Techmeme: A look at Chinese hackers' attacks on US infrastructure and telecoms; sources: Charter, Consolidated Communications, and Windstream networks were also breached (Wall Street Journal)

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January 6, 2025, 8:05 AM

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Josh Tyrangiel / Bloomberg:

Q&A with Sam Altman on OpenAI's and ChatGPT's first few years, his removal as CEO, OpenAI's structure, AGI, AI safety, nuclear fusion, Trump, Musk, and more — On Nov. 30, 2022, traffic to OpenAI's website peaked at a number a little north of zero. It was a startup so small and sleepy …

More: PYMNTS.com, Business Insider, The Decoder, CCN.com, Marginal REVOLUTION, and TechCrunch

X: @bradstone, @newley, @0xlaiyuen, @tsarnick, and @tyrangiel. LinkedIn: Mattias Rost

Forums: r/OpenAI and r/slatestarcodex

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Sam Altman says OpenAI is currently losing money on its ChatGPT Pro plan, which costs $200 per month, because “people use it much more than we expected” — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says that the company is currently losing money on its $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro plan because people are using it more than expected

More: The Economic Times, Benzinga, Nairametrics, Cryptopolitan, Analytics India Magazine, WinBuzzer, Business Insider, and Tech in Asia

Bluesky: @edzitron.com and @amardguru

X: @rmedranollamas, @cuenca, @nickadobos, @koltregaskes, @sama, @sama, @yoheinakajima, @mattprd, @hkproj, and @teslatommy1. Forums: r/technology

Sam Altman:

Sam Altman says “we are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it”, and OpenAI is turning its focus to superintelligence — The second birthday of ChatGPT was only a little over a month ago, and now we have transitioned into the next paradigm of models that can do complex reasoning.

More: Constellation Research, BGR, Neowin, TechCrunch, CryptoSlate, Decrypt, The Crypto Times, Analytics India Magazine, and Cointelegraph

Bluesky: @daniloc.xyz and @theopriestley.com. Threads: @mergesort

X: @jeffjarvis, @teortaxestex, @nickadobos, @singularitynet, @alliekmiller, @skirano, @edkrassen, and @kimmonismus. Forums: Hacker News

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Samsung unveils a suite of AI experiences for its TVs, including Click to Search, Live Translate, and a way to recognize food on the screen and provide recipes — For this year's lineup, Samsung said that AI will come to life in more ways than just great picture quality.

More: Samsung Newsroom, The Verge, Moneycontrol, T3, Windows Central, Interesting Engineering, Phandroid, Sammy Fans, TechSpot, SamMobile, Android Police, TechCrunch, PhoneArena, Advanced Television, SammyGuru, Android Authority, Neowin, TechCrunch, and Analytics India Magazine

Bluesky: @antiquequaalude, @bdsams.com, and @kentindell. Threads: @chriswelch

Wall Street Journal:

A look at Chinese hackers' attacks on US infrastructure and telecoms; sources: Charter, Consolidated Communications, and Windstream networks were also breached — Massive ‘Typhoon’ cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure and telecoms sought to lay groundwork for potential conflict with Beijing …

More: CSO, Security Affairs, Reuters, Android Headlines, New York Post, Livemint, and Semafor

Bluesky: @hatr and @retr0.id. Threads: @carnage4life

X: @e_atpitt_, @jerrydunleavy, @dnvolz, @dnvolz, @andrewcmyers, @dnvolz, @hraleighspeaks, @m_miho_jpn, @0xalexei, @0xalexei, @lukolejnik, @committeeonccp, @lukolejnik, @jerrydunleavy, @jerrydunleavy, @fdd, and @drewfitzgerald

LinkedIn: Sarah Krouse and Isaac Stone Fish

Forums: r/craftofintelligence and Slashdot

Katrina Manson / Bloomberg:

How China-linked Volt Typhoon hackers breached local utilities and the US DOD's sensitive networks in Guam, a US territory vital for defending Taiwan militarily

More: Asia Times and Tom's Hardware

Bluesky: @emg8 and @dakotaindc. Mastodon: @zackwhittaker@mastodon.social

X: @davehatter and @katrinamanson. LinkedIn: Regina Phelps

Bloomberg:

Sources: Italy is in advanced talks for a €1.5B, five-year SpaceX deal to provide the government with secure telecom services, Europe's largest such project — - Starlink would provide secure internet for Italian government — Prime Minister Meloni met with Trump in Florida on Saturday

More: Light Reading, Fortune, CCN.com, Hindustan Times, TechRadar, Proactive, Seeking Alpha, Reuters, and The Independent

Bluesky: @quinnypig.com and @timlatimer

Forums: r/esa, r/Starlink, r/technology, r/worldnews, and r/europe

Bloomberg:

Sources: India plans $2.7B in fresh subsidies and import tariff cuts to boost local manufacturing, especially of smartphones made by companies like Apple — - Proposed incentives will help smartphone makers like Apple — Final decision to be made by cabinet; details likely in budget

More: 9to5Mac

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:

Avataar releases Velocity, a generative AI tool that creates product videos based on a product link, says HP, Victoria's Secret, and others are using the tool — Generative AI models have reached a baseline capability of producing at least a passable video from a single image or short sentence.

