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February 4, 2025, 5:50 AM
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| Wired: |
Sources: Marko Elez, a 25-year-old Elon Musk-linked engineer, has admin privileges over Treasury Department code that controls Social Security payments and more — The Bureau of the Fiscal Service is a sleepy part of the Treasury Department. It's also where, sources say …
More: New York Magazine. Bluesky: @dell, @leahfeiger, and @martinsfp. Mastodon: @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social
| Elizabeth Lopatto / The Verge: |
Elon Musk's goal seems to amount to a coup over the US administrative state; Musk said he “deleted” the Direct File tax department, but that may not be true — Elon Musk has an uncanny ability to sort out which of America's rules are real.
More: The Atlantic, Raw Story, Time, Associated Press, and New York Post
X: @elonmusk, @rajgoyle, @besttrousers, @dylanmatt, @jdcmedlock, @joshtpm, @joshtpm, @meidastouch, @sturgeons_law, @angry_staffer, @growing_daniel, @coryfromphilly, @socdoneleft, @mattyglesias, @ctjlewis, @dancow, @alx, @rwpusa, @chrismegerian, and @tszzl
Forums: r/france and r/politics
| Caleb Ecarma / Musk Watch: |
An OPM staffer believes that a server Elon Musk's associates installed, with access to federal staff info like SSNs, has not had a Privacy Impact Assessment — Several of Elon Musk's associates installed at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) have received unprecedented access …
More: Techdirt, HuffPost, New Republic, PCMag, DCMediaGroup, Techdirt, Slate, New York Magazine, SiliconANGLE, Mediaite, and New York Times
Bluesky: @rincewind.run, @mmasnick, @jayapal.house.gov, @jljacobson, @wired.com, @joshuajfriedman.com, @repbarragan, @kinosminion, @martinsfp, @molly.wiki, @carbajal.house.gov, @repkevinmullin, @neal.house.gov, @calebecarma, @nathantankus, @juddlegum, @tonytellez, @juddlegum, @juddlegum, @juddlegum, @juddlegum, @juddlegum, @juddlegum, @juddlegum, @juddlegum, and @juddlegum. Threads: @senadamschiff
X: @jarvis_best, @canderaid, @hackingbutlegal, @juddlegum, @josephpatrice, @sarah_micheleg, @juddlegum, @stealthygeek, @bakari_sellers, @tnoquoproquid, @slisker, @calebecarma, @chadpergram, @tim_walz, @mattgertz, and @victorshi2020
Forums: r/economicCollapse, r/Futurism, r/the_everything_bubble, r/Foodforthought, r/KeepOurNetFree, r/politics, r/politics, r/AnythingGoesNews, r/uspolitics, r/feddiscussion, r/usajobs, r/politics, r/politics, r/solarpunk, r/Political_Revolution, r/IronFrontUSA, r/antiwork, r/TheSecondTerm, r/behindthebastards, r/inthenews, and r/washingtondc
| Evan Weinberger / Bloomberg Law: |
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent orders the CFPB to stop activities, like rulemaking, communications, and litigation; in November, Musk said to “delete CFPB” — Search by Topic — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has shut down a wide variety of operations inside …
More: American Prospect, Coinpedia Fintech News, Consumer Financial …, House Financial Services Committee, Washington Post, New York Times, Americans for Financial Reform, National Law Review, New Republic, Reuters, Law360, New York Times, NBC New York, UPI, Salon, American Banker, Forbes, Consumer Bankers Association, Politico, NBC News, U.S. House Committee …, NPR, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, The Block, and The Hill
Bluesky: @hamiltonnolan, @andycraig, @adambonin, @reporterev, @reporterev, and @tonyromm
X: @elonmusk, @paulg, @repmeuser, @brendanpedersen, @financialcmte, @alexandergrieve, @consumerbankers, @helaineolen, @emptywheel, @mattgertz, @silvermanjacob, @neerajka, @jonahallon, @repgwenmoore, @groundwork, @drewchudson, @ellieckaufman, @dwallacewells, @repjayapal, @sfof_states, @senatordurbin, @econliberties, @brendanpedersen, @rickclaypool, @repcleaver, @alex_danco, @nhegde, @gardnerakayla, @iamdcinvestor, @josheidelson, @cmseeberger, @moreperfectus, @reichlinmelnick, @jchervinsky, @maxfieldonbanks, @reploudermilk, and @krystalball. LinkedIn: Evan Weinberger
Forums: r/politics and r/politics
| Makena Kelly / Wired: |
Sources: Thomas Shedd, GSA's new Technology Transformation Services director and Elon Musk ally, told GSA workers the agency will pursue an “AI-first strategy” — Sources say the former Tesla engineer now in charge of the Technology Transformation Services wants an agency that operates like a “startup software company.”
