Monday, January 6, 2025

Avataar debuts Velocity, an AI tool that generates product videos based on a product link, and says HP, Victoria's Secret, Lowe's, and others are using the tool (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Avataar debuts Velocity, an AI tool that generates product videos based on a product link, and says HP, Victoria's Secret, Lowe's, and others are using the tool  —  Generative AI models have reached a baseline capability of producing at least a passable video from a single image or short sentence.



Sam Altman says "we are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it" and that OpenAI is turning its focus to superintelligence (Sam Altman)

Sam Altman:
Sam Altman says “we are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it” and that OpenAI is turning its focus to superintelligence  —  The second birthday of ChatGPT was only a little over a month ago, and now we have transitioned into the next paradigm of models that can do complex reasoning.



Uber and Lyft are embracing autonomous vehicle operators like Waymo, May Mobility, and others, after abandoning their own self-driving car programs (Preetika Rana/Wall Street Journal)

Preetika Rana / Wall Street Journal:
Uber and Lyft are embracing autonomous vehicle operators like Waymo, May Mobility, and others, after abandoning their own self-driving car programs  —  After ending their own driverless plans, the ride-sharing companies are embracing autonomous-vehicle operators and offering new app features



Sources: India plans $2.7B in fresh subsidies and import tariff cuts to boost local manufacturing, especially of smartphones made by companies like Apple (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Sources: India plans $2.7B in fresh subsidies and import tariff cuts to boost local manufacturing, especially of smartphones made by companies like Apple  —  - Proposed incentives will help smartphone makers like Apple  — Final decision to be made by cabinet; details likely in budget



Sources: the US State Department ordered embassies to push back against foreign influence campaigns, as officials worry anti-US views are taking root worldwide (New York Times)

New York Times : Sources: the US State Department ordered embassies to push back against foreign influence campaigns, as officials worry ...