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Chinese tech firms Baidu and SenseTime launched their ChatGPT-style AI bots to the public on Thursday, marking a new milestone in the global AI race.

Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla is reportedly under a federal investigation over a mysterious project that might involve the construction of a “glass house” for its chief Elon Musk. Federal authorities are probing whether the EV company’s funds were being used for Mr Musk’s own personal use, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The US attorney’s office in New York has sent subpoenas to current and former employees at Tesla, asking information about the company’s purchase of hard-to-get construction materials, and investigating whether the project involved appropriate use of the EV-maker’s funds, according to Bloomberg. The strange project appears to be for a “dramatic glass-walled building” close to Tesla’s Texas headquarters, the Journal noted. Prosecutors are also reportedly reviewing Tesla’s 2022 purchase order for a construction material – “a special kind of glass”. But a mere investigation by federal agencies does not mean there is likely any criminal or civil proceedings ahead, as officials sometimes start inquiries that can lead to dead-ends. It also remains unclear if the project is still under work, or if any construction material was ever delivered. Tesla has not immediately responded to The Independent’s request for comments. Mr Musk has previously expressed interest in building a “utopia” in Texas, constructing a whole new town from scratch on thousands of acres of farmland Tesla bought outside the state capital Austin. In March, the Tesla titan attended meetings with land owners and real estate agents, where he and his staff outlined his ideas for the project, The Independent reported. Mr Musk reportedly wants his staff around Austin – including employees at SpaceX, Tesla and the Boring Company – to be able to live in new homes for rents below market value. Local court documents filed in January also show plans to build over 100 homes near “Snailbrook” – a reference to the Boring Company mascot “Gary the Snail.” A town needs at least 201 residents and approval from a county judge to be incorporated, according to Texas law. Documents also reveal further plans to build 110 more homes in the planned town “Project Amazing”. Read More Elon Musk booed at video games contest as crowds shout: ‘Bring back Twitter!’ Meta could finally launch Threads feature everyone is waiting for Musk admits X may be doomed to fail as glitch wipes out old pictures from Twitter Elon Musk booed at video games contest as crowds shout: ‘Bring back Twitter!’ ‘San Francisco will end up like Detroit’: Why Elon Musk and tech CEOs are fighting lawsuit on homeless crisis Elon Musk’s SpaceX sued over allegations of hiring discrimination

U.S. colleges are searching for solutions as they see alarming numbers of students arrive with gaps in their math skills

An artificial intelligence system has achieved a key milestone by winning multiple races against three world-class drone-racing champions, marking the first time AI has beat humans at a physical sport. The AI system called Swift, developed by researchers from the University of Zurich in Germany and Intel, could prove its mettle in first-person view (FPV) drone racing – a sport in which pilots fly quadcopters at speeds exceeding 100kmph. Until now AI systems have achieved a number of remarkable victories over humans in a range of strategy-based games, including IBM’s Deep Blue winning at chess against Gary Kasparov in 1996 and Google’s AlphaGo defeating top Go champion Lee Sedol in 2016. However, physical sports are more challenging for AI as they are less predictable than board or video games. “We don’t have a perfect knowledge of the drone and environment models, so the AI needs to learn them by interacting with the physical world,” Davide Scaramuzza, one of the authors of the study from the University of Zurich, explained. AI-driven autonomous drones have until now taken twice as long as those piloted by humans to fly through racetracks unless an external position-tracking system was used to precisely control their trajectories. But the new Swift AI drone, described in a new study in the journal Nature, has demonstrated that it can react in real-time to the data collected by an onboard camera, just like the one used by human racers in the sport. Sensors on the drone measure acceleration and speed while the AI system uses data from the camera to locate the drone in space and detect the gates along the racetrack. A control unit in the drone, also based on AI, a control unit, then chooses the best action to finish the race circuit as fast as possible. Researchers say the Swift drone trained itself to fly in a simulated environment by trial and error. Using simulations, scientists could avoid destroying multiple drones in the early stages of learning when the system often crashes. “To make sure that the consequences of actions in the simulator were as close as possible to the ones in the real world, we designed a method to optimise the simulator with real data,” study first author Elia Kaufmann said. During the testing phase, the drone flew autonomously using very precise positions provided by an external position-tracking system, while also recording data from its camera. By comparing the two data sets, Swift could learn to autocorrect errors it made in interpreting information from the onboard sensors, scientists say. The AI was soon ready to challenge some of the world’s top human drone pilots – the 2019 Drone Racing League champion Alex Vanover, the 2019 MultiGP Drone Racing champion Thomas Bitmatta, and three-time Swiss champion Marvin Schaepper. In races that took place between 5 and 13 June 2022, on a special track designed in a hangar of the Dübendorf Airport near Zurich, Swift achieved the fastest lap, with a half-second lead over the best lap by a human pilot. The special track – about 25 by 25 meters in dimension – was built with seven square gates that had to be passed in the right order to complete a lap. Drones had to execute challenging maneuvers to successfully finish the track, including an acrobatic “Split-S” feature that involves half-rolling the drone and executing a descending half-loop at full speed. While Swift could record the fastest lap, humans are more adaptable than the AI drone, which failed when the conditions were different from what it was trained for, scientists say. However, they add that the new breakthrough in AI flight is an important way beyond drone racing. “Drones have a limited battery capacity; they need most of their energy just to stay airborne. Thus, by flying faster we increase their utility,” Dr Scaramuzza said. The new research, according to scientists, may lead to better drones for forest monitoring or space exploration, and in cases where flying fast is important to cover large spaces in a limited time. They say fast AI drones could also be used for shooting action scenes in movies and may also “make a huge difference” for rescue drones sent inside a burning building. Read More Ukraine launches ‘massive’ drone strikes on six regions of Russia – destroying war planes Ukraine-Russia war live: Kyiv’s huge drone attack as Putin floods frontline with ‘poorly trained troops’ To stop wildfires, residents in some Greek suburbs put their own money toward early warning drones Google launches AI to go to meetings for you Behind the AI boom, the armies of overseas workers in ‘digital sweatshops’ Nvidia sales hit record high as AI chip demand soars

X, the social network that used to be known as Twitter, updated its privacy policy to include a

SHANGHAI Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firms Baichuan Intelligent Technology and Zhipu AI on Thursday opened their AI large

Six months after becoming the chief executive at Shell Plc, Wael Sawan quietly ended the world’s biggest corporate

Amazon.com Inc. and Shopify Inc. have struck a deal to allow merchants who pay for Shopify’s e-commerce tools

Hurricane Idalia unleashed its fury on northwest Florida on Wednesday morning, landing in a sparsely populated area with

The UK should work with its democratic allies to discuss defenses against hostile uses of artificial intelligence, according

Australia’s grid operator sees risks of energy shortfalls over the next 10 years as the nation retires 62%

Artificial intelligence startup Cohere, backed by investors including Oracle Corp. and Nvidia Corp., is working with banks to