Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

BYD is developing its own rival to Tesla’s Optimus robot, and one of the Chinese automaker’s top executives wants it on the showroom floor selling cars.In an interview with Business Insider’s editor in chief, Jamie Heller, at the Cannes Lions festival, BYD executive vice president Stella Li said building humanoid robots for the home and service industry will be a “huge” market for the company.”My goal is to bring two or three robots to every single store. They can explain to the customer, they can have fun, they can even show the car, demonstrate the car,” said Li, who predicted that the technology for…

Even off the clock, Danny Hamam feels like he’s falling behind.The software engineer, who lives in New York City, said every new AI tool release can trigger a fresh wave of anxiety.”The first thought that I get isn’t that, ‘Oh, this is so exciting. Another AI tool dropped.’ It’s, ‘I’m behind. I have to learn this ASAP,'” Hamam said. “So you start freaking out.”Hamam, like many tech workers, is confronting an ever-growing wave of AI tools that kick-started with the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. Since then, Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI have been in an arms race to outdo…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Matthew Willsey, a neurosurgeon who specializes in brain-computer interfaces. It has been edited for length and clarity.Before I became a neurosurgeon, I was an electrical engineer.I graduated from MIT with my undergraduate degree and pursued my master’s in electrical engineering. I did my thesis with Alan Oppenheim, a professor who helped pioneer the field of digital signal processing.Signal processing looks at how to extract information from signals. In many ways, that’s similar to what we do with brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).Around 2009, I saw a video of someone controlling a computer cursor…

Ryan Petersen has a blunt view of the future of work.During an interview on the “Twenty Minute VC” podcast, the CEO of Flexport, a global freight forwarding and customs brokerage company, said his firm will likely keep staffing headcount flat while spending more on AI.He also expects employees to clock in at the office, and didn’t mince words describing what he thought about remote work.At one point in the interview, Petersen called remote work “white collar fraud” — citing workday distractions and a decay in workplace culture.”I have a three-year-old and a five-year-old. The idea that I could do any…

Polaroid is taking another shot at AI — this time by targeting the massive data centers powering the technology.The 89-year-old camera company recently unveiled a billboard at Brooklyn, New York’s iconic Coney Island Beach that reads: “Go jump in some water before the data centers drink it all up.”Polaroid is one of a growing crop of brands leaning into anti-AI marketing. The company’s latest ad is part of its global marketing campaign titled “the best of summer is analog,” tied to the launch of its new Go Generation 3 camera.In an Instagram post on Monday, the company echoed the billboard’s…

One AI startup just sued the US government for cutting its access to Anthropic’s top models.On Tuesday, legal tech company Legion filed a suit in Washington, D.C. over a government order requiring Anthropic to keep its models Fable 5 and Mythos 5 away from foreign nationals.Earlier this month, Anthropic said it would disable access to both models following a letter from the US government asking it to bar foreign individuals and entities from using the products. The AI lab said this rule would bar some Anthropic employees from using the tools. In order to comply, the company initially disabled access…

Why did Bill Gates have so many meetings with Jeffrey Epstein?According to the Microsoft founder, Epstein had something few other people could offer: connections to billionaires planning where their money would go when they died.The ultrawealthy sex offender had pitched himself as someone who could help bring enormous sums of money to the Gates Foundation’s global health initiatives from Wall Street and Middle East billionaires figuring out their estate plans, Gates told a congressional committee.”It was because of his purported relationship with billionaires, and because he was part of those tax and will discussions, that it seemed credible to me…

Elon Musk is headed back down to Earth.The richest person in the world is no longer a trillionaire after Tesla and SpaceX share prices plunged during Tuesday’s global stock sell-off. He is now worth $957 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.Musk became a trillionaire earlier this month, moments after SpaceX’s historic initial public offering valued the rocket company at more than $2 trillion. The stock rallied for days, with retail investors eager to get in on the company’s sci-fi-like promises.But this week, SpaceX’s stock has plummeted. Shares closed around $156 on Tuesday, down more than 30% from an intraday peak…

Indian customer engagement software firm MoEngage has acquired San Francisco-based startup Aampe in an all-cash deal, betting that AI agents that make decisions for individual customers will become the future of marketing. MoEngage did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction, but a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that the all-cash deal was worth tens of millions of dollars. Founded in 2020, Aampe develops software that assigns a dedicated AI agent to each customer, allowing brands to personalize messaging based on individual behavior rather than traditional audience segments and campaign rules. The startup has more than 30…

Mark Zuckerberg wants Meta’s latest AI glasses to be more than a gadget.For the Meta CEO, the challenge isn’t cramming more AI into a pair of frames — it’s making glasses people actually want to wear.During an interview with Feed Me creator Emily Sundberg, Zuckerberg sounded less like a Silicon Valley executive and more like a fashion designer.”I think there’s going to be a spectrum both of styles and different amounts of functionality and different price points,” Zuckerberg said. “But the challenge is that each one you need to hit the sweet spot of making it good-looking and comfortable to…