Tag: Elon Musk

Neuralink successfully implants its chip into a second patient’s brain


Neuralink’s brain chip has been implanted into a second patient as part of early human trials, Elon Musk told podcast host Lex Fridman on Saturday. The company hasn’t disclosed when the surgery took place or the name of the recipient, according to Reuters.

Musk said 400 of the electrodes on the second patient’s brain are working out of 1,024 implanted. “I don’t want to jinx it but it seems to have gone extremely well,” he said. “There’s a lot of signal, a lot of electrodes. It’s working very well.”

The device allows patients with spinal cord injuries to play video games, use the internet and control electronic devices using their thoughts alone. In May, the company announced that it was “accepting applications for the second participant” in trials following FDA approval.

The original Neuralink implant patient, Nolan Arbaugh, described the surgery as “super easy.” In a demo, the company showed how Arbaugh was able to move a cursor around the screen of a laptop, pause an on-screen music device and play chess and Civilization VI.

Arbaugh himself participated in the marathon podcast with Musk and Fridman. He said that the device allows him to make anything happen on a computer screen just by thinking it, helping reduce his reliance on caregivers.

However, problems cropped up shortly after his surgery when some of electrodes retracted from his brain. The issue was partly rectified later on by modifying the algorithm to make the implants more sensitive. Neuralink told the FDA that in a second procedure, it would place the implant’s threads deeper into the patient’s brain to prevent them from moving as much as they did in Arbaugh’s case.

Neuralink previously tested its implant in animals, including chimps, and some of those testing practices have been the subject of federal investigations.

Despite those issues, the company said it had over 1,000 volunteers for its second surgical trial. Musk said he expects Neuralink to implant its chips in up to eight more patients by the end of 2024.

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#Neuralink #successfully #implants #chip #patients #brain

Hedge funds that piled into big Tesla short stung by huge rally


Hedge funds piled into short bets against Tesla Inc. right before the electric vehicle maker unveiled a set of numbers that triggered a hefty share-price rally.

About 18% of the 500-plus hedge funds tracked by data provider Hazeltree had an overall short position on Tesla at the end of June, the highest percentage in more than a year, according to figures shared with Bloomberg. That compares with just under 15% at the end of March.

Also Read | Tesla vs Tesla Power: MD Khurana sure about mediation, trademark ownership issue

Those contrarian bets now threaten to saddle the hedge funds behind them with losses. Tesla’s latest vehicle-sales results, published on July 2, revealed second-quarter deliveries figures that beat average analyst estimates, even though sales were down. Investors pounced on the news, driving the company’s shares to a six-month high. Since the beginning of June, Tesla’s share price has now soared about 40%.

Tesla is likely to see its profit margins improve, helped by lower production and raw material costs, according to Morningstar Inc.’s Seth Goldstein, one of the top three analysts covering the stock in a Bloomberg ranking that tracks price recommendations.

The company will likely “return to profit growth” next year, he said in a note to clients. But how Tesla handles the market’s intensifying focus on affordable EVs will be key, he added.

Also Read | Elon Musk biggest billionaire loser in 2024, remains richest in the world

The development feeds into an ongoing sense of uncertainty around how to treat the wider EV market, amid a sea of conflicting dynamics. The industry — a key plank in the global race to reach net zero emissions by 2050 — benefits from generous tax credits. Yet it’s also contending with significant hurdles in the form of tariff wars and even identity politics, with some consumers rejecting EVs as a form of “woke” transport.

In the US, Donald Trump has said that if he becomes president again after November’s election, he’ll undo existing laws supporting battery-powered vehicles, calling them “crazy.” That said, Trump is a “huge fan” of Tesla’s Cybertruck, according to Elon Musk, the EV giant’s chief executive officer.

Meanwhile, the list of internal disruptions at Tesla is long. In April, Musk told staff to brace for major job cuts, with sales roles among those affected. And the Cybertruck, Tesla’s first new consumer model in years, has been slow to ramp up.

