Welcome to The Compiler, a daily curation of tech news.

Sam Altman drops a bomb: "We know how to build AGI." In a reflective blog post, OpenAI's CEO claims they've cracked the AGI code and are now setting sights on superintelligence. If true, this isn't just moving goalposts – it's relocating the entire stadium. The tech implications are massive, but let's not forget the ethical minefield we're tap-dancing through. One burning question: If AGI is "solved," why isn't Clippy 2.0 writing my emails yet?

1. Microsoft's Bing goes full chameleon, masquerading as Google when you search for... Google. It's like showing up to a Pepsi party wearing a Coke costume. Bold strategy, Redmond – let's see if it pays off.

2. Withings unveils the Omnia, a full-body scanning smart mirror. Finally, a way to get roasted by AI about your dad bod first thing in the morning. Just what the doctor ordered: more anxiety with your morning coffee.

• Microsoft's doubling down on AI, committing $80B for 2025. That's a lot of paperclips.
• Avataar launches Velocity, an AI tool generating product videos from a single link. Goodbye, intern with a smartphone.
• Watch Duty, a wildfire monitoring app, hits 7.2M users across 14 states. Because nothing says "relaxing weekend" like push notifications about impending doom.

If AI can now generate product videos from a single link, how long until our entire online shopping experience is just an AI fever dream?

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Welcome to The Compiler, a daily curation of tech news.

Huawei's Improbable Comeback: The tech giant is thriving despite crushing US sanctions. How? By pivoting hard into AI chips and doubling down on the Chinese market. The kicker? Their homegrown 7nm process node is way more advanced than anyone expected. Looks like those export controls might've backfired spectacularly.

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• The UK's competition watchdog is unleashing AI on bid-riggers. They're testing an ML model to sniff out collusion in public contract bids. Clever move, but I can already hear the "but what about false positives?!" crowd warming up their keyboards.

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• China just greenlit the world's largest hydroelectric dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo river. 60GW capacity, absolutely bonkers engineering feat. But also: massive geopolitical implications for India downstream. Water wars, anyone?

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• Apple's embracing Nvidia GPUs for LLM inference with their open-source ReDrafter tech. Hell froze over, pigs are flying, etc.
• CrowdStrike's stock fully recovered from last year's global IT meltdown. Turns out breaking everyone's systems is great for business.
• United Airlines is fast-tracking Starlink Wi-Fi on planes. Finally, in-flight Twitter will be tolerable.

If Waymo's robotaxis always stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, how long until humans start abusing that to create traffic chaos? The "Pedestrian's Dilemma" might be the new "Trolley Problem" for autonomous vehicles.

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Welcome to The Compiler, a daily curation of tech news.

SpaceX's next Starship test will deploy an actual payload for the first time, releasing 10 Starlink satellite simulators. This is a massive step towards operational flights. The real kicker? These "simulator" satellites might actually be functional enough to join the Starlink constellation. Elon's playing 4D chess while the competition's still setting up the board.

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Samsung and Google just dropped Eclipsa Audio, a new open 3D audio standard. It's a free Dolby Atmos alternative coming to Samsung's 2025 TVs and select YouTube videos. This isn't just about better sound – it's a strategic move to wrestle control of the audio ecosystem from Dolby. Expect a messy format war that'll make the Blu-ray vs HD-DVD battle look like a pillow fight.

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Generative AI startups gobbled up $56B in VC funding in 2024, a 192% jump from 2023. The catch? Only $6.2B went to startups outside the US. This isn't just FOMO – it's financial manifest destiny. We're witnessing the birth of an AI oligopoly, with a handful of US giants poised to dominate the global AI landscape. Time to brush up on your antitrust law, folks.

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• A DIY enthusiast retrofitted a 1993 Volvo with open-source self-driving tech. Somewhere, a Tesla engineer is sweating. Read more
• YouTube paid out $70B to creators in 3 years. That's a lot of unboxing videos. Read more
• Ford extends free EV charger promo. Because nothing says "future of transportation" like a complimentary wall plug. Read more

If AI can write sermons and religious texts, does that make GPT the new prophet? Asking for a friend (and possibly starting a cult).

