Top stories today:

1. Meta launches Llama 3 in 8B, 70B parameters, becoming #1 open model
2. Meta AI assistant gets Meta.AI website, expands beyond U.S.
3. Netflix beat earnings as operating margin +7 p.p. to 28%
4. Bitcoin halving today at ~6PM ET
5. Microsoft’s VASA-1 research AI turns photos into talking faces

0. Data and calendar

1. Meta launches Llama 3 in 8B, 70B parameters, becoming #1 open model

Llama 3 is already #5 on LMSYS's Chatbot Arena Leaderboard, tying with Gemini Pro and Claude 3 Sonnet:

• Available for download now.

• Trained on 15T tokens, vs. 2T for Llama 2.

• 8K context window, which is short when compared to Gemini 1.5 Pro (128K) or GPT-3.5 (16K).

• Hard to see how small startups or nonprofits could compete with Meta in producing an open model.

Meta is also training a ~400B model that is reaching GPT-4/Claude 3 Opus/Gemini Ultra quality

• Also coming: multimodal models.

• Llama 3.x may fully catch up with closed-source models in 1-12 months, especially if GPT-5 is delayed and without major new advances to the Transformers architecture.

Zuck did a great podcast interview with Dwarkesh Patel about Llama 3

2. Meta AI assistant gets Meta.AI website, expands beyond U.S.

• Now available in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

  • No EU or UK access.

Meta’s AI image generator works in real-time and at an amazing speed

4. Netflix beat earnings as operating margin +7 p.p. to 28%, revenue +15% to $9.4B

9M subscribers were added in the quarter, with the total number reaching 270M

• 2025 Q1: No longer to report subscriber count.

  • Stock -6% in the pre-market.

5. Bitcoin halving today at ~6PM ET

Bitcoin’s previous halvings have preceded price jumps, although this time crypto prices anticipated the halving:

• # of BTC mined per ~10 minutes to halve, from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC.

• From $20B to $10B/year in mined BTC.

• BTC +5% to $64K in the past 24 hours, still below its $74K all-time high reached in Mar.

6. Microsoft’s VASA-1 research AI turns photos into talking faces

• Generates 512×512px videos at 45 fps.

• “No plans to release an online demo, API, product, additional implementation details, or any related offerings until we are certain that the technology will be used responsibly and in accordance with proper regulations.

7. Interesting videos, posts, and memes

8. Other headlines

AI

• Google consolidates more AI research under Deepmind.

  • Android, hardware leadership consolidate amid AI push.

• OpenAI hires 1st employee in India, government relations head.

• AI agents being prepped by Microsoft, OpenAI, Google.

• U.S. Air Force confirms 1st successful AI dogfight.

Tech

• Ramp raises $150M, co-led by Khosla, Founders, at $7.65B.

• Quest 2 now starting at $199, from $249.

• Truth Social parent asks investors not to lend shares to short sellers.

• Triller, TikTok competitor, to merge with Asia's AGBA in $4B deal.

• TikTok parent ByteDance started as real-estate startup: court docs.

Tech & law

• Apple removes WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram from Chinese App Store.

Biotech

• Repair Bio co-founder Reason: interview on athero drug (we’re shareholders).

• Longr’s AI-powered blēo wristbands being gifted by company.

• BSRA launches fundraising campaign to support more aging research.

Business

• Existing home sales -4% MoM to 4.19M annualized, as mortgages hit 7.1%.

• Brevan Howard cuts ~10% of staff, hitting 100+ employees.

• Virgin Galactic seeks reverse split of between 1 for 2-20.

• Seinfeld: podcasat discussing him being potentially last TV billionaire.

Crypto

• Mango Markets exploiter Eisenberg found guilty of fraud, manipulation.

U.S. politics

• Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan aid expected to pass in House with Dem support.

• 12 jurors, 1 alternate selected for Trump’s NY criminal trial.

• Kennedy family members endorses Biden to counter RFK Jr.

• U.S. index funds continue to buy blacklisted Chinese companies.

World

• Israel strike targets in Iran, as both countries minimize it.

• Iran targeted with new “low-level” tech sanctions by U.S.

• U.S. weighs $1B+ in new arms for Israe

• Saudi-Israel deal being pushed again by U.S.

• Palestinian push to become UN voting member vetoed by U.S.

• New nuclear warhead being built by U.S., 1st in 40 years.

• Russian physicist who developed hypersonic sentenced to 7 years for treason.

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