China bans rare mineral exports to the US: The move escalates supply chain warfare and comes a day after the Biden administration expanded curbs on the sale of advanced American technology to China. NYT
China blocks exports of chip materials gallium, germanium to US: Beijing says move is in response to Washington 'weaponizing' trade curbs. Nikkei
Bloomberg: Chinese hackers are lingering inside telecom firms, US says
+ US telecommunications companies are still working to kick out state-sponsored Chinese hackers who breached their networks as part of a spying campaign that dates back months, US officials said Tuesday.
Donald Trump is reportedly set to pick the crypto enthusiast Paul Atkins to lead the SEC: FC reports since 2017, Atkins has cochaired the Token Alliance, an industry-led initiative that represents crypto’s interests.
Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg seeks ‘active role’ in Donald Trump’s tech policies: Policy chief Nick Clegg says social media company ‘overdid it’ on content moderation, as it seeks to placate president-elect. FT
How close is AI to human-level intelligence? Large language models such as OpenAI’s o1 have electrified the debate over achieving artificial general intelligence, or AGI. But they are unlikely to reach this milestone on their own. Nature
An agenda to maximise AI’s benefits and minimise harms, by David Patterson: How technologists, researchers and policymakers can reassure people AI will serve the public good. Economist
AI, huge hacks leave consumers facing a perfect storm of privacy perils: Nearly unlimited highly personal info is available for anyone willing to pay. AI provides many ways to turn that into illicit profit or undermine national security. WP
A current Apple employee is suing the company, alleging it spies on employees’ private lives through their personal devices Fortune
‘Data brokers’ are selling your private information. This watchdog wants to fix that: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is proposing strict regulations to protect Americans’ private information. FC
Wall Street’s AI-powered rally risks ‘correction’, Vanguard warns: FT reports asset manager’s chief economist Joe Davis says investors are overplaying the near-term potential of the technology.
AWS is betting on generative AI as it goes head-to-head with Microsoft: FT reports CEO Matt Garman says technology can be deployed in business applications and fuel new demand for cloud services.
Amazon launches AI models to challenge rivals: AFP reports Amazon on Tuesday unveiled a suite of artificial intelligence models in its boldest move yet to compete with tech giant rivals in the fast-growing generative AI sector.
Amazon announces a set of Nova AI models: FC reports the company’s Nova models can help power generative AI applications.
Amazon announces supercomputer, new server powered by homegrown AI chips: WSJ reports the company’s megacluster of chips for artificial-intelligence startup Anthropic will be among the world’s largest, it said, and its new giant server will lower the cost of AI as it seeks to build an alternative to Nvidia.
The furious contest to unseat Nvidia as king of AI chips: Amazon, Advanced Micro Devices, and several start-ups are beginning to offer credible alternatives to Nvidia’s chips, especially for a phase of AI development known as “inferencing.” NYT
We’re all suffering from qualitynesia now: Borne along on the tide of technology, it is far too easy to forget that some things really were better quality in the past. Sarah O’Connor
The world needs more electricity—but don’t blame AI, Microsoft president Brad Smith says Fortune
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
