AI News Archive: June 5, 2026 — Part 4
Sourced from 500+ daily AI sources, scored by relevance.
- Should you go in on the SpaceX, Open AI, and Anthropic IPOs?
Should you go in on the SpaceX, Open AI, and Anthropic IPOs? marketplace.org
Score: 48🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://www.marketplace.org/story/2026/06/05/should-you-buy-spacex-open-ai-or-anthropic-stock-at-ipo - Geopolitics, AI, and Jensen Huang Fuel Electronics’ Rock-and-Roll Era
Jensen Huang and AI frenzy steal the show at Computex 2026—dive in to see how Taiwan leads the electronics. The post Geopolitics, AI, and Jensen Huang Fuel Electronics’ Rock-and-Roll Era appeared first on EE Times .
Score: 48🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://www.eetimes.com/geopolitics-ai-and-jensen-huang-fuel-electronics-rock-and-roll-era/ - Saudi Arabia expands AI use across jobs, skills and worker protection programmes
Saudi Arabia expands AI use across jobs, skills and worker protection programmes Arabian Business
- Canadian employers are paying the price after AI proves unable to replace laid off staff
Layoffs made to save money proved more costly for 75 per cent of organizations that let staff go, according to one study
- Improved performance and model support with GGUF
Ollama 0.30 available with improved performance and GGUF model compatibility
- ByteDance raises Volcano Engine’s MaaS revenue target on Seedance 2.0 growth
The video model has become a key growth driver for ByteDance’s AI business.
Score: 48🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://kr-asia.com/bytedance-raises-volcano-engines-maas-revenue-target-on-seedance-2-0-growth - Chinese Company Kuawei Intelligence Tops WorldArena Global Benchmark in Embodied World Models
Chinese Company Kuawei Intelligence Tops WorldArena Global Benchmark in Embodied World Models Kuawei Intelligence, a Chinese embodied AI company, has achieved the top ranking in the WorldArena Track 2 (Data Engine) global benchmark for May 2026, surpassing international competitors including WoW and BLM. The achievement marks a significant milestone for China's embodied AI sector and underscores the country's growing competitiveness in world model research.
Score: 48🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://pandaily.com/chinese-company-kuawei-intelligence-tops-worldarena-glo-jun2026 - Huawei Cloud Unveils Dozens of AI Products at INSPIRE Conference
Huawei Cloud made a sweeping product announcement at its INSPIRE conference today, unveiling over a dozen new AI offerings spanning infrastructure, model services, enterprise agent platforms, and industry solutions....
- Chinese researchers claim breakthrough in training household robots with AI-generated homes
A team of Chinese researchers has claimed a breakthrough in training robots in real-world home environments, tackling a long-standing data bottleneck in the field and potentially accelerating the adoption of robots at home. Kairos-HomeWorld was the world’s first unified framework capable of generating coherent, accurate and simulation-ready home environments using simple text prompts, according to researchers from Ace Robotics, a start-up backed by Hong Kong-listed artificial intelligence...
- Meta brings AI creator assistant to Facebook with tailored insights for creators
Meta brings AI creator assistant to Facebook with tailored insights for creators
- India's hidden AI winners as data-centre infrastructure demand surges
India may lack AI software giants, but companies supplying cables, transformers and cooling systems for data centres are emerging as key beneficiaries of the AI boom
- Microsoft buys land for data centre on Finland's west coast
The data giant has committed to expanding the production of renewable electricity to counterbalance its use, according to Vaasa's mayor.
- “Huge wave coming over financial services industry,” says boss of “Europe’s first AI-native bank”
German fintech Solaris recently announced plans to become “Europe’s first AI-native bank”, undertaking a “strategic repositioning” following a troubled few years. Solaris, valued as a unicorn at aroun...
