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Artificial intelligence

This summer, you may be able to hail a self-driving car in Texas

Starting in July, the self-driving startup Drive.ai will offer on-demand robotic cars in Frisco, a suburb north of Dallas.

Behind the wheel: Drive.ai plans to use the city as the test bed for a six-month pilot of its vehicles, according to a post on Medium by Andrew Ng, a leading AI expert and a Drive.ai board member.

Safety first: The cars will be deployed only in a small area and on fixed routes. They’ll be painted bright orange, with the words “self-driving vehicle” printed on the sides, and include displays that can flash messages to pedestrians, like “Waiting for you to cross.” Backup drivers will be in place at first, with plans to shift over to a “chaperone” in the passenger seat and, eventually, to remote operators overseeing multiple cars.

Why it matters: Waymo has tested cars in Austin and offered rides to the public in Phoenix, but this trial will be the first time a company has provided trips to the public in the Lone Star State. After Uber’s fatal accident in March, Drive.ai’s safety-first approach could help convince Texans to hop in.

Deep Dive

Artificial intelligence

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

Google DeepMind’s new generative model makes Super Mario–like games from scratch

Genie learns how to control games by watching hours and hours of video. It could help train next-gen robots too.

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