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Welcome to The Compiler, a daily curation of tech news.

SpaceX's Starlink is rapidly expanding, now serving over 4.6 million users across 118 countries with 7,000+ active satellites. While Elon gets the headlines, the real story is how this could reshape global internet infrastructure. Think about it: Starlink might become the de facto ISP for entire regions, potentially outmaneuvering traditional telcos. The technical challenges of managing this massive, dynamic network are mind-boggling. I'd love to see a deep dive into their custom routing algorithms and how they handle orbital traffic management at scale.

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Scientists have created "anthrobots" – synthetic biological entities made from human cells. Before you panic about grey goo scenarios, these are more like organized clumps of cells than full organisms. The potential applications in medicine are fascinating, but let's be real: the ethics committees are going to have a field day with this one. How do we define the line between "useful bio-tool" and "accidental new lifeform"? Prepare for some wild bioethics debates.

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DeepSeek just dropped a 607B parameter model that uses only 37B active parameters at a time. It's supposedly outperforming GPT-4 on reasoning and math tasks. This Mixture-of-Experts approach is fascinating – it's like having hundreds of specialized sub-models that get activated as needed. The efficiency gains are impressive, but I'm curious about the tradeoffs. Does this architecture introduce new failure modes or bias risks we haven't considered?

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• Rivian tripled EV deliveries in 2024 but missed production targets. Growing pains or deeper issues? Read more
• Apple and Strava deepen integration. Fitness tech arms race intensifies. Read more
• Samsung fridges can now add items to your Instacart. Your appliances are becoming personal shoppers. Read more

If AI models keep growing exponentially, at what point do we need to start worrying about their carbon footprint? Will "green AI" become the next big tech trend?

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Apple's Vision Pro production may be on pause. They've reportedly built enough components for 500k-600k headsets, but aren't churning out more... yet. Production lines are still intact if sales take off. Is this a sign of tepid demand, or just smart inventory management for a $3500 face computer? Either way, it's a reminder that even Apple can't conjure a new product category out of thin air. The real test will be how quickly (and if) they iterate on Gen 2.

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AI is rewriting history... literally. Neural networks are decoding ancient texts faster than ever, unlocking lost languages and forgotten stories. It's like Indiana Jones, if Indy was a server farm. This could radically accelerate our understanding of the past, but also raises questions about AI's role in interpreting history. Who fact-checks the algorithms?

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The OLED monitor wars are heating up. MSI and Samsung both announced 27" 4K OLED monitors with 240Hz refresh rates. Gamers, your eyeballs are in for a treat (and your wallets are in for a beating). The real winner? OLED panel manufacturers who are about to see demand skyrocket.

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• A US Army soldier was arrested for allegedly selling stolen phone records. Insider threats remain a massive cybersecurity challenge, even for the military. Read more
• Rembrand raised $23M to expand its AI-powered product placement tech. Soon, every influencer video might be secretly selling you something. Read more
• Over 3.1M fake "stars" were discovered on GitHub projects. Open source popularity contests just got a lot more sus. Read more

If AI can now decipher ancient texts, how long until it starts writing its own "lost" historical documents? The line between archaeology and science fiction might get real blurry, real fast.

Welcome to The Compiler, a daily curation of tech news.

Apple's secret iPhone 16 camera labs are processing a billion pixels per second. A rare peek inside reveals how they're pushing computational photography to new extremes. The most fascinating tidbit? They're simulating every conceivable lighting scenario, from harsh sunlight to dim bars, ensuring your drunk selfies look impeccable (priorities, people). Read more

• OpenAI's new o3 model is apparently crushing it at competitive programming. If it can debug my spaghetti code, I'll personally nominate it for a Turing Award. Full analysis here
• 2024 was wild for LLMs: GPT-4 got dethroned, we're running beefy models on laptops, and the environmental impact is... not great. It's like Moore's Law, but for melting ice caps. Year in review

• Starlink's bringing direct-to-cell internet to Ukraine. Because nothing says "modern warfare" like doom-scrolling from the trenches. More details
• Someone's adding ALGOL 68 support to GCC. In related news, COBOL programmers are now classified as "living fossils." Check it out
• NATO's building satellite backups for undersea cables. Because nothing says "2025" like orbital infrastructure protecting cat videos. Full story

If AI can now reason like top competitive programmers, how long until it starts leaving snarky comments on Stack Overflow?

