Faraday Future is adding generative AI to its vaporware EV

Faraday Future is nearly out of cash and its long-delayed EV has yet to land in customers’ hands, which means this is the perfect time for the publicly traded company to jump head first into the AI hype machine.

Faraday Future said Tuesday it is adding generative AI to its first production car, the FF 91 Futurist. Never mind that the vehicle has been repeatedly delayed for years, that as of three weeks ago Faraday Future was down to its last $30 million and was pushing the delivery date again or that the company has bounced from one internal drama to another. None of this matters, because by merely mentioning the words “generative AI,” the money will surely come pouring in.

And whadda ya know? The stock popped 6.2% following the announcement. Of course, fundamentals often catch up to even the wiliest of publicly traded companies. That stock bump may not last.

Faraday Future said it has launched a “Generative AI Product Stack,” which will be integrated into FF 91. The company claims that “through this Generative AI Product Stack, the company has integrated its foundational AI capabilities with advanced models such as ChatGPT, GPT-4, and others from companies such as OpenAI and Microsoft.”

If that sentence sounds like vaporware version of Mad Libs, you wouldn’t be wrong. ChatGPT is a text-generating AI chatbot developed by tech startup OpenAI. The chatbot uses GPT-4, a large language model that uses deep learning to produce human-like text. In February, Microsoft integrated the GPT-4 model into its Bing search engine.

So basically, Faraday Future said a bunch of words that means it plans to use ChatGPT.

The company goes on in the announcement to add that “with this Generative AI Product Stack, the company has the potential to scale to additional advanced generative AI models, giving extraordinary abilities to users.” Faraday Future doesn’t explain what additional advanced generative AI models means or what extraordinary abilities will be provided to users. The company said it plans to use generative AI for personalized applications like “complex text and voice queries, image and video generation, stock analysis, live translations, search, entertainment, education, e-commerce, and more.”

It’s worth noting that today’s new vehicle models are equipped with software that includes natural language processing capabilities — aka voice assistants that can provide navigation and handle other queries. Generative AI is unnecessary to provide these functions.

The first production build FF 91 vehicle came off the assembly line at its facility in Hanford, California in April. But customer deliveries have yet to begin. Faraday Future pushed back initial deliveries of its FF 91 Futurist EV — part one of a three-phase plan — to the end of May. The next two phases of production and delivery are still a question mark. Faraday Future said it will need “substantial additional financing” to start the second and third phase delivery and is in discussions with additional potential investors.” Faraday Future also has yet to complete crash tests.