🤖 Kim’s new BFF: Kim Kardashian’s showing off her new Tesla robot on X and Instagram. In one clip, she makes half of a heart with her hand and the bot completes it. In another, she teaches it to blow a kiss and tries the game Rock, Paper, Scissors. Optimus goes into full production by 2026 for $20,000 to $30,000 a pop. I wonder if another Kim K. can get a freebie …
Elon Musk and Sam Altman are fighting like kids on the playground
By The Royal Society, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=152333860; By TechCrunch - TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2019 - Day 2, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=127902290
It feels like forever ago. The first time I tried ChatGPT, I knew it would change everything. Back in 2022, images of people had seven fingers and every other thing a chatbot spit out was nonsense. I asked Google’s Gemini for a Bible verse and it told me no because the Bible was a copyrighted work. Yikes.
At first, few of us seriously considered AI taking over our jobs, rewriting history or even creating wars. But the tech kept advancing, and then came DeepSeek, an AI model from Communist China. Suddenly, the stakes felt even higher.
In the middle of all this, we have Elon Musk and Sam Altman fighting like two kids on the playground. Before you send me a note asking why I’m talking about politics … don’t.
This is what’s happening in the world and you need to know about it. If it comes up in conversation, you’ll have an educated opinion.
These two go way back
In 2015, Altman was a 30-year-old Stanford dropout who sold his first company for $43.3 million. Musk was already a billionaire, and his companies were churning out Teslas, rocket ships and the first Starlink satellites.
That year, Musk and Altman got together with nine other folks interested in artificial intelligence to start OpenAI. Three years later, in 2018, Musk put in an offer to take over OpenAI and it was rejected. He then left to start his own AI efforts at Tesla.
Fast-forward to 2022, when OpenAI changed the world with ChatGPT. Musk wasn’t about to be left behind; he launched his own AI, Grok, about a year later. It hasn’t gotten nearly the buzz ChatGPT has.
Last year, Musk sued Altman and OpenAI (more on that below). He withdrew the suit and then refiled it a few months later. They’ve been bickering for years.
Now it’s in the global spotlight
Earlier this week, Musk and a group of investors made a $97.4 billion bid to buy OpenAI.
Altman fired back on X, offering to buy Twitter (X’s former name) for $9.74 billion, knowing fully well Musk paid $44 billion for the platform, whose value has since plummeted. Ouch. Musk called him a “swindler” for that one.
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He must have used Bono as his GPS voice: A Tesla driver was following Google Maps on a mountain and took the wrong turn. Instead of sticking to the clearly marked roadway, he ended up on a ski slope. Luckily, the ski patrol spotted the car, chased it down and stopped it. The driver still doesn’t know what he was looking for.
🚨 850K vehicles recalled! Tesla, Ford, Toyota, Maserati, Volkswagen and Rivian are dealing with crash risks, seat belt issues, rearview camera errors and more. If your car is affected, you should receive a notice by mail, but it’s worth calling your dealership to confirm. Own a Tesla? Use your VIN with the search tool to check.
To the moon: The New York Stock Exchange is moving its fully electronic stock market headquarters from Chicago to Dallas. Why? They say it’s because Texas has the most NYSE listings of any state, with over $3.7 trillion in market value. You’d better believe the business-friendly taxes and regulations are a draw, too. Look at Elon Musk. Tesla’s HQ moved to Austin in 2021, and he says X and SpaceX are next.
Las Vegas bombing: Matthew Livelsberger, the soldier who blew up a Tesla Cybertruck outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, used ChatGPT to build the bomb and coordinate the explosion. OpenAI says they’re “saddened” and that their tool only shared public info and warned him about harmful and illegal activities. This is the first known case of ChatGPT being used for terrorism. It’s not going to be the last.
October 19th, 2024
Leaked TikTok docs show how teens can get hooked in just 35 minutes, and it gets worse — over 4 million people are using ‘nudify bots’ to undress people with just a photo. Plus, QR code scams are on the rise, Tesla’s Optimus bots are serving drinks, and the FTC’s new ‘click-to-cancel’ rule could make subscriptions easier to manage.
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