- Energy failures are destined to doom Wall Street’s AI euphoria
Energy failures are destined to doom Wall Street’s AI euphoria The Telegraph
Score: 48🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/06/05/energy-failures-destined-doom-wall-streets-ai-euphoria/ - Portland General Electric is hiking data center electricity rates by 29% — and cutting them for everyone else
The Oregon utility filed for regulatory approval on new rates tied to the state's POWER Act, which requires large energy users to cover their share of infrastructure costs
Score: 48🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://qz.com/portland-general-electric-data-center-rate-hike-power-act-060526 - South Africa faces calls to block U.S.-listed firm's entry into Africa's largest data centre market
South Africa faces calls to block U.S.-listed firm's entry into Africa's largest data centre market Business Insider Africa
- OpenAI and Anthropic's next lock-in play: Databases of coding intent
OpenAI and Anthropic's next lock-in play: Databases of coding intent Business Insider
Score: 48🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-anthropic-ai-coding-database-intent-samuel-colvin-pydantic-2026-6 - From Cow-Milking Robots to Weed-Zapping Lasers, Farmers Are Embracing A.I.
We asked three farmers to tell us how new technology is revolutionizing the way they work.
- JP Morgan upgrades Tesla to 'neutral', sees robotics driving long-term growth
JP Morgan upgrades Tesla to 'neutral', sees robotics driving long-term growth Reuters
- AWS unveils new AI tools focused on startup founders
AWS unveils new AI tools focused on startup founders YourStory.com
Score: 48🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://yourstory.com/2026/06/aws-unveils-new-ai-tools-focused-on-startup-founders - Tech Leaders Mull the Next Phase of AI as Top Labs Plan IPOs
Executives and academics discuss the new unknowns emerging for AI
- The Meta hack shows there’s more to AI security than Mythos
On June 5, 404 Media reported that attackers had been using Meta’s AI customer support agent to steal Instagram accounts. Their approach was simple: They asked the agent to link the accounts to email addresses that they controlled, and the agent complied. One attacker broke into the dormant Obama White House account and made pro-Iran…
- OpenAI and Anthropic May Be Rivals, but Investors Aren’t Picking Sides
“Why wouldn’t you want to be in both Pepsi and Coke?” says one venture capitalist. “It’s the same here.”
Score: 48🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://www.wired.com/story/openai-and-anthropic-may-be-rivals-but-their-investors-arent-choosing-sides/ - AI hyperscaler effect vaults China’s Zhongji Innolight to top of CSI 300 benchmark
The artificial intelligence frenzy has made Zhongji Innolight, a supplier of optical modules to US hyperscalers, the biggest constituent of China’s stock benchmark, highlighting AI’s profound impact on the world’s second-largest equity market. The northern Shandong province-based company had a 5 per cent weighting on the CSI 300 Index on Friday, making it the largest of the 300 most valuable stocks on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges. The index’s weighting is based on the market...
- The token bill comes due: Inside the industry scramble to manage AI’s runaway costs
"The whole conversation shifted from tokenmaxxing and 'go fast' to 'we need guardrails, how do we control this?'"
- Breaking Down the Numbers Behind SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI as They Prep for Massive IPOs
SpaceX and Anthropic have already declared their intentions with the SEC, and OpenAI is rumored to be preparing its filing in the near future.
- Japan could end up an 'AI colony' if it falls behind, digital minister warns
Japan could end up an 'AI colony' if it falls behind, digital minister warns Reuters
- Banks and regulators strengthen defences against AI-powered cyber threats
Government agencies, financial regulators and banks are beginning to strengthen their defences against a new generation of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cyber threats. The measures do not yet form a single, unified defence framework. However, recent developments involving the Ministry of Finance, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) and the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) show that the response is moving beyond warnings. Regulators are tightening cyber controls, financial institutions are being asked to prepare for AI-enabled attacks and AI-based systems are already being deployed to detect financial fraud. The meeting that put AI risk on the financial agenda On April 23, 2026, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired a high-level meeting with bank heads and senior officials from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to discuss AI-related risks to financial systems. The meeting followed growing concern over Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview, a restricted-access AI model reported to be capable of identifying and potentially exploiting software vulnerabilities at unusual speed and scale. The Ministry of Finance said on X that the emerging threat was “unprecedented and requires a very high degree of vigilance, preparedness and better coordination across financial institutions and banks”. Banks were urged to take pre-emptive measures to protect their systems, customer data and financial assets. The meeting indicated that AI-enabled cyber risk was no longer being viewed as a distant possibility, but as an operational threat requiring immediate preparation. SEBI moves from warning to action On May 5, 2026, SEBI issued an advisory on advanced AI tools used for vulnerability detection. The regulator explicitly referred to Claude Mythos while warning that such models could identify and potentially exploit vulnerabilities at a speed and scale beyond conventional approaches. SEBI said these capabilities could threaten data confidentiality, application integrity and the reliability of system outputs. The regulator also warned that the interconnected nature of securities markets meant that a breach at one institution could have cascading consequences across exchanges, depositories, brokers, mutual funds and other market participants. The advisory requires regulated entities to: Immediately patch operating systems and applications, or use virtual patching when official fixes are unavailable. Conduct regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing using conventional and suitable AI-based tools. Undertake comprehensive risk assessments of third-party vendors and application service providers. Document system changes and conduct impact assessments before implementation. Secure application programming interfaces (APIs) through strong authentication, rate limiting and allow-listed connections. Expand Security Operations Centre (SOC) monitoring to cover all systems, including low-priority alerts that might otherwise be ignored. SEBI has also directed regulated entities to accelerate their onboarding to Market SOC, the centralised, round-the-clock security monitoring platform jointly operated by the National Stock Exchange and BSE. Financial institutions must also include the capabilities of advanced AI models as a threat scenario in their periodic risk assessments. Over the longer term, they are expected to develop plans for agentic and autonomous mitigation systems capable of detecting and responding to threats with limited human intervention. A task force for shared cyber resilience SEBI has also constituted a task force called cyber-suraksha.ai, comprising representatives from market infrastructure institutions, qualified registrars and transfer agents, regulated entities and other stakeholders. The task force will examine cybersecurity risks associated with AI models, develop common mitigation strategies, share threat intelligence and response playbooks, report high-priority cyber incidents and assess the security posture of third-party application providers. The initiative reflects a significant shift in regulatory thinking. Cyber resilience can no longer stop at the perimeter of an individual organisation when exchanges, brokers, depositories, fund houses, vendors and payment systems are deeply interconnected. A practical limitation, however, remains. Indian institutions did not have access to Claude Mythos when the advisory was issued. MediaNama reported that MeitY Secretary S. Krishnan had said the government was discussing access arrangements with US authorities under Anthropic’s Project Glasswing. That distinction is important. SEBI is not asking financial institutions to use Claude Mythos to protect themselves. It is asking them to prepare for the broader class of threats represented by advanced AI models through stronger vulnerability management, monitoring, information sharing and risk assessment. AI is already being used against financial fraud The regulatory response is being complemented by AI-led fraud detection already being deployed across the banking ecosystem. On May 12, 2026, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen the detection of mule accounts and cyber-enabled financial fraud. The agreement enables I4C to share mule-account intelligence and suspect identifiers from its national Suspect Registry with RBIH. The information will be used to improve AI-driven fraud-risk assessment systems, including MuleHunter.ai, which is already being used by more than 26 banks. Mule accounts are bank accounts used to receive, transfer or conceal money obtained through fraud. By analysing account activity and intelligence gathered across institutions, MuleHunter.ai aims to identify suspicious accounts more quickly than traditional rule-based systems. Home Minister Amit Shah described the collaboration as a “next-gen shield against cybercrime”, saying that data from the Suspect Registry would help AI systems detect and eliminate hidden mule accounts. Unlike SEBI’s advisory, MuleHunter.ai is not a direct response to Claude Mythos . It is designed to counter cyber-enabled financial fraud and the misuse of mule accounts. Together, however, these developments show two sides of the emerging response: strengthening systems against AI-accelerated cyber threats while using AI to improve fraud detection. What this means for financial institutions The April 23 meeting, SEBI’s May 5 advisory and the May 12 MoU represent a clear progression from recognising the risk to issuing regulatory directions and deploying operational tools. There is still no single AI cyber-defence framework covering the entire financial system. However, its foundations are beginning to emerge through closer coordination, mandatory cyber controls, shared threat intelligence, centralised monitoring, vendor-risk assessments and AI-assisted fraud detection. The larger challenge will be execution Patching systems, securing APIs, monitoring low-priority alerts, assessing third-party vendors and sharing intelligence across institutions require sustained investment, skilled professionals and clear accountability. AI may be accelerating the cyber threat landscape. Financial institutions and regulators are now beginning to use the same technology to strengthen their defences.
