfully tested a robotaxi with employees as passengers on a public road in a move to bring it closer to commercial service for the general public. The February 11 test, conducted between two Zoox buildings a mile apart at its headquarters in Foster City, California, was part of the launch of a no-cost employee shuttle service that will also help the company refine its technology. "Putting the vehicle on (an) open public road and validating our approach to all of the different requirements, including regulatory, is a big step and we would not have done it unless internally we were already looking at the line of sight for going commercial," Chief Executive Aicha Evans told reporters on a conference call. Evans declined to provide a timeline for the commercial launch, which will need additional government clearances. The industry's automated vehicle segment has not rolled out as fast as ori

ChatGPT's Popularity Worries US Lawmakers About Its Impact on National Security

ChatGPT, a fast-growing artificial intelligence program, has drawn praise for its ability to write answers quickly to a wide range of queries, and attracted US lawmakers' attention with questions about its impact on national security and education.  ChatGPT was estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users just two months after launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, and a growing target for regulation.  It was created by OpenAI , a private company backed by Microsoft , and made available to the public for free. Its ubiquity has generated fear that generative AI such as ChatGPT could be used to spread disinformation, while educators worry it will be used by students to cheat.  Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat on the House of Representatives Science Committee, said in a recent opinion piece in the New York Times that he was excited about AI and the "incredible ways it will continue to advance society," but also "frea

India Working With G20 Members to Create SOP for Cryptocurrencies: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

On a query posed over crypto mining in Lok Sabha, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said under India's Presidency, G20 members are working together to bring a collective standard operating procedure on it. While replying to a query from DMK MP T Sumathy, the Finance Minister said, "At the moment, they ( cryptocurrencies ) are largely unregulated in India; whether it is mining or the asset or whether it is the transaction, we recognise that it is completely driven by technology and a standalone country's effort to control and regulate is not going to be effective."  After saying that China is tracking down crypto miners, India could be an alternate destination if regulation is certain and infra is provided, the member of Parliament asked how the government was planning to regulate crypto mining in India. Sitharaman also added, "There is an evolving consensus and that's why we are raising this issue in the G20 and having a detailed discuss

Microsoft Dissolves Team of Hundred Working on Industrial Metaverse: Report

Microsoft drew the curtains on its industrial metaverse division as part of the recent layoffs it announced to strategise spendings during the ongoing global recession climate. The hundred staff members who were part of this team have reportedly been fired, putting future plans for this unit on an indefinite hold. This special division was brought together merely four months ago to explore how the metaverse tech could fit into industrial operations. In totality, Microsoft fired 10,000 employees amid the ongoing industrial slump, the announcement about which was made in January this year. Microsoft , for now, has decided to favour short-term projects that could generate more revenue quicker over projects. This would take a long time before maturing into fruition. Products that were already completed by Microsoft's ‘Industrial Metaverse Core' group during the months this group was active will regardless be supported by the software giant despite the recent turn of events. “We