Also Read | Elon Musk’s Tesla pulls back on India EV push, says report

For that reason, some hedge fund managers have decided the stock is off bounds altogether. Tesla is “very difficult for us to position,” said Fabio Pecce, chief investment officer at Ambienta where he oversees $700 million, including managing the Ambienta x Alpha hedge fund.

Basically, it’s not clear whether investors are dealing with “a top company with a great management team” or whether it’s “a challenged franchise with deficient corporate governance,” he said.

However, “if Trump wins, it is truly going to be very positive” for Tesla, though “obviously not amazing for EVs and renewables in general,” he said. That’s because Trump is expected to impose “massive tariffs towards the Chinese players,” which would be “beneficial” to Tesla, Pecce said.

Investors ended 2023 declaring they’d likely retreat further from green stocks in general, and EVs specifically, according to a Bloomberg Markets Live Pulse survey. Almost two-thirds of the 620 respondents said they planned to stay away from the EV sector, with close to 60% expecting the iShares Global Clean Energy exchange-traded fund to extend its slide in 2024. The ETF has lost 13% so far this year after sinking more than 20% in 2023.

The Bloomberg Electric Vehicles Price Return Index, whose members include BYD Co., Tesla and Rivian Automotive Inc., is down about 22% so far in 2024. At the same time, the metals and minerals needed to produce batteries are at the mercy of wildly volatile commodities markets, with speculators regularly trying to make a quick buck on shifts in supply and demand. Price volatility means some battery manufacturers are having to adjust to a market in which their profit margins have been getting badly squeezed.

Against that backdrop, more traditional automakers are finding themselves under pressure from shareholders to slow down their capital expenditure on EVs, with recent examples including Porsche AG. Polestar Automotive Holding UK Plc, a high-end EV manufacturer, has lost almost 95% of its value since being spun out of Volvo Car AB two years ago. Fisker Inc., another luxury EV maker, saw its value wiped out starting last year and has since filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Soren Aandahl, founder and CIO of Texas-based Blue Orca Capital, said “valuations in the EV space are so beat up” that he’s now avoiding shorting the sector. It’s no longer an obvious contrarian bet, because those tend to do best if investors enter “when things are a little bit higher,” he said. But at this point, “a lot of the air’s already come out of the balloon.”

But Eirik Hogner, deputy portfolio manager at $2.7 billion hedge fund Clean Energy Transition, suggests there may be more pain to come for the wider EV industry. There are still “way too many” startups that remain “sub-scale” and with gross margins that are simply “too low,” he said. As a result, the supply-demand dynamic of the EV market “is still very negative.”

“Ultimately, I think you need to see more bankruptcies” before the market starts to look healthier, Hogner said.



#Hedge #funds #piled #big #Tesla #short #stung #huge #rally

Elon Musk’s X risks fine as EU steps up crackdown on big tech


Elon Musk’s social media platform X is set to be served with a formal warning for failing to combat dangerous content, in the third show of force by European Union regulators against Big Tech in recent weeks.The escalation — which could eventually pave the way for fines of 6% of X’s revenue — is likely to be announced by Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton before the EU’s summer recess, according to people familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Should X not make the necessary changes to address the European Commission’s preliminary findings, the authority could proceed with a formal decision before the end of the year, the people said. After this, the company could face a financial penalty for non-compliance.
The warning shot against X follows the opening of an investigation by the EU’s regulators in December. Brussels watchdogs have made inquiries into platform’s handling of content after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. Regulators also have opened investigations into Meta Platforms Inc., AliExpress, and ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok.The commission said its proceedings against X are ongoing and there are no time limits on the next step. X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Also Read: IT headcount reduction linked to lower discretionary spending, not AI, says Nandan Nilekani

The EU’s DSA and the Digital Markets Act, or DMA, are two freshly minted laws that take aim at the most powerful online platforms. The EU has now ramped up enforcement of its new powers.

