USA:n hallinto nostaa kiinalaisten sähköautojen tariffeja
USA:n hallinto nostaa kiinalaisten sähköautojen tariffeja
Lisäksi: Kuolleiden sukulaisten deepfaket yleistyvät Kiinassa
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USA:n hallinto nostaa kiinalaisten sähköautojen tariffeja
Bidenin hallinnon odotetaan ilmoittavan korotuksista kiinalaisten sähköautojen tullitariffeihin alkavan viikon tiistaina, raportoi Wall Street Journal, jonka lähteiden mukaan kyseisten kulkuneuvojen tariffit nousisivat nykyisestä 25 %:sta peräti 100 %:iin. Tariffit tekevät kiinalaisten sähköautojen myymisestä Yhdysvalloissa käytännössä kannattamatonta. Kiinan ulkoministeriön edustaja syytti korotettuja tariffeja maiden välisen kaupan häiritsemisestä.
The Biden administration is preparing to raise tariffs on clean-energy goods from China in the coming days, with the levy on Chinese electric vehicles set to roughly quadruple, according to people familiar with the matter.
Higher tariffs, which Biden administration officials are preparing to announce on Tuesday, will also hit critical minerals, solar goods and batteries sourced from China, according to the people. The decision comes at the end of a yearslong review of tariffs imposed by former President Donald Trump on roughly $300 billion in goods from China.
…
Officials are particularly focused on electric vehicles, and they are expected to raise the tariff rate to roughly 100% from 25%, according to the people. An additional 2.5% duty applies to all automobiles imported into the U.S. The existing 25% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles has so far effectively barred those models, often cheaper than Western-made cars, from the U.S. market. Biden administration officials, automakers and some lawmakers worry that wouldn’t be enough given the scale of Chinese manufacturing.
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A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry denounced the Biden administration’s plans in a briefing on Friday, saying the tariffs have disrupted trade between the two countries. “China will take all necessary measures to defend its rights and interests,” the spokesman said.
Apple ja kumppanit haluavat suoritusperusteisen palkkiomallin Hollywoodiin
Bloombergin mediatoimittajan Lucas Shawn mukaan, Apple on esitellyt uutta kompensaatiosuunnitelmaa sen elokuvien ja TV-sarjojen parissa työskenteleville elokuva-alan työntekijöille, minkä myötä suurempi osa näiden palkkiosta maksettaisiin jos elokuva tai sarja menestyy hyvin. Menestymisen kriteerejä olisivat mm. miten moni uusi käyttäjä on ryhtynyt Apple TV+ -tilaajaksi tietyn elokuvan tai TV-sarjan takia ja miten paljon käyttäjät katsoivat tiettyä ohjelmaa.
Nykyisessä palkkiomallissa työntekijöille maksetaan määrätty summa riippumatta itse lopputuotteen menestyksestä. Myös Netflix ja Amazon ovat suunnittelleet vastaavanlaisia kannustinjärjestelmiä.
Apple has already met with talent representatives to propose a new performance-based compensation regime, according to a memo that we’ve seen and conversations with several people involved. Talent would receive bonuses based on a points system; the size of the bonuses will be based on three criteria: the number of people who signed up for Apple TV+ to watch, how much time they spent viewing and the cost of the program relative to the size of its audience. People with one of the top three shows could share up to $10.5 million for a season.
This plan isn’t final. Apple has asked people for feedback. It also doesn’t apply to every show on Apple – just those the company produces in-house. But the tech giant, along with Amazon and Netflix, is in the early stages of an experiment that will make the streaming business look a little bit more like the Hollywood of yore.
Netflix and Amazon have both spent months developing new plans for performance-based compensation, though neither one has gone public with the model just yet. Amazon still needs to pick the most relevant data point, like what percentage of a show’s viewers finish it, and both companies need to determine how they will pay people. They aim to try out the new models in the coming months.
Streaming services are changing the system to better align pay with performance, something many people in Hollywood say they want. Producer Jason Blum and United Talent Agency chief Jeremy Zimmer have both made similar arguments; when you get $10 million whether your show is good or bad, you have less incentive to do it well.
