5 billion: Elon Musk wants the Tesla board of directors to invest $5 billion in xAI, his artificial intelligence startup that built the Grok chatbot. Tesla’s self-driving ambitions depend on artificial intelligence, but this move also represents Musk’s ambition to further intermingle his many businesses. Grok lives entirely within X, formerly Twitter, and is available to paying subscribers.
500 million: The Garden State is making a half-billion dollar bet to become a hub for AI. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law on June 25 that allocates $500 million in tax credits for artificial intelligence companies and data centers willing to come to the state. It’s part of Murphy’s ongoing “AI Moonshot” to bring more AI jobs to the state.
40 billion: Visa says that artificial intelligence and machine learning helped it double its fraud detection in a year. Between October 2022 and September 2023, the payments company prevented $40 billion in fraud, double what they prevented the year prior. While AI can certainly help fraudsters trick people into handing over their credit card details or other sensitive information, it can also help financial services companies monitor and prevent irregular activity.
500 million: The AI startup Cohere, which makes enterprise AI tools, raised $500 million last week based on a $5.5 billion valuation. But the next day, it laid off 20 employees — about 5% of the company. The company called the decision “necessary” to ensure it remains “highly competitive and at the forefront of the industry.”
Algerians are headed to the polls today to elect their next members of parliament. However, hopes for true democracy look more remote than ever.
In addition to the health concerns from the Ebola outbreak, the UN is sounding the alarm on a potential development crisis in Africa sparked by the disease.
The protests in the small Balkan country were touched off by the start of construction on a seaside luxury resort linked to US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.