The DSA became legally enforceable last August, laying out content rules for social media platforms, online marketplaces and app stores. It forces their owners to clamp down on misinformation and objectionable content such as hate speech, terrorist propaganda and ads for unsafe toys. Regulators have also homed in on the creation of so-called rabbit holes on social media, which suck young users deeper and deeper into often inappropriate material.

The DMA regulation took hold on March 7, hitting big tech firms with a broad list of dos and don’ts based on decades of antitrust enforcement in the digital economy. The aim is to stop abusive conduct before its takes hold and allows the digital giants firms to dominate markets. The EU has just issued formal warnings to Apple Inc. and Meta over allegedly unfair practices under the DMA.

Also Read: Mark Zuckerberg celebrates fourth of July surfing with an American flag and beer



#Elon #Musks #risks #fine #steps #crackdown #big #tech

Threads hits 175 million subscribers within a year of launch


Just a year after its initial launch, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta’s Threads app has reached over 175 million monthly active users.The milestone comes as Threads approaches its first anniversary on July 5. When the app debuted in 2023, it was positioned as a rival to Elon Musk’s Twitter (now X), which was undergoing significant turmoil under new ownership.

While Threads’ growth has slowed from its initial rapid pace, the app continues to add users at a steady clip – a notable achievement for a standalone social media app from Meta. Musk has not shared comparable user metrics for X since taking over the platform.

However, monthly active users only tell part of the story. Meta has not yet disclosed Threads’ daily active user figures, suggesting the app may still rely heavily on cross-promotion within Instagram, which shares the same account system.Even so, 175 million monthly users in the first year is an impressive feat, especially given Meta’s mixed track record with standalone app experiments in the past. Zuckerberg has expressed optimism that Threads could become the company’s next billion-user platform.

Threads hits 175 million subscribers within a year of launch 1 Threads hits 175 million subscribers within a year of launch

To sustain growth, Meta is reportedly focusing on expanding Threads’ presence in markets like Japan, where it sees an opportunity to capture more market share from X. While currently a financial loss leader, Threads is expected to begin monetization efforts, potentially tapping into Instagram’s existing advertising system, sometime next year.

Though Threads has yet to achieve the same cultural relevance as its social media rivals, Meta’s ability to steadily grow the app’s user base indicates the company has the runway to continue developing the platform as a more brand-safe alternative to the turbulence of X.

Also read: CMF by Nothing reveals CMF Phone 1 design: Most customisable smartphone ever?



#Threads #hits #million #subscribers #year #launch

Tesla shares surge 10% after beating estimates with less-drastic drop in EV sales


Tesla Inc.’s second consecutive drop in quarterly deliveries wasn’t as steep as analysts were predicting, sending the EV maker’s shares soaring as much as 10%.The carmaker said Tuesday that it delivered 4,43,956 vehicles in the second quarter, better than the 4,39,302 average Wall Street estimate. While sales were down 4.8% from a year ago, Tesla improved on a sequential basis from the 3,86,810 vehicles delivered in the first three months of the year.

The company produced 4,10,831 vehicles during the quarter, 14% fewer than it made during the same period a year ago. Tesla didn’t offer an explanation for the dip in sales and output, but will provide more details when it reports earnings on July 23.

“We are encouraged by the strong deliveries and see this as a positive for the broader EV sentiment,” Ben Kallo, a senior research analyst at Robert W. Baird, said in a note.Tesla has had a tumultuous year. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk announced major staff reductions in April and pushed internally to reduce headcount by as much as a 20%. The job losses have included sales employees, which may have played a role in weaker delivery figures. The EV maker’s first new model in years, the Cybertruck, also has been slow to ramp up.

Tesla blamed its first quarter slowdown on a suspected arson attack at its vehicle factory near Berlin, as well as shipping diversions from the Red Sea. While there were fewer external disruptions to the business during the last three months, the company is struggling to grow with an older lineup of vehicles.

