Good morning. Have you heard about the hottest new application of AI?
Users are asking Google’s new Gemini 2.0 Flash model to remove watermarks (and color in what’s missing) from protected professional images—everything from news photos to sports snaps to stock art. The capability comes courtesy of a free, experimental image generation feature that’s recently been made more widely available.
Unethical? Illegal? Yes and yes. Strap in, because this will get interesting. —Andrew Nusca
Want to send thoughts or suggestions to Data Sheet? Drop a line here.
Tesla reportedly halts Cybertruck deliveries as owners complain of metal sides falling off
In the latest sign Tesla’s Cybertruck risks becoming Elon Musk’s first full-blown flop, sales of the pickup have been halted amid growing cases of metal paneling falling off.
On Thursday, EV enthusiast site Electrek reported Tesla delivery agents as saying all outbound vehicles have been stopped amid concerns that the glue holding the exterior stainless steel panelling in place is failing.
The issue isn’t new but it has remained unaddressed.
Owners living in cold weather conditions in particular have been warning about it for weeks, posting images of sharp-edged metal trim protruding from their vehicles and flapping in the wind while driving. Some have even taken to reporting the problem to the federal traffic safety authority NHTSA, Road & Track reported last month.
But an image circulated recently showing the entire front bumper dangling loosely from the body may have tipped the scale.
The Cybertruck has been dogged with issues ever since it came out, with multiple recalls to fix not just software but actual build problems, including an accelerator pedal that caused accidents when it stuck in place or plastic trim around the bed flying off.
Just this week Tesla was criticized for ditching durable steel in favor of lighter aluminum for the truck’s casted frame. This subjects it to stress over time, raising the possibility of catastrophic failure when towing loads within specification. —Christiaan Hetzner
Baidu releases Ernie X1 AI reasoning model
Another DeepSeek-killer has joined the chat.
Baidu on Sunday released a new artificial intelligence model called Ernie X1. Like the landmark DeepSeek R1 model it hopes to rival, Baidu’s “deep-thinking reasoning model” excels at complex calculations and logical deduction for a fraction of the cost of conventional models.
“Ernie X1 delivers performance on par with DeepSeek R1 at only half the price,” the Chinese internet giant said.
Baidu said it expects to integrate X1 into its product portfolio, including Baidu Search and the Wenxiaoyan app.
The company will do the same with the newest version of its flagship foundation model, Ernie 4.5, which it announced alongside X1, and which it says outperforms OpenAI’s new GPT 4.5.
“With refined language skills, [Ernie 4.5] exhibits comprehensive improvements in understanding, generation, reasoning and memory, along with notable enhancements in hallucination prevention, logical reasoning, and coding abilities,” Baidu said.
Baidu says it will make its Ernie Bot chatbot free to individual users on April 1—several weeks sooner than it had planned. It will also make its Ernie AI models open source on June 30. —AN
Apple will soon support encrypted RCS messaging
Good news for Apple and Android users who like to chat with each other in secret!
The GSM Association, the world’s main trade body for mobile operators, on Friday announced its latest specs for RCS, the feature-rich messaging protocol that’s supposed to replace SMS (though unlike SMS it needs a data connection).
The big news here is that RCS will finally be able to support end-to-end encryption for messages sent between different messaging client providers. That means Android and iPhone’s built-in messaging apps.
Apple, which hopped on the RCS train only half a year ago (the standard has been rolling out to Android users for eight years now) is talking up its role in this development.
“End-to-end encryption is a powerful privacy and security technology that iMessage has supported since the beginning, and now we are pleased to have helped lead a cross industry effort to bring end-to-end encryption to the RCS Universal Profile published by the GSMA,” spokesperson Shane Bauer told The Verge.
This will be very useful for many people at a time when private communications are becoming ever more valuable—apps like Signal already offer such capabilities to users across platforms, but let’s face it, many people will always just stick with what already comes preinstalled on their mobile device. —David Meyer
More data
—iPhone 17 “Air” details emerge. Coming soon: Slimmer models without charging ports.
—4 in 5 current Y Combinator startups are AI-focused, CEO Garry Tan says.
—Bobby Kotick sues Kotaku publisher. The former Activision Blizzard CEO alleges defamation in articles published last year.
—Microsoft spends about $300 million each year on quantum research.
—Etsy and eBay are emulating social media to recapture lost sales.
—Delaware mulls corporate law changes. Fears of losing Meta, Walmart, others in the wake of Tesla, Dropbox moving their sites of incorporation elsewhere.
—Spotify’s $1.1 billion in profit came from cuts in marketing, R&D, and administrative expenses.
Endstop triggered