Score: 48🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://www.dqindia.com/data-and-ai/banks-regulators-ai-powered-financial-cyber-threats-12003969 - Most K-12 teachers say AI's impact on education will eclipse the internet or computers
A new NPR/Ipsos poll shows many teachers are using AI to save time, but a majority are also worried the technology is making it harder for students to learn to think for themselves.
Score: 47🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://www.npr.org/2026/06/05/nx-s1-5779757/school-ai-education-students-teachers-poll-critical-thinking - Veeam advances operational privacy and AI governance for the agentic era on the DataAI Command Platform
Traditional manual privacy practices are insufficient for the agentic era. Veeam’s new AI agents operationalize privacy, consent, compliance, and AI governance at machine speed across modern enterprise data ecosystems
- Microsoft literally wants to ‘make people addicted’ to AI (Update: Microsoft responds)
Update: Microsoft has now issued a statement after a controversial internal memo.
Score: 47🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://www.androidauthority.com/microsoft-ai-make-people-addicted-3673699/ - As enterprise AI scales, Capital One and Snowflake focus on governance and trust
As AI adoption accelerates, organizations are rethinking how data is governed and shared at scale, with AI-driven data governance emerging as a key priority. New advances in automation and intelligent governance are making trusted data more accessible across the enterprise while reducing the complexity of managing it. Financial services organizations rely on a vast network […] The post As enterprise AI scales, Capital One and Snowflake focus on governance and trust appeared first on SiliconANGLE .
Score: 46🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://siliconangle.com/2026/06/04/ai-driven-data-governance-snowflakesummit/ - AI fails classic attention test, with longer word lists triggering dramatic accuracy collapse
Giving AI a classic psychological test reveals an inherent weakness in LLM decision-making abilities. Suketu Patel and colleagues explored how transformer-based machine attention differs from human attention by testing AI models on the "Stroop task," in which words for colors are printed in colored ink, and participants are asked to name the ink color of each word while ignoring its meaning.
Score: 46🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-ai-classic-attention-longer-word.html - Google Meet’s AI note-taker now lets you customize your meeting notes and track decisions
Google Meet's "Take notes for me" feature now lets you toggle specific note sections and track meeting decisions with clear outcome labels.
- JPMorgan Chase taps AI to process checks
The bank is “automating the most labor-intensive tasks of the process, freeing our team to focus on more complex, higher-value decision making,” an executive said.
Score: 46🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://www.bankingdive.com/news/jpmorgan-chase-taps-ai-process-checks/822151/ - Google Chrome tests sending users straight to AI Mode instead of Search, but no plans to change [U]
Google is in the early days of testing a new behavior in Chrome that sends users straight to AI Mode, bypassing the standard Search experience. more…
- Computers were built for humans. Big Tech is redesigning them for AI
AI agents are prompting technology companies to redesign chips, operating systems and search for a future where software increasingly acts on behalf of users rather than waiting for commands
- France's data centre ambitions bump up against rural fears
A massive AI data centre planned for the small French village of Fouju is creating a divide. While proponents see economic benefits and job creation, residents fear environmental disruption, pollution from backup generators, and significant power consumption. The project, funded by international investors, promises millions in tax revenue but raises concerns about its "extraordinary" scale.
