Tesla and Google’s autonomous vehicle launches this week have sent self-driving tech companies soaring

The mostly successful launch of Tesla’s robotaxi in Austin as well as the expansion of Google-owned Waymo this week have been lifting the tide for other autonomous companies.

That includes companies working on the software and hardware that make it possible for cars to drive themselves.

They’re firms like Aeva, which provides lidar technology to manufacturers and is up 34% since last Friday. (Waymo uses lidar technology, while Tesla notably doesn’t.) Mobileye, which makes autonomous driving and advanced driver assistance systems and has partnered with Volkswagen, is up 25%. Meanwhile, Uber is reportedly trying to help its former CEO, Travis Kalanick, buy autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai, a Toyota partner whose stock is up 23% this week.

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Jon Keegan11h

OpenAI’s hot Sora video app is a copyright lawsuit waiting to happen

OpenAI has generated some serious buzz surrounding its new Sora video generation app. The app is currently No. 3 on the iOS free app leaderboards, even though it’s invitation-only for the time being.

But users have been flooding social media with videos generated by Sora, and in addition to a “Skibidi Toilet” Sam Altman and the OpenAI CEO dressed as a Nazi, the app is able to create videos featuring iconic characters from Disney, Nintendo, and Paramount Skydance.

On the system card for the Sora 2 AI model (which powers the Sora app), OpenAI says it was trained on things found on the internet:

“Sora 2 was trained on diverse datasets, including information that is publicly available on the internet, information that we partner with third parties to access, and information that our users or human trainers and researchers provide or generate.”

This seems like an invitation for a big copyright lawsuit, along the lines of the one Disney, Dreamworks, and NBCUniversal recently filed against AI image generator Midjourney.

But OpenAI is trying to flip the responsibility of protecting copyrighted material to the intellectual property owners themselves. According to The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI is allowing copyrighted material in Sora by default, unless copyright holders opt out of the service.

The courts will have to decide if this novel approach to intellectual copyright law works, but government regulators may not be that big of a problem, as Altman has made sure OpenAI is in the good graces of the Trump administration. If OpenAI has to pay up to copyright holders after a lawsuit, what’s a few billion dollars here or there when you’re raising so much capital?

OpenAI’s AI video app stirs copyright questions, pumping out videos of Mario and Pikachu

On the system card for the Sora 2 AI model (which powers the Sora app), OpenAI says it was trained on things found on the internet:

“Sora 2 was trained on diverse datasets, including information that is publicly available on the internet, information that we partner with third parties to access, and information that our users or human trainers and researchers provide or generate.”

This seems like an invitation for a big copyright lawsuit, along the lines of the one Disney, Dreamworks, and NBCUniversal recently filed against AI image generator Midjourney.

Rani Molla

13h

Tesla delivered way more Teslas than it produced last quarter

That’s helping it claw its way through its surplus.

GOP Lawmakers In D.C. Poised To Vote On Waivers That Allow California To Set Own Emissions Standards

Tension emerges between Meta’s AI teams

Discontent between Meta’s AI research teams is growing, according to a report by The Information, at a critical time for Meta’s effort to get back into the AI race.

Jon Keegan14h

Rani Molla

Mon-AI Mon-AI Mon-AI Mon-AI

16h

OpenAI beats SpaceX as most valuable private company, at $500 billion valuation

It also reached that valuation very quickly.

Woman with binoculars looking for solutions to financial uncertainty

Rani Molla

Electric quarter

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Tesla deliveries surge to quarterly record on last gasp of EV tax credit

Tesla reported its highly anticipated third-quarter delivery numbers.

California Is Ending The Clean Air Vehicle Decal Allowing Electric Vehicle Drivers To Go Solo In Carpool Lane

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