1. Musk: Tesla is improving the design of Optimus robots for mass production. According to reports, Musk revealed that Tesla is enhancing the design of the Optimus robot to address key bottlenecks in the production process. Musk has previously expressed great confidence in the Optimus robot, predicting it will become one of the most popular innovative products of all time due to its outstanding performance. At the recent 'We, Robot' event in Los Angeles, Musk further disclosed the estimated price range for Optimus, which is between $20,000 and $30,000, igniting market expectations. He emphasized that this robot will become a capable partner in daily life, whether it's accompanying a pet dog on walks, looking after lively children, or delivering drinks at social gatherings, Optimus can handle it all with ease. Although the functionality of Optimus is maturing, Musk candidly stated that the Tesla team is working tirelessly to iterate and upgrade its design in hopes of achieving a leap in production efficiency. Currently, Optimus has been preliminarily integrated into factory operations, rapidly expanding its capabilities. 2. Musk may intervene to suggest Trump adopt a more lenient alternative to Biden administration's AI executive orders. According to Fortune magazine, with the results of the U.S. elections settled, Musk's support for Trump, viewed as a gamble by outsiders, has yielded obvious immediate returns. It is reported that Musk may attempt to persuade Trump to abandon his opposition to the Biden administration's electric vehicle tax credit policy and encourage the purchase of electric vehicles. Following Trump's victory speech, Tesla's stock price surged. Investors expect the Trump administration to halt federal investigations and enforcement actions against Tesla, particularly those related to its autonomous driving software.
In addition, the relationship between the Federal Aviation Administration and SpaceX is very tense. In September, Musk demanded the resignation of FAA Administrator Michael Whittaker due to a $630,000 fine imposed on SpaceX for violations during rocket launches. Musk stated that he plans to establish a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration, with a work plan to ease regulations on its rocket launches. Trump himself also suggested that as part of the government's future $42 billion broadband investment plan, Starlink's satellite services could be used to provide internet connectivity in rural areas, which could be a potential financial boon for Starlink.
Musk's generative AI startup xAI has a chatbot that competes with OpenAI's ChatGPT and other large language models. Musk may intervene to suggest Trump adopt a more lenient alternative to the Biden administration's AI executive orders. In California, Musk supports the controversial safety legislation SB 1047, which places restrictions on large AI companies, facing strong opposition from venture capitalists and large developers citing the potentially disastrous risks posed by AI. 3. Zhejiang: To moderately advance the layout of innovative infrastructure, strengthen the overall planning for the construction of large models, data, computing power, and more. According to a message released by Zhejiang, on the morning of the 9th, Zhejiang Provincial Secretary and Governor Wang Hao presided over a special meeting to study and deploy the acceleration of building an innovative Zhejiang and vigorously developing new quality productivity tailored to local conditions. The meeting emphasized the need to quickly refine and improve the implementation plan for building an innovative Zhejiang and developing new quality productivity suited to local conditions, further clarifying the main goals and key tasks for the medium to long term and current work. The meeting called for strong advancement in the integrated reform of education, technology, and talent, promoting the construction of a strong province in education, technology, and talent, and enhancing the overall effectiveness of the innovation system. It also stressed the need to strengthen the position of enterprises as the main body of innovation, promote enterprise-led innovation that integrates production, education, and research, deploy the innovation chain around the industrial chain, and layout the industrial chain around the innovation chain. It is essential to vigorously develop new quality productivity suited to local conditions, transform and upgrade traditional industries, cultivate and grow emerging industries, forward-plan future industries, and accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system with Zhejiang characteristics. Infrastructure for innovation should be moderately advanced, strengthening the overall planning for the construction of large models, data, computing power, scenarios, platforms, etc., to create a soft and hard environment that aligns with the construction of an innovative Zhejiang. The integrated optimization of the policy support guarantee system should be promoted, fully mobilizing the enthusiasm of enterprises, universities, research institutions, innovation platforms, and innovative talents to support the creation of cities with innovative qualities and fully stimulate the innovation and creativity of the entire society. 4. Google will launch a standalone Gemini App for Apple iPhone, supporting AI voice chat. Apple iPhone users may soon have a new way to interact with Google's AI assistant Gemini. Currently, iPhone users can only access Gemini through a dedicated tab in the Google app. According to foreign media 9to5Google, Google is testing a standalone 'Google Gemini' app on the Apple App Store, which will offer more AI features compared to the current Google app. This standalone Google Gemini app includes the Gemini Live feature, one of the features currently unavailable on iOS. Gemini Live allows users to have conversations with AI through voice commands. This feature will be available to Android users starting September 2024. 