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Techmeme
January 29, 2025, 3:55 PM
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Top News

Financial Times:
OpenAI says it has seen some evidence that DeepSeek used “distillation” to train its open-source competitor by using outputs from OpenAI's proprietary models  —  White House AI tsar David Sacks raises possibility of alleged intellectual property theft
Bloomberg:
Sources: Microsoft and OpenAI are investigating whether a DeepSeek-linked group obtained a large amount of data from OpenAI's API in an unauthorized manner  —  Microsoft's security researchers in the fall observed individuals they believe may be linked to DeepSeek exfiltrating a large amount …
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”
Eduardo Baptista / Reuters:
Alibaba releases Qwen 2.5-Max, an AI model that the company's cloud unit claims “outperforms” GPT-4o, DeepSeek-V3, and Llama-3.1-405B “almost across the board”  —  Chinese tech company Alibaba (9988.HK) on Wednesday released a new version of its Qwen 2.5 artificial intelligence model …
Dario Amodei:
DeepSeek makes US export controls to China even more important, and DeepSeek-V3 is not a unique breakthrough but an expected point on a cost reduction curve  —  A few weeks ago I made the case for stronger US export controls on chips to China.  Since then DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company …
New York Times:
Meta executives say DeepSeek's breakthrough shows that upstarts now have a chance to innovate and compete with AI giants, vindicating its open-source strategy
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
ASML reports Q4 net profit of €2.69B on €9.26B net sales, net bookings up 169% QoQ to €7.09B, and expects 2025 net sales of €30B to €35B, up from €28.3B in 2024  —  Dutch semiconductor giant ASML on Wednesday reported a big jump in fourth-quarter net bookings …
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet says cheaper AI “could mean more applications” and “more demand over time”, and “cost and energy” are the big issues to address
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Comcast starts rolling out its “pioneering new, ultra-low lag connectivity experience” to select US cities, using the L4S standard to significantly cut latency  —  The new technology is based on a standard called L4S, which can significantly reduce latency to help things like video games feel smoother.
Bloomberg:
Sources: the Trump administration is exploring additional curbs on the sale of chips to China to cover Nvidia's scaled-down H20, designed for the Chinese market  —  - Officials had very early talks about restricting the H20 chip  — Nvidia designed the scaled-down H20 product for Chinese market
Wall Street Journal:
US officials and Google researchers: China, Iran, and 18+ other countries use AI tools like Gemini to bolster their cyberattacks against US and global targets  —  A cyber-threat report from Google is shedding light on how foreign actors are leveraging generative AI to boost their hacking prowess.
Vittoria Elliott / Wired:
Sources: the US Office of Personnel Management's highest ranks are now controlled by former employees of Elon Musk's companies, like 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 from iOS 18.3; T-Mobile is testing it with some users, exclusively for texting  —  - T-Mobile begins pushing offering in limited beta test to users  —  Apple Inc. has been secretly working with SpaceX …
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Netflix now lets iPhone and iPad app users download an entire TV show season with one tap, a much-requested feature that launched on Android in 2021  —  The new feature lets users download an entire season of a show with one tap.
Christopher Dring / Video Games Chronicle:
Ampere: users spent $465M on Microsoft games in December, making it the biggest publisher, ahead of EA's $366M; Call of Duty HQ had 38M MAUs in November 2024  —  NEARLY $0.5BN WAS SPENT ON XBOX GAMES ACROSS STEAM, PLAYSTATION AND XBOX IN DECEMBER  —  $465 million was spent on Microsoft games …
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Waymo plans to test in 10 new US cities in 2025, starting with Las Vegas and San Diego, as it aims for robotaxi operations in Austin, Atlanta, and Miami soon  —  The theme of this year's road trip is ‘generalizability.’  —  The theme of this year's road trip is ‘generalizability.’
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.
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Google's maps unit reclassifies the US as a “sensitive country”, a designation 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 …

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:55 PM ET, January 29, 2025.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Lachlan Murdoch says there is evidence of “viewer fatigue” at Fox News, whose total-day viewership fell 16% in Q3, with viewership in the 25-54 demo down 24%

Michael Savage / The Guardian:
Nigel Farage's regular Telegraph column is set to end; sources suggest Axel Springer terminated his contract, but others close to Farage claim he has resigned

Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg:
Sources: Disney eyes laying off thousands, asking some managers to target 20% in annual cost savings, which could come from job cuts and expense reductions

More News

Ben Wilson / Windows Central:
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 review: slim, lightweight, reasonable power draw, and DLSS 4, but mild generational performance uplift and spotty availability at launch
Ryan Gallagher / Bloomberg:
The UK National Audit Office says the government was operating at least 228 “legacy” computer systems as of March 2024, increasing the risk of a disruptive hack
bellingcat:
A look at MrDeepFakes, a site with obscure ownership that hosts non-consensual deepfake porn, has close to 650K members, and gets millions of visits per month

Earlier Picks

Ryan Knappenberger / Courthouse News Service:
A US federal judge denied a motion by Apple to intervene as a defendant in the remedy trial of the DOJ vs. Google case, saying Apple's motion was untimely
More: Thurrott, 9to5Mac, MediaPost, and MLex
Bluesky: @quinnypig.com.  X: @balancecrafting, @jason_kint, and @vidushi_law.  Forums: r/apple
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
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