TLDR 2025-01-24

Think useful quantum computing is years away?

Over 100 organizations are now using D-Wave's powerful quantum computing platform to tackle their toughest challenges.

Some recent examples of commercial success ↘️

• Grocery chain expends 80% less time and effort on creating complex employee schedules.
• Automotive manufacturer builds production schedules 83% faster.
• Mobile network operator improves network performance by 15%.

→ Watch the on-demand webinar to explore these examples and other applications in manufacturing, logistics, finance, supply chain, and more.

→ Learn more about the benefits of D-Wave's quantum computing technology

OpenAI has launched a research preview of Operator, a general-purpose AI agent that can control a web browser and independently perform certain actions. Operator is coming first to US users on ChatGPT Pro but will roll out to users on its Plus, Team, and Enterprise tiers eventually. OpenAI plans to integrate Operator into all of its ChatGPT clients. Operator is powered by a Computer-Using Agent that combines the vision capabilities of GPT-4o with reasoning abilities from the company's more advanced models. While Operator can perform many tasks, it currently cannot handle complex or specialized tasks or interact with highly customized or non-standard web interfaces.

One of ByteDance's directors has suggested that a compromise deal to the TikTok ban may be possible. There are a number of alternative solutions that the company is discussing with the Trump administration that fall short of selling the company. It isn't clear what form that compromise might take, but it may allow the company to continue to operate, albeit with a change of control of some kind. ByteDance is optimistic about the dialogue that is emerging between President Trump and President Xi.

The FDA has approved a ketamine-based nasal spray for treatment-resistant depression in the US. The Johnson & Johnson drug, Spravato, can now be prescribed to adult patients with depression who have tried at least two antidepressants without adequate improvement in symptoms, as well as those with major depressive disorder who have acute thoughts of self-harm or suicide. While it's not clear yet why the drug works as an antidepressant, studies show that it can alleviate symptoms of depression as soon as 24 hours after the first spray, with 22.5% of patients achieving remission after four weeks of treatment. Spravato is the first new medication for major depression approved by the FDA in decades.

Lonestar Data Holdings, a Florida-based startup, is set to launch the first Moon-based data center in February. Dubbed the 'Freedom Data Center', the information hub will piggyback on an upcoming lunar lander mission by Intuitive Machines aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Storing data on the Moon offers unique benefits - it provides unmatched physical security and protection and is much more environmentally friendly. The company still needs to overcome enormous technical challenges as deploying a data center on the lunar surface is complex. Lonestar will maintain a ground-based backup at a Flexential facility in Tampa.

Android 14 Beta 1 is now rolling out to Pixel devices. The beta is available as an over-the-air update for those enrolled in the Android Beta Program. It introduces Live Updates, a new class of notifications that helps users monitor and quickly access important ongoing activities. It also adds support for the Advanced Professional Video codec, designed for high-quality video recording and post production. Other changes in the beta are detailed in the article.

Apple's new Advanced Commerce API offers expanded options for managing In-App Purchases. It allows eligible App Store business models to more flexibly manage In-App Purchases within their apps. Full details of the API should be available soon.

The Stargate Project, spearheaded by OpenAI, is an ambitious project that aims to invest $500 billion over the next four years into building out AI infrastructure for the US. While the announcement of the project is an early win for the Trump administration, looking below the surface yields a lot of questions. It appears that previously announced deals and projects will be roped into this new initiative. Stargate will provide a lot of positive media for all of the companies involved while making a lot of money for some partners.

Meta engineers are frantically trying to dissect DeepSeek's models and copy everything they can learn from it. Its management is worried about justifying the massive cost of the company's GenAI organization, especially when every single leader is making more than what it cost to train DeepSeek V3 - and there are dozens of such 'leaders'. DeepSeek V3, trained with a $5.5 million budget, is already ahead of Llama 4 in benchmarks. DeepSeek R1 made things even scarier for the Meta.

OpenAI's Operator can autonomously perform actions for users like shopping for airline tickets, making restaurant reservations, buying flowers, and more.

Four out of five game developers are currently working on a project for the PC, up from 66% of developers a year ago.

Every publicly available flagship AI system scored below 11% on Humanity's Last Exam, a benchmark that includes thousands of crowdsourced questions in multiple formats.

Companies like Silicon Valley Disposition auction off assets from dead companies.

Bunster transforms shell scripts into efficient, standalone binaries while ensuring performance, portability, and robustness.

Custom duties and fees delay deliveries and make items significantly more expensive.