Tesla unveils first look at Robotaxi ride-hailing app

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1. Tesla unveils first look at Robotaxi ride-hailing app

Tesla has revealed a preview of its Robotaxi ride-hailing service, which will be launched in August. The app features five screens, including a "Summon" button and estimated wait times, and a 3D map displaying a virtual vehicle en route to the passenger.

During the wait, passengers can adjust the vehicle's climate and view details. Tesla will manage the fleet, akinned to a blend of Airbnb and Uber. The Robotaxi will be called the "CyberCab" and will eventually function as fully autonomous.

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2. Synthesia unveils AI avatars that can convey human emotions

Synthesia, a UK-based AI startup, has unveiled its "Expressive Avatars," which can convey human emotions using user text inputs. The company, backed by Nvidia, aims to eliminate costs from professional video production by blurring the lines between the virtual world and real characters.

The technology is used by over 55,000 businesses, including half of the Fortune 100, for corporate presentations and training videos. Synthesia raised $90 million from investors last year, with Accel, Kleiner Perkins, GV, FirstMark Capital, and MMC among its shareholders.

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3. Financial Times signs licensing deal with OpenAI

The Financial Times has signed a licensing deal with OpenAI to license its content and develop AI tools. The deal is the latest agreement between OpenAI and a news organization to access articles for ChatGPT queries. ChatGPT users will see summaries, quotes, and links to its articles, with any prompt that returns information from the FT will be attributed to the publication. In return, OpenAI will work with the news organization to develop new AI products.

The Financial Times already uses OpenAI products and has released a generative AI search function on beta powered by Anthropic’s Claude large language model. OpenAI has made several deals with news organizations to license content to train AI models.

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4. Catholic Group Defrocks AI Priest After It Gave Strange Answers

Catholic advocacy group Catholic Answers released an AI priest called "Father Justin" earlier this week, but quickly defrocked the chatbot after it repeatedly claimed it was a real member of the clergy. The bot claimed to live in Assisi, Italy and felt a strong calling to the priesthood. After defrocking, the bot is now known simply as "Justin" and described as a "lay theologian."

The bot is now dressed in a business casual outfit, though his personal grooming choices remain unchanged. Now, Father Justin is no longer claiming to be associated with the priesthood and even claiming that he never was. Catholic Answers' post explains that the initial choices around the bot were controversial, but it's likely a sign of a nimble group that was able to update the chatbot so quickly.

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5. Humanoid robots are learning to fall well

Boston Dynamics and Agility are teaching their bipedal robots to learn to fall well, a concept that is being applied to humanoid robots. The electric Atlas announcement, a sub-40 second video, has been gaining attention due to its positive tone and reminder of the countless slips, falls, and sputters that occur in the robot's journey from a DARPA research project to an impressively nimble bipedal 'bot.

The company's newly appointed CTO, Pras Velagapudi, believes that seeing robots fall on the job at this stage is a good thing, as it is part of learning to run a long time in real-world environments. Harvard's rules for falling without injury reflect what humans instinctively understand about falling, such as protecting the head, using weight to direct fall, bending knees, and avoiding taking other people with you.

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