Alibaba Cloud has reduced the price of its visual reasoning artificial intelligence model, Qwen-vl-max, by up to 85% as a price war rages on in China's domestic AI services market. The move is Alibaba's third AI price cut this year and comes after ByteDance, parent company of TikTok, launched a similar visual model in mid-December. With the new pricing, Qwen-vl-max will now cost 0.003 yuan (US$0.00041) per thousand input token uses, positioning it as a direct competitor to ByteDance's model.
https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3292916/alibaba-cuts-ai-visual-model-cost-85-last-day-year-price-war-rages?module=top_story&pgtype=sectionAnthropic, a company that develops AI tools, has agreed to implement copyright guardrails on its new products to prevent them from producing copyrighted content without permission. This agreement was reached with eight music publishers, including Universal Music Corp and Concord Music Group, who had sued Anthropic for infringing protected song lyrics in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/before-the-bar/anthropic-agrees-to-enforce-copyright-guardrails-on-new-ai-tools-1Beijing's municipal government introduced new regulations on Tuesday to promote the development of autonomous driving technology in the city. The rules, which take effect from April 1, will allow self-driving vehicles that pass safety assessments to apply for road trials and permit their use in private cars, buses, trams, and taxis. This move is part of a broader effort by Chinese authorities to support the construction of intelligent road infrastructure for autonomous transportation. At least 19 cities in China are currently conducting robotaxi and robobus tests, with companies such as Baidu's Apollo Go, Pony.ai, WeRide, AutoX, and SAIC Motor exploring opportunities in the market.
Beijing has introduced new regulations to promote the development of autonomous driving technology in the city, with a goal of allowing driverless public buses and taxis on the roads. The regulations, which take effect from April 1, will allow autonomous vehicles that pass safety assessments to apply for road trials. Beijing aims to encourage the use of autonomous vehicles for private cars, urban buses, trams, and taxis, as well as the construction of intelligent road infrastructure to support such transport. This move is part of a broader trend in China, where at least 19 cities are conducting robotaxi and robobus tests, with companies like Baidu's Apollo Go, Pony.ai, WeRide, AutoX, and SAIC Motor exploring opportunities in the market.
https://www.trtworld.com/asia/beijing-unveils-plans-to-boost-driverless-vehicle-use-in-capital-18248906CreateAI Holdings Inc., a global artificial intelligence technology company, rejected an unsolicited acquisition proposal from Steel Partners Holdings L.P. and Camac Partners LLC worth $0.46 per share, citing that it did not reflect the fair market value of the company. The Board of Directors, led by Chairman Cheng Lu, determined that the offer was not in the best interests of the Company and its stockholders. CreateAI is focused on developing generative AI technologies for digital entertainment content production, aiming to become a leader in the industry.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/createai-holdings-formerly-tusimple-board-of-directors-unanimously-rejects-unsolicited-proposal-from-steel-partners-and-camac-partners-302340541.htmlMaharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has asked the state transport department officials to increase the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in order to minimise road accidents. He also directed them to enforce policies for scrapping all vehicles above 15 years of age, including government and private vehicles. The CM reviewed the next 100-day action plans for the transport, ports and the state airport authority departments in a meeting at the Sahyadri guest house.
https://www.news18.com/india/cm-fadnavis-asks-transport-department-to-use-ai-for-road-safety-measures-in-maharashtra-9173390.htmlGoogle CEO Sundar Pichai has outlined ambitious goals for 2025, emphasizing the need for the company to move faster in developing and improving its artificial intelligence (AI) products. As part of Google's AI initiative Gemini, the goal is to reach 500 million users by 2025. However, Pichai stressed that execution over being the first to market is crucial as the company faces competition from other AI rivals.
https://indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-has-a-message-for-his-employees-for-2025-says-we-need-to-move-faster-2657820-2024-12-31Big technology companies, including Google and Microsoft, are investing in nuclear energy to power their data centers and potentially fuel the development of artificial intelligence. This investment is part of a larger trend as tech giants seek to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and mitigate the environmental impact of their operations. According to reports, these companies are partnering with established nuclear energy firms to develop new reactors that can provide clean and reliable energy for their data centers. The goal is to power the next generation of AI systems, which require vast amounts of energy to operate.
https://interestingengineering.com/ai-logs/big-tech-atomic-ai-nuclearGeoffrey Hinton is supporting Elon Musk's attempt to block OpenAI from becoming a for-profit company. Hinton argues that allowing OpenAI to abandon its non-profit status would send a negative message to other companies in the AI ecosystem, as it received tax and other benefits while operating as a non-profit. OpenAI was initially founded in 2015 by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and others as a research lab with a focus on safety, and later adopted a capped-profit model in 2019.
https://nypost.com/2024/12/31/business/geoffrey-hinton-backs-elon-musks-legal-battle-against-openai/