Audi expands EV line up with £88,000 e-tron GT quattro, AirBnB revamped

Audi has expanded its electric vehicle lineup with the launch of a new version of the e-tron GT, starting from £88,000. The new entry-level e-tron GT quattro joins the existing GT family and is available for order in the UK starting June 24th, with deliveries beginning in August. The e-tron GT quattro boasts impressive performance, with a peak output of 584PS (with Launch Control) and a 0-62mph acceleration time of 4.0 seconds. It also offers a range of up to 384 miles on a full charge. A key technological highlight is its 320kW charging capacity, enabling rapid charging. Audi states that approximately 177 miles of range can be added in just 10 minutes. Tech Digest

UK retailer Marks & Spencer has warned shoppers to be on the lookout for scam calls and emails after hackers stole customer data from its systems including partial credit card details. The retailer is this week writing to customers to alert them that personal data was taken by cyber criminals, including contact details, dates of birth and order histories. It also admitted that the hackers may have accessed “masked” payment details – typically the final four digits of a card used for payment. Telegraph 

A swath of US technology firms announced deals in the Middle East as Donald Trump trumpeted $600bn in commitments from Saudi Arabia to American artificial intelligence companies during a tour of Gulf states. Among the biggest deals was a set signed by Nvidia. The company will sell hundreds of thousands of AI chips in Saudi Arabia, with a first tranche of 18,000 of its newest “Blackwell” chips going to Humain, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth-fund-owned AI startup. The Guardian 

Airbnb launched a redesigned app on Tuesday to showcase the company’s push to let travelers book services, like catering and personal training, at their home rentals. Tnew-look app marks a new chapter for Airbnb to expand beyond home stays. The company has previously announced plans to invest $200 million to $250 million in a new business that it said it hopes will become a significant driver of future revenue growth. “We now feel like we have such a strong foundation that we are capable of building and expanding,” Dave Stephenson, Airbnb’s business chief, told CNBC. CNBC

In a bid to make its AI DJ feel more interactive, Spotify is updating the feature to allow users to request music or change the mood of a playlist using voice commands. The company is rolling out this feature, initially only supported in English, in over 60 markets for its Premium subscribers. Previously, users could only listen to the AI DJ play songs with added commentary in between certain tracks. Now, the feature is becoming interactive. Users can tell the AI DJ to change the mood or genre, or have it play tracks from specific artists. Tech Crunch 

U.S. President Donald Trump‘s administration plans to rescind and modify a Biden-era rule that curbed the export of sophisticated artificial-intelligence chips, a spokeswoman for the Department of Commerce said on Wednesday. The regulation was aimed at further restricting AI chip and technology exports, dividing up the world to keep advanced computing power in the United States and among its allies while finding more ways to block China’s access. The Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion was issued in January, a week before the end of the administration of former President Joe Biden. Reuters