December 06, 2024 | Listen Online | Read Online

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0. Data and calendar

All values as of 6 AM ET / 3 AM PT, other than S&P500 and NASDAQ close (4 PM ET / 1 PM PT).

All times are ET.

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Bay Area Times Daily - Dec. 6, 2024

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1. Trump names David Sacks as "White House AI & Crypto Czar"

Sacks is a GP at Craft Ventures and is part of "PayPal mafia".
He will work on a "legal framework" for crypto and guide policy on AI.
Part-time likely, as Craft has a "key man" clause preventing him from taking a full-time position.
Would also lead the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Tech.

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3. OpenAI releases ChatGPT Pro, $200/month tier, with access to o1 Pro

OpenAI.

GPT-4o and Advanced Voice mode are also bundled with the Pro tier.
ChatGPT Plus ($20/ month) and ChatGPT Team ($30/ month) available alongside the new tier.

o1 Pro is a more powerful version over the o1 (Strawberry), initially released as a limited preview

OpenAI.

Provides better performance over o1 on ML benchmarks across math, science, and coding.
Improved reliability with the ability to answer right in four out of four attempts.
Now: Plus and Teams availability.
Next week: Enterprise and Edu availability.

o1 is more adept at deceiving humans than GPT-4o, Gemini 1.5, Llama 3.1, Sonnet 3.5, and Opus 3

Apollo Research: Table showing whether the given AI models display deceptive behavior for each evolution.

19% of the time, o1 is seen manipulating data to pursue its own agenda against user goals.
Can deny wrongdoing when questioned.
Even "fabricate false explanations" 99% of the time.

o1 was also found to be more manipulative than GPT-4o in the open-source test evaluation, MakeMePay

o1 system card.

4. xAI raised $6B, not $5B; round had 97 investors: SEC filing

xAI is now the #2 most valuable AI startup.
$50B valuation was previously reported.
$12B has been raised in total so far.

5. Google introduces PaliGemma 2 AI models with ability to "identify" emotions

HuggingFace: PaliGemma 2.

Gemma 2 LLM model works under the hood, with the SigLIP image encoder.
3B, 10B, and 28B parameter sizes.
Distributed under the Gemma license.
Emotion identification doesn't come by default and requires fine-tuning.

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7. U.S. jobs report expected to show hiring rebounded after storms, strike

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bloomberg survey of economists.

220K nonfarm payrolls expected for Nov. after 12K increase in Oct.
Devastating hurricanes and a major strike last month impacted businesses.
Fri.: the Bureau of Labor Statistics is due to release its jobs report — the last before the next Fed meeting in Dec.

8. Investors pump $140B into U.S. stock funds since Trump's election win

FT, EPFR.

Nov. became the busiest inflows month since 2000.
+5.3% in S&P 500 since the election day, bringing its gain for 2024 to 28%.
Russell 2000 also hit a record high in 3 years last week.

U.S. stocks have outperformed other regions, including Europe and China

FT, EPFR.

9. UK house prices rising at fastest in 2 years

FT, Halifax.

+4.8% YoY in the average house price in the UK in Nov, vs. +3.6% expected.
+1.3% MoM from Oct. to a record £298,083 average price, vs. +0.2% expected.

10. Interesting videos, posts, and memes

Has AI Hit a Wall? A Debate from the Cerebral Valley AI Summit

Year-End Planning for Startup Success | Startup Finance Basics w/ Kruze's Scott Orn

YouTube ft. Steve Chen - 18 Months That Changed the Internet

11. Other headlines

AI

Copilot Vision, Microsoft's AI tool that can read your screen, out in preview.
DeepMind's new AI framework teaches itself through conversation: Peter Diamandis.
Android's latest update brings Gemini AI improvements.

Tech

Waymo's next robotaxi city will be Miami in 2026.
Meta shifting 50% of MR headset production to Vietnam from China: sources.
NASA delays Artemis moon landing to 2027.

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Tech earnings

HPE Q4 revenue +15% YoY to $8.5B, operating profit +32% to $938M.
DocuSign Q3 revenue +8% YoY to $755M, net profit +61% to $62M.
GitLab Q3 revenue +31% YoY to $196M, announces new CEO.
Asana Q3 revenue +10% YoY to $184M, net loss -7.28% to $62M.

Tech & law

U.S. exempts some Chinese firms from curbs in concession to Japan: sources.

Biotech

Oura rolls out Symptom Radar to detect respiratory illness from smart rings.
Eli Lilly invests $3B to boost production of Mounjaro, Zepbound.

Crypto

Chainalysis permanently parts ways with its founding CEO Michael Gronager.
Pudgy Penguins to launch Solana-based token PENGU this year.
Hawk Tuah memecoin falls 90% amid backlash.

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Business

Airbus needs to deliver 127 aircraft to achieve 770-jet annual goal.
BofA sees another 8% gain.
China proposes to give price advantage to local businesses.
Singapore's Temasek forms $7.5B private debt platform.

U.S. politics

Elon, Thune meet at Capitol.
David Perdue picked as U.S. ambassador to China.
UnitedHealthcare CEO killer's ammo had message "deny," "defend," "depose".
Elon poured $274M+ into political groups in 2024.

World

Macron will meet key politicians today in effort to rebuild French government.
South Korean President Yoon loses key ally, increasing impeachment risk (80%).
India downplays BRICS common currency plan that angered Trump.

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