Connect with us
elon musk elon musk

News

LinkedIn co-founder calls out Elon Musk’s call for temporary halt on AI development

Steve Jurvetson from Menlo Park, USA, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Published

on

In a recent discussion at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference 2023, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman shared his reservations about Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s views on AI development. Musk, together with AI and tech leaders, have signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause on the development of artificial intelligence systems more capable than GPT-4. 

Hoffman pointed out that while Musk has backed the points in the open letter, he has also been actively building AI teams in his respective companies. “Elon — while signing that letter — is trying to hire a whole team and stand up an AI effort,” the LinkedIn co-founder, who, along with Musk, is part of the “PayPal Mafia,” said

Elon Musk has been building up an AI team in several of his companies. Tesla’s AI team is attempting to solve full self-driving, and last month, the CEO hinted at his intention to build a “maximum truth-seeking AI” as an alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO had also cofounded OpenAI in 2015, although he stepped down from its board in 2018.

This is not the first time that Musk’s fellow “PayPal Mafia” peer has shared some criticism of the Tesla CEO’s stance on AI development. In previous comments at CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Hoffman noted that it might be safer to adopt larger scale models for AI.

“I think some of it’s a little bit less well-intentioned, like ‘Everyone else slow down, so I can speed up. It’s overall, I think, broadly a mistaken effort because actually I think everything we’ve seen so far in terms of development is the best ways to get safety is through larger scale models — they actually train to align better with human interests, and so the call to slow down is actually, in fact, less safe,” Hoffman said.

Advertisement

“Elon tends to have an ‘I must build it with my own hands.’ You look at what amazing stuff he’s done with SpaceX and Tesla, and it has the kind of ‘It’s only great if I do it,” he added.

Elon Musk has so far not issued a response about the matter. 

The Teslarati team would appreciate hearing from you. If you have any tips, contact me at maria@teslarati.com or via Twitter @Writer_01001101.

Maria--aka "M"-- is an experienced writer and book editor. She's written about several topics including health, tech, and politics. As a book editor, she's worked with authors who write Sci-Fi, Romance, and Dark Fantasy. M loves hearing from TESLARATI readers. If you have any tips or article ideas, contact her at maria@teslarati.com or via X, @Writer_01001101.

Advertisement
Comments

News

Tesla offers interesting promo to future ride-hailing rival’s drivers

Lyft drivers will get $1,000 in vehicle credits if they complete 100 rides by the cutoff date for the promo.

Published

on

(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla has offered an interesting promotion for its vehicles to the drivers of one of its future ride-hailing rivals as it continues to work toward the launch of its autonomous Robotaxi platform.

This morning, Tesla launched a $1,000 off promotion to Lyft drivers who plan to utilize one of the company’s EVs for ride-hailing purposes. The promo applies to all five Tesla models: the Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, and Cybertruck.

It is not offered at the point of sale. Instead, to ensure the vehicle is properly utilized for ride-hailing purposes and to prove the discount, Tesla will offer $1,000 in vehicle credits to the Lyft driver after they complete 100 trips on or before July 13, 2025. Delivery must be taken by June 30.

Advertisement

It is an interesting move by Tesla because Lyft, along with Uber, will become a rival in the coming years as the companies continue to develop driverless ride-hailing platforms of their own. Lyft has partnered with May Mobility and Mobileye to develop driverless, fully autonomous vehicles purpose-built for ride-hailing.

Tesla plans to launch its Robotaxi platform next month in Austin, Texas.

Tesla hints at June 1 launch of Robotaxi platform in Austin

Meanwhile, Lyft’s plans are more down the road. Earlier this year, the company said it would launch autonomous rides sometime next year.

For now, the move seems to be just another way Tesla is incentivizing consumers to buy one of their vehicles. Earlier this week, it also launched another $1,000 off promo for teachers, students, retirees, active-duty members, their spouses, and surviving spouses.

Advertisement

Previously, Tesla only offered that discount to military members.