- China fueling U.S. data center resistance, AI groups claim
The AI industry , battling concerns about its impact on jobs and energy costs, is accusing China-linked actors of using social media to fan opposition to the data centers powering America's AI boom. Why it matters: As the U.S. and China race for AI supremacy, resistance to data centers is threatening the industry's massive buildout plans here — and AI leaders believe foreign actors are stoking the backlash. State of play: Pro-AI groups say they've been tracking a barrage of what they believe are bot-driven social media messages, which they argue is being driven by China, its proxies and other countries in its sphere of influence. "Americans have AI anxiety for a variety of reasons, and that makes it particularly susceptible to disinformation about data centers," said Steve DelBianco, president and CEO of NetChoice, a tech industry trade association. Data center critics counter that the industry is using China as a bogeyman to try to deflect attention from well-documented opposition in communities across the U.S. "I know for a fact [data center opposition] is organic. How? Because I talk to people, all over the country, searching for help to stop the industrialization of their communities," Elena Schlossberg, a Northern Virginia-based anti-data center activist, told Axios. The AI groups admit they can't precisely quantify how many anti-data center posts are being driven by entities in China and its proxies. But they say they've catalogued several recent waves of posts that originated in foreign countries. A sampling: A South Asia-based X account posted on May 22: "Are billionaires actually insane? They're dumping billions into AI, building data centers everywhere, laying off thousands of workers, and acting like none of this will have consequences." An Africa-based account said on May 25: "Mark Zuckerberg built a MASSIVE data center in Georgia just hundreds of yards from people's homes. Water pressure collapsed. Sinks don't run. Toilets won't refill. Homes shake nonstop. Power outages are common." (The message was based on stories like this one in the New York Times.) A Poland-based user posted on May 26: "BREAKING: BLACKROCK CEO LARRY FINK SAYS TRILLIONS FOR AI DATA CENTERS AND POWER GRIDS WILL HAVE TO COME FROM AMERICANS' SAVINGS AND PENSION FUNDS." (This was based on a prediction Fink made.) A Bangladesh-based Facebook account titled "Indiana Life" has 44,000 followers and posts repeatedly that data centers will have a negative impact on the state. Another page called " Kansas Life " — also from Bangladesh — has similar content focused on that state. Other social media posts — some originating in South Asia and North Africa — are highlighting criticism and growing protests over the Stratos Project, a planned 40,000-acre data center campus in northwestern Utah. TV personality and investor Kevin O'Leary, who's backing the Utah project, has accused China of spreading misinformation and fomenting opposition. O'Leary is now scaling back the project amid public pressure, NBC reported. The project's critics insist their protests are organic. Yes, but: Polls indicate support for data centers in the U.S. is strikingly low — and those in the AI community acknowledge it's not just China driving such feelings. A Gallup survey in May had 71% of Americans opposing construction of data centers in their communities. Data-center critics cite concerns ranging from higher electricity bills and heavy water use to noise from cooling systems. Others highlight environmental concerns. What's next: Pro - AI groups say they're turning to Congress to sound the alarm on what they see as a China-led effort to incite resistance to data centers. Chuck Flint, executive director of the Coalition for Affordability & Prosperity — a group that opposes data-center regulation — asked the congressional intelligence committee chairs to investigate foreign interference aimed at "decelerating the construction of" data centers . "The factually dubious anti-data center, anti-AI narrative that is being driven by foreign accounts on social media deserves immediate congressional attention," said Taylor Budowich, a former Trump White House official and founder of the pro-AI Innovation Council Action Inc. House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, meanwhile, has accused U.S.-based nonprofits of taking money from China and fomenting opposition to data centers. The other side: "When any corporation wants to dodge legitimate criticism they point to 'outside agitators,' " Tim Donaghy, research director for the environmental group Greenpeace USA, told Axios. "It's lazy and insulting to the communities who are raising real concerns."
Score: 45🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://www.axios.com/2026/06/05/china-fueling-us-data-center-resistance-ai-groups-claim - Mira Murati steps back into the spotlight, carefully
In the current environment, remaining heads down has diminishing returns; at some point, you have to make some noise just to remind the market you exist.
