GM is massively slashing spending on its self-driving vehicle subsidiary Cruise after a string of debilitating setbacks, according to a conference call by company executives transcribed by TechCrunch . GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra said that operations would resume in some capacity, but that any plans for Cruise moving forward would be more "deliberate." To that end, the cuts will amount to hundreds of millions of dollars in the next year. This is expected to result in widespread layoffs at the San Francisco-based company that currently employees nearly 4,000 people. Earlier this month, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt told staffers at an all-hands meeting that he'd have information regarding layoffs in the coming weeks, but he resigned shortly thereafter along with co-founder Dan Kan.

General Motors (GM) will slash spending in its self-driving car unit Cruise, after an accident last month seriously injured a pedestrian and prompted regulators to retract its operating permit for driverless cars in San Francisco. The company announced today that it will "substantially lower" its spending on Cruise next year, according to Mary Barra, GM's CEO. "We expect the pace of Cruise's expansion to be more deliberate when operations resume," she said in a letter to shareholders. Until the accident, Cruise had been operating driverless taxis in three US cities, San Francisco, Phoenix and Austin, with plans to expand. In October, the company said it would no longer operate its vehicles without safety drivers behind the wheel.

Princess Diana's biographer Andrew Morton, author of "The Queen: Her Story," weighs in on the future for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The New York Times and more wrote critical reviews of a new book on the royal family, including a chapter on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which one review described as a "press release cooked up by ChatGPT." The book, by Omid Scobie, is titled "Endgame," and picks up on the royal family after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. A review, written by Eva Wolchover for the New York Times, said the book did Harry and Meghan "no favors." "Whether or not Scobie actively collaborated with Meghan and Harry for this book, he does them no favors. Their chapter reads like a press release cooked up by ChatGPT, and does little to shed light on them as humans," the Times review read.

The study deployed four AI-detection tools to uncover possible evidence of hastily crafted, insincere apologies penned by an AI chatbot: ChatGPTZero, Undetectable.ai, The team collected apologies from posts and videos and transcribed the content, which was scanned through the four systems and then analyzed for the likelihood of AI generation. Overall percentages were then calculated, finding averages of each percentage found on different AI detector tools for that celebrity. Viral TikTok sensation Tiffany Gomas, whose unhinged reaction to another airline passenger spanned the internet, scored a combined 72 percent likelihood that AI-generated her video-taped Instagram apology. The transcribed text of the content was found to be 99 percent likely AI on Sapling and 45 percent likely AI on ChatGPTZero.

A judge has found "reasonable evidence" that Elon Musk and other executives at Tesla knew that the company's self-driving technology was defective but still allowed the cars to be driven in an unsafe manner anyway, according to a recent ruling issued in Florida. Palm Beach county circuit court judge Reid Scott said he'd found evidence that Tesla "engaged in a marketing strategy that painted the products as autonomous" and that Musk's public statements about the technology "had a significant effect on the belief about the capabilities of the products". The ruling, reported by Reuters on Wednesday, clears the way for a lawsuit over a fatal crash in 2019 north of Miami involving a Tesla Model 3. The vehicle crashed into an 18-wheeler truck that had turned on to the road into the path of driver Stephen Banner, shearing off the Tesla's roof and killing Banner. The lawsuit, brought by Banner's wife, accuses the company of intentional misconduct and gross negligence, which could expose Tesla to punitive damages. The ruling comes after Tesla won two product liability lawsuits in California earlier this year focused on alleged defects in its Autopilot system.

A key aspect of the E.U.'s landmark AI Act could be watered down after the French, German, and Italian governments advocated for limited regulation of the powerful models--known as foundation models--that underpin a wide range of artificial intelligence applications. A document seen by TIME that was shared with officials from the European Parliament and the European Commission by the three biggest economies in the bloc over the weekend proposes that AI companies working on foundation models regulate themselves by publishing certain information about their models and signing up to codes of conduct. There would initially be no punishment for companies that didn't follow these rules, though there might be in future if companies repeatedly violate codes of conduct. They are some of the most powerful, valuable and potentially risky AI systems in existence. Many of the most prominent and hyped AI companies--including OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, xAI, Cohere, InflectionAI, and Meta--develop foundation models.

Microsoft Corp. said that Sam Altman will lead the software developer's new in-house artificial intelligence team after the OpenAI co-founder was ousted from his startup last week, a bid to shore up Microsoft's AI plans and reassure investors. Greg Brockman, an OpenAI board member and co-founder who also left the company last week, will join Altman and Microsoft will "move quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success," the Redmond, Washington-based company's Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said in a post on LinkedIn early on Monday. In another post on X, formerly Twitter, Nadella said Altman will serve as CEO of the new in-house group. I'm super excited to have you join as CEO of this new group, Sam, setting a new pace for innovation. We've learned a lot over the years about how to give founders and innovators space to build independent identities and cultures within Microsoft, including GitHub, Mojang Studios,… The move, at midnight local time on Sunday, was the latest in a dramatic three days for Microsoft and OpenAI's relationship, a backup plan for Nadella after his efforts to restore Altman and Brockman to OpenAI were thwarted. The OpenAI board named former Twitch chief Emmett Shear as CEO.

Microsoft on Monday announced it has hired ousted OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman to head a new advanced AI research team after OpenAI's board decided against reinstating Altman following negotiations over the weekend. The appointment caps off a chaotic weekend for the tech world, which kicked off Friday after OpenAI's board of directors suddenly fired Altman, a high-profile figure and wunderkind of the artificial intelligence boom. It appeared there was a chance Altman could return to OpenAI but the board instead decided to appoint its second interim CEO, seemingly ending Altman's hopes of returning to the helm after his shocking ouster. Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella said Monday the tech giant -- who is a lead investor in OpenAI -- is also bringing in OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, who resigned as president of the company in protest over the firing of Altman. "We're extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team," Nadella wrote in a statement posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

The board of the company behind ChatGPT late on Friday fired OpenAI CEO Sam Altman -- to many, the human face of generative AI -- sending shock waves across the tech industry. OpenAI's Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati will serve as interim CEO, the company said, adding that it will conduct a formal search for a permanent CEO. The announcement blindsided many employees who discovered the abrupt management shuffle from an internal announcement and the company's public facing blog. OpenAI scheduled an emergency all-hands meeting to discuss the news with employees Friday afternoon, a person familiar with the matter said.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has announced that CEO and co-founder Sam Altman will immediately leave his role leading the company and step down from its board of directors. Altman was not "consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities," leading to the board losing confidence in his ability to lead the company, according to the announcement in a blog post on Nov. 17. Mira Murati, OpenAI's chief technology officer, will serve as interim CEO, the company said in the blog post. The company also announced that Greg Brockman, another OpenAI co-founder and president, would step down from his role as chairman of the board, although he would remain in his role as president, reporting to Murati. The sudden departure comes as a shock to the tech world.