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Will climate change doom US truck habit? Detroit says no

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Like other electric vehicles being developed by Detroit, Ford Motor Co.'s F-150 Lightning has been praised as an improvement in addressing climate change, although it requires more energy to recharge than does a smaller vehicle
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The US consumer’s love for enormous vehicles has been seen by outsiders as a curiosity and sometimes a sign of profligacy.

Either way, rising concerns about climate change seemed to create a reckoning for the behemoth-sized pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles that recently have sustained US automaker profits.

Not so, according to Detroit auto giants, who have responded to the climate crisis by launching all-electric versions of the Ford F-150 pickup, the Chevrolet Blazer SUV and other best-selling giants that seemingly promise the possibility that consumers can have it all: address global warming without sacrificing the appeal of larger autos.

Leading US environmentalists, along with the Biden administration, have praised announcements of the electric vehicle (EV) rollouts as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Absent has been any discussion of the environmental toll of large EV trucks, which require more energy to recharge and more critical materials than do smaller EVs.

In showcasing trucks, Detroit automakers are setting the groundwork for an EV era that mirrors the current profile of US roadways and distinct from Europe, where sedans dominate.

Industry insiders like Alan Amici, president of the Center for Automotive Research, see little appetite among American consumers to go small.

“People are still clamoring for big pickups and SUVs,” Amici said. “I don’t expect a return to sedans.”

The trucks, often marketed in advertisements navigating rugged landscapes, provide lucrative profit margins to automakers and have become so ubiquitous on US roads that some consumers avoid smaller vehicles out of fear of how it would handle a crash with a much bigger auto.

Ford and General Motors, both of which report earnings this week, are positioning the vehicles as environmentally friendly based on how they contrast with gas-guzzling equivalents.

Luke Tonachel, who heads the clean vehicles program at environmental group NRDC, said electric pickups and SUVs represent a critical step in addressing climate change.

“It’s incredibly important that we eliminate tailpipe pollution from all cars as soon as possible,” Tonachel told AFP. 

“We need broad acceptance and adoption of EVs across the market. And that’s why it’s encouraging to see automakers starting to make EVs on all types of car segments, including the most popular ones.”

– Customer ‘has spoken’ –

The focus on large vehicles was apparent at last month’s Detroit Auto Show, where Biden test drove the EV Cadillac Lyriq, an SUV made by the GM brand. In previous trips to Detroit, Biden cheered on production of GM’s EV Hummer and the launch of Ford’s F-150 EV.

While GM’s display at the Detroit show included the Bolt, an EV sedan, greater prominence went to electric versions of three larger Chevies: the Silverado pickup, and the Blazer and Equinox SUVs. 

“The customer has spoken. SUVs and trucks are what the customer wants,” Chevrolet Vice President Steve Majoros told AFP at the show. 

NRDC’s Tonachel notes that some sedans still sell at substantial levels in the United States, but that they are made by companies like Japan’s Toyota and South Korea’s Hyundai.

“The different manufacturers are sort of carving out what they see as their specialty,” he said. “The Detroit three automakers, they left the compact car and most of the sedan market years ago.”

Bertrand Rakoto, global automotive practice leader at Ducker in Detroit, a consultancy, said it makes more sense to focus on trucks to fight climate change.

“You’re removing the emissions for the large vehicles that are the most emitting,” he said.

Rakoto, who is originally from France, said the contrast between the United States and Europe reflect different geographic qualities and transportation systems, with space in Europe more precious and public transit more integrated into regular life.

– Energy drain –

A December 2021 International Energy Agency report bemoaned the rise of SUVs, not only in the United States, but in India and Europe.  

Most of the vehicles still run on gasoline, meaning that “if SUVs were an individual country, they would rank sixth in the world for absolute emissions in 2021, emitting over 900 million tons of CO2,” the IEA said.

The analysis said SUV electrification helps, but noted larger vehicles require more critical materials for bigger batteries and consume around 20 percent more energy than a medium-sized car.

For Benjamin Stephan, of Greenpeace in Germany, limiting global warming remains critical, meaning “you sort of have to pull every lever available.”

“Obviously an all-electric pickup truck will have a much better carbon footprint,” he said. “But you could reduce that footprint even more by having no car at all, or a much smaller car.”

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California looks to Europe to rein in AI

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Legislators in the California state capitol are working on a flurry of laws aiming to crack down on abusive uses of artificial intelligence on the home turf of some of the world's powerful tech titans
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California, home to Silicon Valley, is eager to rein in the deployment of artificial intelligence and is looking to Europe’s tough-on-big-tech approach for inspiration.

The richest state in the United States by GDP, California is a hotbed of no-holds-barred tech innovation, but lawmakers in state capital Sacramento want to give the industry laws and guardrails it has largely been spared in the internet age.

Brussels has enacted a barrage of laws on US-dominated tech and sprinted to pass the AI Act after OpenAI’s Microsoft-backed ChatGPT arrived on the scene in late 2022, unleashing a global AI race.

“What we’re trying to do is actually learn from the Europeans, but also work with the Europeans, and figure out how to put regulations in place on AI,” said David Harris, senior policy advisor at the California Initiative for Technology and Democracy.

As they have in the past with EU laws on private data, lawmakers in California are looking to recent European legislation on AI, especially given the little hope of equivalent national legislation out of Washington.

There are at least 30 different bills proposed by California state legislators that relate to various aspects of AI, according to Harris, who said he has advised officials here and in Europe on such laws.

Proposed laws in California range from requiring AI makers to reveal what was used to train models to banning election ads containing any computer generated features.

“One of the aspects I think is really important is the question of how we deal with deepfakes or fake text created to look like a human being is sending you messages,” Harris told AFP.

