Good morning! This is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.

In today's Techpresso:

👀 Threads is getting ads

🤖 Humanity's Last Exam

💼 Banks sell X debt at a discount

📉 RedNote usage drops

🔄 Apple makes changes to its AI team

🎁 + 8 other news you might like

🔮 + 5 handpicked research papers and tools

👀 Threads is getting ads LINK

Meta is starting a "limited, early test of ads" on Threads, involving select brands in the US and Japan, as announced by Instagram head Adam Mosseri.

Ads will be displayed as images between posts in the Threads home feed, and Meta plans to expand based on the test's performance.

Meta will tailor ads using your activity across Threads and Instagram, including interactions and email, and will offer options to customize, skip, hide, or report ads.

🤖 Humanity's Last Exam LINK

International researchers have created a benchmark named "Humanity's Last Exam" to evaluate the limitations of large language models, where even the most advanced AI systems currently fail 90% of the time.

The exam consists of 3,000 questions across over 100 specialized fields, with a significant focus on mathematics, developed with contributions from nearly 1,000 experts from 500 institutions worldwide.

AI models like GPT-4o and OpenAI's o1 struggle with this challenging test, and the models often exhibit overconfidence with calibration errors over 80%, highlighting the gap between their confidence and accuracy.

💼 Banks sell X debt at a discount LINK

Elon Musk acknowledged that X's financial performance is weak, with the company barely breaking even and experiencing stagnant user growth and underwhelming revenue.

Wall Street banks, including Morgan Stanley and Barclays, are attempting to sell off $13 billion in debt from Musk's 2022 acquisition of X, needing to persuade investors of the company's future prospects.

Despite facing user attrition due to Musk's political involvement and legal disputes with advertisers, X has managed to regain some advertisers, though competitors like Bluesky and Meta's Threads are seeing significant growth.

📉 RedNote usage drops LINK

RedNote, a Chinese app similar to TikTok, saw a surge in U.S. users, becoming the No. 1 free app as users anticipated a TikTok ban that was later paused by President Trump.

After the ban was delayed, RedNote experienced a significant decline in daily active users in the U.S., dropping by 54% on Monday from a peak of 32.5 million users the previous day.

Despite initial interest, RedNote's popularity in the U.S. waned as it is primarily tailored for the Chinese market, and its Mandarin language interface discouraged many American users from continuing its use.

🔄 Apple makes changes to its AI team LINK

Apple has made an executive shift by appointing Kim Vorrath to its artificial intelligence and machine learning division to enhance its AI initiatives and Siri.

Vorrath, who played a crucial role in the development of the Vision Pro software and the original iPhone software, is expected to bring more discipline to Apple's AI projects.

The AI team is concentrating on overhauling Siri's foundational infrastructure and advancing Apple's internal AI models, as stated in a memo from AI chief John Giannandrea.

Other news you might like

• Open source alternatives to Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp raise funds on Kickstarter LINK

• Sam Altman’s World now wants to link AI agents to your digital identity LINK

• Google DeepMind CEO on the AI tricks up the company’s sleeve LINK

• How a top Chinese AI model overcame US sanctions LINK

• Engineers plan to turn moon dust into oxygen with new system for lunar bases LINK

• Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 costs as much as a whole gaming PC—but it sure is fast LINK

• Couple allegedly tricked AI investors into funding wedding, houses LINK

Latest research and tools

GITHUB • 260 points View Source
Show HN: Lightpanda, an open-source headless browser in Zig: Lightpanda: an open-source headless browser in Zig for fast web automation, AI training, scraping, and testing with minimal memory usage for Linux and macOS.

GITHUB • 196 points View Source
File Explorer is merged to Helix editor: Helix Editor: a code editor that now includes a built-in file explorer to enhance user file management and navigation within the editor interface.

GITHUB • 155 points View Source
TinyZero: TinyZero: a tool that reproduces certain tasks to demonstrate model development in reasoning and self-verification through reinforcement learning, available for affordable experimentation with specific limitations on model size and GPU compatibility.

GITHUB • 138 points View Source
Show HN: Onit – open-source ChatGPT Desktop with local mode, Claude, Gemini: Onit: an open-source AI chat assistant for desktops that supports local mode and multiple model providers, allowing customizable and extensive use across your entire computer with options for privacy and personalization.

GITHUB • 39 points View Source
Android SMS Gateway Using MQTT: Android SMS Gateway Using MQTT: an app that transforms your Android phone into an SMS gateway by forwarding messages from an MQTT server to your phone's SMS system and sending delivered and sent notifications back to your own server.

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