Science fiction writer Octavia Butler wrote in her 1993 novel "Parable of the Sower" that Feb. 1, 2025, would be a time of fires, violence, racism, addiction, climate change, social inequality and an authoritarian "President Donner."
That day is today.
The big picture: ThisBlack History Month, which begins this year on a day of Butler's dystopian vision, Axioswill examine what the next 25 years may hold for Black Americans based on the progress in the first quarter of this century.
OpenAI on Friday released o3-mini, an AI model that focuses on improved reasoning capabilities at a more modest cost than its predecessor.
Why it matters: The announcement of the new model follows Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's release of its R1 open-source model, which shook up the AI industry and heated up the U.S.-China AI arms race.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday that it will indefinitely restrict helicopter flights near Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National Airport, multipleoutlets reported.
The big picture: The move comes after a deadly collision between a American Airlines passenger flight and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter this week killed 67 people — America's deadliest aviation crash in decades.
🏛️ Both Kash Patel, President Trump's pick to lead the FBI, and Tulsi Gabbard, his nominee to lead the intelligence community, were grilled in the Senate during their confirmation hearings yesterday. (Axios)
🔬 OpenAI is putting its models on a supercomputer at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and making the model available to researchers at other national labs. (Axios)
👨🏻⚖️ A new lawsuit claims that officials at the Office of Personnel Management bypassed a required privacy impact assessment before setting up an on-premise server to run its new government-wide email blast list. (FedScoop)
🎶 It's finally Grammys weekend: Send me your predictions!
🔮 Fair warning: I deeply disagree with many of Rolling Stone's predictions of who will end up winning, but who knows — I don't have a working crystal ball (yet).
A flurry of security research reports this week suggest DeepSeek's open-source AI models could be more susceptible to cyberattacks than previously thought.
Why it matters: Cybersecurity and national security experts are already on high alert over potential security problems with the China-based AI startup — including potential model leaks and cyberattacks.
Why it matters: What initially looked that morning like a broad selloff in AI stocks turns out in hindsight to have been a more measured recalibration of where the market thinks AI profits are going to flow in the future.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman gave government leaders, policy experts and journalists a sneak peek at coming technology Thursday during an off-the-record demo near Capitol Hill.
Why it matters: The briefing was designed both to show how the U.S. can maximize economic benefits of AI, and to warm D.C. leaders to coming capabilities so they're less likely to be caught off-guard.
