(This article is part of Today’s Cache, The Hindu’s newsletter on emerging themes at the intersection of technology, innovation and policy. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here.)
Musk’s xAI to have open source chatbot
Elon Musk announced his AI company xAI would open source its chatbot Grok that is available as part of his social media platform X, formerly Twitter. While announcing that Grok will be open source, Musk said that OpenAI was a “lie”.
Musk has filed a lawsuit against the maker of ChatGPT, OpenAI, accusing the AI startup and its chief Sam Altmen of departing from the “original mission and historical practice of making its technology available to the public”, by keeping GPT-4’s internal design largely secret. OpenAI responded to the accusations and said it disagreed with his claim that the company was keeping the tech to itself.
Tesla, rivals score low for automated-driving tech
Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self Driving technology and nine other assisted-driving systems marketed by major automakers received “poor” ratings from the U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in a new study. The IIHS, a safety research arm of the Insurance industry, also said there is no evidence that Autopilot or other assisted-driving systems have real-world safety benefits, based on crash data.
The report comes at a time when Federal regulators are investigating nearly 1,000 accidents in which Tesla Autopilot was in use. Tesla and its CEO Eon Musk meanwhile have maintained that a Tesla operating with the Autopilot engaged is 10 times safer than the U.S. average and five times safer than a Tesla without the technology enabled. Different assisted-driving systems that received a “poor” rating included Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Nissan, Ford, GM, Hyundai’s Genesis brand and Geely’s Volvo car brands.
Airbnb bans indoor security cameras
Airbnb said it is banning the use of indoor security cameras in listings on its site around the world by the end of next month. The San Francisco-based online rental platform said it is seeking to “simplify” its security-camera policy while prioritising privacy.
Airbnb had allowed the use of indoor security cameras in common areas, as long as the locations of the cameras were disclosed on the listings page. Under the new policy, hosts will still be allowed to use doorbell cameras and noise-decibel monitors, which are only allows in common spaces, as long as the location of the devices are disclosed.
