Kia to launch £25,000 EV2, Amazon unveils Gen-Al powered Alexa+
The Kia EV2 will arrive next year as one of the brand’s smallest and most affordable electric cars yet. Previewed by the EV2 concept, the small SUV will be priced from around €30,000 (£25,000), positioning it as a rival for the Renault 5 and Renault 4 siblings and the Vauxhall Corsa Electric. Technical details remain under wraps, but the EV2 is expected to utilise the entry-level 400V version of the Hyundai Motor Group’s E-GMP architecture, which also underpins the larger Kia EV3 and EV4. Autocar
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of US National Intelligence, says she was not informed in advance about the UK government’s demand to be able to access Apple customers’ encrypted data from anywhere in the world. Earlier this year, the UK government asked for the right to see the data, which currently not even Apple can access. The tech giant last week took the unprecedented step of removing its highest level data security tool from customers in the UK. In a letter, Ms Gabbard said she was seeking further information from the FBI and other US agencies and said, if the reports were true, the UK government’s actions amounted to an “egregious violation” of US citizens’ privacy. BBC
Amazon is breathing new life into its Alexa voice assistant, outfitting the 10-year old helper with generative AI capabilities to better compete with the likes of Google’s Gemini and Microsoft-backed ChatGPT. During an event in New York City on Wednesday, Amazon’s head of devices and services Panos Panay unveiled the company’s Alexa+, a version of Alexa that runs on Amazon’s own large language models, as well as those from Anthropic, in which Amazon has invested billions. Available for $19 per month, and free for Prime users, Alexa+ is the company’s attempt to reinvent the assistant with agentic AI capabilities. Yahoo!
A privately-built spacecraft has embarked on an unprecedented deep space mission to scout out an asteroid’s potential for mining. The probe, called Odin, was launched on a SpaceX rocket alongside a robotic moon lander that will drill for water and a lunar orbiter that will map water resources with an instrument built by the University of Oxford. The asteroid mission is a high-risk venture that heralds a new dawn of commercial exploitation of our celestial neighbours. Sky News
Two cross-party committees of MPs have urged the government to prioritise ensuring that creators are fairly remunerated for their creative work over making it easy to train artificial intelligence models. The MPs argued there needed to be more transparency around the vast amounts of data used to train generative AI models, and urged the government not to press ahead with plans to require creators to opt out of having their data used. The government’s preferred solution to the tension between AI and copyright law is to allow AI companies to train the models on copyrighted work. Guardian
The Apple iPhone 16e is a fantastic entry-point to the company’s smartphones with a lightweight design, vibrant display, serious performance and an intuitive software experience. It also excels in the battery department, while its simple camera system, despite being just a single sensor on both the front and back, delivers results that exceed some of the best smartphones available at the same price and even some that cost much more. There are, however, a couple of absent features, so if you’re after an iPhone with the very best camera for instance, then the iPhone 16e may not be the model for you. Telegraph
