Apple hits the breaks on EV plans; Vodafone in talks to sell Italian arm for €8bn

Apple parks EV plans for AI focus

Apple has cancelled plans to develop its own autonomous electric vehicle, with the iPhone-maker instead turning its focus to generative AI, according to reports.

According to an internal announcement, Apple COO Jeff Williams revealed that the majority of its 1,400+ employees who had been focussed on developing the vehicle would now work on developing large language models like ChatGPT

A report from TechCrunch claims the decision to scuttle the project – known internally as Project Titat – will see hundreds of roles axed at the Californian manufacturer. Apple first began developing an autonomous vehicle in 2014, poaching executives from Ford, Lamborghini and Tesla.

The change in strategy comes just weeks after Apple launched its first major entry into a new technology field with the Apple Vision Pro, which went on sale earlier this month.

Biden signs executive order shielding US data from foreign rivals

President Joe Biden has signed an executive order that aims to protect American’s personal data from foreign adversaries, such as China and Russia.

The EO will aim to limit the transfer of datasets – ranging from biometrics and healthcare to geolocation and finance information – to firms based in “countries of concern” while building safeguards around other activities that can give those countries access to people’s sensitive data.

The White House said it doesn’t aim to limit legitimate commerce around data but is targeting commercial data brokers who may sell information to foreign adversaries or US entities controlled by those countries.

“Bad actors can use this data to track Americans, including military service members, pry into their personal lives, and pass that data on to other data brokers and foreign intelligence services,” the White House wrote in a fact sheet announcing the move. “This data can enable intrusive surveillance, scams, blackmail, and other violations of privacy.”

Read more on Biden’s executive order here

Vodafone looking to offload Italian arm to Swisscom in €8 billion deal

Vodafone is in talks to sell its Italian arm to Swisscom in a deal that could be worth up to €8 billion to the British telco, it has announced.

In a statement, Vodafone confirmed it has entered “exclusive discussions” with Swisscom in a cash deal that would see the Swiss incumbent merge Vodafone Italia with its Italian telco arm Fastweb to “create a converged challenger” to the likes of TIM and Wind Tre.

Confirming the talks, Swisscom said if a deal was agreed, it would “bring together complementary high-quality mobile and fixed infrastructures, competencies, and capabilities to create a leading converged challenger”.

It comes as Vodafone – one of the world’s major telecoms operators – is looking to streamline its assets under CEO Margherita Della Valle, who took charge last year. Della Valle has already announced a proposed merger with CK Hutchison’s Three UK in its home market, while Vodafone has also agreed to sell its Spanish business to Zegona Communications in a $5.3 billion deal.

Pichai apologises for Google Gemini’s controversial AI images

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has vowed to address problems with the way its AI Gemini produces images after the AI platform produced historically inaccurate material that had “offended our users and showed bias”

Google had suspended Gemini’s ability to generate images after it was discovered the AI model had produced several controversial and ahistorical images, including racially diverse Nazi soldiers and non-white US Founding Fathers.

Google has already apologised, saying it had “missed the mark” with the images, pledging to re-enable image generation in the coming weeks. The controversy spiralled when the GenAI was found to be creating questionable text responses, such as equating Elon Musk’s influence on society with Adolf Hitler’s.

However, in a leaked internal memo reported on by Semafor, Pichai addressed the controversy directly, saying: “I know that some of its responses have offended our users and shown bias – to be clear, that’s completely unacceptable and we got it wrong,”

“Our teams have been working around the clock to address these issues. We’re already seeing a substantial improvement on a wide range of prompts,” he added.

Connected ring, rollable smartphone and transparent laptops among products launched at MWC24

Samsung’s connected ring, Motorola’s rollable smartphone and a transparent laptop from Lenovo are among the new products making headlines at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Korean smartphone-maker Samsung is expanding its range of wearables to include the Galaxy Ring, which when worn on the finger can offer users more insights into health, wellbeing and sleeping patterns. Though pricing and full details have yet to be revealed, the Galaxy Ring is expected to go on sale later this year.

Also on show in Barcelona was a completely foldable phone from Motorola. Though foldables have been launched in recent years as a new category of smartphones, the prototype from Motorola is “rollable” meaning the device can be wrapped around a user’s wrist like a watch. It includes a material back to make it more comfortable to wear.

New laptops were also showcased, with Lenovo unveiling a new concept that includes a fully transparent screen. The computer looks like a standard laptop with a screen made of a single transparent pane, and a keyboard that does not include physical keys.

Californian firm Alef Aeronautics also brought a concept design for a potential flying car, which it claims is fully road legal, while start-up Joby showed off its eVtol model aircraft in Europe for the first time, in partnership with SK Telecom. The company has outlined plans to launch an air taxi service within the next two years.