Data Sheet: China detentions, Tesla robotaxi, AMD AI chip, Apple Vision Pro
Good morning. Who will solve our trust problem in the Age of Intelligence?
Here’s a list of things we currently distrust: artificial intelligence as a concept, companies that make AI, tools powered by AI, labels that say “AI-generated,” election information synthesized by AI, workplace transformations centered around AI, medical care informed by AI, cars that drive themselves thanks to AI, videos created using AI. And that’s just the tip of the generated iceberg.
I dunno whether to blame the proliferation of irritating chatbots or too many late-night viewings of Total Recall, but here’s what I do know: Too many of us are not enjoying the ride. —Andrew Nusca
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China detains iPhone factory employees
If there’s one thing businesses like, it’s stability. And there’s nothing stable about authorities entering your facilities to detain your employees—let alone on allegations you can’t quite parse.
That’s precisely what happened in China this week. According to a Wall Street Journal report, four employees working in the Zhengzhou factory of Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group—a major manufacturing partner for Apple’s iPhone—were “accused of an offense akin to breach of trust” and removed from the premises.
Is this a Taiwan-China thing? Perhaps. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, which manages so-called Cross-Strait relations with Beijing, warned that improper detentions could hurt investor confidence.
You best believe Taiwanese business leaders have their head on a swivel. Foxconn alone makes Apple goods as well as devices for Google, Nintendo, Sony, and Xiaomi. And Taiwan’s TSMC remains one of the largest chip-makers on earth, with several large fabs in mainland China and a customer list that includes Apple, Nvidia, and Intel.
Of course, it’s complicated. Watch this space. —AN
Behold, a Tesla robotaxi
The public has finally gotten a glimpse of something Elon Musk has promised for years: a self-driving Tesla taxi.
Musk showed off the long-awaited Cybercab last night: A two-seater with no steering wheel or pedals, it can only be charged inductively and will allegedly go into production “before 2027” at a cost “below $30,000.”
People will be able to buy the vehicle for themselves, allowing strangers to use it when the owner isn’t, but Musk avoided crucial details. Who will maintain it, or provide support when it gets stuck?
Musk also revealed an autonomous bus called the Robovan—which he insisted on pronouncing “ra-BOH-vin”—and claimed Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robots would be “the biggest product ever of any kind.”
He also delayed the activation of genuine, unsupervised full-self-driving capabilities in existing Teslas for at least the seventh time, now promising they will go live next year in Texas and California.
Investors were unimpressed, with Tesla’s stock falling 5% in pre-market trading. —David Meyer
AMD debuts AI chip to take on Nvidia’s Blackwell
Talk to anyone in the semiconductor business and there’s one question above all: Who will take down Nvidia?
It’s not that people despise Jensen Huang and his high-flying company; far from it—the admiration (jealousy?) for the onetime Fortune Businessperson of the Year is real.
But most folks recognize that the Silicon Valley company’s wildly profitable grip on the rapidly growing datacenter AI market—many estimates put Nvidia’s share at an astonishing 90%—can’t last forever, at least not without enduring some serious competition.
Enter AMD, led by cousin Lisa Su. The Silicon Valley company on Thursday unveiled its Instinct MI325X, a chip it believes will rival Nvidia’s Blackwell. AMD says the chip will begin production by the end of the year, but didn’t disclose the price.
AI chips are only a fraction of the broader datacenter chip business, but demand for them has exploded. AMD says it is accelerating its roadmap to catch up. One thing to look out for: AMD uses a different programming language than Nvidia, and there’s a lock-in effect to overcome in compelling customers to switch. But as the old saying goes: money talks. —AN
The exec in charge of Apple’s Vision Pro departs
Apple’s Dan Riccio, the hardware executive turned Vision Pro leader, is retiring after 26 years at the company.
After leading Apple’s iPad division through the tablet’s early days, Riccio became senior vice president of hardware engineering in 2012. In 2021, he was replaced by John Ternus. Riccio then took over what turned out to be Apple’s Vision Pro virtual reality headset.
The $3,500 goggles have struggled to gain traction. “A little too far out,” Wired said. “It’s in my life, sometimes,” CNET wrote. “Magic, until it’s not,” acknowledged The Verge. You get the conflicted picture.
Ternus will now oversee Riccio’s Vision Products Group…and perhaps establish a new vision for spatial computing. —Jenn Brice
X dodges new Europe tech regulations
Seems Elon Musk’s X will escape the toughest bits of the EU’s new tech antitrust law.
According to Reuters, the social media service won’t be designated as a “gatekeeper” under the Digital Markets Act, meaning it won’t have to do things like make its direct messaging service interoperable with those on other platforms.
X also won’t be forced to give advertisers tools to independently verify their ads on the platform, which is good for X if not the advertisers.
However, skirting the worst of the DMA doesn’t let X off the hook in Europe—it still has to abide by the also-newish Digital Services Act, which governs content.
X got hit with DSA charges a few months back—about its “deceptive” blue checks, and its lack of transparency around ads and research data—and those potentially come with fines of up to 6% of global revenues.
So one crisis has been averted, but the other is very much still in play. —DM
More data
—Lina Khan would like another term as FTC chair. Reid Hoffman thinks [message redacted].
—Crypto returns to Stripe in the U.S. We love a stablecoin.
—A Darktrace co-founder is now the UK investment minister. Computer, initiate Founder Mode.
—The U.S. government now controls $4.4 billion worth of bitcoin. Stolen proceeds from the Silk Road darknet market, the IRS says.
—Silicon Valley’s true strength isn’t creating new tech. It’s improving and expanding existing tech, Vivek Wadhwa argues.
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