1. Watch Duty wildfire tracking app was reportedly downloaded 20 million times amid LA fires.

Watch Duty is a wildfire mapping app that gives real-time information.
It relies on first responders, firefighters, and volunteers for real-time wildfire updates.
App topped Apple's App Store charts amid concerns over inaccurate official alerts.
14 million unique users used Watch Duty this week.
Watch Duty operated by a non-profit funded primarily by donations.
App has 15 full-time and 200 total employees.
CEO John Mills prioritizes user privacy and has no plans to sell the app.

Photo credit: Watch Duty

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended scaling back content moderation policies on Rogan's podcast.
Meta is ending its independent fact-checker program and relying more on community members to flag misinformation.
The company increased thresholds for automated content filters, reducing the number of bad posts taken down.
Zuckerberg believes in free expression and giving people a voice on social media.
He expressed optimism about the incoming President-elect Donald Trump and the importance of supporting American tech companies abroad.
Zuckerberg argued that Meta was pressured by the Biden administration to take down true information about vaccine side effects.
Meta is adopting a community notes feature similar to X's to address content moderation concerns.

Nvidia's latest data center superchip is 30x faster for AI inference than its predecessor.
Nvidia can innovate across chip, system, and algorithm to surpass Moore's Law.
AI progress involves three scaling laws: pre-training, post-training, and test-time compute.
Nvidia's GB200 NVL72 chip is 30-40x faster for AI inference than the H100.
Improved chip performance leads to lower AI inference costs.
Nvidia's AI chips have advanced 1,000x in the past 10 years, exceeding Moore's Law.

OpenAI aims to create "superintelligence" beyond artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Altman predicts AGI's arrival within "a few thousand days."
OpenAI defines AGI as systems that surpass humans in most economically valuable work.
Altman suggests AI agents may enter the workforce and enhance company output.
OpenAI acknowledges the need for caution in developing safe superintelligent systems.
The company has disbanded AI safety teams amid commercialization efforts.
Altman highlights OpenAI's track record in response to safety concerns.

The team will be led by Tim Brooks, who left OpenAI to join Google DeepMind.
The new team will collaborate with and build on work from Google’s Gemini, Veo, and Genie teams.
Google believes scaling AI training on video and multimodal data is critical to artificial general intelligence (AGI).
World models could one day be used to create interactive media and run realistic simulations.
The unresolved matter of copyright remains an issue for world modeling space.
Google asserts it has permission to train its models on YouTube videos in accordance with the platform’s terms of service.

Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda will present at CES on January 6 at 1 p.m. PT/4 p.m. ET.
The live stream will be available on Toyota's website.
Toyoda will reveal details about the "living laboratory" Woven City.
Woven City is a 175-acre prototype city in Japan focused on technology and sustainability.
Toyota plans to incorporate startups into Woven City's ecosystem.
The city will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

Guillermo Rauch, CEO of Vercel, created a new type of CAPTCHA.
Users must play a round of DOOM and kill three monsters to pass the CAPTCHA.
The idea is not entirely original, but it has gained popularity on Hacker News.
Some users found it challenging, while others praised its unique approach.
Users noted that the multiple monsters required 3-4 attempts, similar to a traditional CAPTCHA.
The CAPTCHA is an example of using classic games in innovative ways.
Vercel's AI site builder was used to develop this novel CAPTCHA.