A new chatbot and a pair of old kicks

We hope you had a good day and now we want to give you some exciting information to take with you into the evening. t3n Daily is also available as a newsletter. Here are the topics of the day.

At the moment OpenAI, Google and Meta determine the AI ​​market with their chatbots. From Apple’s point of view, that should change – and that’s why the US group is apparently working on its own AI chatbot. According to the well-connected Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, Apple is tinkering with AI tools and a chatbot á la ChatGPT. Apple is said to have developed a chatbot service based on its own framework, which is apparently called “Ajax” internally. Some engineers have dubbed it “Apple GPT”.

Ajax was created to unify machine learning development, internal sources say. They also report that Apple plans to make a “significant AI-related announcement” next year. However, Apple still lacks a clear strategy on how to pass on the AI ​​tools to consumers.

This has never happened before: last June, for the first time, more electric cars than diesel vehicles were newly registered in the EU. According to the European industry association ACEA, e-cars were ahead of diesel cars (13.4 percent) for the first time with a market share of 15.1 percent. The best-selling new cars were still the petrol ones: Their share was more than 36 percent. Hybrid cars came in second place among the most popular vehicle drives with around 24 percent.

The best-selling model in Europe across all drive types was the Tesla Model Y, which was at the top of the model rankings throughout the first half of the year, wrote the Electrive portal, citing preliminary market research results. Overall, the number of registrations in the EU is still significantly lower than before the pandemic in the comparison year 2019.

The women’s soccer World Cup started today in Australia and New Zealand. Due to the time difference, the German team’s games will take place during regular working hours. This begs the question: How much WM is allowed in the office? The basic answer to this is: What the boss thinks is right is allowed.

It is important to clarify in advance with the supervisor to what extent the World Cup spectacle can take place on the business premises. Anyone who takes on too much without the supervisor’s approval runs the risk of receiving warnings, ugly entries in the personnel file or conflicts with the boss. By the way: The German team will start the tournament against Morocco on Monday, July 24 at 10:30 a.m.

When it comes to sustainable travel, air travel fares poorly. The British airline Ecojet wants to change that: It wants to fly electrically from 2025. This would make it the world’s first airline to be powered by renewable energy. The Ecojet fleet will consist of conventional aircraft that will be retrofitted with hydrogen-electric engines.

Ecojet wants to take off in 2024: Initially, the aircraft will be used on the route from Edinburgh to Southampton. Shortly thereafter also on the European mainland, with long-haul flights also being planned. To further reduce the negative impact of aviation, further measures are being taken on board. This includes serving plant-based meals and avoiding single-use plastic.

Fancy a pair of sneakers for $50,000? Then you’ve come to the right place at the traditional auction house Sothebys: Rare Apple sneakers are now being sold there. The top-class collector’s item was given away by Apple at a national sales conference in the 1990s. The unmistakable Apple logo is emblazoned on both the sides and the tongue of the white sneakers. However, the sporty shoe is only available in US size 10.5.

Since the shoes are shipped from the United States, any buyers outside of the United States will incur customs duties in addition to the $50,000. Just recently, another old-school Apple product broke sales records. An original 2007 4GB iPhone, still in factory condition and boxed, sold for a total of $190,000.

That’s it for today’s t3n daily. You can find much more about all aspects of digital life, working life and the future around the clock at t3n.de.