Plus, Elon Musk’s xAI is buying a startup that makes AI-generated videos. And Swedish fintech Klarna replaces Affirm as Walmart’s buy-now-pay-later provider. Victoria Craig hosts.
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[00:00:01] Here's your TNB Tech Minute for Monday, March 17. I'm Victoria Craig for The Wall Street Journal. Chinese tech giant Baidu has launched a new AI model that it says can do the same thing as its rival DeepSeek's at half the price. Baidu says its model Ernie X1 can complete advanced searches, generate AI images, and read web pages at a performance level on par with DeepSeek's AI.
[00:00:24] DeepSeek created a market frenzy earlier this year after it claimed its AI model could perform on par with an open AI chat GPT model. Baidu will use its new AI model and other technologies in its consumer products, including its AI chatbot, which it made free to use earlier than scheduled. Staying in the world of artificial intelligence, Elon Musk's XAI, which has spent years trying to catch up to open AI,
[00:00:52] is buying a four-person startup called Hotshot.co. The New York-based company allows users to make lifelike AI-generated videos. The acquisition allows Musk's company to integrate video into its Grok chatbot, which is embedded in X. Elsewhere, Stockholm-based Klarna has replaced U.S. rival Affirm as Walmart's exclusive Buy Now, Pay Later provider.
[00:01:15] Klarna will work with Walmart-backed OnePay, a consumer finance app, to offer installment loans ranging from 3 to 36 months. Customers will also maintain the ability to link payment cards to the app for contactless purchases and get cash back on the things they buy. Working with Walmart could be a win for Klarna, which last week filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange, although pricing hasn't been offered yet. For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out tomorrow's Tech News Briefing podcast.