Score: 45🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/04/mira-murati-steps-back-into-the-spotlight-carefully/ - Asia tech stocks slide as cracks emerge in AI rally
Asia tech stocks slide as cracks emerge in AI rally The Straits Times
- Exclusive: South Korea labour minister calls on tech firms to share excess AI profits with suppliers, staff
Exclusive: South Korea labour minister calls on tech firms to share excess AI profits with suppliers, staff Reuters
- Give your agent its own computer
Assign a dedicated computer to your AI agent for improved performance
- Meesho integrates proprietary AI system PRISM to drive 75% of orders via discovery-based feed
The architecture employs over 100 AI ranking models trained on 400 trillion input signals, executing 6 trillion daily inferences and reaching 100 million inferences per second during peak traffic
- Why Waymo settled for the wrong car
Forget “Florida Man.” Want to hear a California Man story? Here goes. A California man rolled up to a yoga studio in San Francisco’s Marina District in a self-driving Waymo car, walked into the studio, grabbed an armful of yoga shorts, got back in the Waymo and took off. Six months later, police still haven’t found him, according to a story this week in The San Francisco Chronicle . Since the rider’s credit card information didn’t lead to an arrest, we can assume the perp used a stolen phone’s Waymo account and financial information to hail the ride. And by the time police requested interior video of the man’s face, Waymo had already deleted it. This is a “California Man” story in part because of the association of Waymo with the city of San Francisco. Soon that association will be obsolete. (In fact, while Waymo is headquartered in San Francisco and is more visible there, Arizona got Waymos two years before San Francisco did.) At the moment, Waymos are publicly available to riders in 11 US cities — San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Nashville. Before long, riders will be able to enjoy robot car rides from Waymo in Las Vegas, San Diego, Washington DC, Denver, Detroit, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, London, and Tokyo. Historically, Waymo has been taking a bath on rides. (I’m not talking about recent stories where Waymo cars have driven onto flooded roads . On May 12, Waymo issued a voluntary recall of 3,791 cars after a software defect allowed an autonomous vehicle in April to drive into a flooded, impassable roadway in San Antonio and be swept into a creek. A week after the recall, the company paused all freeway rides and suspended service in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Nashville because of construction-zone navigation issues.) To date, self-driving ride-hailing services like Waymo are a loss-leader business. Waymo is secretive about its costs, but independent estimates suggest that a $20 ride for the rider may be a $50-$100 ride for Waymo, when you factor in all costs. But help is on the way. Cars that drive themselves don’t pay for themselves A big part of why Waymo rides have been so costly is that the car is a retrofitted Jaguar I-PACE. It’s true that Waymo got a deal on the roughly $70,000 car (a steal at $50,000 per vehicle because the company bought thousands of them). But then Waymo had to bolt on all kinds of costly sensors and electronics to make them self-driving, including a roof-mounted lidar assembly of five units, 29 cameras all around the car, six radar units, a custom Waymo-designed AI inference compute platform, and the wiring harness and power distribution system. Estimates for the total cost per car for Waymo are in the $120,000 to $200,000 range. Another problem is that the Jaguar I-PACE is notorious for a lack of reliability, especially involving its batteries and its longevity. Jaguar stopped making I-PACE cars two years ago. Finally, Waymo can’t do what regular car owners do and sell the car to recover some of the initial investment. Nobody wants an electric car with a depleted battery covered in electronics and sensors that can’t be used. The good news is that we learned this week that used Waymo batteries will be repurposed as backup storage for power grids in California and Texas . Say “Oh, Hi!” to the Ojai The combination of growth and the end of manufacturing for the Jaguar I-PACE means that Waymo’s next platform is right on time. The car is called the Ojai, named after the unaffordable artsy hippie mecca located 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Waymo announced last week that the company will soon open Ojai cars to free rides for select riders in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. (See this Redditor’s drone photos of the current fleet of Ojai cars in Mesa, AZ .) The Ojai is a purpose-built electric minivan made by Zeekr, an arm of China-based Geely Automobile Holdings. It’s got doors that slide open like an elevator door, more legroom than the I-PACE, three screens for passengers, Braille instructions, grab bars, a flat floor with low-step height for easier entry, charge ports, cupholders, more cargo space, better batteries, faster EV charging, and easier cleaning and maintenance than the I-PACE cars. It’s much cheaper for Waymo to buy — and much cheaper and faster to integrate Waymo electronics. The Ojai gets Waymo’s sixth-generation Driver as a factory-co-engineered system