03/03/2025

MONDAY | MAR 3, 2025

25

LYFE

Automated vehicles becoming reality

U S electric vehicle giant Tesla has started offering advanced self-driving functions for its cars in China, including autopilot on city streets, the company announced last Tuesday. The announcement comes after years of attempts to overcome regulatory hurdles blocking the update in the world’s largest automobile market. Tesla said in a statement on its WeChat page that it would gradually roll out a software update that includes “automatic Autopilot-assisted driving on city streets”, as well as a rearview mirror function that detects whether drivers are paying attention. The functions described are similar to the “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) capability it offers in the US. Cars with that capability are not fully autonomous, and are meant to be used under driver supervision. The update “has already been released for some car models, and will be gradually rolled to other suitable car models,” Tesla said. China is a major market for Tesla, where the company has two factories and is trying to compete with fast-growing domestic producers. Tuesday’s statement follows an announcement by Chinese automaker BYD – Tesla’s biggest rival in the country – that it would introduce advanced self-driving technology for nearly all its cars. Tesla has been working to gain approval for FSD in China, which needs to be compliant with strict data and privacy laws. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made several trips to China in recent years in an effort to win crucial data security clearance for the company’s locally produced models. Musk is a key figure in the administration of US President o Tesla rolls out advanced self-driving functions in China

Tesla has been working to gain approval for FSD in China. – AFPPIC

BYD’s “God’s Eye” autonomous driving system features remote parking and autonomous highway navigation previously found only on more expensive vehicles. The Chinese automaker said this month it would now make the system available even in budget models priced below US$10,000 (RM44,000). – AFP

Aside from overall improved intelligence, the latest iteration of Claude has a “hybrid” reasoning model that lets users get quick answers to questions or have it spend time mulling complex queries and share steps in the process, according to Kaplan. The improvement enables Claude to better follow instructions and handle more sophisticated analyses, he added. Since OpenAI released ChatGPT in late 2022, the race has been on to lead in a technology predicted to change the way people live and work. The new AI model makes its debut as Anthropic works on finalising a US$3.5 billion (RM15.5 billion) funding round that values the startup at US$61.5 billion in a huge leap from its prior valuation, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Anthropic declined to comment on the report. AI models have moved beyond generating images, videos or written While consumers are still unable to purchase fully autonomous vehicles, China has already approved multiple self-driving taxi services in major cities. In the city of Wuhan, more than 500 driverless taxis ferry passengers across large swathes of the city as part of Chinese tech giant Baidu’s Apollo Go project.

followers on the Chinese social media site Weibo, and his mother Maye Musk has appeared in advertisements for multiple Chinese consumer brands. China’s tech companies and automakers have poured billions of dollars into self-driving technology in an effort to catch industry leaders in the US.

Donald Trump, who has imposed additional tariffs on products from China and has vowed to curb Chinese investments in technology and critical infrastructure. But the Tesla CEO remains a popular figure in China, where he is seen as a successful and influential entrepreneur. Musk has nearly 2.3 million

Anthropic releases its ‘smartest’ AI model yet OPENAI rival Anthropic released last Monday what it said is its smartest artificial intelligence (AI) model to date, particularly when it comes to computer coding.

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specialising in fields or tasks. OpenAI released a version of ChatGPT six months ago that shared its “thinking” process, but Anthropic followed that by enabling its Claude model to command computers as people do. OpenAI responded with the recent release of its first AI agent called Operator with similar capabilities. Anthropic, which was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, and its arch-rival are striving to stand out in an increasingly crowded market. “We try very hard to make model improvements grounded in customer problems. When it is just newer, better, faster, it is not as impactful. We try to hear what people are saying and have the next model serve those needs,” said Anthropic chief product officer Mike Krieger. Amazon has invested a total of US$8 billion in Anthropic, while Google-parent Alphabet has invested US$2 billion in the startup. – AFP

Along with Claude 3.7 Sonnet, the San Francisco-based company is making available in a limited research preview a digital “agent” called Claude Code tailored to be a tool for software developers. Amazon-backed Anthropic described Claude Code as able to search and read code, edit files, run tests and more. The release comes as AI companies are pushing out new products at a fast pace and with innovations quickly reproduced by rivals, often at a lower cost, raising concerns about finding a return on the massive investments. Anthropic’s new model is “much stronger at coding, and particularly at taking over and doing really complicated coding tests,” said Anthropic co-founder and chief science officer Jared Kaplan.

Amazon-backed Anthropic describes Claude Code as able to search and read code, edit files, run tests and more. – PIC FROM ANTHROPIC