Good morning. It’s Monday, March seventeenth.
On This Day In Tech History: In 2016, AlphaGo, an AI developed by DeepMind, won its fourth game against world champion Go player Lee Sedol, clinching the series 4-1 in Seoul
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Today’s trending AI news stories
Figure’s BotQ factory to scale robot production from 12,000 to 100,000 humanoid units annually
California-based Figure goes all-in on high-speed humanoid production with its BotQ factory, engineered to churn out 12,000 units a 12 months. The ability swaps slow CNC machining for injection molding, die-casting, and stamping—slashing part fabrication from weeks to seconds. Meanwhile, an in-house AI system, Helix, ditches traditional conveyor belts, orchestrating humanoid employees to move materials and handle repetitive assembly.
With a totally integrated Manufacturing Execution System (MES) tracking every stage, a Warehouse Management System (WMS) optimizing logistics, and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) ensuring precision, Figure is streamlining production like an industrial symphony. The shift from Figure 02 to the production-ready Figure 03 trims complexity for faster scaling. Read more.
China’s AI price competition heats up as Baidu’s Ernie X1 undercuts DeepSeek, plans open-source Ernie 4.5
Baidu just turned up the warmth within the AI arms race with Ernie X1 and Ernie 4.5, gunning for DeepSeek and OpenAI with lower costs and daring performance claims. X1 reportedly matches DeepSeek-R1 while cutting API costs in half, while Ernie 4.5 refines logic, code generation, and error reduction—allegedly outpacing GPT-4o and keeping stride with GPT-4.5.
We have just unveiled ERNIE 4.5 & X1! 🚀
As a deep-thinking reasoning model with multimodal capabilities, ERNIE X1 delivers performance on par with DeepSeek R1 at only half the value. Meanwhile, ERNIE 4.5 is our latest foundation model and new-generation native multimodal model.… x.com/i/web/status/1…
— Baidu Inc. (@Baidu_Inc)
1:53 am • Mar 16, 2025
With Qianfan cloud pricing slashing OpenAI’s rates, Baidu is making it harder to justify premium Western models. Ernie 4.5 can also be set to go open source in June, following DeepSeek’s strategy of democratizing access while squeezing competitors’ profit margins. Meanwhile, X1’s cutthroat pricing pressures AI incumbents banking on enterprise dominance.
As US firms lobby for stricter regulations on Chinese AI, Baidu is embedding its models across search and consumer products, tightening the competition. Read more.
Siri’s AI makeover delayed—because 80% isn’t ok for Apple
Apple’s grand AI upgrade for Siri won’t be landing until no less than 2026, after internal tests exposed accuracy issues hovering between 66% and 80%. The overhaul, meant to supercharge Siri with deeper app integrations and private data handling, now risks slipping further as Apple wrestles with scaling generative AI without breaking its fame for polished user experiences.
To regain momentum, Apple has restructured its AI division, with senior managers now reporting on to AI chief John Giannandrea. Unlike OpenAI and Google, which release AI features with known flaws, Apple prioritizes high reliability, complicating its rollout across a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of devices. Meanwhile, competitors proceed to iterate rapidly, intensifying pressure on Apple to deliver a functional, competitive AI assistant without compromising user trust. Read more.
4 recent AI-powered tools from around the online
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