A driverless Tesla robotaxi and a Waymo autonomous vehicle make their way through roadwork on a residential street in Austin (Jay Janner/Getty Images)

Tale of the Gate

Tesla jumps amid AI bullishness as analyst says Full Self-Driving software is “already better at driving than the average American”

Tesla is betting that it can turn its consumer vehicles into autonomous cars faster than Google’s Waymo can roll out new vehicles.

Rani Molla

11/20/25 11:12AM

Tesla is up sharply today, with investors and Wall Street looking more bullish on AI, at least for the moment.

That seems to include Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Potter, who wrote that Tesla’s latest Full Self-Driving software “is a truly impressive product that is (probably) already better at driving than the average American.”

Investors are hoping that Tesla can turn its consumer vehicles into autonomous cars faster than Google’s Waymo can roll out its robotaxis.

“There are millions of cars out there that, with a software update, become Full Self-Driving cars,” CEO Elon Musk said on the company’s recent earnings call. Potter, after attending an investor meeting at Tesla’s Fremont plant, also beamed about a “flawless robotaxi ride to the hotel,” and reiterated his $500 price target.

Waymo currently operates its autonomous service with more than 2,500 vehicles in five markets, and has plans to expand to more than 20. Just this morning, it announced planned expansion to Minneapolis, Tampa, and New Orleans.

Meanwhile, Musk has said he expects Tesla to operate 1,500 cars in its two markets, Austin and the Bay Area (where a safety monitor is present in the cars), by the end of the year, when it claims the service will be available in a total of 8 to 10 markets.

After getting drubbed recently, AI and tech companies are getting a broad lift following Nvidia’s blowout earnings yesterday, which also helped push Google to a record high.

Jon Keegan9h

OpenAI rolls out age prediction system ahead of allowing adult content

OpenAI is rolling out a new “age prediction” feature for ChatGPT users.

The company will look at various signals from users to predict if a user is underage.

In a blog post, the company said:

“The model looks at a combination of behavioral and account-level signals, including how long an account has existed, typical times of day when someone is active, usage patterns over time, and a user’s stated age.”

If the system suspects the user is a minor, it will reduce content with graphic violence, harmful viral challenges, sexual or romantic role play, depictions of self-harm, and material promoting “extreme beauty standards, unhealthy dieting, or body shaming.”

If a user is incorrectly flagged as under 18, they will have to submit a selfie to an identity verification service to have the restrictions removed.

An age verification system is part of OpenAI’s plan to reduce harmful mental health encounters with the chatbot, while also allowing ChatGPT to generate “erotica” in the near future.

Our approach to age prediction

“The model looks at a combination of behavioral and account-level signals, including how long an account has existed, typical times of day when someone is active, usage patterns over time, and a user’s stated age.”

If a user is incorrectly flagged as under 18, they will have to submit a selfie to an identity verification service to have the restrictions removed.

An age verification system is part of OpenAI’s plan to reduce harmful mental health encounters with the chatbot, while also allowing ChatGPT to generate “erotica” in the near future.

Rani Molla14h

Google’s YouTube maintains its top spot as streaming accounts for nearly half of all TV-watching time

People spent a record 47.5% of their TV-watching time on streaming platforms in December, according to new data from Nielsen, up from the previous record of 47.3% in July. Google’s YouTube once again was the most popular streaming service by time spent, but Netflix’s share inched slightly upward to 9% from 8.8% in July, while YouTube’s fell to 12.7% from 13.4%. The jump was largely thanks to “Stranger Things,” which was the most watched streaming title last month.

Rani Molla15h

Amazon CEO says tariffs are inflating prices and buyers are looking for bargains

While the legality of President Trump’s tariffs winds its way through the courts, their effects are beginning to show up in prices.

During an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said he is starting to see tariffs “creep into” pricing, as some sellers are “passing on those higher costs to consumers in the form of higher prices.”

Jassy said that while consumers are still spending, they are becoming more price conscious.

“I think that wherever they can, they are trying to trade down in price — they are looking for bargains wherever they can find bargains,” he said. “I see people a little more hesitant on higher-priced discretionary items.”

Trump has maintained that other countries are footing the bill for his tariffs. But new research suggests Americans will ultimately be the ones paying those higher prices.

Amazon CEO Jassy says Trump's tariffs have started to 'creep' into prices

Jassy said that while consumers are still spending, they are becoming more price conscious.

Trump has maintained that other countries are footing the bill for his tariffs. But new research suggests Americans will ultimately be the ones paying those higher prices.

Rani Molla18h

Musk: Tesla restarting Dojo supercomputer effort as “AI5 chip design is in good shape”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X over the weekend that the company plans to restart work on its Dojo supercomputer, dubbed Dojo3, saying that the AI5 chip the company had been developing is in “good shape.”

The Dojo supercomputer trains Tesla’s AI models, including the one behind its all-important Full Self-Driving tech. The company stopped work on Dojo in August. “It doesn’t make sense for Tesla to divide its resources and scale two quite different AI chip designs,” Musk said at the time. “The Tesla AI5, AI6 and subsequent chips will be excellent for inference and at least pretty good for training.”

“Pretty good” appears to be good enough.

Now that the AI5 chip design is in good shape, Tesla will restart work on Dojo3.

If you’re interested in working on what will be the highest volume chips in the world, send a note to AI_Chips@Tesla.com with 3 bullet points on the toughest technical problems you’ve solved.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 18, 2026

In the interim, Tesla relied more on companies like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices for AI training. Restarting Dojo suggests Tesla plans to bring at least some AI training back in-house.

Musk also runs AI company xAI, which has its own supercomputer and a substantial business relationship with Tesla. A plurality of Tesla shareholders recently voted in favor of investing in Musk’s AI company, but the board declined to approve the measure because of a large number of abstentions.

Jon Keegan

1/16/26

OpenAI set to start rolling out ads to free and ChatGPT Go users

OpenAI says user conversations will be kept private from advertisers, and answers will not be influenced by ads.