5. AI impacts the construction industry: U.S. private data center construction spending surges to nearly $30 billion/year, more than double by the end of 2022. According to Bloomberg on the 9th, U.S. companies are making significant investments in data centers, aiming to gain a competitive edge in the field of artificial intelligence. According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. private data center construction spending has surged to nearly $30 billion annually (approximately 215.33 billion yuan), more than double what was spent when OpenAI launched ChatGPT at the end of 2022. Today, U.S. businesses' construction budgets for data centers have surpassed last year’s substantial capital allocations in categories like hotels, retail, and leisure facilities. Bloomberg cited data from KKR, stating that the U.S. is 'leading the wave of data center investment', with global spending in this area expected to reach $250 billion annually (approximately 1.79 trillion yuan). Currently, the data center industry is benefiting from the development of AI, with a continuous increase in demand for more powerful computing capabilities. Furthermore, data centers require a significant amount of electricity, raising concerns that tech giants may demand more shares of electricity generation, potentially driving up electricity costs for households and other businesses. 6. The 'Tiangong' humanoid robot makes its debut at the Beijing Yizhuang Half Marathon, supporting all-electric human-like running. The 2024 Beijing Yizhuang Half Marathon will kick off on November 10. This 'Yizhuang Half Marathon' deeply integrates technology elements, featuring the Beijing Yizhuang humanoid robot 'Tiangong' acting as a marathon 'cheerleader', along with autonomous vehicles and personalized AI short videos for runners, bringing more technological, convenient, and interesting technical services and highlights to all participants, showcasing the technological prowess of the Beijing Economic Development Zone as the main battleground of the capital's high-precision industries. 7. Kunlun Wanwei's SkyReels AI short drama platform will officially launch in the U.S. on December 10. Kunlun Wanwei announced that its AI short drama platform SkyReels will officially launch in the U.S. on December 10. This marks Kunlun Wanwei's further expansion in the global AI entertainment market. On August 19 this year, Kunlun Wanwei released the world's first AI short drama platform integrating video large models and 3D large models, SkyReels. The SkyReels platform integrates Kunlun Wanwei's self-developed script large model SkyScript, self-developed storyboard large model StoryboardGen, self-developed 3D generation large model Sky3DGen, and the industry's first innovative platform that deeply integrates AI 3D engines with video large models, WorldEngine. 8. MIT research: Generative AI has failed to form a coherent understanding of the world. Nowadays, large models possess a variety of extraordinary capabilities, capable of not only composing poetry but also generating efficient computer code, creating the illusion that these models seem to 'vaguely understand' certain fundamental laws of the real world. However, a recent study pointed out that this may not be the case. Researchers found that a popular generative AI model could provide near-perfect step-by-step navigation guidance in New York City but had not formed an accurate map of the city. According to the MIT Technology Review on November 5, Ashesh Rambachan, a lead researcher at MIT's Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS), stated, 'We hope that the outstanding performance of large models in the language domain may allow them to excel in other scientific fields. However, when exploring new discoveries with these technologies, it is crucial to determine whether they have formed a coherent worldview.' Researchers found that a popular generative AI model could provide near-perfect step-by-step navigation guidance in New York City but had not actually formed an accurate map of the city. Despite the model's outstanding navigation capabilities, its performance dropped significantly when researchers closed certain streets and set up detours. Further analysis showed that the implicitly generated map of New York by the model contained numerous nonexistent streets, which were distortedly connected across distant intersections. 9. Experts: 'AI + Quantum Computing' is an important branch in the future computing field. 'Quantum computing is designed using principles of quantum mechanics, while artificial intelligence (AI) relies on learning from vast amounts of data resources. Quantum computing, as a new paradigm, can solve the problem of high resource consumption in AI,' said Jin Shi, a member of the European Academy of Sciences and a foreign member of the European Academy of Humanities and Natural Sciences, on the 9th in Chongqing. He introduced that in the future computing field, the combination of AI and quantum computing is an important branch, and some countries have already begun to layout. 'Currently, application scenario exploration based on quantum computers and quantum cloud platforms is gradually becoming a research hotspot in the industry,' Jin Shi stated. 'Leveraging quantum computing can provide more efficient solutions for industries such as fintech, big data, weather forecasting, biomedicine, and energy transportation.' He cited the financial sector as an example, stating that quantum computing can help financial companies develop assessment and optimization solutions for optimal investment portfolio optimization of stock assets, while also assessing risks for options. 10. AI content battle: OpenAI wins the first round in copyright dispute with news agencies. Tech media Engadget reported yesterday (November 8) that OpenAI has won the first round in the copyright dispute with Raw Story and Alter Net. IT Home reported in February that three U.S. news websites, Raw Story, The Intercept, and Alter Net, sued Microsoft and OpenAI, accusing their chatbot of plagiarizing articles from these news websites for AI training. All these news websites claimed that OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT (which also uses Microsoft's Copilot technology) copied articles from their sites during training and did not display 'author, title, copyright, or usage terms' when generating content. New York Federal Judge Colleen McMahon dismissed the lawsuit filed by Raw Story and Alter Net, stating that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate they suffered cognizable harm. The lawsuits filed by Raw Story and Alter Net did not, like those from other publications, claim that OpenAI infringed their copyright but rather accused OpenAI of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provisions. The judge stated: 'The likelihood that ChatGPT's output contains plagiarized content from [their] articles seems very low,' and suggested that the plaintiffs should not seek to delete copyright-related information but rather claim compensation for the use of their content resources in developing ChatGPT. Even though the lawsuit was dismissed.