Technology
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Technology
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Musk's xAI takes on OpenAI, DeepSeek with new model
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Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) company xAI unveiled Grok 3, the latest generation of its Grok AI model and the first to feature reasoning capabilities.
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Musk’s xAI team claims Grok 3 has 10 times more computing power than its predecessor and outperforms similar reasoning models, including OpenAI’s o1-mini and o3-mini models and DeepSeek’s R1 model, on a series of math, science and coding tests.
The AI firm also introduced its first AI agent, called Deep Search, which it described as a “next-generation search engine.”
The newest Grok release comes amid an increasingly contentious rivalry between Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman.
OpenAI’s board of directors on Friday rejected an unsolicited bid from Musk and a group of investors to buy the nonprofit that controls the AI firm for $97.4 billion.
The bid appears to have been an attempt by Musk to halt OpenAI’s plans to restructure as a for-profit company.
The tech billionaire, who helped found OpenAI in 2015, said in a court filing last week that he would drop the bid if the company agreed to cease its for-profit shift.
“OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk’s latest attempt to disrupt his competition,” OpenAI Chair Bret Taylor said in a post on X.
“Any potential reorganization of OpenAI will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity.”
Musk has repeatedly sued Altman and OpenAI over the plans to restructure, alleging that they have abandoned the company’s original mission to build AI with safety and transparency in mind.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
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Welcome to The Hill’s Technology newsletter, we're Julia Shapero and Miranda Nazzaro — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.
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How policy will be impacting the tech sector now and in the future:
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President Trump on Monday dismissed questions over Elon Musk’s official title after the White House said the tech billionaire is not part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). “Elon is, to me, a patriot. So, you know, you could call him an employee, you could call him a consultant, you could call him whatever you want. But he’s a patriot, I mean took at the kind of things,” Trump told reporters, referring to cost-cutting …
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Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) on Monday compared Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffers to young World War II soldiers. Burchett was pressed by CNN’s Pamela Brown on DOGE’s reported attempt to enter an IRS system, as well as its overall access to data. “There’s a difference between civil service and checks and balances in place in a small group and politicals who are going in, many of them young staffers who …
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Former White House chief adviser turned conservative commentator Steve Bannon blasted billionaire Elon Musk over his efforts to reduce the size of the federal government and gain more power in the U.S. “Musk is a parasitic illegal immigrant,” he said during an interview with the website UnHerd. “He wants to impose his freak experiment and play-act as God without any respect for the country’s history, …
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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum accused Google on Monday of violating the country’s sovereignty, leaving open the possibility of a lawsuit over the tech company labeling the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America in its maps feature. Sheinbaum argued President Trump’s executive order renaming the gulf applied only to the area of the continental shelf under U.S. control, according to a translation by CNN. “What …
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What recourse do people have against fake coins?
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Welcome to Crypto Corner, a new feature in The Hill's Technology newsletter focused on digital currency and its outlook in Washington.
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Fake crypto coins in the name of well-known figures have popped up in recent weeks. Over the weekend, scammers pretending to be Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched a fraudulent crypto coin, sharing it on a fake account on X.
And last month, Ivanka Trump’s name was used for a fake crypto coin, forcing her to issue a disclosure that she has “no involvement” with the coin.
As scams become harder to detect, here are some of the steps to take if you fall victim to a fake coin or one is made in your name without your permission:
- Report the activity to federal agencies including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Forms can be found here.
- Report to crypto exchange company: If you sent money via an exchange company, the FTC recommends you report the scam there as well.
- Report to law enforcement: People can also file a report with local law enforcement or financial crime units like the Department of Justice Financial Fraud Unit or your local Secret Service field office.
- Seek legal action: Cryptocurrency payments do not come with the legal protections that credit or debit cards come with, making legal action tricky. There are, however, crypto recovery lawyers who may be able to help recover losses if they were caused by a company’s negligence.
Things to remember, according to the FTC:
- Crypto payments are often not reversible.
- No legitimate business will demand users pay in cryptocurrency or contact you with an unexpected text, email or social media message.
- Scammers often try to gain contact through online dating platforms, job websites or pretend to be new or established businesses.
- Scammers will impersonate well-known people, but also companies.
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News we've flagged from the intersection of tech and other topics:
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Mira Murati, OpenAI's former chief technology officer, has launched her own AI startup (The Verge)
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OpenAI considers giving its non-profit board special voting rights to avoid hostile takeover attempts (TechCrunch)
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Branch out with other reads on The Hill:
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Trump, Musk say media trying to drive them apart
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President Trump and Elon Musk, one of his top allies, argued that the mainstream media is trying to drive a wedge between them and stymie the president’s agenda. “That’s true,” Trump responded when Fox News host Sean Hannity told the president that leading outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post “threw everything they had at you.” “They want a divorce,” Hannity …
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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy seemingly defended the recent firings at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Monday, arguing the probationary employees who were let go made up only a minor portion of the workforce. “Here’s the truth: the FAA alone has a staggering 45,000 employees. Less than 400 were let go, and they were all probationary, meaning they had been hired less than a year ago,” Duffy wrote in …
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Two key stories on The Hill right now:
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A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily reinstated a member of a three-person federal employee appeals board who was fired by President Trump. … Read more
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“Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary said President Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk are not working fast enough to make the sweeping cuts they … Read more
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Opinions related to tech submitted to The Hill:
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You're all caught up. See you tomorrow!
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Save story
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Elon Musk revealed his new chatbot, Grok 3, on Monday. Maria Curi, tech policy reporter for Axios, joined CBS News to discuss the new product.
CBS News - 1d
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Elon Musk’s AI startup has launched its newest model with some grand claims — including that it can outperform leading models from the U.S. and China.
NBC News - 1d
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Musk's xAI claims its chatbot outperforms other AI models in assertions that have not been independently verified.
CBS News - 2d
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Elon Musk debuted his Grok 3 artificial intelligence chatbot, a potential competitor to ChaptGPT and China's DeepSeek in the booming technology space. CBS MoneyWatch correspondent Kelly O'Grady has ...
CBS News - 2d
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Billionaire CEO claims bot is ‘maximally truth-seeking’ as he looks to rival DeepSeek, OpenAI and Google Gemini. Elon Musk ’s artificial intelligence startup xAI has introduced Grok-3, the ...
The Guardian - 2d
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Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) company, xAI, claimed Tuesday that its newest model outperforms similar products from competitors like OpenAI and DeepSeek. Musk's company unveiled Grok 3, ...
The Hill - 2d
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XAI also said it was launching a new product called "Deep Search," which would act as a "next generation search engine."
CNBC - 2d
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Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency can continue to access sensitive records from at least three federal agencies, a judge ruled.
ABC News - 5d
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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday jabbed at Canada as “our soon-to-be 51st state” ahead of a hockey match between the U.S. men’s national team and their neighbors to the ...
The Hill - 29m
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Elon Musk on Thursday said he going to "fix" his social media platform's X Community Notes feature, claiming without evidence that the feature is being "gamed" by governments and legacy media." ...
The Hill - 30m
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We live in an era of multipolarity, where American hegemony is contested, and the assumptions that underpinned NATO’s longevity are eroding.
The Hill - 33m
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The Senate on Thursday confirmed Kash Patel to serve as the head of the FBI, approving a pick with a string of controversial statements who has been accused by Democrats of directing a purge of ...
The Hill - 36m
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The vast majority of Academy Award-nominated movies do not acknowledge climate change or environmental issues, despite those issues being increasingly present in mainstream blockbusters, according ...
The Hill - 36m
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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday jabbed at Canada as “our soon-to-be 51st state” ahead of a hockey match between the U.S. men’s national team and their neighbors to the ...
The Hill - 29m
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Elon Musk on Thursday said he going to "fix" his social media platform's X Community Notes feature, claiming without evidence that the feature is being "gamed" by governments and legacy media." ...
The Hill - 30m
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We live in an era of multipolarity, where American hegemony is contested, and the assumptions that underpinned NATO’s longevity are eroding.
The Hill - 33m
-
The Senate on Thursday confirmed Kash Patel to serve as the head of the FBI, approving a pick with a string of controversial statements who has been accused by Democrats of directing a purge of ...
The Hill - 36m
-
The vast majority of Academy Award-nominated movies do not acknowledge climate change or environmental issues, despite those issues being increasingly present in mainstream blockbusters, according ...
The Hill - 36m
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