More: New York Times and Nextgov/FCW
Bluesky: @lizthegrey.com, @kateconger.com, @tyleraking.com, @timmarchman, @brbarrett, and @rayosunlong
| Bloomberg: |
Donald Trump signs an executive action to direct officials to create a US sovereign wealth fund and says that it could be used to facilitate a sale of TikTok US — - Fund could be used as US facilitates TikTok sale, Lutnick says — Bessent says fund will be created in the next 12 months
More: Reuters, Mashable, The White House, Business Insider, Silicon UK, crypto.news, Blockonomi, PhoneArena, CNBC, Daily Sabah, en.ain.ua, Blockhead, Washington Post, Axios, The Independent, //www.investmentweek.co.uk/, Agence France-Presse, The Times, DNyuz, The White House, The Guardian, Breitbart, BBC, MEDIANAMA, Bitcoinist.com, Sydney Morning Herald, Roll Call, @realDonaldTrump …, Washington Post, UPI, Shacknews, Fox News, CryptoPotato, Hollywood Life, Australian Financial Review, Washington Examiner, Crypto Briefing, CNN, One America News Network, New Republic, New York Post, and @realDonaldTrump …
Bluesky: @brunojnavarro. X: @senlummis, @chamath, @elonmusk, @presssec, @modeledbehavior, @realalexjones, @martinshkreli, @mviser, @jacksonhinklle, @jgarzik, @dampedspring, @cliffordasness, @cliffordasness, @margomartin47, @vkiriak, @byheatherlong, @johnhcochrane, @salansar1, @gordongchang, @pudgypenguins, @aravsrinivas, @cynthiamlummis, @polymarket, @jessetinsley, @monetsupply, @theallinpod, @chamath, and @danprimack. LinkedIn: Sarah Beth Felix
| CBC News: |
Ontario Premier Doug Ford pauses retaliatory measures like “ripping up” the province's CA$100M Starlink contract, after Donald Trump delays US tariffs on Canada — Retaliatory measures included ‘ripping up’ Starlink contract, taking American booze of LCBO shelves
More: @realDonaldTrump …, Associated Press, Yahoo Finance, Canadian Press, CTV News, Silicon UK, Reuters, Financial Times, UPI, Irish Independent, SpaceNews, SiliconANGLE, The Independent, TechCrunch, Nairametrics, and Washington Post
Mastodon: @uxmark@mstdn.ca. X: @fordnation, @justintrudeau, @fordnation, @elonmusk, @kylegriffin1, @williamshatner, @mhmck, @harleyf, @fordnation, @andrea_khanjin, @cafreeland, @cbcqueenspark, @megbasham, @scottadamssays, @colindmello, @jonnajarian, @fordnation, @colindmello, @tobi, and @adamscochran
| Financial Times: |
More: New York Times, The Information, Australian Financial Review, Social Media Today, and Wired
Forums: r/politics, r/politics, r/politics, r/politics, r/politics, and r/neoliberal
| Bloomberg: |
A US appeals court panel appeared skeptical of Google's bid to overturn a 2023 jury verdict that declared the Play Store an illegal monopoly in the Epic case — - Jury ruled Google violated antitrust law by restricting apps — Google argues case shouldn't have been decided by jury
More: Proactive, Benzinga, and Associated Press
X: @vidushi_law, @leehepner, @vidushi_law, @vidushi_law, @vidushi_law, @vidushi_law, @vidushi_law, and @vidushi_law. Forums: r/Android
| Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: |
Meta defines the types of AI systems that it deems too risky to release, including ones capable of aiding in cybersecurity, chemical, and biological attacks — Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to make artificial general intelligence (AGI) — which is roughly defined as AI that can accomplish … | Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal invests $230M in his Indian AI startup Krutrim, and plans to raise $1.15B from outside investors by 2026, to build local AI — Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal is investing $230 million into an AI startup he founded as the country pushes to establish itself in a field dominated by U.S. and Chinese firms.
More: The Economic Times, Entrackr, Livemint, Moneycontrol, Inc42 Media, and Analytics India Magazine. X: @bhash
| Cristina Criddle / Financial Times: |
Anthropic details Constitutional Classifiers, a protective LLM layer designed to stop AI model jailbreaking by monitoring inputs and outputs for harmful content — Leading tech groups including Microsoft and Meta also invest in similar safety systems — Artificial intelligence start …
More: Anthropic, Ars Technica, Simon Willison's Weblog, VentureBeat, Dark Reading, and MIT Technology Review
X: @janleike, @alexalbert__, @simonw, @simonw, @anthropicai, @anthropicai, @simonw, @skirano, @anthropicai, and @anthropicai
Forums: r/Anthropic and Slashdot
| Brody Ford / Bloomberg: |
Source: Salesforce is cutting 1,000+ roles and will let displaced workers apply for other jobs internally; Salesforce had nearly 73,000 workers in January 2024 — - Many affected employees will be able to apply for other jobs — Amazon, Microsoft and Meta also trimming roles to start 2025
More: Tech Monitor, The Economic Times, TechRadar, Reuters, Verdict, TipRanks Financial, and NewsBytes
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