It is unclear why Tesla would be offering these discounts, but it could be more of a thank you or an act of recognition, more than anything. If it were a measure that was taken to increase demand, it would be substantially more of a discount. For example, when Tesla was trying to rid its inventory of legacy Model Y units as the new, updated vehicle was set to be released, discounts were over $5,000.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla Giga Berlin seems to be using FSD Unsupervised to move Model Y units

Tesla may be doing something quite special in the Giga Berlin-Brandenburg complex.

Published

on

Tesla FSD Unsupervised Giga Texas

Tesla may be doing something quite special in the Giga Berlin-Brandenburg complex. Based on observations from a recent drone flyover of the site, it appears that Tesla may also be using FSD Unsupervised to move freshly produced Model Y vehicles to the factory’s staging area.

New Drone Footage

Recent footage of the Giga Berlin complex from longtime Tesla watcher Tobias Lindh included several interesting updates around the Model Y factory. These include a new warehouse that is currently being built, as well as a tunnel is currently being constructed. More interestingly, the drone operator observed that some cars now seem to be moving to Giga Berlin’s distribution area without human drivers.

If the drone operator’s observations prove accurate, it would be quite an impressive accomplishment for Tesla. FSD Unsupervised, after all, has only been confirmed in vehicles that are produced at the Fremont Factory and Gigafactory Texas.

https://twitter.com/NicklasNilsso14/status/1922799362511376892

Potential Next Steps

If Giga Berlin is now using FSD Unsupervised to transport some Model Y units from the factory building to the site’s staging area, it might only be a matter of time before Tesla also implements a similar system for Gigafactory Shanghai. The Shanghai-based Tesla plant, after all, is the company’s largest factory by volume, and it also serves as a primary vehicle export hub. FSD Unsupervised could then pave the way for Giga Shanghai to operate in an even more optimal manner. 

FSD Unsupervised is the cornerstone of Tesla’s robotaxi business, which is expected to start rolling out in Austin, Texas, next month. Previous reports have suggested that Tesla is pushing hard in its preparations to roll out its robotaxi service this June. Tesla has reportedly even worked and trained with Austin’s first responders from the fire and police departments as part of its robotaxi service preparations.

Advertisement

Check out a recent flyover of the Tesla Giga Berlin complex in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9RFgOiFiU0
Continue Reading

Investor's Corner

Tesla welcomes Chipotle President Jack Hartung to its Board of Directors

Tesla announced the addition of its new director in a post on social media platform X.

Published

on

Credit: @ArthurFromX/X

Tesla has welcomed Chipotle president Jack Hartung to its Board of Directors. Hartung will officially start his tenure at the electric vehicle maker on June 1, 2025.

Tesla announced the addition of its new director in a post on social media platform X.

Jack Hartung’s Role

With Hartung’s addition, the Tesla Board will now have nine members. It’s been a while since the company added a new director. Prior to Hartung, the last addition to the Tesla Board was Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia back in 2022. As noted in a Reuters report, Hartung will serve on the Tesla Board’s audit committee. He will also retire from his position as president and chief strategy officer at Chipotle, and transition into a senior advisor’s role at the restaurant chain, next month.

Hartung has had a long career in the Mexican grill, joining Chipotle in 2002. He held several positions in the company, most recently serving as Chipotle’s President and Chief Strategy Officer. Tesla highlighted Hartung’s accomplishments in a post on its official account on X.

“Over the past 20+ years under Jack’s financial leadership, Chipotle has seen significant growth with over 3,700 restaurants today across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Jack was named ‘CFO of the Year’ by Orange County Business Journal and Best CFO in the restaurant category by Institutional Investor,” Tesla wrote in its post on X.

Advertisement

Tesla Board and Musk

Tesla is a controversial company with a controversial CEO, so it is no surprise that the Board of Directors tend to get flak as well. Two weeks ago, for example, Tesla Board Chair Robyn Denholm slammed The Wall Street Journal for publishing an article alleging that company directors had considered a search for a potential successor to Elon Musk. Denholm herself has also been criticized for offloading her TSLA shares.

More recently, news emerged suggesting that the Tesla Board of Directors had formed a special committee aimed at exploring a new pay package for CEO Elon Musk. The committee is reportedly comprised of Tesla board Chair Robyn Denholm and independent director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, and they would be exploring alternative compensation methods for Musk’s contributions to the company.

Continue Reading

Trending