Apple’s rumored six-inch ‘AI wall tablet’ could control your smart home by March 2025

Pivot 5: 5 stories. 5 minutes a day. 5 days a week.

1. Apple’s rumored six-inch ‘AI wall tablet’ could control your smart home by March 2025

Apple is rumored to be working on a wall-mounted smart home display that will control smart home devices, attend video calls, and more. The iPad-like device, expected to be available in March, will have a six-inch display with thick edges, a built-in camera, a rechargeable battery, and speakers.

It will also have Siri and Apple Intelligence voice control support. The display will use sensors to detect proximity and support the company's Handoff feature, allowing users to continue tasks across different devices. The display will be available in silver and black, and a more expensive version with a robotic arm is also rumored.

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2. Amazon steps up effort to rival Nvidia in AI chip market

Amazon is investing heavily in custom AI chips, including Trainium 2, to challenge Nvidia's dominance in the market. The company aims to offer a compelling alternative to Nvidia, which currently holds the world's most valuable company in the AI processor market.

Amazon's investment in AI chips is substantial, with the majority allocated to technology infrastructure. However, Amazon has yet to significantly dent Nvidia's dominance in the AI infrastructure market. Offering customers more choice could be a key factor in challenging Nvidia's market share.

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3. Trump victory could ease regulatory path for Musk’s robotaxi

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is expected to influence President-elect Donald Trump's pick for the next Transportation Department secretary, potentially helping break through regulatory roadblocks in delivering self-driving robotaxis. Tesla currently faces a diverse landscape of state driverless-vehicle laws, and Musk has expressed his desire for one federal approval process if Trump wins.

However, even if Musk secures favorable regulation, Tesla would still face technological and legal hurdles in deploying driverless vehicles, along with questions over how to insure them. Tesla currently has the lowest-level California permit, which allows testing with human-driver oversight.

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4. Apple launches Final Cut Pro 11 with even more AI features

Apple's Final Cut Pro 11 is now available for free for existing users and a $299 one-time purchase for new users. The update includes new AI masking tools, the ability to generate captions directly in the timeline, spatial video editing features, and workflow improvements.

Magnetic Mask, a desktop feature, allows users to isolate subjects and apply color adjustments to them. Autogenerating captions in the timeline is also a new feature, but it may misspell common words and make spelling errors. The update also includes the ability to edit spatial video.

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5. Inside the Billion-Dollar Startup Bringing AI Into the Physical World

Physical Intelligence, a startup in San Francisco, aims to give robots a profound artificial intelligence upgrade. The company has raised $400 million from investors including OpenAI and Jeff Bezos, at a valuation of over $2 billion.

The startup believes it can give robots humanlike understanding of the physical world and dexterity by feeding sensor and motion data from robots performing vast demonstrations into its master AI model. The goal is to breathe intelligence into a robot just by connecting it to its model.

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