UAW’s Tennessee win, Teslas get cheaper in China, and AI words to know

Good morning, Quartz readers!

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Here’s what you need to know

Volkswagen workers in Tennessee voted to join the United Auto Workers. The win is giving the union hope that it can make broader inroads in the South, the least unionized part of the country.

Tesla slashed prices even further in China. The decreases come after Elon Musk’s Tesla did the same thing in the U.S. on Friday, wiping $2,000 off the price of select models.

Oil markets got the jitters after the Israeli military attacked Iran early Friday. Brent crude futures immediately spiked almost 5% before settling lower, trading at about $87 a barrel.

The Bitcoin “halving” event took place on Friday. After days of tumultuous trading, the cryptocurrency finally returned to above the $65,000-level.

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GPUs, CPUs, and.. TPUs?!

You may have heard of GPUs and CPUs, but what about TPUs?

TPU stands for “tensor processing unit.” Google’s chips, unlike those of Microsoft and Nvidia, are TPUs — custom-designed chips made specifically for training large AI models (whereas GPUs were initially made for gaming, not AI).

While CPUs are general-purpose processors and GPUs are an additional processor that run high-end tasks, TPUs are custom-built accelerators to run AI services — making them all the more powerful.

Think your AI vocabulary is strong? We created a glossary of terms to know, no pop quiz included.

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Quotable: Netflix is working on its own AI glossary

“We think that we have the opportunity to develop and deliver new tools to creators to allow them to tell their stories in more compelling ways.” — Netflix CEO Greg Peters talking about AI to investors during a call last week

The streaming giant has been using AI technology for two decades (its algorithm-based recommendations are one example), but while Peters said it can lean on generative AI to expand its storytelling capabilities, he was vague on exactly how that will be done.

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More from Quartz

🤖 Meta is putting its ChatGPT competitor AI assistant on Facebook and Instagram

🤑 Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav got paid $50 million even as the company lost money

🗣️ Google tells staff not to ‘debate politics’ after firing workers who protested Israel contract

📈 Paramount stock surged because Sony and Apollo might buy the company

🎽 Lululemon plans to layoff hundreds of employees as it closes a distribution center

💰 The Pentagon is spending billions on Big Tech and Silicon Valley startups as it goes all-in on AI

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Surprising discoveries

Air traffic controllers in the U.S. oversee 45,000 flights daily. The Federal Aviation Administration is now requiring them to take off at least 10 hours between each shift.

Noise cancellation isn’t better than noise isolation when it comes to headphones. They actually are completely different technologies.

Mutated strains of an unknown drug-resistant bacteria somehow got onto the International Space Station… The strains are different genetically from their counterparts back on Earth.

Let’s just hope they’re not bacterial vampires. Scientists discovered that dangerous bacteria actually go looking for human blood.

America’s produce has a ton of pesticides. About 20% of fresh fruits and vegetables have them, with watermelon, bell peppers, and blueberries being some of the most exposed.

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