State assembly member Gail Pellerin is backing a bill she says would essentially ban the spreading of deceptive digital content created with generative AI in the months leading up to and the weeks following an election.

“Bad actors who are utilizing this are really hoping to create chaos in an election,” Pellerin said.

– Law-breaking ‘bad guys’ –

Industry association NetChoice is dead set against importing aspects of European legislation on AI, or any other EU tech regulation.

“They are taking, essentially, a European approach on artificial intelligence – which is that we must ban the technology,” said Carl Szabo, the general counsel of the association, which advocates for light touch regulation of tech.

“Outlawing AI won’t stop (anything). It’s bad because bad guys don’t follow the law,” Szabo argued.

“That’s what makes them bad guys.”

US computer software giant Adobe, like most tech giants, worked with Europe on the AI Act, according to Adobe General Counsel and Chief Trust Officer Dana Rao.

At the heart of the EU AI Act is a risk-based approach, with AI practices deemed more risky getting more scrutiny.

“We feel good about where the AI Act ended up” with its high-risk, low-risk approach, said Rao.

Already, Adobe engineers carry out “impact assessments” to rate risk before making AI products available, according to Rao.

“You want to think about nuclear safety, about cybersecurity, about when AI is making substantial decisions over human rights,” Rao said.

– ‘Watching California’ –

In California, Rao said he expected the problem of deepfakes to be the first to fall under the authority of a new law.

Assembly Bill 602 would criminalize non-consensual deepfake pornography while Assembly Bill 730 bans the use of AI deepfakes during election campaign season.

To fight this, Adobe joined other companies to create “content credentials” that Rao equated to a “nutrition label” for digital content.

Assemblywoman Pellerin expects AI laws adopted in California to be replicated in other states.

“People are watching California,” Pellerin said, with a slew of US states also working on their own AI deepfake bills.

“We’re all in this together; we have to stay ahead of the folks that are trying to wreak havoc in an election,” she said.

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Big tech told to identify AI deepfakes ahead of EU vote

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EU parliamentary elections are taking place in the bloc's 27 member states on June 6-9
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The EU called on Facebook, TikTok and other tech titans on Tuesday to crack down on deepfakes and other AI-generated content by using clear labels ahead of Europe-wide polls in June.

The recommendation is part of a raft of guidelines published under a landmark content law by the European Commission for digital giants to tackle risks to elections including disinformation.

The EU executive has unleashed a string of measures to clamp down on big tech, especially regarding content moderation.

Its biggest tool is the Digital Services Act (DSA) under which the bloc has designated 22 digital platforms as “very large” including Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and X.

There has been feverish excitement over artificial intelligence since OpenAI’s ChatGPT arrived on the scene in late 2022, but the EU’s concerns over the technology’s harms have grown in parallel.

Brussels especially fears the impact of Russian “manipulation” and “disinformation” on elections taking place in the bloc’s 27 member states on June 6-9.

In the new guidelines, the commission said the largest platforms “should assess and mitigate specific risks linked to AI, for example by clearly labelling content generated by AI (such as deepfakes)”.

The commission recommends that big platforms promote official information on elections and “reduce the monetisation and virality of content that threatens the integrity of electoral processes” to diminish any risks.

“With today’s guidelines we are making full use of all the tools offered by the DSA to ensure platforms comply with their obligations and are not misused to manipulate our elections, while safeguarding freedom of expression,” said the EU’s top tech enforcer, Thierry Breton.

While the guidelines are not legally binding, platforms must explain what other “equally effective” measures they are taking to limit the risks if they do not adhere to them.

The EU can ask for more information and if regulators do not believe there is full compliance, they can hit the firms with probes that could lead to hefty fines.

– ‘Trusted’ information –

Under the new guidelines, the commission also said political advertising “should be clearly labelled as such” before a tougher law on the issue comes into force in 2025.

It also urges platforms to put in place mechanisms “to reduce the impact of incidents that could have a significant effect on the election outcome or turnout”.

The EU will conduct “stress-tests” with relevant platforms in late April, it said.

X has already been under investigation since December over content moderation.

And the commission on March 14 pressed Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and four other platforms to provide more information on how they are countering AI risks to polls.

In the past few weeks, several of the companies including Meta have outlined their plans.

TikTok on Tuesday announced more of the measures it was taking including push notifications from April that will direct users to find more “trusted and authoritative” information about the June vote.

TikTok has around 142 million monthly active users in the EU — and is increasingly used as a source of political information among young people.

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Ousted WeWork co-founder bids to buy company: reports

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The pandemic exacerbated WeWork's woes as people avoided offices for fear of Covid-19
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Ousted WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann recently bid more than $500 million to buy back the struggling office-sharing group, according to media reports Monday.

Neumann recently submitted the offer, but it was not clear how he would finance such a deal, the Wall Street Journal and CNBC reported, citing sources close to the matter.

Neumann is seeking to buy the company out of bankruptcy, according to a letter to WeWork seen by AFP last month.

WeWork went into bankruptcy in November with its major creditors set to take control of the company.

At its height, WeWork was the biggest private renter of office space in Manhattan, with co-working spaces in cities across the globe.

But investors became concerned not only about WeWork’s business model and unbridled growth, but also about Neumann’s reliability as a boss.

A charismatic figure, Neumann was known for his sometimes abrupt decisions.

In September 2019, the Board of Directors dismissed him, shortly after the company’s stock market debut was postponed. 

Neumann was forced out of the company with a $1.7 billion exit package, while the company’s value was slashed to $8 billion.

WeWork was then disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, which emptied offices as workers went remote, and the company never fully recovered.

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