Good morning, Quartz readers!
Here’s what you need to know
Volkswagen employees in Chattanooga, Tennessee are petitioning to join UAW. The plant is the German automaker’s only U.S. facility.
Fisker has paused production of its EVs. The troubled EV maker is hitting the brakes as it warns investors it could run out of cash and is reportedly preparing to file for bankruptcy.
Google’s stock got a boost because Apple’s interested in using its AI in iPhones. Bloomberg reported that Apple met with both Google and OpenAI to talk shop, but was more interested in incorporating Gemini.
Uber spent $178 million settling a lawsuit with taxi drivers in Australia. It was a win for the 8,000 service owners and drivers who said their livelihoods have been impacted.
A Nasdaq glitch disrupted premarket trading. It took more than two hours to fix, and it was the second such bug in three months.
What to watch for at the Woodstock of AI
Nvidia’s annual GPU Technology Conference (GTC) has begun in San Jose, California, where CEO Jensen Huang is joined by fellow AI-interested pals to spread the good word. Here’s what to look out for today. (Check out our full rundown here, the keynote here, and our liveblog here.)
👫 It’s personal. Fei Fei Li, co-director of Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI), will host a fireside chat with Bill Dally, chief scientist and research SVP at Nvidia, about the AI revolution’s impact on humanity.
🔍 Whose responsibility? Joelle Pineau, vice president of AI research at Meta, will host a session on “the responsible training and deployment of AI research systems” to mitigate risks in models currently being developed.
🎬 Up in lights. Nikola Todorovic, co-founder and CEO of visual effects company Wonder Dynamics, will discuss AI in the media and entertainment industries.
🤫 Grok gossip. Christian Szegedy, co-founder and research scientist at Elon Musk’s OpenAI rival xAI, will have a fireside chat with Nvidia data scientist Bojan Tunguz on how AI-based reasoning can be used in software synthesis and verification, the importance of data for large language model (LLM)-based chatbots, and Grok’s “fun mode.”
Goldman Sachs has some thoughts about AI stocks
Analysts at Goldman Sachs are looking past Nvidia’s domination of the AI investing craze and have put out a note with four phases they see happening in the near- to long-term (phase one being where we are now).
2️⃣ Infrastructure: Focus on companies building the software and hardware adjacent to AI.
3️⃣ AI-enabled revenue boost: Companies that make revenue-generating, AI-enabled software and products.
4️⃣ AI productivity: Companies who have benefited from adopting AI technology.
Bruce Gil goes into more detail about which companies fit into which phases, according to the minds at Goldman Sachs.
Lemon talks to Musk, and we listened
Don Lemon, who was fired by CNN for making controversial comments on air, interviewed Elon Musk in January on his new show, which was to broadcast on X. But the show was abruptly canceled — Lemon said it was because Musk was “mad” at him about the interview. Yesterday, that interview saw the light of day on YouTube.
If you don’t have an hour to spare, don’t worry. We did.
Contained therein, you’ll find:
🗣️ Musk on his famously skeptical views on DEI
🗣️Musk comments on racism allegations against Tesla
🗣️Musk talks about the forthcoming Roadster
🗣️Musk vs. advertisers
🗣️Musk and the presidential candidates he may or may not endorse
More from Quartz
🛬 A timeline of Boeing’s brutal 2024 (so far)
🛫 United Airlines flights are perfectly fine, United’s CEO says
🎯 Target’s new self-checkout rules have begun
📖 Encyclopædia Britannica is eyeing a $1 billion valuation in its IPO, report says
😣 Tesla is the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 this year (still)
🪙 The top 5 spot Bitcoin ETFs
Surprising discoveries
The U.S. Space Force doesn’t want you to see its rejected logos. Released branding mockups had certain drafts redacted, and now we are dying to know.
Apple and Microsoft’s industry-defining legal battle began 36 years ago today. It changed how tech companies use one another’s ideas.
Budget airline Ryanair’s CEO says his $109 million salary is perfectly justifiable. Really it’s the way he says it.
Berlin’s techno scene has finally been added to UNESCO’s cultural heritage list. Ravers rejoice! (And also ravers should rejoice in our raves Obsession.)
“India Out” is trending in Bangladesh. The social media movement calls for a boycott of Indian made goods to protest the country’s perceived support of Bangladesh’s worsening electoral processes.
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Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, Space Force logo mockups, and Jensen Huang jackets to [email protected]. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Susan Howson.