Thanks for reading!

Welcome to The Compiler, a daily curation of tech news.

BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF just hit $50B in assets, becoming the fastest-growing ETF launch ever. This rocket fuel helped propel Bitcoin past $100K in December. Who said institutional adoption was a pipe dream?

Why it matters: This isn't just about crypto bros getting rich. It's a massive validation of Bitcoin as an asset class, potentially opening the floodgates for more conservative investors. The knock-on effects could reshape how we think about digital assets in portfolios.

Tech insight: Managing an ETF tied to a volatile, 24/7 traded asset like Bitcoin is a fascinating engineering challenge. BlackRock's probably got some impressive real-time data pipelines and risk management systems humming behind the scenes.

• Samsung's dropping $181M to become the biggest shareholder in Rainbow Robotics, and they've launched a "Future Robotics Office" reporting directly to the CEO. Looks like someone's determined not to miss the boat on the next big computing platform. The real question: will your next Galaxy phone come with a robotic butler?

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• A U.S. Army soldier just got nabbed for allegedly extorting AT&T and Verizon. Forget nation-state actors, looks like the call is coming from inside the house. This Snowflake hack saga is a stark reminder that even our most sensitive systems are often protected by... humans. Oops.

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• China's gearing up to build a thorium molten-salt reactor in 2025. Nuclear nerds, rejoice! This could be a game-changer for safer, more efficient nuclear power. Read more
• Someone built a clever e-paper weather display powered by Cloudflare Workers. It's like a lo-fi smart home device for the hacker set. Read more
• The U.S. Treasury just declared a "major incident" after an apparent Chinese hack. Looks like someone's New Year's resolution was "more cybersecurity drama." Read more

If AI can now learn surgery by watching videos, how long until it starts picking up bad habits from binge-watching Grey's Anatomy?

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Welcome to The Compiler, a daily curation of tech news.

Google's Sundar Pichai warns employees: "The stakes are high" for 2025. Why? The AI arms race is heating up, and Google's feeling the pressure. They're planning a blitz of AI features to stay ahead of increasingly fierce competition. But here's the kicker: while Google's busy playing catch-up, they're also juggling increased regulatory scrutiny. It's like trying to win a drag race while the cops are tailing you.

Tech insight: Watch for Google to aggressively integrate AI across their product suite. Expect Gemini to show up everywhere from Search to Workspace, as they try to match (or leapfrog) OpenAI's GPT integration efforts.

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OpenAI is pivoting to a for-profit structure, admitting they need "more capital than we'd imagined." Translation: Training superintelligent AIs is expensive as hell. They're creating a public benefit corporation to oversee commercial ops, letting them function more like a high-growth startup. It's a delicate balancing act between their lofty mission and the cold, hard cash needed to achieve it.

Prediction: This move will accelerate the AI arms race even further. Expect more mega-rounds and eye-popping valuations as investors scramble to get a piece of the AGI pie.

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AI data centers are gobbling up electricity like there's no tomorrow, potentially disrupting power distribution for millions. It's the dirty secret of the AI boom – these models might be "green" in some ways, but they're energy vampires. As we rush to deploy more AI, we're creating a massive strain on aging power grids.

Tech angle: This could spark innovation in energy-efficient AI hardware and algorithms. Keep an eye on startups working on low-power AI chips and more efficient training methods.

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• LG's new microwave has a 27-inch touchscreen. Because scrolling TikTok while reheating leftovers is peak 2025. Read more
• YouTube tests AI-powered "Play something" button. Finally, an algorithm to fuel our collective procrastination. Read more
• Nvidia acquires Run:ai for $700M, plans to open-source GPU orchestration software. Making AI infrastructure management more accessible could accelerate innovation across the industry. Read more

As AI models grow exponentially larger, are we inadvertently creating digital kaiju that will devour our power grids? The quest for artificial general intelligence might just lead to very real blackouts.

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