Tag Archives: office

Elon Musk Threatens to Sue Canada After Tesla Was Caught Doing Something Incredibly Sketchy

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Tesla is now threatening to sue the Canadian government, alleging it cut the company off from C$43 million in taxpayer-funded subsidies.

It's not a great time to be an attorney for Tesla.

In recent months, the floundering electric vehicle company has been bombarded with dozens of lawsuits, like the California class-action that alleges Tesla's manipulated odometers to get out of warranties, or the Australian class-action that alleges the company misled consumers with claims about its so-called "Full Self-Driving" software.

As if that weren't enough for the company's lawyers, Tesla execs are dishing out their fair share of legal threats in return. Following a recent freeze in Canadian EV tax credits, Tesla is now threatening to sue the Canadian government, alleging the move cuts the company off from $30 million in tax credits.

The whole shooting match kicked off back in January, when Canada abruptly stopped issuing rebates under its Incentives for Zero-Emission Vehicles program (iZEV), sending auto dealers and manufacturers into a frenzy. The program was viewed as a major boost for EV sales, offering Canadian consumers up to $3,590 in rebates for qualifying fully-electric and hybrid vehicles.

Later in March, Musk's Tesla came under fire after placing suspicious claims for tens of millions of dollars worth of iZEV rebates right before the January freeze.

Most of those claims came from just four dealers, with a single Tesla showroom in Quebec City claiming it had sold some 4,000 eligible vehicles over a single weekend. Altogether, Tesla filed over 8,600 claims in 72 hours, at a cost of C$43 million (US$30.9 million), or about 60 percent of the remaining iZEV budget.

A few weeks later, Canadian Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland announced a freeze on iZEV payments for Tesla specifically, a move seen as retaliation for Donald Trump's unprecedented tariff threats. In addition, she directed her office to ban the EV giant from eligibility for future tax credit programs so long as "illegitimate and illegal US tariffs are imposed against Canada."

Now, Tesla is claiming that the tax credit freeze was "inappropriate," because "Tesla Canada has been fully compliant with its participation in the program," according to the Toronto Star. The EV mammoth is demanding iZEV payouts start "in the immediate term" for those rebates filed before the January cutoff, despite the fact that they were almost certainly fudged.

If a legal battle kicks off in full, Tesla will have to successfully argue that it was allowed to file rebate claims after vehicles were delivered — a distinction which the Canadian government has evidently flip-flopped on in the past.

While Canada is probably safe to kick back and let Tesla spin its wheels, the EV company needs all the help it can get. As sales tank to record lows around the world, government handouts in the form of EV tax credits — Tesla's bread and butter — have become all but critical if the company wants any hope of surviving.

That said, it'll likely be an uphill battle for the carmaker to claw anything out of the new Canadian government — but even then, there's reason to believe tax credits won't be enough to plug the holes.

More on Tesla: Tesla Is Sitting on an Enormous Pile of Unsold Cybertrucks as Crisis Deepens

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Elon Musk Threatens to Sue Canada After Tesla Was Caught Doing Something Incredibly Sketchy

Texas Attorney General Investigating Google-Backed AI Startup Accused of Inappropriate Interactions With Minors

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating Google-backed AI chatbot startup Character.AI over its privacy and safety practices.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced that he's launched an investigation into the Google-backed AI chatbot startup Character.AI over its privacy and safety practices for minors.

The news comes just days after two Texas families sued the startup and its financial backer Google, alleging that the platform's AI characters sexually and emotionally abused their school-aged children. According to the lawsuit, the chatbots encouraged the children to engage in self-harm and violence.

"Technology companies are on notice that my office is vigorously enforcing Texas’s strong data privacy laws," said Paxton in a statement. "These investigations are a critical step toward ensuring that social media and AI companies comply with our laws designed to protect children from exploitation and harm."

According to Paxton's office, the companies could be in violation of the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act, which requires companies to provide extensive parental controls to protect the privacy of their children, and the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (TDPSA), which "imposes strict notice and consent requirements on companies that collect and use minors’ personal data."

"We are currently reviewing the Attorney General's announcement," a Character.AI spokesperson told us. "As a company, we take the safety of our users very seriously. We welcome working with regulators and have recently announced we are launching some of the features referenced in the release, including parental controls."

