This Week in AI: The Tesla Robotaxi Takes AI on the Road

Tesla's long-promised next step in AI is coming, and it's in the form of new robotaxi technology CEO Elon Musk showed off in California on Thursday.

The new cars, shown in sizes ranging from a two-door model somewhat similar in design to the Model 3 (though without a back glass, side mirrors, steering wheel or pedals) to a group transport bus.

"The cost of autonomous transport will be so low that you can think of it like individualized mass transit," Musk said, during the event, noting that the operating cost of the company's "Cybercab" will be as much as 40 cents per mile, less than half $1 per mile he said typical mass transport costs today. He added that he hopes people will be able to buy Cybercabs for less than $30,000, with production before 2027.

The Tesla CEO also said he expects Tesla to begin testing "fully-autonomous unsupervised" self-driving cars in California and Texas next year. 

Tesla's robotaxi efforts come as competition is quickly heating up for automated vehicles. Most notably, Google's Waymo division has been testing self-driving taxi services in California, Arizona, and other states.

While the project has become popular with some riders, other residents have complained about the vehicles causing traffic backups and collisions. People in one San Francisco neighborhood were even inundated with automated honking from Waymo cars in one parking lot were waking them up late at night. (Waymo, for its part, rolled out software fixes to prevent the noise.)

Musk also said the company's robotaxis will not have any plugs, but rather will run on inductive wireless charging. "It's kind of how it should be," he said.

Nobel Prize(s) awarded for AI

Two of the pioneers for AI, John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton, were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for helping to invent technologies that made modern-day AI large language models (LLM's) possible.

“These two gentlemen were really the pioneers,” said Nobel physics committee member Mark Pearce, according to a report from the Associated Press. 

Though both men helped to invent AI technologies, Hinton in particular has drawn attention to how it could be used to confuse and manipulate us, upending our shared understanding of reality.

Meanwhile, another AI pioneer, Demis Hassabis, of Google's Deep Mind AI lab, shared the prize for chemistry by using AI to understand and predict the complex structures of proteins. 

Apple Intelligence is getting closer

Shortly after Apple announced its on-device AI technology, called Apple Intelligence, the company said it would begin public testing sometime this fall. Now, we have a date: October 28.

Bloomberg reported that Apple's first iteration of the much-hyped technology will include notification summaries, while future iterations will offer tools like ChatGPT integration. Bloomberg said more advanced app controls will not arrive until around the springtime next year.

Hearst and OpenAI partner up

ChatGPT maker OpenAI said it signed an agreement with publisher Hearst, which oversees more than 20 magazine brands and over 40 newspapers, including OpenAI's hometown San Francisco Chronicle.

OpenAI said its deal would ensure Hearst publications are used for citations and links within ChatGPT's answers. It also marks another instance where an AI startup is striking a licensing deal with a large media company, rather than risking a potential lawsuit over copyright concerns that The New York Times, Getty Images, Forbes and Condé Nast have raised. Rather than striking agreements, some large media companies have spoken out, claiming that AI startups like OpenAI, Anthropic and others are reportedly misappropriating their intellectual property. 

Virginia county testing AI for 911

Fairfax County is turning to AI to help manage the flow of 911 calls it receives, local news station WTOP reports. The county said the new AI system is designed to prevent "lengthy wait times" for requests that may not need immediate human attention.

“What has worked for Fairfax County for so many years, which is taking all these calls by phone, is not sustainable in 2024,” said Scott Brillman, director for the county’s department of public safety communications, in WTOP's report. He added that it’s a growing problem for jurisdictions across the country.