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President Trump taps Elon Musk to head new “efficiency department”
Elon Musk has been handed a job in Donald Trump’s incoming US administration, with the tech billionaire set to lead the newly created Department of Governmental Efficiency.
Musk – alongside fellow Trump campaigner Vivek Ramaswamy – will work alongside Trump and the Office of Management and Budget to “provide advice and guidance from outside of government,” looking for ways to “dismantle” bureaucracy, “slash” regulations, “cut” spending and “restructure” agencies, the incoming President said in a statement on Tuesday.
Musk is one of the world’s richest men, owning the likes of Tesla, SpaceX and social media platform X. He was an active campaigner for Trump during his election campaign.
DOGEcoin is also the name of Musk’s cryptocurrency.
AWS partners up to expand its AI Innovation Centre
Amazon Web Services has launched a Generative AI Partner Innovation Alliance to help scale and expand the reach of its AI hub, called the Generative AI Innovation Center.
The alliance will initially launch with nine partners bringing industry and ‘region-specific’ expertise, including Booz Allen Hamilton, Crayon, Escala24x7, Megazone Cloud, NCS Group, and Quanitphi.
Initially launched in June 2023, the Innovation Centre connects customers with AWS AI and machine learning scientists and strategists to help companies envision and develop generative AI solutions.
According to AWS since its inception, the centre has helped customers including DoorDash, Nasdaq, the PGA TOUR adopt generative AI proof-of-concept solutions, half of which are now in production.
Cryptovillian Sterlingov gets prison sentence for dark web money laundering
The operator of the longest-running money laundering machine in dark web history has been handed a 12-and-a-half-year prison sentence in the US.
Roman Sterlingov, 36, a Russian-Swedish national, was also ordered to repay more than half a billion dollars accrued from the cryptocurrency ‘mixing service’ Bitcoin Fog that he ran for a decade between 2011 and 2021.
“Roman Sterlingov laundered over $400 million in criminal proceeds through Bitcoin Fog that was open for business to criminals looking to hide dirty money,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
Bitcoin Fog was assessed to have processed 1.2 million Bitcoin during that time, worth roughly $400 million. Of this, Sterlingov was ordered to repay $395,563,025.39 in restitution, forfeit roughly $1.76 million in seized assets, and relinquish control of Bitcoin Fog’s wallet containing more than $100 million in Bitcoin.
He was found guilty back in March 2024.
Twitter rival Bluesky soars by 700,000
Bluesky COO Rose Wang has confirmed a surge in new users to the decentralised social media app which many view as an alternative to X, formerly Twitter, and Meta’s Threads.
700,000 new users joined in the last week, up from 26,000 the previous week, in what is seen as a reaction to X owner Elon Musk’s role in the US election.
The platform, created by Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, now has 14.5 million users. The “majority” of the new users on the social network are from the US, said Wang. The app is currently the number two free social networking app in the US App Store, trailing Meta’s Threads with 275 million users.
Channel 4 launches app on Apple Vision Pro
British PSB Channel 4 has become the first UK broadcaster to launch content on the Apple Vision Pro headset.
Content on the C4 app is now viewable in cinema-style overlaid onto viewers’ real-life environments, such as living room walls. Apple Vision Pro is a mixed-reality headset that combines virtual reality and augmented reality, allowing users to immerse themselves in virtual environments or add an AR layer to their real-world surroundings.
Users of the Channel 4 app will be transported to the set of gameshow Taskmaster with the app on Apple Vision Pro creating the feeling of being immersed in the show itself.
Grace Boswood, director of technology & distribution, Channel 4, said: “As we transition to become a public service streamer, we’re constantly exploring new ways to entertain viewers and engage advertisers through technology which creates remarkable experiences.”
The Apple Vision Pro is groundbreaking, but expensive with headsets retailing around $4450 or £3500.
AWS to offer free computing to popularise AI chips
Amazon Web Services has said it will offer free computing power to researchers who want to use its custom artificial intelligence chips, with the aim of challenging Nvidia’s popularity.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) said it will offer credits to use its cloud data centres to researchers who want to tap Trainium, its chip for developing artificial intelligence models that competes with chips from Nvidia, as well as Advanced Micro Devices and Alphabet’s cloud division.
AWS said researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of California, Berkeley, are taking part in the program. The company plans to make 40,000 of the first-generation Trainium chips available for the program.
AWS is hoping to generate headlines with the chip, which unlike Nvidia chips, users will be able to programme directly. To program Nvidia’s chips, most AI developers use what is called Cuda, Nvidia’s flagship software, but AWS plans to publish information and let customers program the chip directly and more cost-effectively.
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