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January 29, 2025, 12:00 AM
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Hayden Field / CNBC:
The US Navy has instructed its members to avoid using DeepSeek “in any capacity” due to “potential security and ethical concerns”  —  The U.S. Navy has instructed its members to avoid using artificial intelligence technology from China's DeepSeek, CNBC has learned.
Jackie Davalos / Bloomberg:
David Sacks says there's “substantial evidence” that DeepSeek “distilled knowledge out of OpenAI models and I don't think OpenAI is very happy about this”  —  White House artificial intelligence czar David Sacks said there's “substantial evidence” …
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Researchers detail two Apple silicon side-channel attacks that could leak secrets: SLAP, affecting M2, A15, and newer chips, and FLOP, affecting M3, M4, and A17  —  Apple-designed chips powering Macs, iPhones, and iPads contain two newly discovered vulnerabilities that leak credit card information …
Vittoria Elliott / Wired:
Sources: the highest ranks of the US Office of Personnel Management now include former employees of Elon Musk's companies, including xAI and the Boring Company  —  Sources tell WIRED that the OPM's top layers of management now include individuals linked to xAI, Neuralink, the Boring Company, and Palantir.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple has been working with SpaceX and T-Mobile to add Starlink support in iOS 18.3; T-Mobile is testing with some users, only for texting initially  —  - T-Mobile begins pushing offering in limited beta test to users  —  Apple Inc. has been secretly working with SpaceX …
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Doc: Google's maps unit reclassified the US as a “sensitive country”, reserved for states with strict governments or border disputes, after Trump's map changes  —  Google's maps division on Monday reclassified the U.S. as a “sensitive country,” a designation it reserves for states …
Hayden Field / CNBC:
OpenAI launches ChatGPT Gov, built for US government use, and says 90K+ government employees have generated 18M+ prompts within ChatGPT since the start of 2024  —  OpenAI on Tuesday announced its biggest product launch since its enterprise rollout.  It's called ChatGPT Gov and was built specifically for U.S. government use.
Radhika Rajkumar / ZDNET:
Block introduces an on-device, open-source AI agent called Goose, which allows developers to choose their preferred LLM to automate engineering tasks  —  Whether for developer needs or mundane tasks, the artificial intelligence (AI) tide appears to be turning in favor of open-source solutions.
Hugh Son / CNBC:
X announces X Money Account, a digital wallet and peer-to-peer payments service with Visa as its launch partner, debuting “later this year”  —  Elon Musk's social media platform X on Tuesday announced the launch of a digital wallet and peer-to-peer payments services provided by Visa.
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
DeepSeek challenges the “bigger is better” narrative driving the AI arms race in recent years and suggests that we may see more investment into smaller startups
Dan Milmo / The Guardian:
An ex-OpenAI safety researcher says he's “terrified” by AI development's pace and that labs racing to AGI can cut corners on alignment, pushing all to speed up  —  Steven Adler expresses concern industry taking ‘very risky gamble’ and raises doubts about future of humanity
Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
Sony names CFO Hiroki Totoki as CEO, succeeding Kenichiro Yoshida, and PlayStation co-CEO Hideaki Nishino as CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, from April 1  —  The corporate shuffle, effective April 1, was approved late Tuesday by the electronics and entertainment giant's board of directors in Tokyo.
Financial Times:
SemiAnalysis: DeepSeek spent “well over $500M on GPUs”; TechInsights says DeepSeek isn't “a big hit to Nvidia” but “a bigger problem for companies like OpenAI”  —  Short sellers profit as US chipmaker loses nearly $600bn in market value on Monday
Bloomberg:
DeepSeek says it used Nvidia H800 chips, available in China until October 2023, to train R1, suggesting US export controls could be a problem for future models
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Garmin smartwatch users report their devices are bricking after starting any activity that uses GPS; Garmin says it is looking into the issue  —  It's not just you.  Several users are reporting their watches are crashing while displaying the ‘blue triangle of death.’  —  It's not just you.
Wall Street Journal:
A profile of DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, a math geek who in 2015 founded hedge fund High-Flyer and who some compare to quant investing pioneer Jim Simons  —  The Chinese engineer built the AI company after founding a successful hedge-fund  —  Some call him China's Sam Altman.

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:00 AM ET, January 29, 2025.

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From Mediagazer

Todd Spangler / Variety:
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr says there was no “pressure from the outside” on the agency leading to an early review of ABC's TV broadcast licenses

Reporters Without Borders:
RSF Press Freedom Index hits a 25-year low: over 50% of the world's countries fall into the “difficult” or “very serious” categories; Norway holds the top spot

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Amazon executives, including MGM Studios head Mike Hopkins, have discussed rebooting The Apprentice for Prime Video, with Donald Trump Jr. as the host

More News

Tim De Chant / TechCrunch:
Fusion reactor startup Helion, which has a deal to supply Microsoft with electricity by 2028, raised a $425M Series F, valuing the company at $5.245B
Jem Aswad / Variety:
Spotify says it paid out a record $10B to the music industry in 2024, up from a then-record $9B in 2023, taking its total to nearly $60B since its 2006 founding

Earlier Picks

@yishan:
The “DeepSeek moment” is like in 2004 when Google detailed using distributed algorithms to build a supercomputer, and unlike Sputnik, when Russia shared little
Bloomberg:
The UK CMA provisionally finds that competition in the cloud services market isn't working for consumers; AWS and Azure each control ~40% of the UK market
Marques Brownlee / Marques Brownlee on YouTube:
Hands-on with Samsung's Project Moohan headset: resembles the Apple Vision Pro, Gemini integration shines, runs Android XR with mobile and tablet apps, and more
Bloomberg:
When asked if Microsoft is in discussions to acquire TikTok US from ByteDance, Donald Trump told reporters “I would say yes”; Microsoft declined to comment
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Apple releases iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS 15.3, enabling Apple Intelligence by default on supported devices but disabling AI summaries for news apps
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