Saturday☕️

28 Dec 2024 — 5 min read

Trending:

Yesterday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton blocked the Biden Administration from auctioning additional border wall materials. This action responds to reports of materials being sold despite a court order requiring allocated funds to be used for border wall construction.

Economics & Markets:

Environment & Weather:

Yesterday, December 27, 2024, Japan’s Sakurajima volcano in Kagoshima Prefecture erupted, producing a large ash column that rose over 3,000 meters above the crater. Ash fall was reported in nearby areas, and local authorities advised residents to exercise caution due to the potential for falling debris and pyroclastic flows. The Japan Meteorological Agency is monitoring the volcano closely for any further activity.

Sakurajima is one of Japan’s most active volcanoes, situated on Kyushu Island within the Aira caldera. Historically, it has experienced frequent eruptions over thousands of years, with increased activity noted around 13,000 years ago. In 1914, a significant eruption caused lava flows that connected the former island to the mainland, forming part of the Osumi Peninsula. Due to its proximity to Kagoshima City, just 8 kilometers away, the volcano remains under constant observation.

Severe weather is anticipated to intensify today as a powerful storm system develops over the southern United States. The National Storm Prediction Center has issued an enhanced risk of severe storms for parts of East Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and western Alabama. The primary threats include damaging winds, large hail, and the possibility of strong tornadoes, particularly in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Heavy rainfall could also lead to localized flooding in some areas. Residents are advised to stay alert, monitor weather updates, and follow any safety instructions from local authorities as the situation develops.

Business:

Yesterday, OpenAI announced it is restructuring its for-profit arm into a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) to raise more funding for its artificial intelligence research and development. This change will help OpenAI access traditional investment options to cover the high costs of AI development. OpenAI’s non-profit arm will continue to oversee the mission, using funding from the for-profit’s success for projects in areas like healthcare, education, and science. Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest investor and partner, owns the majority of the company and supports its work through major financial investments and Azure cloud services.

OpenAI is currently the global leader in artificial intelligence, with the most advanced generative AI models on Earth: ChatGPT-4o and o1. These powerful AI models set new standards in reasoning, coding, creativity, math, and computational capability, powering applications like ChatGPT, which over 300 million people use weekly. This restructuring is designed to give OpenAI the resources it needs to continue leading in AI development while staying focused on its mission.

Space:

Yesterday, December 27, 2024, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket for commercial space launches. This license, valid for five years, allows Blue Origin to conduct orbital missions from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The rocket’s reusable first stage is designed to land on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean. The first mission will certify the rocket for U.S. Space Force use, giving Blue Origin the chance to compete for high-profile national security space launches alongside companies like SpaceX.

Blue Origin has been actively preparing for this milestone with successful hot-fire tests of the New Glenn rocket, ensuring its readiness for its debut flight. The company has also been working on its Blue Ring program, offering advanced spacecraft for military applications. The upcoming flight of New Glenn will include the Blue Ring Pathfinder payload, highlighting Blue Origin’s focus on expanding its capabilities and competing in the growing space industry.

Science & Technology:

Recently, DeepSeek, a research lab in China, released DeepSeek-V3, the most powerful open-source AI model to date. This model has 671 billion parameters, with 37 billion activated at a time to make it efficient. It was trained on 14.8 trillion pieces of data (tokens) and uses advanced techniques like Multi-head Latent Attention to handle complex tasks. DeepSeek made the entire model, along with a detailed research paper, publicly available on platforms like GitHub and Hugging Face, making it accessible to anyone on Earth who wants to copy or improve the code.
DeepSeek-V3 has outperformed other leading open-source AI models, including Meta’s Llama 3.1, and even competes with closed-source models like GPT-4o in tasks like coding and math. By open-sourcing such an advanced AI system, DeepSeek has made this technology available to researchers, developers, and companies all over the world, encouraging collaboration and faster progress in AI innovation.

Earth Intelligence System Update:

New data and functionality upgrades are live! The new SENTRY container is designed to be quick, to the point insights on high risk environmental or conflict related events. This will soon offer AI insights to ask the data questions, but still problem solving through the process. Will continue to update data sources, design, and functionality over the next few days.