I was in the midst of mapping out a road trip from Chicago to New York when my planning hit a snag.

My would-be travel companion, a Microsoft-powered AI chatbot, could tell me all about the history of various famous parks, questions about checking or changing the oil, and restaurants near EV charging stations. But it seemed unaware of any hotels between the two major cities, no matter how the question was phrased.

The in-car AI in my CES demo of the technology was the product of a Dutch digital mapping company called TomTom, one of a handful of companies thinking about how large language models (LLMs) might serve as a far-ranging assistant and navigational system for vehicles in the future—both for the road itself and the array of computerized amenities that dashboards have accumulated in recent years.

Volkswagen also announced at this year’s CES that it would integrate ChatGPT into certain models through a partnership with auto software company Cerence. Amazon teamed with BMW to show off LLM-powered Alexa capabilities that serve as a sort of conversational car manual. And TomTom said before the show that it had collaborated with Microsoft to build out its own generative AI system for vehicles.

But this type of AI use is clearly very much in its infancy and isn’t always able to handle complex instructions. Whatever kinks there may be to iron out, Michael Harrell, TomTom’s SVP of engineering maps, told Tech Brew he thinks that generative AI will come to change the way that drivers interact with their cars.

“It is the breakthrough that we’ve been looking [for], that’s been necessary,” Harrell said. “And why I say that is that the hardest thing right now that people have with their car is how they interface with it—it’s still clunky, it’s not easy. It’s easier to use your phone.”

Keep reading here.—PK

Lithium is essential for batteries in electric cars, storing renewable energy, and even smartphones. That’s why demand for lithium is projected to soar 20x by 2040.

So when EnergyX revealed their technology could extract 300% more lithium than traditional methods, investors everywhere took note. General Motors included.

GM is the lead investor in EnergyX’s $50m funding round. And you can join them. That means you have the unique opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a company just as they’re set to unlock the US’s lithium supply.

Don’t miss your chance: Invest in EnergyX at the current price of $8/share before it changes in a few weeks. Become an EnergyX shareholder here.

In a first-of-its-kind settlement, the Federal Trade Commission is holding a data broker responsible for selling app users’ precise location information.

The consumer watchdog proposed a settlement last week with X-Mode Social and Outlogic, finding the company and its successor collected and sold information that could trace app users to “sensitive locations such as medical and reproductive health clinics, places of religious worship, and domestic abuse shelters.”

The settlement requires X-Mode and Outlogic, which took over the majority of X-Mode’s business in 2021, to implement a strict data compliance program that protects users’ privacy, blots out location data associated with “sensitive locations,” and allows users to opt out of data-sharing.

“Geolocation data can reveal not just where a person lives and whom they spend time with but also, for example, which medical treatments they seek and where they worship,” FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said in a statement.“ The FTC’s action against X-Mode makes clear that businesses do not have free license to market and sell Americans’ sensitive location data. By securing a first-ever ban on the use and sale of sensitive location data, the FTC is continuing its critical work to protect Americans from intrusive data brokers.”

Keep reading here.—KG

Microsoft wants everybody to tap its AI for help with writing documents and emails.

The tech giant first rolled out its Copilot tool to big enterprises last November, and now it’s offering a $20-per-month subscription called Copilot Pro for consumers who already subscribe to its 365 suite of productivity software.

The company also announced a new deal for small businesses to purchase up to 299 licenses for $30 per person per month, removing a previous minimum requirement of 300 licenses to make the service more accessible to small and medium businesses.

The new offerings allow Microsoft to further weave tools based on large language models (LLMs) into Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, making the generative tech from partner OpenAI available to consumers and commercial customers of all stripes.

Microsoft’s GM of search and AI marketing, Divya Kumar, told Tech Brew that the decision to remove the minimum license limit came from feedback from smaller businesses. Small companies have reported in at least one survey that they’re increasingly turning to generative AI amid staffing shortages. “The enormous feedback we got was just to make it more widely available,” Kumar said.

Keep reading here.—PK

Usually, we write about the business of tech. Here, we highlight the *tech* of tech.

Where’s the beef? Wired has a fascinating writeup about a PR campaign to cast doubt on cultivated (aka lab-grown) meat. The story takes care to note fact-based pros and cons of both lab-grown meat and meat meat, and it’s worth a read if you’re alt-meat curious. All that said, we’d be remiss if we didn’t remind our readers that beans continue to exist.

The big chill: Listen, no one fared well in this week’s cold. Schools shut down, leaving us trapped in our homes with our stir-crazy children and understimulated pets. But it wasn’t merely parents having a hard time: EVs had a big struggle as well. Our comrades over at Morning Brew wrote that “Tesla graveyards” were materializing at US charging stations because “freezing temps can cut EV battery life by as much as half, according to AAA.” Morning Brew also noted that this isn’t a problem in notoriously chilly Norway, where 25% of cars are electric, thanks to more robust charging infrastructure and better-prepared drivers.