Musk ordered price cuts across Tesla’s lineup over the past year and a half, but those measures haven’t done enough to sustain momentum. The Austin-based carmaker delivered 4,22,405 of its top-selling Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in the second quarter, down from 4,46,915 a year ago.The company still hasn’t broken out sales for the Cybertruck, the pickup that it began delivering late last year. Two recall campaigns in June suggested Tesla has handed over more than 11,000 of the trucks to customers. During the company’s annual shareholder meeting last month, Musk said the automaker had produced 1,300 of the pickups in a week, though he didn’t specify when or speak to whether Tesla would maintain that pace.

In a note, Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at auto researcher Edmunds.com, said the delivery decline was not a big shock, and that “times are tough” for Tesla as the carmaker tries to attract buyers to its narrow product lineup in a slow EV market.

“We’ve seen the automaker exhaust its bag of tricks by lowering prices and increasing incentives to spur demand without much success in the US market,” Caldwell said, adding the company’s limited lineup and the price of the Cybertruck are also making it hard to “nudge” shoppers toward its products.

Tesla did note a record in its energy storage business for the second quarter in a row. Tesla said it deployed around 9,400 megawatt hours during the last three months, up from 4,053 megawatt hours in the first quarter. This means that in just the first half of this year, the company almost topped its energy storage product deployments during all of 2023.

While the unit, which deploys Powerwall batteries for homes and Megapacks for commercial customers, has provided a glimmer of hope to Tesla amid a vehicle-sales decline, the challenge has been to convert those gains into meaningful revenue. The company usually brings in more sales from its “services and other” revenue segment than from energy generation and storage.

Musk has said Tesla will roll out new and more affordable models by early next year, though the company has provided few details beyond saying they’ll be produced on the same manufacturing lines as its current lineup. The CEO has also prioritized building a fully autonomous robotaxi and plans to hold an event to unveil the vehicle on August 8.



#Tesla #shares #surge #beating #estimates #lessdrastic #drop #sales

Mumbai North West election result row and EVM ‘unlocking’ claims: All you need to know


The Lok Sabha election results of the Mumbai North West seat has triggered a political slugfest with the Opposition claiming that the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) was tampered with during the vote counting on June 4. At the center of the Mumbai North West election result row is Ravindra Dattaram Waikar – a leader in the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena in Maharashtra – who won the seat by just 48 votes.

The controversy on the Mumbai North West seat erupted following allegations that Mangesh Pandilkar, brother-in-law of Ravindra Waikar, used a mobile phone to “unlock” the EVM during vote counting.

A few reports have alleged Mangesh Pandilkar was also using a mobile phone that was “connected” to an EVM. A Mid-Day report mentioned that Pandilkar used the phone to generate an OTP which was then used to unlock the machine.

This incident has brought renewed attention to claims of EVM tampering, allegations rubbished by returning officer Vandana Suryavanshi and Mumbai Police.

While the Opposition has demanded an investigation into the allegations while questioning reliability of EVMs, BJP leaders have defended the machines, saying they are standalone systems with no wireless communication capabilities and demanded that the Election Commission of India (ECI) should prosecute all those who “amplified the lie”.

The Uddhav Thackeray camp has claimed that Amol Kirtikar has won the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha seat while drawing similarities with the Chandigarh mayoral election scam.

Aditya Thackeray said the party will go to court on this issue. “We have won the seat contested by Amol Kirtikar (Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate from Mumbai North West)..and we will definitely go to court…,” Aditya Thackeray said speaking at a press conference in Mumbai on Monday.

“If there was no EVM, BJP would not have won 240…They would not have won even 40 seats,” he said. Also Read | Elon Musk to Rahul Gandhi. Who said what on EVM ‘unlocking’ political row? 10 Points

WHAT IS SHIV SENA CLAIMING?

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Anil Parab has shared the details of the alleged irregularities during vote counting at Mumbai North West seat. Anil Parab said the assistant returning officer (ARO) was not given information after the 19th round of Amol Kirtikar’s vote.

