cancels

Breaking News: Apple Abandons Car Project, Google AI Falters, Bumble Experiences Setback

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Elsewhere, Mistral, the French AI startup, launched a new model to rival OpenAI’s GPT-4 — and its own cheekily named chatbot dubbed Le Chat. NewsApple car canceled: Apple has scuttled its secretive, long-running effort to build an autonomous electric car. Bumble stumbles: Bumble posted weak Q4 results showing a $32 million net loss and $273.6 million in revenue — below Wall Street expectations. Google’s AI goes awry: Google has apologized for an embarrassing AI blunder this week: An image-generating model that injected diversity into pictures with a farcical disregard for historical context. PodcastsOn Equity, the crew talked through startup news from Microsoft and Mistral AI, Thrasio and Glean — and also covered happenings over at COTU Ventures and Zacua Ventures.

“Apple Discontinues Development of Self-Driving Car and Implements Workforce Reduction”

Apple Car Canceled
Apple is scuttling its secretive, long-running project to build an autonomous electric car, according to Bloomberg. The company has already started laying off some people who worked on the project, TechCrunch has learned. Many of the nearly 2,000 employees who were still working on the project will be shifted to Apple’s generative AI projects, Bloomberg reported. The decision to kill the project comes at a time when major automakers are reevaluating their investments in electric vehicles, and amid increased scrutiny on autonomous vehicle projects. Apple first started working on its car project, known internally as “Project Titan,” in 2014.