Preetika Rana / Wall Street Journal:

Uber and Lyft are embracing autonomous vehicle operators like Waymo, May Mobility, and others, after abandoning their own self-driving car programs — After ending their own driverless plans, the ride-sharing companies are embracing autonomous-vehicle operators and offering new app features

Margaux MacColl / TechCrunch:

A profile of headhunter Peterson Conway, who worked with Palantir and other Silicon Valley defense and hard tech firms and is now the talent head at VC firm A* — In 2023, defense tech recruiter Peterson Conway VIII pulled up to the offices of nuclear fusion startup Fuse in a black suburban, donning his signature cowboy hat.

Gabrielle Canon / The Guardian:

A look at the rise of Watch Duty, a wildfire alert app that is active in 14 US states and has gained up to 7.2M active users in three years since its launch — Watch Duty - which began in California and has expanded across 14 states - alerted the public to more than 9,000 wildfires in 2024

Bluesky: @jdaldern and @guardian-climate. Mastodon: @salixsericea@mastodon.social

Yantoultra Ngui / Reuters:

Singapore-based Digital Edge, which operates 21 data centers in Japan, Korea, India, and others, raised over $1.6B, including ~$640M in equity and $1B in debt — Singapore-headquartered data centre company Digital Edge said on Monday it had raised over $1.6 billion in new capital via …

More: DatacenterDynamics, Silicon Republic, Digital Edge, TNGlobal, and Tech in Asia

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From Mediagazer

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: WaPo officials told staffers a cyberattack compromised the email accounts of several journalists and was potentially the work of a foreign government

Michael Savage / The Guardian:

Sources: senior BBC executives are considering charging US consumers for access to its journalism to boost revenues amid falling UK license fee incomes

Committee to Protect Journalists:

Saudi Arabia executes prominent Saudi journalist Turki al-Jasser, who was arrested in 2018 over Twitter posts alleging corruption within the Saudi royal family

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More News

Teresa Xie / Bloomberg:

Advertising company Outfront, whose clients include Mercury, Brex, and Venmo, says fintech ad spend over the past three years has grown an average of 45%+ YoY

More: PYMNTS.com

Financial Times:

Malaysia's environment minister says global tech companies should expect to pay a premium for access to energy and water to serve data centers in the country

More: Wall Street Journal

Jane Lanhee Lee / Bloomberg:

Foxconn reports Q4 revenue of ~$64.6B, up 15% YoY vs. est. of a 13% rise, boosted by data center spending, with December 2024 bringing in ~$19.8B, up 42% YoY

More: Barron's Online, Wall Street Journal, GreenBot, Benzinga, Reuters, Cryptopolitan, Financial Times, Hon Hai Technology Group, BNN Bloomberg, Tech in Asia, and Livemint. X: @dnystedt

Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:

PitchBook: AI startups building medical note-taking apps raised $800M in 2024, up from $390M in 2023, as Microsoft, Amazon, and others compete for market share

More: PYMNTS.com and Cryptopolitan

Bluesky: @petetrainor.fyi. LinkedIn: Dr Harpreet Sood and Mona Sloane

Suzi Ring / Financial Times:

The UK CMA is testing an AI tool to help catch companies that collude when bidding for public contracts, amid a “significant risk of bid-rigging” in procurement

Bluesky: @markcstanley. X: @procure4health

Eva Dou / Washington Post:

How Huawei is flourishing despite harsh US sanctions, demonstrating the resilience of a company at the center of a worsening cold war between the US and China

More: Light Reading, South China Morning Post, DigiTimes, Notebookcheck, Moneycontrol, iLounge, and Huawei Central

Earlier Picks

Stephanie Stacey / Financial Times:

CrowdStrike, whose botched software update caused a global IT outage in July 2024, has more than recovered the $30B in market value it shed after the crisis

More: TechRadar and PYMNTS.com

Bluesky: @bruces. Mastodon: @1br0wn@eupolicy.social

Coco Feng / South China Morning Post:

Douyin, Pinduoduo, and Xiaohongshu vow to improve their algorithms after China's three-month campaign from November 2024 to fix “typical issues with algorithms”

More: TechNode and Tech in Asia

Bluesky: @kwerb.com. X: @sehof

Bismah Malik / Inc42:

Sources: Reliance writes off its $200M investment in Bengaluru-based hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo, as CEO Kabeer Biswas looks to sell Dunzo for $25M-$30M

More: Inc42 Media, Moneycontrol, India Today, The Hindu BusinessLine, The Morning Context, Tech in Asia, YourStory.com, Moneycontrol, and The Economic Times

Bluesky: @louisgray. X: @peeleraja, @beastoftraal, and @bismahmalik

Max Levy / Denver Post:

Joe Biden awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tim Gill, who founded the publishing software startup Quark before becoming an influential LGBTQ+ activist

More: Silicon Republic, The White House, The Economic Times, and American Thinker

X: @potus and @jonmurray