Musk’s xAI Has Discussed Deal For Share of Future Tesla Revenue

Elon Musk,

Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI has discussed where it would get some Tesla revenue in exchange for providing the carmaker access to its technology and resources, the latest example of the growing interconnectedness of Musk’s companies, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Under a proposed arrangement as described to investors, Tesla would license xAI’s artificial-intelligence models to help power its driver-assisted software, called Full Self Driving, and share some of the revenue with the startup, according to people familiar with the matter. xAI would assist in developing other features for Tesla, including a Siri-like voice assistant inside its electric cars and software to power its humanoid robot Optimus, the people said.

The terms of any revenue-sharing agreement between xAI and Tesla would depend in part upon how extensively Tesla relied on xAI’s technology as opposed to its own, the people said. xAI executives have discussed an even revenue split from Tesla’s FSD, one of the people said.

After this article was published, Musk replied on X to a user’s summary of it by saying: “Haven’t read the article, but the above is not accurate,” and that “there is no need to license anything from xAI.” Shortly after, he posted “WSJ is talking nonsense.”

Reuters reported Elon Musk denied a report that his artificial intelligence startup xAI has held talks for a share in future Tesla revenue in return for giving Musk’s electric vehicle maker access to xAI’s technology and resources.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Tesla would license xAI’s artificial-intelligence models to help power its driver-assistance software, full self driving technology and share some of that revenue with the startup, according to the proposed arrangement as described to investors.

“Tesla has learned a lot from discussions with engineers at xAI that have helped accelerate achieving unsupervised FSD, but there is in need to license anything from xAI,” Musk posted late on Saturday on his social media platform X, including a voice assistant in its electric cars and software to power its humanoid robot Optimus.

TechCrunch reported Elon Musk has denied a report that one of his companies, Tesla, has discussed sharing revenue with another of his companies, xAI, so that it can use the startup’s AI models.

Writing on his social media platform X, (formerly Twitter) Musk said he hadn’t read the WSJ story, but he described a post summarizing the report as “not accurate.”

Musk founded xAI as a competitor to OpenAI (which he founded but eventually left).  TechCrunch reported earlier this year that as part of the pitch for xAI’s $6 billion funding round, the startup outlined a vision where its models would be trained on data from Musk’s various companies (Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and X), and its models could then improve technology across those companies.

Tesla shareholders have sued Musk over the decision to start xAI arguing that Musk has diverted talent and resources from Tesla to what is essentially a competing company.

In my opinion, I think Elon Musk is going to do whatever he wants to with his various companies. It is unclear to me what – exactly – he wants to do with them.

Google’s Second Antitrust Trial Could Help Shape The Future Of Online Ads

google

A month after losing a landmark antitrust case brought by the Department of Justice, Google is headed back to court to face off for a second time against federal prosecutors, CNBC reported.

In August, a judge ruled that Google has held a monopoly in internet search, marking the biggest antitrust ruling in the tech industry since the case against Microsoft more than 20 years ago. This time, Google is defending itself against claims that its advertising business has acted as a monopoly that’s led to higher ad prices for customers.

The trial begins in Alexandria, Virginia, on Monday and will likely last for at least several weeks. It represents the first tech antitrust trial from a case brought by the Biden administration. The department’s earlier lawsuit was first filed in October 2020, when Donald Trump was in the White House.

The Washington Post reported Google makes lots of money but has a miserable year in court, and its judicial travails are far from over.

In the waining days of 2023, a federal jury in San Francisco declared Google’s app store an illegal monopoly. In August, a federal judge in D.C. made the same determination for the keystone of its more than $300 billion in annual revenue: the Google search engine. And on Monday, the company goes on trial again, in Virginia, this time on monopoly charges related to its online business.

Monopoly charges of that magnitude are a rarity. Google is one of the only handful of corporate giants to be taken to court since the 1970s under federal monopoly law. For decades since, U.S. officials have treated high-tech companies gingerly, leery of damaging the nation’s economic engines and of punishing exemplars of innovation and free enterprise. 

The string of cases against Google suggests an end to that reluctance, reflecting instead a shift toward heavier oversight as concerns have grown across the political spectrum over tech giants throwing their weight around.

The Verge reported Google and the Justice Department are set for a rematch of sorts on Monday when they return to court to argue about Google’s alleged monopolistic behavior over how ads are bought and sold on the internet.

The DOJ is fresh off a win in its search antitrust case against Google, where a federal judge in Washington, DC, agreed that Google had illegally monopolized the online search market. This time, the two parties will argue before a different judge in Virginia about whether Google has also illegally monopolized markets for advertising technology.

The DOJ is arguing that Google illegally monopolized the market for ad tech tools across the ecosystem. That includes the demand side of ad networks for buying space on websites, the supply side of publisher ad servers for hawking advertising inventory, and the exchanges like Google AdX that sit between the two.

In my opinion, it appears that Google could – potentially – face additional lawsuits, depending upon what the judge decides. 

When Does Apple Launch The New iPhone 16?

Apple

It’s almost time: Next week, Apple will show off its new lineup of the iPhone 16 models at its iPhone event on Monday, September 8. And if you plan to get your hands on one of the new devices after the event, we’re here to tell you to save your time because the new iPhones won’t be available to buy yet, Engadget reported.

Apple is pretty consistent when it comes to releasing their new products and we don’t expect that to change this year. We’ll tell you when we expect Apple to release the iPhone 16 after its event. We’ll also let you know when you can expect to download iOS 18 – Apple’s latest software – on your current iPhone.

We don’t know yet how much the iPhone 16 lineup will cost. Currently, the iPhone 15 models start at $799 and range as high as $1,599 for the 15 Pro with 1TB of storage. It will be interesting to see if Apple holds the line on pricing, or plays around with different storage capacities and price points, as it sometimes does.

9TO5Mac reported: We’re just a few days away from Apple’s special event, when the company is expected to announce the new iPhone 16 models. There are a lot of rumors about the new phones out there, but 9TO5Mac has heard more details about what the changes with the new hardware. When it comes to cameras, users can expect improvements such as 4K 120fps video and more.

Reliable sources familiar with the matter have shown us evidence of what’s new in the iPhone 16 Pro’s camera. As previously rumored, the new Pro models will get a new 48-megapixel ultra-wide sensor, and our sources corroborate this information. What’s more, the camera system will be exactly the same between the 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max.

That means that both Pro models will have the tetraprism lens for 5x optical zoom, whereas it’s exclusive to the Pro Max model in the current generation.

CBS News reported: On Monday, Apple is expected to reveal its iPhone 16 models along with other new products, in a live-streamed event called “It’s Glowtime.” The latest generation of iPhones will make what one analysts called Apple’s “biggest upgrade cycle in its history.”

The event is scheduled to take place on September 9, at 1p.m. Eastern time at the tech company’s Cupertino, California, headquarters.

All eyes will be on Apple’s latest line of iPhones, all models of which will be powered by Apple Intelligence — Apple’s response to the generative AI revolution — which will be integrated into iOS 18, according to an announcement Apple made in June on the new AI feature.

Integrated into apps like Mail and Notes, and designed to simplify daily chores like list-writing, “it harnesses the power of Apple silicon to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks, according to Apple.

In my opinion, I think that people who are already using Apple devices will be pleased with the newly updated versions. It will be interesting to see what the newest iPhones can do.

 

YouTube Announces AI-Detection Tools To Protect Against Copying Creators

YouTube

YouTube on Thursday announced a new set of AI detection tools to protect creators, including artists, actors, musicians and athletes, from having their likeness, including their face and voice, copied and used in other videos, TechCrunch reported. 

One key component of the new detection technology involved the expansion of YouTube’s existing Content ID system, which today identifies copyright-protected material. This system will be expanded to include new synthetic-singing identification technology to identify AI content that simulates someone else’s singing voice. Other detection technologies will be developed to identify when someone’s face is simulated with AI, the company says.

Also of note, YouTube is in the early stages of coming up with a solution to address the use of its content to train AI models. This has been an issue for some time, leading creators to complain that companies like Apple, Nvidia, Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, among others, have trained on their material without their consent or compensation.

YouTube posted the following on the YouTube Official Blog: 

AI is opening up a world of possibilities, empowering creators to express themselves in innovative and exciting ways. At YouTube, we’re committed to ensuring our creators and partners thrive in this evolving landscape. This means equipping them with the tools they need to harness AI’s creative potential while maintaining control over how their likeness, including their face and voice, is represented.

To achieve this, we’re developing new likeness management technology that will safeguard them and unlock new opportunities in the future.

Tools we’re building

First, we’ve developed new synthetic-singing identification technology within Content ID that will allow partners to automatically detect and manage AI-generated content on YouTube that simulates their singing voices. We’re refining this technology with our partners, with a pilot program planned for early next year.

Second, we’re actively developing new technology that will enable people from a variety of industries – from creators and actors to musicians and athletes — to detect and manage AI-generated content showing their faces on YouTube. Together with our recent privacy updates, this will create a robust set of tools to manage how AI is used to depict people on YouTube.

The Hollywood Reporter reported One of the side effects of generative artificial intelligence tools proliferating is a surge of misuse. Actors, musicians, athletes, digital creators and others are seeing their likenesses digitally copied or altered, sometimes for less-than-noble reasons.

In a blog post published Thursday morning, YouTube announced a pair of tools meant to detect and manage AI-generated content that uses their voice or likeness. The first tool, a “synthetic-singing identification technology” that will live within its existing Content ID system, and will “allow partners to automatically detect and manage AI-generated content on YouTube that simulates their singing voices.”

It is not immediately clear what creators will be able to do with the new tools, though Content ID gives rights holders a menu of options, from pulling it down, removing rights-impacted content, or splitting ad revenue.

In my opinion, it is going to take some time for famous people to hunt down AI-generated likenesses of themselves and get them taken down. Perhaps YouTube should speed up its intent to remove that type of content sooner rather than later.

 

Verizon’s $20 Billion Gamble on Frontier #1764

Podcast

Verizon is acquiring Frontier for $20 billion, aiming to expand its fiber network and compete more effectively with AT&T. The deal will add 2.2 million fiber subscribers across 25 states, extending Verizon’s reach to 10 million customers. The acquisition is a strategic move to accelerate growth and enhance its offerings as Verizon faces slowing revenue. Frontier, which filed for bankruptcy in 2020 and settled with the FTC over misleading speeds, brings valuable assets despite recent challenges.

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Internet Archive Loses Its Appeal Of A Major Copyright Case

Internet Archive

The Internet Archive has lost a major legal battle — in a decision that could have significant impact on the future of internet history.

Today, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled against that long-running digital archive, upholding an earlier ruling in Hatchette v. Internet Archive that found that one of the Internet Archive’s book digitization projects violated copyright law, Wired reported.

Notably, the appeals court’s ruling rejects the Internet Archives’s argument that its lending practices were shielded by the fair use doctrine, which permits for copyright infringement in certain circumstances, calling it “unpersuasive.”

In March 2020, the Internet Archive, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, launched a program called the National Emergency Library, or NEL. Library closures caused by the pandemic had left students, researchers, and readers unable to access millions of books, and the Internet Archive has said it was responding to calls from regular people and other librarians to help those at home get access to the books they needed.

The NEL was the subject of backlash soon after its launch, which some authors arguing it was tantamount to piracy. In response, the Internet Archive wishing two months scuttled its emergency approach and reinstated the lending caps. But the damage was done. In June 2020, major publishing houses, including Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, and Wiley filed the lawsuit.

Reuters reported a U.S. appeals court sided with four major book publishers that accused the nonprofit Internet Archive of illegally scanning copyrighted works and lending them to the public online for free and without permission.

The 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan agreed with Hatchette Book Group, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House that the archive’s “large scale” copying and distribution of entire books did not amount to “fair use.”

