Top stories today:

1. Apple abandons Car project
2. Google CEO e-mail to employees on Gemini: “completely unacceptable”
3. SBF asks for sentence of 6.5 years or less
4. GPT-4 found best AI model for election information

0. Data and calendar

1. Apple abandons Car project, most of 2K employees to shift to AI division

• Some layoffs will happen, with the exact number TBD.

• Apple Car was rumored to be priced at $100K and would likely have lower margins than what Apple is used to.

• Apple’s CarPlay already has a 90% market share for model-year 2023 vehicles sold in the U.S.

Elon, just after the news, commented that the new Tesla Roadster will do 0-60 mph in <1 second, leveraging SpaceX technology

• End of 2024: unveil.

• 2025: “aiming to ship,” which is likely an optimistic prediction by Elon.

2. Google CEO e-mail to employees on Gemini: “completely unacceptable and we got it wrong”

Alphabet’s stock was +1% on Tuesday, in line with the S&P 500, after a -5% performance on Monday:

• “Our teams have been working around the clock to address these issues.”

  • Memo was likely written to be leaked.

• Gemini’s problems were caused by a failed quick fix aimed at reducing bias, which ended up backfiring by overcorrecting and creating more bias.

4. SBF asks for sentence of 6.5 years or less

Comparable convicted fraudsters usually get much more than what they asked for:

• Mar. 15: prosecutors’ deadline to respond.

• Mar. 28: sentencing.

• SBF has been advising prison guards to buy Solana.

5. GPT-4 found best AI model for election information

It had, by far, the least inaccurate answers (still 19% of the time), according to a study by The AI Democracy Projects:

6. Superhuman launches AI 2.0, with automatic draft replies

Read more: Product Hunt.

7. Streaming subscriptions in U.S. surpass 240M in 2023, with +10% YoY growth

8. Interesting videos, posts, and memes

9. Other headlines

AI

• GitHub’s Copilot Enterprise now generally available at $39/mo.

• Glean raises $200M at $2.2B, with $39M in ARR.

• WordPress, Tumblr to sell AI training data to OpenAI, Midjourney.

• OpenAI seeks partial dismissal of NYT’s suit.

• Intel plans 1nm process for 2027.

• Google paying news publishers to test gen. AI tool.

• HubSpot: download 100 curated ChatGPT prompts, for free.*

*Sponsored.

Tech

• Klarna in talks to IPO at $20B valuation, with $2.3B in revenue in 2023.

• Vision Pro: 40% of components produced by Japanese companies.

• Google Maps rolling out glanceable directors.

• Bumble laying off ~30% of staff, eliminating 350 employees.

• Sony’s video game division lays off 8% of staff, ~900 employees.

• Zoho's new CRM, Bigin, can be the game changer for your business success.*

• citizenM has 14 tech-ready hotels stateside for the best night's sleep of your life.*

*Sponsored.

Tech earnings

• Baidu’s revenue +6% YoY to $4.9B in Q4.

• eBay’s revenue +2% to $2.6B.

• Imax’s revenue -12% to $86M.

Tech & law

• Biden may sign exec. order to limit sales of some U.S. data to China.

• Apple execs met with DOJ last week in bid to avoid antitrust suit.

• EU investigating Microsoft’s security software practices.

• TikTok replaces trust & safety head with protégé of CEO Chew.

• Applied Materials’s shipments to Chinese customers under review by U.S.

Biotech

• AI-discovered drug for ALS enters clinical trials.

• Accelerated approval “the norm” for gene therapies: FDA's Peter Marks.

• Cyclarity: interview with co-founder on their anti-athero drug.

Business

• Saudi Arabia’s Modern Mills gets $40B in orders for IPO.

Crypto

• Sen. Warren continues to bash crypto, space for “traffickers,” “terrorists.”

• Uniswap: making it easier to buy, sell and trade tokens on Ethereum.*

*Sponsored.

U.S. politics

• Trump beats Haley 68% - 27% in Michigan, Biden wins with 81%.

• Shutdown risk reduced after White House meeting.

• “Extremism” biggest worry among Dem voters, immigration for GOP.

World

• Yellen supports giving $300B in frozen Russian assets to Ukraine.

• NATO countries reject Macron’s suggestion of sending troops to Ukraine.

• Russia’s criteria for using nukes include ground invasions.

• Navalny’s funeral to be held on Fri. in Moscow.

• China expands state secrets law, effective in May.

• U.S. announces $53M in new aid to Gaza.

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