We're in an AI model race

Thursday, January 30, 2025 Posted by bloggerdaddy 0 comments

Thursday, January 30, 2025

Welcome to TC PM! Today we learn of a new U.S. AI model that is allegedly better than DeepSeek's R1; we look at some international teamwork to bring down a cybercriminal forum; and we get the details on multiple tech companies looking to trim headcount.

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Yuichiro Chino / Getty Images

🤖 More models: Ai2, a nonprofit AI research institute based in Seattle, released an open source AI model, succinctly called Tülu 3 405B, that the org claims is better than DeepSeek V3. Can this tit-for-tat model release structure last forever? Read more

🔧 Fixed up: Security researchers at Wiz found that one of DeepSeek's back-end databases was fully exposed, allowing anyone to access sensitive information like user chat logs. The researchers alerted DeepSeek, which says it has fixed the issue. Read more

👋 How do you do, fellow kids? Mark Zuckerberg wants to make Facebook cool again. The Meta CEO announced on the company's earnings call that he wants to return to "OG Facebook" but didn't provide details on what that was. He did say this decision could compromise business results in the near term. Read more

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg / Getty Images

🎁 Going deep on DeepSeek: Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's release of its R1 model last week sent the AI industry into chaos. Maxwell Zeff spoke with AI experts about what this means for the industry going forward. Read more

🤝 International teamwork: A coalition of law enforcement agencies from the U.S., Australia, and multiple countries in Europe took down and seized two prominent hacking forums where cybercriminals traded stolen information and tools. Read more

🚢 Gulf of drama: Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is questioning Google's decision to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on Google Maps products in the U.S. Sheinbaum plans to send the tech giant a letter questioning the decision. Read more

🏢 Dollars for building design: Motif, a design platform for architects, has raised $46 million in fresh funds. The startup is founded by two men who used to work at Autodesk, the legacy architecture software industry leader. Read more

☹️ Amazon's RTO struggle: Amazon has made a small number of layoffs in its sustainability and communication departments. These cuts are tied to the company's return-to-office policy that was announced in September and has not been well received. Read more

📂 In other labor news: Google is offering voluntary buyouts to the team that builds Pixel, Android, and Chrome. This comes just a year after Google merged these areas into one team. The company told TechCrunch that it wants everyone on this team to be committed to its mission. Read more

Around the web

💔 VCs come together: Los Angeles-based venture capital firms have banded together to raise a fund, which currently sits a little over half a million, to help those affected by the recent wildfires in their home city. Read more

🛩️ Musk's meddling: As the aviation industry deals with the aftermath of last night's deadly collision between a commercial jet and a military helicopter, they will be doing so with a Federal Aviation Administration leader who was appointed after the incident. Elon Musk had called on the last FAA leader to resign and he did, on January 20. Read more

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Zuck’s response to DeepSeek is to spend billions more on AI

Posted by bloggerdaddy 0 comments

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By Rebecca Bellan

Thursday, January 30, 2025

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we're looking at Meta's vow to keep throwing money at AI, the danger of outdated versions of WordPress, and Elon Musk's promises for Tesla self-driving. We've also got news on funding for hot startups in fintech and data analytics, SoftBank's potential investment into OpenAI, advancements in quantum and supercomputing, and the contentification of Trump's administration. Let's go! — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg / Getty Images

1. I know what I'm doing: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn't seem to be too bothered by DeepSeek's popularity, saying on the company's first quarter results call yesterday that Meta will spend "hundreds of billions of dollars" more on AI. Read More

2. Beware WP malware: Hackers have been exploiting outdated versions of WordPress and the hosting platform's plug-ins. They've been altering websites to trick visitors into downloading and installing malware that can steal passwords and other sensitive information from Windows and Mac machines. Read More

3. Set your calendars: Elon Musk has said Tesla will launch a robotaxi service in Austin this June, and the fleet will be all owned by Tesla itself. These won't be the Cybercabs, though, but some self-driving Model Ys and Model 3s. Read More

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Morning must-reads

Image Credits: Swan

🦢 Swan Noir: French startup Swan helps companies offer financial products at scale, like physical corporate cards that work with Apple and Google Pay. It's become a favorite at several fast-growing companies, and now Swan has tacked on $44 million to its Series B off the back of that success. Read More

🏀 One shot, one opportunity: SoftBank is reportedly in talks to invest $25 billion in OpenAI in a larger partnership that could see that investment tick up to $40 billion. It would make SoftBank OpenAI's largest single backer, surpassing Microsoft. Read More

🤑 Will invest for food: 8VC, a venture firm led by Palantir founder Joe Lonsdale, has its hat out to collect $1 billion for its sixth fund. That's a tall order, and nearly 14% more than the Austin firm's previous fund. Read More

🩸 If Nosferatu made ransomware: Blood donation nonprofit New York Blood Center is experiencing service disruptions after it was hit with a ransomware attack. They may need to reschedule donation activities and blood drives, and processing times for blood donations might take longer than normal. Read More

📊 Athenic AI wants to be the central nervous system of an organization's database that anyone at the company can use, regardless of their coding or data experience. Its platform lets employees ask questions about internal data, and it will not only pull those insights, but also explain how it got there and whether it might be wrong. Read More

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Around the web

📈 Scaling quantum: Canadian startup Xanadu has built a new quantum computer that it claims can be scaled up to achieve the type of computational power needed to handle everything from drug discovery to more efficient machine learning, reports MIT Technology Review. Read More

🎥 That's show business, baby: You've probably seen the theatrics already – Dr. Phil in a ride-along with ICE agents like it's an episode of "Cops"; Kristi Noem in a bulletproof vest filmed alongside agents promising to get "these dirtbags off these streets." Wired takes a look at the 'contentification' of Trump policy. Read More

💻 The dawn of supercomputing: Argonne National Laboratory says its Aurora supercomputer is fully operational and available for the scientific community to use. It offers over 1 FP64 ExaFLOPS for simulation as well as 11.6 mixed precision ExaFLOPS for AI and machine learning, per Tom's Hardware. Read More

Before you go

🤝 Frenemies: Microsoft and OpenAI are pretty tight, but that's not stopping the former from putting DeepSeek's shiny new models on its Azure AI Foundry platform. Microsoft said the version of R1 on Azure has "undergone rigorous red teaming." Read More