The Daily Index — Friday, February 28, 2025 · TLDR Index

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

TLDR

OPENAI UNVEILS GPT-4.5 ‘ORION,' ITS LARGEST AI MODEL YET

OpenAI is now rolling out GPT-4.5 to ChatGPT Pro subscribers and developers on paid tiers of the company's API. Other users should get the model sometime next week. GPT-4.5 is so expensive to run that OpenAI is evaluating whether to continue serving the model on its API in the long term. It currently costs $75 for every million input tokens and $150 for every million output tokens. This article looks at how the new model compares to OpenAI's other offerings.

techcrunch.com · 5 min

TLDR AI

OPENAI ANNOUNCES GPT-4.5, WARNS IT'S NOT A FRONTIER AI MODEL

OpenAI has launched GPT-4.5 as a research preview for ChatGPT Pro users. The model offers enhanced writing capabilities and improved world knowledge but is not considered a frontier model. It will roll out to Plus, Team, Enterprise, and Edu users in the coming weeks.

theverge.com · 3 min

TLDR Web Dev

POSTGRES AS A GRAPH DATABASE: (AB)USING PGROUTING

The pgRouting Postgres extension can be used to add graph functionality to Postgres databases. While it's usually used for geospatial routing, it can also be used for non-GIS use cases, such as task scheduling using dependencies to find the critical path, reverse proxy routing based on resource allocation, and building recommendation engines like YouTube's.

supabase.com · 13 min

TLDR InfoSec

NEW ANUBIS RANSOMWARE COULD POSE MAJOR THREAT TO ORGANIZATIONS

Threat intelligence firm Kela has identified a new ransomware group that started as recently as late 2024. The group offers classic ransomware, data ransom, and access monetization services with different profit sharing agreements for each. So far, Anubis has claimed responsibility for 3 hacks and lists a fourth as “New - Top secret.”

securityweek.com · 2 min

TLDR Crypto

SEC SAYS MEMECOINS AREN'T SECURITIES BUT FRAUD STILL A RISK

The U.S. SEC's Division of Corporation Finance stated memecoins do not qualify as securities under federal law, as they lack profit promises or ties to business ventures, exempting them from registration. However, the SEC warned that projects falsely labeling tokens as memecoins to evade regulations could face legal action, emphasizing fraud risks under other laws. This stance aligns with a more crypto-friendly SEC approach under new leadership, including Chair Paul Atkins and Commissioner Hester Peirce's task force, following recent case withdrawals against major platforms like Coinbase.

links.tldrnewsletter.com · 3 min

TLDR

META PLANS TO RELEASE STANDALONE META AI APP IN EFFORT TO COMPETE WITH OPENAI'S CHATGPT

Meta intends to debut a standalone Meta AI app during the second quarter. The service is currently only available to users via a website and the company's other apps. Users could potentially interact more deeply with the digital assistant if it were available as a standalone app. Meta also plans to test a paid subscription for Meta AI.

cnbc.com · 4 min

TLDR

FIGURE WILL START ‘ALPHA TESTING' ITS HUMANOID ROBOT IN THE HOME IN 2025

Figure plans to begin alpha testing its Figure 02 robot in the home later this year. The project's timeline was accelerated thanks to the company's 'generalist' Vision-Language-Action model, Helix. Helix is designed to process both visual data and natural language input to accelerate learning. It can orchestrate two robots working on a single task in tandem.

links.tldrnewsletter.com · 2 min

TLDR

ANTI-AGING PILL FOR DOGS CERTIFIED AS 'EFFECTIVE' BY FDA. BUT COULD IT WORK FOR HUMANS, TOO?

Biotech startup Loyal has received a certification from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) saying its anti-aging pill for dogs has a reasonable expectation of efficacy. The pill still needs to be certified by the FDA that it is safe for use and can be manufactured at a greater scale before it can be prescribed by veterinarians. Loyal plans to earn conditional approval from the FDA by the end of the year.

links.tldrnewsletter.com · 3 min

TLDR

DEAR STUDENT: YES, AI IS HERE, YOU'RE SCREWED UNLESS YOU TAKE ACTION...

AI will soon start having a large impact on software engineering. Students should start learning fundamentals that universities typically don't teach and obtain skills that are going to be highly desirable to every employer. Developers need to learn how their work directly translates to business value and build a public profile. Software engineers will be fine, as long as they take action now.

ghuntley.com · 21 min