Anil Parab said, “There are a total of 14 tables at the counting place of every MP’s seat..every EVM counting table has an ARO i.e. assistant returning officer…After every round of counting, the final information is given to the ARO..but after 19 rounds of counting, the ARO was not informed…”

The Shiv Sena-UBT leader also said that the election officer was getting “frequent calls” and was frequently visiting the washroom. He also accused the polling staff Dinesh Gurav of allowing Mangesh Pandilkar inside the counting station.



#Mumbai #North #West #election #result #row #EVM #unlocking #claims

EVM row: ‘So Tesla can be hacked’, says Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Elon Musk’s ‘anything can be hacked’ claim


In response to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s criticism of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), BJP leader and former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said that Musk is factually incorrect to say that “anything can be hacked.”

Chandrasekhar told ANI, “While I respect Elon Musk and what he has achieved. I think he is factually incorrect in saying that anything can be hacked. A calculator or a toaster cannot be hacked. Therefore, there is a limit in terms of where this paradigm of hacking can extend.”

Also Read: Rahul Gandhi backs Elon Musk’s concern on voting machine, says EVMs in India are a ’black box’

BJP leader further added that Elon Musk has not understood what the Indian EVM is. “Indian EVMs do not lend itself to being hacked because it is precisely very limited intelligence device…He is factually wrong…To claim that there cannot be a secure digital product in the world is to then say that every Tesla car can be hacked,” he noted.

Earlier, Chandrasekhar has said that they can be architected and built right as India has done. He further called out Musk in a post on X, saying that India “would be happy to run a tutorial” for the same.

In India’s recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, several opposition leaders had alleged that EVMs could have been hacked.

Meanwhile, NCP-SCP leader Rohit Pawar said, “Elon Musk is a big name in AI & robotics…If such a person makes a comment on EVM which creates confusion about EVM, it is a big thing. The comment or statement should not be taken lightly. The EC & the government should investigate it and the investigation should be transparent…When confusion increases, everyone’s trust in democracy reduces.”

Also Read: Elon Musk to Rahul Gandhi. Who said what on EVM ‘unlocking’ political row? 10 Points

Meanwhile, the allegations of ‘unlocking’ the EVM in the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha seat during the recently concluded Lok Sabha Elections have sparked a political row.

Mangesh Pandilkar, brother-in-law of Ravindra Waikar, who won by a margin of just 48 votes, used a mobile phone to “unlock” an EVM during vote counting.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said serious concerns about transparency in the country’s electoral process are being raised even as the Election Commission rejected the tampering claim.

Also Read: ‘International contract killers’: BJP’s Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Elon Musk’s EVM hack claims

Whereas, the BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Monday said that EVM has gone through many ‘agnipariksha’ and has been successful in it.

BJP leader Naqvi said, “We shouldn’t make EVM either a god or demon. EVM has gone through many ‘agnipariksha’ and has been successful in it. Earlier people used to attack it nationally and now some ‘international contract killers’ have stood up against it.”

(With inputs from agencies)

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Published: 17 Jun 2024, 01:45 PM IST



#EVM #row #Tesla #hacked #Rajeev #Chandrasekhar #Elon #Musks #hacked #claim

Elon Musk’s unmissable reaction to Dubai Police’s addition of Tesla Cybertruck to patrol fleet. Seen it yet? | Trending


Dubai Police in November 2019 hinted that it could add Tesla Cybertruck to its impressive fleet of cars, which already included Bugattis, Aston Martins, and Porsches. Now, after over four years, the police have added Tesla Cybertruck to its fleet of luxury patrol vehicles. As the Tesla Cybertruck joined Dubai Police’s supercar fleet, Elon Musk reacted to the post.
After Tesla Cybertruck joined Dubai Police's fleet of patrol vehicles, Elon Musk reacted to the news.
After Tesla Cybertruck joined Dubai Police’s fleet of patrol vehicles, Elon Musk reacted to the news.