OpenAI ja Apple viimeistelevät teknologiasopimusta
Mainitaan vielä, että Apple ja OpenAI olisivat viimeistelemässä yhtiöiden välistä sopimusta, jonka myötä Apple tulisi käyttämään OpenAI:n teknologiaa sen iPhone -puhelimissa. Sopimus kattaisi teknologian käytön yhtiön seuraavassa, syksyllä julkaistavassa iOS -käyttöjärjestelmäversiossa. Apple neuvottelee edelleen myös Googlen kanssa vastaavanlaisesta lisensointisopimuksesta. Bloombergilta:
Apple Inc. has closed in on an agreement with OpenAI to use the startup’s technology on the iPhone, part of a broader push to bring artificial intelligence features to its devices, according to people familiar with the matter.
The two sides have been finalizing terms for a pact to use ChatGPT features in Apple’s iOS 18, the next iPhone operating system, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. Apple also has held talks with Alphabet Inc.’s Google about licensing that company’s Gemini chatbot. Those discussions haven’t led to an agreement, but are ongoing.
An OpenAI accord would let Apple offer a popular chatbot as part of a flurry of new AI features that it’s planning to announce next month. Bloomberg reported in April that the discussions with OpenAI had intensified. Still, there’s no guarantee that an agreement will be announced imminently.
Suosittelut 🕵️
Kuolleiden sukulaisten deepfaket yleistyvät Kiinassa
Mielenkiintoisin artikkeli minkä luin viikonloppuna oli MIT Technology Reviewn juttu siitä, miten deepfake -palveluiden myötä, kuolleiden sukulaisten digitaalinen “henkiinherättämisestä” on muodostunut pieni markkina Kiinassa:
Once a week, Sun Kai has a video call with his mother. He opens up about work, the pressures he faces as a middle-aged man, and thoughts that he doesn’t even discuss with his wife. His mother will occasionally make a comment, like telling him to take care of himself—he’s her only child. But mostly, she just listens.
That’s because Sun’s mother died five years ago. And the person he’s talking to isn’t actually a person, but a digital replica he made of her—a moving image that can conduct basic conversations. They’ve been talking for a few years now.
After she died of a sudden illness in 2019, Sun wanted to find a way to keep their connection alive. So he turned to a team at Silicon Intelligence, an AI company based in Nanjing, China, that he cofounded in 2017. He provided them with a photo of her and some audio clips from their WeChat conversations. While the company was mostly focused on audio generation, the staff spent four months researching synthetic tools and generated an avatar with the data Sun provided. Then he was able to see and talk to a digital version of his mom via an app on his phone.
Markkinat ovat toistaiseksi pienet sillä artikkelissa mainituilla yhtiöillä on joitain tuhansia tällaisia kuolleen sukulaisen replikointiprojekteja, joista jokainen maksaa alle 1000 dollaria. Toinen itseäni hieman hämmentävä palvelu tällä saralla on ns. deepfake -puhelut, jossa esimerkiksi terapeutti ottaa kuolleen henkilön naaman videopuhelussa:
But that’s not the case for all Super Brain services. The company also offers deepfaked video calls in which a company employee or a contract therapist pretends to be the relative who passed away. Using DeepFace, an open-source tool that analyzes facial features, the deceased person’s face is reconstructed in 3D and swapped in for the live person’s face with a real-time filter.
At the other end of the call is usually an elderly family member who may not know that the relative has died—and whose family has arranged the conversation as a ruse.
Jonathan Yang, a Nanjing resident who works in the tech industry, paid for this service in September 2023. His uncle died in a construction accident, but the family hesitated to tell Yang’s grandmother, who is 93 and in poor health. They worried that she wouldn’t survive the devastating news.
Ehkä tämä kirjoittamisharrastukseni onkin vain tapa balsamoida itseni digitaalisesti tulevaisuudessa.
Nopeet 🚀
Sam Altman vieraili All-in -podcastissa.
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