Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.
In today's Techpresso:
💥 Microsoft launches its first in-house AI models
🚀 Musk reveals when SpaceX will catch a Starship booster
🌪️ ChatGPT co-creator threatened to quit Meta AI lab
👁️ UK backdoor demand on Apple was wider than known
🤖 xAI just launched its first code model
📈 US puts GDP data on nine blockchains
🎁 + 14 other news you might like
🔮 + 3 handpicked research papers and tools
💥 Microsoft launches its first in-house AI models LINK
Microsoft has launched two AI models developed in-house, the MAI-Voice-1 speech system and its first foundation model MAI-1-preview, signaling a move toward more independence from partner OpenAI.
The MAI-Voice-1 can generate a minute of audio in under one second with a single GPU, and it is already being used for features like podcasts and in Copilot Daily.
MAI-1-preview was trained using just 15,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs to deliver strong performance with fewer resources and is now available for public testing on the LMArena platform.
🚀 Musk reveals when SpaceX will catch a Starship booster LINK
Elon Musk said SpaceX is targeting Flight 13, 14, or 15 for the first attempt to catch its Super Heavy Booster, but this depends on how well the future V3 flights go.
While the company previously hoped for a catch attempt in 2025, the timeline will likely be pushed back to 2026 due to the current rate of its Starship test flights.
Before trying a catch, SpaceX needs to fly its final V2 rocket and begin launching the V3 version, which is the model the company plans to fly through the year 2026.
🌪️ ChatGPT co-creator threatened to quit Meta AI lab LINK
Shengjia Zhao threatened to quit Meta days after joining, prompting the company to formally name him Chief Scientist of its new Superintelligence Lab to persuade him to stay.
His ultimatum was driven by the lab's chaotic environment and unstable research conditions, exposing the deep turmoil plaguing Meta's expensive and aggressively poached AI teams.
The instability that concerned Zhao was validated when Meta dismantled the newly-formed Meta Superintelligence Labs, splintering it into four new groups only 50 days after its launch.
👁️ UK backdoor demand on Apple was wider than known LINK
A legal filing from the Investigatory Powers Tribunal indicates the UK's order was "not limited to" data protected by Apple's Advanced Data Protection, suggesting authorities wanted broad access to iCloud accounts.
The mandate reportedly requires Apple to create a "capability to disclose categories of data," which implies the government was seeking access to information like people's passwords and private messages within iCloud.
Despite earlier reports from a US official, the UK's Home Office has not yet legally withdrawn or changed its secret demand for Apple to build this backdoor into its cloud service.
🤖 xAI just launched its first code model LINK
Elon Musk’s xAI released the 'grok-code-fast-1' model, an option designed for agentic coding workflows where responsiveness is more important than achieving top scores on the SWE-bench leaderboard.
The new model uses prompt caching optimizations to increase speed, scoring 70.8% on SWE-Bench-Verified while the company states such tests don’t reflect the nuances of real-world software engineering.
To drive adoption, xAI is offering the model for free for a limited time through partners like GitHub Copilot and Cursor, while also undercutting rivals with its low pricing.
📈 US puts GDP data on nine blockchains LINK
The U.S. Commerce Department has published its Q2 2025 GDP statistics on nine blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, marking the first time a federal agency put economic data on-chain.
Decentralized oracle providers Chainlink and Pyth will distribute these verified U.S. economic figures across DeFi, helping to build new prediction markets, crypto assets, and other tokenized financial products.
The announcement triggered a sharp market reaction, causing Pyth’s PYTH token to surge 69 percent while Chainlink’s LINK added over $1.8 billion in value from a one-day increase.
Other news you might like
- Intel receives $5.7 billion investment from the Trump administrationLINK
- Anthropic users face a new choice – opt out or share your data for AI trainingLINK
- Musk files to dismiss lawsuit over his purchase of Twitter sharesLINK
- OpenAI’s real-time API picks up laughter, accents, and switches languages in real timeLINK
- Transunion hack exposes consumer data for millions of AmericansLINK
- Taco Bell rethinks AI drive-through after man orders 18,000 watersLINK
- Google warns that mass data theft hitting Salesloft AI agent has grown biggerLINK
- One-time WordPress competitor TypePad ends its slide into obscurity by shutting downLINK
- Vivaldi slams Google and Microsoft for cramming AI into browsers, says it won't followLINK
- Tesla FSD turns off more U.S. consumers than its attracts, survey findsLINK
- Nvidia's top two mystery customers made up 39% of the chipmaker's Q2 revenueLINK
- Robots learn to prioritize human safety with smarter decision-making systemLINK
- Meta is bringing AI-powered NPCs to the metaverseLINK
- China's Alibaba develops new AI chip to help fill Nvidia void: reportLINK
Latest research and tools
Expert: a language server that provides Elixir developers with features like autocompletion and code navigation directly in their editor.LINK
VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II: astronomers found that this comet from another star system disintegrated and had a composition similar to comets from our own solar system.LINK
CCPS: Calibrating LLM Confidence via Perturbation Stability – EMNLP 2025: this paper proposes a method to measure an AI's confidence by checking if its answer stays the same when the input is slightly changed.LINK
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