Indeed, on Thursday Character.AI promised to prioritize "teen safety" by launching a separate AI model "specifically for our teen users."

The company also promised to roll out "parental controls" that will give "parents insight into their child's experience on Character.AI.

Whether its actions will be enough to stem a tide of highly problematic chatbots being hosted on its platform remains to be seen. Futurism has previously identified chatbots on the platform devoted to themes of pedophilia, eating disorders, self-harm, and suicide.

Alongside Character.AI, Paxton is also launching separate investigations into fourteen other companies ranging from Reddit to Instagram to Discord.

How far Paxton's newly-launched investigation will go is unclear. Paxton has repeatedly launched investigations into digital platforms, accusing them of violating safety and privacy laws. In October, he sued TikTok for sharing minors' personal data.

At the time, TikTok denied the allegations, arguing that it offers "robust safeguards for teens and parents, including Family Pairing, all of which are publicly available."

Parts of the SCOPE Act were also recently blocked by a Texas judge, siding with tech groups that argued it was unlawfully restricting free expression.

Paxton also subpoenaed 404 Media in October, demanding the publication to hand over confidential information into its wholly unrelated reporting of a lawsuit against Google.

The attorney general has a colorful past himself. Last year, Texas House investigators impeached Paxton after finding he took bribes from a real estate investor, exploited the powers of his office, and fired staff members who reported his misconduct, according to the Texas Tribune.

After being suspended for roughly four months, the Texas Senate acquitted Paxton for all articles of impeachment, allowing him to return to office.

Paxton was also indicted in 2015 on state securities fraud charges. Charges were dropped in March after he agreed to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution.

Besides suing digital platforms, Paxton also sued manufacturers 3M and DuPont for misleading consumers about the safety of their products, and Austin's largest homeless service provider for allegedly being a "common nuisance" in the surrounding neighborhood.

More on Character.AI: Google-Backed AI Startup Announces Plans to Stop Grooming Teenagers

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Texas Attorney General Investigating Google-Backed AI Startup Accused of Inappropriate Interactions With Minors

Trump’s New Billionaire Head of NASA Says He May Pause His Own Personal Vacations Into Space While Leading Agency

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SpaceX space tourist Jared Isaacman may soon have to go on a hiatus from his trips into orbit now that he's been named NASA administrator.

Stuck in the Office

Billionaire Jared Isaacman has been to space twice. First, he commanded the first all-civilian mission to orbit in September 2021 on board SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft. Almost exactly three years later, he again rode the craft to orbit to become the first private astronaut to go on a spacewalk.

But the playboy space tourist may soon have to go on a hiatus from his privately-funded trips into orbit — because Isaacman was picked by president-elect Donald Trump, or perhaps his buddy Elon Musk, to become the next head of NASA.

The announcement catapulted the trained fighter jet pilot into the upper echelons of Washington, DC — which could force him to put his personal space travel ambitions on hold.

As part of the private Polaris program organized by Isaacman, the entrepreneur wanted to follow up his September spacewalk with two more trips on board SpaceX's Crew Dragon and eventually the company's much larger Starship.

"The future of the Polaris program is a little bit of a question mark at the moment," Isaacman told the audience of a space conference in Orlando, as quoted by Reuters. "It may wind up on hold for a little bit."

Spacefaring Kinda Guy

It's the first time Isaacman has made a public appearance since being appointed NASA administrator. As Reuters points out, the billionaire appeared highly optimistic about the future of the private space industry at the event but offered few clues on how we would lead NASA starting in January.

The 41-year-old is widely expected to further existing private-public partnerships, which could turn out to be a major windfall for SpaceX, which is already a major NASA contractor.

"At NASA, we will passionately pursue these possibilities and usher in an era where humanity becomes a true spacefaring civilization," Isaacman wrote in an announcement on X last week.

Where his new role will leave the Polaris program and SpaceX's other private astronaut partnerships with the likes of Axiom and Vast remains unclear.

In short, while it may not be him personally riding a spacecraft into space, given his new role in the Trump administration, SpaceX's space exploration ambitions almost certainly just got a major boost.

More on Isaacman: The New Head of NASA Had an Interesting Disagreement with the Space Agency

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Trump's New Billionaire Head of NASA Says He May Pause His Own Personal Vacations Into Space While Leading Agency