The Daily Index — Thursday, January 30, 2025 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

ELON MUSK CLAIMS TESLA WILL LAUNCH A SELF-DRIVING SERVICE IN AUSTIN IN JUNE

Elon Musk claimed during a recent earnings call that Tesla plans to launch a paid ride-hailing robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, in June. The vehicles will use the yet-unreleased 'unsupervised' version of Tesla's Full Self-Driving software. That software is expected to be released to Tesla owners in California and other regions in the US this year. Tesla owners will not be able to add their cars to the Tesla ride-hail fleet until at least next year.

techcrunch.com · 2 min

TLDR AI

OPENAI ACCUSES DEEPSEEK

OpenAI has found evidence that the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek used its proprietary models to train an open-source competitor. The suspected "distillation" process allows smaller models to mimic larger ones at a lower cost, raising concerns over intellectual property breaches.

ft.com · 4 min

TLDR Web Dev

A MAJOR POSTGRES UPGRADE WITH ZERO DOWNTIME

Instant, a Firebase alternative, successfully performed a zero-downtime major Postgres upgrade from version 13 to 16. Initial attempts using in-place upgrades and blue-green deployments failed due to downtime constraints and incompatibility with active replication slots. Instant used a manual process that involved creating a new Postgres 16 replica from scratch, carefully switching subscriptions, and writing a custom zero-downtime algorithm, which paused new transactions, waited for active ones to complete, and then switched writes to the new instance.

instantdb.com · 18 min

TLDR InfoSec

ENGINEERING GIANT SMITHS GROUP DISCLOSES SECURITY BREACH

British engineering giant Smiths Group has disclosed that it detected unauthorized activity in its network. Smiths reported that it isolated the affected systems as soon as the unauthorized activity was detected. Smiths has not disclosed if any customer data was accessed at this time.

bleepingcomputer.com · 2 min

TLDR Crypto

CZECH CENTRAL BANK TO CONSIDER HOLDING BITCOIN AS RESERVE ASSET

The Czech National Bank is considering allocating up to 5% of its €140 billion reserves to Bitcoin, which would mark the first such move by a Western central bank if implemented. Governor Ales Michl plans to present this consideration to the bank's board today as part of a broader reserve diversification strategy that includes gold purchases and increased equity exposure, citing growing institutional interest in the digital asset as contextual support. No immediate decision is forthcoming.

links.tldrnewsletter.com · 2 min

TLDR

THE X EVERYTHING APP WILL LAUNCH THIS YEAR, AIMING TO COMPETE WITH APPLE PAY

X CEO Linda Yaccarino says that X will launch its Everything App this year. The app will allow for secure and instant funding to X Wallets via Visa Direct. Users will be able to connect their debit cards for P2P payments. There will be an option for users to instantly transfer funds to their bank accounts.

9to5mac.com · 2 min

TLDR

CHINA SECRETLY BUILDING WORLD'S LARGEST NUCLEAR FUSION LASER, US SATELLITE EXPOSES

China is developing a laser fusion research facility in the southwestern region of the country. It will be larger than the US National Ignition Facility, the current world's largest inertial confinement fusion facility. The new development could have huge implications for both nuclear weapons research and clean energy production. China has not revealed the purpose of the facility.

links.tldrnewsletter.com · 3 min

TLDR

STEM CELLS USED TO PARTIALLY REPAIR DAMAGED HEARTS

A group of German researchers have developed a method for repairing the heart using new muscle generated from stem cells. The results are promising and they have started clinical trials. The technique involves creating sheets of cells and combining them into a single patch that can be attached to the heart's exterior. In experiments, the scientists found that the added tissues integrated into the hearts functionally and immature stem cells did not form tumors. The implants weren't problem-free - some of the stem cells in the sheets appeared to be uncommitted to a mature state and one animal generated an immune response to the implanted cells.

links.tldrnewsletter.com · 4 min

TLDR

ON DEEPSEEK AND EXPORT CONTROLS

DeepSeek's achievements make export control policies more existentially important than they were a week ago. Export controls keep democratic nations at the forefront of AI development. The idea that the technology getting cheaper and more powerful is a reason to lift export controls makes no sense - they are one of the most powerful tools for preventing authoritarian governments from behaving aggressively on the world stage. DeepSeek's release is roughly on the expected cost reduction curve, which big tech has already factored into its calculations - it will still require billions of dollars of infrastructure to make AI that is smarter than almost all humans at almost all things.

darioamodei.com · 28 min