Techmeme
February 4, 2025, 5:50 AM

Top News

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 …
Elizabeth Lopatto / The Verge:
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 …
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 …
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.”
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
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
Financial Times:
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
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 …

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Featured Podcasts

Cheeky Pint:
The world of voice AI, with Mati Staniszewski of ElevenLabs
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
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Scott Nolan - SpaceX, Founders Fund, and Rebuilding American Uranium Enrichment
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz on Sam Altman's Trust Problem
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
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Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
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More News

Josh Xiao / Bloomberg:
Ben Bergman / Business Insider:
Umar Shakir / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Andrew Orr / AppleInsider:
Samantha Subin / CNBC:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Ethan Mollick / One Useful Thing: