Techmeme
January 25, 2025, 7:15 PM

Top News

Caiwei Chen / MIT Technology Review:
Rather than weakening China's AI capabilities, US sanctions appear to be driving startups like DeepSeek to innovate by prioritizing efficiency and collaboration  —  The AI community is abuzz over DeepSeek R1, a new open-source reasoning model.  —  The model was developed by the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek …
Financial Times:
Industry insiders say DeepSeek's focus on research makes it a dangerous competitor as it's willing to share breakthroughs rather than protect them for profits  —  Hedge fund billionaire Liang Wenfeng builds model on tight budget despite US attempt to halt China's high-tech ambitions
More: Forexlive, Constellation Research, Bloomberg, ChinaTalk, VentureBeat, Hindustan Times, Moneycontrol, and CNBC
Zeyi Yang / Wired:
DeepSeek, which started as a deep-learning research branch of Chinese quant hedge fund High-Flyer, is now giving US AI giants a run for their money  —  When Chinese quant hedge fund founder Liang Wenfeng went into AI research, he took 10,000 Nvidia chips and assembled a team of young, ambitious talent.
Carl Franzen / VentureBeat:
Yann LeCun says DeepSeek “profited from open research and open source” like Meta's Llama and is proof that open source models are surpassing proprietary ones  —  If you hadn't heard, there's a new AI star in town: DeepSeek, the subsidiary of Hong Kong-based quantitative analysis …
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Siri with Apple Intelligence is a massive regression from the old Siri, which recognized its limitations and provided a list of search links to answer a query  —  Writing about the current state of Apple Intelligence yesterday, I mentioned how utterly stupid and laughably wrong Siri is when asked …
Politico:
Supporters and skeptics of the TikTok ban in Congress say Trump's US ownership proposal bewilders them, claiming it doesn't comply with the divest-or-ban law  —  Members of Congress are declaring themselves bewildered by Donald Trump's latest proposal to save TikTok by brokering a joint-ownership deal.
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
After pouring tens of millions into Trump's campaign, the crypto industry has been paid back handsomely during his first week back, with EOs, rule changes, more  —  Crypto executives, companies and investors are getting an early return on their investment in Donald Trump.
New York Times:
Some crypto executives worry Trump's memecoin undercut the industry's credibility at the very moment crypto is seeking a prominent place in mainstream finance  —  The president's promotion of a speculative digital coin left some crypto investors feeling blindsided, while others saw it as a gimmick …
New York Times:
Elon Musk's first moves suggest DOGE will be closer to an IT project than the sweeping operation to slash $2T+ from the federal budget that he once predicted  —  The rebranding of a former White House digital office into the new Department of Government Efficiency signals its potential limits, budget experts said.
Bloomberg:
Sources: people affiliated with DOGE have met with representatives of various public blockchains as they explore using a blockchain to track federal spending  —  - Conversations said to be held with multiple public blockchains  — The technology may be used to track government spending
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Hands-on with the live translation feature of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses: adept at translating a basic conversation, but struggles with slang and faster speech  —  I was in middle school the last time I took a Spanish class.  I remember enough for toddler talk — phrases like …
More: UploadVRBluesky: @nvondarza, @tylerh.social, and @papapishuMastodon: @vicmsong@mastodon.socialThreads: @vicmsong
Wall Street Journal:
In email to X staff, Musk says “user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even”; sources: banks plan to sell their debt in X  —  Banks are hoping to sell the X debt at around 90 to 95 cents on the dollar  —  Wall Street banks are getting ready …
More: The Verge, Reuters, Futurism, Mashable, WinBuzzer, New York Times, PCMag, The Economic Times, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, Benzinga, and The Wrap
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Earlier Picks

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