What I Read This Week...

OpenAI makes an AGI breakthrough, Hamas releases Israeli hostages, and a British financier is a leading shipwreck hunter

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Caught my eye…

• Earlier this year, OpenAI made a breakthrough on a new model called Q*, which has vastly superior reasoning skills and can solve grade-school math problems. Since existing models struggle to reason about abstract concepts, this new model represents a significant leap forward in OpenAI’s capabilities, prompting an internal firestorm over concerns that the new breakthrough could pave the way for AGI.

• Hamas has released 24 hostages from Gaza as part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas to exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners. The deal was brokered by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt, and is expected to result in the release of 50 hostages.

• A British hedge fund executive, Anthony Clake, has been discovered to be one of the world’s leading deep-sea shipwreck hunters. Clake raises investor capital to finance expeditions, and then uses advanced underwater robotics technology to detect and recover lost underwater treasures. Since each expedition is structured as its own company, participating investors can claim a sizeable tax break in the event of failure.

Other reading…

• Oil and Gas Industry Faces Moment of Truth – And Opportunity to Adapt – as Clean Energy Transitions Advance (IEA)

• What Happened at OpenAI? (Washington Post)

• More Money Is Leaving China (Forbes)

• "Super Pigs" in Canada Threaten to Spread Across Border into U.S. (Axios)

• Nvidia delays launch of new China-focused AI chip (Reuters)

• Russian and Chinese Executives Discuss Russia-Crimea Tunnel Project (Washington Post)

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