Baidu’s Apollo Go is now on Uber in Dubai, with no safety driver
Baidu’s Apollo Go is now on Uber in Dubai, with no safety driver

Uber has put Baidu’s driverless robotaxis on its app in Dubai. Book an UberX or an Uber Comfort there now and the app may match you with an Apollo Go vehicle that has nobody in it. A dedicated “Autonomous” option raises the odds for anyone who wants on…

Alibaba’s profit fell 75% as quarterly AI spending hit $10bn
Alibaba’s profit fell 75% as quarterly AI spending hit $10bn

Alibaba’s net profit fell 75% in the June quarter, to $1.54bn. The cause was not a weak business. It was the bill for building one. Capital spending reached $9.98bn in three months, up 75% on the same quarter last year, according to the results announc…

White House tech strategy leaves open-weight AI off its critical list
White House tech strategy leaves open-weight AI off its critical list

The White House has published a new National Security Science and Technology strategy. It names 15 critical technology areas the United States intends to lead. Artificial intelligence and autonomy is one of them, with 12 subfields listed underneath. Op…

China’s robot traffic police can do almost everything except stop you
China’s robot traffic police can do almost everything except stop you

China’s robot traffic police can direct cars, scold jaywalkers, and give a lost tourist directions to the nearest metro station. What they cannot do is stop anybody, and that limitation is written into the design rather than left to the machine’s discr…

Unitree’s founder says robots are nearing a ‘ChatGPT moment’
Unitree’s founder says robots are nearing a ‘ChatGPT moment’

Wang Xingxing spent Thursday morning at the World Robot Conference in Beijing telling the room that humanoid robots are approaching their “ChatGPT moment”. He spent another part of the same appearance explaining why that moment might still be a decade …

Uber’s first European AV rides go live in Zagreb, with a safety driver
Uber’s first European AV rides go live in Zagreb, with a safety driver

Uber has begun offering autonomous rides in Europe for the first time, in the Croatian capital, Zagreb. From Wednesday, riders there can book a self-driving car through the Uber app, the company said. The service is run with the Chinese firm Pony.ai an…

Samsung hiked foundry prices up to 15%, with China paying the steepest
Samsung hiked foundry prices up to 15%, with China paying the steepest

Samsung has raised prices for some of its advanced contract chipmaking by as much as 15 percent for new orders, according to a Reuters report. Two people familiar with the matter said the increases follow a surge in demand for AI chips. That demand is …

T-Mobile ‘chopped a cable’ to expel Chinese hackers from its network

The U.S. phone provider escaped a large-scale breach of its network after identifying Chinese-backed hackers early on.

China lands a rocket booster on the ground for the first time
China lands a rocket booster on the ground for the first time

The Chinese startup LandSpace recovered the first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket on Wednesday. It is one of only a handful of private companies to land an orbital-class booster. Reuters reported that the feat places LandSpace alongside SpaceX and Blue Or…

TikTok is building a way to send money inside DMs
TikTok is building a way to send money inside DMs

TikTok is working on a way for users to send each other money inside direct messages, according to Bloomberg. The feature would run on TikTok Pay, the app’s existing payment system, Bloomberg reported. Natalie Lung and Alexandra Levine wrote that refer…