“The Dubai Police General Command has added the Tesla Cybertruck, the modern electric car with a futuristic design, to its tourist police luxury patrol fleet,” wrote Dubai Police while sharing pictures of the Tesla Cybertruck on X.

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Take a look at the luxury patrol fleet of Dubai Police below:

Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO of Tesla, soon dropped a comment on the post. He simply wrote, “Cool,” complete with a smiling face with sunglasses emoji.

Cybertruck, too, commented on the post. “Very cool to see – thanks for the trust,” wrote the company in the comments.

Check out how X users reacted to this post by Dubai Police:

“This is awesome and should come as no surprise. Dubai makes wonderful decisions. Cybertruck is built like X. The everything truck!” wrote X user Cindys.

Another joined, “Smart and wise choice.”

“Awesome. Need them in Chicago,” said a third.

A fourth Internet user Alex Smirnov commented, “Fantastic seeing the powerful Dubai Police add Cybertruck! Elon Musk’s electric truck is going across the globe and joined the most innovative police force! Bravo!”

“Looks great and speaks highly of the forward-looking, tech-embracing decision makers! Quite ahead of any such agencies here in the US, where it was primarily designed to be used!” joined a fifth individual.

“Dubai Police’s addition of the Tesla Cybertruck to their fleet is impressive! Combining cutting-edge technology with sustainability sets a great example for modern policing,” posted X user Sheikh Aaqib Satar.



#Elon #Musks #unmissable #reaction #Dubai #Polices #addition #Tesla #Cybertruck #patrol #fleet #Trending

EVM Row: After Elon Musk Says It’s Hackable, Rahul Gandhi Jumps In; Ex-Modi Minister Offers Tutorial


Tesla boss and social media giant X owner Elon Musk has called for banning electronic voting machines after alleged irregularities in primary polls in Puerto Rico. Reacting to this, former union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that Musk’s views don’t apply to India as the EVMs here are not ‘reprogrammable’. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also entered the EVM debate. He called EVMs in India a “black box” which are “not allowed” to be scrutinised. The Congress leader also shared a bombshell report about alleged EVM tampering in Mumbai. Watch this video for more information.

 



#EVM #Row #Elon #Musk #Hackable #Rahul #Gandhi #Jumps #ExModi #Minister #Offers #Tutorial

Elon Musk’s ’anything can be hacked’ VS ’Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s ’technically you are right’ on use of EVMs


Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently raised alarms over the efficiency of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and the high risk of hacking these machines with the help of artificial intelligence or humans. As the owner of social media platform X, called for a complete elimination of EVMs from elections, former union minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar, responded to his suggestion and highlighted the success of EVMs in India.

Reacting to Elon Musk’s post on X, Rajeev Chandrashekhar explained how Indian EVMs, unlike those used in other countries like the US, are custom designed, secure and isolated from any network or media. In his post on X, Chandrashekhar called Elon Musk’s statement on EVMs as ‘generalised’ and expressed the possibility of building secure digital hardware for EVMs.

“Indian EVMs are custom designed, secure and isolated from any network or media – No connectivity, no bluetooth, wifi, Internet. ie there is no way in. Factory programmed controllers that cannot be reprogrammed,” wrote Chandrashekhar in his post. 

Apart from advocating the use of isolated EVMs free from any network or media, the BJP leader invited Elon Musk for a short tutorial on how to build a safe and secure electronic voting machine for free and fair elections. “Electronic voting machines can be architected and built right as India has done. We wud be happy to run a tutorial Elon,”

Anything can be hacked: Elon Musk to Chandrashekhar

Chandrashekhar’s post on X, met with a range of comments expressing different opinion. Continuing the conversation, Elon Musk also responded to the post and commented “Anything can be hacked”. The conversation began when Elon Musk suggested the elimination of the use of electronic voting machines earlier. 

“We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high,” wrote Musk in his X post earlier.



#Elon #Musks #hacked #Rajeev #Chandrasekhars #technically #EVMs