with just 23 sensors (13 cameras, four lidar, six radar). While that’s far fewer sensors, they’re much more capable than the older generations of Waymo systems. One of my favorite details of the Ojai sensor package is that each car will have 10 sensor wipers with heaters and fluid sprayers specifically designed for snow, rain, and adverse weather. They’re like tiny, high-tech windshield wipers, but for the glass in front of the sensors. Ojai cars will likely do far better in rain and snow conditions. Weirdly, the Ojai still has needless controls, like a steering wheel and gas and brake pedals. And the only reason for those is that the US Congress is asleep at the wheel. US. federal motor vehicle safety standards require steering wheels and pedals for street-legal vehicles, and neither NHTSA nor Congress has granted a permanent exemption for purpose-built driverless vehicles. Despite the vestigial controls, the difference between the two cars is that the Jaguar was an old-school car designed for drivers, while the Ojai is the new concept for cars, one built for riders. And for riders, the Ojai is better in every way that matters. The Chinese factor There’s only one factor keeping Ojai cars from replacing the full Jaguar I-PACE: They’re made in China. Waymo is getting around the 100% tariff imposed by the Trump Administration by “location-laundering” the build. Zeekr completes the Ojai shells in Gothenburg, Sweden, and because the “substantial transformation” occurs within the EU, the vehicles are classified as EU-origin products. The stripped-down gliders arrive with no modems, ECUs, or autonomy software, and Waymo installs all connected technology at its Mesa facility, which satisfies the Commerce Department’s 2027 and 2030 rules prohibiting Chinese-linked vehicle electronics. Some lawmakers are using Waymo as a case study for general anxieties about Chinese technology infiltration into American infrastructure. The other problem is protectionism. If un-tariffed Chinese cars were allowed into the US market, the US car industry would likely be decimated by the competition . Chinese carmakers like BYD enjoy a 25% material cost advantage over Western carmakers. They would enter $5,000 to $10,000 cheaper than comparable U.S. offerings, according to some estimates. So, Washington is jittery about Chinese-made cars. I drove a BYD rental car in the UK last month. And I can tell you, they’re great cars and very enjoyable to drive. (My only complaint was that the steering wheel was on the wrong side.) Instead of Waymo taking a risky bet on Ojai cars, they’re instead expanding with Hyundai Ioniq 5 EVs, which are produced locally and will be retrofitted with Waymo’s sixth-generation Driver at that Mesa facility. This is a massive deal in which Hyundai will supply Waymo with 50,000 cars by 2028. Waymo hasn’t disclosed plans for Ojai cars, but it’s unlikely to even come close to the number of Hyundai cars it is on the hook for. (The company also has around 100 Zeekr cars, but plans to expand that fleet to a few thousand.) The right solution for Waymo’s next few years would be all Ojai cars with no steering wheel or pedals. The Ojai is purpose-built for autonomous car ride sharing, affordable, and capable in all weather. But that’s not going to happen because of Congressional inaction, China panic, and protectionism in Washington. Instead, Waymo’s future is to use too many cars from the past, by which I mean much or most of its fleet will be driverless cars retrofitted from cars that prioritize the driver, rather than the passengers. And reports suggest that the price of Hyundai cars will be comparable to the overpriced Jaguars. I’m sure the Hyundai Ioniq 5 will be nice. But an all-Ojai fleet would have been the better future for Waymo. Instead of the right car for the job, Waymo is stuck with an expensive, less comfortable, less capable car than the Ojai.
Score: 45🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://www.computerworld.com/article/4181420/why-waymo-settled-for-the-wrong-car.html - Q2 2026 Mind the Gap: The Bid-Ask Spread in Consumer AI
Q2 2026 Mind the Gap: The Bid-Ask Spread in Consumer AI PitchBook
Score: 45🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://pitchbook.com/news/reports/q2-2026-mind-the-gap-the-bid-ask-spread-in-consumer-ai - Direct agents with visual prompts in Design Mode
New feature in Design Mode for direct agents with visual prompts.
- Labour will make AI ‘work for the workers’, says Liz Kendall
Technology secretary promises to support people whose jobs are swept away by automation Liz Kendall has insisted Labour will make artificial intelligence “work for workers”, and not abandon people whose jobs are swept away by its rapid advance. With public fears mounting about the impact of AI on employment, particularly for young people, the technology secretary claimed that the government could shape the way it is adopted. Continue reading...
Score: 45🌐 MovesJun 5, 2026https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jun/05/labour-will-make-ai-work-for-workers-liz-kendall - Instagram and WhatsApp Could Soon Offer AI Health Advice
Instagram and WhatsApp Could Soon Offer AI Health Advice YourStory.com
- Weekly Must-Read: How AI Took Over China’s Micro-Drama Industry in 90 Days
Weekly Must-Read: How AI Took Over China’s Micro-Drama Industry in 90 Days Caixin Global