Publishers accused the nonprofit of infringing copyrights in 127 books from authors like Malcolm Gladwell, C.S. Lewis, Toni Morrison, J.D. Salinger, and Elie Wiesel, by making the books freely available through its Free Digital Library.

But in a 59-page decision on Wednesday, Circuit Court Judge Beth Robinson said the archive merely supplanted the original books rather than transform them into “something new.”

She said making books available for free harmed publishers and would “undoubtedly negatively impact the public,” by taking away the incentive for many consumers and libraries to pay for books and for many authors to produce new works.

Gizmodo reported: For years, the IA scanned physical copies of library books and allowed people to check out digital versions through its Open Library project. It did so on a one-to-one basis.

Meaning that checking out a digital copy would pull it from the “shelf” until someone returned it. In 2020, and the pandemic shut down libraries across the planet, it expanded its effort with the National Emergency Library program. Under the NEL, books were rented indefinitely. 

The publishing world didn’t react well to the NEL and the IA shut down the program two months after it launched. Then the publishers, including Hatchette, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, and Wiley sued. The court ruled in favor of the publishers in 2023 and the IA appealed.

In my opinion, this does not sound good for the Internet Archive. It is unclear to me why these huge publishers are so upset about the Internet Archive functioning like a regular library. 

 

 

Death of the e-Reader?

Information, , ,

With summer nearly over, the family and I squeezed in a week in the heat of Catalunya, España otherwise known as Catalonia, Spain. It was lovely: 30 C and sunny every day compared with 15 C and lashing rain back home in Northern Ireland as the tail end of hurricane Ernesto passed over. And if that wasn’t enough, the pastries from the patisserie next door to the hotel were amazing.

As I lazed on my sun lounger in between laps of the pool, I took the opportunity to check out the tech of my fellow tourists. Lots of smart watches and activity trackers from the likes of Apple, Fitbit, Samsung and Garmin, but what was noticeable in their absence were e-readers – I didn’t see a single Kindle, Nook or Kobo. There was still plenty of reading going on, but people were using phones, tablets or traditional paperbacks.

Thinking about it, I’m not terribly surprised. A couple of things have contributed to the slow demise of e-readers (and I’d definitely distinguish that from e-books which are still going strong). First, the screens on smartphones and tablets have become so much better. Ten years ago, you would have struggled to read in strong sunlight but now the brightness of the displays copes well. Secondly, smartphone screens are bigger with a better resolution and colour. My Nook has a 6″ ePaper display versus my OnePlus 10’s 6.7″ AMOLED. It’s not just my observation either. Statista reports that in 2024 only 12% of people in the US own an e-reader, whereas in 2014 the figure was closer to 32%.

Unless you buy into the Amazon Kindle ecosystem, the booksellers haven’t done themselves any favours. My main reader is a Nook Simple Touch with Glow Light from 2012 and I’ve an original Nook (the one with the colour display along the bottom) that still works fine although the battery life’s a bit short. My biggest bugbears are that devices are becoming unsupported – you can’t buy digital content on device anymore and new PCs don’t recognise the e-readers when connected via USB. And don’t get me started on Adobe Digital Editions, which last saw major update in 2016 and has largely only received security fixes since then. It pains me (and my wallet) to buy a new device because of unnecessary obsolescence and corporate laziness.

The big benefit of an e-reader is not only the e-paper but also the lack of distractions. On my phone or tablet, there are always notifications coming in from other apps to divert your attention. Yes, there’s the “Do Not Disturb” setting but you do need to remember to turn it on. You need that peace to get into a book, though children yelling from the pool don’t always allow that either.

E-readers aren’t completely standing still. There are two innovations that have popped up recently: colour screens and Android OS. E-readers such as the Kobo Clara Colour offer a colour reading experience and Boox has e-readers with Google Play. They’re based on Android 11 or 12 but the opportunity to use any app (Kindle, Overdrive, Libby) for reading is powerful and brings much greater ease of use, hopefully without the distractions of a tablet. I suspect my next e-reader will be from Boox.

These innovations could see a resurgence in e-readers but with the cost of living going ever upwards, I feel that people will stick with what they have.