Techmeme
February 2, 2025, 8:20 PM

Top News

Vittoria Elliott / Wired:
A look at six engineers with Elon Musk and Peter Thiel ties, between 19 and 24 years old, playing key DOGE roles, as Musk seizes control of US infrastructure  —  Engineers between 19 and 24, most linked to Musk's companies, are playing a key role as he seizes control of federal infrastructure.
More: New York Times, Wired, TechCrunch, New York Times, Bloomberg, The Guardian, Wait - what ?, New Republic, and Associated Press
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
OpenAI unveils Deep Research, an AI agent for creating in-depth reports, available to subscribers of the $200 ChatGPT Pro tier and limited to 100 queries/month  —  OpenAI is announcing a new AI “agent” designed to help people conduct in-depth, complex research using ChatGPT, the company's AI-powered chatbot platform.
Bloomberg:
Donald Trump's EO for levies on China says the “de minimis” exemption for items under $800 no longer applies, affecting Alibaba, JD.com, Shein, Temu, and others  —  - President could block tariff exemption for packages under $800  — Change could affect retailers such as Alibaba, Shein, Temu
Matthew Keys / The Desk:
The US NTSB says it will stop emailing updates about two recent plane crashes to news outlets and reporters, opting to exclusively post updates on its X account  —  The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Saturday said it will stop e-mailing news organizations and reporters …
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Google's X spins out Heritable Agriculture, which aims to use AI to improve crop yield, as the incubator aggressively spins off companies under CEO Astro Teller  —  Google's X “moonshot factory” this week announced its latest graduate.  Heritable Agriculture is a data- and machine learning …
More: Screen Rant
Sima Kotecha / BBC:
The UK announces four new laws that make it illegal to possess, create, or distribute AI tools designed to produce CSAM, becoming the first country to do so  —  Four new laws will tackle the threat of child sexual abuse images generated by artificial intelligence (AI), the government has announced.
Bloomberg:
Some parents say they are eschewing 529 college savings plans and other traditional investments to invest in cryptocurrency to build wealth for their children  —  Despite the risks and volatility, some families are investing in cryptocurrency to build wealth for their children.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
In a Reddit AMA, Sam Altman admitted that DeepSeek has lessened OpenAI's lead and said OpenAI has been “on the wrong side of history” in terms of open sourcing  —  To cap off a day of product releases, OpenAI researchers, engineers, and executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman …

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Earlier Picks

Shivangi Acharya / Reuters:
Andy Bounds / Financial Times:
Josh Boak / Associated Press:
Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal: