Good morning. When you’re in the thick of your HR department’s migration from Bullfrog to Salarya, and are woefully behind catching up to your colleagues’ Noosecock posts, but still need to submit your overdue reports on Fireplayce and upload your receipts to Crackerz before the big team meeting, just remember this productivity hack from startup software development consultant Alireza Bashiri:
“I Tried Every Todo App and Ended Up With a .txt File”
The truth hurts, I guess. Today’s tech news below. —Andrew Nusca
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Ford’s new EV strategy includes $2 billion U.S. investment
Ford said Monday that it plans to invest almost $2 billion retooling a Kentucky factory to produce electric vehicles.
The resulting vehicles will be more affordable, competitive, and profitable, the automaker claims.
CEO Jim Farley made the announcement from Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant, which has produced gasoline-powered vehicles for generations.
Ford aims to “create affordable vehicles that are breakthrough in every way that matters—design, technology, performance, space and cost of ownership—and do it with American workers,” Farley said in a prepared statement.
That may be more difficult than planned. Hostile to the electric powertrains favored by Democratic voters, the Trump administration plans to eliminate a credit that saves buyers up to $7,500 on a new EV.
The facility expects to produce its first EV in 2027—a midsize, four-door electric pickup truck powered by a battery made at a $3 billion Ford battery plant in Michigan.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise. Ford’s F-150, which matches all of those attributes, has been the bestselling vehicle in the U.S. for years—though Toyota’s RAV4 may have given it a run for its money this year.
Ford said it plans to use a universal platform for its EVs, which will both help cut down on costs and harken back to Ford’s pioneering production lines at the dawn of the 20th century.
With pickup truck prices ever increasing—the F-150 starts at nearly $40,000—and competitors like Slate Auto offering simpler competing vehicles for lower prices, that’s meaningful.
“This is an example,” Farley said, “of us rejuvenating our U.S. plants with the most modern manufacturing techniques.” —AN
David Sacks thinks humans are still in control of AI
David Sacks, the longtime Silicon Valley investor turned special adviser to the White House for AI and crypto, has weighed in on the AI “doomer” debate.
In a widely discussed post on X, Sacks wrote that the fearmongering in recent years about AI’s malevolence is deeply misguided and humanity remains firmly in the driver’s seat.
Sacks added that job loss fears are overhyped, and instead, people stand to benefit most by learning to harness AI for new opportunities.
Also, Sacks argued, the ultimate doomer prediction of the technology spiraling into an uncontrollable, superintelligent dominance out of a science-fiction movie hasn’t come to pass.
“The Doomer narratives were wrong,” he wrote, adding: “Right now the current situation is Goldilocks.”
Sacks offered four reasons that AI’s impact on the economy is just fine, actually.
First, there’s vigorous competition in the space and companies are “leapfrogging each other” with each new model released, he wrote—demonstrating that no godlike superintelligence is running away with the lead.
Second, the spread of open source AI blunts monopolistic tendencies and democratizes innovation, a major check against doomer fears.
Third, there is, and will likely remain, a clear vision of labor between generalized foundation models and vertical applications that address specific needs, he argued.
Fourth, today’s models are proving to really need humans at the wheel. Wrote Sacks: “Models need context, they must be heavily prompted, the output must be verified, and this process must be repeated iteratively to achieve meaningful business value.” —Nick Lichtenberg
‘Very interesting’ meeting with Intel CEO, Trump says
So how did that little White House meeting between Lip-Bu Tan and Donald Trump go?
According to the U.S. president, who was highly critical of Intel’s CEO leading up to their tête à tête, it was “very interesting.”
“His success and rise is an amazing story,” Trump later wrote on social media. “Mr. Tan and my Cabinet members are going to spend time together, and bring suggestions to me during the next week.”
In a statement, Intel described the meeting as “a candid and constructive discussion on Intel’s commitment to strengthening U.S. technology and manufacturing leadership.”
Rather pleasant remarks, all things considered, after Trump’s scorching comments last week describing Tan as “highly conflicted,” given his previous investments in Chinese tech companies as the founder and chairman of venture capital firm Walden International.
Trump called for Tan’s immediate resignation as Intel CEO. Tan responded by offering to clear up any “misinformation” about his links to China.
Intel shares were up 5%, to about $21, in the wake of the post-meeting positivity. That’s roughly in line with its price one year ago, though 40% lower than where it was at this time in 2023. —AN
More tech
—Nvidia, AMD China revenue kickback confirmed. Is it constitutional? That’s for the courts to decide.
—GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke to depart as the organization moves into Microsoft's CoreAI group.
—Reddit to block Internet Archive indexing. AI companies are scraping the archive for content.
—ESPN, Fox launch streaming bundle. NFL, NBA, and more for $39.99 per month.
—Japan’s largest newspaper sues Perplexity. The Yomiuri Shimbun alleges unauthorized reproduction of its articles and seeks millions in damages.
—StubHub IPO returns. The ticketing titan reportedly aims for September after hitting pause in April.
—WinRAR zero day. Russian cybercrime groups are targeting the exploit, which enables persistent backdoors when malicious files are opened.
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